“The Airport Diary’s” Similarities with “Big White Duel”
Set against the backdrop of Hong Kong International Airport, TVB’s currently-airing The Airport Diary <飛常日誌> caught netizens’ attention prior to airing with its premise of casting the spotlight on various occupations within the airport, yet failed to resonate with viewers on airing, as netizens flagged striking familiarities with 2019 hit medical drama Big White DuelI <白色強人>!
Hurricane Storyline in Episode 1
Calling The Airport Diary the airport version of Big White Duel, they pointed out how a hurricane wreaked havoc in episode 1 of Big White Duel, with seriously injured traffic accident casualties conveyed to Marshall Paxton Hospital, and doctors from various specialties including Dr Zoe (Natalie Tong 唐詩詠) and Dr Ching Lok-Man (Ali Lee 李佳芯) forced to operate due to emergency situations. Similarly, The Airport Diary saw flights being delayed due to hurricane “Scorpio”, with Sisley Choi’s (蔡思貝) character calming affected travelers stuck at the airport, Kenneth Ma (馬國明) leading the emergency operations team to organise flight rearrangements; and emergency scenarios such as a forced emergency landing due to a pregnant passenger onboard going into premature labor.
Where netizens laughingly called out doctors in Big White Duel for having chat sessions over coffee more than carrying out their professional duties, airport staff from various departments in The Airport Diary are also frequently shown chatting with a cuppa in hand.
In Big White Duel, popular onscreen couple Kenneth and Natalie are both doctors who started off as a divorced couple, but still see each other daily at their workplace; The Airport Diary has Kenneth in a similar role as a divorcee who sees his ex-wife daily at the airport, this time portrayed by Sisley. Even the figure Kenneth gives to Natalie in Big White Duel as monthly alimony — 10,000 HKD — is the same as what he gives Sisley for spousal maintenance.
Same Hit Song Used
In terms of music choice, the interlude Wish which was made popular by the well-received medical series is again used in The Airport Diary, making some netizens wonder aloud if they were watching Big White Duel II instead!
These familiarities can perhaps be explained by the fact that both professional dramas have Benny Wong (黃偉強) as scriptwriter and script editor respectively; some netizens suggested The Airport Diary be renamed Airport Duel to correctly reflect its repackaged focus on aviation industry.
Source: HK01
The station is well known for lazy recycled stuff but this is on a whole new level..
Watched and finished my first ViuTV series last week and found it very refreshing-Legal Affairs. Solid cast, solid dialogue
Nice, I was hoping Legal would be good, has a pretty good cast, especially not recycling the mirror folks haha. That’s. y only complaint with the Viu series.
Was really good though I’m not really a good judge if it is recycled from other ViuTV series since it’s the first one I’ve seen. I felt the dialogue between lovers/friends/colleagues were a lot more natural and realistic. The cases are good and the acting was great. Everyone is likeable. Also Michelle Yip’s role is very different and I can see why she took it on without needing it. Just feels so rehearsed the convo between Kenneth and Sisley in comparison that it’s embarrassing. Queen of News is a nice breakthrough for TVB but they really need to have more creativity across the board. Viewers are now more intelligent and not happy with just watching ‘an episode of ‘A Kindred Spirit’ after a day’s work like in the 90s.
doesn’t matter how much they recycle, it will still be a hit in China.
Seriously. The mainland viewer is used to drivel and will accept this drama merely as simple daily content.
@jimmyszeto, when I mean recycled I mean the cast haha, a lot of their shows have the Mirror guys in it. Watching Legal now and it’s alright, the case they are dealing with is actually real case that happened.
$1 in spousal support. Like ONE.
I’ve only watched 2 episodes and 80% of the script is made up of the words “ex-husband”, “ex-wife” and “divorce”.