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Ah Wang's hostages

For a few weeks, we had to watch nothing but Life Made Simple because the boy had taken to watching it, on the recommendation of his friends. I do know that the show is/was popular but I don't see it as one of TVB's brightest moments and I couldn't wait for it to end.

A big plus point of the show is that it is quite values-laden: friendship, family ties, loyalty, honesty, etc. The acting is alright, too. As usual, Jessica acts well, as does Lo Yuen Yan, who plays Roger's mum.

However, I thought it made light of marriage. First, there is Leila wanting, for a long time, to marry Bosco because he is rich. It is unbelievable that they suddenly love each other and get married at the end. After all, for an almost equally long time, Bosco is not interested in her, he likes Jessica (very much), Leila is awful to most people (including Bosco when his company fails) and betrays Jessica. But she does look good in the wedding segment.

The worst part of the show is Jessica marrying Roger to humour him after she promises to do so just before his surgery (actually, she says it just to calm him down and encourage him). I also think it's dumb that Roger acts up after his anasthetic injection. I mean, shouldn't he have been knocked out?! Anyhow, I don't know how many women, or men, for that matter, in this day and age, would willingly marry someone who can only relate to them as a child.

The other thing that really got to me was how everyone keeps calling Roger 'dimwit' or 'moron' except for Jessica, Bosco (until he found out Roger was his half-brother), Raymond, Roger's mum and the dessert shop people. Jessica's mum is especially ridiculous, Bosco's mum and uncle are childish, and everyone referring to Roger in that way downright rude. It is also ridiculous when Bosco suddenly hates Roger, after having been good friends with him, and I didn't hear him articulating any reason for not acknowledging Roger as his brother except that he is 'that dimwit'.

It was disappointing that neither Jessica nor Raymond breach the rich-poor barrier in the end. Yet, Leila (rich) gets what she wants -- marrying into an even richer family.

How I would have liked it to end:
1. Jessica marries Bosco and everyone helps Roger come to terms with it. They remain close to Roger.
2. Leila goes through some humbling experience(s) and begins to appreciate Raymond.

Pictures from here
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Comments

Anonymous said…
my son loves to watch the show too. i agree that some parts not so logical, especially the fact that jessica actually returned to ah wang after staying abroad for few years. i was quite surprised, as i though the logical thing to happen would be for her to fall in love and marry raymond who seems to understand and cherish her a lot. in the end he found a new girlfriend instead. i mean, ah wang may be cute etc but he is just a child trapped in the body a grown up figure. so a mature, intelligent girl like jessica at most can do is to mother him, pity him, love him as friend but husband wife? cannot lah! x-tongfang
12:30 pm
Anonymous said…
I agree with you that Jessica with Raymond would still be better than Jessica with Roger. He was indeed such a nice guy and he did know Jessica very well and liked her, etc. Plus, they worked very well together.

Oh well, we are not the scriptwriters...
10:21 pm
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