Premium Member- Diablo

*Note I have been watching TVB series my entire life, it was my childhood, my past time, my hobby but I hate to say this....but TVB is really not living up to it's name, to put it bluntly they are now a shadow of their former self, they are really bad. Here it goes.

Hello guys, this is my first post here on Asianuniverse.net , I hope to meet all of your acquaintances for the months/years to come. Today, I write to address the ongoing problems with TVB and discuss my feelings towards their production in recent years. I want to make this short because it's getting rather late and I don't want to make this a huge rant. After watching the first episode of When Heaven Burns, I felt rather distraught because it made me realize how lackluster the productions of TVB have become ever since the golden ages of the 80's, 90's as well as the early 2000's. It is rather undeniable that their film making technology has come a long way and I'm not one to complain because I watch most of the so called "dramas" in 720p so I can't complain about the quality. However, everything else has been abhorrently bad, the acting/scripts/actor rotations etc etc have all been tarnishing TVB's name which has resulted in their reputation taking a major hit. In the last two years, many talented actors such as (Sammul Chan, Charmaine Sheh, Michael Tao, Lee Kwok Leun, Joe Ma, Bowie Lam, Gigi Lai (Due to Marriage/Daughters/Family Life) and many others have decided to take their talents to China and pursue their careers there for more money and stardom.

In addition to the horrible series which TVB is being ridiculed for, they have also been scolded for mistreating their employees (most notably their mistreatment towards Sammul Chan (An extremely talented actor) and trying to haggle him for $100 HKD (I mean comon are you serious?). He is now making 7 figure digits in China PER SERIES, filming series like Beauty Scheming, Love at dusk, Luan Shi Jia Ren etc.

I have always liked Sammul Chan's versatile acting but TVB being TVB has not promoted him in the least when he was contracted with them (Gave him no leading roles) in any series as well as promoted everyone else (Ron/Raymond/Bosco/Kenneth) and left him in the cold. The mistreatment forced him to leave TVB and he refused to resign with them in 2011. His choice of not resigning with TVB was in my opinion the best choice he could have made, I support him 100%. I have watched 3 of his series in China (Lost at dusk, Beauty Scheming, The golden age of leftover ladies. I'm so impressed, he is definitely lead acting material, but TVB will never realize that. I hope TVB regrets their decision of not promoting him, he really deserved it.

Surprisingly, TVB is sending several of their popular actors (Raymond Lam [Ad Mania], Kevin Cheng [Startling by each step], Myolie Wu [Beauty Schemes] to try and expand their reputations, this is a very good move by TVB. I hope they can keep it up. I still hate them for treating Sammul the way they did, but Sammul is now making a fortune filming in China, Charmaine (My favorite actress) will also be doing the same. It is a shame that she is leaving TVB however because I really loved her series (Maiden's vow, Heaven sword (), BTROC, WaB etc) but if it's time to make the transition to China, then so be it.

There are however exceptions to when I say "TVB in recent times is responsible for making mostly bad series," series such as Rosy Business 1/2, moonlight res/ heart of greed, BTROC (beyond the realm of conscience), square pegs with Roger have all been memorable series and taken an important place in my heart. TVB needs to produce more series of this caliber in order to revive their tarnished reputation.

The biggest problem that I have with TVB is not their oh so horrible storylines (even though this is one of the main reasons for my dissatisfaction), but with their main actor rotations. It is asinine how they manage to USE THE SAME set of ACTORS over and over again as the main protagonist in all of their grand production series, I think everyone can agree with this fact. The main leads are usually 1. Ron Ng, 2. Raymond Lam, 3. Tavia Yeung 4. Myolie Wu 5. Kate Tsui. The lack of good experienced actors have certainly put them in a position to keep recycling these actors but a TV production company of TVB's name cannot keep using this excuse, they have to go out of their way and try to bind good quality actors to partake in their series. Spend a little more to gather great actors. As one would say "Spend money to make money," in this case TVB can benefit from a greater production, more money as well as revive their glory.

Theme songs have also been a problem as every MAIN THEME SONG in an ancient series is sung by none other than Susanna Kwan. I really like her voice but it really does get irritating having to listen to her voice every time an ancient series is broadcasting, they need to get some fresh blood in there (Good choice to choose Ron Ng (Red Butterfly- Rosy Business) I really liked that, maybe acquire old theme song singers like Jacky Cheung (I know this is expensive because he is one of the four heavenly kings and may charge a good amount but it would be fascinating to see him sing a theme song, he sang Flying fox of the snowy mountain 1999 (was a great theme song), EMIL CHAU (Known for singing a good number of theme songs back when TVB was making Jin Yong series adaptations). I would surely appreciate it if the next ancient series did not have Susanna Kwan singing the theme song, it HONESTLY GETS VERY OLD and boring.

Choosing the right actors for their ancient series is also extremely important. Their horrible adaptations of Jin Yong Series (Crimson Saber, Heaven Sword Dragon Saber, Flying Fox) as well as their horrible choices for actors to portray certain Jin Yong characters enraged Jin Yong furiously and as a result, TVB has been awarded the patended BAN HAMMER from the author himself from ever adapting his novels again in a drama. From what I can remember, Jin Yong was extremely disappointed with TVB's choice to have Lawrence Ng (Who was 38-40 at that time) portray Zhang Wu Ji (Cheung Mo Gei In Cantonese), a 15-17 year old teenager HUH? Sigh..... TVB.... The Wuxia Adaptations were by far and away my favorite set of dramas, examples would be (ROCH (1995) with Louis/Carmen, Demi God Semi Devil (1997) with Felix/Benny/Louis Fan, State of Divinity (Jackie (GREAT GREAT GREAT PORTRAYAL OF LHC) and several others.

I will be making more addresses in the future, I hope everyone can comment and post. I may get some hate responses but this is really how I feel towards recent TVB productions. Thank you ASIANUNIVERSE.

From RAV4-07:

Anyone notice that lots of stories are nonsense and silly.
Example:someone from the uneducation back ground can become a manager in a big company , a chairman , a director ...vv.
- Left home at the age of 6 and living on street until he found his family back at the age of 26 . Then he can write , can managed , can read and become a Boss.

similar topic merged.

This post has been edited by SerenityHope: Apr 1 2012, 10:02 PM