TVB 2017 Top Drama Countdown
Happy New Year everyone! To start off the new year, we will be reviewing the TVB dramas that aired in 2017.
With each passing year, we've noticed that a lot more dramas are in the "Didn't watch/dropped" category. As many of you know, the quality of dramas has declined in the past years. We really didn't see a point in continuing with some of the dramas this year because of the disappointing plot or cast. We will be giving a short description on why each drama was ranked or dropped. Also, if you are interested in seeing where we dropped the drama, please see our drama list here.
Didn't Watch/Dropped:
Rogue Emperor (流氓皇帝) - We didn't watch this because it was filmed years ago and just got released as a remake of the one with Adam Cheng. There was no point in doing a remake of a classic and the cast didn't really appeal to us. From what we heard, it wasn't a bad decision to skip this one altogether.
Recipes to Live By (味想天開) - Jay saw most of this drama, while Cee barely watched it. A pretty terrible series to be honest: though food was meant to be the main theme, it was just the story of how Tony Hung and Sisley Choi could never be together, despite their love. Their story was even more dramatic than Romeo and Juliet.
Provocateur (與諜同謀) - The cast was led by Gallen Lo in this drama and unfortunately he was put in a drama with a disappointing plot and inexperienced actors. The whole father revenge plot was all too familiar and it reminded us of Burning Hands a lot with the group of con-men kind of idea (which came up again in Bet Hur). Fred was too dramatic in his portrayal of the revenge driven Ringo. Almost forgot Ali was in the drama.
The Tofu War (燦爛的外母) - We saw one episode and knew that this would be one of those boring, unmemorable filler dramas, so we didn't bother to continue.
No Reserve (巾幗梟雄之諜血長天) - The reviews for this were disappointing when it first aired through myTVSuper so we didn't think there was a point in watching it. TVB should really know when to stop for spin-offs/sequels.
Married but Available (我瞞結婚了) - Again, this had an uninteresting storyline and mediocre cast headed by Priscilla Wong and Tony Hung (again). We had no interest in seeing how they played out as some fake couple or whatever this was about.
Phoenix Rising (蘭花劫) - This drama really had us scratching our heads. What was TVB thinking when they decided to broadcast this one? They have so many other dramas that they've filmed in the past few years that still haven't been released. We didn't bother seeing this stale drama.
Bet Hur (澳門群英會) - We saw a couple episodes of this but it gave us the same feel as Burning Hands and quite frankly, we were done with the same revenge plots. Nat Chan rarely stars in dramas and here, it seemed like he was the main character for the beginning. We thought Charmaine was wasted in this drama as well.
The Exorcist's Meter (降魔的) - We dropped this drama but we've heard a lot of great reviews on it so we might go back and finish it. From what we saw, Mandy Wong wasn't too great as a female lead. She doesn't seem to have the leading lady aura if you know what we're talking about. There's nothing really captivating about her performances. But we heard Moon Lau did great in her role, and that Kenneth is a strong contender for the Best Actor Award. Ram seems to be on a roll with these eccentric characters.
Oh My Grad (老表，畢業喇!) - Another 3rd spin off of Wong Cho Lam's productions. Needless to say, after the disappointment of Come On, Cousin we had no interest in seeing this drama. We did try one episode, but just didn't feel the determination to finish the drama.
Heart and Greed (溏心風暴3) - This was a highly anticipated drama for 2017/TVB's 50th Anniversary however we already called it when we said it would be disappointing. Only the older cast is left and its been 10 years since the first one so of course they have aged. The sets were back to the same TVB fake ones which was a let down especially after seeing an improvement in sets and filming from My Unfair Lady and Line Walker: The Prelude. The younger cast had no screen time in this drama besides Sharon Chan who's been getting all the headlines as the dumb mistress. We won't be watching this drama.
Come with Me (性在有情) - This just seemed unnecessary like TVB's way of breaking barriers. We didn't even see one episode but we can probably predict that it was only borderline "scandalous".
The Official Drama Countdown:
14. May Fortune Smile on You (財神駕到) - This sit-com wasn't terrible, but it was forgotten by us since it aired during last Chinese New Year. It was a silly and short drama. Matthew Ho was probably the most memorable as the wealth god.
13. Nothing Special Force (雜警奇兵) - This was just a filler drama for us and acted like background noise haha. It was mediocre at best and nobody really shined in their role. The cases weren't too interesting either.
12. The No No Girl (全職沒女) - This drama was another filler. We thought it was kinda ridiculous how the main character played by Adia Chan had so many ex-boyfriends and it was not cute at all when she and Eddie's character finally admitted to liking each other. It was like a wanna-be kdrama with cute sneezing scenes when they saw their crush only they were both ... 40+.
11. Burning Hands (乘勝狙擊) - A full review on this drama by us can be found here. Our general opinion on the drama was that it suffered plot failures and inconsistencies. Like Provocateur it talked about a group of con artists who were out for revenge by the end. There wasn't anything particularly mind-blowing about their expertise and the performances were just adequate.
10. The Unholy Alliance (同盟) - We will start off by saying this drama disappointed us. It boasted a huge cast with heavy ammunition (literally and with the budget and Nina Paw as well). It was a let down on several fronts, from the acting to the storyline. The newly crowned TV Actor/Actress paired up again to be annoying and cringe-worthy whenever they were onscreen together. Ruco's character was very one-dimensional and naïve. Joel Chan's performance outshone him. The story was very simple so basically everyone wanted to kill Nina so die protecting her. We won't go on about this drama but it really wasn't as good TVB made it up to be.
9. My Dearly Sinful Mind (心理追兇 Mind Hunter) - This is where the dramas start getting better on our list for us. The best thing about this drama was probably Grace Wong's character and the unexpected ending. It was interesting and everyone performed well. We haven't seen Pierre Ngo since this drama and were wondering what happened to him. He's a solid actor and it's just unfortunate that he seems to be forgotten. Even Sisley improved in this drama although her role was kinda useless. The thing that we didn't like about it was the unnecessary deaths at the end though. Our full review can be found here.
8. Tiger Mom Blues (親親我好媽) - We really enjoyed this drama because it was relatable and very simple. Sometimes when TVB tries to put too many things into one drama with too many storylines, it tends to fail and the ending is always abrupt. Here, it focuses on one family and all the performances were great. Elena Kong shone as a "tiger mom" who learns to loosen her grip at the end. The children were well casted as well. Again, a full review can be found here.
7. My Unfair Lady (不懂撒嬌的女人) - This drama had the best filming this year. Shot in 4K with outsourced filming locations, this was really quite different. At first it felt like we were watching a movie. Hopefully TVB continues to film things with this quality so that it can stand a chance with other dramas. The story however became annoying with Samantha Ko's character ruining everything. The ending with Natalie Tong and Vincent Wong's love story was also disappointing and made no sense to us.
6. Come Home Love: Lo and Behold (愛·回家之開心速遞) - We watch this when we're done other shows or there's nothing else on TVB to watch. It's alright to pass time and got some good laughs in it. Some of the various story-lines are pretty interesting to follow, and it seems to have good viewership in Hong Kong.
5. A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch (超時空男臣) - What makes this drama likable is not its time-travel plot (because we've seen hundreds of those dramas), but how serious imperial business translates into comedy when the main characters stumble across 21st century wonders, while firmly holding onto their Ming Dynasty roots. Even with 32 episodes and a fairly plain storyline centering around Fung Ming Gui, I rarely got bored of AGASAE because of the chemistry between Edwin, Raymond, and Matthew as three sworn brothers. Matthew was perfectly casted for his role as the eunuch. However, the female characters were a bit weak. Kristal didn't really shine, and neither did Rebecca. Grace Wong probably had the best character of the females.
4. Legal Mavericks (踩過界) - The first half of the drama was a lot better than the second and if not for the second half, this would've ranked higher on our list. There was no wasted time in the beginning and it kept us interested with the fast pace. Understandably, the pacing slowed down as the drama progressed in order to give some background for characters. When the second season came out, the series started going downhill for us. The end was a flop, as it suffered from unnecessary fighting, struggling, dying, etc. etc. of characters thrown into a hopeless situation, only to return to the predicted typicality where good triumphs over evil. The performances were great though, Vincent Wong is gaining a lot of publicity for TV King this year and Sisley was quite enjoyable to watch as well.
3. My Ages Apart (誇世代) - At 50 episodes, we still haven't completed the drama yet but from what we've seen it's been pretty good. There are a lot of storylines because of the huge cast. It mostly revolves around the Sheung Family of 7 daughters and their lives and how people in their lives intertwine. At first we were wondering why it was called My Ages Apart but after seeing the soul/face swapping, we understood. There have been many hilarious scenes in the show poking fun at HK culture or old TVB dramas. The whole cast is great. Bobby is always great and plays his role well! Moses is also hilarious in this drama with his small mannerisms especially when he says "holy shh". Ali is finally not reciting her lines and is quite natural as the ditzy Paris. Of course we can't mention everyone because of the huge cast, but all the sisters are great, the younger generation is really shining (Katy Kung, Zoie Tam (though not too young LOL), Kamen Kong, Louisa Mak, Anjaylia Chan, Kwan Gor, Dickson Yu, etc.) We're looking forward to finishing the drama and hopefully the ending isn't too rushed and random.
2. Destination Nowhere (迷) - We really enjoyed this drama for the story and character development. It was really a one woman show from Kristal Tin where she spiralled down and couldn't go back to her old life. Kevin did well in this drama and served as a comic relief. There was a lot of buildup of plot, where a series of seemingly insignificant series culminated into a disaster. It does take some patience to watch this series, but it was worth it since it was so thoughtful and thought-provoking.
1. Line Walker: The Prelude (使徒行者2) - This was the best drama of the year because of its fast pace and higher quality filming. There wasn't much time wasted on unnecessary plot fillers and annoying love pentagons that you usually see on TVB. We enjoyed Benz's performance as Foon Hei Gor. We remember when it was first announced that Benz would play a triad leader in the first Line Walker and we could only imagine him in comedies. He sure proved to be a versatile veteran actor with this role. Michael Miu's character had little character development and sometimes we wondered if he would ever turn bad but he just sticked to his morals. We really enjoyed watching Jessica as Scarlett who was torn between two sides because she loved Moses's character Victor. This was true, mature acting through subtle gestures and expressions. Moses was kinda silly with his hair but we didn't think his performance was as bad as people said it was. It just felt like the villainous character didn't fit with him. However, if you want to see a better performance from him we would recommend My Ages Apart. The new generation consisting of Ben Yuen, Pakho Chau and Priscilla Wong were alright. Ben had the best performance of the trio and plays the flamboyant Paradise well. We're glad to see him more natural and not as wooden anymore. As Pakho's first TV drama role, we would say he did a lot better than other newbies in such a heavy role. Looking forward to more dramas with him. Priscilla was the weakest link and sometimes we wondered why she was an undercover because she was such an emotional ditzy girl. Like a lot of people have said, Priscilla acts as herself in many dramas and there's no difference between her roles. She also always dresses in the same baggy long clothes and random beanies. It takes away from us imagining her in different roles. There were a lot of deaths and quick guest appearances from people like Tony Hung, Shiga Lin, Koo Ming-Wah... and many more. The worst scene had to be when Ben and Priscilla were drunk and feeling remorseful for Pakho's "death". It was very exaggerated and fake to us and we couldn't connect with their characters. Well enough about this drama haha, basically it had a good veteran cast and fast story that kept us anticipating the next episode.
Thanks for reading our reviews! Let us know how you would rank the dramas in 2017.
-CeeJay
I mostly agree with the list, except putting Line Walker The Prelude at the first, in my opinion, the drama suffers, the plot is very boring and messed up, a super let down from the first Line Walker, the acting is also not particular good.
ReplyDeleteI will put "The Exorcist Meter" in the first place, while watching the drama i thought Mandy was a supporting character and not a female lead, i thought Susan Tse was!
@Tommy Ivan,
DeleteThanks for your reply! We love hearing from our readers. We will definitely see if we have time to go back and watch The Exorcist's metre.
Happy New Year, CeeJay! Great recap as usual! I didn’t really “watch” most of the series listed (caught a few episodes here and there and kind of “listened” when my mom and sister-in-law were watching) so don’t have much comment. The only series from your list that I had watched in its entirety was Phoenix Rising but I already saw it 10 years ago when it first came out (it never aired in HK golden timeslot until last year, but it aired overseas numerous times already, plus the DVD has been out for ages). It’s actually a pretty good series but TVB did it a huge disservice by airing it in their golden timeslot 10 years after it was made (and they aired the original non-HD version in an HD setting, which compounded the issues because the aesthetics were horrible – audiences were complaining that the actors looked like caricatures because the screen was stretched out so much it distorted some of their features). I honestly don’t know what TVB was thinking by choosing to air Phoenix Rising when they had so many new series they could’ve aired in its place…even the cast was taken by surprise when they got called up by TVB asking them to attend promo events for the series (Sunny Chan was like, um, that series was from 10 years ago but sure I’ll attend the promo, lol).
ReplyDeleteI did watch a little bit of Oh My Grad (mostly because of Roger and Ram and curiosity with the music piece), but honest to god that series was stupid and boring so I dropped it like a hot potato, lol (seriously though – when you find yourself nodding off like every 10 minutes while watching, you know something is wrong). I also watched a little bit of Provocateur and all I can say is – Gallen Lo returned for that crap??? Bet Hur was a complete joke and one of the worse series to ever grace the screen (and if I hear Nat Chan boast one more time about his performance being TV King worthy and the only reason TVB isn’t giving it to him is because he doesn’t want it, I am seriously going to puke)! Heart and Greed is a waste of the veteran cast – I refuse to watch because the first 2 gave me headaches with their OTT arguing and crying scenes and producer LKH already emphasized that this third installment would basically be the same thing…however, my mom is (annoyingly) watching this series (because of the veteran cast, all of whom she loves) so I’m being forced to “listen” to the series…I’ve been praying for it to end so I can be put out of my misery, lol. Despite it being the most hyped TVB series of the year, I didn’t watch Line Walker 2 at all, mostly because 1) I was never a fan of the first Line Walker anyway so no desire to watch the sequel, 2) dislike most of the cast except Michael and Benz, 3) I chose to watch another cop/triad/undercover-themed web series OCTB instead, since that was on at the same time (which proved to be a good choice because OCTB was awesome – IMO, much better than many of the series TVB has produced in recent years).
Overall, I would say that last year wasn’t a good year for me in terms of TVB…maybe I’m getting sick of TVB garbage series or something but nowadays, if I watch TVB stuff at all, it’s mostly variety programs – i.e. Maria Leitao’s interview show (which continues to be awesome -- love the Best Onscreen Partners theme for this season’s), the various cooking shows (Gigi Wong, Steve Lee, Maria Cordero), and the oldies music program (Cantopop at 50). Outside of that, I don’t watch much on TV due to there being nothing of interest to watch anymore….
Happy New Year to you too llwy! Thank you so much for continuing to read our posts and commenting on them!
DeleteThis year was definitely not that stellar in terms of dramas given that it was their 50th anniversary. We didn't get the chance to Phoenix Rising when it first aired 10 years ago because we used to only pick a handful to watch back in the day (whatever we could get our hands on). LOL @ Nat Chan and his TV King worthy acting. He's always been a jokester in our eyes and borderline arrogant. We thought we would give Heart and Greed a try but surprisingly didn't even bother continuing it. We enjoyed the first 2 for the drama and abundance of a "younger" cast. Obviously the "younger" cast this time had aged and there's like 4 of them with no screentime either.
We were wondering if you watched other TV shows, like Korean, Japanese or American TV? We usually manage to see a couple kdramas/year and same with American ones.
@Cee: Thanks for the reply! I don't watch Korean or Japanese shows because I have this thing about not watching stuff where I can't understand the language. And I absolutely despise shows that are dubbed (especially ones dubbed into Cantonese, lol) -- if I'm going to spend time watching something, it has to be in its original language. Yea, I know, there are always subtitles (like watch in the original language and just read the subtitles) but I don't like doing that either because it's too much effort in my opinion and detracts from the overall enjoyment of whatever I may be watching (I prefer to have the full experience -- being able to see what's happening as well as hear what they are saying).
DeleteAs for American series -- I used to watch alot of them back in the day, but not anymore. I've always "followed" the HK entertainment industry more than Hollywood (which is kind of ironic since, living in LA, Hollywood is practically in my backyard, whereas HK is thousands of miles away, lol). I don't keep up much with the American entertainment scene nowadays, though I do still read about Hollywood-related stuff (entertainment news) every once in awhile and get occasional "updates" from my American friends, so at least I'm not entirely out of the loop, lol!
Thank you for your recap! As someone who gave up on TVB dramas a few years ago, and decided to watch a few again this year out of nostalgia's sake, I was pleasantly surprised to find some actually enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite drama is definitely The Exorcist's Meter and I really do recommend that you go back and watch it! (Although I do think that it is a drama best enjoyed with zero expectations and no spoilers, which might be a bit difficult now with all the hype surrounding it) There's a few flaws, and the production value is absolutely terrible, but I find that the plot and characters are very sincere and really gets to my emotions. I think Hubert and Kenneth are most talked about for their portrayals (very very deservingly), but the rest of the cast are also amazing and scene-stealing, though I do agree that Mandy's portrayal was a bit of a letdown.
I totally agree with what you said about Legal Mavericks: the first half was great, but the second half just felt wayyy too forced. I like that it isn't afraid to explore more controversial themes, and also the chemistry between the main four characters is great - it's really disappointing to me that they ruined the dynamic for the sake of the final arc. I was also a little disappointed by how 'smart' they were about handling cases: I understand that the point was about them stepping over the line and using questionable methods for court cases, but I feel like they could've used a smarter approach, rather than just, for example, harassing the victim until they changed their mind. The only case that fulfilled my expectations was probably how they handled Sisley's character being sued for blackmail.
This year is also the first year that I've given attention to the sitcoms. Now that I think about it, I think I enjoyed Lo and Behold and Tiger Mom Blues for the same reasons. Newer faces are always refreshing, especially when some of them (Kaman Kong, Kalok Chow, Andrea So) turn out to be great actors. It's also quite a nice breather to have a drama that focuses on more relatable issues without being stressful - which leads me to Destination Nowhere, which I think probably has the best script this year, but just isn't my cup of tea because it got a little too stressful to watch. It really took it's time to get to the point, fleshed the characters out really well and intertwined the arcs beautifully, but yeah, it got a bit tiring to watch.
I love that you wrote that you hoped that the ending for My Ages Apart wouldn't be too 'rushed and random', because that's exactly how I'd describe the ending sequence. The finale episode definitely felt like it finished the whole drama properly, but I love how it kind of pokes fun at the 'rushed and random' endings by doing the episode 51-100 recap. I can't say that I enjoyed the drama all the way (the many arcs were messy and made me forget the main plot, which didn't help with motivation of continuing), but I definitely do think it's a successful anniversary drama. I think the way they emphasised that this drama would be 'exaggerated' made me drop my usual skeptical angle, and actually enjoy the cast and comedy for what it was.
I've heard lots of good opinions about Line Walker 2, but I only got through about halfway because I didn't feel very motivated to keep going. I don't think it's a bad drama (in fact, I think it's better than the first one), but I didn't really feel a connection to the characters, and the plot didn't feel suspenseful enough for me to continue.
Sorry if my comment's a bit long, I guess I got a bit carried away haha.
@Vaneffle, thanks for your thoughtful comment, no worries about it being long!
DeleteSome of the dramas are still pleasantly surprising if you don't come in with any expectations. We will try and see if we have time to watch The Exorcist's Meter but maybe the reason why we haven't felt the urge to go back is the production value like you mentioned. It feels like any old TVB Drama that was produced 5 years ago with the same sets and such. Legal Mavericks was very fast-paced at the beginning which we enjoyed and because the eps were all released at once, we could binge it unlike the usual TVB dramas that come out daily. We've been noticing the newer generation in less popular dramas like Lo and Behold but can TVB hurry up and give them better roles in bigger productions? We feel like they're really in need of new blood. The cast is usually in their 40's now and there's no new stars. My Ages Apart was one of the best dramas this year for us. Despite the messy family drama, it was still easy to watch unlike Heart and Greed from what we heard, funny how they also poke fun at that franchise.
Yeah, I tried getting a friend into The Exorcist's Meter and she thought the drama was from 5-10 years ago coz the actors still all look the same haha! I feel like I'm more forgiving of the terrible production value because it gives more of an genuine/sincere/underdog feel to the drama, which I like. In fact, I have a slight aversion to grander productions haha. Tbh, I didn't think highly of My Ages Apart at first for this reason, but it played off as satire extremely well. I think what's really interesting is that the spin-off 'Taxorcist Sidequel' is the exact opposite of the main drama. It's got much better production value with the colouring and the CG, but the script isn't great so it's not as well-received by the audience.
DeleteYes, there's so many younger actors that extremely promising, and it's such a shame if they get forgotten in the long run or stay underrated just because TVB isn't putting them in bigger productions because they don't want to break from their current ways of using 35+ actors. I really do feel like they need to put more of the newer generation (especially the males) in larger roles in mainstream dramas, because seeing the exact same group of actors again and again really ruins the immersion. Even just one new face in a drama really makes a big difference in the immersion for me.