The Queen of News (2023)

QUEEN OF NEWS

It's been years since I last wrote a review for a drama I've finished watching and the Queen of News deserves one from me.

I completed the series last year but decided to write a review now.

For those who are contemplating whether to watch or not, my answer is YES! Why yes? I'm listing out the reasons why.

1. Charmaine Sheh's acting! As we all know, Charmaine Sheh's acting never failed her fans and she will do her best for whatever role she gets she did well for Man Wai Sum! She went to learn from actual news anchors and studied a lot for this role! That's what we call professionalism! Her aura, her stance, everything! She did well in this drama and she's the reason why I am so hooked because of her excellent acting!

2. The plot. Well, for a long time, TVB hasn't produced dramas that felt like the "old" TVB. This one can count as one. I mean there have been good TVB dramas in recent years but the Queen of News is top-notch. It's so popular on Douyin (Chinese tiktok) that whenever I scroll through my feed, there are always snips and cuts of the drama.

3. The casts. Well, for some reason Kenneth Ma can't catch whatever is thrown at him from Charmaine Sheh (that's just my pov) but the cast are one of the reasons why this drama is so good. Everyone did so well for their roles and a shout out to Gao Hai Ning for portraying Cathy so well!

4. I enjoy watching show where people fight against each other (LOL). I mean, for the thrill, of course. Office politic is high on this one where Man Wai Sum has to fight against people who are against her. It's so brilliant! She handled all of those smartly!

This drama is a really must-watch! It's so good! I hope u guys will watch it :)

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A great drama, best one in 2023 in my opinion

When I heard Charmaine Sheh was returning to TVB for this one drama I was excited because she was one of my favorite actors to watch on TVB in the past. And here for this drama she does not disappoint. She is a strong independent woman who is called the Queen of News and you can tell from all her interactions and actions that she clearly is the Queen, and had worked hard to get to that position. The other members of the cast really compliment her well as we have great acting such as from Kenneth Ma as her rival at the SNK news station really driving up the tension between the two.

This drama really had the feel of the period drama piece Beyond the Realm of Conscience and its sequel also by TVB, but put into a modern setting. There is a lot of shadowy underhanded work and backstabbing with people constantly switching sides so it just had you second guessing everything that was going on. We have Samantha Ko who started out working for Kenneth and using her sex appeal to draw in the viewers, but she switches sides to Charmaine the moment she felt Kenneth was losing, and we have Regina Ho who was being trained to take over from Charmaine by Charmaine herself, but it turned out she was actually undercover for Kenneth and was secretly dating him. And you have the Director of the station played by Eric Tang who appears to foster calm and friendly competition but was secretly plotting against Charmaine with Kenneth, yet he can’t do much as Charmaine has the support of his boss, Mrs Fong played by Mimi Kung. Their relationships are confusingly intertwined, so you really do not know what is going to happen at any moment. The reveals just kept having me going “whoa what?”

The person with the most interesting character arc was played by Selena Lee. She started out as the neutral party and was vehemently against siding with Charmaine or Kenneth, instead focusing on delivering the truth to viewers. But as the drama went on, she found her beliefs tested and ended up in a real dark place. She came out of it with a massive heel turn, switching from righteous reporter to selfish Selena. As we watch her progress, we understand her thinking and sympathise with her decisions.

The only actor I found annoying was Regina Ho. Man, she is portrayed as this really easily manipulated idiot who is ashamed of her humble beginnings and cannot even handle her younger sister being this brat that needed to be disciplined. Later she started to hallucinate as she started to have a mental breakdown. She was annoying enough already, but she had to commit the biggest sin in the drama by cheating on Kenneth Ma with her uber driver. Like wtf?

The final episodes were not as tense and dramatic as the earlier ones, but it does end with Charmaine’s past catching up with her and a hostage situation to resolve, but I am hopeful for the future because Bosco Wong made a cameo appearance at the end as a possible new rival for Charmaine. That had me very excited, season 2 hurry up and come!

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