TVB 2019 Top Drama Countdown

Hello everyone!! We hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!

It’s been so long since we have last posted! We just haven’t been watching as many TVB dramas lately and they aren’t inspiring us to write reviews or thoughts on them either. 

Having said that, we are going to rate this year’s TVB dramas from worst to best for the ones we have seen this year. There’s been more dramas we enjoyed this year than these past few years, but less dramas watched overall, since there’s been an increase in the number of mainland historical dramas taking up the main timeslots. To be honest, we had a very difficult time ranking some of the dramas near the top, since all of them were unique and had their own strengths, so we understand that there could be differing opinions about the rankings. We have seen a couple mainland dramas this year and also Shaw Brother’s production of Flying Tiger 2 that will be included at the end under other dramas.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Official Countdown:

11. My Commissioned Lover (婚姻合伙人) - This drama was filmed for a while before it was released. The drama was a poor filler. Mat Yeung and Samantha Ko seemed promising as leads for the first time, but as the story dragged on, we felt very little motivation to continue. The start of the drama seemed inviting and comedic, but it changed quickly after Mat’s character went to jail and Mat and Samantha’s characters were spiteful of each other and just kept trying to do things to tick each other off. Kenny Wong also had a very boring character. It was weird because there was a lot going on with Kirby Lam and Luk Wing’s story but they never even ended up together. Nothing happened to solve the issues between Koo Ming Wah and his kids even after he promised to be a good father. It seemed like the drama promised a lot, but the story faltered and failed to deliver proper endings.

10. My Life as a Loan Shark (街坊財爺) - As Mandy Wong’s only drama, it wasn’t able to show her true acting range. She had a very forgettable character as were most of the other characters. Same with Lai Lok Yi. Not much happened in this drama, there were some laughs here and there and that’s it. Kingdom Yuen was the highlight with her gold teeth and some bickering with Kent Cheng, but even that got boring after some time. The plot was way too predictable and was too draggy near the end. The 25 episodes had us begging for the series to end.

9. I Bet Your Pardon (荷里活有個大老千) - We enjoyed this drama for the most part. It was refreshing to see some new faces on TV and new filming locations. The younger girls did well like Dada Wong who played 砵仔糕. Kwan Gor has been paired up with Babyjohn Choi and Kent Cheng and we really enjoyed their relationship in this drama. It gave us some perspective into the HK film/TV industry in the old days. 

8. Girlie Days (她她她的少女時代) - This was a surprise for us because we were expecting it to be stale because of the older cast and storyline. Raymond Cho and Johnson Lee were funny fighting for Kristal. Iris Lam did great as Kristal’s daughter and you can tell she truly has a passion for acting when she started crying during the nomination ceremony. We are excited to see her in different roles! We liked how the plot seemed simple, but resolution to the problems weren’t simple. Yes, in theory it could have been easy for Kristals’ character to forgive Joseph Lee (her father) for how he poorly treated the family in the past, to run back to Raymond Cho when he asked for a second chance, or on the other hand to choose Johnson Lee over Raymond. However, in reality, relationships aren’t that simple and over the course several trials and failures, there could still be no clear answers. The drama was very bittersweet, with important themes touching on losing passion in a career (like Johnson's singing career), facing mistakes of the past, finding the courage to start a new life with new goals, learning to let go of children who have grown up, etc. Honestly, if it weren’t for some pretty good dramas this year, Girlie Days would have been ranked higher on this list!

7. Come Home Love: Lo and Behold (愛·回家之開心速遞) - Oh good old Come Home Love! It’s still running and we are still watching it although Cee misses a few episodes here and there, but Jay has been consistent in watching most episodes. We love seeing how relationships between characters in the drama slowly develop and the connection of all the stories despite having several different story lines. All the characters are so distinct in their personalities and it’s just funny and heartwarming. Kalok Chow has been one of the highlights of the drama as On Jai, and we are finding that he is naturally comedic. We hope he’ll be able to snag an award this year since he was nominated for four different ones. As you may have read previously, Lo and Behold was ranked quite high in both 2017 and 2018 for our drama countdown. It was a little demoted this year, not because it is any worse, but simply because there are a few more remarkable dramas this year. 

6. The Man Who Kills Troubles (解決師) - Overall, this was a decent drama. We did not think much of this genre since it felt pretty overdone. It reminded us of Fist Fight last year, but at least this story was more focussed. The story arc with the mysterious yet powerful Vincent Wong saving the damsel in distress seems very familiar, nothing new. Not to mention, the man didn't actually end up killing many troubles in the end as he was the one who caused them.Vincent has been casted in similar roles lately of always, and we actually like him in the more comedic roles or playing a commoner. Natalie Tong’s acting was nothing too special again, but at least she didn’t drag the show down. Eric Li played another “evil” role again, but his character had a lot more depth this time and you even felt pity for him at times. It’s sad he left TVB, and hopefully he’ll find some more jobs soon. We enjoyed the first half of the drama more as it was more lighthearted with the school setting that reminded us about the series, Yes, Sir. Sorry, Sir! a few years back which was quite funny. The students helped lighten up the serious parts. The kids like Karl Ting were fresh faces that we enjoyed seeing on the show. However, the drama quickly turned dark in the second half. Even our favourite parts with the students were forgotten about after Miss Chan and O Sir left the school. They had the lousiest ending for the rugby storyline, saying that they just lost motivation and eventually lost the tournament. We did not like Jonathan Cheung and Crystal Fung’s storyline. Honestly, Crystal’s charcter, Ace, made us want to punch the TV screen because she was so dumb. We had some hope for her character when she was going to give Jonathan’s phone to Natalie but she got scared and didn’t even do it!! Argh! Jonathan’s character, Man Sir, turned too evil too fast which didn’t make much sense, and he just kinda changed to shift the plot a bit. Can someone please explain to us why Sharon Chan was nominated for Best Actress in this drama? She was just supporting. Then there was Kiu Yik Fung, the Australian triad leader with his tacky monochromatic suits. We were surprised by how easily he was defeated in the last episode, despite appearing as the villainous “big boss” for most of the drama. Some of the fighting scenes were still quite intense, even though they were a bit overdramatic. We were also glad that there weren’t too many random deaths in the show which is typical of TVB dramas. Though many characters suffered injuries, very few of them actually died in the end which made more sense.

5. Our Unwinding Ethos (十二傳說) - OUE reminded us of older detective dramas which solved a case every few episodes or so, which made the drama more focused heavily on the plot and the mysterious cases. Rosina Lam and Edwin Siu were the main leads of the drama. Rosina’s character seemed to outshine Edwin’s much more, so it was nice to see a female take on the lead for solving cases, since in these types of dramas the males were usually the ones who are portrayed to do so. We liked Jonathan Cheung’s role here much better than in TMWKT, whereas there was nothing too special about Moon Lau’s character who was absent for a lot of the episodes. It was a great drama in learning about Hong Kong culture and its myths, maintaining suspense and excitement for all its episodes. We liked how each case incorporated a paranormal element, all of which were fabricated by humans to manipulate the myths and conceal their wrongdoings. The only flaw is that we found the cases were too rushed sometimes, and before we were able to guess how the story unfolded, Rosina already told us everything. Some cases were too quickly solved because there were around 2 episodes per case, giving a total of 24 episodes. This is one of the rare dramas where we wished there were actually more episodes—maybe 25 would have been perfect as the ending was a little rushed.

4. Wonder Women (多功能老婆) - Another surprise for us in this genre about the everyday See Lai. This was basically a high budget production of Girlie Days that is set in the upper class of society. Though less relatable in terms of social class, the drama makes up for this with great chemistry between characters. Pakho Chau proved himself to be a natural actor on screen and did well leading the series as the ever-likable “Oppa”. Although we didn’t care much for his ending theme song “讓愛高飛” in the beginning, we grew to like it much more as it was played in the right moments to enhance some romantic scenes, but it was not overdone to the point it got annoying. Initially, we were unsure that Miriam Yeung and Pakho would be able to make a convincing couple, but we were proved wrong with their cute scenes that reminded us of kdramas. It was fun watching them live together in that apartment with the kid, 佳佳, who was cute and not annoying like the usual TVB kid actors. It's been a very long time since TVB had some good romantic storylines, so this was very refreshing. Raymond Wong’s character was just horrible as a cheating husband who only cares about his own career, so he’s done well to make us hate him because we wanted to punch him in the face. Especially the scene when he visited Miriam just to divorce her, leaving on a van with the mainland woman played by Maggie Yu! We felt so bad for Miriam’s character running down the street chasing after him. The whole supporting cast was great.This is Rebecca Zhu’s best role to date and she was really funny and natural. We hope she’ll continue to improve, especially her Cantonese pronunciation which has come a long way since her first drama. Tony Hung was fine in his role, nothing much to say about it. It was interesting to see Alice Chan and Jonathan Wong’s “modern Cinderella” story. Jonathan Wong is charming in this, hard to see why Alice wouldn’t fall for him. He should start acting more! The older actors added much humor throughout the series. The cinematography and location of shots with parts in Tokyo and Beijing was well thought out, leaving many memorable scenes in our heads. All in all, a great production with a funny, sweet, and  sometimes heart wrenching story. 

3. Big White Duel (白色強人) - We were quite excited about this drama since it’s been a while since there’s been a medical drama. The Hippocratic Crush was one of our favourite dramas in the past decade and it taught us a lot about the medical industry in HK. When we first saw the drama, the hospital really blew us away; it was not the usual hospital with a yellow shade wall and pink accents in every TVB drama lol. The Marshall Paxton Hospital building looked very nice and professional. The surgeries were realistic and supplied us with good information about the technical aspects of the different surgeries. We were surprised about Roger’s character, YT, because he wasn’t strictly evil and he truly cared about his patients. It was just because he was too invested in the medical care reform that caused him to be more manipulative in getting the reform going. In fact, John Chiang’s character seemed to be the evil one for a while because he was blocking the reform from happening with his own manipulative efforts. Kenneth was more one dimensional, being the stubborn doctor always putting patients first. We don’t think he should win Best Actor for this role, but won’t be surprised if he does. Ali and Natalie were fine but a little boring, and we actually don’t remember their characters too much unfortunately. Matthew Ho did well, and we are excited to see him in more roles! Overall, all the performances were good, but it was the filming location and seriousness of production that added value to the drama. The characterization was a bit of a letdown because most characters were flat without development. In terms of the story, the reform dragged on for way too long. We would’ve liked to see the reform happen and the effect it had on the hospital operations. There was too much bickering about it, so it was lost in the background compared to the more urgent medical cases. We liked how there was not much focus on the doctors’ lives outside the hospital. Sometimes the “coming home to mom and dad” scenes took away from the storyline, so we’re glad to see this shift in TVB dramas lately which doesn’t feature the stories of the characters’ families as was common in older dramas. We were slightly confused with how small the individual departments were… like for neuro it was only YT doing the surgeries? Then it was Stephen Wong and Kelly Cheung who still lacked experience. The hospital is sure running lean. Overall Big White Duel was a good drama with a spectacular filming location and solid cast.

2. The Defected (鐵探) - As you might have read from our review, we immensely enjoyed this series. In summary, the drama was suspenseful and filled with good acting. The characters all had a different and important part to play, and each of their stories were carefully developed. The plot was complex and interesting in that it focused on some aspects of the police force not commonly seen. Even though this series aired early on, it is still very memorable because the buildup in plot and action was excellent. Our pick for the Best Actor award would go to Philip Keung who played Bingo this year; we thought he was the only one who really shone in terms of acting in a main role in 2019. We would also be happy if Kara Hui won Best Actress among a few other actresses. We're gonna stop here since we wrote about the drama in depth in our review. You can check out our full review with our detailed thoughts for this drama here.

1. Barrack O’Karma (金宵大廈) - Our favourite drama of the year goes to Barrack O’Karma! This drama is definitely not an every day TVB production. It’s eerie, bizarre, suspenseful, and romantic with a touch of horror. We loved everyone’s performances in this drama. At first we were expecting the mysteries to be solved like in Our Unwinding Ethos, but we soon realized that the mythical stuff was never explained and became facts of life. It was chilling at times when a happy ending did not happen which was what we always expected from these small stories. We were both left feeling quite sad and disturbed by Candace Chiu and Samantha Ko’s stories, especially because they dealt with innocent children. Joel Chan did great as the happy-go-lucky security man, Ah Siu. He was comedic and completely natural and not to mention, this was Joel’s first leading role. Ah Siu was contrasted with the greedy policeman, Yuk-Fai, who is him in his previous lifetime. Yuk-Fai’s story was quite tragic, although it was his greed that led to the downfall of his character. We prefer Ah Siu who was good natured and had to live with the consequences of his past self. The chemistry with Selena Lee was evident in both roles, despite them being completely different. Coco and Yuk Fai were your Bonnie and Clyde dangerous couple. You would anticipate a bad ending for them. However, Alex and Ah Siu’s story was more devastating since they both felt lost all their lives before finding each other finally. Selena Lee was completely different as Coco and Alex, partly shaped by their occupations and time periods. She was able to show her true acting range and bitterly evoke tears out of her eyes at just the right moments. It’s really a shame we only got to see her in one drama per year and now she left TVB. We always liked her and found her beautiful with her youthful looks and a lot more accumulated acting experience. Lau Kong was creepy as the bookshop owner, 林老師, and we knew he had something to do with Coco from the beginning. However, we just weren’t expecting him to be a monster! The rest of the cast did amazing and gave it their all to bring the stories to life. The reason why we loved this drama was because it had a small confined feel to it, yet it had the power to move us to tears. It took small thoughts or ideas that might cross our minds but manifested them in a way that made us reflect on our everyday choices. The paranormal experiences of these stories led to ramifications that were at times extreme and unsettling. The series had a Black Mirror-esque quality to it, although every episode of the TV show, Black Mirror, focuses on technology, while the stories in Barrack look at everyday problems everyone is facing: death of loved ones, poverty, vanity, greed, failed relationships, technology in exchange for privacy, etc. These all relate to us in one way or another and teaches us lessons about how we shouldn’t let negative thoughts control us. We loved how the whole series was itself a book, where each two episodes were a chapter of the book called "夢遊" that 林老師 (played Lau Kong and Bob Cheung) wrote based on Coco’s dreams of the future, this very book foretelling the future of Alex and Ah Siu’s fate. It was very interesting and almost mind-boggling how the audience was essentially reading this book whose stories were the inspiration of its own creation. This meta sense of self-referencing was a neat premise for the series. The ending suggested that they would meet again for a third time under different identities again. It’s an open ending of course, so TVB may decide to make a sequel following positive reviews. It is also very interesting to note how there’s been a rise in popularity for more horror and paranormal dramas in TVB such as Our Unwinding Ethos and The Exorcist's Meter lately. On another note, we thought the theme and ending song “今宵多珍重”was absolutely perfect for this drama! Both Kayee Tam and Vivian Koo sang a good rendition of this classic song, though they made it slow with a nice piano background (we didn’t hear much of their happy version of this song in the drama). We especially enjoyed Vivian’s mandarin version which was played out of  record player in some scenes of the drama which gave it that old style feeling. All in all, we were absolutely wowed by this drama of the year that was thrilling and hauntingly beautiful.

Didn't Watch:

Guardian Angel (守護神之保險調查) - This one did not appeal to us and it seems the same as Flying Tiger with the same cast too. The sub theme song was pretty good.

The Legend of Haolan (皓鑭傳) - Cee saw the first few episodes of this but didn’t have the time and patience to continue on. We heard it was not as good as The Story of Yanxi Palace despite having a lot of the same cast and crew.

Legend of the Phoenix (鳳弈) - What is this? 

The Offliners (堅離地愛堅離地) - Did not appeal to us and the trailer seemed silly. 

Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber (倚天屠龍記) - There have been way too many adaptations of this based on one of the famous novels by Jin Yong, and since there were so many episodes, we didn't have the time to watch it.

Ratman To The Rescue (過街英雄) - Might watch it time permits, but we have very little interest in it.

Dropped:

The Ghetto-Fabulous Lady (福爾摩師奶) - The first episode of this did not get us hooked at all. We were confused by it and found it a little stale unfortunately. This also aired when we were quite busy so we ultimately dropped it.

As Time Goes By (好日子) - Cee caught a couple snippets of this drama, and Jay watched a few episodes but overall thought it was stale. The cast was not appealing (this has been said too much) and the premise of the story did not resonate strongly with us. Cee never even got to see Alice Chan onscreen to rate her performance in this. 

Justice Bao: The First Year (包青天再起風雲) - We were not too interested in watching this drama because it looked boring and overdone. It’s the only ancient drama that was aired this year produced by TVB since the production quality of Mainland dramas are far superior. The cast did not interest us either unfortunately. The first two episodes were extremely cheesy, and we remember seeing Carlo Ng play a bad guy who was masked, but we could immediately tell it was him though they tried to make his identity super mysterious or something. That was a good laugh.

Finding Her Voice (牛下女高音) - Again, this one did not appeal to us since we aren’t too interested in the main cast. Some people liked it because it touched on singing with veterans. Jay tried the first episode, but just couldn’t find enough time and motivation to continue with it. 

Other Dramas (not TVB):

Le Coup de Foudre (我只喜歡你) - This drama was fun and heart wrenching, even if it wasn’t nostalgic for us since we did not go to school in Asia. It was based on the book which is loosely based on the author’s life (or so we read). It starts with the present day at a high school reunion and moves back in time to high school and first crushes. Yan Mo was cold and frustrating at times, but his love for Qiao Yi was unwavering. We know this is pretty rare in real life. Qiao Yi was cute and unapologetically true to herself. Sometimes we didn’t understand why she didn’t confess to Yan Mo and share her hardships with him. But in retrospect, it was probably because she already felt lesser than him and didn’t want to add to the long list of things that she couldn’t bring to their relationship. We were so glad to have stuck through the drama to see their love blossom in the end. The sibling relationship was a highlight for us between Qiao Yi and Guan Chao despite not being biological siblings. Qiao Yi’s best friend Hao Wu Yi was silly and provided great comic relief. Overall, their stories brought us joy and sadness. We became invested in the characters quickly and highly recommend this for a sappy, nostalgic drama that gives you hope about your future. The soundtrack for this is also awesome!

Youth (最親愛的你) - Cee watched this from a friend’s recommendation and it was a good show to pass the time. This is about 5 girls who are roommates and explores each of their secrets. Sometimes it was silly and overdramatic, and the lead actress was still raw in some scenes. Looking back, Le Coup de Foudre was a better drama.

Put Your Head On My Shoulder (致我們暖暖的小時光)  - Jay watched this show which was also recommended for those who enjoyed Le Coup de Foudre. The drama is based on a novel by Zhao Qianqian who also wrote "致我们单纯的小美好", which became a popular series of similar genre, A Love So Beautiful. To be honest, not much happens in this drama, which might actually be the reason it was so enjoyable. There were no stupid plot twists, bad guys forbidding the leads to get together, and it was just a feel-good and bubbly drama of two characters in university and onwards. The two leads, played by Xing Fei and Lin Yi were very cute and shared many memorable scenes, though the supporting cast was kind of mediocre. The drama was simply what its Chinese name suggests: “Our warm little time together”, and just that was enough to keep its viewers hooked on the series. 

Flying Tiger 2 (飛虎之雷霆極戰) - We both saw this although Cee did not watch the first season. But since it was a completely different story, it did not make a difference. For Jay who watched the first season, the second season was surprisingly a LOT better than the previous. The drama started out pretty promising with tons of action and no time wasted on stupid love polygons. The cast was also refreshing, especially the female leads Jennifer Yu and Jacky Cai. In comparison, Kelly Cheung, Yoyo Mung and Christine Kuo were sub-par in their roles. Usually we like Kelly Cheung (Big White Duel, Barrack O’Karma) and found her quite wooden and awkward in this role. We liked the brotherly scenes between Ron Ng, Bosco Wong, and Kenneth Ma, and it was also nice to have American actor, Lee Pace, featured in the drama, giving a little more Hollywood feel to the series. Oscar Leung was great at the beginning and we think his plotline helped keep the story engaging at the beginning. Since Dominic Lam’s character died near the middle of the series, the plot fell flat. As the plot dragged on, we stopped taking the show seriously and found the so called ‘A Team’ never saved anyone. Michael Miu played the same good guy who tried to solve everyone’s problems. They never explained a lot of things to do with the foreigners and the Farrians. Also, why did they use the same song with Raymond Lam and MC Jin? Surely they can afford to hire another singer for a new song? Overall, this was a mediocre drama boasting big guns but delivered small punches in the end.

Thank you very much for reading our thoughts on all the dramas this year. Hopefully we are able to see some more quality dramas with new talent in the coming years. Let us know your favourite drama of the year in the comments below. 

With 2019 coming to an end fast, we hope everyone ends off the year and this decade with friends, family, and loved ones!

-CeeJay

Images retrieved from:

http://dramaslot.com/

https://mydramalist.com/

https://mybestsynopsis.blogspot.com/

https://odetodramas.com/

https://vincentloy.wordpress.com/

https://info.vanpeople.com/batch.download.php?aid=3888634

https://www.tvtime.com/