TVB 2020 Top Drama Countdown
Hello everyone! We hope you had a good holiday season!
Happy New Year Everyone! We hope you have all been doing well. This is our annual Top Drama Countdown for TVB dramas and we will share our thoughts on the dramas that aired this year. We have traditionally put up the Countdown before the end of the year, but we needed some more time to catch up on some of the dramas we missed this year as well as organize our thoughts. It has been a while since we have posted on the blog since we haven't seen many dramas this year actually. This has been an especially difficult year for ranking the dramas because most shows were either subpar or very mediocre. We tried our best to rank the dramas looking at several aspects such as production, story, acting and cast. We will rate the ones that we've watched fully and also list our dropped dramas and shows we've seen outside of TVB.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Dropped/Did Not Watch:
We didn't bother with these dramas because they seemed to be very low quality and uninteresting, so if they were to be included in our official countdown, they would probably land on the bottom of the list.
On-Lie Game (迷網) - We tried 1 episode of this but we could not find one reason to watch on. The cast seemed boring, and the feud between the two families with 孖8姐 seemed silly.
Ratman to the Rescue (過街英雄) - Just no thank you.
Handmaidens United (丫鬟大聯盟) - We didn’t even want to try one episode to be honest. TVB ancient dramas nowadays are just terrible.
The Dripping Sauce (大醬園) - We watched 1 episode, but we found that it was leading to a very typical plot of a family owned business with the soy sauce brewery, and everyone wants to divide the fortune or take over the business. We felt like we’ve seen this plot so many times, just with a different setting. Sometimes it’s a silk factory or a wine brewery. It’s just getting old.
Go! Go! Go! Operation C9 (C9特工) - We managed to fit in around 5 episodes before we quit. It seemed to be an ok drama, but it looked very low budget. It was nice to see Samantha in so many roles this year, and she has been doing fine in carrying the show as a female lead. The family scenes were a bit annoying with Kenneth Ma playing the vegetable vendor. Unfortunately, it didn’t captivate us enough after 5 episodes to keep watching.
Song of Glory (庆余年) - As we probably have mentioned before, we don’t like to watch Cantonese dubbed Chinese dramas, and we would just watch the original show itself and not off of TVB.
Joy of Life (锦绣南歌) - Same thing as above.
Before we get started on the official countdown, we wanted to mention that although Flying Tiger II (飛虎之雷霆極戰) was aired this year in TVB, we already watched it and included it in last year's Countdown post. Hence, we will not be including it this year.
Come Home Love: Lo and Behold (愛·回家之開心速遞) - We also decided not to include the sitcom into our countdown because we don’t really know where to place it and how it would compare to the other shows because it has been running for such a long time now. It looks like Lo and Behold has no signs of stopping, upping its episode count to 2000. While we did enjoy this sitcom for a long time, it seems as though they are running out of new ideas lately. It’s an easy sitcom to watch and sit through since it requires absolutely no brain power but the show topics are getting very stale and sometimes just plain silly. We have probably seen the Hung family mistaken Gun (Lau Dan) having a romantic affair with Mrs. Chan 50 times by now in different situations. We would appreciate it if there were some new developments for the characters and opening new romantic storylines for them, since it has been quite stagnant lately. TVB is probably too lazy to start a new sitcom, but we would like to see the new batch of actors such as Kalok Chow, Ricco Ng, Andrea So, Iris Lam etc. get a chance to play other roles instead of being stuck in the same sitcom for 4 years.
Official Countdown:
12. Forensic Heroes 4 (法證先鋒IV) - Forensic Heroes has been a household name in Hong Kong and in those families that watch TVB. Perhaps this is why TVB chose to renew the series with an all new cast to attract returning audiences. This is on the bottom of our list, but it is probably not the worst drama of the year, since we didn’t watch many of them. However, this show did fall flat in many areas from the plot to the acting. It seems silly how they want to make a 5th installment, and they even have the audacity to say that Forensic Heroes 4 was so well received by the audience. They tried to make the series all “high-tech” by showing off the new technology, but the plot made no sense at all and the cases were so boring. Why was Raymond Wong, the forensic senior chemist in the interrogation room interrogating the suspects? Why were some of the lab technicians at the crime scene? The cases were solved literally with the forensic team sitting in a meeting room and googling the clues to see what would come up. If they’re that good at solving cases, why do we even have inspectors? We forgot who was in this… Who names the show leads King and Queen and then have them eventually be together? Since when did Fred Cheng’s character even talk to Rebecca Zhu’s to create a relationship? The characters felt really flat, and the character, Monique, was really annoying. Instead of coming up with interesting cases, the drama focused on several romantic storylines that were uninteresting. It’s so funny to see so many award nominations given to this cast, when we can’t even remember the part they played. We barely remember Sharon Chan in her small role, but here she is getting a couple nominations for her role.
11. Line Walker: Bull Fight (使徒行者3) - We watched a bit of the show in late November/early December, but we were too busy to continue on at that point. Jay decided to finish this show in late December. This third installment of the popular Line Walker series boasted a star-studded cast with Raymond Lam, Michael Miu, Benz Hui, Kenneth Ma, Mandy Wong, Benjamin Yuen, Priscilla Wong, Owen Cheung, Sisley Choi, and many special appearances. While we looked forward to seeing all these actresses and actors, unfortunately the plot could not deliver. Because there were just too many characters, they all had to share the screen-time which meant less character development for all of them. As well, they linked characters from the first and second series which added to the complexity of the story. Let’s start with how unrealistic the story is. How many identities can these characters have? 卓凱 (Michael Miu) seems to be invincible. He was first a CIB Superintendent and went to prison. Then he gets released and becomes a coffee shop boss. Next, after his wife’s (Elena Kong) sudden death after forgetting to take her medication, he decides to become the Sung Leun triad strategist and help 浩洋 (Owen Cheung) take the leadership. After a while, he leads a special task force to investigate the police, and at the end of the show he returns to the CIB as a consultant. Is he a superhuman or something? The same switching of identities goes for Benz Hui and Kenneth Ma’s characters. It was nice to see Raymond Lam back in a TVB production. He was actually part of more light-hearted scenes this series at his Ho Yee Tao Foot Massage place.
It felt like I was watching several different and unrelated dramas at once. Sometimes it was about Ho Yee Tao and 爆Seed’s life; other times it was about investigating about 徐天堂 (Benjamin Yuen)’s past with a ton of flashbacks—which to be honest felt unnecessary to the story). The whole show was weird in that some parts didn’t feel like Line Walker at all. Madam G (Mandy Wong) was probably the most boring female character of the show. Her characterization also felt inconsistent as someone with Savant Syndrome and Asperger Syndrome. It felt very awkward to watch the scene where she started teaching 阿兜 (Sisley Choi) how to dance. Another problem I had with this show was how little action everything amounted to. They talked and talked about investigating the crime organization, Eternity, and explaining about the clues they found. When they actually found out that 韋作榮 was actually 魏德禮, they didn’t even seem surprised, and the supposed climax of their final face-off was a huge disappointment. Characters like Wendy of The Core (Akina Hong) seemed to be added just for convenience for 韋作榮 to manipulate big data, but felt forced and unnecessary. The addition of 爆Seed’s son didn’t really make sense either because he was basically forgotten near the end of the show. Remind me why was there one random episode with Bob Lam (some undercover pretending to be an izakaya owner) again? It really seems like TVB used up half of their actors for this one show.
The next big problem with the show is why do some characters never die?! 歡喜哥 should have been dead from the first season already, but we’ll accept the fact that the audience likes his character and they decided to bring him back. But why didn’t he die after getting that poisonous needle, but 啊梅 (Priscilla Wong) had such a tragic death in the same way? 爆Seed was shot so many times by 魏德禮, yet you see him looking fine by the end. 卓凱 was barely even scratched in the whole show, even when he was being chased by 20 guys or something. Meanwhile, the female characters were killed off so easily like Elena Kong who even got a transplant, but died because she forgot to take her medication once. Same with 藍楠 (Serene Lim) who died after getting shot once, and nobody except for 爆Seed seemed to know or care.
We gave a lot of complaints, but the show has its merits. The acting was consistent and nobody felt unwatchable. The tension and chemistry that Kent Cheng added to the show when he showed up really helped add suspense to the show. I really enjoyed Sisley and Owen’s storyline which was surprisingly a highlight of the whole show. With the easter eggs set in place by Michael Tse and Phillip Keung, we hope that the next season will not disappoint (and yes, we will probably watch it lol).
10. The Exorcist's 2nd Meter (降魔的2.0) - With the success of the first installment of the TEM series, we were looking forward to watching this sequel. While this didn’t turn out to be a horrible show, it just didn’t wow us. We felt that it paled in comparison to the first one. What was with C-Kwan’s underwear obsession? We felt that this 2nd installment of TEM paled in comparison to the first one. There was too much time spent on Moon Lau’s Beh Beh when she had already died. This back and forth took away from the storyline. We found it random/lazy of TVB to reintroduce Ram Chiang as IT Man from Ghost of Relativity, though he made a cameo from the first installment. The Sze siblings neither added to the show nor detracted from it, and the story might have been more fast-paced without them. The purpose of the Sze siblings felt like just to tie in Ram Chiang and introduce the next big devil. Kenneth Ma is a well-experienced actor now but for some reason, we feel as though his acting has been very one note. We questioned Mandy Wong’s one note portrayal of Dr. Chong and the purpose of this character, since her relationship with Siu Ma seemed to be going nowhere. Please check our full review of the drama here.
9. Airport Strikers (機場特警) - This was not a bad drama, though the story is nothing we haven’t seen before. We enjoyed the training scenes for the Airport Security Unit a lot at the beginning, and it was nice to see so many actors taking part in this production. After the training portion though, the rest of the show felt quite typical afterwards. It also focused a bit too much on the romantic relationships between the characters. Owen Cheung had an annoying character and was so arrogant. Thankfully, he had three other redeeming characters this year that was able to show improvement in his acting. This is totally Brian Chu’s year with many dramas aired back to back. We still remember him playing a high school student in Yes Sir, Sorry Sir starring Moses and Tavia and felt it was unfortunate that he hasn’t gotten more opportunities since then. We are glad to see him in 6 dramas this year. Hopefully he can continue to get bigger roles. We felt like Sisley was the tough tomboy cop again which we have seen before vs Roxanne was the pretty girl even though their portrayals were fine. Actually, we haven’t seen many opportunities for Roxanne in the past few years which is disappointing.
8. Death by Zero (殺手) - The following 4 dramas were very difficult to rank. All of them were not bad dramas, but they all had some flaws. In reality, we would rank them all about the same, but this is a countdown after all, so there were a few subtle differences that determined how this portion of the ranking looked.
Moving on to our thoughts for DBZ, you might be a bit surprised why it ended up this low. We were looking forward to seeing this show with the huge cast including Wayne Lai, Moses Chan, Ali Lee, Katy Kung, Elena Kong, Samatha Ko just to name a few. We tried our best to enjoy this show, but we unexpectedly found it boring during the middle. The idea behind this show is not often done and was a very interesting look at the secret society of assassins with some humor worked into the story. We enjoyed the unique style and cinematography that is different from average TVB shows. The first few episodes were fine in introducing the characters, but by the time we reached the middle of the drama, we realized that it was still lacking any major story or character development. The characters mainly talked or were involved with some small incidents but nothing that exciting with each passing episode until episode 20 and after. It felt like we were watching a show on the daily life of assassins. It was great to see Wayne back on the screen with a different antihero character, and we did enjoy seeing Elena Kong’s performance. Too bad she is nominated as Best Supporting Actress when Katy Kung’s Dark Angel is nominated for Best Actress when she got less screen time than Elena. Unfortunately, Moses seems to act the same in every show using exaggerated English phrases and similar mannerisms. We tried 1 episode of Beauty and the Boss and we couldn’t differentiate between that character and Zero in this drama because they behaved the same. We’ve also seen Ali and Moses paired enough times already - it would be nice to get a switch. Overall, DBZ was not terrible or anything but just failed to provide the wow factor and felt like a missed opportunity with this large cast. There was also very little progression of the show in the middle.
7. Of Greed and Ants (黃金有罪) - We didn’t have much background knowledge on the premise of the drama since we aren’t too familiar with the financial events that happened in HK so we were initially unsure if we would even like it. To our surprise, we thoroughly enjoyed this drama because of its strong cast and themes of greed and friendship. We liked the setting in the 1970s and 1980s and seeing their different costumes and hairstyles. Eddie Cheung carried this drama well as the conniving Wing Muk-Tong who started out humble and hardworking, but became consumed by power and greed. That said, Wing Muk-Tong would have stood out as a character even more if he had a more drastic rise and downfall. We enjoyed watching the power play between him and Ben Wong, who did a great job playing his supporting role as well. Edwin Siu once again plays a good guy who gets betrayed, and sometimes we wonder if there are people with such a simple mind these days. Elaine Yiu portrayed her character well as a young woman struggling to break into white collar jobs. Jeannie Chan was good as the rebellious younger sister of Elaine’s character who gave into fame and fortune. Tony Hung was not so good in his role and the hairstyle just didn’t fit him. Though the production was well done, the plot was a bit predictable, and you could kind of foresee what was going to happen to most of the main characters. Unfortunately, it was aired quite early on that we forgot a lot about what happened exactly.
6. The Witness (木棘証人) - This drama surprised us because we dropped many similar ones like On-Lie Game and Operation C9. This was totally a filler show, but it managed to be memorable with us, maybe because it was aired recently. Willie Wai was truly the star of the show delivering his punchlines with a straight face, giving us lots of laughs. We needed some comedy to help lighten the mood during these tough times. We felt that show faltered near the end when it lost is comedic elements in order to investigate the “big” mystery. It’s been a few years since we’ve seen Him Law but he hasn’t aged too much and delivered his role well. It was refreshing to see a new onscreen pair with Him and Kelly Cheung, who was capable of delivering a solid and sometimes humorous main female character. There was nothing special to say about this drama and the plot was very straightforward, but it remind us of some of the older cop dramas which were better than what is produced now. Standards are low these days.
5. Life After Death (那些我愛過的人) - This was a refreshing cast with opportunities given to Mark Ma and Shiga Lin to carry as second line leads. Yoyo Chen had a breakthrough performance as the outspoken Sabrina who finally had her emotional breakdown after suffering a miscarriage. Compared to the two female leads, she has the most acting experience and it is evident. The ending felt dragged out though, and it really could have ended with 20 episodes instead of 25. This was Priscilla’s first drama after taking a break from filming following Heart and Greed where she claims to have taken many acting classes in her spare time. Her acting has matured quite a bit and she is very watchable now. Compared to a few years ago, she is able to handle the emotions of her character better, though we can feel how raw her acting still is in some scenes. Frankie Lam was different from his typical serious roles which was a nice change. Mark Ma was also delight to watch, and he wowed us with his first time playing a second lead male. We could tell that he did his research in playing someone with Asperger syndrome and helped destigmatize it through his portrayal. Shiga handled her role well, also being quite new to acting in a TV series. Chloe So and Zeno Koo are breakout stars from this drama as well. Although we enjoyed the exploration of the theme of life and death, the drama’s pacing felt a bit too slow with the main focus of the show uncovering what happened during that car accident that changed the characters’ lives.
4. Brutally Young (十八年後的終極告白) - We really enjoyed seeing this ensemble cast of Shaun Tam, Joel Chan, Anthony Ho, Auston Lam, David Do, Louis Szeto and Gordon Siu as the 7 high school friends who harboured a secret about an incident that happened 18 years ago. This drama kept us guessing what had actually happened back in their high school days on a camping trip - who killed the gang member? Dominic Lam is a great veteran actor that does amazing with ‘evil’ characters, chasing each of the 7 around to find out who killed his son. We enjoyed Shaun’s acting and which is more nuanced than say a couple years ago in Succession War. Joel and Anthony were also very interesting characters serving as foils to Shaun that found different ways to cope with their guilt 18 years ago. We enjoyed the way the story unfolded slowly and how the guilt began to consume them more and more with the progression of the drama. It’s definitely interesting to see how one lie can alter your whole life by having to continuously make up more lies to cover up the past. In comparison to the rest of the cast, Mandy lacked charisma as we’ve found in all her dramas lately. She unfortunately failed to shine in any of the 3 characters she got this year despite claiming to have taken lessons for her acting. Vivian Yeo took up the challenge of playing a deaf character this time, and it's a shame to see that she left TVB. Even Nicole Wan who played the butcher (David Do) Tiger’s wife was far more memorable than Mandy. On another note, it seems like Griselda Yeung has consistently played the crying widow character these past few years, although we respect that she always manages makes an emotional portrayal of each character.
3. Hong Kong Love Stories (香港愛情故事) - Although this was only 12 episodes, it easily secured itself in one of the top dramas of 2020 for us because of its down to earth topics of exploring love at different stages in life and its relation to real world problems. We liked how realistic every scene was, especially the filming location of public housing to help drive home the struggles of many HK families. Joey Law did a good job in his first lead role and helped remind the audience to slow down and enjoy what is in front of us instead of getting sucked into the societal pressures of buying a property. We enjoyed his chemistry with Katy Kung as a newly wed couple of the working class struggling in navigating their future. Katy should have been nominated for this role as Best Actress instead of Dark Angel in DBZ which got less screen time, and this character just felt more real. Bak Biu and Mimi Kung were amazing in their supporting roles and were very realistic in portraying an older couple whose marriage was falling apart. We weren’t too convinced with Venus and Brian’s storyline though. Brian Tse was a miscast and didn’t have the swagger for this role who suffered from a past with drugs, and his facial hair was just unappealing. We actually thought Stephen Wong who had a brief cameo as Venus Wong’s hookup would’ve played the role better since he has the artistic charm. The younger university students like Kelly and Hugo played by Kayan Yau and Frederick Chui as well as Niklas Lam who played Kelly’s childhood friend were all fresh faces to watch on screen, and we also enjoyed this story line. After hearing about the news that HKLS will be made into a trilogy, we are just hoping that they will not ruin the series.
2. Legal Mavericks 2020 (踩過界II) - It’s quite rare to have a TVB sequel as good - or possibly even surpass its first season, but Legal Mavericks was able to do what Line Walker: Bull Fight and TEM2 couldn’t. LM2 continued to show us the characters we’ve already met and become familiar with in the first season, while bringing in new characters and development for these characters. We were happy to see the trio back with Hope Man (Vincent Wong), Gogo (Owen Cheung) and Deen Jeh (Sisley Choi), and their hilarious scenes together. We were able to see how the characters grew closer over time with Hope Man being able to open up to his good friends which he was always reluctant to do before. These three continued to show impressive chemistry from the first season. Paul Chun was a well-thought out addition to add some new sparks this season and debating with Hope Man on court was very entertaining to watch. Kelly Cheung playing Eva has really solidified her acting and is definitely one of our favourite new lead actresses at TVB now, given the lack of talent currently. She was able to strongly differentiate her role here from The Witness, though they were both lawyers, especially with the beginning episodes in LM where she was disguising to be blind. Character-wise we didn’t really like Eva in the beginning because she seemed quite manipulative and only wanted to win her cases, but she did change her mindset and decided to help Hope Man later on. Her role also seemed very similar to Never Wong from the first season. We enjoyed the cases as they covered present day topics and had a lot of twists in uncovering the truth. It was always intriguing to see how the main characters could turn the case to their favour in the end. A few of the cases were a bit boring and forgettable, but it was really how the “unlawful law” team treated each case that was the focus of the show. Lesley Chiang and Jessica Kan were other additions that added to the chemistry between characters. Sisley did a pretty great job as Deen Jeh since the first LM. We enjoyed how she stayed true to her character from the first season, but there were more emotional scenes as well as growth in wanting to become a Barrister. Her character flipped 180 after her father died while she was in the UK. We truly felt her character’s maturity and change of value, showing Sisley’s versatility in acting. Sisley definitely stood out to us this year compared to many other leading actresses. The ending of the show was a bit disappointing with no happy ending, and it leaves us wondering if there will be a third addition to the LM series.
1. Al Cappuccino (反黑路人甲) - It was difficult deciding which of the Vincent Wong dramas to put as Number 1 and in the end we went with Al Cap for its refreshing plot idea pulling reference from classic Hong Kong movies and movies like The Godfather. Satire is always difficult to pull off, but it was done excellently here. Vincent was quite outstanding as the main character, Cheung Sai-Lun, an aspiring actor who somehow was forced to become the triad boss and act as an undercover for the police. His charisma reminded us of his talent in comedy from older shows like Over Run Over and Brick Slaves, and we welcomed this change from his usual and more serious character. The combination with him, Owen Cheung and Brian Chu was one of the highlights of the show, and this trio created some great scenes. We must say though, that the female actresses in Legal Mavericks were better than those in Al Cap, namely Sisley and Kelly being better actresses than Crystal and Kathy Yuen. Samantha Ko was alright playing a celebrity actress, but she didn’t present us with anything new. On the other hand, the supporting actors were strong and great to watch. From the female side, Winki Lai was quite solid in her role as the big sister though, and her partnership with Owen has garnered a lot of buzz this year. 水姐 played by Angel Chiang was a pleasant surprise, transforming her usual good girl image from Come Home Love to a 江湖大家姐. From the male side of supporting actors, we have some outstanding performances from Tsui Wing, David Chiang, KK Cheung, etc. who were all instrumental in creating a tense atmosphere in the show that made it more funny when Cheung Sai-Lun broke through with unexpected actions that did not match what the leader of a gang should look like. We particularly remember the scene where Sai-Lun’s fake tattoo washed away and he had to come up with an excuse about how body paint was in trend. It was moments like these that really solidified this show as the top for us this year. We recognize that this drama was far from perfect and there were many plot holes. The numerous romantic plotlines were also distracting, but the point of this drama was to poke fun at old films and how exaggerated plot lines can be, which was successfully done. We look forward to seeing more shows of this caliber with creativity in plot in the coming years.
Other Dramas (not TVB):
The following dramas are a variety of Asian dramas we've seen this past year from ViuTV, China, Japan, South Korea, etc. They aren’t all the other dramas we watched, but these are the more notable or memorable ones. We listed them in the order than we saw them throughout the year but haven't ranked them and just provided some thoughts on them.
Terrace House Tokyo 2019-2020 - Cee started watching this Japanese reality TV show at the end of 2019 and into 2020 as it explores young adults in Japan being housed together navigating their careers while trying to find a romantic partner in the house. The show was recommended by a friend as there were parallels between all our friends and the conversations covered in the show. The most interesting and perhaps the most controversial part of the show is the panel of commentators that would drive the topics of discussion and express their views on who should date who, etc. Although the show claims to be unscripted and 100% authentic, audiences should still watch reality TV with a grain of salt and know that the point of the show is to garner entertainment value. Unfortunately, this was forgotten and the show came to a screeching halt when one of the house members, Hana Kimura committed suicide in May of 2020 due to cyberbullying. Although viewers only see snippets of the house members’ lives throughout the week, sometimes viewers believe they have the whole story. Cee will not get into the details of all the incidents in the show but it’s important to remember to be mindful of your words especially ones that stay imprinted on the internet forever. As blog writers, we are very careful about this and try our best to provide well-researched opinions that are not targeted at individuals personally.
Someday or One Day (想見你) - Jay recommended that we watch this drama based on seeing some stellar reviews on this Taiwanese time travel drama. This was probably one of our favourite dramas this year and far outweighs most of the TVB dramas. The plot had many twists and turns, but the various timelines were handled very well in a way that made sense. The story was youthful, nostalgic, heartfelt, while still being suspenseful - and at times, scary. It delivered a beautiful and unexpected storyline, leaving many clues throughout the show for the audience to piece together. Acting was superb, especially from Alice Ko still carrying that innocent look despite being far from 16, yet acting as an adult when her role called for it. Greg Hsu and Patrick Shi were also impressive with their acting. The romance in this show was handled masterfully. Besides these factors, the soundtrack was awesome as well featuring old nostalgic songs from the 90s like Wu Bai’s “Last Dance” and new original songs. We were so surprised to see the group 831 come out with a Canto version of the endlessly looped “想見你想見你想見你” which has garnered 40 million listens on YouTube alone.
Leap Day (二月廿九) - This drama is from ViuTV about time travelling after we finished Someday or One Day, this one seemed interesting to us. Of course, after seeing Someday or One Day, this show lacked the same level of plot and story telling, but it still surprised us in a few ways. The filming location in Japan was very different from what we normally see and was tranquil and beautiful. We also loved seeing a different view on Hong Kong than what is usually portrayed in TVB dramas. This show seems to signify to us that there are other avenues of HK entertainment outside of TVB that are worth watching. What disappointed us was the loose ending where we were left with quite a few questions unexplained. The acting was still a little raw from lead actress Sofiee Ng, but Terrance Lau and Chui Tien-you delivered their roles well.
My Love, Enlighten Me (暖暖请多指教) - This is a typical Chinese idol romance drama that we watched with nothing much to do. The story was pretty standard about a girl trying to find self worth and a career to pursue, but it was still motivational.
Grand Maison Tokyo - This Japanese drama came out in 2019 but we saw it in 2020 after a recommendation. For some reason we haven’t been able to get into Japanese dramas, they seem outdated in their filming and cinematography. We really liked the lack of focus on crazy love pentagons and the sole concentration in creating amazing French cuisine.
The Love Equations (致我们甜甜的小美满) - This is a similar drama to Put Your Head on My Shoulder if you guys are familiar with that one focusing on students in college. We enjoyed My Love, Enlighten Me more than this one.
Go Ahead (以家人之名) - Go Ahead is an incredibly heart-felt family drama about 3 kids that grow up with 2 dads that make up a family but none of the 3 kids are blood-related. The mothers were either despicable and abandoned their child or died. We really enjoyed the first 15 episodes when the 3 main leads were growing up together and went through high school. Our favourite character was Li Ba. We stopped watching as frequently as things got busy after the summer months and the plot also shifted to the 2 brothers admitting their romantic feelings towards their younger sister which slightly ruined the dynamic between them.
Nothing But Thirty (三十而已) - Cee saw this drama during the summer months and it was a pleasant surprise. Set in the bustling city of Shanghai, it shows a realistic depiction of what your 30s are going to be like as a modern Chinese woman. There are 3 women; one is a single sales women struggling to make ends meet while dealing with workplace harassment from customers and jealous coworkers, the 2nd woman is a strong headed, ambitious housewife who runs the lives of her husband and young son, the 3rd woman is a simple minded office worker who is trying to save her failing marriage. It all seems a little cliche but the emotions are real, and the things these women do to keep what's important to them are real. The drama explores how women are supposed to be strong yet gentle and feminine at the same time. How do women hide their greater ambitions because they must stand behind a man and let him take the spotlight? When do they know a relationship is failing and there are inherently irreconcilable differences? Is it ok to let go of this failing relationship even if it means starting over again? When can dignity or your own morals be cast aside for the sake of your children's future or for your own career? Is it ok to compare your life with someone else's when everyone seems to be struggling anyways? All these questions are explored through the intertwining of their stories and throughout the drama, you can feel them grow. The 30's may be a difficult decade marked by a lot of stereotypical milestones and this is a wonderful drama that reminds you it's ok to still be growing and learning or even start over again.
It's Okay to Not Be Okay - Cee saw this Korean drama a few months after it was first released to watch it all at once and let the hype die down a little bit. There are very important lessons and themes that are explored in this drama especially through the fairytales. However, this may be an unpopular opinion but the plot was a little predictable and cliche especially with their 2 mothers being tied together that would force the main characters to further be star-crossed lovers. Acting wise, all the actors did an amazing job portraying individuals with mental illnesses. In particular, Seo Yea-Ji and Oh Jung-Se stole the show. Cee’s favourite parts were their interactions trying to communicate and get their point across. Previously, Cee was not familiar with Yea-Ji at all (not that we see a lot of kdramas), but was quite blown away with her portrayal of the head-strong Ko Moon-Young who suffers from a traumatic childhood due to her mother. No TVB actress comes to mind that could do the role justice without seeming too OTT and they would lose the audience’s sympathy for the character’s past. The costumes/outfits for Seo Yea-Ji were truly breathtaking and after lurking through some instagram accounts dedicated to her outfits, most of them were luxury brands. Oh, who played Moon Sang-Tae reminded the audience of innocence that had yet to be lost in the adult world of Gang-Tae (Soo-Hyun) until he reveals that he had always known Gang-Tae had once almost left him to drown. That was a tragic revelation! It was nice to see an Asian drama with the premise of mental health with the show title being so simple yet meaningful. Mental health has been such a large topic in present times, and rightly so as it was often neglected or seen as a taboo topic of conversation amongst friends and family gatherings. This drama is an important one for the Asian community.
Thank you so much for reading our thoughts on all the dramas this year, we definitely spent a good amount of time indoors watching different things.
With 2021 upon us, we hope that everyone starts off the year feeling renewed. Let us know your comments on the dramas this year below!
-CeeJay
Images retrieved from:
Great post! Enjoyed reading all your rankings. Definitely a great trip down memory lane on what aired in 2020.
ReplyDeleteHi lwchung,
DeleteThank you for reading our post and commenting! We are glad you enjoyed our rankings. Wishing you the best in 2021!
CeeJay
That was a great read! Haha, for the past weeks in december I've been refreshing your blog page to see if there was any new posts since Exorcist Meter 2, as it seemed to be very quiet and no new drama reviews. I'm glad that you shared the same sentiments as me as I thought that Al Capp and Legal Mavericks 2 was very good as well, especially when Vincent Wong is my fav actor as well, not to mention, because of this two dramas, I also really like Owen Cheung as well. But some said that Al Cap had too much female characters and well, unfortunately there was no strong female connections.
ReplyDeleteI thought Line Walker 3 tried too fit too much storylines into it and there was no real excitement at the start. It was only after Sun Chi Kin (Kent Cheng) appeared then there was tension and story, but even then, he was killed fast. I thought it would have been better if the Song Luen elections didnt last around 10-15 epi and Sun Chi Kin (Kent Cheng) came out earlier and tried to devour Hongkong gang landscape and Song Luen tried to fight them and lose. Then Ngai Tak Lai (Kenneth Ma) could come and use his SIA job to good use against Eternity. Foon Hei (Benz Hui) also did not contribute much, just some friendly old uncle. Also Ngai Tak Lai (Kenneth Ma) character was so slow and quite disappointing. He literally didnt even do much (not that i can recall) in the first 15 epi. Also, disappointing to see so many characters die like this, especially Mui (Priscillia Wong).
As for Legal Mavericks 2, it was pretty good. Nice characters all round. But the cases, some fell abit short. I just wished that they had more plot on the Lawyers Association fight between Hope man and Kan Siu Wang (Paul Chun). However, the last case had the same issue as the last case in Legal Mavericks 1. That it was a lost case until an extremely stupid miracle pops out. I cannot get over how the case was won just because Dean Jeh (Sisley Choi) decided to turn against her own client. Well, whatever. Overall still decent and Kelly Cheung is my eye candy anyways.
To wrap things up, I didnt watch alot of 2020 shows I realised. I didnt watch number 12, 9, and 7-3 on your list and all the shows that you guys didnt watch too. But overall, those that I watched, made it worth it. I just hope Vincent Wong wins something, be it best actor for LM2 or fav actor for Al cap. Though I know Raymond Lam has an extremely high chance because of LW3, but he felt like a side character though. Would you also do your thoughts on the TVB 2020 awards too? Anyways, thanks for taking your time to write your reviews and just know that I'll always read them, thank you!
Hi Nicholas,
DeleteWow thank you so much for reading our posts! It really warms our hearts to know that there is someone who is always waiting for us to drop a new post. We were also planning on finishing this one a bit earlier on before the end of 2019 but felt we needed a break and some more time to rationalize our rankings. We haven't been posting too many drama reviews either because we weren't really inspired by a lot this year, but thank you for always checking back :) We are glad to be back with this countdown, and we hope it was successful in encompassing our thoughts for this year's list.
It's great to hear that you share similar sentiments as us in terms of which dramas you enjoyed. 2020 has been a disappointing year for TVB dramas especially, as you could tell that even the higher dramas on that list had some major faults. We agree that LW3 should have streamlined the storylines and for a more focused plot because it straight out was messy and anticlimactic with Kenneth's character at the end. Foon Hei was such a confusing character because at times, he was ready to sacrifice Cheuk Hoi for his own personal gains and other times he supported them and CIB like they were all good friends.
The ending for LM2 was rushed and the case was honestly nothing special, just the normal case about a rich guy doing whatever he wanted. How it was handled was a letdown because we were expecting some major plot twists with how they won that case. The fact that Deanie got stabbed when visiting the guy in jail was even more absurd and unnecessary for an ending.
It seems like you are only watching some select TVB shows you find interesting which is the path we are going down as well. Vincent definitely deserves something this year because he truly outshone his competitors this year, but we also predict Raymond to get something for TVB's own reasons. We typically do make a review on the anniversary awards, and we hope to do it again this year! Hopefully, we can get the ball rolling quickly with this post, but it may take some time to prepare.
Thank you once again for always supporting our blog and reaching out! We really enjoyed reading your thoughts. Happy New Year to you!
CeeJay
Hi Cee and Jay,
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time to write this review. It probably took a lot of effort to do. I only watched six and a half of the 12 TVB shows. 反黑路人甲 surely is my favourite show this year. It reminds me of the Japanese animation Gin Tama (銀魂) which also make references to other memorable shows. I didn't watch 想見你, but I like 伍佰 's Last Dance. Actually, I'm listening to it while I'm writing this comment. HaHa!
HawkLo
Hello HawkLo,
DeleteThank you for your comment! Glad you liked Last Dance, every time the song comes on we are transported back to the drama and get a little spooked hoping that we don't time travel haha.
CeeJay
Great post! I haven't really watched many TVB dramas this year, as I didn't have high hopes after Forensic Heroes 4 and Death By Zero, which I pretty enjoyed but the slow pacing and sudden escalation of events killed it for me. It looks like the end of the year dramas are much better than the ones that aired earlier.
ReplyDeleteIf I could, I'd rant about Forensic Heroes 4 here but it would be an incredibly long wall of text so here are my brief thoughts about it. Out of all the cast, I think Selena Lee did something nearly remotely good, comparatively and I feel like TVB wasted her so much. Her performance in Barrack O'Karma was so good and nothing near this monstrosity of a TV drama. The actors just don't make any facial expressions while solving a case, which makes it incredibly hard/boring to watch. Plus, the excessive use of flashbacks don't help anything, and I find them downright cringey. Outside of the first case, which was comparatively ok and had at least *some* sense of mystery, the rest are just plain boring and it seems like the writers had no creativity whatsoever (no offense). There were THREE clown cases, there could be more, I don't remember, at least 3 cases with people with mental disorders and EVERY TIME THE CHARACTERS GO TO A CRIME SCENE THEY HAVE TO CATWALK THERE. WHY. I know the last one doesn't really fit but it's something that seems cool the first time you watch it but when it keeps showing up, it gets really annoying. The cutscenes when scientists do the tests seem recycled, for some reason and it gives off the feeling you've seen them loads of times before. They're just showing off the same tech over and over again. These are all obvious hallmarks of a bad show and I'm so freaking disappointed I missed them until the last few episodes and by then, I was like "whatever, I'll just finish the show". There was no character development whatsoever, just some characters solving a bunch of cases. Cannot believe they even got nominations. I officially declare Forensic Heroes 4 to have won the "Worst Drama Ever Award".
About On-Lie's Game, I watched a couple of snippets or maybe even a few episodes, I don't remember, and it had this weird HKEDB-informative-show-vibe. I liked that they (seemingly and probably) did their research and had some rather interesting cyber crime cases but like you said, the characters were pretty boring and I didn't even notice there was a feud plot.
Death By Zero is another drama I watched in its entirety. As with most TVB dramas, I felt that the final few episodes were rushed. The choreography was pretty enjoyable and it really shows the characters' personalities, Wayne Lai's lazy and drunk-ish (I think), Dark Angel is uh street fighter-ish and enjoys kicks, and Moses Chan's disciplined (somewhat) and well-trained. On the acting, I felt that Brian Chu did a good job, as the final villain and as did Louisa Mak, who played Wayne Lai's daughter and Brian Chu's girlfriend, though she didn't have much screen time. There wasn't much character development in the beginning, and Wayne Lai basically stayed lazy, condescending and uncaring until his apprentice died, after which he relapsed into alcoholism before Elena Kong yeeted him out of that state and he started training. That was the 28th episode, I think. He did have some caring moments for his daughter, but it still shows his lazy, condescending character outside of those moments. For a show named after him, Zero is basically a stale character from start to finish. I don't think he really changed until Kaman Kong's character died and he started a relationship with Ali Lee, which had a bit too much relationship drama imo. (I really don't like relationship drama). Katy Kung did ok as the mildly unhinged Dark Angel, though she had less screen time. Overall, DBZ is an ok drama with weird pacing and slow character development.
I didn't watch much of Legal Mavericks 2 (only an episode or two when the TV was on), and since the first one came out, I've been doing some mock trials (for reasons unrelated to this) and LM2 felt a bit too dramatic sometimes. The judge probably would've intervened and stopped them if the lawyers went too far. I'd actually be interested if they showed a mooting, as it's not what most dramas would show as it's relatively boring and confusing, but it'd be interesting to see one.
DeleteI was a bit surprised you didn't watch Ratman to the Rescue, I found it rather satirical. But yeah, it was ridiculous and I just watched a few episodes here and there and Zoie Tam just seemed to be there for some eye candy.
The Exorcist's Meter isn't a bad drama per se, but it's definitely poorly paced. As much as I'd like to see more of Bella, I agree she should've left earlier. Her friendship with Dr Chong was quite enjoyable to watch though. They probably had too many characters and that stagnated the plot and pacing. The special effects were... questionable to say the least but eh, it's not some Hollywood drama. I loved Hubert Wu in his new role and I think he did better this time but as you said in your review, he repeated the same thing over and over again. I really wish Julian Gaertner had more of an active role in the plot, and I liked his character development from when he first started working for Ma Gwai and near the end, where he was incredibly loyal and developed friendships with everyone. The Sze siblings are a fun addition and they provided a lot of comedic moments and the plot about the Maestro (it's probably what the demon's called) and Hubert was well-done and had a lot of heartwarming and tearjerking moments.
Now that I see some good reviews of LM2, I should probably go watch it loll. Recently, there's been a 6-episode web drama called The Impossible 3, which I found quite fun. I was wondering if you've watched it or not, and what you think about it. Thanks!
Well, I just had to separate my comment into two separate comments because it was too long LOL!
Also, one more thing I feel about FH4, some suspects/witnesses/side characters were more developed than the main characters themselves! Some of them had motivations we could sympathise with and their actions reflect that but the main characters don't really seem like they do things like they do because of their backstory, they don't even have a personality most of the time. Especially Queen, I don't think we learnt about why she chose to be a forensic scientist until near the finale. Moreover, the bad guys and criminals in the drama seem to be either a**holes or mentally unstable people with a few exceptions so there's not really much variety in villains either. I just really hope they would end this franchise...
Deletethat's enough of my ranting, sorry for taking up space
Hi Tacocat!
DeleteDon't worry about taking up space or ranting at all! That's what we started the blog for so we love sharing opinions and reading about other's thoughts.
Have you seen this channel's funny rants about FH4? It's pretty to the point and doesn't hesitate to express their disappointment in the drama.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hard-bolwE0&ab_channel=%E7%B2%A4%E7%9F%A5%E4%B8%80%E4%BA%8C%E3%80%90%E6%89%93Call%E7%82%B9%E8%B5%9E%E5%9B%A2%E3%80%91
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32G_quI0jzA&ab_channel=%E7%B2%A4%E7%9F%A5%E4%B8%80%E4%BA%8C%E3%80%90%E6%89%93Call%E7%82%B9%E8%B5%9E%E5%9B%A2%E3%80%91
We agree with you completely, the characters had no development whatsoever... and the culprits always came out of nowhere like the person who killed Timothy Cheng (Queen's husband) was so obvious! He was just quickly introduced and started acting suspicious. We hope TVB stops milking old successes and creates new things! Honestly, we don't have high hopes for Armed Reaction 2021. There's also no incentive of bringing back old actors like Jessica Hsuan, Joe Ma, etc. because they don't fit their roles anymore as 50 year olds, they are blocking new people from breaking out, and the focus on casting them alone doesn't save the horrible script either... that's just our opinion though.
We actually saw The Impossible 3 but didn't finish it in time when the post was published. It was a refreshing storyline with solid actors and was short enough that we didn't get bored. The drama had a lot of guest actors that we haven't seen in a while like Sammy Sum and Lawrence Cheng. Vincent actually played his part very well here too, so his acting is definitely deserving of the BA award this year.
In TEM2, Julian Gaertner was a great comic relief and had growth for sure! We wished Mandy and Kenneth would've had more chemistry or romantic development because even at the end we still didn't know if she had any feelings for him. It seemed like he got over her after the first season of being infatuated with her... It even seemed like Kenneth's Ma Gwai had true feelings for Beh Beh when she left. Didn't make sense.
LM is dramatic for sure but it's TV after all so we just turn a blind eye to some of the impracticalities to enjoy the entertainment haha.
-CeeJay