It’s time for another round-up of TVB’s variety shows under the direction of Eric Tsang and Wong Cho Lam. Through May and June, it felt like TVB was producing variety shows at a breakneck pace and ended up giving short shrift to its shows. Many of the concepts have potential, but was not given enough time to develop.
4. Moon Lau and Tedford Wong - Moon and Tedford were better at dubbing characters outside of their age range than the three finalists.
1. Joey Thye - I was most surprised by Joey’s performance. She sounds just like Grace Chan and even timed her breathing and crying perfectly with the clip.
Bonus: Coty Wong and Tinson Lung - They are instructors for a reason. Their performance was at the next level.
- Dub of War (好聲好戲): The show shined a spotlight on the unseen voice actors at TVB. It was amazing to learn about how dubbing works and all the skills it takes to do a good job. I was genuinely surprised by the excellent performances from some of the participants. Rating: 9/10.
My top five most impressive performances:
5. Yuki Law and Marktwo Lee - For newbies, this was an impressive performance. Especially when Marktwo says his first line, I thought they were using Ron Ng’s voice.
4. Moon Lau and Tedford Wong - Moon and Tedford were better at dubbing characters outside of their age range than the three finalists.
3. Sisley Choi and Owen Cheung - They sounded as if they were playing the original clip. The chip goes through a lot of emotions and both of them were handled it well. Owen Cheung has always been more impressive doing imitations than using his own voice.
2. Yoyo Chen - Yoyo was able to speak in another dialect as if she was fluent and no one even taught her!
1. Joey Thye - I was most surprised by Joey’s performance. She sounds just like Grace Chan and even timed her breathing and crying perfectly with the clip.
Bonus: Coty Wong and Tinson Lung - They are instructors for a reason. Their performance was at the next level.
- Case Unclosed (死因有可疑): In the first head-to-head battle with ViuTV, TVB brought a knife to a gunfight. The show looked like an amateur production next to ViuTV’s serious efforts. It is disappointing because I really like the concept of a murder-mystery show. Rating: 5/10. [Full review here]
- Top Sales (識貨): This was essentially an advertising spot disguised as a show. Zero interest from me when I couldn’t (and wouldn’t, even if I could) buy the products they were selling. But Yoyo Chen is on a hot streak. Rating: 2/10.
- Prelude to TVB All Star Games: The Ring (明星運動會前哨戰: Fight盡): The show suffered from some major cutting issues. Training, interview and competition clips were haphazardly thrown together like a tossed salad. The show also makes a lacklustre effort to introduce the fighters to the audience. The audience can’t feel like they are part of the fighters’ journeys when they only see them for seconds at a time and barely know who they are. Rating: 4/10.
- Mean Talk: I loved the juicy gossip that was being spilled on the show! Six episodes was definitely too short. There’s plenty more tea to be spilled. Rating: 7/10.