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PhoenixKhan

USA

PhoenixKhan

USA
Completed
The Heir to the Throne
2 people found this review helpful
Jun 23, 2024
30 of 30 episodes seen
Completed 1
Overall 5.0
Story 3.5
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 8.5
Rewatch Value 2.0
This review may contain spoilers

Too many plot points get built up to be abandoned, while the rest of the series relies on tropes.

*MAJOR SPOILERS - A RANT*
**I will be using the actors' names instead of their roles for sake of simplicity.

Cons:
- Raymond Lam's character is introduced as a competent lawyer for the Yau's, but we never see him do any lawyer work. Oh yeah, cause he's doing all the investigations for the cops.

- The cops don't do anything. When they do, it's telling civilians about *all* of their findings. I get the cop's a friend, but isn't it protocol to not release information outside of the investigative team, especially to family members of the deceased who are usually prime suspects?!

- How in the world did the forensics team not find that giant crystal ball under Gallen's desk the night of the crime? But instead they found it which seemed like weeks later? The police team is bad, but the forensics team is worse.

- Benz Hui had one badass scene where he confronts Gallen, and says he will assume the Vice-Chairman position, just for him to immediately give all his holdings to Charmaine later. He never did anything. The whole series he's pining for his wife and he failed at understanding / protecting her at that too. Dude really wants to travel the world. That's like his main goal.

- What happened to Charmaine's Plaza plan? It was brushed off. I get it's not part of the main plot but its sole existence was to cause a fire (that occurred off-screen btw). All the business stuff was just talk and no show. Charmaine's the protagonist right? Why is her storyline brushed off?

- Similar to the point above, they could've incorporated a little more group corporate scenes instead of just 1v1 conversations. The whole plot revolves around the "Yau's family business." That's what everyone's fighting for. Well, we never get to see much of the business operations besides people sitting at their desks like any office. Could be a budget issue, but it's mostly talking. This is an example of the writers going "believe it's important because we tell you it's important."

- Everyone got away with everything so easily!!! Gallen's first wife was dumb, conniving, and cruel in the way she blamed other people with no evidence. She never had her comeuppance! Once she lost her husband, she decided to turn 360 and do charity work? Lady, you caused a woman to lose her baby and humiliated her in front of everyone, and indirectly caused her whole family to die.

- Gallen's second wife was even worse! You can say her punishment was losing her 2 kids but lady got off waaaay too easily. She was the root cause of everything. She was evil and scheming (telling Niki who caused her miscarriage, switching multiple babies, lying to her husband, being a mistress, spoiling her children). She was not a pure soul, the way the show wanted you to believe at the end. And how did the police let her get away with taking the blame to protect her son? Isn't that obstruction of justice? The police were like "ma'am, you're free to go after giving false testimony!!!"

- Raymond was waaay too harsh on Gallen. Yes, Gallen caused his dad's death but he did not intend to kill. He was just letting out his anger, which is understandable because he raised Hugo's 2 kids for 30 years!!! Hugo even said he would accept any punishment from Gallen. Raymond telling Gallen to be apologetic to his dad in the afterlife at Gallen's grave was so off-putting.

- Everything was too predictable. The moment Tobey died, I was saying to myself "Please don't be Him Law. Please don't be Him Law. It's too predictable. Please let there be a twist villain." Nope, it's Him Law.

- Raymond Lam does not deserve Charmaine. Bro cheated. Raymond Wong was the best character. Ending sucks.

- Charmaine was too passive. Everything happened to her; she didn't do much. Her only fight back was that one confrontation with Him Law that made him almost slap her. She is constantly complimented for being smart and strong by others in the show. But it's mostly talk? She had a great scene in the prison where she held down the prisoner lady for crumbling her pig photo. It was a great scene. I wanted to see more of that! Don't tell me she's strong, show me she's strong!

- So Him Law is in an indefinite coma? That's his ending? Would've been better if Gallen decided to not change the will, and Him realizes that Gallen harbored love for him, and feels remorse. Dude should either live in guilt the rest of life in jail, or go out all evil. Instead, he just gets hit by a car and hooked up to a machine the rest of his life without facing the consequences of anything he's done.

- Him Law had more screen time than Raymond Lam, who I thought was supposed to be the male lead. Feels a bit like false advertisement.

- Raymond's and Charmaine's return as an on-screen couple is wasted here.

- Some acting was too over the top (Gallen's first wife and Tobey at some parts). Poor Tobey though. I would've gone insane too.

- I have a really hard time believing Tobey, Jeannie, and Him are the same age and Tobey and Him are fraternal twins, though I understand casting twins is tricky.

- What happened to Charmaine's mom's boyfriend? He gave me "sus" vibes but he didn't do anything in the end.

Pros:
- This is Him Law's best acting to date. Dude poured his heart into it.

- Him Law and Venus Wong have great chemistry. I enjoyed their side story; it was wrong but it was interesting.

- Veteran actors like Benz Hui, Gallen Lo, Hugo Ng did not disappoint despite their limited screen time.

- I like the pig plushie scene as a callout to My Sister of Eternal Flower.

- I do like the line that Charmaine said about how her grandfather and Gallen were misogynists and favored boys over girls, but in the end it's 2 girls (her and Jeannie) that are holding up the family.

- I like the irony that Him Law spent so much time winning the heart and marrying someone he didn't love (Gigi, the Malaysian tycoon's daughter) to benefit himself and the "family business," and Charmaine did the exact same thing by marrying Raymond Wong at the end. The "heir" is truly a curse.

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Completed
The Master of Tai Chi
0 people found this review helpful
Aug 5, 2024
25 of 25 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 2.0
Story 2.0
Acting/Cast 5.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 2.5
This review may contain spoilers

Terrible, amateurish writing - Good fight choreography

This show doesn't have an original bone in its body. It reeks of the writers throwing a bunch of tropes at the wall to see what sticks. Massive shame because the martial arts scenes are very well choreographed, and the actors obviously put in a lot of training. Unfortunately the writing is incredibly amateur.

I'd recommend if you're just gonna watch fight scenes. Unfortunately, the romance stuff is so long-winded that the tai chi plot is sidelined. Characters are soooo inconsistent. Most of them do not have half a brain, making everyone unlikeable except for Melissa Ng who is the only consistent character.

One moment someone's angry, next moment they're laughing. (Examples: Kenneth abandons Melissa for Selena, then later accuses Vincent of stealing Melissa from him. Kenneth accuses Selena of seducing him. Selena breaks down. She finds out she's pregnant. Kenneth becomes accepting of Vincent and Melissa's relationship. And nothing is ever acknowledged between Kenneth and Selena. What??? Where is the flow?) That is just ONE instance.

(There's the whole mess of Vincent's shifu lying to him that he killed his father to improve Vincent's "martial arts" just for Vincent's immediate go-to is try to poison him instead of a 1v1 confrontation LOL). That part was laughable.

There is absolutely no flow or subtlety in anything. If you care for angst at a very very surface level, well this series if FULL of angst. I love angst if it makes sense, not when it's inconsistent at the expense of the characters.

Other things that don't make sense:

Sorry, but Myolie is not pretty enough to play a character where Raymond is unreasonably infatuated with her. It's not like she's unique or impressively intelligent/ambitious as a woman in the Chinese Republican times. She just showed up out of nowhere and he's head over heels. She doesn't have enough charisma and charm to play this role. I understand her character isn't supposed to be redeeming until the end, but this was a terrible miscast. I believe Selena could've pulled off this role a little better.

Kenneth and Selena have no chemistry. That's when you know the script is bad because these two have played a very successful pair in other shows but here, both are equally annoying. I still question if Kenneth ever truly loved Selena and why in the world does an independent and clever character like Selena would fall for a bumpkin like Kenneth so easily.

There are several deaths that are absolutely terrible I laughed at my TV screen. The writers were like "We're near the end. We need someone to die to create some tension. Oh, her. She's important but not important enough. Let's just have her throw her nimble self in the midst of a random fight and get one-punched to death."

Thugs show up at the most convenient times.

Just a few tropes I can think of at the top of my head:
Love triangles (every romantic storyline is a love triangle!!!)
Memory loss
Forced marriage causes girl to runaway
Drugged & slept with the wrong person
Failed wedding
Dirty cop
Fake deaths
Lost child reuniting with parent
Tense mother & daughter in law relationship
Avenging father's death
Falling for the daughter of your father's killer
The shifu sacrifices himself for student
Scornful one-sided lover
Very convenient pregnancy
Shunning one away for their "safety"
Misunderstandings because of poor communication

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