TVB 2018 Top Drama Countdown
Hello! Hope your holiday season has been going well!
We are back with the last post of 2018! The yearly TVB drama countdown of all dramas from worst to best we have seen this year. This has been one of the hardest years to do the countdown for because we didn't watch a lot of them and of the ones we saw, it was hard to say which one was better than the other. We actually got to see a lot more dramas this year than last year (2017 countdown here). However, most of them were forgettable.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Didn't Watch:
The Forgotten Valley (平安谷之詭谷傳說) - We didn't watch this one because we weren't super keen on this type of drama for the new year or something? Not sure. Maybe we were too busy but we heard that it was pretty good.
Wife Interrupted (救妻同學會) - This is currently airing and we're still trying to finish up dramas that are already completed, so we just couldn't pick this one up as well. It's dubbed as a younger idol drama... but really? Most the cast is already aging and when you think of idol dramas, it's usually fresh faced 18-22 year olds. Maybe we're being cynical about TVB but at least they're trying to push out new talent. Apparently the storyline is very confusing with the shifting timelines and the flashbacks.
Birth of a Hero (翻生武林) - Nothing about this drama really appealed to us. The cast was not too strong and this genre has been overdone. We know they're probably using the same old ancient TVB streets lol. Wow, we just realized that Ben Wong got to be the male lead in 3 dramas this year (Watch Out Boss, OMG, Your Honour, and this one)
Dropped:
Who Wants a Baby? (BB来了) - We just didn't have time to watch this drama but Jay did see a couple episodes of it. We heard great reviews on it, so it is unfortunate we weren't able to add it into our countdown.
The Official Drama Countdown:
15. Watch Out Boss (波士早晨) - Warehoused drama that was forgettable. We don't understand why TVB bothers with filming more mundane dramas like this one and just shelves it for years before it really becomes stale. It does not help with ratings and does not help them get stronger in terms of buzz or anything. If there is nothing good to film, then we would say, don't film it. This wasn't a bad drama, it was just very ordinary and had an old cast (nothing wrong with that, but not like Flora Chan will be back). We forgot mostly what happened except some office scenes and Flora Chan and Ben Wong reuniting after their divorce.
14. Deep in the Realm of Conscience (宮心計2·深宮計) - We have already done a full review of this drama. And to be very honest, it was disappointing considering all the hype and the budget it received. The acting was so exaggerated and the lines dragged out to long confusing phrases which were kind of hard to follow even though we've seen many ancient dramas before. There weren't many actors in the dramas or even extras considering it is a huge production and the schemes the ladies in the show tried to plot were just so silly. It may seem surprising why DITROC ended in the back of the list (we're kinda surprised by how low it ended up too), but to be honest, the worst 5 dramas in this countdown were very hard to put into order because they were all pretty weak and were all basically equally bad.
13. Apple-Colada (果欄中的江湖大嫂) - Another forgettable drama. We failed to see the purpose of the whole show as they were just selling fruits the whole time - not that it's not important - but a whole drama based on that...really? We wish TVB promoted Raymond Wong a bit more, since he's a great actor. It had some good comedic moments in it with Raymond Wong and his father. But looking back, we don't remember a lot that happened. We thought that Alice Chan would end up with Hou-Sui Geen (Saliva Geen) but it never happened, so their interactions felt weird to watch. Heck, we even forgot Mat Yeung was in this drama until we read the summary on Wiki. Also, on Wiki it says that Eliza Sam's name in the drama is supposed to be Barika... Yikes... They're really getting creative with these English names.
12. Stealing Seconds (棟仁的時光) - The two main leads were weak. Natalie Tong was again, the sad, crying, heartbroken girl. It was nothing new. The sets were quite fake and you could tell this was low budget, with the majority of the show seeming to take place in the Time Stealing Cafe. Don't know how Ben won for Best Actor in Singapore and Malaysia for this role. It was mediocre at best. We just couldn't see the chemistry between Natalie and Ben, even though we thought they were so much more compatible in Speed of Life a few years ago.We also knew what happened to the missing husband from the beginning with Rebecca Zhu's character stealing time. That said, the only reason it's a bit higher than the previous is because we thought the concept was cool with the protagonist needing to steal time from others to prolong his life. But they failed to use this concept to their advantage to create a touching series.
11. Flying Tiger (飛虎之潛行極戰) - This series was created by TVB and Shaw Brothers in collaboration. We usually enjoy action dramas, but we couldn't get into this one. From the first episode, it was so unreasonable to have one cop chasing the terrorists. As always, Ron Ng was the same hot-headed cop and Bosco was supposed to look cool, even joining the triad as an undercover. We did find the female characters pretty weak as well (like Venus Wong, Grace Chan, and Mandy Wong). Christine Ng was also odd as Bosco's mom lol. There was none of that brotherhood bond we saw in Tiger Cubs which was disappointing, and Oscar Leung's Kenny was OTT, always showing off his one YOLO tattoo on his finger.
10. Fist Fight (兄弟) - At first, the drama was weird with Phillip's OTT angry acting and Vincent's eccentric Fever having hidden intentions and always playing this weird mastermind. There seemed to be no connection between boxing and technology. Towards the middle, it got better when Phillip calmed down and he even became comedic. Probably the best part was when Mat Yeung's Leo and Phillip Ng's Iron found out they were brothers and went to The Philippines to train and encountered all the mess that was in their way. Probably because it was the most exciting part. Then it all went downhill from there. Fever started doing weird, unexplained things and it seemed like drama for the sake of drama. Randomly introducing a new 'secret' big boss in the deep web was so far fetched... to just have the big boss killed right away lol. We don't really get the point of Kaman Kong's Sitting (she was useless as a bodyguard) and Tiffany Lau's Zero (she had nothing to do either but be the love interest). And why was Rebecca Zhu's Madam in every case? Isnt she Interpol? Why was she hanging around all day with small local issues? How did she just randomly leave HK and get all that top secret info at her convenience? Heck, why does everyone not have jobs lol. Like Phillip and Mat just stopped being bodyguards and were full time investigators of their parent's mysterious deaths. We thought it was a fighting drama, but there was no fighting left in the end, only some. Hunter played by Shek Sau was also weird because we did not understand what he was trying to do, and they showed him off as a super martial arts fighter, but he never fought so what was the point? It's funny how the series is called brothers in Chinese, but they don't even look like brothers nor do they act like it. Fever's just doing his own thing the whole show, while Leo was rather cold and it seemed like Iron was the only one who cared about their brotherhood and even he died for no reason. There were too many unneeded deaths of Iron, Oli, Stone, Double, etc. It seems like the writer tried to incorporate too much with the sophisticated technology and VR and the story became lost and messy. Not much made sense about this drama, the best acting from the brothers that was nice to see was done by Mat and that's about it.
9. The Stunt (特技人) - We wouldn't say this is a bad drama, since there isn't much to criticize. It delivered the story clearly and completely with a decent ending. At most, it is another forgettable drama. Shaun Tam was better than in Succession War, but still kind of grumpy a lot of the times. At first when we saw the promo clip, we were kinda excited because it showed the filming of stunts but turns out, that just happened like a couple times. The rest of it was all talk and convincing Shaun's character to do the stunts. Rebecca Zhu was alright and acceptable as the first female lead, and we quite liked Kelly Fu's acting in this one. Kevin Kwan was really silly looking but not a bad actor.
8. Another Era (再創世紀) - We actually managed to finish this drama from start to end which was surprising because it was not all that entertaining. Linda Chung's comeback was horrible. She had no purpose besides adding a travel show element to the drama by showing some Canadian forestry and nature scenes. Everytime she spoke English, we cringed. Not because the English is bad, just because it seemed so unnatural like she was trying so hard to be one of those dramatic actresses that she really just failed. We did not understand the motive behind why Roger was so evil and even killed his own parents? Nothing was explained. Ben Yuen's character was very weak, while Niki Chow put out an overall better performance, but still just mediocre. And the Pakho part of the story got boring as he was super annoying. There was so little to say but it dragged on for so long. Tavia was the highlight of the drama for us and she has definitely matured in her acting here and we prefer her performance for the Best Actress award but too bad, the drama had low views and she's also not with TVB anymore.
7. Succession War (天命) - This is the part of the countdown where the dramas start getting good. We did a full review on Succesion War as well here. This was much better than DITROC, and you could tell the production team was more serious about accurately representing the story rather than spending all the budget on fancy hairpieces! The only downside to this is casting Shaun Tam as the Emperor who was angry all the time. Cee actually found this drama to be entertaining, probably because the last half was binged in a few days so it was more exciting? Every episode had new twists and turns and it was an interesting way to tell this story from the perspective of Ruco Chan's character Heshen, and the whole drama is the counting down of the days following up to his death. It suffered really low ratings though. We appreciate the effort that TVB is putting into filming ancient dramas by filming in Hengdian but unfortunately it looks like TVB has no new ancient projects (probs because of the high budget, they even cut the TVB Calendar this year lol).
6. OMG, Your Honour (是咁的，法官閣下) - Cee didn't watch this drama, so these thoughts are from Jay:
A very interesting look on the profession of lawyers. Stripping away all the superficial glam and glory that are usually associated to lawyers, we get to dive right into the lives of young barristers and solicitors struggling to make a living. From getting fired by clients to getting yelled by judges on court, we really find ourselves rethinking about how many lawyers are really driving expensive cars, wearing brand name suits like shown in many tv shows. The drama is also a highly reflective on the various current issues of Hong Kong people like why so many HK people are so unhappy with their lives and what is missing in society that causes these problems. The only reason why it isn't higher up in the list is because of John (Ben Wong) and Ophelia's (Grace Wong) story which was dragged out and got so boring, and the whole thing about them going to court against each other was completely unnecessary. Ophelia's character was very hard to understand and unlikable because of the way they made her character. In reality, John is mainly at fault because he was not able to be honest with Ophelia and married her even thought he knew from the start that he did not truly love her, yet he was painted as the righteous one and Ophelia appeared to be the clingy wife who refused the divorce. As male lead, John seriously lacked character development and his reunion with Icy in the end felt rushed and not very touching. Even James (Eddie Kwan) had a layered character of why he was always the bully when he was young because of the impression that his mom (Angelina Lo) hit his dad (Carlo Ng) when he was young, and since then grew distant from his mom. James had his climatic moment when he decided to reconcile with his mother when it was revealed that she originally liked his 師父 (played by Joseph Lee) but had to marry Carlo Ng because she was raped by him and got pregnant with his baby. In the end, Joseph and Angelina's characters re-met and they became friends which added a nice touch. We wish more of the show was centered around the newbies because the end was rushed and their stories were still unfinished. If less time was spent following the John-Ophelia-James love triangle, the young characters' parts could have been magnified. For example, Archie (Jackson Lai) seemed to be a major character when he narrated the first scene, but it turns out he was a pretty flat character playing a minor role. Faye (Kirby Lam) and Brandon (King Lam) seemed to have great potential as well, but their characters were pretty much the same the whole drama. It would have been nice to get more screentime of Daniel's (Jonathan Wong) love story with the street musician and whether he chooses music over being a lawyer. Charles (Oscar Leung) and Helen (Louisa Mak) had the more complete stories which showed how they matured over time.
5. Come Home Love, Lo and Behold (愛·回家之開心速遞) - Jay has kept up to date with Lo and Behold for a long time now. This sitcom also came in 5th place in our countdown last year! Although there's been many different series under the name Come Home Love, we think the themes of "home" and "family" are truly encapsulated with this series with the small funny, touching moments with the Hung family in their many adventures or mishaps. The different settings of Wai Lung office or the university are a nice switch most of the stories that come with the different settings are very enjoyable with the exception of the Helen-KC-John line which got so repetitive. The actors and actress really make their characters their own, all of the major characters having distinct traits. Mandy Lam as Linda Lung and Vicky Chan as Jenny are hilarious to watch. All of the Hung family characters are also quite outstanding and comedic, especially Lau Dan as Hung Shu Gun (Tree Gun haha) or Kalok Chow as On Jai. Looking forward to continuing this sitcom.
4. Threesome (三個女人一個「因」) - Cee only saw a couple episodes, but Jay saw the full series. Though Threesome was aired early in the year, there was still much buzz about it during the awards, a good indicator that this drama was very memorable. We are very pleased with Mandy Wong's performance as protagonist; we always knew that she had a knack for acting since her role as the rowdy wife in L'escargot, but over the years, she got less memorable roles and she hasn't been able to shine. She finally got her chance in Threesome as a lawyer with two split personalities, one who is wild and carefree and the other who is introverted and has social anxiety. Mandy did wonderfully in switching between these three characters and making each personality unique. The male characters of the drama were also great and comedic in their own way which complemented Mandy's character nicely. This was Benjamin Yuen's best portrayal of the year, and we were very surprised with Arnold Kwok and didn't know he could be so funny as well. Jason Chan was a bit weaker and less memorable, but still nonetheless funny. The plot wasn't overly complicated, and the fact that there were shorter than average episodes which were aired only on weekends made the whole drama more suspenseful.
3. Life on the Line (跳躍生命線) - This was a good drama that centered around paramedics and all the cases that they encounter. It was a really a serious production because there were ambulances, the actors looked like they did some studying and training to accurately show the profession of paramedics. We loved those little blurbs at the end of the episodes that had beautiful, meaningful quotes that relate to the scenes in that particular episode, while pertaining to the themes of life and mortality. The facing of death in both strangers and those close to us is greatly explored in the drama, paired with cheerful moments of love and friendship, leaving a lasting bittersweet impression in the audience. We particularly enjoyed the training portion of the drama. It was fun and refreshing to see new people and Timothy Cheng as Ying Sir was. Matthew Ho, Bob Cheung, Arnold Kwok and Joey Law were the ones that shone in their roles instead of Joe Ma, who was rather mediocre. It was hard to see who was the female lead in the drama, as none of them got very much screentime and didn't have much to do either (it seemed like a 3 way split between Kelly Cheung, Moon Lau and Jeannie Chan), but Jeannie Chan showed vast improvement from her previous dramas. Towards the end, it got a bit dragged out and they definitely could've done with 5 less episodes. The whole story with Savio Tsang taking revenge got blown out of proportion and it was just to cause drama.
2. The Learning Curve of a Warlord (大帥哥) - At first, we were reluctant to watch the drama because of a seemingly weak supporting cast with Sisley Choi and Tony Hung and it seemed a bit silly, but after a few episodes, we were sucked right into it thanks to Dicky Cheung. Not going to lie, the story and plot are nothing spectacular, but the way Dicky makes the whole story and script come alive is what earns this drama second place in our countdown. We were mesmerized by the comedic style from Dicky. It's fast and funny, but always makes you do a double take because of how fast he recites the punchlines. In every episode, there was always something to laugh about, and there's always least one of those golden phrases that were quickly spewed out. He was superb and completely owned the show. Not to mention his subtheme song is fantastic! For these reasons, we weren't too bothered by Sisley's acting, and it does seem that she has improved even though her character was kind of boring. Tony Hung was fine as well and his acting did not take away from the drama. Raymond Cho was the perfect supporting character as well, serving as a nice contrast from Dicky's exuberant character. The two of them had wonderful chemistry, especially when they had those lengthy bickers. We were pleasantly surprised by Zoie Tam and Vivien Yeo who were also great in their supporting roles as Dicky's wives and overshadowed Sisley's bland character. Their characters were complex: Zoie was a Japanese spy underneath her gentle, innocent facade, and Vivien was a vain, empty-headed wife who longed for love and care. We hope to see more of these two playing even more challenging roles in the future. It is interesting to see that they turned a drama about the warlord era into a comedy or satire because it is not normally seen as a funny topic, so the production team did a good job with this aspect. It's truly a shame there was no recognition of this series at the awards.
1. Daddy Cool (逆緣) - And....finally...first place goes to Daddy Cool!!! Jay saw the whole drama, while Cee only caught a couple episodes here and there of the drama. Like last year's Destination Nowhere that was also produced by Amy Wong, Daddy Cool is nothing short of spectacular. It's packed with a lot of irony and dark and light humor and a bit of mystery. A very cleverly crafted drama, Daddy Cool is pieced together based on the irony of fate. For example, when Wayne Lai's character Ho Wing Nin and his father Ho Woh Ping's (David Chaing) fates seem to be locked, their lives change completely when they encounter Woh Ping's father, Chung Ting Kwok (Carlos Chan) who was frozen in the Second Sino-Japanese War and wakes up after 70 years, younger than his son and grandson. Or when Wayne finally becomes everything he ever wished for, both rich and successful, but realizes he would go back to his poor days and be happy with his wife (Elvina Kong) and their son. There's also irony when Carlos swore to be enemies with the Japanese because of that war, but ends up falling in love in the modern times with Aki (Rosina Lam) who is half Japanese. Absolutely brilliant chemistry between Wayne, David and Carlos - each with their own convincing characters with Wayne being selfish but still good-hearted, David being fradulent and cheap, and Carlos being honourable and upright. We were wowed by Carlos Chan's acting since we have never seen him before. He and his character became one, and we were fully convinced that he was from the 1940's with the way he spoke and expressed himself. We can't think of anyone who could have done it better! Our only complaint is Pat Ha's character as Aki's mom who was unlikable and her parts were a bit irritating, though she was a major part of the story. We enjoyed the morals that the drama taught. It pokes fun at how society has changed from when people were patriotic and still family-oriented, whereas in the modern day, people are self-absorbed and ready to give up family to reach their means. The drama also cautions us against superstition because one's fate is in one's own hands, and things like Feng Shui do not make us immune to the outcomes of our reckless actions. Greed and lying may take us to our goals, but when morals are compromised and one is no longer happy, what is the point of all the wealth? This part of the drama was perfectly captured by Fred Cheng's theme song that has the same name as the drama (Chinese), especially the first line "微微極細的謊 , 織出闊大的網", which translates into "an insignificant, small lie weaves into a wide net" - and it is essentially this net of lies created by characters like Wayne or Pat that traps themselves into a disaster in the end. Daddy Cool successfully touches on these morals in fresh way with a suspenseful plot and praiseworthy acting, making it our top drama of the year.
Outsourced (not TVB):
Infernal Affairs (無間道) - After the first two episodes, we had no motivation to continue at all. It had a horrible start and there was no suspense. We forgot what even happened.
Story of Yanxi Palace (延禧攻略) - We saw the original version in Mandarin and enjoyed this a lot. It is probably Cee's favourite drama of the year but we are not including it in the TVB Drama countdown. The aesthetics of the drama were top notch. The acting was great as well. But most importantly, at 70 episodes long, it's surprising that we were not bored and that's all thanks to a good story.
The Great Adventurer Wesley (冒險王衛斯理) - We did not watch this, nor did we hear a lot about it so no loss here.
Thank you very much for reading our thoughts on all the dramas this year. All in all, there were some remarkable dramas that were really memorable, but the rest and majority of dramas really landed on the below average range. From 8th place and below it, it was extremely difficult to order the dramas because they were all bad or forgettable and maybe one drama ended higher above another only because of a small factor. Let us know your favourite drama of the year!
Happy New Year, and we wish you all the best in 2019! We'll see you all next year!!
-CeeJay
We are back with the last post of 2018! The yearly TVB drama countdown of all dramas from worst to best we have seen this year. This has been one of the hardest years to do the countdown for because we didn't watch a lot of them and of the ones we saw, it was hard to say which one was better than the other. We actually got to see a lot more dramas this year than last year (2017 countdown here). However, most of them were forgettable.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Didn't Watch:
The Forgotten Valley (平安谷之詭谷傳說) - We didn't watch this one because we weren't super keen on this type of drama for the new year or something? Not sure. Maybe we were too busy but we heard that it was pretty good.
Wife Interrupted (救妻同學會) - This is currently airing and we're still trying to finish up dramas that are already completed, so we just couldn't pick this one up as well. It's dubbed as a younger idol drama... but really? Most the cast is already aging and when you think of idol dramas, it's usually fresh faced 18-22 year olds. Maybe we're being cynical about TVB but at least they're trying to push out new talent. Apparently the storyline is very confusing with the shifting timelines and the flashbacks.
Birth of a Hero (翻生武林) - Nothing about this drama really appealed to us. The cast was not too strong and this genre has been overdone. We know they're probably using the same old ancient TVB streets lol. Wow, we just realized that Ben Wong got to be the male lead in 3 dramas this year (Watch Out Boss, OMG, Your Honour, and this one)
Dropped:
Who Wants a Baby? (BB来了) - We just didn't have time to watch this drama but Jay did see a couple episodes of it. We heard great reviews on it, so it is unfortunate we weren't able to add it into our countdown.
The Official Drama Countdown:
15. Watch Out Boss (波士早晨) - Warehoused drama that was forgettable. We don't understand why TVB bothers with filming more mundane dramas like this one and just shelves it for years before it really becomes stale. It does not help with ratings and does not help them get stronger in terms of buzz or anything. If there is nothing good to film, then we would say, don't film it. This wasn't a bad drama, it was just very ordinary and had an old cast (nothing wrong with that, but not like Flora Chan will be back). We forgot mostly what happened except some office scenes and Flora Chan and Ben Wong reuniting after their divorce.
14. Deep in the Realm of Conscience (宮心計2·深宮計) - We have already done a full review of this drama. And to be very honest, it was disappointing considering all the hype and the budget it received. The acting was so exaggerated and the lines dragged out to long confusing phrases which were kind of hard to follow even though we've seen many ancient dramas before. There weren't many actors in the dramas or even extras considering it is a huge production and the schemes the ladies in the show tried to plot were just so silly. It may seem surprising why DITROC ended in the back of the list (we're kinda surprised by how low it ended up too), but to be honest, the worst 5 dramas in this countdown were very hard to put into order because they were all pretty weak and were all basically equally bad.
13. Apple-Colada (果欄中的江湖大嫂) - Another forgettable drama. We failed to see the purpose of the whole show as they were just selling fruits the whole time - not that it's not important - but a whole drama based on that...really? We wish TVB promoted Raymond Wong a bit more, since he's a great actor. It had some good comedic moments in it with Raymond Wong and his father. But looking back, we don't remember a lot that happened. We thought that Alice Chan would end up with Hou-Sui Geen (Saliva Geen) but it never happened, so their interactions felt weird to watch. Heck, we even forgot Mat Yeung was in this drama until we read the summary on Wiki. Also, on Wiki it says that Eliza Sam's name in the drama is supposed to be Barika... Yikes... They're really getting creative with these English names.
12. Stealing Seconds (棟仁的時光) - The two main leads were weak. Natalie Tong was again, the sad, crying, heartbroken girl. It was nothing new. The sets were quite fake and you could tell this was low budget, with the majority of the show seeming to take place in the Time Stealing Cafe. Don't know how Ben won for Best Actor in Singapore and Malaysia for this role. It was mediocre at best. We just couldn't see the chemistry between Natalie and Ben, even though we thought they were so much more compatible in Speed of Life a few years ago.We also knew what happened to the missing husband from the beginning with Rebecca Zhu's character stealing time. That said, the only reason it's a bit higher than the previous is because we thought the concept was cool with the protagonist needing to steal time from others to prolong his life. But they failed to use this concept to their advantage to create a touching series.
11. Flying Tiger (飛虎之潛行極戰) - This series was created by TVB and Shaw Brothers in collaboration. We usually enjoy action dramas, but we couldn't get into this one. From the first episode, it was so unreasonable to have one cop chasing the terrorists. As always, Ron Ng was the same hot-headed cop and Bosco was supposed to look cool, even joining the triad as an undercover. We did find the female characters pretty weak as well (like Venus Wong, Grace Chan, and Mandy Wong). Christine Ng was also odd as Bosco's mom lol. There was none of that brotherhood bond we saw in Tiger Cubs which was disappointing, and Oscar Leung's Kenny was OTT, always showing off his one YOLO tattoo on his finger.
10. Fist Fight (兄弟) - At first, the drama was weird with Phillip's OTT angry acting and Vincent's eccentric Fever having hidden intentions and always playing this weird mastermind. There seemed to be no connection between boxing and technology. Towards the middle, it got better when Phillip calmed down and he even became comedic. Probably the best part was when Mat Yeung's Leo and Phillip Ng's Iron found out they were brothers and went to The Philippines to train and encountered all the mess that was in their way. Probably because it was the most exciting part. Then it all went downhill from there. Fever started doing weird, unexplained things and it seemed like drama for the sake of drama. Randomly introducing a new 'secret' big boss in the deep web was so far fetched... to just have the big boss killed right away lol. We don't really get the point of Kaman Kong's Sitting (she was useless as a bodyguard) and Tiffany Lau's Zero (she had nothing to do either but be the love interest). And why was Rebecca Zhu's Madam in every case? Isnt she Interpol? Why was she hanging around all day with small local issues? How did she just randomly leave HK and get all that top secret info at her convenience? Heck, why does everyone not have jobs lol. Like Phillip and Mat just stopped being bodyguards and were full time investigators of their parent's mysterious deaths. We thought it was a fighting drama, but there was no fighting left in the end, only some. Hunter played by Shek Sau was also weird because we did not understand what he was trying to do, and they showed him off as a super martial arts fighter, but he never fought so what was the point? It's funny how the series is called brothers in Chinese, but they don't even look like brothers nor do they act like it. Fever's just doing his own thing the whole show, while Leo was rather cold and it seemed like Iron was the only one who cared about their brotherhood and even he died for no reason. There were too many unneeded deaths of Iron, Oli, Stone, Double, etc. It seems like the writer tried to incorporate too much with the sophisticated technology and VR and the story became lost and messy. Not much made sense about this drama, the best acting from the brothers that was nice to see was done by Mat and that's about it.
8. Another Era (再創世紀) - We actually managed to finish this drama from start to end which was surprising because it was not all that entertaining. Linda Chung's comeback was horrible. She had no purpose besides adding a travel show element to the drama by showing some Canadian forestry and nature scenes. Everytime she spoke English, we cringed. Not because the English is bad, just because it seemed so unnatural like she was trying so hard to be one of those dramatic actresses that she really just failed. We did not understand the motive behind why Roger was so evil and even killed his own parents? Nothing was explained. Ben Yuen's character was very weak, while Niki Chow put out an overall better performance, but still just mediocre. And the Pakho part of the story got boring as he was super annoying. There was so little to say but it dragged on for so long. Tavia was the highlight of the drama for us and she has definitely matured in her acting here and we prefer her performance for the Best Actress award but too bad, the drama had low views and she's also not with TVB anymore.
7. Succession War (天命) - This is the part of the countdown where the dramas start getting good. We did a full review on Succesion War as well here. This was much better than DITROC, and you could tell the production team was more serious about accurately representing the story rather than spending all the budget on fancy hairpieces! The only downside to this is casting Shaun Tam as the Emperor who was angry all the time. Cee actually found this drama to be entertaining, probably because the last half was binged in a few days so it was more exciting? Every episode had new twists and turns and it was an interesting way to tell this story from the perspective of Ruco Chan's character Heshen, and the whole drama is the counting down of the days following up to his death. It suffered really low ratings though. We appreciate the effort that TVB is putting into filming ancient dramas by filming in Hengdian but unfortunately it looks like TVB has no new ancient projects (probs because of the high budget, they even cut the TVB Calendar this year lol).
6. OMG, Your Honour (是咁的，法官閣下) - Cee didn't watch this drama, so these thoughts are from Jay:
A very interesting look on the profession of lawyers. Stripping away all the superficial glam and glory that are usually associated to lawyers, we get to dive right into the lives of young barristers and solicitors struggling to make a living. From getting fired by clients to getting yelled by judges on court, we really find ourselves rethinking about how many lawyers are really driving expensive cars, wearing brand name suits like shown in many tv shows. The drama is also a highly reflective on the various current issues of Hong Kong people like why so many HK people are so unhappy with their lives and what is missing in society that causes these problems. The only reason why it isn't higher up in the list is because of John (Ben Wong) and Ophelia's (Grace Wong) story which was dragged out and got so boring, and the whole thing about them going to court against each other was completely unnecessary. Ophelia's character was very hard to understand and unlikable because of the way they made her character. In reality, John is mainly at fault because he was not able to be honest with Ophelia and married her even thought he knew from the start that he did not truly love her, yet he was painted as the righteous one and Ophelia appeared to be the clingy wife who refused the divorce. As male lead, John seriously lacked character development and his reunion with Icy in the end felt rushed and not very touching. Even James (Eddie Kwan) had a layered character of why he was always the bully when he was young because of the impression that his mom (Angelina Lo) hit his dad (Carlo Ng) when he was young, and since then grew distant from his mom. James had his climatic moment when he decided to reconcile with his mother when it was revealed that she originally liked his 師父 (played by Joseph Lee) but had to marry Carlo Ng because she was raped by him and got pregnant with his baby. In the end, Joseph and Angelina's characters re-met and they became friends which added a nice touch. We wish more of the show was centered around the newbies because the end was rushed and their stories were still unfinished. If less time was spent following the John-Ophelia-James love triangle, the young characters' parts could have been magnified. For example, Archie (Jackson Lai) seemed to be a major character when he narrated the first scene, but it turns out he was a pretty flat character playing a minor role. Faye (Kirby Lam) and Brandon (King Lam) seemed to have great potential as well, but their characters were pretty much the same the whole drama. It would have been nice to get more screentime of Daniel's (Jonathan Wong) love story with the street musician and whether he chooses music over being a lawyer. Charles (Oscar Leung) and Helen (Louisa Mak) had the more complete stories which showed how they matured over time.
5. Come Home Love, Lo and Behold (愛·回家之開心速遞) - Jay has kept up to date with Lo and Behold for a long time now. This sitcom also came in 5th place in our countdown last year! Although there's been many different series under the name Come Home Love, we think the themes of "home" and "family" are truly encapsulated with this series with the small funny, touching moments with the Hung family in their many adventures or mishaps. The different settings of Wai Lung office or the university are a nice switch most of the stories that come with the different settings are very enjoyable with the exception of the Helen-KC-John line which got so repetitive. The actors and actress really make their characters their own, all of the major characters having distinct traits. Mandy Lam as Linda Lung and Vicky Chan as Jenny are hilarious to watch. All of the Hung family characters are also quite outstanding and comedic, especially Lau Dan as Hung Shu Gun (Tree Gun haha) or Kalok Chow as On Jai. Looking forward to continuing this sitcom.
4. Threesome (三個女人一個「因」) - Cee only saw a couple episodes, but Jay saw the full series. Though Threesome was aired early in the year, there was still much buzz about it during the awards, a good indicator that this drama was very memorable. We are very pleased with Mandy Wong's performance as protagonist; we always knew that she had a knack for acting since her role as the rowdy wife in L'escargot, but over the years, she got less memorable roles and she hasn't been able to shine. She finally got her chance in Threesome as a lawyer with two split personalities, one who is wild and carefree and the other who is introverted and has social anxiety. Mandy did wonderfully in switching between these three characters and making each personality unique. The male characters of the drama were also great and comedic in their own way which complemented Mandy's character nicely. This was Benjamin Yuen's best portrayal of the year, and we were very surprised with Arnold Kwok and didn't know he could be so funny as well. Jason Chan was a bit weaker and less memorable, but still nonetheless funny. The plot wasn't overly complicated, and the fact that there were shorter than average episodes which were aired only on weekends made the whole drama more suspenseful.
3. Life on the Line (跳躍生命線) - This was a good drama that centered around paramedics and all the cases that they encounter. It was a really a serious production because there were ambulances, the actors looked like they did some studying and training to accurately show the profession of paramedics. We loved those little blurbs at the end of the episodes that had beautiful, meaningful quotes that relate to the scenes in that particular episode, while pertaining to the themes of life and mortality. The facing of death in both strangers and those close to us is greatly explored in the drama, paired with cheerful moments of love and friendship, leaving a lasting bittersweet impression in the audience. We particularly enjoyed the training portion of the drama. It was fun and refreshing to see new people and Timothy Cheng as Ying Sir was. Matthew Ho, Bob Cheung, Arnold Kwok and Joey Law were the ones that shone in their roles instead of Joe Ma, who was rather mediocre. It was hard to see who was the female lead in the drama, as none of them got very much screentime and didn't have much to do either (it seemed like a 3 way split between Kelly Cheung, Moon Lau and Jeannie Chan), but Jeannie Chan showed vast improvement from her previous dramas. Towards the end, it got a bit dragged out and they definitely could've done with 5 less episodes. The whole story with Savio Tsang taking revenge got blown out of proportion and it was just to cause drama.
2. The Learning Curve of a Warlord (大帥哥) - At first, we were reluctant to watch the drama because of a seemingly weak supporting cast with Sisley Choi and Tony Hung and it seemed a bit silly, but after a few episodes, we were sucked right into it thanks to Dicky Cheung. Not going to lie, the story and plot are nothing spectacular, but the way Dicky makes the whole story and script come alive is what earns this drama second place in our countdown. We were mesmerized by the comedic style from Dicky. It's fast and funny, but always makes you do a double take because of how fast he recites the punchlines. In every episode, there was always something to laugh about, and there's always least one of those golden phrases that were quickly spewed out. He was superb and completely owned the show. Not to mention his subtheme song is fantastic! For these reasons, we weren't too bothered by Sisley's acting, and it does seem that she has improved even though her character was kind of boring. Tony Hung was fine as well and his acting did not take away from the drama. Raymond Cho was the perfect supporting character as well, serving as a nice contrast from Dicky's exuberant character. The two of them had wonderful chemistry, especially when they had those lengthy bickers. We were pleasantly surprised by Zoie Tam and Vivien Yeo who were also great in their supporting roles as Dicky's wives and overshadowed Sisley's bland character. Their characters were complex: Zoie was a Japanese spy underneath her gentle, innocent facade, and Vivien was a vain, empty-headed wife who longed for love and care. We hope to see more of these two playing even more challenging roles in the future. It is interesting to see that they turned a drama about the warlord era into a comedy or satire because it is not normally seen as a funny topic, so the production team did a good job with this aspect. It's truly a shame there was no recognition of this series at the awards.
1. Daddy Cool (逆緣) - And....finally...first place goes to Daddy Cool!!! Jay saw the whole drama, while Cee only caught a couple episodes here and there of the drama. Like last year's Destination Nowhere that was also produced by Amy Wong, Daddy Cool is nothing short of spectacular. It's packed with a lot of irony and dark and light humor and a bit of mystery. A very cleverly crafted drama, Daddy Cool is pieced together based on the irony of fate. For example, when Wayne Lai's character Ho Wing Nin and his father Ho Woh Ping's (David Chaing) fates seem to be locked, their lives change completely when they encounter Woh Ping's father, Chung Ting Kwok (Carlos Chan) who was frozen in the Second Sino-Japanese War and wakes up after 70 years, younger than his son and grandson. Or when Wayne finally becomes everything he ever wished for, both rich and successful, but realizes he would go back to his poor days and be happy with his wife (Elvina Kong) and their son. There's also irony when Carlos swore to be enemies with the Japanese because of that war, but ends up falling in love in the modern times with Aki (Rosina Lam) who is half Japanese. Absolutely brilliant chemistry between Wayne, David and Carlos - each with their own convincing characters with Wayne being selfish but still good-hearted, David being fradulent and cheap, and Carlos being honourable and upright. We were wowed by Carlos Chan's acting since we have never seen him before. He and his character became one, and we were fully convinced that he was from the 1940's with the way he spoke and expressed himself. We can't think of anyone who could have done it better! Our only complaint is Pat Ha's character as Aki's mom who was unlikable and her parts were a bit irritating, though she was a major part of the story. We enjoyed the morals that the drama taught. It pokes fun at how society has changed from when people were patriotic and still family-oriented, whereas in the modern day, people are self-absorbed and ready to give up family to reach their means. The drama also cautions us against superstition because one's fate is in one's own hands, and things like Feng Shui do not make us immune to the outcomes of our reckless actions. Greed and lying may take us to our goals, but when morals are compromised and one is no longer happy, what is the point of all the wealth? This part of the drama was perfectly captured by Fred Cheng's theme song that has the same name as the drama (Chinese), especially the first line "微微極細的謊 , 織出闊大的網", which translates into "an insignificant, small lie weaves into a wide net" - and it is essentially this net of lies created by characters like Wayne or Pat that traps themselves into a disaster in the end. Daddy Cool successfully touches on these morals in fresh way with a suspenseful plot and praiseworthy acting, making it our top drama of the year.
Outsourced (not TVB):
Infernal Affairs (無間道) - After the first two episodes, we had no motivation to continue at all. It had a horrible start and there was no suspense. We forgot what even happened.
Story of Yanxi Palace (延禧攻略) - We saw the original version in Mandarin and enjoyed this a lot. It is probably Cee's favourite drama of the year but we are not including it in the TVB Drama countdown. The aesthetics of the drama were top notch. The acting was great as well. But most importantly, at 70 episodes long, it's surprising that we were not bored and that's all thanks to a good story.
The Great Adventurer Wesley (冒險王衛斯理) - We did not watch this, nor did we hear a lot about it so no loss here.
Thank you very much for reading our thoughts on all the dramas this year. All in all, there were some remarkable dramas that were really memorable, but the rest and majority of dramas really landed on the below average range. From 8th place and below it, it was extremely difficult to order the dramas because they were all bad or forgettable and maybe one drama ended higher above another only because of a small factor. Let us know your favourite drama of the year!
Happy New Year, and we wish you all the best in 2019! We'll see you all next year!!
-CeeJay
I liked Story of the Yanxi Palace and I was surprised that I kept binging it. No comments on the dubbing, it was mostly fine, even though I watched some episodes in Mandarin. There were a few instances where I was like "What? What just happened?" because it would just cut to the ending sometimes but otherwise it was great.
ReplyDeleteLife on the Line was the only TVB Drama that I watched. I quite enjoyed it and watched it with my family every weekday. I don't remember much, it was a long time ago but I remember being exasperated when watching the last episode when they hand waved the unexplained, "miraculous" recovery lol. TVB's always like that...
Hi Tacocat,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your thoughts with us.
As you read in our post, we really enjoyed the Story of Yanxi Palace too. We wonder if they did some extra editing in the canto dubbed version which made it choppy at times.
Wow, it seems like none of the 2018 dramas really appealed to you other than Life on the Line! Unfortunately, we don't remember the ending much, probably because it followed the typical happy ending we usually see in these dramas.
-CeeJay