Sweetness in the Salt Review

*Warning: Spoilers*

I'm not good with writing storyline summaries so I'll just give you a quick review of what I thought of the series. Please be warned that there are spoilers and if you're anything like me, I don't like things ruined for me. =)

To me, this series was almost perfect.

Stuff I liked:

• The Cast- I thought that the actors were mostly all perfectly cast in their roles since they all had worked with each other. The Wu family was so cute, especially the father (Kwok Fung) who's so adorable as the bumbling dad but loves and cares for his son, Raymond Wong. The character development was also really good because you actually know why each character acts the way they do. No one is purely good/evil for no good reason; you can actually see their motivations.

• Raymond Wong! He is so cute and he has a really big role! I think he even has more screen time than Steven Ma, and of course, he can really act!

• One of the Best Love Triangles ever! I might be slightly exaggerating but I do believe that Tavia, Raymond, and Steven were perfect in their roles and Tavia had equally good chemistry with the 2 guys. It starts off with Tavia and Steven as a couple but Steven was just using her to catch their family since they are salt smugglers. Tavia escapes and is rescued by Raymond who is weak from diabetes, but still does everything to try and help her. Raymond feels useless and wants to jump off a cliff but Tavia tries and stop him by reasoning with him and cooking him sweet potatoes. Raymond decides to live his life even though death can still happen at anytime and begins to form a crush on her. His dad is relieved that she saved him and believes that she is his savior so he hopes for a love connection between the 2 as well, so he's happy to take her back home with them. When they go home, she sees Steven and basically wants to kill him even if it kills her first. Raymond saves her life this time by convincing her to move on. Tavia and Raymond grow closer and she begins to feel more comfortable around him since he makes her happy with simple gestures such as showing her firelies. In the meantime, Steven still likes Tavia and does everything to try and protect her. Tavia ends up marrying Raymond to help him take over the salt business (dad's in jail but that's a different story...) but it's in name only. Tavia tries to make it a real marriage but Raymond lies to her and says he never liked her because he knows he will die soon. After the family situation is resolved, Raymond divorces Tavia even though at this time he is fully healed. He wants Tavia to go back to Steven because he thinks that Tavia is still in love with him. In reality, she is confused because she feels that she loves them both and can not let either go.
  
  
  I loved this triangle because there are reasons to support each couple. Steven and Tavia's relationship is more tragic since he deceived her in the beginning and caused the death of her family. Raymond and Tavia are more sweet because they do a lot of things and sacrifice for each other. It was really hard to tell who she would actually choose. To me, I was rooting for Raymond and Tavia to end up together because they made each other happy and you see her smile more when she's with him. I liked how she was also the one to bring the Wu family together. My favorite part is when it was the 3 of them and Tavia was kidding and saying that she doesn't mind what other people think- that's why she should marry them both! The reaction on the guys' faces were really funny! Also, in love triangles, they usually end up making one person turn a little villainous since the producers obviously wants the audience to root for a certain couple, but I'm glad that they didn't take the easy way out. The only thing I didn't like was the ending because I'd rather have Tavia really have to make a choice.
  

• Halina Tam and Cheung Chi Kwon: I like Cheung Chi Kwon in his funnier roles because I think he's a really good character actor. They make a cute couple because of their bickering and how they eventually get together.

• The theme song

• The ending of Pierre Ngo's love triangle- It wasn't something totally shocking but I just didn't expect it. I know the girl on the left is Devily Leung but I don't know who the other girl is. She looks familiar though.
  

• The story line in general was very good with enough twists to keep it interesting
  

Stuff I did not like:

Since I mainly liked the series, I'll just nitpik on a few things. haha

• The Villian's eyebrows. Do they have to make it that obvious?

• Kara Hui called Lok Ying Kwan Big Brother, and silly me, I really thought that they were siblings! So, it shocked and disgusted me for a second when Kara wanted to be queen to his king but then I realized that women called close guy friends Big Brother.

• Let's just say that it ends with Tavia in the snow (weird!) and I had flashbacks of her and Steven in Land of Wealth!

• I think the main thing that the main thing that made this series less than perfect is the ending. It was 25 episodes long but they could have cut it down to 20, or 23, or 24. The last few episodes seemed a little more draggy and the plot twists and drama at the end seemed too fake. The ending is reminiscent of When Easterly Showers Fall on the Sunny West, and I don't like endings like those!
  

I truly recommend this series because the overall story was superb. It sucks that TVB had to warehouse this series but now I'm looking forward to the next Steven and Tavia series. If you liked Safe Guards, or any of the main actors, you will love this series!