Tuesday, February 7, 2012

"Wish and Switch" Review


Supernatural has been a weak genre of TVB's in recent years and usually results in tacky and messy dramas (i.e. "Men With No Shadows").  However, "Wish and Switch was a fun and enjoyable comedy with creativity and sweetness...until the last week anyway.  Unfortunately, inconsisent chracterization is more obvious here than ever in the form of Johnson's character, "Ka Yan".  As a result, by the last five episodes, "W&S" becomes hard to stomach, ruining the overall product.  However, the first 15 episodes are still entertaining with a lot of laughs.

Characters and Performances
In an ensemble with familiar supporting faces yet headed completely by the younger generation, everyone did pretty well.

Myolie Wu in all her comedic glory brings hilarity to her housewife character.  She nails the stereotypical aspects of a housewife, such as talking to herself.

"Suk Heung" was rather foolish and silly at times, annoying me the later episodes.  Her character was not smart and even stupid at times, but Myolie still makes it works.  However, it wasn't without irritating me.

Johnson Lee has been one of my most well liked supporting actors since "Catch Me Now".  He always manages to be funny and stand out.  Unfortuntately, his first male lead role "Ko Ka Yan" fails to reflect that .  While I admit he portrays the useless husband in a very convincing fashion, he was still unlikable.

"Ka Yan" was one messed up character.  He started off as a dorky and uncharismatic yet loyal and sweet man.  I wasn't fond of him, but didn't hate him.  Then, he unexpectedly becomes the main villain.  This change was so out of character, unrealistic, and completely illogical.  The evilness of the character was so cartoon like and unjustified it was almost laughable.

Selena Li shines as "Hailey", and both the character and performance were lovable.  I find Selena such a cute and endearing actress, so I was happy to see she finally had room to show her acting and potential.  Hailey was so capable, intelligent, and clever!  My new favorite roles of hers.  While Hailey wasn't as fleshed out as she could've been, Selena portrays her in a way that tells me she can definitely be leading actress material.  Sher exerts the charm, cuteness, and does her emotional scenes well.  The short hair was also a nice change.

Although Vincent Wong isn't a great actor, he is decent and has a likable factor about him.

Though intriguing, "Wayne" was not developed to his full potential.  He became an interesting and likable character after the revelation of the true reason for his actions, but had little screen time.

Vincent and Selena were so cute and sweet together.  Their story was different, and I was rooting for them to reunite.  Sadly, they didn't share many scenes and I was never satisfied with how much they got.  They were my favorite part about what was otherwise a mediocre drama.

Ram Tseung was hilarious and once again proves how valuable of a supporting actor he is.  His switching back and forth between a male and female voice was effortless and cracked me up. 

The beginning of the series focused mainly on Suk Heung and her family.  While there were some funny bits, it aggravated me how annoying her family was and why she worked so hard to take care of them.

The middle when Suk Heung and Hailey switched identities was enjoyable.  It was fun seeing the two adjusting to each other's lives, and some hilarious scenarios occurred.

However, it becomes dragyy and ridiculous by the last few episodes.  After the girls switched back, there is nothing but illogical and irritating drama.

Overall, "Wish and Switch" was a major victim of poor scriptwriting.  The last five episodes screwed up a decent series.  It was like the scriptwriters just threw in the towel and made stuff up.  At the least, it was enjoyable to watch Selena and have her finally show her acting capabilities again.  On the other hand, I hope Myolie doesn't take up any more of these housewife roles.

Rating: 2 3/4 stars

6 comments:

  1. You have written everything I wanna say about this show. We are 100% on this. Haha.

    A general comment on TVB shows in recent years. In almost all series, there are ALWAYS:
    (1) some main characters who has a 180 degrees change in personality halfway through the show for the story to go on.
    (2) somebody who suffers from demential / alzheimers / memory loss e.g.
    (TOT, W&S, BP, FH, WHB, W&W, CBML and definitely many other older shows that i've forgotten ;p).

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  2. queen_owl - Good to see you in my comments section again! It's been a while. :)

    Agreed. There ALWAYS has to be someone who suffers from some kind of mental illness. How many times did I hear the word "Alzheimers" in 2011 in a TVB series? Haha.

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  3. That's cos I was away on a long vacation back home. Now that im back I'll read your older posts when I hv time in the coming week. Tonight I'm our here for a bit cos suffering fr a bit of insomnia. Now trying to sleep. ;)

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  4. I totally agree with what you said. The last few episodes were like it was written by someone else or something, it totally ruined the drama, especially the ending. Sure, dramas shouldn't have the "... and they live happily ever after"-ending, but this was ridiculous!

    The drama started off pretty good, the idea about a website allowing people to trade things is interesting if worked out well. In the last episode, Hailey calls it "devil website" or something when Suk Heung had to trade her life. So I expected them to explain in the end what the website actually is. They could also end it like a dream, that everything was fake and all.

    In the middle episodes, after Rocky's death, Wayne started to pay attention to fake Suk Heung (Selena). He gave her Soufflé (or whatever the dog's name was), and in the scene of the Snow White costumes, it was evident he started liking this fake Suk Heung and has no feelings for his wife. Even up to the point that the real Suk Heung (Myolie) confronted him with that (because that time she thought Hailey was pregnant so Wayne should leave her alone). Wayne NEVER knows about the identity switch of Suk Heung and Hailey, yet after Suk Heung and Hailey switched back, he would suddenly like his wife again and completely has no feeling for Suk Heung anymore? WEIRD WEIRD WEIRD

    One thing I hate about Hailey's character is, why does she DRINK so freaking much?? My mother even cursed her to have liver cancer (for drinking so much), lol. Hailey is an intelligent, clever woman, why would she do such illogical things like drinking and even have one night stand (that's what she thought at first)?

    The plot, the characters, everything is so inconsistent.

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  5. queen_owl - Hope you enjoyed your long vacation and looking forward to seeing more comments. :)

    lizzy - Hey, Lizzy! I think this is the first time you made a formal comment on my blog? Thanks! :)

    Yeah, weird they didn't give a proper conclusion to the website. It was an interesting premise, but was executed poorly.

    I didn't even notice that (I started doing a bad job of paying attention after the switch back). By the last few episodes, I just wanted to get it over with. But now that you mention it, it is ridiculous how inconsistent and poorly written that is. I was bugged Wayne never found out.

    Lol, Hailey's drinking problem probably had more to do with the scriptwriters and how they couldn't think of something else for her to do when mad/sad as opposed to her being that stupid.

    Inconsistency is what TVB lives by now.

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  6. The series just finished airing in Toronto (late I know). I couldn't agree more with your review. Like you said, near the end of the series the show really went downhill. I was extremely disappointed with the character development and agree that it was so terribly inconsistent. The entire time I was watched it felt like certain things happened out of nowhere and with no reasoning simply for a specific plot device. Aye yai yai. But still, I kind of enjoyed watching it. Weird and all it still left an effect/impression on me compared to other TVB dramas as of late lol.

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