2025 TVB Anniversary - My picks

With the holidays off, I got to catch up on three major TVB anniversary series for 2025 - The Queen of Castle, The Queen of News 2, and The Golden Forest. There is definitely worthwhile competition this year with a few strong series and candidates for nomination and starting to see younger people like Hera Chan, Matthew Ho, Celina Harto with strong acting performances starting to lead the way for TVB's future.

Best Drama -  Though I haven't watched other series much (save for Anonymous Signal which I find to be good to watch/chase but not memorable) and dark horses like the Bowie Lam starred DID12, I think these are the top series of the year. I really enjoyed The Queen of Castle as I was chasing the episodes daily. There are a lot of emotional scenes and factors that pull the audience in. I find that The Queen of News 2 was dragging until the reason of Kenneth's death was 'revealed'. After that, the series had a better pace and more interesting story lines after. The Golden Forest had the usual standard TVB formula of rich family plotline, throwing in trust management which is somewhat new. Both The Queen of Castle and The Queen of News 2 were able to keep me mostly chasing the series.

Best Actor - I would pick Him Law or Bosco Wong. Him definitely can portray different characters well. He portrayed the suave, cool guy well in The Golden Forest. On the other hand, Bosco did portray a jerk character that he hadn't portrayed before The Queen of News 2. It's a hard pick, I would be happy if Bosco or Him won. Bosco seems like he got the popular vote with many celebs supporting him. Roger's a consistent actor and no doubt always give a good performance, but he left TVB so it is not likely they will reward him. If they do, then it's well deserved indeed. 

Best Actress - For me, the strongest two would be between Jessica Hsuan or Charmaine Sheh. I am a Jessica fan since the beginning, and I think she portrayed the role well in The Queen of Castle. It's a consistence performance. On the other hand, Charmaine is fully immersed in her role as Man Wai Sum in The Queen of News 2. She has the ability to portray her character in such a way that doesn't remind you that it's Charmaine Sheh acting. Because both had won best actress before, I do wonder if dark horse Selena Li would win. I am also a fan of Selena Li and would be happy if she won though. She did have a few moments/scenes that showcase her character's downfall but did she lead the series like Charmaine or Jessica did? I think not as much but still a worthwhile contender that if she won, people would be ok with it. On a side note, also happy to see Kelly Fu nominated for Best Actress this year though I did not watch DID12. I just may have to watch it to see her performance.

Best Supporting Actor and Actress - My vote goes for Mimi Kung for best supporting actress. Consistent performances and portrayals as usual and deserves the recognition especially being in two out of three anniversary series. If Him Law doesn't get Best actor, it's a high chance he will get Best Supporting but really isn't he passed Best Supporting now? If have to choose, then I would support The Queen of News 2 guys - Eric Tang, Matthew Ho, and James Ng but I can't say they are breakthrough performances though.

Best Themesong- Not sure whether these songs are even nominated, but I like Windy Zhan's 序章·结局 from The Queen of Castle or Seeds of Truth from The Queen of News 2, or James Ng's 还剩一件未做的事 for The Golden Forest. The lyrics to James Ng's songs always have a lot of heart!!

Most Improved Actor-  I like Telford Wong from The Queen of Castle and Andrew Chan in The Golden Forest. I also support Randal Tsang a lot, and I feel he has a lot of potential but he's not being cast in drama series to show it. I hope with his recent popularity that he will get more drama acting opportunities. A lot of the younger guys and girls from Come Home Love should be pulled out to start acting in more dramas. They already gain audience's favor/recognition from Come Home Love, so it's time they start getting more dramas to improve, or they will eventually leave or be forgotten. TVB needs the new younger supporting males that is from TVB in house to lead for the future, As for Andrew Chan, I think he still has room for improvement, but I am his fan so would be happy for him if he does win. 

Most Improved Actress - My drama vote goes to Celina Harto. She portrays her characters well, and I can see her in her characters especially in the dramas this year. My favorite vote would go to Joey Thye as I'm her fan, so I would be happy if she won.

Best On Screen or Partnership - I guess this is best cast? I think the main 4 actresses in The Queen of News 2 had less emotional scenes than in Part 1, but their chemistry is still on point. The cast of The Golden Forest has consistently been on social media promoting the series so they have real life chemistry lol. The characters on The Queen of Castle should have more chemistry but didn't feel it as much compared to the others. 

I think it would've been interesting to see Roger-Charmaine or Roger-Jessica pairing in the respective anniversary series. It is a missed opportunity since Roger Kwok has now left TVB. Anyway, those are my two cents. Can't wait to see what the results will be on 1/4/26! 

In this day and age, you would think it is easy to find the list of nominees but it was actually difficult to find. Much thanks to newjustvb blogspot for listing the nominees!

TVB 57th Anniversary Awards Thoughts and 2024 series in general

Now I am in the same year! 

It is nice to see the leads of Unchained Melody from last year won Best Leading this year! It is also surprising for Katy Kung to have won since Big Biz Duel was not a series with high ratings. My job revolves around the logistics business, but I just could not get into that serie. I find it to be very dragging and unbelievable, so I did not get past first 3 episodes. I like Katy Kung and have always thought she is a consistent actress, so I think she most likely gave a good performance in general, but the serie was just not captivating. It is the same with Owen. I like Owen as an actor, but I have also not watched No Room for Crime. Also happy to see Kelly Fu won best supporting actress, Hera Chan won Most improved female artist, and Nicolas Yuen won Most improved male artist. Hopefully all 3 will have more opportunities to shine this year.

I will now talk about the TVB series I've watched in 2024!

Overall, my favorite series of the year is Dark Side of the Moon, and it was one of the series last year that kept me chasing episode after episode. You know it is a good serie when you have to know what happens next. Very fast pace and gripping. I also thought Tavia's performance in Dark Side of the Moon was exemplary. It's a shame that the ratings did not meet expectations. Rosina also portrayed a villain character which was different and refreshing to watch. 

Airport Diary was a nice little surprise. Many thought it was going to be related to Triumph in the Skies  but glad it was not. It was a miniseries on its own with its own storyline. If it had been a sequel, it would've been setup for failure. It would take a lot to fill in the shoes of a Triumph in the Skies sequel/trilogy. I didn't quite like the romance storyline and lack of chemistry between Kenneth and Sisley. Kenneth really did have more chemistry with Rosita Kwok. It would've been similar to Francis and Myolie's May-December romance if they gone that route but it would've been more interesting to watch. My favorite couples in this serie were Joey Thye and Brian Chu (they were cute!) and also Samantha Ko with Tony Hung.

Sinister Beings 2 was a serie I was looking forward too but the outcome was less than ideal. The original one kept me chasing each episode. Though many people don't like Crystal Fung's character, I think she and Ruco were the main pieces in the original since they were working together to find out what happened, and on the side, there was a one-sided crush/unrequited love that followed the story keeping the audience watching whether Ruco would ever reciprocate the feelings (which he never did). The sequel is a little bit over the place, and they didn't have many scenes together. They kind of wrote off any romance between the two to make sure to revive Rosina and Ruco's romance. Rosina and Ruco have their chemistry as well, but it's not as exciting as Crystal and Ruco. If it were me, I would've given Crystal and Ruco's romance storyline a chance.

I also enjoyed watching No Return. Many people were comparing Sherin with Nancy's portrayal, but I thought Nancy did well. I was also chasing each episode but felt like the last 5 episodes were filler material. Was it a memorable series? I enjoyed the chemistry with Wayne and Nancy. There were many scenes of them together that I find myself rooting for them as a couple, very natural and comfortable chemistry.  It was also nice to see new generation as support but I thought the romance storyline was too dragging. Hera and Joey Law looks pretty as a couple, but I didnt really see the chemistry. I thought Joey had more chemistry with Celina Harto, or at least their storyline was more interesting together. 

Call of Destiny was another serie I was very much looking forward too since I love sci-fi series. This one reminds me of Tracy Chu and Vincent Wong's Over Run Over. It was great until the last 1-2 episodes which didn't really make sense for me, but overall it was good. Carlos is one of those leading actors that are handsome to watch and with good consistent acting. I thought Hera did well leading in this serie but of course, there is room for improvement since she is still relatively new to leading lady roles.

Forensic Heroes VI was overall an ok serie. Bosco's performance is always consistent. I have watched it, but I can't say it was exciting. I would mention that the concept of the cage in a mystery hidden room reminds me of Netflix's YOU.

Heir to the Throne kept me watching too, but unfortunately the storyline was less exciting. The reveals of the births kept the surprises coming. It's a shame they have Raymond Lam and Charmaine together in a serie but failed to give them a memorable storyline as a couple. I was rooting for Raymond Wong and Charmaine at the end! 

I did not watch Happy Ever After?, but saw some clips here and there. From the few clips I've watched, I thought Him Law performed well. It's too bad ratings were not too good for this one, and it was aired early on I believe.

This year TVB seems to have a lot of well-known actors and actresses leading some big series. Not sure how many I will watch this year, but hope to give my two cents after! 

TVB 56th Anniversary Awards Thoughts

Wow! I am so behind since it is now 2025 but though I will give some brief thoughts on this one.

It is cool to see some of my predictions were correct! This was quite a fancy celebration with the event at a Macao resort with all nominees arriving in best evening attire. It was definitely a change from the usual location, so it was refreshing to see and surely kept TVB fans buzzing that year. As expected, the Queen of News won heavily at this award ceremony. The only other thing that I remember was how they had announced the nominees for the best actor. They had the wives of the nominees presenting. It was a nice idea, but kind of awkward for Joel Chan, which I assume did not attend and or was not invited to go on stage. 

Thanks Ceejay's Entertainment blogpost on posting the winners and overall event. It was a quick refresher for me so I can give some brief thoughts!