About F.B.I.

Here is a little information about me, TVB, and this blog.

About me
My nickname - F.B.I.
F.B.I. started to be my nickname since Grade 8. That was when online games and Internet were the major part of my life. I like Fire and somehow came up with Bolt and 'I' was added after a while because FireBolt was too common or previously used. 'I' is the roman number one (1). The short form turned out to be F.B.I (Fire-Bolt-I) and that’s how my nickname was formed.
If you see forums or sites or anywhere else online having FireBoltI then it might be me.


TVB and Me
History
I started watching TVB/TV series when I was around 8-9 years old when I moved back to Hong Kong (I left when I was 3). To be exact it wasn't watching, maybe knowing more about it or wanting to watch it. I got very minimal time watching TVB or in general TV.
The TV was turned off during dinner time when series aired so we weren't eating Hong Kong's typical 'TV sauce mix with rice' meal and my mom didn't want me to 'chase' the episodes therefore TV wasn't allowed on weeknights (school nights). I didn't (couldn't) watch a lot of TVB when I was young. The only shows I could watch would be Super Trio and some of the food/traveling shows on weekends because somehow they were allowed. Sometimes I had the chance to watch some series (on holidays and rare occasions) but most of the time I could only watch half of the episode (I had to go to bed at 9... back then when TVB shows aired from 8:30-9:30).
Living in HK, it is really easy to peak over next door and lots of people would be watching TVB. I would be in my room trying to peak at next door's TV and try understand and finish the episode.
Other than weekend variety shows like Super Trio, the TV series I watched would be from the VCD/DVD that my mom buys/rents/borrows. There were not a lot of them but better than nothing. It would usually be Taiwan series (I don't know why but she gets Taiwan series all the time and with Ruby Lin). The first series I saw and finished was 'the classic' Returning Princess Pearl.

It wasn’t until the summer of 2004 when I saw the TV trailer of To Get Unstuck In Time and I wanted to watch that TV series and somehow I got to.
It was the first TV series I saw and finished on TV instead of discs or ones I couldn't finish watching. There were probably a few episodes being skipped because we went out for supper and such but not that much.
After that I watched To Catch The Uncatchable and the first episode of War And Beauty and went to Canada for school.

I would watch TVB when I go back to Hong Kong during the 2~3 summers following and during breaks that I went back to HK (such as Revolving Doors Of Vengeance, Men In Pain, Forensic Heroes, Love Guaranteed, C.I.B. Files, Always Ready, Lethal Weapons Of Love And Passion, etc) but sometimes I couldn't finish or watch as much as I do now. 2006~2007 I started finding sites on the Internet that were for downloading/streaming series and watched them there. I watch all the airing series from then on unless it really really didn't interest me. (Up till 2008/9ish)

[No TVB/TV didn't mean no entertainment with televisions.
My family and I would watch lots of movies on weekends, seriously, LOTS, pretty much every single comedy/family Hong Kong movie that came out was rented to watch on weekend nights! (From 2000-2004, last peak of the Hong Kong movie industry). I still watch Hong Kong movies and pretty much only HK films. There are a lot less of them nowadays since most Hong Kong films cooperate with China, but it seems other than HK films I don’t watch any other kinds.]

The main reason why I started watching TVB was because of how 'funny' it was. Maybe back then I was still young and laughed at everything or TVB is slacking off or TVB has gone downhill or it's because I have watched so much I know what will happen next most of the time or the 'funny' stuff has been reused so many times it doesn't seem funny anymore or my expectations are higher. Whatever it is, I still watch TVB because it is a way to connect with Hong Kong while I'm not in Hong Kong.

At first, I watch TVB series because of the main actors (more of the actresses). Now I pick from the actors, actresses, the series itself, the producer and sometimes the supporting actors and actresses. After watching so many series, it seems like if I only have one person (especially this one)/reason/'thing' to watch for in the series, it will not be enough, for the series to be interesting or feel good or keep me continuing there has to be someone/thing else. One person or one 'thing' cannot hold the series together. I guess it is teamwork so everyone has to contribute. The whole thing has to be looked at in order to like or love the series. The outcome is that I start to know more than just the main leads and it leads to watching almost every single series, which is time consuming. So after a few years (2~3) of watching every series, now I skip some of them.

I like to watch modern series more than ancient/pre modern/costume/period series. Why? I don't actually know, maybe because if it isn't modern it isn't as 'funny' or maybe I can connect with modern series easier. Just because I like modern series more doesn't mean much. I will still give the series a chance no matter which genre or type. I watch at least the first episode or two or maybe 1 week to decide if I want to continue watching and sometimes modern series may be dropped too.

I used to watch every series I could see. Even if I just saw one little part or a few minutes it felt like I had to watch the whole thing. I had time back then or I used all my time that way, but now I have to choose. I have reduced it by a little but I still watch a lot and there are lots of old series I want to watch/re-watch. No matter what it is, I will probably still continue to watch TVB till the day I die but just pick which series to watch. TVB just can't be dropped like that.

This blog
Before creating this blog, I would go on TVB's official website and TVB related sites and blogs to find out as much as I could about TVB series. Usually to see other's views and if they spot anything special (I used to find spoilers too but I avoid them now). But can't help it since msot of the sites I go on are TVB related and spoilers are hard to avoid.

One day, someone from a site I used to go on a lot and I decided on opening a blog (not for the same purpose now) but after registering the name, we didn't continue with the plan. It wasn't until the summer of the same year (2007) I suddenly remembered the blog and started to post stuff. That blog was Sharing Asian Entertainment, what happened to it is stated here. It also says why this blog is opened.


Artist I like and reasons
There are a lot of artist I ‘like’ but there aren’t really any that I really love or say she/he is my favorite. It seems that it is really easy to be my on my ‘like’ list but it is really hard to be on my ‘favorite’, especially it isn’t like someone can have that ability to make me go WOW/snap my fingers/clap/that 'click' on acting, looks, personality and be on the screen forever and keep that same ‘feel’ even if they do have the potential.

Esther Kwan - My favorite... one and only one I think I’ll say is my favorite favorite actress because of acting. I never really knew who she was because she wasn't in TVB when I started watching TVB. The only TVB series I saw with her in it was probably The Legendary Four Aces. It was one of those series I watched a few episodes here and there in the morning slot where they re-air series, but that series focused on the 4 actors more than the 4 actresses, plus Esther didn't seem to appear that much. Until Best Selling Secrets, I actually 'knew' her. (I always wanted to watch Armed Reaction and Burning Flame but I didn't have the time or that urge before BSS aired). I was only going to see how the sitcom would turn out but then it turned out episode 12 (I think I will always remember it's that episode) when Esther and Vins relationship starts going, the talk with Geoffrey Wong and Elaine Jin in the restaurant just made my go WOW she is beautiful and with all the other stuff she has like acting skills, (which now not that many so called 'artist' and so called "actors and actresses" have or maybe it's just that time has changed and the "acting" is different...) it kind of just 'struck' me. I have only watched Armed Reaction I up to this day... really bad... but I plan on watching more of her older series because she is just such an awesome actress and it's not easy going on my favorite list.

Joey Meng - I always wanted to watch My Date With A Vampire because I heard great reviews, but I never got that urge or time, minus the little bits and parts when my mom watched on TV while it aired in Hong Kong back in 2000. One day while looking at clips on YouTube I came across one with Joey (I don't remember which one) that clip made me interested in her and I watched more of her interviews and clips. I also wanted to know more about ATV because of her and I came across a variety show hosted by Cha Siu Yan and Vinci Wong which was made for ATV's 50th anniversary (Tribute to Hong Kong TV Industry 50 Years Anniverary). That made me change my view on ATV and all those interviews made me like Joey. Because of that I watched My Date With A Vampire I-III right away. I don't know what it is that attracted me and made me like her but I guess she has something that other actresses don't have. Straight forward but not blunt and add some cuteness.

Sandra Ng - Started with Club Sparkle. I probably saw movies with Sandra in it but she wasn't the leads I always saw.

Charmaine Sheh - When I watched TVB for real (instead of in the late 90 and early 2000) one of the first series I saw was Angels Of Mission and that made me really like her.

Dicky Cheung - He would be my favorite actor if I had to pick one... Because? Who doesn't love Dicky! He was probably the only actor in the series I watched back in the day. As mentioned I didn't watch a lot of series when I was young but when I did almost all the series that I watched had Dicky in it, such as The Deer And The Cauldron/The Duke Of mount Deer 2000, Smart Kid, Chor Lau Heung 2001, The Monkey King: Quest For The Sutra, and Taiji Prodigy (Weird huh).
All of these series with Dicky in were series I couldn't finish or were ones that I could only see half an episode. I don't think I ever saw any actor more than once other than Dicky or even any other actor at all.
Plus most of Dicky's series are comedies so it is the type I like. He has his style/way of acting, just being funny and doing comedy won't make him my favorite.

There are some other actors I like, but it is because of their off screen personality more than acting and they can't compare to Dicky so he's number 1 for me.


Like list
There are lots of likes. I might add them later when I have time. My posts will probably say which ones I like.