The Invisibles (2023)

One of the best action HK TV dramas in recent memory

This is one of the best action Hong Kong TV dramas in recent memory to be released by TVB. It is high-octane fast action-packed awesomeness that just made me go "Whoa what?" It starts out with a bang and each episode is entertaining with great funny scenes and some serious ones as well to mix it up with the action.

The stand out here is Kenneth Ma who simply exudes an air of calm and cool even while surrounded by bad guys shooting at him. The cinematography in this drama is just top notch, showing great slo-mo shots displaying character observational skills and strategic thinking, and Kenneth really shines in these scenes. When the main characters team up and fight together in these shots it is simply breathtaking.

As I have only seen 19 episodes I'll leave the complete review off for now, but the one thing I have to raise is how much I hate Natalie Tong's character in this drama. She has clearly been typecast into roles where she is as annoying and obnoxious as possible, but here she is simply unbearably annoying. The story flashes back to how her brother played by Alex Lam gets shot in the knee by Kenneth and it is clear it wasn't Kenneth's fault as you watch it up until episode 19 as there is more to the story than meets the eye, but Natalie is just a plain disgusting bitch towards Kenneth because of how her brother lost his leg after being shot. She started to calm down in the earlier episodes, but suddenly she goes back to being a hateful harlot around episodes 18-19 after insisting on meeting Chinese Hannibal Lecter in prison played by Ruco Chan. I will post a more thorough review once I have seen it all, but right now I just want Natalie Tong to get the crap beaten out of her.

The main theme song isn't very good, a very phoned in performance without any passion in the singing, but luckily the ending credits song is pretty good.

Update after watching episode 20: There is no action in this episode but hot dang it is full of great emotional acting and full of character development. It is still very clichéd and very TVB, but the main cast carry it off amazingly well with the 4 main characters finally all making up and putting all misunderstandings aside. The biggest stand out this episode is Alex Lam as his acting has really come leaps and bounds in this drama. His portrayal of conflict and guilt after remembering what truly happened in getting his knee shot really deserves an award, so I really hope he wins something at the TVB awards at the end of the year. The most wonderful thing to come out of this is that Natalie Tong finally stopped being a massive bitch to Kenneth after she realised she had the wrong idea the entire time, so much so that she didn't know how to face Kenneth after all those years of wrongly being angry at him. I was happy that Kenneth made amends with Joel and the scene where Joel tells Kenneth to punch him as an apology for the misunderstanding was very touching, but what annoyed me was how Joel's character could have come to that conclusion when he and Kenneth were comrade-in-arms so he should have trusted that his bro wouldn't do something as stupid as he originally thought.

Update: Just finished watching it all and boy what a ride. The drama slowed down somewhat around episodes 22-23 and gets a little boring, but pretty soon the main big bad, Ruco Chan, finally unleashes his master plan and gets out of prison, then it gets a lot more interesting. The action never reaches the heights of the earlier episodes, but it is still really cool, especially the gun-fu gun grab fight scenes.

I really liked Ruco's Chinese Hannibal Lecter role here, it is a great change from seeing him as the good guy who usually dies in TVB dramas. Now he is the bad guy... who *SPOILERS* dies in this TVB drama. It is different, but Ruco was an unlikeable person in this role from the start so he did a great job.

The final episode put him up against the two main good guys, Kenneth Ma and Joel Chan, and knowing he was no match against the both of them, busts out a syringe of a drug to help him in his final battle just like in The Righteous Fists, so I knew he was going to die. The director here missed out on an opportunity for a massive final 10 minute boss fight against the 3 of them, pure balls-to-the-wall action, instead the ending of this fight was a little anti-climatic. I was expecting Ruco to bust out a drug-powered Baji Kuen to mess up Kenneth and Joel.

I was very close to giving this drama a lower rating because it was implied that one of the main male leads passed away, but it is all good, we get a happy ending, even for Alex Lam! Alex Lam better win an award for his role here, massively improved!

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Best TVB Drama of 2023

I was skeptical in watching this drama at first because it was literally the same cast of "I Got The Power" and I thought it would be like another boring terrorist cop drama. But when I started it, I couldn't stop.

The drama essentially revolves around this fictional anti-terrorist police force that consists of 2 groups: one heavy-duty-guns-out-SWAT-team group and some office-workers-but-still-know-how-to-fight group. Every couple of episodes, there is a new crime case to crack with different guest actors each story. I can't attest to the accuracy, of course, but I love how they incorporate a lot of real life moves that the SWAT team members probably would execute in real life. The fight scenes were also so intense and well done, and the operations always felt so smoothly run, from start to finish.

I wish we got more back story on why Ruco even started being bad. I'm genuinely curious. The ending was very rushed, with Ruco's death being so lackluster. You would think the biggest baddie of the show wouldn't die without one big final showdown or villainous deed. TVB loves those jumping before the fire explodes scenes lol. But his role was truly fun to watch. And his sidekick was a good plot twist!

Overall, really well executed drama that kept me entertained. The police and story arcs brought a lot of nostalgia to good old TVB dramas. Please write more quality dramas like this, TVB!

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