Airport Strikers (2020)

I initially thought this drama would be similar to Linewalker, Flying Tigers, or some other TVB police drama/story. But this is just Aiport Police Diaries. There are way too many irrelevant characters with non-important story arcs for those characters. The writers literally just shoved all these characters into 25 episodes and tried to have a story for each of them. But it just doesn't work because they do not add anything to the story.

The beginning of the story is great. A bunch of these police officers is trying to join the Airport Special Forces. Although Hill Cheung is very annoying due to his arrogant behavior, I become curious about why he's like that. Why does he hate Cheung Sir? The main point in this part of the story is, why do they want to become Airport Special Forces? This is where we learn, what motivates them. But after they joined, the story just became a diary for each member of the cast. The characters do not learn anything that is so important to the overall story.

The main lesson I learned from Hill and San Hoi Ching is "let the past die." Hill's hatred towards his father and his brother basically turns him into an arrogant fool. San Hoi Ching blames herself for her brother's death, causing her unable to appreciate her family. But everyone else doesn't really change in the end. I really enjoy watching Matt Yeung's character, Easy. But he has no character progression, other than learning that he cannot trust everyone around him. He is one of the main characters too, yet he barely got much from the drama.

Also, if the drama is about Airport Special Forces, shouldn't there be a little more action? I understand, having terrorist attacks in an airport is not realistic, but this drama itself is already not realistic. There is no climax, no plot twists, etc. The villain is too simple. I don't necessarily believe there is a plot at all in this drama.

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I actually believe TVB did a really good job with the first few episodes, and I actually thought this would become TVB black horse drama (i.e. the one that everyone sleeps on but is actually good). However, I am very disappointed to ay that the rest of the series did not live up to my expectations.

Firstly, there were too many characters, not that it's a bad thing if it were written well. All the characters are different and distinctive. In fact, the way those big cast was introduced was very good. However, their story arcs were very badly written, and unnatural. As much as I like to see TVB's "green leaf" actors get more spotlight, if they don't have a good role, there is no point.

The beginning, was very "The Academy"-like, but the later half of the story became more drama, and less "police", which is disappointing as there aren't many airport police procedurals. You'd think that after "Life on the Line" they could actually produce a well balance procedural drama.

The build up to the final villain was very cliche and unrealistic, which had a disappointing end.

Overall it is just an okay drama, with unfulfilled potential. I wish I could just rewrite the series, because there were so many interesting characters that did not get their story told properly, just because the writers decided to put a load of bs love story.

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Love it but it has its flaws

I firmly believe that this show does not deserve the hate it gets. Its not meant to be a linewalker or the defected or tiger cubs for that matter. Its instead, a lighthearted, slightly different breed of police drama, which I actually like.

Although I love this show and I think it was the first ever tvb drama that I watched, it has its flaws, mainly in the plot.

Plot:
Ill keep it short here. The villain destroys everything. Its a lacklustre villain arc, with a pretty poor ending. I also did not like the ending when Owen Cheung chooses Sisley over the other girl, a bit confusing to be honest.

Acting:
I love Owen Cheung and this is definitely one of his best performances. Not only is his character extremely well written, his acting pull it off in simple, cheesy, Owen fashion. Matt Yeung also deserves some credit here although he has had some better roles (in 伙计办大事).

Songs:
There is no bad Fred Cheng song. Prove me wrong. Also the sub theme is ok but never really liked Hana and her deep voice.

Rewatch:
I would do it. Its a good mix of thrill and laughs.

Whatever the reviews say, don’t skip this show.

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I enjoyed it as a slice of life drama

I think I'm in the minority here, but I actually quite enjoyed this drama, enough to watch it twice over the last few years.

The action is very lackluster to be fair, and the only really interesting 'police' parts is the initial training arc, but I realized early on that that just wasn't the focus of the show. The main villain was also pretty lame by the end of it - they could have done a lot more but it didn't work out.

The thing that I did like about this drama is its focus on the characters. I thought that each character had good moments and interesting stories. Definitely made use of the typical TVB police drama character tropes, but I found it fun nevertheless, and felt they had their own twist on most of tropes. I hated Hill on the first watch but the second time around, he strangely grew on me. May be my current love for the actor, but I genuinely found him funny and charismatic, especially by the second half of the show. I enjoyed his relationship with both love interests, his friendship with Easy, rivalry with his brother, love for his mother, and complicated relationship with his father. He definitely has issues but I liked that he was actually competent when he wasn't blinded by his one-sided rivalry, and that he was genuinely a good person but unable to use nice words.

Easy easily stole the show for me - his character is just so likeable. I wish we got a little more storyline from him outside of romance - I know the whole end villain is about him but I just didn't get very much emotional impact from it. I loved all his scenes with his buddies. It definitely made me interested in watching more from this actor!

One character I didn't expect to like so much was Yan. She was so sweet. I don't usually like the 'ditzy' type of female character but she was really likeable and I love that she knew when to stand up for herself. I hated the mother so much! All the mother characters in this show were extremely annoying and I wish there was some karma there for all the awful things she said.

I also thought the flashback openings were super creative and rarely done in TVB dramas, as far as I know. They actually added a lot to the show and I appreciate the uniqueness of it.

Overall this is a super chill watch, unexpected for a police drama but I've always liked slice-of-life shows that focus on teamwork/friendship. Would definitely rewatch in a few years!

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