Big White Duel II 白色強人II TVB Review

Hello fellow TVB viewers and fans,

This is guest contributor Ah Tao here with a review of the sequel Big White Duel II. At the time of writing, the entire series has been released by mainland platform Youku, and the drama will air on TVB from July 25, 2022 - September 2, 2022 for 30 episodes (an increase from the first series's 25). If you don't mind the spoilers, then I hope this review will give you some advance info on whether you should pick up this drama! And if you just want a brief verdict, then skip ahead to the 'final thoughts' section.

SPOILERS BELOW!

Plot Overview

Two years after the events of the first series Big White Duel, Marshall Paxton Hospital is at the forefront of yet another health care system reform. The chief executive of the hospital, Dr. YT Yeung (Roger Kwok), is campaigning for the Hong Kong SAR Government to fully open its drug formulary. Doing so will allow all patients to afford the prescription drugs they need, no matter how chronic or rare their conditions may be. Yeung is assisted in this cause by Dr. Tong Ming (Kenneth Ma), the deputy chief executive. However, they face opposition from Dr. Ip Ching (Nancy Wu), an up-and-rising health care advocate who believes the solution to limited drug access is to instead open a pharmaceutical research and development centre.

Yeung is forced to share the role of the co-chief executive with Ip, only to realize that she wants to close the hospital and re-direct its funding to build the research centre. But along the way, Yeung and Tong receive support from their colleagues, such as Dr. So Yee (Natalie Tong), Dr. Yan Lui (Kelly Cheung), and Dr. Vincent Lee (Moses Chan). Tong and So continue their relationship from the first series, on the path to rekindling their past divorce. Lui is now Yeung's girlfriend, but the arrival of Lee means Lui must work alongside both her current and former lover. 

Despite drug access reform playing out in the background, the physicians of Marshall Paxton must dedicate themselves first and foremost to one duty - to save lives. 

My Thoughts:

Central Premise of Drama - Drug Access Reform:

I have so much to say about the central debate in the drama that it's probably better to split the plot analysis into two sections. First, let's talk about the overarching topic of health care reform in the plot.

Like in the first series, this drama reflects on public versus private solutions to healthcare challenges. The government will be shifting its public policy shift significantly by opening up the drug formulary, subsidizing costs for far more drugs than they currently do. In contrast, a pharmaceutical research centre is a "health enterprise", a business investment that may be able to stimulate drug manufacturing locally. 

In the first few episodes, the main characters mention pros and cons to each proposal. Having the drug formulary opened up will ensure universal access for all patients of Hong Kong. The government may not be able to swallow the costs of opening up the formulary though, nor might pharmaceutical companies be willing to cooperate. A research centre can be a sustainable investment, allowing the government to produce the drugs that its citizens need the most and thus eliminating the costs of importing them from overseas. However, the centre won't immediately benefit citizens who cannot pay for their prescriptions today. The government may not be able to control the centre's priorities if private sector involvement exceeds public funding. I personally found this debate to be very compelling even though years of watching TVB taught me not to get my hopes up too much. 

Sadly, that sense of excitement did not last too long. The research centre proposal crumbled and became less realistic as the drama went on, and eventually, Nancy just abandoned it and joined Roger's team. If the drama is supposed to portray realistic challenges in the field, then at least both arguments should have been strong. Nancy changed her mind about closing the hospital so quickly despite those motives being a selling point of the plot. Then again though, the first series ended without a definitive conclusion on the healthcare reform debate either, so maybe I just had overly high hopes for the production team. 

And if you are still confused over what "fully opening the drug formulary" means at this point, trust me, I am still confused even after finishing the drama. There wasn't a really thorough explanation of what the term meant. The characters kept using the term repeatedly to suggest more drugs would be covered by the government, but I wasn't sure to what extent "fully open" would suggest the reforms go. Will patients have as many prescriptions and varieties of drugs subsidized as they need, regardless of the public expenditure needed? Will the government be proactive in listing drugs in the formulary as new ones are developed? 

The main characters ended up seeing the drug formulary proposal implemented with overwhelming success. It does not take working in healthcare to recognize that a proposal this big would be much more difficult to implement in reality. The drama did portray the government's resistance to its cost, but the main characters handled those challenges with way too much ease. 

I think the production team should have either ended the drama where the drug formulary proposal won approval. Or even better, they should have not added the competing research centre proposal just for the sake of a black-and-white conflict; instead, why not focus on how many ups and downs there would be implementing Roger's proposal anyway?

Like with other big-budget productions these days, the production team was ever-obsessed with portraying a topic as grand as healthcare policy reform. Those lofty goals about the "take-home message" of the drama didn't go anywhere. But then again, that's also very characteristic of these major productions. 

Dramas are of course not meant to be perfect portrayals of what happens in real life. There will always be some inaccuracies or errors in the storylines, but the central premise of this plot is overly idealized. Even if you don't work in the healthcare sector, I think the issue is big enough to affect how you perceive the quality of the drama. The production team chose to cover a topic so complex, but so relatable to the daily lives of all of us. That makes it much more difficult to let the logic flaws go and justify that this drama is a good investment of your time. 

Story - Overall:

If you don't focus on the plot holes too much, at least I got reliable entertainment from watching all the main characters sit and drink coffee together, that kind of thing. We have all the usual ingredients of a TVB professional drama. There are many scenes about the day-to-day work in the hospital, romantic pairings, and camaraderie between all the main characters.

Like in other medical dramas, we see various patient cases peppered in each episode. Similar to the first installment, the patients were usually first admitted to the accident and emergency (A&E) department, and then referred to cardiothoracic surgery (CTS) or neuroendovascular surgery (NES). There were also some oncology cases as that was Nancy's specialty. I enjoyed the diversity of cases, but most of them would start and be resolved within the same episode. By the time I hit the finale, however, I could barely remember the patients from early on in the drama, other than the fact that their surgeries were probably suspenseful. I remember that the patient cases were also short in the first series, but even then I still recall the story arc about the A&E department shut down due to a MERS case, for example. 

Each case ended when the necessary surgery/procedure was performed, and we did not get to see how the patients recovered or anything. This, again, was also the way cases were set up in the first series, but that added to how fragmented the cases already felt.

As with all sequels, characters are written out and new ones are written in. However, I did not really like the extent the production team retconned the plot so that the new characters had 'old' ties to our main characters. Kelly suddenly has an ex-boyfriend in Moses, while Roger is revealed to have been married to Virginia Lau in the past. Having practiced in the developing world, Moses actually knew Ali before her disappearance. There were so many character ties retroactively established in the plot and it kind of felt awkward for some reason. Why couldn't our existing main characters just end up "meeting" these new people in the first few episodes or something? 

Despite all my negative comments about the drama, one thing I will give the production team lots of credit for is how they did not end up adding that many love triangles. While the drama was filming, I heard that Nancy was going to interfere between the Kenneth-Natalie couple and Moses with Roger-Kelly. It was implied that Nancy admired Kenneth for being a 'different' doctor but there were no romantic feelings shown. Moses had feelings for Kelly but never crossed any boundaries; I actually thought he had better chemistry with her compared to Roger. I think adding the love triangles would have been excessive.

Speaking about the couples, I didn't really like how Rogers and Kelly were suddenly shown to be dating at the start of the drama. I think they should have just gradually gotten together as the plot went on, which would have better reminded us what their chemistry was like. 

I still also don't get why Natalie broke up with Kenneth halfway through the drama. I know the production team needs to insert some challenges between them because how else would a sequel keep viewers captivated, right? But let's just say that I finished the drama wondering it always has to be that way. If anything, it's not like neither character had changed much in their ways during their breakup. 

Cast:

Roger Kwok as Dr. YT Yeung: Roger gave a stable performance as always, with his character being at the forefront of the drug access reforms. To be honest, I liked him more in the first series, where he was not morally a black-and-white character and was very calculating at times. His character was not afraid to use legally/ethically questionable means to achieve his end goals then. Roger is still very strategic in this drama, but this time he is clearly positioned to be a 'good' character. This does have to do with his change in attitude in the latter half of first series, but also makes his character development pretty flat. It doesn't help that his chemistry with Kelly also felt flat, as if she loved him more than he loved her.

Kenneth Ma as Dr. Tong Ming: While Kenneth was fighting directly against Roger in the first series, this time he has become Roger's best assistant. This shift was also explained in the first series, but it also meant pretty flat character development as well... not that he had much ambition other than being a skilled surgeon. I also wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to learn/gain from breaking up with Natalie because his attitude towards her felt pretty much the same throughout the whole drama. His performance was also pretty standard and nothing really stood out.

Moses Chan as Dr. Vincent Lee: Moses is one of the two new protagonists in this series. He actually had the standout performance amongst all the protagonists. Like with his other recent roles, his acting is very formulaic (in a not good kind of way) and I wouldn't be able to tell this role apart from let's say the police role in Armed Reaction 2021. I think his use of English at the end of every few sentences works well here though, as his character is pretty charismatic, funny, and easy-going. I definitely liked him more than both Roger and Kenneth because his character had more dimensions; he was not only entertaining, but he also showed a lot of medical expertise from his time working in the developing world. He came up with helpful ways to advance the drug formulary proposal. His relationship with Kelly acted as pretty good comic relief amongst all the heavy scenes of political struggle. 

While I do like that his attraction for Kelly didn't really go anywhere, his character kind of fell apart in the end though. He had a one-night-stand with Virginia Lau but it didn't go anywhere. He instead accepts Eason Chen concert tickets from a patient who had a crush on him, which bothered me a lot because that sounds like an ethical violation...was the production team trying to imply that he will end up with that patient?

Natalie Tong as Dr. So Yee: Natalie also gave a stable performance but there wasn't much to do for her character now that she and Kenneth were back together (at least in the beginning). She got a lot of screen time being pregnant with Kenneth's baby. This wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for the fact the character's logic fell apart, like when she made the decision to not tell him that she was pregnant. And then she was set up to have not only one, but two scares to the pregnancy. Of course, the second scare resulted in Kenneth being a part of the baby being aborted. TVB really needs to stop using the trope where any time a main character is pregnant early in the drama, the baby won't be carried to term. It was repetitive and I didn't really connect with her. 

As I am from the mainland, I read a lot of mainland TVB fans' posts where Natalie's character was criticized for the whole pregnancy storyline as well. It was...not well written, and didn't really help with the quality of the drama. And because the whole pregnancy storyline wasn't written well, her reasons for breaking up with Kenneth made less sense. It would have been even better just to leave the couple pairing alone - if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Nancy Wu as Dr. Ip Ching: As the new female protagonist in this series, Nancy's power play with Rogers was supposed to be a big selling point of the plot. I had no concerns about Nancy's performance, but her character's motives kept changing. She first wanted to close the hospital to fund her research centre proposal, but started backing out of that as soon as she actually assumed the chief executive role. She then wanted to solicit private sector support, but decided to abandon her proposal when she realized those investors would have too great of a role. Her threats and schemes became pointless. 

If the production team needed Roger to have a new namesis in the drama (since John Chiang has been written out), they should have built an actual 'villiain'/opponent. At least I am satisfied that she wasn't used to create a love triangle.

Kelly Cheung as Dr. Yan Lui: Kelly's character was the most well-written out of all three female protagonists.  I don't have any major concerns with the character's development, and her well-executed portrayal helps solidify her standing amongst TVB artistes. Her hairstyle is a lot better than the bangs she had in the first series too.

Gone from the sequel main characters are Ali Lee, John Chiang, Stephen Wong, Crystal Fung, Matthew Ho, and Ashley Chu. Some of the absences were explained explicitly (Ali is still missing or Crystal and Matthew transferred to a hospital in the UK), but others were not. It was only implied that John retired (but I thought he went to work for the government at the end of the first series?) or that Ashley resigned her job. By all means, most of the replacement characters did their jobs well though - Lesley Chiang or Shaopin Tsui as the new doctors in Kenneth's department, Virginia Lau as the TV station news department head, etc. I especially liked Virginia's portrayal and thought she pulled off the role surprisingly well.

And the last plot hole to mention - Lesley had an initial fear of blood that went nowhere. Was it a phobia? Or was it just a dislike for the surgeon role? She did mention that she was pressured to be a surgeon because of her family members. We were never really shown whether she overcame this fear. Oh well. 

Production: 

TVB clearly continued to give this installment a decent budget as the production team went up to the mainland as they did for the first series. Some of the hospital exterior scenes were actually filmed in Shenzhen. The team also shot some scenes in Shanghai. 

The cinematography was similar to the first series and nothing too different from big-budget TVB productions these days.

Theme song wise, instrumental music was used for the opening and each episode ended with 'Wish', the subtheme sang by Joey Wong (JW). The subtheme was fine, but I didn't quite understand why all we had for the drama was that one English song and no Cantonese ones. The song was overplayed in the drama just like in how the first series we heard a lot of Kayee's song. Maybe the English song choice would have been better for the mainland viewers? I would have rather preferred the cookie-cutter theme songs of past dramas (like Fred's and Hana's songs in the first series), but maybe that is also just me. 

Final Thoughts (and Verdict): 

I can't say I am too disappointed with TVB these days, but you can tell by now that I didn't really love the plot holes and some of the poor character development. The production team was a bit too ambitious in the storyline they tried to write, and the end product was underwhelming. When TVB tries to cover topics this big, their limitations really begin to show. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be getting out of this habit any time soon either. 

I think TVB should just stick to producing the 'old-school' medical dramas with memorable patient cases and supporting characters, like what they had in The Hippocratic Crush or Angel-in-the-Making (see our review of that drama here). Sticking to a classic formula is a safe choice, but it's not an unwise choice; I don't mind simple stories if that means we can avoid significant plot flaws and poorly developed characters.

Overall, I give it a 6.5/10. Do let me know what your thoughts are. 

If you find any discrepancies between what I have written and what is shown in the TVB broadcast (rather than Youku) version, please do let me know too. 

- Ah Tao

Image Sources:

Taken from various TVB official social media previews of the drama:

• https://www.facebook.com/tvbcom/photos/a.454875853448/10160033380753449/
• https://www.facebook.com/tvbcom/videos/340009691663711
• https://www.facebook.com/tvbcom/videos/1253785928784062
• https://www.facebook.com/tvbcom/videos/775176543612355/
• https://www.facebook.com/tvbcom/videos/548948133683705
• https://www.facebook.com/tvbcom/videos/366293418953642/
• https://www.facebook.com/tvbcom/videos/1179092966200957
• https://www.facebook.com/tvbcom/videos/414812484026703
• https://www.facebook.com/tvbcom/videos/1152062958988976