“The Hippocratic Crush 2” and “Will Power” Plagued by Average Ratings and Viewer Complaints
TVB’s Anniversary series Will Power <法外風雲> and The Hippocratic Crush 2 <On Call 36小時II> both failed to break thirty points last week and generated complaints over glaring mistakes and unrealistic plot lines.
With its finale scheduled for this Sunday, November 24, Will Power and its cast have only limited time to make one last impression before the Anniversary Awards next month. While its ratings have remained consistent, averaging 26 points every week, the legal drama has yet to generate the interest typical of past Anniversary series. Last week, Will Power made a one-point improvement, averaging 27 points. The show also received 33 complaints, many of which attacked its legal inaccuracies and recycled story lines.
The Hippocratic Crush 2 also earned mediocre ratings despite the fact that its popular predecessor achieved a 30-point average early in its broadcast. Currently in its third week, the once-anticipated sequel merely averaged 26 points during week two. While TVB had proudly highlighted its efforts to accurately portray medical procedures, local physicians have stepped up to proclaim otherwise. One of the doctors even established a website to warn the public about some of the incorrect medical information.
Aside from the technical errors, some of the 24 complaints received last week called the production unprofessional and illogical. Netizens were quick to point out blatant set mistakes. One discovered that the hospital bed’s call buttons were actually printed stickers.
Viewers were also unhappy that one of TV’s most beloved on-screen couples, Kenneth Ma (馬國明) and Tavia Yeung (楊怡), did not have enough screen time on the show. Addressing the complaints, Tavia believes that her given screen time was appropriate and urged viewers to hang on until the end. “[Viewers] can’t possibly wish to watch only Kenneth and I for an entire series. They may then complain that we appear too often. [The show] must introduce the new characters’ relationships. Be patient everyone.”
Source: Ming Pao
This article is written by Katrine for JayneStars.com.
That is funny who someone found that the hospital bed’s call buttons were actually printed stickers. I just laughed and since I haven’t seen it it must be eh, worst then the first and Will Power to me seems to be more interesting the On Call 36 and to me it’s funny that Will power had a one-point improvement to its average.
I meant On Call 36 2
“[Viewers] can’t possibly wish to watch only Kenneth and I for an entire series. They may then complain that we appear too often. [The show] must introduce the new characters’ relationships. Be patient everyone.”
———-
I think Tavia is secretly very happy about this. Who wouldn’t be pissed to have so many new folks taking up her screen time and now the audience is also on her side!
Lol .. maybe I’m evil but I won’t fake it .. I’ll secretly laugh in her shoes!
Good point. When I first read that, I thought she was discretely implying that the HK audience complains about everything.
But hk people do complain about everything, even the most petty things
agree…hk viewers can’t stop complaining,omg people make mistakes
from what I know, Americans don’t complain unless there is something Massively wrong…
@Cho
Agree! Canadians/Americans can tolerate more, they are more open & they see things differently than HK audiences. HK audience think they know more, they are just very old school and conservative. They get mad over petty, very petty things.
It’s not about tolerating more or not, HK viewers basically TRY and find mistakes, and if not, try to make up the most ridiculous things to complain about. So either way, they will always complain.
Yea HK viewers complain a lot.
I lurk on forums that discuss US TV shows and from my observation, US viewers do complain a lot too and the TV fans often get into petty arguments over their favourite ships. The difference seems to be that for US shows, these trivial complaints just stay in Internet fanspaces and you won’t find mainstream critics or journalists from respectable newspapers writing news articles based on these complaints. Whereas HK media seems to regularly turn these ridiculous viewer complaints into headlines.
Have you guys ever heard of Twitter? Perhaps you should pay that platform a visit and see the complaints made by Americans/Canadians on the most petty things. Some even go as far as sending death threats to the actors or contestants of reality shows.
And I never understood why some of you even bother comparing Americans/Canadians with HK audiences. There’s literally 50 channels on prime time competing for viewership in USA/Canada. In Hong Kong there’s 2. And if you want to watch Cantonese series there’s only one – TVB. Makes a whole lot of sense to compare the two huh?
Western outside but Chinese inside. It’s Hong Kong audiences.
Hippocratic 2 is seriously boring with no serious storyline. Those newbies are really annoying. boring to the max.
“Serious storyline”- explain?
Acting is pretty good in “Will Power” though it does not seem to have a lot of developments.
Agree that there are a lot of incorrect legal procedures in “Will Power”. Wish TVB would do more research before filming any drama series about professionals.
I don’t really understand how the accuracy of professions annoy the audience though. It’s like the cop series in the 80s and 90s were all not accurate yet we loved some of those series.
I personally don’t see a difference between an accurate portrayal of a lawyer/dr and a tvb one.
Agree though – I’m loving Will Power. The chemistry with the cast, minus fala, very nice to watch!
Well said. In all of the drama series about professionals, it has always been the same through the years (1980s, 1990s, 2000, present). Now they are complaining, like WTF. Each people have their own point of views.
Like one cop/doctor/attorney will speak differently and have different views than another cop/doctor/attorney of the same case. There is NO one way to do things.
Pretty much HK audiences are just talking nonsense, they don’t even know how these professional work.
Because when the series are bad, the audiences have to find something to do and they complain to kill time. That’s why they can find that much of faults.
HK audience should just watch documentaries instead, they’re logic and close to reality, just what they want. Let see could they find flaws there.
If Txb can produce as good series as before, I blv the complaints will be lessen. The current scripts are bad.
In old days (such as 70s, 80s, and 90s), a normal citizen (or viewer) was not able to learn about the true procedures (legally, medically, or police wise). However, with the Internet, people can get the information easily and compare TVB drama series with other dramas produced internationally. Moreover, people are much smarter nowadays If we have doubts now, we can always search it on Google. Could we do it in 70s, 80s or 90s?
Now we can share our feedback about a drama series here easily. Were we able to do it in 70s , 80s, or 90s?
That is why people nowadays expect more from TVB drama series.
information on the internet is not always reliable or true, almost anyone, including 6 years old, can upload false contents onto the web.
If they want real & true info, they should read books or ask professionals(and not always one)
If you want inaccuracies. TVB constantly fail saving lives with CPR.
People in old days would NOT challenge TVB for their inaccuracy. They just didn’t know and didn’t bother to find out the truth. Most people were not as well-educated as people of nowadays. They did not have easy access, such as the Internet, to obtain the right information, and they did not have sources (websites) either to voice their complaints like what we do now. That is the reason why there are many complaints about TVB drama series (including ours).
I don’t agree that we should learn only from books nowadays. I always obtain information on the Internet. It is very outdated if we have to rely on books now.
Of course, asking professionals, such as doctors and lawyers, for accurate information is the best source. However, not all us have the privilege of obtaining information from those professionals, and it is not handy either.
sandcherry,we dont need internet to see that the quality of tvb series are going downhill. if you have seen the 80’s 90’productions of tvb you will admit with me that the quality of the series is far more better than now.
Storyline and acting were definitely better, but NOT in everything.
to me the most important thing in a serie is the storyline and the actors,when i watched the 80’s and 90’s tvb series i got the feel to chase after watching every episode.but now its only a few in a year time.
It is very true. I also put storyline No. 1, and acting No. 2. However, people complain these days not only because of storyline and acting, but many other little things (such as legal or medical procedures, ).
Moreover, TVB like to cast newbies in big productions, which always spoil a good drama series. TVB wouldn’t cast newbies in grand productions in the past.
i also dont watch the details like the background or what you said medical procedure.but i dont mind they use newbies in grand productions,but in thc2 there are too many of them,with too many side stories.but i think tracey chu is good actres.
I don’t mind watching newbies either, but not in heavy-duty roles, and not paired up with a veteran actor. No matter how good she is, her acting is still inferior vs. the veteran’s.
Give the newbies a break. Some of them are surprisingly good. Tracy Chu is the example. She carries herself well with Lawrence and her other costars. If Tracy wasn’t casted, we wouldn’t know her potential.
i dont understand your problem with the newbies paired up with veteran’s.of course their acting ability are no match of the veterans,as a audience i can understand it,but thats just a good moment for them to learn from the veteran’s. and i think tracey chu is quite good in thc2
@kolo –
not sure if sandcherry agrees but my personal problem w/ newbies and veteran actors getting paired up is because acting is induced by the chemistry by the cast. if the veteran suffers through repeated retakes, there’s no way he can immerse in the character. let’s remember, tvb works long hours – after hour 15, i’ll just say – forget it, that take i wasn’t too happy with is okay now.
the end result is a lower quality production when instances like above are repeated in every production.
of course, you may find exceptions to this but my point is – not pairing them to veterans will also discover newbies with potentials. tvb is trying to milk these new contracts asap! that’s their strategy and i personally find that strategy harmful in the long run
pandamao
I agree with you that it is not quite the same for veterans to act with newbies. Wayne Lai is a 3-time TV King, and he always acted better with experienced and mature actresses. I guess most people could tell the difference when he paired up with Sire Ma in “Bullet Brain”. No matter how good an experienced artiste is, he/she will definitely have more sparks when he/she acts with another experienced artiste.
On the other hand, it is good for newbies if they are paired up with veterans because they can learn from them.
As an audience, I would rather watch veterans acting with experienced artistes, and not newbies. There will be more chemistry in their acting. Wayne Lai is a good example.
Will Power should have just stopped at Episode 20, it already seemed like an appropriate ending after Wilson and Morris were abducted by Highlight and subsequently saved by the police. I honestly thought it was the finale episode until the following Monday and it STILL Will Power on TV!
As for THC2, it is quite disappointing. Definitely isn’t as good as all the hype made it out to be and the reviews/spoilers that were posted before the airing of the series were extremely inaccurate. I thought Lawrence Ng was suppose to be a bad guy??? Kenneth and Tavia seem to only reprise their role by name and not by “character”. I think only Him Law is doing his character as it was in the first series.
But Tracy Chu is good. Like really good for her first time. Waaaayyyy better than Christine Kuo or even Eliza Sam during her debut.
No one ever said or reported Lawrence’s character to be the ‘bad guy’ – where the hell did you read that? LOL
Kenneth and Tavia are a married couple in comparison to the first-their characters would have obviously matured. I dont find that they have only reprised their role by name and not their character.
I agree- Tracy is doing a good job for a newcomer! She’s convincing as a doctor. She still has room for improvement though, particularly her emotional scenes, but it is bearable. COnsidering this is her 1st series, she’s doing good.
Read the spoilers revealed by the producer that there would be a rivalry between Kenneth Ma and Lawrence Ng. Yeah, shouldn’t have jump to conclusion though. Sorry about that.
TVb’s in deep shiat if 2 TV kings can only scrap together an avg of 26 to 27 pts ratings. The TV kings better not win TV king again this year. For HC2, hope that tvb learns its lessons not to milk the original to death by following up with crappy sequels.
“For HC2, hope that tvb learns its lessons not to milk the original to death by following up with crappy sequels.”
_________________________
Sorry, but I had to laugh when I read the above (not at you though so please don’t take it personally). THC2 isn’t the first ‘crappy sequel’ that TVB has produced and it definitely won’t be the last. If TVB hadn’t learned their lesson already from their long track record of ‘crappy sequels’, what makes you think they will learn their lesson now?
You’ve a weird sense of humour. I was specifically referring to THC2 here since this article is about THC2; it’s not as if i didn’t know that this isn’t the first crappy sequel nor will it be the last crappy sequel. The next crappy sequel that’s going to be unleashed on us is TITS the movie. May it be an expensive bomb.
@choco-bunny: Yup…I do have a weird sense of humor when it comes to TVB and I’m not afraid to admit it. After so many years of being ‘let down’ by TVB, it’s hard not to become ‘disillusioned’ and be ‘doubtful’ of what they have to offer – handling it with a touch of humor is probably the healthiest way to react at this point. Again, no offense and if my comment was read the wrong way, I apologize – just trying to point out the obvious though, which now I understand is the same point you were trying to get at: most of TVB’s sequels are ‘crappy’!
One point I do disagree with though: next crappy sequel will probably be Tiger Cubs 2, since TITS the movie isn’t even in final cast confirmation stage yet. 🙂
oh yes, i overlooked Tiger Cubs 2
Will Power’s most convincing legal arguments and scenario which is still full of holes but the least the least holes is that rape case of Nana. Surprisingly all strategies that would be used is used, but shortcut way.
Agree. “Will Power” is a very good and convincing legal drama series among all the other legal drama series filmed by TVB. It is more about legal matters (cases) than just love affairs. I enjoyed it so far.
Acting was very good in “Will Power”. I must say that I enjoyed Wayne Lai’s acting as the little-man-lawyer, as well as the playful Moses Chan’s and others’.
The only one who did not do very well might be Jason Chan, but his character, Chin Ka Ming, could be that kind of a person. At least he did not do a lousy job.
Moses is too serious when he should have been the comic relief. Neither looked like lawyers but Wayne has good acting skills.
Jason Chan wasn’t lousy, he was god awful and the worst ever. His acting is simply insincere and he doesn’t seem serious and there is an absolute lack of emotion in output. Vincent Wong is the one that deserves the credit for being a good actor. Jason Chan is often bulldozed by the much better Vincent Wong.
Agree that Vincent Wong is a good actor and deserves more promotion by TVB.
I don’t think Jason Chan is not insincere. He is just not confident and convincing as a lawyer. He behaves more like a good son.
“Will Power” is not a very serious serious legal drama series; it is more on the comedic side.
Some episodes it it became dead serious. Right now it is in dead serious mode.
Jason Chan is just a poor poor actor, whether as a good son, concerned husband, playful lawyer, whatever. I look at him and I am totally not convinced by his acting.
Fala is doing well though. This role suits her.
Jason Chan is a BBC. He needs to work on his Cantonese more so that he can speak more naturally with better emotions. It happens to most overseas born Chinese artistes. I guess it takes time and he is quite new in drama series.
Correct. Some episodes are serious and some are “light-hearted”, which have made “Will Power” more entertaining.
If it is just accent, Sire Ma will be a problem. It is more than accent. He reminds me of those new Miss HK being thrust into the limelight in heavy roles when he should be given more time to find his style.
As TVB is now short of siu sangs and fadans, it is TVB’s style of promoting new artistes unfortunately. It is harder for guys as most actors improve their acting skills through years of acting experience. Therefore, it is harder for us to accept new actors if they get promoted so quickly. I guess we are more used to see those beauty pageant winners to start with heavy roles.
no wonder,both serie are too boring,i have stoped watching after a few episode,not my cup of tea,lol.
Finding THC2 a huge disappointment. The original cast hardly has screen time to accommodate the addition of Lawrence and Tracy, which I find super boring. Though I like Eliza I find her character super random as she appears everywhere! How does she sustain herself by merely being a volunteer at the hospital? I was looking forward to the development of Him and Jingjing’s character. It’s a shame she had that scandal…
I only watched 2 to 3 episodes of “TC 2”, and gave up because the storyline was too scattered with too many new characters.
Was Jing Jing still in “TC 2”? I did not seem to see her much in the series.
To be fair, the quality of the tvb dramas this year have been lacklustre. Willpower and thc 2 along with brother’s keeper are already the cream of the crop this year in my humble opinion. EveN TITS 2 can be touted as a hot favourite for best drama this year so I don’t see why viewers are complaining about will power and the 2 if they can accept tits2. Tits 2 was an even crappier drama with way more new additions to the original cast as compared to thc 2. Worse still, the screentime is divided to the unnecessary small fry like Toby etc. I mean seriously?!? The supporting actors (Elena, kenneth, Nancy, him) already don’t get enough screen time. Heck, just count myolie and Chilam in too. I barely even see them and they waste precious screen time on people like Apple?!? Pink pink?!? Adrian? And many more useless people that I can’t even remember their faces. What’s more their names.
Makes me wonder what people like to watch these days. I mean TITS2 was nothing but fluff… throw in a big cast and exotic scenery, add lots of unnecessary love/kissing scenes, one playboy pilot, one stern as h-e-l-l no nonsense pilot, one dizzy pilot wannabe and one dead-ringer for a dead wife and voila, people lap it all up..i mean….seriously, what do people watch these days?!
tbh,if there is key scenes from TITS2 that you ask me to recall or summarise the whole series by describing it, all I can think about is lots of kissing and cheesy love. But with its high ratings, I guess HK viewers enjoy that sort of drama.
i like your description Clementine, “cheesy love”, yeah says it all, the word “cheesy” about describes the whole drama.
Totally agree. TITS is undeserving of its 30 pt ratings. The story line was packed with unrealistic romances paying only minimal respect to the pilot profession. I was annoyed with captain “cool’s” over-the-top arrogance; using romancing stunts that one may deem as unnatural and intrusive. If people want to be realistic perhaps they should consider how a romancer of that degree isn’t plagued with STI’s. The only saving grace in that show was that Holiday picked Sam at the very end.
Yes I just spoiled the end for those who have yet watch this show, although there really wasn’t a whole lot to spoil. It’s definitely 40 hours of my life that I will never get back.
I’m enjoying Will Power so far (epi 20).
I like the way they make fun of Wayne’s physique- very funny.
I thought both Falan & Vincent Wong did well, natural & convincing.
me too…i watch it every day (because I am in US…need to wait for upload from last night)…I love Fala! Yea, I heard that some laws and rules are not true/correct in this drama…but it is just a drama…I am not studying law! so…i am okay with it.
Ship lawrencextavia hope they can be a couple!
Will Power is very illogical. Does Hong Kong only have one judge and four lawyers? Every single case in this series is fought between the same two law firms. Seems that everyone character in this series have a connection to each other. Is Hong Kong really that small?
This is not the only series where this has happened. TVB has compromised realistic story lines for easy scriptwriting.
Why don’t you ask the same question about war of the genders, the 2 lawyers are always Dodo cheng & Joseph Lee.
Will Power main leads are Wilson & Morris, if use another lawyer that we don’t even know, it will be just stand alone acting for just Wilson or for Morris. Each of the cases aren’t 1 or 2 episodes long, therefore, using both of them is reasonable. People say the plot is illogical, can you tell me where is it that is illogical?????How would you have done it???
laputasam, I agree with you on the judge but then as it is Sheila already has zero personality and no role so I suppose they had to insert her everywhere they can.
I don’t blame the HK viewers for being observant and critical about the show and the many glaring mistakes. Since HK government did not approve all the “free” TV licenses and TVB knowing that their main competition is “dead in the water”, TVB is basically the only show in town. Quality suffers as there is no competition. If there are other shows from competing TV stations, TVB will have to work harder to keep their viewing audience such as good plots and storylines, more on location shootings vs. inside the studio, better use of their artists and production and quality control of their finished products. Many Jayne-star viewers watched the HKTV initial episode of the Police Boundaries and commented on how good the storyline and how professionally done it was. Compare that to the Sniper or Tiger Cub series, it is like day and night!
I think part of it too is that now, after HKTV, people have something more concrete to compare against and know that ARE ways to do things better. Like when I read that complaint about the buttons in the hospital room being a ‘sticker’ and also the cheap sets, the first thought that came to my mind is how the artists who filmed HKTV’s series commented how they filmed at a real life hospital or police station, to the point that even a sink that they weren’t using in a scene had real water running from it.
Of course, it’s hard to say whether HKTV’s series would have been ‘better’ or not in terms of storyline and acting, since none of us got to watch any of their series in its entirety….but based on what we know and have seen so far, I would say that HKTV wins hands down in terms of production values and ‘professionalism’ (we don’t need to watch an entire series to make this type of determination — all it takes is a few scenes and an understanding of how the overall process works).
Police Boundaries is just a waste of time, it is boring and uninteresting. Yeah right, just watching the 1st episode cannot determine that it has good storyline, people can easily get fooled, just by watching the trailer too.
The production values and cinematography are amazing, but I agree with you. It wasn’t that good IMO. They had the protagonist catch the bad guy and made him into a future viligante in the same episode. Just made no sense.
Fed up reading above. I watched tvb since 1983. Honesly, tvb sometimes drag too much, will power was good beginning then boring to heck. Tvb is like that; interesting then draggy or boring then pick up. Best is 3 kingdom 95 epi china damn shiok (fun).but tvb has no good new actors/actress always recycle boring to see their face. Some supporting disappeared. Him law can’t act like rock.
Its because TVB is sooo cheap these days… cut script, workers, workers pay, scenes, out door scenes, makeup, personal assistants, rest time, budget, etc.
I like to have HKTV, so I am not a big TVB fans. But I have to say sometime HK people complaint too much…I don’t mind some law/rule are not correct in Will Power or some medical procedure is not correct in TITS 2. It is just a drama for entrainment. It is not a lesson for me to be a lawyer or doctor!
HKTV is dead, gone forever.
Some of tvb drama should have ended with the first, there’s no reason for a sequel. On call 2 being one of them. I couldn’t get pass episode 2
TVB writers should come up with new fresh story line, not riding on the success of the first one and continue to drag it on and milk it for whatever it’s worth.
Sequel rarely measures up.
definitely agree with you on that. Same goes for Rosy Business, it should have ended at No Regrets. Perfect ending, but now with so called Rosy business 3 (which I don’t think it should be placed into the Rosy business collection)they have created sort of like a category iii drama, bringing all those rape and passionate scenes altogether.
Most frustrating is that the third installment does not have Wayne & Sheren together (2 of my fav artists )and the original casts, this point pisses me off the most. TVB should just leave it alone.
I will always support TVB, but they should come up with creative ideas for their dramas.
Is Wayne role meant to be a comedy role
Wayne screen time in WP is so small
what the heck are you watching?
he has alot of screen times
Agree. Wayne Lai has more screen time than Moses Chan.
A lot has been said about how incorrect the laws are, but to a lay person like me, who’s not living in HKG, I find it ok. In fact some parts seem pretty smart to all of us 🙂 As to there’s only one judge, I think we can over look that, because ,she’s Wayne’s love interest. She has to appear somewhere. If her scenes are cut further, fans will complain too little of Wayne’s love interest 🙂
Totally agree with you on that.:)
I wish Tania could stop playing with her nose. Big difference between on call 1 and 2
I meant Tavia
Well, it isn’t easy to produce procedural dramas (medical, law, detective) which involve case by case and need very detail and meticulous stuffs to make them close to real fact. Western tv series is known to produce this genre, E.R., C.S.I., Law and Order are the popular example. TVB rarely to create procedural drama in 70’s & 80’s. For 90’s era, I notice File of Justice, Detective Investigation Files, Healing Hands were pretty good for Asian drama standard.
You could say thanks for that one particular producer who made several sequels during 90s era.
Agree it’s not easy to procedural dramas. Having said that the current dramas fall way short of the 90s dramas mentioned.
For Will Power, some errors and inconsistencies are too glaring. Eg the lawyers are engaged in arguing with each other instead of addressing the judge.
Another was when Highlight and his gang were seated at the gallery. Any right thinking judge would summon help from the police. Can this happen in HK courts?
I can only surmise it’s due to the small pool of scriptwriters given insufficient time to develop good ideas and proper scripts. No wonder plot ideas and gimmicks are repeated in so many dramas. Seems standard to have illegitimate children, secrets kept from them, one of the sibling is mentally/physically challenged….
For HC2 seems like they throw the cast together and hope something sticks with the audience.
sorry, i just have to say this. hk audience complain too much. like seriously. dont you know that nobody’s perfect???
I guess hk audience think they are perfect, but as we all know, they are opposite of perfect
but somehow i feel that hk audience are good at judging who the BA award will be given too. but they complaint too much .
like what Kenneth said , as real as a medical drama can be it will never be as realistic and perfect like a real hospital stop whining hk people everyone has flaws stop being annoying for heavens sake
the low ratings Are due to the new casts (duh) like Tracy chu the newbie ermm this is like her FIRST drama right ? Why must they put her in a sequel and her acting is just like **** plus Lawrence NG he’s not a newbie but his storyline is so damn ass boring I fast-forward all of his scenes why did the producer put his and tracy’s character in I mean it’s like redundant the two of them have so many scenes that even Mandy (supporting character) and yutou
Have so few scenes to sum it all up these two are destroying the sequel like what CK did to ghetto justice 2
The only reason why I’m still watching THC2 is because of Tavia. Her acting is so great, she should get more screen time! I want to see more or Yu Zai and Yat Kin!
Kenneth takes indomethicin for his anxiety hahaha it’s for pain
Sad to say, THC2 is really a boring sequel… I don’t find the urge to “chase” this series anymore…
Totally agree with you. If cannot hv a good story just stop lah do what nonsense sequel.
TVB = Totally very bad…
My only gripe with On Call 2 is that they didn’t show the procedure of Tavia’s abortion. Other than that, I think it’s ok.
Stop whining and complaining you idiots