Simple is the Reason of My Heart

Hong Kong TVB Drama Serial: 歲月風雲

I have been an avid fan of the Hong Kong TVB drama serials. Particularly, I liked the epic series (usually between 40 to 60 episodes) that involved business and entrepreneurship. Recently, I finally got my hands on the series <<歲月風雲>> (or The Drive of Life) and watched it across the period of time when I was doing my reservist. Of course, this 60-episode drama serial was filmed to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the return of Hong Kong back to Mainland China from Great Britain 1997-2007. It is a joint production of TVB (Hong Kong) and CCTV (Mainland China). The theme of the series is focussed on the automobile industry in China with the main events (particularly financial crises that interwined in between). The story was told in a flashback manner. Without a doubt, it has assembled the biggest star-studded cast from TVB and CCTV and the whole series moved between Beijing, Hong Kong and Canada. The main story revolved around the trials and tribulations of three brothers, the Hua brothers (played by 劉松仁, 廖京生 and 苗僑偉) and how they managed to overcome different obstacles (from bankruptcy and crisis) and eventually brought the Chinese cars into the western market.

Studio 60 on a Sunset Strip

Finally, months of waiting after the end of my favourite TV series "The West Wing", I finally have a new TV series to look forward to. Yes, the title of the series is Studio 60 on a Sunset Strip. Of course, the first thing that Studio on a Sunset Strip shares in common with the West Wing, is that both shows are created by Aaron Sorkin, who also wrote the screenplays for the movies "A Few Good Men" and "The American President". This new series are produced by Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme, who have both worked together for the first four seasons of The West Wing.

In a summary, this show takes place behind the scenes of a fictional live sketch comedy show, similar to the famous Saturday Night Live in the United States. In the pilot episode ", the story begins with the executive producer, Wes Mundell (played by Judd Hirsch) went amok after a sketch was being cut from his show. On a Friday night, Jordan McDeere (played by Amanda Peet), the recently promoted president of the fictional network, National Broadcasting System, took a risky approach to salvage the reputation of the network by re-hiring the two protagonists, Matt Albie (played by Matthew Perry) and Danny Tripp (played by Bradley Whitford, who incidently played my favourite character Josh Lyman in The West Wing) to take over the show at the dismay of Jack Ruldoph, the chairman of the network who had a history with both characters.

Of course, like other Aaron Sorkin's former works, the characters in his story have delivered a superb  act through his well-crafted script. The whole pilot episode is divided into three acts: "Jordan", "Matt & Danny" and "The Big Three". Somehow, I find that there are some shades that resemble the pilot episode of the West Wing. For example, in both pilot episodes, someone was about to be fired and hired. For the West Wing, Josh Lyman was about to be fired, and in this series, Wes Mundell was fired and subsequently, Matt and Danny are redrafted back to the show. Another striking coincidence for both pilot episodes, are the discussion about the Christian Right in the United States. The strong friendship between Matt and Danny resembled the one between Josh and Sam Seaborn (played by Rob Lowe, who later left the show). Of course, there are some familiar faces. For example, Timothy Busfield who played a supporting role in West Wing as the journalist Danny Concannon, now plays Cal Shanley, the control director of Studio 60. I am pretty sure that the other cast of the West Wing will pop up one way or another in the show. We also see Felicity Huffman (who played Lynette in Desperate Housewives and also turned up in The West Wing) turned up as herself in this pilot episode.

There are a few interesting dialogues in the show which I particularly enjoyed. The first was the The monologue by Wes Mundell. He lamented the state of TV, being "lobotomized" by regulatory organizations, lobby groups and mad executives. He made some funny comments about reality TV shows and cast a parting shot to Donald Trump. The second was between Jack and Jordan, from both inside a meeting room and outside, where Jack gave that kind of warning shot as boss to Jordan, "You see how fast I fire Wes Mundell, screw this up, I will fire you faster... So you go ahead and make us all classy again." You have the threat and also the authority that you can start doing what you need to do. That's corporate power broking. The last dialogue between Danny and Matt, where they talked about their reminiscence of the studio and also now they are starting their time again in the same studio they abandoned years back.

There are some interesting complications about the characters in the show. For example, Of course, Harriet Hayes (played by Sarah Paulson), one of the "Big Three" in the show, was the ex-girlfriend of Matt Albie and also a staunch Christian. My guess is that one of the themes which Aaron Sorkin want to examine is the culture war between the media and the Christian Right in the US.

Certainly, the other characters will be devloped in the series as time goes on. you can take a look at the trailer and tell me whether this is a show worth waiting for.