Seasons of Love Review

Seasons of Love is basically a filler series. Triumph in the Skies II was actually supposed to start filming but they had to delay it while they waited for Francis Ng's schedule to clear up. Since they had the extra time and cast available, a lot of their stars (Myolie Wu, Kenneth Ma, Ron Ng, Nancy Wu, Him Law, Toby Leung) were available to film short love stories. Each love story had 5 episodes that were weaved together by Kenneth's character who is a private investigator. The thing I liked about this series is that each story had a slightly faster pace and it was easy to skip any stories you didn't care about. However, they didn't do a really good job weaving together all the stories and I thought the romance factor can be ramped up.

Here's my short thoughts on each story. 

More Upcoming Series

点金圣手 Midas Touch- Nancy Wu will be joining the upcoming Chong Wai Kin drama about financial markets. Michael Miu's role was tailor made for him and Sharon Chan will be paired up with him. Bosco Wong will also be a part of this series. (I'm thinking Nancy and Bosco will pair up?)
eta: Michael will no longer be in this series.

 縱橫天地 - Wong Jing series: Liza Wang will portray a mother to her 3 songs: Kenny Wong, Edwin Siu, and Hawick Lau. Selena Li and Wayne Lai will guest star as a young Liza and her husband. Female cast members include Meng Yao, Tiffany Tang, and Kimmy Tong. (Kenneth Ma was originally to be part of the cast but it looks like he had to pass the role since the 3 sons are filled. He recently resigned for another 5 years with TVB with one of the conditions to be that he can film some mainland series, so I'm thinking he may be shooting a mainland series instead of this. His current series won't end filming until October. )

Ron will spend the rest of the year in Hong Kong

According to an interview, Ron will spend the rest of the year in Hong Kong. He's recently been busy filming in Mainland China. Next up, he will film an Amy Wong produced series called 忠奸人 (Good and Evil People) in which he will portray a cop while Roger will portray a lawyer. The rest of the announced cast so far consists of Kristal Tin, Kiki Sheung, Mat Yeung, and Louis Cheung. In November, he will be paired up with Myolie Wu in a Poon Ka Tak production along with Him Law and Louis Cheung. This is supposed to be a big love story in ancient times (most likely between Myolie and Ron).

 

I am so happy that it's a Ron and Myolie pairing instead of Myolie/Him. I think they have a very fun chemistry and I've liked them together ever since Lost in the Chamber of Love. I'd prefer an ancient series over a pre-modern one since Myolie just finished filming No Reserve, which is pre-modern. So happy that Ron will be filming more in Hong Kong and back in more leading roles! Now, they just need to air Ruse of Engagement! haha

Skipped Series

I've watched every single TVB series for maybe the past 8 years. This year, I have skipped 2 so far: The Day of Days and Beauty at War, and there might be a third one I'm going to add to this list: Karma Rider. There's been a bunch of bad series, but I was still able to finish them. However, these series got so boring that I just remain unmotivated to finish them!

The Day of Days

I really wanted to like this series since I like Sunny Chan and he took a long break to take care of his son. It was just really boring mixed in with some confusing parts when they do flashbacks, and I eventually just stopped caring. I stopped at episode 9 and I can't even remember anything that happened.

Beauty At War

This was the highly anticipated sequel to War and Beauty, which I believe is one of their highest rated TVB dramas ever. I liked the original but I was not as obsessed with it as many other people were. That's probably why I didn't mind when a lot of the original cast (other than Sheren and Moses) didn't return since I liked the addition of Ada and Christine Ng. I did think they should have added some more star power in the male side... the first guy that comes to mind is Wayne Lai. When it was time for the series to air, it was plagued with negative news and reviews, especially regarding Sheren Teng. She did a lot of interviews talking about the script changes, not understanding the series, and generally not promoting the series in a positive manner. I don't have a problem with anything Sheren had to say, but she should realize that there would be consequences to her words. I do believe that Sheren's lack of support is only one factor in why the ratings did not do well. The perception was that the main star of the series did not even like this series, so why should viewers bother giving it a chance? The main problem is the slow storyline, although I only watched the first 5 episodes so the pace could have picked up later. The first half of the first episode was really confusing and introduced a bunch of people that no one cares about. The fans want to see Sheren and Moses! They want to see their favorite characters from the first series and they just took too long to show them. By the time they showed up, viewers were probably already too confused and stopped caring.

Someone please convince me that these series are worth picking up again!

Friendly Fire Review

Friendly Fire has a big all star cast which includes Michael Tse, Tavia Yeung, Louis Yuen, Sharon Chan, Sammy Leung, and many others. This series started out pretty well and Michael and Tavia have great chemistry right off the bat. They're already a couple in the beginning which is refreshing but it slightly falls apart after Tavia rejects Michael's marriage proposal since her family has a history of breast cancer. She's afraid that she will cause him heartache if she dies, and she doesn't want to remove her breasts because she thinks he will leave her anyways due not to being a whole female. Couldn't she just get a boob job though?? Sigh... I guess they had to have some drama to get people to root for them though. Sammy and Sharon also make a cute couple and are more of the light-hearted comic relief of the series. 

While I like the characters, the thing that made me dislike the series were the cases!!! There were 5 different cases but it was the last 3 that drove me crazy. *spoilers ahead* There was one case with the murder of a cop, and as the audience, we know who actually did it. However, the case had no real evidence and the main witness was a cop (Patrick Tang) who had already broken the law and proven to had lied on the stand. By the way, Patrick was pretty terrible in this role. Sammy Shum (who played the murderer) was found guilty on faulty evidence and that wouldn't be that bad but then they had the next case where the victim had evidence and witnesses on her side but she still lost. That was the case in which Samantha Ko was raped and although she was in shock, she went straight to the police and had a rape kit done on her. The defendant tried to say she was a liar and a slut since she had once worked as a beer girl... because I guess that's the same as being a prostitute? I don't get it.. and I don't get how Michael could be so incompetent as a lawyer! I guess the lesson is that even if you were raped, went straight to the police, and got a rape kit, you will still not be able to prove you were raped unless you are a 100% pure virgin angel. I know I'm a little worked up but I had hoped that after the string of rapes that TVB has aired, they would present a story that would be able to help any victims of rape. 

In general, I liked most of the actors and their characters, but the storyline deteriorated throughout the series and the cases made me scream. I would not recommend this series.   

Missing You Review

Missing You

*All my series reviews are going to be pretty short. I'm basically going to let you know if I liked the series or not, as well as noting some pros and/or cons.

Missing You stars Linda Chung and Jason Chan in his first leading role and the result is not so great. We basically have Linda acting her little heart out and Jason's wooden acting in comparison is quite jarring. Linda's character here actually reminds me of her role in Moonlight Resonance in which she's in love with a guy that has a boyfriend and she feels guilty about her feelings. I think they made the love triangle a little too cliche by having Lin Xia Wei by having her cheat on Jason. I actually preferred Linda with Mat Yeung at first, but then of course they had to make him a bad guy.

The cases itself are okay but nothing really memorable. I guess my favorite would be the one with Raymond Wong and Elaine Yiu only because I like the actors.

Overall, it was just an OK series and I would recommend it to Linda fans.

Myolie will film a TVB series in November

Myolie Wu and Him Law join Louis Cheung in an upcoming series produced by Poon Ka Tak.  The tentative title is Vinegar Lady and is supposed to be a grand production.

The below is a cartoon the media put together which I thought was funny. haha. Myolie and Tavia are good friends so of course she would never try to steal him away.


Source: ihktv

Always and Ever Official Poster

I'm excited to watch this series! I wish more cast members were on this poster but Bobby and Esther is really the selling point of this series.

Updates

As you can tell, I've been neglecting this blog a bit only because I've been super busy but I'm going to try and update more often... especially since Triumph in the Skies 2 is finally airing! I really loved the first series so I was anxious for this series to begin airing and it has not disappointed me so far. It was a perfect start with Francis opening his eyes to watch a plane and then it flashes to Ron and Kenneth reuniting. There are small flashbacks littered throughout the first few episodes without it being too overwhelming. Of course, one of the standout new characters is Jayden Koo, played by Chilam, who is able to charm all the ladies except for the one who he cares about the most- his sister. I'm also so happy that Myolie finally appeared more in episode 5! Her new character is soooo different than Zoe and is a total tomboy. When she was lifting weights in her room, I was a little shocked at how "man" she is. haha. I can't wait for next week since we're going to learn more about Chilam and Myolie's relationship.

(credit to huochevan on tumblr)

The other series I'm watching are Come Home Love and Karma Rider. Come Home Love recently extended to 500 episodes and there are going to be some new characters added soon. I don't know if these are just cameos, recurring characters (like Kenny Wong), or more permanent ones (like Roxanne Tong) but Alice Chan and Joyce Tang are a few that will appear soon. I don't mind, but I just need Queenie and Lai Lok Yi's characters to get together already!  The other series I'm watching is Karma Rider and it's pretty boring. I'm only on the 3rd episode and it's just so blah. This might end up being the third series this year that I might now finish watching. The other 2 are The Day of Days and Beauty At War. I might try to finish them one day and I don't want to say that they're bad without finishing it but they were not able to capture my attention. I've watched every series since 2005 so I'm actually shocked at myself for not being able to finish these series! sigh..

I think I'm going to start short reviews of all the series I watched this year as my next few posts.

Fred Cheng

Fred Cheng is one of the competitors on Hong Kong's The Voice and he is definitely the breakout star. This past week he performed Angels and I got misty eyed by the end. Hope he gets a record deal!