Forensic Heroes II

Because I need a break from *attempting* to read Macbeth, I decided to finally do a review (it’s been like years since I’ve done one) on Forensic Heroes II. I was really looking forward to this sequel ever since I found out about it because I adored the original Forensic Heroes. I’ve finished watching Forensic since a couple of weeks ago but my best friend, procrastination, has stopped me from doing a review ;)

Maincast: Bobby Au Yeung, Frankie Lam, Kevin Cheng, Charmaine Sheh, Yoyo Mung
Episodes: 30
Broadcast period: May 18^th 2008 – June 27^th 2008
Genre: Modern Drama, Science
Themesong: “Left Behind” (遺留) sung by Edmond Leung

Synopsis
Every contact leaves a trace
Every clue serves as a silent witness against crime

Bomb disposal expert Yeung Yat Sing, Ivan, (Kevin Cheng) returns from England to visit relatives and he comes across a grenade case by accident. With his tactful and level-headed approach, Ivan is highly appraised by Senior Chemist Ko Yin Pok (Bobby Au-Yeung) and is being invited to join the Forensic Division. In a little while, Ivan becomes the division’s rising star. By work, Sing gets back in touch with his long-lost best friend Koo Chak Sam (Frankie Lam). Sam serves as a forensic writer and he is going to get married soon.

Accidentally, Sam’s fiancée Lam Ding Ding (Linda Chung) is killed in an explosion and Pok’s police girlfriend Leung Siu Yau (Yoyo Mung) also loses the ability of holding a gun in the incident. Yau’s duties are passed to Ma Kwok Ying (Charmaine Sheh) from the Narcotics Bureau. Both Sam and Ivan find Ying extremely charming with her smart and unfathomable characteristics in case handling.

Integrating laboratory techniques, logical reasoning, and forensic knowledge, the trio strive to fight against crimes tremendously. As they get to know each other more and more, the entangled triangle of love also starts to hinder their working relationships…

My Thoughts
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I adored the original Forensic. I really hoped that the sequel would live up to all the hype and excitement. It succeeded. Although there was new cast added and the limelight seemed to shine on Bell despite Bobby being the “male lead”, it didn’t disappoint.

In most of the cases I was intrigued and surprised by the results. However, there was a fair amount of cases in which I could spot the “murderer” or the “bad person” straight away. Some cases dragged on for too long, especially the case with the dad and son driving and killing someone, GTFO already! Despite that, I was deeply immersed in almost all the cases and the way how “science solved the cases” wasn’t boring and didn’t drag for too long. In most parts, I enjoyed the scenes showing them mixing chemicals, dissolving, analyzing, producing and the findings.

Also, sometimes the cases got a bit exaggerated and was somehow linked to the main cast in some way or another. This really annoyed me, sure it made it more dramatic but I didn’t like. Another point to note is how coincidentally, they would find an important piece to the case or evidence just like that. Although it’s predecessor did incorporate this, the sequel took it too far and was constantly coming up with new evidence and such. Just a question, whatever happened to Selena Li in the last episode when she was the “supposed murderer”, she just seemed to disappear after her talk with Bell (Charmaine Sheh)

As much as I loved the original cast consisting of Bobby, Frankie, Yoyo and Linda, I wasn’t too angry about the additional cast members and the death of Ding Ding (Linda Chung) (she had to “die” because she was too busy with other series) However, as I said before, the light was mostly focused on Bell and Ivan (Kevin Cheng) and their relationship, which at times I thought lacked chemistry. I didn’t like how Siu Yau’s (Yoyo Mung) duties was passed onto Bell and the fact that Ivan seemed to replace Ding Ding. Sure, this series boost A-listers but I really didn’t see the need for those “replacement” roles which I wasn’t too fond of.

Bobby gave an exceptional performance…as usual. He always seems to amaze me with his acting skills, he’s always so deep into the character and plays every type of role perfectly. From humour to science, he’s definitely a person which we all love to adore off screen and on screen.

Frankie’s breakthrough role was definitely his character as Sam. The scenes in which he was crying over Linda’s death, woahhh. It was emotional and really saddening to see him losing the love of his life and how he dealt with that. The limited amount of scenes with him and Linda in this series was sweet and beautiful. Those two look great as a couple (shown in our July banner) and you can really see the chemistry between them. This was my favourite couple in Forensic.

I’ve never been a massive fan of Kevin but his character in Forensic made me approve of his acting more. The way he loved Bell was sweet and cute although sometimes it seemed a bit annoying. Charmaine did an applauding job portraying her character. I believe she suited “Madam Ma/Bell” well, bottling up emotions and giving a strong and cool aura. Although I don’t really like Yoyo (the way she speaks really annoys me for some bizarre reason) she did a pretty decent job especially when she found out she couldn’t be a police anymore and becomes disabled in her right arm.

There was supposed to be a love triangle between Ivan (Kevin Cheng), Bell (Charmaine Sheh) and Sam (Frankie Lam) but really, that didn’t show till the last couple of episodes. Sure you could kind of see that Bell and Sam had feelings for each other, but that didn’t really open up till the episode 26-30 and compared to other love triangles, this one seemed like a minor. Okay, Ivan finds out Bell likes Sam, they get into a accident and then Ivan and Bell love each other more. Suprisingly, I like these type of low key love triangles, it’s a nice change from the overly exaggerated and annoying triangles.

The supporting cast did a really good job. I espicially liked the Yvonne (Florence Kwok) and Shum Hung (Raymond Cho) pairing. Their humour and love hate relationship was adorable and both of them had awesome chemistry. I didn’t like the addition of Wilson (Matthew Ko) and Formula (Macy Chan) to the team. I thought Matthew Ko was too stiff and bland in his acting while Macy seemed over the top to me.

I was not really satisfied with the ending, I preferred Ivan to die making it more dramatic and memorable (LOL at Bell ripping her dress in the last scene, a replicate of the first) and the sudden appearance of the girl (Sharon Chan) that reminded Sam of Ding Ding. wanted to know more! Whether that would be Sam’s new love interest or what. Hopefully, there would be a Forensic Heroes III !

Overall
8 out of 10. I must admit I like the original Forensic better. The original characters was the best and the cases were much more interesting, fun and science-tific. However, Forensic II did do a decent job of keeping up to it’s predecessor expectations and I deeply enjoyed it despite some parts that annoyed me.