[TV Commentary] “Eye in the Sky” Episode 9

Eye in the Sky <天眼>
TVB Drama 2015

Executive Producer: Catherine Tsang
Genre: Crime Thriller
Number of Episodes: 20

Cast: Kevin Cheng, Ruco Chan, Tavia Yeung, Tony Hung, Vivien Yeo

The following is not a recap but a commentary on the particular episode in the title. Major spoilers and Ruco Chan-love alert. Originally posted at www.point2e.com.

EPISODE 9

Obligatory eyecandy pic of the day …..but a sad one …

Yeap, it is the beginning of the end of a brief but wonderful love affair. Now comes the distrusts.

This episode illustrates what I have been saying from episode 1; bloat. It starts with Tavia investigating an insurance cheat which of course showing how dedicated she is, how harsh Kevin is to her and also to allow for Ruco to fall for her because as he says “She’s so cute”. But something weird also.

Earlier we see Ruco seeing her climbing a tree to take pictures (has there ever been a more obvious investigator? How incredibly dumb is that?!), buying her buns, rain, fell, etc etc. Then at night we see someone dreaming the same sequence except it was Kevin, smiling in his sleep! Next day we see Ruco having a cold and he jokingly says he caught the rain twice; once for real, the other in his dream. Kevin wondered is it possible to dream of a real scenario without witnessing it? And Ruco replies maybe it is possible to think of someone so much you dream of them. Earlier we see Kevin suddenly being very considerate to Tavia. So it is like this; Ruco had that dream but being the twin, Kevin felt Ruco’s giddiness too and dreamed the same dream and so became a little too aware of Tavia.

Question is is Kevin’s feelings a true reflection of his own true feeling? My answer is no.

Tony reminded Ruco Tavia is waiting for Kevin lookalike but Ruco is confident she will fall for him because what matters is deep inside, inner beauty and not looks. Unfortunately Ruco, TVB writers will emphasise on looks and if Kevin does fall for Tavia, maybe we can argue it is a mirror sort of love, the mirror being Ruco.

My problem with all these sequence is has there ever been a more obvious sequence of trying to jam pack entire reasoning into a simple 15 minutes or so sequence and say “HERE! TAKE IT! TAKE IT AS IT IS AND DON’T ASK QUESTIONS!”. Questions like when did Ruco ever noticed Tavia beyond the fact he had slept with her? What’s so cute about her that made him notice her more? What did she do personally to really attract his heart? None explained. I feel the entire time I am watching a forced reason for the breakup of the beautiful love story later on that is Ruco and Kevin. It felt so forced to me.

And the bloat; the investigations, the father, the waste of time. But we have a moment of connection between last episode and this; Ruco sits down with Coke in hand to watch how Law Lan suffers and grows angry when she tells someone she deserves the suffering and now that she lost all her mone, she could sleep and her son even took her back into his life. To him she didn’t suffer enough, in fact she found her light at the end of the tunnel. For that brief moment he looked deadly. Will he kill her?

And yet later on we see same Ruco giddy in love, ALL OF A SUDDEN, when previously he was just looking at Tavia but not intently. It felt jumpy, just to set the stage of a tragedy that breaks the brothers apart. But that isn’t fair because the break starts later in this episode.

Ruco wants to get into Vivien’s room to investigate the necklace. I am still wondering why? Why so persistent? The value? The revenge? Then it dawns on me; like his inability to forgive the old woman and his confidence that Tavia will love him because he is him, here is a guy who is perhaps deep down someone a tad egoistical and someone who will bear a grudge. Anyway, he did some techy stuff, goes into her room when she left the room to have dinner with blind owner and Kevin calls to remind him to come home for desert and Kevin just asked where is he, why so quiet and Ruco says he is at the swimming pool area. Problem is, Kevin is at the swimming pool area. Kevin was curious earlier why Ruco was so interested in Vivien and now he knows Ruco lied to him and although video didn’t show it, Kevin checked and knew someone entered her room as soon as she left it. He goes to her room on an excuse to check some noise and using some techy stuff detected a hidden camera behind a painting. This time he knows Ruco is up to something.

Ruco happily having desert and suddenly Kevin asks how he earned a living all these years, no crime and Ruco laughed perhaps he should consider a life of crime. Ruco excuses himself and goes into his own room and we see now in his room is a hidden camera and Kevin is now observing Ruco whose back is facing the camera and he is looking at his phone, a video clip buffering at 40%, 60%, 80% and Ruco looks anxious and Kevin is intently waiting, because he suspects Ruco is waiting to watch Vivien’s room.

And it ends there! Quite a climax!! My guess is Ruco knows Kevin knows and I suspect even Vivien knows someone knows. Meaning everyone knows but not necessarily on the same page.

And another speculation;m biggest villain is the blind owner.

But what is certain is the honeymoon period is over. From now on, there will be distrusts and when Ruco romances and losses Tavia, envy kicks in and when Ruco fails in whatever he wants to do, that’s when he descends into total villainhood. We are given indication the true character of Ruco; so I suppose we can stop the pity and yet I still do. How much we pity him will depend on Kevin’s conduct. I am hoping he won’t go the classic “YOU DID A CRIME! I WILL ARREST YOU!!” and then things will be as ambiguous as it is interesting.

Acting wise, no complaints. Ruco is a standout with his giddy boy moment and his super devious moment and his super angry moment. You can see so many faces of him in this one episode and I enjoyed them all.

I even like cool Vivien.

I don’t mind Tavia but I find her character increasingly purposeless except to create friction with the brothers. I feel such a waste of a good actress to have to play the useless cutesy nerdy klutzy girl that any other younger, prettier actresses can play. Yes Tavia is too old for this sort of role and she is not nearly pretty enough. But bear in mind her Jen is not supposed to be those pretty kind. She’s a really nice girl but hers is ordinary nice. I don’t expect her to hug a lamb and cry at the lamb’s poor condition. That’s too obvious. But I feel this series can do without Jen and it can do without the friction because of Jen. It is already tense enough as it is. Jen is just a waste of space thus far, however cute or likable she is. She and many characters unbalances this series.

Which is why what I ultimately don’t like is why so many characters that makes no sense. What is Susan’s purpose? Why are we shown how much Tavia’s dad is struggling without her when it has nothing to do with the plot? What is Samantha’s purpose? What do they have to do with the core story and where on earth is the eye in the sky? Is it merely surveillance cameras and that’s it? Why not just name this Brother’s Keeper 2?

Why is Ruco forever in a series that just fails to be consistent? Or am I mistaking this as Ruco’s misfortune when it is actually TVB’s style?

Which is why you must watch Ruse Of Engagement. There is love, there is rivalry between brothers for love but at the end of the day that is not the catalyst, that is not the be all and end all.

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