What's on Everyone's Tongue These Days.

...the 40th TVB Anniversary Awards.

Gosh.

So, I've been back from my holiday for about a week now but just didn't feel like having anything to do with TVB after reading the results for the awards. Let's just say my anger overshadowed my happiness with the winners.

Moses, Moses, Moses. I am ecstatic that he won. Not one award, but two! To me, he really is one of the top TVB actors today and his role in HOG was one of the best-acted of the year. His acting showed growth and maturity in the character and it was a very nice development of the role from him. He is very versatile, coupled with a natural knack for comedic timing and has been waiting way too long for this. When I watched his acceptance speech, I felt goosebumps and pride and yes, I'll admit it, I teared. It's just really nice to watch someone of his calibre and someone as deserving as him be honoured in this way for his acting.

Rewatching HOG for the second time with my housemates recently really gave me a better understanding of Lee Sze Kei's role. The first time I watched it, I still had her Sin Yee character from A Kindred Spirit in my head and couldn't fully immerse myself into her new role. The second time round gave me new appreciation for her role and acting finesse and am now truly convinced that she deserves all the acclaim she's been getting. Although, I really still would like to see Michelle Yim getting some notice for her brilliant acting in Brink of Law as well. No nomination at all for her, that really disappointed me.

I'm a little surprised that Susanna Kwan actually took home Favourite Female Character because I didn't feel all that symphathetic towards her character. Sure, she did repent, she did realise her wrongdoings, but it all felt a little too rushed for me. It came full-circle far too quickly. I thought she was great as the witchy Wong Sau Kam, but it just wasn't one of my favourite female characters of the year. Although, I understand that TVB would have wanted to give her this and Lee Sze Kei the Best Actress Award. I actually would have preferred Linda Chung's Sheung Joi Sum to win this award and that's saying a lot coming from me because I'm not exactly big on Linda. However, I did truly enjoy her portrayal of Sheung Joi Sum.

I'm happy that Raymond won something; something that was truly and completely voted for by the Mainland audience, nonetheless. (i.e. not rigged by your friendly neighbourhood TVB) It really shows how much of a fanbase he has, and will probably be the first, and not the last of his TVB awards. I can say with confidence that he will win Best Actor one day. As for Gigi, I never was a fan, but my opinion on her is slowly changing. She delivered her acceptance speech with class, and I really want to watch The Ultimate Crime Fighter because I heard she was excellent in it.

I like Fala Chen, but I think it's absolutely ridiculous how she won Best Supporting Actress. Ridiculous. How obvious can you get, TVB?

Louis Yuen has been at TVB for so many years now and it's great to see him get recognised for something. I watched an interview with him where he was answering questions and talking about the gag he pulled during his acceptance speech and it was supposed to be funny, but you could hear in his voice a little tremor because he was so touched. I still wish Wayne Lai would've been nominated here though.

Amigo Chui? Meh. That's just really weird. Chris Lai isn't a favourite of mine; I was actually rooting for Stephen Wong but I know that'll never happen, so I was going for Chris instead since it would be better than the horror of Matthew Ko or Stephen Huynh winning. Never in a million years would I have thought that Amigo would've won.

And yes, last but not least, the Most Improved Actress awards, the one that left me absolutely gutted. It was pretty much a low blow for Bernice. People say Bernice hasn't improved in her many years, but I'm sorry, I don't see any improvement with Kate either. She does the exact same things in every series I've seen with her in it; the slight hesitation and swallowing before she delivers her lines. Each one of her series has no more emotion than her last. I do like Kate, but it's difficult to like her when she's won this when she doesn't deserve it. I couldn't bring myself to watch the awards because I don't want to see Bernice's hopeful face, so I don't know who the top five were. In any case, she doesn't deserve it more than Leila Tong or Sharon Chan or Nancy Wu anyway. And to me, not more than Bernice too. It goes without saying that Leila deserved it ages ago but just because she's not contracted, she'll never get it. We all know how TVB plays the game.

As for Bernice, I think she's really improved. Might I be biased? I don't know. I try to watch her scenes with objectivity and a keen fair eye, and I really think she's improved since her Healing Hands III days. That's just me. But well, losing every year like this to Niki, Linda and now Kate, I just really hope they don't nominate her anymore next year in this category. Sammul Chan wasn't nominated anymore this year and I hope they don't embarrass Leila and Bernice anymore next year by nominating them either. It's just really insulting because we all know that Fala or Toby or Tracy or Stephen Chan's new flavour of the month will win anyway, so why bother? Real talent like Selena Li, no matter how deserving, will probably get pushed to the background, unfortunately.

Why didn't TVB give the awards to Bernice? Well firstly, they absolutely love Kate and want to promote her madly, as can be seen by her truckload of leading roles in the upcoming productions. Hopefully, she does come into her prime and leave us all with a good performance like Linda after she won Most Improved. Hopefully.

Also, TVB, while allowing rumours to help generate publicity for their new series, might have a little resent towards the popular Moses/Bernice pairing. Sure, it was a spot of genius casting that created the great Love Bond chemistry which we all know and love. They even further capitalised on it by casting Bernice in HH3 to be paired up with Moses again. But then it just spiraled out of control. Reporters and the papparazzi love them. Fans love them. Sponsors love them. It's like how Mark Schwahn, the creator of One Tree Hill, wrote Nathan and Haley to be together and from then on, there was no going back. The epic love story of Nathan and Haley sometimes became larger and more popular than the show itself. Might it be the case here? If Bernice really had won, you know who the paps would be focusing on the most that night. We would see report after report, and picture after picture, together with all the rumours and speculation if the both of them had won awards. It would probably steal some of the thunder away from their beloved Fala and her Best Supporting Actress awards. That, coupled with the fact that Bernice is one of the highest earning artists at TVB even without their support and backing, might be why she didn't get it.

All I know if that I had put money on the TVB Awards, I'd be very very poor right now. Probably only Moses and Lee Sze Kei would've won me money.

And while we're on the topic of awards, I've tabulated the final votes for the 1st Annual Glaze-Over of TVB Awards and am in the process of making art. Will you be happier with these results? I sure hope so. Stay tuned!