the dry spell/at the lowest point

Since Love Guaranteed released in July, something happened to TVB. What started out as a relatively breakthrough year for TVB turned bland and sour quickly. The buzz wore off. TVB became mediocre and uneventful again. TVB is currently in a state of dry spell and has been so for the last six months.

TVB is so drab and uninteresting right now. Big hits of quality like The Dance of Passion, La Femme Desperado, and Forensic Heroes that dominated the first half of the year are nowhere to be found. Instead, TVB keeps releasing one "filler" series after another. Ratings and series discussions have also been stale, reflecting the dry spell.

The 2006 "anniversary" series selections have been the worst in years. In the past, series such as Country Spirit and A Step Into The Past were given the prestigious "anniversary series" title. They were truly special grand productions with plenty of merit. This year, sadly, TVB picked To Grow With Love and Glittering Days. Two comedies? You have to be kidding me. Glittering was an understandable selection because it is a grand production, musical-based series with Liza Wang, Roger Kwok, and Charmaine Sheh leading, but Grow? The series was half-baked to begin with, but with TVB rushing it to release it as an "anniversary series" made matters even worse. I really hated the two series that TVB picked to represent its 39th year and for the first time, I'm not going to be watching either anniversary series. [Last year, among the anniversary series, I skipped Life Made Simple and Real Kung Fu and only watched The Charm Beneath - which was also arguably 2005's best series.]

Now, in this post-anniversary period, where TVB expects ratings to be low, what do they air? Two long series! Dicey Business has 35 episodes and The Conquest has 42 episodes. Dicey won't finish airing until January and Conquest doesn't conclude until February. I don't have anything against these two series, but the fact that they won't finish airing for a "long time" just makes me groan. It makes the wait even longer for series that I'm anticipating.

Right now, my interest in TVB is at its lowest point ever. I find myself being so bored with TVB. It's not exciting anymore and I'm not engrossed in any series. I'm watching War and Destiny and Face to Fate, but I'm not enjoying either very much. I suppose it's because I'm not crazy about any of the cast members of either series. I'm so unimpressed by TVB as of late. Perhaps I'm being too cynical and demanding... but TVB is not pushing the right buttons for me at this point.

War started off quite good and interesting. However, the novelty wore off. I find it to be dragging. I have a little more than ten episodes to go and it is a little better now with everyone returning to Nanjing. The war scenes were disappointing. They just showed a bunch of people getting killed and attacked without really explaining what was going on. The scenes with the "Koo" family in the village were so boring and clichéd. In fact, War in itself is predictable. I don't find anything really surprising.

I am so sick of Ron Ng declaring over and over again about how he's not Japanese and for extra effect, he's always destroying something. The role could have proved to be interesting if only someone more competent had acted it. Instead, we have Ron who can't seem to make any expressions at all. Is he even alive? He looks so stoned and dead all the time. His limited expressions are so predictable and unnatural and his character is frustrating because it's once again a hot-tempered, immature one. Then we have Myolie Wu, who is acting so mechanically and insincerely. She cries over and over again - we get it, you can cry. I dislike her character as well. She's way too nice and self-sacrificing that it's fake. I also find it absurd how she is so against Sunny Chan's character and yet expects him to help her over and over again. It is so frustrating watching her. TVB claims that "Ping On" is their version of "Jang-geum" (from Korean mega-drama Jewel in the Palace)... please. It doesn't even come close. "Jang-geum" was someone you could root for and love because she was genuinely human; "Ping On" is someone you want to slap and tell her to wake up and live in reality. Mandy Cho tries to be all "mysterious" that I can't help but laugh. Her singing scenes are a joke. She looks pretty in those Japanese costumes, though. She has improved, but...

The only good people in War are Sunny, Angelina Lo, Lau Dan, Leila Tong, and Charmaine Li. Sunny is so good in War. I love his character. He's someone that's real and fascinating. It is so refreshing to see Angelina play an "evil" role and she does it just as well as her warm, funny motherly roles. It's great that they gave her more layers as the series progressed. Lau Dan is perhaps my favorite veteran actor. No matter if it's as an antagonist or a protagonist, he continues to be great. I used to love Leila when she had those small roles in series. I remember seeing her in Good Against Evil as Deric Wan's little sister. I was thinking how incredibly cute she was and was happy when she got bigger roles in series. However, the love died and I became neutral. War has made me like her again. She is quite pretty in this and her role is interesting as well. Charmaine Li really impressed me since she made her first appearance in War. I was shocked to see that she really does resemble Sheren Tang at certain angles. She is quite good and I definitely like her role. She acts out as a plead for attention and love.

I don't even know why I'm watching Fate. I made it very clear that I was going to "skip" it many times because I am appalled by the atrocious costumes and I've made up my mind to skip all wuxia series from TVB. However, I kept reading how everyone thinks it's so good, so I had to watch it and see what the hype was all about. I may be stubborn, but I won't let a series get away if it really is good. I don't like Fate. I'm up to episode 5 now and it still hasn't clicked with me. The costumes are so appalling and the storyline doesn't interest me. However, I find Frankie Lam's "future foreseeing" ability to be quite cool and fascinating. Sadly, his performance has reverted to being "boring" and "scholarly" again. Raymond Lam's character and his "miracle healing" skills are also cool. I'm not into fantasy and the costumes make the series look so unattractive and ridiculous. However, I will continue to watch because I have the whole series already even though I'm not exactly liking it. Hopefully it will get better now that Selena Li's character has appeared...

Between War and Fate, I enjoy War more. However, the pace at which I'm watching both are so slow. I can't bring myself to watch them simply because I'm not intrigued by either. I feel like my time is better spent rewatching episodes of Virtues of Harmony that I've seen a million times already.

Perhaps I'm feeling so iffy about TVB now because I'm genuinely not very interested in anything that it has to offer lately. A big part of this lies in the fact that none of the series that have released have any of my favorites in them - in particular Linda Chung. I miss her so much. Out of all the series that have released from July to now, I'm skipping all of them besides War and Destiny, Face to Fate, Land of Wealth, and Dicey Business. That's four series out of ten. Everything else feels so "filler" and bland to me, so I won't be wasting my time or money. [Actually, I'm thinking twice about Wealth right now. The reviews aren't that great and ratings were low. The series just looks so attractive and "grand" to me that it would be a shame if I end up skipping it since I anticipated it so much. However, I really don't want to watch a dragging and not-so-good series. Any thoughts, anyone?]

I feel so dispassionate about watching TVB these days. 2007 - please come quickly and save TVB from its dry spell. I have a lot of faith in many series that will release next year. Brink of Law is slated to be the first release of 2007, so I think it will be able to rescue TVB and make it luscious and vibrant again. Until then, I will continue to find myself feeling so disappointed and indifferent towards TVB. I feel like giving a big "sigh" when it comes to TVB right now.

Does anyone else feel the drab heat of TVB's excessively long dry spell?