May-June Variety Shows

It’s time for another round-up of TVB’s variety shows under the direction of Eric Tsang and Wong Cho Lam. Through May and June, it felt like TVB was producing variety shows at a breakneck pace and ended up giving short shrift to its shows. Many of the concepts have potential, but was not given enough time to develop. 

• Dub of War (好聲好戲): The show shined a spotlight on the unseen voice actors at TVB. It was amazing to learn about how dubbing works and all the skills it takes to do a good job. I was genuinely surprised by the excellent performances from some of the participants. Rating: 9/10. 

My top five most impressive performances: 

5. Yuki Law and Marktwo Lee - For newbies, this was an impressive performance. Especially when Marktwo says his first line, I thought they were using Ron Ng’s voice.

4. Moon Lau and Tedford Wong - Moon and Tedford were better at dubbing characters outside of their age range than the three finalists. 

3. Sisley Choi and Owen Cheung - They sounded as if they were playing the original clip. The chip goes through a lot of emotions and both of them were handled it well. Owen Cheung has always been more impressive doing imitations than using his own voice. 

2. Yoyo Chen - Yoyo was able to speak in another dialect as if she was fluent and no one even taught her!

1. Joey Thye - I was most surprised by Joey’s performance. She sounds just like Grace Chan and even timed her breathing and crying perfectly with the clip. 

Bonus: Coty Wong and Tinson Lung - They are instructors for a reason. Their performance was at the next level. 

• Case Unclosed (死因有可疑): In the first head-to-head battle with ViuTV, TVB brought a knife to a gunfight. The show looked like an amateur production next to ViuTV’s serious efforts. It is disappointing because I really like the concept of a murder-mystery show. Rating: 5/10. [Full review here]

• Top Sales (識貨): This was essentially an advertising spot disguised as a show. Zero interest from me when I couldn’t (and wouldn’t, even if I could) buy the products they were selling. But Yoyo Chen is on a hot streak. Rating: 2/10. 

• Prelude to TVB All Star Games: The Ring (明星運動會前哨戰: Fight盡): The show suffered from some major cutting issues. Training, interview and competition clips were haphazardly thrown together like a tossed salad. The show also makes a lacklustre effort to introduce the fighters to the audience. The audience can’t feel like they are part of the fighters’ journeys when they only see them for seconds at a time and barely know who they are. Rating: 4/10. 

• Mean Talk: I loved the juicy gossip that was being spilled on the show! Six episodes was definitely too short. There’s plenty more tea to be spilled. Rating: 7/10.

Overview - Wife Interrupted

This is a story about an ordinary person who will go through fire and water to save his beloved wife. Computer engineer Hubert Wu and his wife Moon Lau have an ordinary, blissful life. One morning, Hubert and Moon are suddenly kidnapped by the triads. They claim that Hubert embezzled $100 million from them and demands that he return the money within 72 hours, or else they will kill Moon! While reporting the incident to the police, the perplexed Hubert encounters his old friends, passionate detective Alvin Ng and his high-school crush Ashley Chu. Ashley accompanies Hubert on his journey to save his wife. After investigating, they find out that this is related to a youth hostel that Hubert once stayed at. The online trading platform that he had operated with his friends at the hostel has turned into a money-laundering platform. To find the person behind the scheme, the pair investigate each of the former guests who stayed at the hostel. The process brings up events from the past and they hone in on Telford Wong as their target. The deadline to save his wife is approaching. As Hubert gets closer to the truth, he discovers that Ashley, Alvin, Telford and even Moon has a side that no one knows about...