Come Home Love: Lo and Behold (2017)

As of the date I am writing this review, this show is still airing on TV. This show originally started off rocky and showed stark differences from the original Come Home Love sitcom. In the first hundred to two hundred episodes or so, there is a story arc involving a ghost that joins the Hung family on their adventures. The ghost leaves the show at around the three hundred mark due to contract issues with TVB, but they tie up the loose ends nicely.

This Come Home Love spinoff is much more lighthearted than the original. It's not as serious and much more conservative and "censored", so it is more suited for children to watch. The original dealt with much more serious issues that may have been unsuitable for kids.

There will be some episodes that seem annoying, cringy, or incredibly infuriating to watch, but I've learned to be persistent because there will be plot twists. Each episode will bound to make you laugh and though it is over four hundred episodes long, with an estimate of around five hundred forty as of 2019, this show is worth watching.

There are meaningful themes in most episodes which I personally appreciate and look forward to. It's fun to watch the characters grow and see how their story unfolds. I'm particularly excited for Koni Liu because this is her first big break and she's doing a great job.

I wasn't too keen on the original theme song, but I really like the one by Jaqueline Wong.

I hope you give this show a try and will enjoy watching this show as much as I do.

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The beginning of the series had some supernatural element in it in the form of a ghost. Later, since the actor who played the ghost left, there have been no more supernatural elements and became a normal sitcom. I am happy that the ghost left because he was the down fall of this series. His acting was over exaggerated and absolutely terrible. However, since this is an ongoing sitcom, there are many discontinuities and strange choices character behaviours. For example, at the start, the new employees (minor supporting, but reoccurring) were introduced as, quick witted but bad personality, slow but honest, and old but kind, yet theses qualities are no where to be found in those characters after this episode.

One major storyline that felt weird as a result is the Bok-si-Mandy-Mary love triangle in which Bok-si is rejected by Mary, but later gives Mandy a chance. I pretty sure the producers planned Mary and Bok-si to get together instead since, it is later revealed that Mary used to like Bok-si, despite that in the last hundred episodes, there are no signs of. But the audience probably liked Bok-si and Mandy, so they made Mandy into a bad girl (even though she was always nicer than Mary). I guess the audience still liked Bok-si and Mandy so the producers decided to stick with it, Mandy became a good girl again, and Mary never showed any signs of liking Bok-si again.

The members of the Hong family are all flawed and I find the father and the eldest sister to be the least likeable in the family. The father is stingy and shows obvious signs of favouritism, particularly his eldest daughter, then his youngest, and lastly his second daughter. He shows so much favouritism to his eldest daughter, that not only does he not stop her bullying, but praises her for it. The eldest daughter, is selfish and horrible. She was born a genius and looks down on her siblings for now having the same achievement as her. She only cares about herself, and her missing lover, yet doesn't even raise their child up right. The second daughter is a workaholic, and a typical HK-girl who wants to bag a rich guy. She is quick witted, capable and pretty. To me, she is the most interesting of the Hong family. The Youngest daughter is a bookworm who know nothing other then studying. She loves to study, but is socially awkward and cannot function in society. The uncle is played by Paul Sinn, who over exaggerates and unnatural. The grandson, who's played by a terrible young actor, is a selfish, lazy, and a coward who is ungrateful for the things he has and does not work hard for what he want. I don't like that the producers doesn't make them improve as the story progresses, but promotes these terrible characteristics as if they were funny (which they aren't). It's not very homely as it feels like each of theses characters would rather be anywhere but home.

The best episodes in my opinion are those that take place in the company. I like the office dynamics between the employees with the rather strange, power battle of the bosses children. I quite like David's obliviousness to the work environment. I wish there were more episodes focusing on the minor employees as well, like Gary, Rebecca, the Yeung Yeung, the security guard, the cafe waiter ect. I liked the KC-Helen relationship at first, since it was refreshing, but later it got our of hand. The producers should just let them be together already and stop with the stupid obstacles.

The worst characters, other than the father and first daughter, is the grandson's friend, who is not only a perv, but a stalker, commits sexual assault, yet the producers are trying to make him likeable with he whole "I'm poor and work multiple part-time jobs to support my family" - which is not an excuse for sexual assault. Somehow the show tries to make sexual assault okay if you're lonely.

I like the old instrumental theme song better than the horrible new Jaqueline one. Bad singing with boring music which doesn't sound anything different from other TVB song.

Overall, there are some good, and some bad episodes. It's a sitcom of only 23 minutes per episode so it's okay to watch say, if you're having dinner, or in the background.

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