Born Rich and Beyond the Realm of Conscience

I just thought I'd do a little update on the TVB series I'm watching currently.

Born Rich had a great cast and I was really interested at the start but I've just lost interest. I think it's the storyline, I don't know, I just drifted off.

Beyond the Realm of Conscience is a good series but it was was overhyped and way too overrated. It's a good series but it doesn't deserve the "highest rating" ever accolade.

STRICTLY!

I'm going to try and refrain from talking about the Christmas special as I'm not too interested in what actually happened - however extremely happy that Chris came last in the scores, I think I'll leave it at that. Anyway after 7 series, wow 7 series already, I though it would be quite nice to collate my favourite ensemble of dancers - wouldn't it be nice if they could do something like that, get the best of the best into one series! I've tried to put my favourites and ability into consideration rather than just popularity. Anyway here's how my list goes!!!

Denise Lewis & Ian Waite (2)

Zoe Ball & Ian Waite (3)

Emma Bunton & Darren Bennett (4)

Alesha Dixon & Matthew Cutler (5)

Kelly Brook & Brendan Cole (5)

Rachel Stevens & Vincent Simone (6)

Lisa Snowdon & Brendan Cole (6)

Ali Bastian & Brian Fortuna (7)

Laila Rouass & Anton Du Beke (7)

Jade Johnson & Ian Waite (7)

Colin Jackson & Erin Boag (3)

Matt Di Angelo & Flavia Cacace (5)

Gethin Jones & Camilla Dallerup (5)

Tom Chambers & Camilla Dallerup (6)

Austin Healey & Erin Boag (6)

Ricky Whittle & Natalie Lowe (7)

Not everyone will be happy with "MY" 16 but I emphasize this is my favourite 16.

Sad Omissions

Cherie Lunghi - I'm so sad to lose her but it had to be. I'm amazed I decided to save Lisa instead but I remember Cherie falling week on week so I'd rather keep sweet memories!
Mark Ramprakas - loved him but I loved the others more.
Jill Halfpenny - I like her now but I just loved Denise more in Series 2
Matt Dawson - I like Matt but I remember not liking him before
Louisa Lytton - The cast was just too strong
Letitia Dean - Loved her but yet again cast was too strong
Penny Lancaster - Loved her but didn't see enough of her.
Gabby Logan - Same as above
Claire King and Mark Foster nearly made my list!

The perfect series would be that all the contestants had 2 months of intensive behind the scenes training and then by the live shows every week 2 couples leave until the Top 2. Each week there will be two dances and the judges scores will be 45% then audience scores will be 30% and then TV viewers will be 25%. This is so that popularity doesn't affect the scorings too much.

I think my favourite Final 2 would be Alesha Dixon Vs. Austin Healey.

Though I'm starting to get a bit tired of Strictly now I'll definitely stick to the next series, they need to cut it down a bit but keep or even increase the per episode budget. They also need to cut some of the worst dancers much quicker like two per episode! Keep the dance off so some of the best are safe and make sure the winner is actually one of the best!

Nearly forgot...

One more thing, I dislike how the judges suddenly push Chris to be so so much better than he's been judged previously, he's never done better than 42 but now his worst score is 44! Sorry it's just unbelievable. Also Alesha was giving 10's like every single dance!

UNBELIEVABLE!

Chris and Ola are Strictly 2009 Champions! WHAT! I love Chris but come on! Ricky is the better dancer by far. Ali and Jade are better than Chris even Zoe who went out halfway is better than Chris and I'd say Laila could have been better than Chris. I adore Chris, he is so cute with Ola but Ricky should have won. I'm sorry but this win is nearly as bad as Darren Gough beating Colin Jackson. Though I like underdogs and personality in the end I champion the person who really deserves it and that was Ricky Whittle, but Strictly fans are known to chose the weaker contestant, Darren Gough, Mark Ramprakash, Tom Chambers, basically whenever it's a male winner it's generally because of their personality. Whenever it's a girl they are generally the better dancer... Natasha Kaplinsky, Jill Halfpennny, Alesha Dixon.

Sports Personality Awards

I don't really follow this award nor did I know that it actually happened - I only knew this morning. I was absolutely shocked that Ryan Giggs won, the question that comes to my head is WHY? Ryan Giggs is a great football player, I acknowledge that but his individual merit this year seems to be lacking. It's great to know he won the PFA Player of the Year but has he in any way garnered attention this year? And let me emphasize; attention as a group isn't individual attention. He is a great player but if his win wasn't really specific to the year but his career in general wouldn't it be more fitting to award it to him in a weaker field? I just find it shocking that he actually won by a landslide of votes. Isn't there a team award? Wouldn't it be better to award them the Best Team?

I think the top five should have been Jenson Button, Jessica Ennis, Phillips Idowu, Beth Tweddle and David Haye, I've skipped Tom Daley because he already got a Young personality thing.

Miss Chinese International 2010

Whilst I'm in a blogging mood lets get everything out of the way (even though I've got hell-loads of homework ;(. I fear Miss Chinese International will soon die out as it has got like 0 attention - oh well. I've only seen a few candidates but I have to say this year looks to be underwhelming. Current observations suggest that the Top 5 will probably be Miss Hong Kong, Miss Vancouver, the eventual winner of Miss Europe, Miss Asian America and Miss Macau. I must say there are some decent delegates in the bunch and I shouldn't really judge when all I have is basically one grainy picture of every delegate! I'd like to see the final bunch as at the moment it seems like the group is very thin. Miss Hong Kong - Sandy Lau, she participated in Miss World but didn't get a look-in because she's simply too short. Miss Vancouver looks Ok but from the pictures I've seen there has definitely been prettier delegates from this city. Miss Asian America is probably the prettiest contestant I've seen at the moment - though she's 27! Miss Macau is decent but she needs to brush up on her presentation as she's a bit stiff whilst the eventual winner of Miss Europe will probably be Ok as there are about 3 or 4 good ones in that bunch. Well the finals will probably be at the end of January so we'll see what happens then! (at least the calibre shouldn't be lower than 2007, some great delegates but an overall weak bunch).

Miss World - goes to... Gibraltar!

I was quite shocked when I read this, I hadn't followed the pageant like I wanted to so I didn't really have any favourites but from what I read France, South Africa, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico and Vietnam were the hot favourites - even Scotland was in for a shot. I knew Gibraltar won Beach Beauty and that's a good sign of a good delegate - winning either Top Model or Beach Beauty, but in all honesty I was expecting a Mexico Vs. South Africa brawl, they eventually came 2nd and 3rd respectively. France came 4th - yeah! and Canada came 5th - wow go Lena! You former Miss Chinese International girl! Do us Asians proud! lol! Puerto Rico wasn't even in the Top 16! Anyway congrats to Gibraltar - she's definitely not a bad delegate and I guess it's kind of a win for the UK!!! I am sad that Miss England was blanked the whole way through, she was decent! Oh and I'm also quite happy that Gibraltar broke the South and Central America streak.

Anyway this pageant month has got me in the mood for revisiting some past pageants- one of my favourite delegates of recent times has got to be Miss Korea Universe 2007 HONEY LEE! She's acting now so I'll get to see a lot more of her! I JUST LOVE SOUTH KOREA! (emphasis on the South), I wonder when Korea will give us another stunner. In fact I want 2007 all over again!

X Factor - sick of it!

I always find myself watching the first say 6 episodes an then not bothering anymore - this goes with any music competition actually. I just think that after about 6 episodes we've got to see the contestants enough to know who we like and who has the potential to be a hit (with us), after that its just all the same again; nothing fresh all just prefabricated British TV! X Factor needs an utter revamp, I hate how it has somehow been increasing in viewer ratings when in actually fact it's going downhill. What's even worse is that very few X Factor contestants ever get to the "top" of the music industry. We seem to love them and then dish them away, basically because another year and there's another crop of wannabes we'd like to love! In a way X Factor kind of exploits these guys and then trashes them. When the brand name is bigger than the actual contestant I think the show starts to become pointless.

Another thing, how many of these contestants would you actually buy an album from? Olly - nah he's more stage presence, may do OK in concert ticket sales, Joe - nah, he's more of a theatre guy, sign him on a theatre production, maybe sales would go up, Danyl - dunno, a bit too nasally, Stacey - no way! Lovely personality but average voice, Jamie - nah, stage performance guy. In the end nobody can really sell so why bother? Why bother with someone who is going to bring like 5 minutes of entertainment and then disappear from the face of the earth! The "biggest" thing this show has made - Leona Lewis, even she seems to be losing it a bit - I wonder where she'll be 5 years on? Basically I kind of hate the X Factor brand - I don't hate the contestants or the judges, I hate the brand that it has made.

Olly and Joe in the final, congrats - like I didn't predict that 6 weeks ago. I'd almost like the show more if it just said - ok this week we are voting 4 of you off - bye bye! Just do something different - PLEASE! It's just same old auditions and bootcamp, then same old song and theme for the live shows. There needs to be a new show in town to brighten things up as it's just becoming monotonous. Anyway I hope Joe and Olly do well in their careers, I guess Joe will go into theatre and Olly will do a few gigs around the country and then think about an album - anyway congrats to you guys and good luck in your future careers - hopefully you won't be forgotten like the whole morgue of past X factor contestants!

Strictly Final

I can't believe Ali is out and here's me thinking that the audience didn't like Ricky anymore. Personally I think Ali is slightly (only slightly) overrated but she is still way better than Chris Hollins. I love Chris, especially his Charleston, but for him to make the final over Ali is a bit of a joke! Supposedly he is favourite to win as well! I hope not! From the start I tipped Ricky to win, he has been through a few rough patches but hopefully the audience will crown the best dancer.

The finals will be very predictable, it's obvious that Ricky will score much higher than Chris but it all depends on the viewers as the scores don't really make much of a difference it's whether the public liked it or not. If Chris wins it'll be the biggest shock (for me anyway) since Darren Gough won, simply because Darren Gough beat Zoe Ball and Colin Jackson who were, simply put, better than him. Strictly has crowned the worst of the final 3 before, Darren Gough, Tom Chambers and to an extent Mark Ramprakash - I think Emma Bunton was better than him but not Matt Dawson.

Anyway if Chris Hollins wins I'll be happy for him, but not all to pleased considering he's never passed 35/40 or equivalent 44/50 - not including Series 1 he'll be the 2nd worst Top 3 competitor in Strictly history - tipped by Julian Clary but he was on a world of his own.

One add on, I hate how everybody seems to be emphasizing on there only being 2 full marks this series, lets go back before Cycle 6, where the judges went on overload with 10's. In series 1 the highest mark was 37! In Series 2 only Jill and Darren got a 40. Series 3 didn't have any full marks and that year we had Zoe and Colin, Series 4 had only 1 full mark, awarded to Mark Ramprakash's salsa, Alesha Dixon never got a 40 in Series 5 either, only Matt Di Angelo got a 40, so why is everyone going "HEY where are the 40's?" The big 40 should be an illustrious title, not just given freely! Series 6 was crazy in that 40's came out left right and centre, personally I don't think Series 6 deserved that many 40's but they did have one of the best final 4's Austin, Lisa, Rachel, Tom. Basically if even one of the judges never got a 40 why are we complaining that Ali only has 2 and Ricky has none? I do however agree that the contestants have not performed to their quality regularly. Ali, for me, rarely ever hit her potential, Ricky has only begun to realise his potential recently whilst Chris has probably exceeded his. Laila really didn't capitalise on hers, she had so much ballroom potential but there was a physical barrier with her. Jade and Zoe left prematurely as well, so it isn't that this years contestants aren't as good it's just that none of them really performed to their best - maybe that comes down to the experience of the professionals teaching - lets remember that Brian hasn't been here for that long, I know little about Natalie and James I don't like! lol. Anyway next saturday will answer all my questions.

The Killer!

I'm not normally a speculations reader but I did and now I think I agree that the killer is Eddie, Danny's friend. As he's not that much of a nobody. His name is Josh Zuckerman and he's starred in a few films and Kyle XY, he was the son of Dr. Evil in Austin Powers! So must be him, it's also plausible.

The Plane Crash!

I just watched the most recent episode of desperate housewives and I just thought I'd get on the bandwagon on who's going to die!!!!!!!

Anyway, back to sanity...

It's obvious that Orson or Karl, or both, will die as the house they were in was hit directly by the plane. Everybody is saying Orson will die but I think Karl will! I just don't see Bree's story to get interesting if it was Karl alive and Orson dead, the whole Karl/Bree/Orson thing hanged on Bree having an affair - I reiterate BREE HAVING AN AFFAIR! If Orson died then Karl and Bree would just be Karl and Bree, not "Karl and, Bree having an affair with Karl over Orson, Bree" It's obvious Karl and Bree wouldn't last so if Orson died all the writers could do would be to have a huge breakup (after two months) of Karl leaving Bree - he's a divorce lawyer as well! (or actually Bree feeling so guilty that she leaves Karl) and then Bree possibly becoming an alcoholic again! BUT if Orson lived then the writers could continue the feud the two have and maybe they can be happy again. Bree's story would just collapse without Orson.

In actual fact, I want to put this somewhat ludicrous idea out! Supposedly Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom) wants to quit Desperate Housewives so maybe the writers will write him in as, trying to break up the feud between Karl and Orson and therefore say he was in the "Santa's grotto thing" with the other two men. A far-fetched idea but a possible one.

Supposedly two housewives are hit hardly (not by the plane, and no pun intended). I don't see Susan losing anyone, it would be pointless to kill off Julie or Mike whilst some speculators say Katherine - no way! Nor would it be Dylan, that'd be stupid! So therefore I think it ends up with either Gabrielle or Lynette.

Possibilities with Gabrielle - Well personally I don't think it's likely as obviously Gabrielle will forgive Lynette for saving her daughter therefore her daughter can't die. Therefore in actual fact I don't think it's a possibility.

Possibilities with Lynette - The obvious choice. Now who's "killable" in the Lynette household? You know Lynette's son, Parker, he was randomly featured quite heavily this episode, maybe it's a last hurrah! Just a thought. But I think her twins (unborn) will probably go. In trying to save Celia Lynette will probably crash into some curb or something and then lose her babies; Gabrielle will feel so bad and therefore forgive her and then as Lynette is no longer pregnant she gets her job back - just my thought, but I think the most plausible one. However we seem to be missing the "fan favourite" bit in my analysis. Maybe it's going to be Karen McCluskey as she was shown running away from the plane with her lover. Oh but supposedly Lynette will have a child next season with some disability so my analysis may be totally wrong.

Can I just question one thing... Supposedly when the show returns in January the move will be 20 year onwards, to a somewhat prediction of the future - will the ladies still play their roles when they are possibly in their 70's?

Bob and Lee (the gay couple) could possibly go, they haven't provided any new plots or contributed to anything this season so maybe it's time for them to go.

Of course Mona dies and don't forget to count the stupid wife and his husband!

Felicity Huffman said the fan favourite is one a lot of people have a crush on? Orson (Kyle Maclachlan) said he would be still alive so I guess the one everybody has a crush on is Karl.

Oh oh oh... what about Danny (or Tyler) Bolen; just thought that maybe Angie will start pouring her heart out or getting even more protective if Danny gets killed - very unlikely but still just putting it out there.

Whilst just as I'm on the topic, I'm so disappointed with what they are doing with Ana Solis, which is nothing! Why bother then!

So the hitlist for me looks like:

Guy in the house: Karl

Fan Favourite: Karen McKluskey? Possible unless Karl is the fan favourite or actually Andrew.

Heartthrob: Well it's probably Karl but I wouldn't count out Andrew actually

The other one!: One of Lynette's babies maybe.

So the 2 or 3 dead is... Karl, Andrew, Babies with an outside chance of Karen McKluskey - in my opinion anyway.

Basically this crash will hit Bree hardest whilst Gabrielle and Lynette will repair their friendship.

Pageants this year

This may not amuse you but I was quite "amused" when I realised that the big 3 pageants this year were all won by Central and South American countries! Firstly Miss Venezuela, Stefania Fernandez winning Miss Universe, then Miss Mexico, Anagabriela Espinoza won Miss International and finally Miss Brazil, Larissa Ramos won Miss Earth. Now I don't know if the trend will continue with Miss World but at the moment all the bookmakers' favourite is Miss Puerto Rico Jennifer Conlon and the second favourite and most pageant sites favourite is Miss Mexico Perla Beltran. Just thought I'd point it out when everyone else keeps on saying how pageants are biased to latina women.

Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires

Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires is possibly the best DW game I've played, I love it! The graphics are great, they have definitely spent time improving the small things for this game. The character diversity is amazing, for the main game you can basically chose anyone from a selection of 100's. The character creation is fantastic for a DW game and much stylish compared to say Virtua Tennis 2009. I love the empires mode which allows you to be anything from a vagrant to the ruler of the land! This game is so close to what I've been looking for in a DW game.

Negatives, are there any? I think the only negative which isn't really just this game is the character design. The character design is good but I loved the old character designs so much more, since the change in DW6 I've just not been as keen on how some of the characters look.

Graphics: 8.5 (Oh these are definitely the best DW has offered us)

Characters: 9 (If it weren't for the change in design and the dropping of some much loved characters I would have given this a 10)

Gameplay: 8 (I like the gameplay but something hinders it for me)

Game Design: 9.5 (Everything classic is still there whilst I love the new blue design)

Longevity: 8 (DW games last long, at least for me but I'm never bothered to level up to the top for each character)

Score: 43/50 (86%)

This is a great score, I don't think I anticipated how much I'd like this. Sadly I've got little time to play this at the moment, hopefully I'll get a bit more time through Christmas.

Virtua Tennis 2009

I thought to add more diversity into this blog I'll post about some games that I bought recently, the first one I'm blogging about is Virtua Tennis 2009.

At the moment I've only played it once but here's what I think...

The positives: One thing that I love about the game is its calendar, unlike its main competitor Topspin, Virtua Tennis incorporates much more things into the World Tour and the calender year is much more interesting, the plethora of famous top players is also a fantastic attribute to the game. The gameplay is also much smoother unlike the clunky style of Topspin. The fast paced tennis play, though unrealistic as such, is fun to play and watch.

The negatives: Though I've never been amazed by the character creation possibilities in tennis games I think that Virtua Tennis 2009 has taken a huge step back in their character creations, most looking rather similar or plain fake! Topspin on the other hand makes characters look more realistic and diverse. As a statistics fanatic I like to see how I'm playing however Virtua Tennis provides much less information compared to Topspin.

Graphics: 7.5 (Weak on the character creation front and in my opinion less realistic compared to Topspin)

Characters: 8.5 (A plethora of top players to chose from)

Gameplay: 8 (Though fun to play and watch it is a bit unrealistic as everything is so fast paced)

Game Design: 8 (The pages looks sleek besides the loading sequences)

Longevity: 7.5 (I think the game has a lot of potential for a lot of hours of fun but the weak character creation front is a bit annoying as it provides the main section of the game)

Overall: 39.5/50 (79%)

This score is Ok, I'm quite a nice marker so not making the 80's for a tennis game (I'm a tennis fanatic) isn't a great score. The character creation reminds me of the very old games that cost £5's at Tesco's but the sleek gameplay, amazing cast of players and well developed calender system is a plus point, if the character creation was better it would score way in the 90's.

TVB Awards Winners

Lifetime Achievement Award

Great for a none actor to win this award but what annoys me is that Rosy Business dominated most awards, even this one!

Best Performance Award

This award should be called the Breakthrough Performance Award imo. I do believe Tavia deserves this for all the hard work and commitment she’s made to this industry, she’s also a stellar actress but calling this award the performance award has turned quite a few heads, therefore making this award sound less important is vital imo.

TVB.com Popularity Award

Personally I don’t think this should be voted, I think it should be a aggregate score of ratings, blog views and voting and personally I was a bit disappointed that Wayne won this award because I really don’t think Chai Gau should get as much recognition as it has. Wayne definitely deserves recognition but Chai Gau (the character) was plain annoying.

Best Drama Series

The 4 of them were predictable and seeing how Dayo Wong was nominated for both awards You’re Hired was also relatively obvious. Of course Born Rich and The Gem of Life were good series but they just didn’t get the ratings.

Most Improved Female Artist

SO SO Obvious. I actually predicted correctly all of the winners, whether they deserved it or not. Aimee isn’t as bad as everybody is saying I think, at least imo she’s better is better than Kate Tsui when she started. It’s obvious that Sharon wouldn’t win this award because people that win this are generally people that are being promoted and therefore Aimee Chan was the most obvious choice. Of course Sharon deserves it more.

Most Improved Male Artist

Guessed this too, Pierre Ngo! Another sweep by the Rosy Business cast. Personally I like Raymond Wong more and I think he has improved but it was obvious that TVB and insiders favoured Pierre more.

Favourite Female Character

I was quite shocked that Charmaine got two nominations, possibly to make her seem important without having won any awards. Slightly confused why Anita Yuen wasn’t nominated because I thought she would have been liked by the general public (I know I like her!) Teresa being nominated here was somewhat unexpected considering Louise wasn’t considered and she was sitting there the whole night!

Favourite Male Character

At first I was quite shocked that Wong Hei didn’t get nominated as I thought everybody loved him in Burning Flame III but then I understood, Kevin Cheng was equally liked in Burning Flame III so by nominating him for Beyond the Realm of Conscience you’ve at least got someone who was in Burning Flame III and in Beyond the Realm of Conscience. Considering so many of the nominated artistes weren’t there I’m actually shocked that Roger Kwok even bothered going as he wasn’t even nominated for Best Actor and he wasn’t even in the top 5 for Favourite Male – he doesn’t deserve it, but it’s quite shocking for what TVB normally would do. I was somewhat shocked that Wayne Lai won this when he also won the TVB.com thing. I’d think that Michael Tse would have won the TVB.com so it would be 2-2, instead TVB must have deemed Turning Point to be a big reward for Michael Tse and therefore need only give him 1 award whilst Wayne 3. I still dislike how much recognition Wayne is getting for a character that is a stuck up twit.

Best Supporting Actress

I predicted all 5 of those getting in, somewhat shocked now to think that Fala actually made it over Kara Hui, the recent Golden Horse Best Supporting Actress and Mary Hon another “Beyond” actress.

Best Supporting Actor

I got 3 out of 5 here for predictions, I didn’t anticipate Pierre’s popularity so I would have chosen him if I knew whilst I’d say the same for Lee Kwok Lun. Considering all that the top 5 is actually quite predictable. Shame to Ron Ng who just doesn’t seem to be anywhere, he’s possible done the best he’s done since entering the industry but he’s basically blanked, he use to be 2^nd on the Raymond/Ron/Sammul/Kenneth/Bosco list but now he’s like last!

Best Actress

A very predictable top 5, in my opinion Anita and Kathy should also have been considered but their series have just not been good enough in a year dominated by Rosy and Beyond (but the awards obviously say Rosy over Beyond).

Best Actor

I am shocked Bosco made it, I think they allowed him in because he probably won’t stand a chance for a long time afterwards considering Raymond is going to be back but it’s still quite a shock, however contrary to what other people think I actually liked Bosco’s performance and was happy for him. Still quite shocked he was chosen over Kevin and Wong Hei! Steven Ma was quite a shock, obviously a power from Catherine Tsang, Miss Lok is definitely losing the battle between the two devils! I wonder if TVB will ever make a TV series of the two! That would be so funny! They should series into 4 ages and have different actresses playing them. Tavia Vs. Myolie – when they are young, Ada Vs. Jessica when they are in their 30’s. Michelle Vs. Susan Tse when they are in their 40’s-50’s and maybe Suet Nei Vs. Lee Heung Kam when they are 60’s+! Raymond Lam, Moses Chan, Wayne Lai and Paul Chun can be Tommy Leung whilst Bosco Wong, Kenneth Ma, Wong Hei, Chung King Fai can play Stephen Chan! Oh I fear I’m becoming obsessed!

Basically very few things shocked me but I was annoyed not to see Ada there. Only about 3 of 5 nominees were in each category – not in Steven Ma was there and he’s a contracted artiste! They really need to make the old artistes come back e.g. Ada, Jessica,Kenix – considering they all filmed series this year.