"Like I said above, I had to adjust my rating for this series from 4 and a half stars to this present one because this series felt like it was never going to end, it was increasingly repetetive, the plot unimaginative and the entire premise so been there done that. Saving grace is Francis Ng. So don't miss this one for the sake of Francis."
SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!
"Chung Seung Wan Siu" which basically means rushing or shooting or flying or aiming for the skies. Triumph in the Skies is quite an interesting title though there aren't any triumph of such sort in this series in the skies. I mean this is not a disaster series. But the English title's acronym is TITS. Very very very funny.
Released In
2003
Character-Cast
Francis Ng as Samuel Tong (Tong Yik Sum)
Flora Chan as Isabelle Lok (Lok Yi San)
Joe Ma as Vincent Ling (Ling Wan Chi)
Myolie Wu as Zoe (Zo-e)
Ron Ng as Isaac Tong (Tong Yik Fung)
Sammul Chan as Donald Man (Chung Siu which generally means "Master Chung")
Michelle Ye as Zita Tong (Tong Hay Yan)
Bosco Wong as Chris Tse (Tse Lap Ho)
Kenneth Ma as Roy Ko (Ko Sze Won)
Jerry Lam as Paul (Mok Sin Bor or Paul Biu Gor "Cousin Paul")
Louisa So as Ruby
Shek Sau as Philip Tong
Mary Hon as Cammy Tong
Nancy Wu as CoCo Ling
Eileen Yeow as Mimi Chow
Tang Chi Fung as Tony Ching
Lok Ying Kwan as Taylor Kam Muk Tai
With guest stars ranging from Eason Chan as Eason Chan to Twins as Twins (as in long lost sisters), Dave Wang as piano man Josh Wang and Patrick Tang as Tai Hung.
No. Of Episodes
40
Summary
A series about the ups and downs of people with glamarous jobs like pilots, air stewardess and the ground crews of Chep Lap Kok airport.
Plot
I have written Episodic Thoughts for each episode, summarising the plots and my opinions as well. Do have a read. I must warn you though; they're filled with spoilers. Basically you will know the beginning, the middle and the end. As for this review, I will reveal one big spoiler here since my discussions will centre around this one character at some point; Vincent, played by Joe Ma will die somewhere mid of this series. There! Said it!
Comments
I must confess; I really wanted to give this series a rating of 4 and a half stars at first when I was writing my Episodic Thoughts, but the problem with writing Episodic Thoughts is as you go along comenting on everything you kinda realise you noticed too much of this series. So with the weaknesses of this series still fresh in my mind, I could not give it that high a rating because this series has major problems.
Performance wise, I will stress this series boasts some fine acting by a select few but enough to get you hooked earlier on. That is the beauty of this series. It looks expensive, since there are planes, you see the filming at the real airport itself as mention in the TMO of this series, you see some very stylish costumes, expensive locations such as Rome, Adelaide and Japan. You see beautiful sceneries, you see lots of westerners whom I suspect are real pilots and many many more. All these when put together does create a very glamour-ish backdrop for a series and therefore very interesting. I promise you, you will be hooked earlier on, more so if you love Flora Chan because the earlier parts were mostly about her. The most interesting part may to some be the training sessions of the young pilots at the Adelaide cadet training school, but to me it is the relationships. All went well earlier on, the series picked up pace as the characters went through many life changing decisions but sometimes slumped back down with some repeats but basically it was bearable. But somewhere, some time, this series went very very wrong and to me crashed to the ground. It survived the crash but basically the series suffered heavy injuries, so to speak. Let me elaborate.
The problems are basically this;
1. plot
2. pacing
3. performance
Whilst I woould like to stress the performance are generally good, there are one or two who gave average performance in a role that requires more than that. Let's go one by one.
The Plot
It's one dimensional. It may be about pilots, but any profession can be used for this series since it is more about love and relationships. The most tiring thing about this series is its repetitions. We know Sam and Belle fell in love right from the beginning but parted ways on very bad terms. Then Belle met Vincent and Vincent turned out to be Sam'e very best friend. Vincent then found out about Belle and Sam's very short but very emotionally linked affair decided to let Belle choose. Sam couldn't take Belle away from Vincent as he is the more subdue, calm, quiet one whilst Vincent is the loud, flamboyant, flirtatious one who somehow fell in love with Belle, the hopeless romantic. Some events led to Belle agreeing to marry Vincent, and even after marriage, Belle had this thinking that perhaps Sam was the one. When Vincent realised how close they were and Sam was having some great success like becoming a captain, we see jealousy, we see anger. But when Vincent was ok with it, it was Belle's turn to be uncertain and we see Vincent leaving Belle. And when Belle was still coming to terms with her feelings with Vincent, we see Vincent dying. Then Belle became too much in grief whilst it was Sam's turn to be uncertain thought he was seeing Zoe, a girl 15 years his junior. Uncertainty after uncertainty, Belle finally realised she loved Vincent and Sam realised he loved Zoe and then we have one tragedy after another. It went on and on and on. Of course there are other characters whose story was worse than this; like the unbelievable love story between Donald, Zita and Isaac. But to be fair, this part of the story never had a chance to develop much because 90% of this series was centred on Belle, Sam, Vincent and Zoe, or more accurately, 60% Belle, Sam, Vincent and 30% Sam, Zoe and Zoe's heart disease. It became increasingly repetetive and boring whilst once every while we are reminded hey! There's Donald, Tina and everybody else. Because of this overwhelming one plot, others got neglected, seriously neglected and for them, what I could see was half cooked plot which was unreal, inconsistent and corny.
Vincent's death was also meant to be a shocker but I knew earlier on he will die because I read it in a review he will die. If you didn't read any reviews, sure, it will shock you. More on this in the character analysis below.
And sometimes we have some cute scenes like Sam and Zoe trying to work things out with their generation gap. First cute scene, very cute, very funny. But again and again and again, it kinda felt old. I felt like I was having episodic gap you know, the whole generation gap problem was so yesterday when Zoe and Sam were at it again and again.
The one plot which I really love to watch is the growing respect and understanding between Sam and Isaac who was first Sam's uncle but turned out to be his little brother. However the plot of how his mother left his father was ridiculous, illogical.
Then there is the missing persons plot as in missing persons in a plot. At most time you expect certain people to appear at times of crisis but they never appear like Zoe's family when she was really sick, Ruby when Belle was commiting suicide whilst often we see sudden plots like Coco falling for Chris and as sudden as they started, they also parted ways as suddenly. I don't like such sudden plots, it either means bad writing or bad editing and neither is good.
Pacing
And due to the repetetive plot, we have a problem with the pacing. This series could have just ended with 30 episodes, nicely in fact. But dragged on and on to reach number 40, and in the end the entire series felt like one never ending soap opera. Whatever novelty and charm it had in the beginning, by episode 25 or so, it felt much too long for me. And also due to this pacing problem, we will be reminded again and again of Belle's uncertainty, then Sam's uncertainty and finally Zoe's sickness being detailed one episode by one episode. I realised, the longer it takes for one main character to die in a TVB series, that character will never die. The one that will die is the one like Vincent. He had to die. Because right before his death, this series was already going downhill with the constant uncertainty of Belle. It was getting nowhere, and it was only about half way through. Something must happen to make something else happen and since Vincent is like the best friend character and little else to do, logically he had to go. At this point I was actually thinking this was a ploy to get Belle and Sam together again. And I suspect it was so until someone must have thought there was Zoe. And also to add some drama of course.
Performance
SAM TONG
The Character
I love this character from the word GO. He was just an ordinary guy, of course he was the best pilot and all. But he was pretty boring, he had very few friends, no girlfriends, he dress older than his age and he has the most ridiculous hairstyle. The only thing that may make him interesting in the eyes of other girls is the fact that he is best friends with Vincent, the more popular, flamboyant, handsome one. Those you expect pilots to be.
But two women fell for him. Belle fell for him because he was there at all the right times and Zoe fell for him because she could feel safe with him.
Sam gives me an impression that he is stable, calm, totally unshakeable. And yet at times he displayed anger, like the way he felt for Isaac earlier on and as this series ended, we see a more desperate and hopeless Sam. Sure he was confident and cool and all, but when faced with the fact of losing his best friend and then the idea of the woman he loved may die as well, he broke down, emotionally. We see a very exposed Sam. In the beginning he was closed emotionally, so it was very interesting to see so many bad things thrown at him from friends dying to eyesight affected by one unfortunate accident to fearing, angry, sadness... basically we see a very interesting progression of digression of this character. This entire series without a strong writing of one single main character would certainly fail, so luckily the characterisation of Sam is gripping and borderline obsessive. I was hooked because of Sam. And yet the writing also flatered somewhere in the middle when Sam again and again doubted his love for Zoe, again and again wondered if he still loved Belle.. he became very Belle-ish which was bad news. I was losing my patience with him but in retrospect, I would say even with such bad writing in the middle, this character is still gripping and interesting.
And you may ask what is so interesting about such a boring man? Easy. He looked like he was emotionally closed,so often you wonder what was going on through his mind. Like Zoe, we get to discover him one step at a time, so at some point you kinda feel a certain connection with this character. This is more so very important when he is the lead here, the entire plot almost revolved around him and if you don't care or even find him interesting, you might as well switch off the TV.
The Actor : Francis Ng
And one reason why Sam is such an interesting character is because there is one very excellent actor play him. Often interesting characters become unbearably monotone because of one bad actor or one very uneventful character becoming very layered and multi-faceted because of one very good actor. Francis Ng is not my idea of a typical heart throb or leading man. In fact he looked like a psycho with his piercing eyes and lazy drawl way of talking. He looks pretty boring in real life. And yet amazingly when this man act, he can be so engrossing. His face fills up the entire TV, you kinda forgot there may be someone next to him. He gave Sam his very own interpretation, a quiet, emotionally closed but strong willed and opinionated character. His Sam felt like my dream husband, dependable,loyal, trustworthy and devoid of any ill feelings like jealousy though he can succumb to anger sometimes. All these layers were given by Francis and it was such a joy to peel the layers of this character to finally see him open up and smiling happily. You may think his Sam is a block of wood without much expressions, but Francis let his eyes do the talking. If there is an Emmy for this, I would hope Francis wins best actor because his acting surpasses my expectation. It was Francis who made Sam interesting, it was Francis who gave Sam such beautiful interpretation, such flawless performance. The only problem is the writing sometimes but Francis completed this series with his reputation as a character actor and a very attractive man intact. Not even his bad English could kill my enthusiasm for his Sam though I laughed about it because seriously, his English actually improved towards the end. And he looked pretty dashing in the pilot's costume. He gives Sam a very strong, steady and very sexual as in sexy personality. I can forgive him for the horrid kiss with Flora Chan because he later had some very intimate kisses with Myolie which I loved. Flawless performance.
Best Moment
When Vincent died, Sam was alone in his room and his calm demanour melted and he cried and cried and cried alone. Also Francis Ng's best acting moment, amongst others. But I would say this was the most memorable as I cried along with him as he expressed his grief all alone. Vincent's death was really badly written by his friend's grief was flawless acted by Francis. Another crying scene which I will state somewhere below is my vote for the Best of the Best Moment. More on that later.
Worst Moment
His indecision about Belle and Zoe. Very repetetive and so un-Sam-like. Sam to me is pretty decisive person, not like this "I don't know" guy.
VINCENT LING
The Character
This is actually a very well written character. The way he dealt with the Belle-Sam indecision, his jealousy, eventually his acceptance that he wanted a second chance with Belle...these are all very strongly worded characterisation. The problem is of course not the character, or maybe is. I was pretty appalled by the writing sometimes when it comes to this character's action. More later.
The Actor : Joe Ma
He gave an average performance, which is my way of saying another better actor would have matched Francis Ng's performance. I was thinking who could play this dashing pilot? Ok Joe Ma is good looking but ..I have repeated this often and I must stress it here, he is boring to watch. It didn't help that he approached this character like some standard text book acting, nothing new, nothing different when this character is potentially a very good character to play. There are no villains in here, but at some point Vincent came close to being one with his jelousy towards Sam. But these are all real; you can be best friends but you just can't share wives you know. There was this particular scene where you know Vincent knew he couldn't compare with Sam but he upped Sam in one area; he married Belle, the one Sam also wanted. We all know Sam would have won if he just say to Belle "let's run away" and Sam didn't but Vincent was blinded with anger and mostly fear of losing Belle. All these makes for very interesting acting possiblities but Joe Ma, he just didn't give it more. I expected more, I expected more expressive eyes but all the time he looked worried. Who can play this character and give it such layers that you might feel more for Vincent? I was thinking an actor of Roger Kwok's calibre but someone taller.
Best Moment
When he died, which was the worst writing moment but best moment for me because I didn't have to see Joe Ma anymore. But then he appeared once every while thereafter as Belle's imaginative husband so to speak but he was ok there. And thus I can only come to this one conclusion; he is great and watchable as a secondary actor with limited screen time, anything more than that he bores me. Maybe he hasn't found his character yet. I must say though he has very good chemistry with Flora Chan as they make very believable couple though I enjoyed more his Vincent's relationship with his spoilt sister Coco.
Worst Moment
When he threw Sam's cake to the floor in a drunken stupor because he was jealous Sam was made Captain first and yet the very next day, he pretended nothing happened. Or I should say the writer forgot to follow up on that. It was so un-Vincent-like. There is one moment that has my vote for Worst of the Worst Moment, take a guess which one it is? If you read my Episodic Thoughts,you will know.
ISABELLE LOK AKA BELLE
The Character
I hated this character from the word GO because of her constant beliefs in fate, karma and all and the way she told Vincent "I don't know" when Vincent asked her whether she loved him or Sam. I hated her indecision, I hated the frequent scenes of her dropping her bloody bracelet in one single episode and I hated that kissing scene between Belle and Sam. I hated everything about her. I also hated the fact that her character's sudden actions, like one minute she was crying about Vincent, the next she still didn't know if she loved Vincent or Sam. It was draggy and I was really really losing my patience. But after Vincent died and towards the end when she went very deep into her depression and she tried to commit suicide due to her grief and regret. That was when Belle became interesting but as slow as we reached this stage, her happy ending was much too fast. Belle is a character that is quite badly written because of the inconsistencies.
The Actress : Flora Chan
The inconsistencies could be due to her very patchy acting. Sometimes average, sometimes monotomous, sometimes unbearably bad, sometimes effectively good. Like Belle's emotions, Flora's performance can be very wide ranging, as in the quality. She never had one point where she convinced me she is beyond average. She reminds me of Joe Ma but with loads more of charisma. A better actress would give this character such a beautiful interpretation because Belle would face so much problems and having to make difficult decisions and going through a emotional roller coaster. Sometimes Flora gave her an one dimentional intepretation which was my way of saying she sucked. But the scenes where she had to share scenes with Francis Ng were really her more better acting moments and her best acting moment was in the Best of the Best Moment. Her chemistry with Joe Ma is very believable and they looked like a couple. However Flora just doesn't have that whimsical looks of a hopeless romantic. I was saying Charmaine Sheh will do well because
a. she cries beautifully
b. she has this quality of making men crazy about her
c. she can be a hopeless romantic if she stops acting in a very big movement, shouting manner, her older series gave us a very elegant and soft Charmaine Sheh
d. she kisses beautifully
But she may look younger than Flora Chan though nowadays she is much too skinny, less attractive but she has those dreamy quality. Many other actresses can do well actually but Flora was the choice in a character that I can never imagine her to be in and she to me did an average job.
Best Moment
When she scolded Vincent and said how disappointed she was at how Vincent treated Sam. I thought that was a very strong Belle.
Worst Moment
Apart from her "I don't know" scenes and that kissing scene, I would say whenever she cries she mumbles. And when she mumbles I can't understand a single word she is saying and when I can't understand, I tune off in my mind and when I tune off, this is why I said her performance was average at best. At these worst moments (and quite a few), she was truly a very bad actress. She can act, but what's the point of knowing how to act when I can't understand a single word she is saying? It's not like this is a foreign languaged series.
ZOE
The Character
I loved this character from the word GO but as the series went on and on and on, her character was pretty one dimensional and overly too perky for me. Call me old, call me cynical, there was a time I couldn't stand her constant smile, her optimism as she was dying and her role of saying encouraging words to those worries about her, episode after episode after episode. It's the writer's fault and in the end I kinda realised Zoe had very little to do in this series except to be perky. Of course that is an unfair statement as her perkiness is meant to open up Sam emotionally and so she became increasingly perky. And when a character can openly say "Look, give birth now, get a baby as cute as I", you know this character has the potential to be annoying.
The Actress : Myolie Wu
This character doesn't test her acting wise. I am a fan of Myolie for the fact that
1. I followed her career since her debut performance
2. I declared when she made her debut she was one diamond in the rough, her limitations is due to her young age and now look at her. She is one fine acting talent and I can no longer vent my anger at bad actresses by simply saying, "See, Miss HK!", so I guess now I can only do so to "See, young singers!".
So I love her. But this is not her best work, it is actually one of her worst because she had better ones.Check out the moments to know why...
Best Moment
When she first pursued Sam. Very cute. Flirting scenes with Francis Ng and her chemistry with Ron Ng, one of the best moment.
Worst Moment
When she acts cute for the entire length of the series and looking like the healtiest heart patient who was about to die, credibility damaged severely but credibility almost gone when she flew to Rome to be with Sam and was so insistent on seeing Sam happy in a very too optimistic way. Problem is the characterisation, and at times the performance. I hope Myolie doesn't succumb to the fame thing; she should stick to being a serious character actress.
S4 & ZITA
The Characters
As in Solar 4, named Isaac, Roy, Chris and Donald.
Of all 4, my favourite is Isaac and the one that I couldn't care less is Roy. These 4 could have been better characters if more time was focussed on them but because of the whole Sam-Vincent-Belle thing, the character which is most developed is Isaac whilst Zita is 2nd most developed, the one who really suffered is Roy. Donald and Chris are in betweens. We know so little, seen so little even during the training sessions but if I knew how the Donald, Zita and Isaac thing would become, I'd rather not see them at all.
The Actors & Actress : Ron Ng, Kenneth Ma, Bosco Wong, Sammul Chan and Michelle Ye
Of all the 5, the one with the best acting as in slightly above average is actually Sammul Chan and Bosco Wong. Bosco would have displayed more better acting skills if his character is beyond just the best friend of Donald. The ones with most to do is Ron and Michelle. They actually have some acting moments whilst Kenneth and Bosco, they're just to fill in the quota.
So I can't comment much on their acting except for Ron, Michelle and Sammul.
Ron - Handsome guy with the lazy eyes that some girls may find mesmerizing, his best acting moments are always when with Francis Ng. Away from Francis, he was mostly a log of wood.But I like him and I like his Isaac whom I hated at first for his arrogance and rudeness but his Isaac grows on you. I am fond of Isaac but sickened by the fact that he had to have a triangle love involving Zita. I thought he had more chemistry with Myolie and I actually thought Isaac would fall for Zoe first because there was so many indications. I would write more on this The Most Overlooked Moment.
Sammul - His Donald is arrogant and at times rude but the entire series, he had just one singular role and purpose; to run after Zita. I find that so one dimensional though Sammul did a decent job in conveying his interest in Zita.
Bosco - Best friend of Donald, then best friend of other S4 members. Other than that, nothing to do and yet his Chris is one decent fellow, hard working and all. His relationsip with Coco was so sudden. He had some moments where he broke his friendship with Donald or his concern for his mom, but it felt like Hallmark moment in our Malaysian toll paying system; TOUCH & GO. Any actor could have played this role since so little to do.
Kenneth - Another Ma, another actor with very little charisma and below average acting talents. And in here nothing to do. Can't say he is in here for cute factor because his Roy is mostly clueless. Another TOUCH & GO. You wouldn't even miss him.
Michelle - At best wooden, at worst scary bulging eyes with too much gloss on her lips and messy hair with tight clothings more to emphasise her figure than to complement her acting. I find her sometimes very good in very small roles or secondary roles..NO! I mean she is sometimes good when she wants to be and she can be very bad when she doesn't bother and in here she is I am sorry to say bad, pretty bad.
Best Moment
Training sessions, Ron with Francis and Myolie, Bosco when with Donald, Donald when with Kok Fung who plays his father and nope, can't think of one when it comes to Michelle. Maybe when she passes through a particular scene.
Worst Moment
Not the WORST TV MISTAKE which in shall state later. Worst moment? When Donald dumped Zita for a reason that until now I still do not know. It was like the writer wasnted to give Isaac a shot at wooing Zita so Donald had to leave first but it was so illogical. I can't understand it. So fine, Donald out of the picture but Isaac and Zita lasted for like less than 1 episode, haven't even started yet. And Zita's reaction towards Donald dumping her was uneventful, was so not there. I am still confused.
EVERYBODY ELSE
Amongst all the second liners, I would say I enjoyed most Jerry Lam and Louisa So's performance. They have great chemistry together whilst Jerry Lam was the best when with Myolie. Louisa was also so pretty. Kok Fung was great as the strict, egoiostical father with a very heavy burden, Lok Ying Kwan was mighty dashing as the Japanese pilot Taylor. Nancy Wu was pretty nasty as the possessive Coco but she is one talent I recommend paying attention to. Worst secondary actor in my opinion is Sek Sau. Basically the secondary actors had little to do but still managed to make the best of what they had to do.
GUEST STARS
The funniest was Eason Chan, the worst was Twins and the most irrelevant was Dave Wang.
My Picks
Best Of The Best Moment
One moment, which was tears inducing was when Belle tried to commit suicide and Sam was there to persuade her not to. More details in EPISODE 39 of my Episodic Thoughts.
Worst Of The Worst Moment
Episode 1, where Vincent opened his mouth to speak English. That was the worst moment in this series, one of the worst moment in TV history and definitely Joe Ma's worst moment ever. Nothing can take over this. Francis Ng's English was bad enough, Ron Ng was also quite bad, Sammul Chan's was passable, Myolie Wu & Jerry Lam spoke very good English with HK accent, everybody else was bearable but Joe Ma was suffering and I suffered as well. He wasn't speaking English, he wasn't mumbling, he was making sound like as if he was speaking English with an accent when it was all gibberish. I suspect it was because of this we see very little of Vincent flying a plane.
Most Missed The Boat Moment
The potentially interesting love story between Isaac and Zoe. Isaac seemed so keen on Zoe you know, but I was wrong. It never developed, it got cut before it even had a chance to develop. A great pity.
Worst TV Mistake
When Donald arranged pebbles to make a heart shape declaration of love with the words "Donald Love Zita". I fell down from my chair. More details in EPISODE 25 of my Episodic Thoughts. Also when I realised Isaac's name in here, the spelling I mean is ISSAC. Still I refuse to spell Isaac as Issac in my review and my thoughts. Nope, Isaac is the one for me!
Most "Sick of Hearing This Quote" Quote
"I don't know", courtesy of Belle and Sam.
Most "Sick of Seeing This Place" Place
Rome. Everything happened at Rome when the most romantic city in my opinion is Venice. Why can't they go to Venice?
Worst Writing/Acting Moment
The scene where Vincent died or it could just be bad acting, because I cannot believe Vincent, who had just deliver a message to Belle and he was eager to see her could die SMILING. Nope, I do not believe in that, and so little blood. His death was really the worst of the worst moment and worst of the worst acting but if course one moment topped this one as stated above.
Most Anticipated Scene But Killed By The Performance
First, Vincent's death but killed by the writing and Joe Ma's awful performance. But the one I really wanted to see was Belle hearing Vincent's last message to her but that was killed by Flora's annoying and very tearless crying and her mumbling of her words.
Most Unbelievable Plot
One worthy mention is why Donald broke up with Zita. I am still wondering why, and you can also say this is also one of the Worst Writing Moment. My choice is Sam's profession after he was hurt and he couldn't fly due to his eyesight problems. Instead of something more appropriate like mayeb you know ground crew or that tower people since he is a captain, he has experience in dealing with crisis, he became a PR guy, or rather a manager in the Customer Service dept. I was shocked. Such a waste of talent you know.
Most Unbelievable But Often Portrayed Reality In This Series
Zoe, someone earning a lowly salary can afford to fly to Rome, Japan on such a frequent basis, that I feel poor by watching this series. So glamarous you know but even with discounted air tickets or even free tickets, I don't think anyone can afford to take such frequent trips.
Another unbeliavble one is towards somewhere in the middle everybody moves into Ruby's house and of course at the end everybody moves away. But that's just an interesting fact.
One more that could be the most of the most in this category is how no office politics in the airport. In fact they were so friendly to the customers it was scary. I don't think that's how people will react because that is false friendliness. And where are the customs officers? You know those who check passports?
Most Vomit Inducing Moment
Belle and Sam's first kiss, more like Sam trying to eat Belle and Belle trying to blow her breath into Sam's mouth. The joke is this kiss won the ASTRO Wah Lai Toi TV Awards 2004 when this series hasn't even broadcast over at ASTRO yet!
Most Overhyped Fact
Overhyped as in everybody has one in here, that is an English name. And not one has the same English name with the other. Fact because in real life everybody has an English name. This is not a complaint but really an observation that the Chinese name is almost redundant in here. Even the parents call their children by their English names.
Most Preferred Ending
This series ended as described in the Last Episode of my Episodic Thoughts. But do scroll down to the bottom of my thoughts for my preferred ending. I just though after all the disasters and the tragedies, Belle deserves a second chance at love.
Most Missed Plot
As in the missing element in this series that I wish there was some such as a villain (well maybe not since there is no place for a villain in here) or some really big crisis, like terrorists taking over a plane and how Sam or Vincent or the S4 save the day (maybe this would be too sensitive a topic) or some major airport crisis like a plane crash at the airport (but then that would not be good PR).
Most Unwanted But Rumoured Reality
A sequel to this series. Thank you very much but frankly I have had enough.
Verdict
Interesting series that suffered due to bad writing, bad editing and too long, always too long. Imagine Secret of the Heart was long but it had plenty to say. This series is 40 episodes and it basically says the same old things. But fans of Francis Ng or those who wants to see great acting, please please please watch this series. Also very nice costumes and beautiful sceneries, so these are plus points. However be prepared for the draggy parts. Like I said above, I had to adjust my rating for this series from 4 and a half stars to this present one because this series felt like it was never going to end, it was increasingly repetetive, the plot unimaginative and the entire premise so been there done that. Saving grace is Francis Ng. So don't miss this one for the sake of Francis.
Interesting Observation
I truly truly love the name Solar Airways or Solar Airlines and its logo. When will we really have a Solar eh? This is perhaps the one most original element in this series.
For More Info
This series is in a way a promotion of the HK airport and so you might be interested to know more about it. Click here then. I still think KLIA is the more beautiful airport though.
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