TVB 2022 Dramas Review丨TVB 2022 劇集 大回顧

Happy New Year everyone! Thank you for a great year, and we wish you all the very best in 2023. We look forward to producing more interesting posts for our readers.

Here is our annual year end review of the TVB shows we watched in 2022. We will continue with last year's arrangement, where we talked about the dramas we dropped or did not watch, followed by the thoughts of those we completed fully. The dramas listed will be in order of when they were aired. We will not be including The Perfect Man 有種好男人 in this review as it just began to broadcast December 26th and is not included in the Anniversary Awards this year.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Dropped/Did Not Watch:

Used Good (異搜店): We watched some of it here and there but didn't get to the ending. The stories were alright, but we didn't find them to be too exciting.

Story Of Zom-B (食腦喪Ｂ): The premise or the cast of the show did not attract us. 

A Dream Of Splendor (梦华录): We did not have time for this one which was another historical Chinese drama.

Childhood In A Capsule (童時愛上你): We might have seen almost 15 episodes of this but we were not too captivated by the main leads with Samantha and Owen. It was nice to see Ruco play in a more light, comedic role, but he was a supporting actor in the show.

ICAC Investigators 2022 (廉政行動2022): We saw an episode of it but then forgot to continue it.

Completed Dramas:

We completed a total of 20 dramas this year plus the sitcom and the Communion Series. This was much more than last year, when we completed only about 11 dramas! 

Hello Missfortune (愛上我的衰神): This was a short series of 10 episodes that we really enjoyed. We liked the idea of the story taking place in the 2nd dimension where people go after death. There, they get assigned to clients on Earth or the 1st dimenson by giving them controlling their luck by giving bad or good fortune to them. It started out with Siu-yu (Erica Chan), who is already dead, learning about her client Pei-ho (Hubert Wu) who has miserable life on Earth and tries to help him out, despite having to administer misfortunes to him. However, by the middle of the show, we learn that Pei-ho indirectly led to Siu-yu's tragic murder by her artist ex-boyfriend (Lincoln Hui), and the whole story shifts to being darker with horror elements. We loved how the opening and ending sequences turn from being white themed to black with this transition in the story. All the stories of Erica, Mark Ma, and Mayanne Mak's lives before their death were touching. It was a good mix of fantasy, romance, and mystery and drama. It was the first time Erica Chan played the main female lead, and we found her to be pretty natural, but we don't know if she can handle other roles yet. We did not mind this show being shorter because it meant there was less filler sequences and made the whole story more memorable.

Freedom Memories (青春不要臉): This was another shorter drama with 15 episodes taking place around the 1980s about aspiring actors in the TV industry and their struggles after joining the TVB acting training classes. Some of the stories resembled those of Andy Lau, Stephen Chow, Maggie Cheung, Sandra Ng, etc. They also used newer artists as leading actors and actresses like Karl Ting, Dickson Yu, Joey Thye, and Tiffany Lau, but they definitely still need to continue to polish their acting. This was a great drama to air in the beginning of the year to give the new generation a chance to shine in their own drama. We found Karl and Dickson to be the weaker links in the cast unfortunately.

The Righteous Fists (鐵拳英雄): Since filming completed in 2019, we've waited for this show to come out. The Righteous Fists turned out to be a bit similar to A Fist Within Four Walls, both produced by Jazz Boon, though taking place in Chinatown of Bangkok this time. The cast was pretty familiar with Ruco Chan, Yuen Qiu, Philip Ng, Joel Chan, Elaine Yiu, Grace Wong, and more that we have seen in Jazz's dramas before. We enjoyed the first half of the show more as it was packed with action sequences and was intense. The character designs stood out with the different types of martial arts. It was obvious that Carlo Ng was big boss as soon as he appeared. There were a lot of unnecessary deaths and disappointing that in the end, no one was strong enough to beat him with their kung fu and Ruco resorted to using injections to help win which cost him his life.

Modern Dynasty (家族榮耀): This was a decent show produced by Youku and Media Asia Group with a large cast we haven't seen onscreen for a TV drama for a long time including Tavia Yeung, Julian Cheung, Rain Li, Raymond Wong, Him Law, Derek Kok, Lynn Xiong, Toby Leung to name a few. Tavia's role as Sammie was the ultimate antagonist of the show, although she started out as the nice girl who always included everyone. She gave a solid performance and received praise for her acting. We have never seen Rain or Lynn's acting before (we might have seen Lynn in a movie before but don't recall) and found them to play their characters well. Lynn's crazy eye expressions were entertaining, especially near the end when she went crazy. As for the male leads, Julian or Chilam was the antagonist seeking revenge on his father's behalf. We rarely see him as a villain so this was a refreshing role. Raymond Wong was not in it for much of the show as Tavia's character made sure that he was shafted. Him Law was fine as the youngest brother who still needed maturing. One big plot hole for us was why Sammie grew to have such a black heart? Where does her desire for all the power and money come from? Her upbringing was supportive and "normal", she did not go through the same hardships that Rain's character did. We also thought the schemes could have been better designed. There are rumours for a sequel so we are looking forward to seeing that.

Flying Tiger 3 (飛虎之壯志英雄): The 3rd installment was honestly one of the better ones of the Shaw Brothers series with stars like Michael Miu, Joe Ma, Roger Kwok, Eddie Cheung, Moses Chan, Bosco Wong, Ron Ng which sounded promising. The first portion of the story followed the SDU and newly formed secret team of the police force to capture the fictional "Argunbia" terrorist group led by Renee (Charlene Houghton) and Leo (Jai Day). It was pretty intense and suspenseful, reminding us of more international action movies. However, things slowed down significantly as the story shifted to talk about the production of a chemical weapon DH-2 in Hong Kong and dragged on. We felt that 30 episodes was too long and 25 episodes would probably suffice. We were not fans of Michael Miu in this one because he was constantly wearing his shades pretending to be "cool" which made us want to fast forward his parts.

The Imperial Coroner (機智女法醫): TVB's version cut way too much of the content, and we felt there were incoherent and illogical jumps due to this which made it harder for us to enjoy the series. The original show is 36 episodes, but it was cut down to 20 by TVB, so you could imagine what could be missed with 16 episodes worth of content gone...

Barrack O'Karma 1968 (金宵大廈2): Barrack O'Karma was highly popular back in 2019, giving us high expectations for the sequel. Unfortunately, it started out promising, but failed to deliver the same effect in the end. This time, Selena Lee and Joel Chan each played at least 3 different roles. There were some individual stories that we enjoyed, but more that we felt were less memorable like the "Oppa" story with the cardboard coming to life or going into the "A Fist Within Four Walls" video game. What's the point of bringing up the evil organization MIA if they're not going to address it in the end? They were a bit too ambitious this time in trying to add a lot of different plot elements like time travel, multiverse, and paranormal components, resulting in a rushed ending that felt unfinished with many questions.

Stranger Anniversary (雙生陌生人): Because the series is about Joe Ma's character meeting his doppleganger, he had to play 2 characters. Strangely enough, we thought was better as the comedic character because we always see the serious "Joe Ma" in every drama. They had to cut it down to 20 episodes because the ratings were too low, but we saw the 25 episode version which honestly did get pretty draggy and unexciting.

Royal Feast (尚食): It was not the most memorable of the historical Chinese shows we have seen, even with Xu Kai and Wu Jinyan as the main characters. The focus was not really on the cooking and more on the politics in the palace later on in the show.

Brutally Young 2.0 (十八年後的終極告白2.0): The whole time we were wondering where is the confession 18 years later because the story had nothing to do with it. It did not live up to the expectations we had after the1st installment and was more of a murder mystery surrounding Shaun Tam, Katy Kung, Joel Chan, Candice Chiu, and Zoie Tam. On the last episode, it was finally revealed that Katy Kung's character had a daughter with Shaun Tam's character 18 years ago. We were so confused because this was such an inconsequential "confession" that did not affect most of the other characters, but it was the title of the show.

Communion Series (回歸光影頌)：My Pride (我的驕傲), Touch In The Sky (究竟天有幾高), You Light Me Up (神奇的燈泡),  My Mom, My Ping Pong (母親的乒乓球), Silver Lining (曙光): These were 1 episode series to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR with short stories. Silver Lining was the prequel to Communion with Hera Chan and Matthew Ho playing the young version of Alice Chan and Roger Kwok.

Communion (回歸): We really enjoyed the show which was 15 episodes long. Roger Kwok and Alice Chan led the series playing a couple who divorced. Alice moved to China to open her restaurant chain, while Roger stayed in Hong Kong with his restaurant 粵德居. The problem was both their restaurants have the same name, so when Alice's company now wants to open a store in Hong Kong, a lot of problems arise. Their 2 sons played by Kalok Chow and Ricco Ng were also split apart since young and have to reconcile their differences when they take part in the Greater Bay Area entrepreneurial competition. It was a touching series that spans many decades and will resonate with many of the HK audience. We liked that it blended together themes of old and new values, family, technology, and reunion.

Big White Duel 2 (白色強人II): A sequel of the medical drama that won Best Drama back in 2019 with many complex cases and focus on reforming the formulary for access of drugs for rare diseases. Please see our full drama review by Ah Tao here.

Your Highness (痞子殿下): This was the only TVB ancient series of the year, but although the setting and costumes were historical, it had a very modern spin to it. The characters spoke pretty modern colloquial Cantonese, and there was even a lot of paid promotions of brands that appeared frequently on the show. It was the first time Kalok Chow played the 1st male lead, so many were eager to see how he would handle the role. His role this time reminded us a lot of the Lo & Behold one where he is viewed as incompetent and gets yelled at a lot. We look forward to his other roles where he gets to play a different character. We could tell that the main cast with Kalok, Jeannie Chan, Brian Chu, JW, and Jonathan Cheung became pretty good friends in real life. They may be one of the favourites for winning the TVB Onscreen partnership award this year. However, we were not as impressed with Jeannie Chan, who seemed to be pretty one-toned and yelling a lot in the show. Since the story was how was pretty funny and well-received, a sequel is already being planned.

Against Darkness (黯夜守護者): This was probably one of our least favourite of the series we completed and wasted the cast Alice and Ruco. We found Kaman Kong's character, Shabu very annoying. Once again, we knew immediately Brian Tse was the villain of the show. They did not even give him much back story or motive to make it compelling. Ruco looked tired and uninterested in his role and the show. 

The Beauty of War (美麗戰場): The Beauty of War marked the start of the 5 Anniversary Dramas this year. We looked forward to the drama from the promotions. This was produced by movie director, Patrick Kong. It was disappointing that the whole show was basically about Ah Bo's (played by Jeannie Chan) life of entering the entertainment industry because Jeannie could not handle the role's complexity. She was not convincing as the young, innocent school girl to begin with. Instead, we found Angel Chiang and Moon Lau to overshadow her. Even Hera Chan's expressions seemed more natural. Even though Joel Chan and Alex Fong were supposed to be male leads, they didn't have a lot of screentime and was more like supporting actors along with Bob Lam and Aska Cheung. It was confusing why Rebecca Zhu got nominated for Best Actress based on this drama though as she was only present for a few episodes. Overall, the plot spent too much time in the early days and not enough time when Ah Bo was actually famous. We would have liked to see what she challenges encountered while filming or with other celebrities that pushed her further into the dark side. The timeskips were not well planned and jumped back and forth a lot. We also did not find the open ending logical. For example, why did Ah Bo run outside after seeing Alex call her instead of picking up the phone first?

Get On A Flat (下流上車族): We were not expecting much for this family friendly show but were pleasantly surprised. The drama was heartfelt and unique. This was Andrew Lam's first time filming a drama, acting as the supermarket manager, Che Chi Ming. In the interviews, Andrew claimed he never had to look at the script and just went impromptu when the camera rolled. Despite being the first time they collaborated in acting, they really delivered the feeling of home in the Che family. There were some great tear-jerking moments that Nina Paw and Elena Kong really delivered, making them among some of the strongest contenders for Best Actress awards this year. The "Hobbit" family consisting of Eric Tang, Leo Kwan, and Bella Lam added lots of humour to the show. Eric Tang and King Lam were great supporting actors that helped make this simple show shine. The last bit with the principal (Carmaney Wong) and Che Chi Ming's almost affair was uncalled for and did not make much sense. After playing the Che daughters in the show, Rosita Kwok and Yuki Law's publicity rose quite a bit⁠— now Rosita's IG has already surged to 130k followers. Because of its easy to relate topic about the struggle of buying property in HK, the show had the highest rating of the year and has high hopes of garnering some awards.

I've Got The Power (超能使者): This was another great show also produced by Jazz Boon. It follows 5 people who were involved in a bus/car accident which gave them superpowers. We really enjoyed how Ruco's character, Lian, had more depth compared to his previous roles with Jazz, when he was just a simple hero who was good at fighting. There was a huge twist when we found out that Lian has schizophrenia and is hallucinating his wife, mom and brother to be there when they were all gone. This was probably Natalie's best role too, but she left TVB already. As much as the story had its funny and relaxing moments, there were also very emotional times that elevated the drama to another level. We appreciated the chemistry between all the other characters including the twin brothers played by Jazz Lam and Joel Chan, Wai played by Sammy Sum, and Open played by Tiffany Lau. Despite its merits, we did find that a lot of the parts did not make sense. If they were truly that powerful, why would it be so hard to defeat Jimmy Au, who is a normal human with no powers, leading to so many random casualties? Additionally, at the very end if Lian rewinded time to before the bus accident, would he still have the power if he never got on the bus? The people they saved throughout the series would also be left to their tragic fates if all of their powers were undone.

Forensic Heroes V (法證先鋒V): In the blink of an eye, we have already reached the 5th series of the Forensic Heroes franchise. While the 4th one was a total mess, this series was more acceptable. We found the tone of the whole show to be quite dark and reminded us of some Korean crime shows. The pacing moved very quickly, with an average of about 2 episodes spent on a case. We did find, however, that some of the cases were unnecessary and could be skipped such as the ramen shop case or the case where Kandy Wong accidentally kills her husband while sleeping. This would give more time for the final few cases that were supposed to be most important. It was enjoyable how the cases were more complex this time with the "18 Layers of Hell" case or the murder mystery game case. The final case ties in with the clown cases of the previous series because Thena (Coco Chiang) is the main antagonist who manipulates and brainwashes others to kill people with her trademark of the clown. 

The problem we had with the show was we did not feel a good connection with the characters as we felt like we understood them on a surface level. Benjamin Yuen had a very similar and wooden expression throughout the whole drama, while Venus Wong played a lovesick police officer. Jacky Cai was probably one of the better written characters, and Sisley Choi also had a rather insignificant part in the show. We knew almost nothing about Bosco Wong's Yu Sir backstory which makes us think that it was deliberate for the ending where he puts on clown makeup for the final scene. There were different interpretations with this scene as some people wondered if he was also manipulated by Thena, but it seemed to us that he had a pre-existing dark side that was hidden from his mysterious past. It's time to end the show in our opinion, so we hope there will not be a 6th installment.

Go With The Float (輕·功): Although it was a slow start, Go With The Float turned out to be a very genuine drama with good script. It might not be as humorous as Get On A Flat or as dramatic as some of the other Anniversary Dramas, but it can be argued to be most realistic. It follows a group of retirees who used to work together in the filming industry and what happens after the death of their friend Miao Miao (Mimi Kung). It was great to see Wayne back onscreen playing a father and former kungfu stuntman along with Willie Wai, Jimmy Au, Timothy Cheng, Baby Bo, and Alice Wong portraying his friends. The truthful depiction of the struggle between parents and children who have grown up and how lifelong friendships are maintained is a highlight in this show. We enjoyed seeing Joman Chiang taking on this role to showcase both her strong and softer feminine side. We know that this series probably won't pick up many awards since it was released quite late.

Come Home Love: Lo and Behold (愛·回家之開心速遞): The sitcom is fast approaching 2000 episodes, consistently bringing in high ratings every week for TVB. Because of this, it is currently airing every day of the week. With this strong fanbase gathered over the years, it seems like they will continue Lo and Behold for another while. 

That brings us to the end of our thoughts of the 2022 dramas this year! We want to mention that we were impressed by the quality of more shows this year, so we hope there will be continued improvement and newer scripts. We also watched a huge amount of variety shows this year that were entertaining and enjoyable. Even J2 has a lot of new series that can explore other topics more catered towards the young generation. For example, Boyscation (仔仔一堂) and Love At The First Scene (CP訓練營) were new dating reality shows which we haven't seen from TVB before. May 2023 bring us more great shows to watch.

- CeeJay

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_TVB_dramas_in_2022

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Tiger_3

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%BC%95%C2%B7%E5%8A%9F

Images Retrieved From

https://www.tvbanywherena.com/cantonese/series/2194-UsedGood

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https://hk.ulifestyle.com.hk/topic/detail/216881/%E9%90%B5%E6%8B%B3%E8%8B%B1%E9%9B%84-%E7%8E%87%E5%85%88%E7%9D%87%E5%8A%87%E6%83%85%E7%B0%A1%E4%BB%8B-%E4%B8%BB%E8%A6%81%E6%BC%94%E5%93%A1-%E6%B3%B0%E5%9C%8B%E7%89%88%E5%80%92%E6%A8%A1-%E5%9F%8E%E5%AF%A8%E8%8B%B1%E9%9B%84-%E5%A1%B5%E5%B0%81%E5%80%89%E5%BA%95%E4%B8%89%E5%B9%B4-%E5%A5%B3%E4%B8%80%E5%94%90%E8%A9%A9%E8%A9%A0%E5%86%8D%E8%A2%AB%E6%90%B6%E9%8F%A1

https://www.sundaykiss.com/%E5%A8%9B%E6%A8%82/%E5%AE%B6%E6%97%8F%E6%A6%AE%E8%80%80-%E5%8A%87%E6%83%85-%E7%BE%85%E5%AD%90%E6%BA%A2-%E6%A5%8A%E8%8C%9C%E5%A0%AF-plt-557537/

https://tvbanywherena.com/cantonese/series/2269-FlyingTiger3

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https://hk.ulifestyle.com.hk/topic/detail/217998/%E9%9B%99%E7%94%9F%E9%99%8C%E7%94%9F%E4%BA%BA-%E7%8E%87%E5%85%88%E7%9D%87%E5%8A%87%E6%83%85%E7%B0%A1%E4%BB%8B-%E4%B8%BB%E8%A6%81%E6%BC%94%E5%93%A1-%E9%A6%AC%E5%BE%B7%E9%90%98%E4%B8%80%E4%BA%BA%E5%88%86%E9%A3%BE%E5%85%A9%E8%A7%92%E7%94%A8%E6%9B%BF%E8%BA%AB%E6%90%9E%E7%AC%91%E4%B8%8A%E9%99%A3-%E9%99%B3%E7%85%92%E6%B9%AF%E6%B4%9B%E9%9B%AF%E5%90%88%E6%BC%94%E5%96%9C%E5%8A%87

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https://www.tvbanywherena.com/cantonese/series/2475-25YearsDrama

https://www.sundaykiss.com/%E5%A8%9B%E6%A8%82/%E5%9B%9E%E6%AD%B8-tvb-15%E9%9B%86-%E5%8A%87%E6%83%85-%E8%A7%92%E8%89%B2-%E4%B8%BB%E9%A1%8C%E6%9B%B2-plt-848221/

https://www.mytvsuper.com/tc/programme/bigwhiteduel2hongkongversion_135994/%E7%99%BD%E8%89%B2%E5%BC%B7%E4%BA%BAII/

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https://www.mytvsuper.com/tc/programme/yourhighness_136076/%E7%97%9E%E5%AD%90%E6%AE%BF%E4%B8%8B/

https://www.mytvsuper.com/tc/programme/againstdarkness_134911/%E9%BB%AF%E5%A4%9C%E5%AE%88%E8%AD%B7%E8%80%85/

https://www.mytvsuper.com/tc/programme/thebeautyofwar_136721/%E7%BE%8E%E9%BA%97%E6%88%B0%E5%A0%B4/

https://tvbanywherena.com/cantonese/series/2566-GetOnAFlat

https://www.mytvsuper.com/en/programme/ivegotthepower_136935/I%27ve-Got-The-Power/

https://www.nmplus.hk/entertainment/tvb-%e6%b3%95%e8%ad%89%e5%85%88%e9%8b%92v-%e5%ae%a3%e5%82%b3-ctb127-nl-884795/2/

https://www.sundaykiss.com/%E5%A8%9B%E6%A8%82/%E8%BC%95%E5%8A%9F-25%E9%9B%86-%E5%8A%87%E6%83%85%E5%8A%87%E9%80%8F-%E9%BB%8E%E8%80%80%E7%A5%A5-plt-897292/

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