After submitting my thesis report last week, I finally have the time to catch up to my past hobby; watching TVB dramas. There isn’t any TVB dramas recently that have my attention. ‘The Exorcist Meter’ which is a series about supernatural and starred Kenneth Ma, Mandy Wong, etc. The supernatural theme itself is the one that push me away from watching it and TVB is definitely not looking serious to making this kind of drama with good quality. The other drama is called ‘My Ages Apart’ and starred Kristal Tin, Bobby Au, etc. This one has a better line-up of cast but I still don’t have the interest to watch it because its premise is not appealing and it has too many episodes (50 in total).
So, I’m up to nothing but to find dramas that are released earlier and yet I haven’t watch them. Many people recommended me to watch ‘Legal Mavericks’, a drama about a blind lawyer who usually crossed the lines when solving the cases with his friends. I trusted their opinions and I am also influenced by the success of this particular series at Singapore’s Starhub TVB Awards held last month. Hence, I ended up finishing the whole drama (28 episodes in total) in less than a week. And I watched its last 8 episodes continuously today.
The drama starred Vincent Wong, Sisley Choi, Ali Lee, Owen Cheung, Pal Sinn, Tracy Chu, etc. First, I like the plot that emphasized on solving not typical large cases that involves murders but on smaller cases fighting for the rights of the minorities (although the series still has the last case being solving a murder highly important to the overall storyline). I also like the idea of giving the main character a disability (in this case being blind) besides than injecting in the similar professions that TVB love to tackle (police, doctor, etc…in this case; lawyer). It adds extra depth and gave audiences something new to see rather than conventional dramas about a single profession. This also allows the cast (particularly Vincent Wong) to showcase his acting skill as the lead actor portraying a blind lawyer who is excellent in his other four senses.
The cast did a great job. Vincent Wong deserves a best actor win from his role here. There isn’t any strong competition in lead actor category this year and I hope he wins. It’s very challenging to continuously maintaining the eyes to make them look like they are blind and at the same time carrying out the dialogues, the body gestures, the facial expressions and the emotions for the story. Vincent nailed it. People usually find Sisley Choi annoying in most of her previous series. But hey…she surprised me in this drama. Not only that I find her character enjoyable in this drama, I also think that her acting has improved significantly (particularly this year). Hence, I’m rooting for her to get Most Improved Female Artist at TVB Anniversary Awards. I pitied her character. She sacrificed so much for Vincent Wong and yet their relationship remains ambiguous even till the final episode. There are three females who love Vincent Wong (Sisley, Ali and Tracy). I find that a bit too much. Vincent’s love towards Tracy is too much and I find that very unfair to Sisley. As for Ali Lee, she at least has another admirer and lover, Owen Cheung.
Ali Lee did well in here too but I’m still surprised how she can win ‘Most Favourite Lead Actress’ in Starhub TVB Awards last month for her role here. She is beautiful and solid, but her performance here is not award-worthy in my opinion. On the other hand, this is Owen Cheung’s most heavy role to date (he is a nobody in the past and only famous for having similar voice with Chilam). I’m surprised that he has this level of acting and he delivered superbly. He is a strong contender for best supporting actor award. Even Pal Sinn who portrayed the ruthless main villain is doing very good too. I hated him so much and it means that he delivered that character very well. And one more person to compliment; veteran actor, Law Lok-lam who portrayed as Vincent’s father. His acting when his character is diagnosed with ALS is superb.
I’m a bit confused on the very last scene of this drama. Ali Lee died and yet she appeared again to join the three others for a walk. That’s weird. What does the scriptwriter want to tell us from this scene? Opening it up for the audiences to decide the ending on their own? TVB love this approach very much recently and it is overused. I rather they stick to a very clear conclusion for this drama. Anyway, this drama is still a decent one. I’m happy that I didn’t left this drama out before the year ends. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Legal Mavericks’ a total of 7.8. There is not many particularly great TVB dramas this year (also for the last few years), hence this drama do have a strong chance to emerge as winner for Best Series at the upcoming TVB Star Awards Malaysia and Hong Kong’s TVB Anniversary Awards. His other competitor so far would be ‘The Unholy Alliance’ of which I had also given 7.8 in my drama review post earlier.
(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)