Triumph in the Skies 2 (衝上雲霄 II) review

After being a passive watcher of umpteen TVB dramas, I finally decided to put my thoughts into words and write my first ever review!

I'm probably one of the last ones to watch the TVB hit serial  衝上雲霄 II. I actually started watching it when it first aired last year around the July/August period, but decided to postpone it after the 7th episode in favour of the first season of 衝上雲霄 since I had never watched it before. Anyway, having some free time before I join the corporate rat race, I finally picked up where I left off the last time.

Recap of the main plot (warning: long story and contains spoilers)

 

Disclaimer: This written summary is biased as it only contains the parts that I am interested in. Hence there is hardly any mention of irrelevant (to me) characters like Josie, Pink Pink, Apple, Roy and Heather.  

Sam, Jayden and Holiday

 

Sam Tong, the first male lead (Francis Ng) has become a recluse ever since his wife Zoe (Myolie Wu) died from her illness, a heavily discussed topic in the first season. He then holes up in London with his friend Manna (Michelle Yim) and spends the days baking cakes, sporting a messy hobo hairstyle very different from the well-groomed one in season 1 (urgh). Sam's brother Isaac (Ron Ng) and his friend Roy (Kenneth Ma) are now senior first officers and joined Skylette Airlines as pilots.They still look the same, just older. The suave and handsome second male lead, Jayden Koo aka Captain Cool (Chilam Cheng) is also in Skylette Airlines and is idolised by junior pilots and air stewardesses alike.

We then get introduced to Holiday (Fala Chen), who studied meteorology and was supposedly working with NASA. [This is not quite believable though. How can such a childish girl land a job with NASA?!] She is portrayed as a free-spirited and wild girl who has just returned to London where she resides with her mother Manna. She looks surprisingly good in her Gothic attire and highlighted hair, but ditches the look for a more toned down one later in the show. She unknowingly meets Jayden at the London St Pancreas (I think) train station. The scene of her flying by Jayden to embrace her friend Daisy while leaving Jayden with his arms open to meet her embrace was too funny! 

She officially meets him again in Paris when she was trying to raise funds to repair her broken telescope. She sells her boyfriend's leather jacket to a second-hand store, only to regret it a few moments later when she realises that she cannot let go of the sentimental value of the jacket. Rushing back to the store, she discovers that the jacket was sold. Walking out dejected from the store, she then sees the back view of Jayden who is wearing the leather jacket which he had just bought. Thinking that it was Daniel, she rushes towards him and hugs him tightly, to which Jayden responds, "Do I know you, miss?" Embarrassed, she releases her grip and pleads to buy the jacket back from him. Jayden then asks her for a kiss to which she reluctantly obliges. He then dumps the jacket and money on her head without kissing her. She rips the jacket off her and watches Jayden walking briskly away.

The story then shifts to Holiday on a hill trying to mend her broken telescope. Sam walks up to her (I can't remember why) and he discovers that the telescope is not broken after all. He digs in the telescope and a diamond ring emerges. Holiday then tears up as she realises that Daniel had tried to propose to her using the telescope, but for some reason he never turned up. Later we learn that the reason is because Daniel is dead. He died while flying a light aircraft that Holiday had never liked him to do, as she felt that it was dangerous. Although Holiday is aware of his death all along, she continues to pretend that he is still alive and frequently writes emails addressed to him, describing the day's happenings.

Meanwhile, Sam is haunted by the demons in his head. Viewers are shown flashbacks of how Zoe once ate a souffle that Sam bought for her in London. Sam tries to replicate the taste but to no avail. He then made a vow that he would never return to Hong Kong to be a pilot until he successfully replicates the taste. Holiday "helps" him by adding some weird stuff to his souffles, thinking that she was playing a prank on him. Sam became mad but when he realises that Holiday had unknowingly recreated the souffle recipe, he forces her to do what she did before. After many experiments, they finally bake the perfect souffle. Sam then takes this as a sign from Zoe that it is time his extended holiday ended. He returns to Hong Kong and joins Skylette. And he finally reverts back to his usual well-groomed hairstyle, much to the relief of most viewers, I suppose!

While in Skylette, Sam started the PPP (Pre-Pilot Programme), which is a short piloting course aimed to help youngsters discover their passion for flying. Jayden and Tony are also involved as the trainers. The end result is a recommendation letter to join Skylette as a cadet. Holiday then promptly applies for it, causing Sam to accuse her of only applying because of Daniel.  Amazingly, she passes the interview and joins the PPP, much to Sam's disgust. Other notable trainees are Jim Jim (Him Law) and Hero (I don't know this guy's name).

We then learn that Holiday, of all people, held Zoe's Triangel, the little doll of destiny. It turns out that the triangel came into her possession when she met a very sick Zoe in Kaohsiung Airport. Holiday somehow was unable to catch her flight back to London and Zoe, being as kind as always, offered Holiday her own flight ticket, saying that she wasn't fit to fly anyway. She also hands her the triangel and asks Holiday to give it to her husband if she ever had the fate to get to know him some day. Of course now we know that Holiday knows that Sam is Zoe's husband and was waiting for the right moment to give the triangel to him. She also knows that Sam had been lying about Zoe dying peacefully in his arms to everyone, as Holiday knew that Zoe died alone in Kaohsiung Airport, moments after her brief meeting with her. Holiday sees herself as the one to help bring closure to Sam, who has been internally tortured and wrecked with guilt all along.

During the PPP which was held in the UK, Sam makes it no secret to Holiday that he thinks that she is unsuitable to be a pilot and even asked her to leave the PPP after a joy flight for the trainees, to which she defiantly refuses and swears that she will learn to fly.

She becomes closer to Jayden and after a joy flight that Jayden treated her to to make up for the missed opportunity the day before. After getting off the plane, another pilot throws Jayden a set of keys which he says Jayden left behind. Holiday notices a silver key on the key ring and asks Jayden where he got it, to which Jayden replied that he had forgotten. She then says that she knows a key that looked exactly like this which could unlock her bangle. Jayden then tried unlocking her bangle and it worked! (Actually, those are Daniel's keys. Jayden got them from the leather jacket that he bought from Holiday in the first few episodes) Holiday got so overcome with emotion and she kisses Jayden. Their relationship then began from there. Meanwhile, Sam discovers the triangel sitting on Holiday's desk and goes hunting for Holiday to ask her about it. He came across them in mid-kiss and stops in his tracks. Frowning, he sniffs the triangel deeply, trying to inhale as much of Zoe's scent.

The scene then shifts to Jayden's and Holiday's wild romance and impromptu holiday to France, thus missing the ceremony of the PPP graduation night. They drive along the country roads of France in a flashy red convertible and break into a chateau where they drink red wine (leaving money on the table) and have sex. The sex scene is pretty meh though. Holiday was the initiator but Jayden merely sat there like a log of wood while Holiday straddled him. There's an uncensored version on the internet and shows Holiday's bare back and Jayden running his hands down her back. Urgh. On second thoughts, I'll go with the censored version, haha! Later in Paris, Holiday locks her bangle to the Pont des Arts bridge and tearfully kisses it goodbye, thus bringing closure to her relationship with Daniel, or so she thought.

Later, Holiday moves in with Jayden during the cadet programme in Hong Kong. They embark on an open relationship with no strings attached. Jayden's philosophy is that love should be free and not involving tying anyone down. He still continues flirting with other women while Holiday remains apparently indifferent.

Sam gets goaded into flying to Kaohsiung by Jayden at a time when they were facing a shortage of captains and Jayden commented on Sam's refusal to fly to Kaohsiung by saying how much power Sam had in choosing his flights. So Sam reluctantly stood up for the position and flew to Kaohsiung. Holiday happened to be on the flight for her friend Daisy's wedding. Upon landing, Sam refused to step out of the airport and was prepared to camp out there all day and night until the return flight. While in the taxi, Holiday realises that she left her wedding present on the plane and requests Sam to retrieve it. He obliges, but stops at leaving the airport. She then returns to the airport in a tiff and gets into an argument with Sam about Zoe. She wants Sam to admit that he had lied about being with Zoe when she died, and that Zoe had really ran away to Kaohsiung to die alone. He refuses to talk about Zoe and loses his temper. They part angrily. On the taxi, Holiday feels bad about their argument and tries to call Sam. He picks up after a few calls. While in mid-speech, he hears Holiday cry out and the line goes dead. Panicking, he rushes to the hospital just in time to meet Holiday stepping out with a small bandage on her forehead. She explains that it was just a minor accident and nobody was seriously injured. She seems happy to see him finally stepping out of the airport. However, Sam is greatly disturbed. It turns out that the hospital that they are at was where Sam identified Zoe's body. No wonder he was so upset.

He leaves Holiday standing at the hospital entrance and goes on a long walk around Kaohsiung, during which he appears to be in a trance. Concerned, Holiday follows him with her luggage in tow. He finally stops at a scenic beach with stormy waves and stares out blankly into the ocean. He laments to himself about his regret with Zoe. Flashback to pre-Zoe's death. Zoe angrily throwing the souffle to the ground and berating him for his denial of her imminent death through his useless attempts to recreate the souffle. Sam tucking Zoe into bed and Zoe makes a request that she wants to eat the nicest cake in the world. He kisses her on the forehead and says he will go out to buy the ingredients right now. However, he returns to an empty apartment and becomes distraught. He searches for her high and low, in London first and then in Paris where they had spent many romantic days, but to no avail. Holiday then appears and explains to Sam how the triangel ended up in her possession and how Zoe had never blamed him but wanted him to live his days happily without regrets. Sam then realised that Zoe had run away to Kaohsiung to die alone because she could see Sam's state of mind worsening with her illness and did not want him to suffer by seeing her finally pass away. Choking with emotion, he thanks Holiday for her help repeatedly while Holiday stares out into the ocean, thinking about Daniel. This incident finally brings closure to Sam's relationship with Zoe and Holiday's relationship with Daniel.

Back in Hong Kong, Holiday returns to an empty flat. A thunderstorm starts and she goes downstairs with an umbrella to wait for Jayden. A taxi pulls up and she clearly sees Jayden kissing a woman goodbye in the car. When he finally alights, he is surprised and pleased to see her waiting for him. Holiday then says in a monotone voice, "Let's break up." Jayden looks nonplussed and when they returned to the apartment, he says, "Look, it has been 2 minutes. Has your anger dissipated?" To which Holiday replies that she is serious about breaking up. Jayden is confused since he thought that they had agreed to be in an open relationship and that included fooling around. Holiday reveals that after the Taiwan trip, she had realised that she had merely been treating Jayden as a substitute for Daniel due to their many similarities. Jayden then comforts her and accepts the break up, but extends an offer for her to come back to his flat any time. 

Surprise, surprise, Holiday soon moves in with Sam as she claims that her rented apartment's renovation was haywire and rendered her apartment inhabitable. During that period, she becomes closer to Sam and eventually develops feelings for him. Some incidents which come to mind include Sam celebrating her birthday by playing a song from his erhu and buying her a pair of "flying" goggles to replace her home-made version. She becomes more touchy-feely around him and Sam doesn't resist, although he looks slightly uneasy. Holiday meets him at the airport to welcome him back after his long-haul flight. He passes her the goggles that he had bought in London and she is over the moon. Jayden, who is leaving Hong Kong with his newly-acknowledged half-sister, sees Holiday dancing around Sam and looks on with jealousy.

The turning point came when Sam overhears the trainees gossiping in the canteen about how close Holiday is to Sam and wondering if she got any breaks in her pilot career as a result. Uncomfortable, Sam returns home and tells Holiday that she cannot ride in his car to work in the future. Holiday is disappointed and Sam starts to avoid her.

One day when Holiday falls ill during work, Sam hurries over to drive her home. Enroute, she gets angry with Sam and bolts from the car. Sam runs after her. After a few heated words, Sam admits that he avoided her because he had feelings for her and he didn't want the other cadets to gossip and doubt her true ability. A smile spreads across her face and she abruptly embraces Sam who is in mid-speech. Stunned, Sam freezes for a few seconds before gradually and awkwardly hugging her back. They walk back to the car hand-in-hand. This scene is pretty cute.

Jayden returns from a near-death experience in a volunteer rescue mission overseas and spots Holiday doing her hanky-panky with Sam out on the streets. He then invites himself to their dinner. Dinner is an awkward affair. Jayden, to spite Sam, starts reminiscing about his romance with Holiday, about how he would hold her in bed and gaze up at the cloud painting on his ceiling. Sam interrupts by saying that he isn't interested in something so personal. Meanwhile, Holiday is squirming in her seat, looking very uncomfortable. Jayden starts to bring up their eventful France getaway (presumably going to talk about them breaking into the chateau and having a tryst) and Holiday quickly stops him from saying further. She then leaves the table and Jayden follows her. He corners her into a wall, saying he wants her back and that Sam doesn't match her. He starts to kiss her but Holiday turns away and notices Sam standing behind Jayden. They break apart.

After that, a series of scenes of the love triangle continues. Jayden first brings his new girlfriend to show off to Holiday and Sam, but Holiday remains unfazed. While on holiday in Kaohsiung, Sam and Holiday bump into Jayden, who had apparently stalked them all the way from Hong Kong. He once again invites himself to join them for their trip, to which Sam agreed. Holiday is disappointed with Sam for seemingly pushing her to Jayden. As Sam was waiting for Roy to pass him something at the airport, Holiday and Jayden left first. At somewhere along the coast, Jayden once again professes his love and puts on the heart-shaped bangle for Holiday, which he had retrieved when he last went to Paris. He leans in to kiss Holiday, but at the last minute, Holiday steps back and runs off, throwing the bangle to the road as she ran. She comes across Sam walking along the same road and asks him why he kept pushing her to Jayden and whether Sam loved her, otherwise she would really be tempted by Jayden's advances, to which Sam replies that she is not an object and he wants her to make her own decisions.  But Holiday insists that he tells her that he loves her. Sam replies, "Would you leave me if I didn't say it?" She thinks about it and says no. Finally, the all-important words slips from his lips, "I love you." Holiday then hugs him fiercely. Jayden approaches but when he sees Holiday hugging Sam, he pauses momentarily, before turning away and walking in the other direction. You will feel Jayden's disappointment.

 

However, not all is sweet with Sam and Holiday as well. They start to argue, especially when Sam is super impartial and is extra hard on Holiday during her piloting sessions with Sam. The lecture extends to their dinner on an anchored boat restaurant along the River Seine in Paris. In a fit of anger, Holiday stomps off while Jayden observes their quarrel from afar. Holiday mopes along the river bank, hoping that Sam would chase after her. Sam simply walks off and leaves her fuming. Jayden joins her and they go for a drink. Holiday drinks until she gets drunk and Jayden watches her crying out how much she hated Sam for his constant lectures and put-downs [to be honest, any normal girl is going to get pissed off at Sam!]. Sam gets worried when Holiday fails to turn up at their hotel. He goes out in search for her and finds her stumbling around with Jayden supporting her. He then takes over from Jayden who protested that he could also take care of Holiday if Sam couldn't manage. Ignoring Jayden, Sam heaves the very drunk Holiday over his shoulder like a sack and walks back to their hotel, with Jayden gazing at the departing pair.

Things become worse when Holiday makes a mistake during a flight and Sam then puts her name forward for a management check, which is only used for the more severe missteps and the pilot's future career hangs on the line. This makes Holiday extremely unhappy. Meanwhile, Jayden gets into trouble about the uncertainty surrounding whether he drank 12 hours before a flight and Sam sends him for a disciplinary hearing. During the 1st and 2nd hearing, things look bad for Jayden. Jayden is at the lowest point of his career as a commerical pilot and wants to run away to Taiwan with Holiday to evade their respective problems (missing his final hearing and Holiday missing her management check). Just before the flight departed, Jayden observes that in her heart, Holiday doesn't want to leave and he also finally realises the weight of the pilot's uniform. They both leave the plane to face the music.

Things turn out fine for Jayden who is cleared of all charges. Sam had gone to talk to the female accuser and emphasised upon her the difficulty of becoming a pilot and not to ruin Jayden's future by giving any false information. That was how Jayden was found to be innocent. Holiday also passes her management check with flying colours. In Bath, Holiday was overjoyed and they both recalled their issues and how glad they were that they didn't run away from their problems. Holiday says to Jayden, "Hey, give me a hug as a friend!" But Jayden replies, "No, because I don't want to be just 'a friend'." Holiday softens at this, but asks for more time to decide.

On the flight back to Hong Kong, Jayden has to undergo a routine check on his flying skills, with Sam as the Training Captain. Things start to go wrong during landing, when multiple technical faults with the plane occur. Jayden has to land the plane manually and the plane is in great danger of overrunning the runway. The brace instruction is given. All the passengers lean forward with their heads against the back of the chair in front of them. Meanwhile, Sam braces himself with one arm against the dashboard while Holiday braces herself by putting a hand on Sam's shoulder. The tense environment is quite well portrayed here. Jayden's fierce concentration on the wheel and brakes is a scene to remember. The plane screeches to a stop just inches away from the end of the runway. The relief throughout the plane is palpable. Sam grabs Holiday's hand and holds it tightly. Jayden sees this and knows that Holiday has made her choice. Sam then releases his grip to shake Jayden's hand. They grin at each other amicably.

Fast forward to the future, where Coco and Jim Jim are getting married in the Notre Dame in Paris. Holiday is depicted arm in arm with Sam and Jayden. It is explained that during the perilous landing, both Sam and Jayden thought only of Holiday, but Holiday only thought of Sam. That pretty much determined her choice to be with Sam.

Jayden, on the other hand, admits defeat and eventually quits Skylette to rejoin the air force, where he says his real passion is to save lives.

Issac and Ha Sun 

 

Isaac meets a Zoe-lookalike while preparing to fly off and gets a shock. It turns out to be Ha Sun (aka Summer) who is a aircraft technician and also Jayden's estranged sister. The reason was because Ha Sun never forgave Jayden for leaving her behind abruptly when he left home to join the air force, despite them losing their mother at a young age. Isaac offers to reconcile the two siblings and his reconciliation efforts brings him closer to Ha Sun. One of Ha Sun's subordinates, Teddy, has a crush on her and is constantly rude to Isaac, whom he sees as his competitor. But Ha Sun makes it clear to Teddy that she sees him as a friend when he was pretending to be asleep. When Ha Sun leaves, Teddy opens his eyes which are brimming with tears. I feel a little sorry for Teddy in this scene. Later on, things are slightly awkward between Teddy and Ha Sun but he kind of gives up on her and even encourages her to pursue her love i.e. Isaac, because all he wants for her is to be happy.

Finally Isaac gets together with Ha Sun, in spite of Josie's interfering. Josie is the coffee girl at the airport cafe and nurses a crush on Isaac. Both Ha Sun and Isaac give in to her upon learning that she is very ill with pulmonary fibrosis. He does a lot of silly things for Josie, like going out on dates with her and even taking wedding photos because that is what Josie has on her to-do list (before she dies?). Ha Sun even lends Josie the triangel that Sam lent her! This causes a lot of misunderstanding between Ha Sun and Isaac but after Teddy's advice to Ha Sun, she hurries to find Isaac and Josie at the wedding shop and declares that she wants the triangel back, because it is too important to her. Josie then smiles and says that she is glad that Ha Sun has finally decided to stand up for herself and pursue her love. She says that she has noticed Isaac's and Ha Sun's love for each other a while ago and knows that she doesn't stand a chance. However, she still wanted to hang out with Isaac just so that she can finish her to-do list. Now that she has already taken wedding photos with Isaac, she is contented and is ready to hand over Isaac to Ha Sun. Josie then left for Taiwan for her medical treatment. The show didn't make any mention of whether she recovered fully in the end, though, which would have been nice if they did.

Despite Josie being out of the picture, Isaac starts to pout and tells Ha Sun that he cannot forgive her for not wanting to accept his love and pushing him to Josie because she felt sorry for her. Hey kid, if I remember correctly, it was you who felt sorry for Josie first and started entertaining her requests! It was really quite unfair for Isaac to blame Ha Sun this way, but I guess TVB just wanted to drag out their relationship problem to last until the end of the show. Anyway, Ha Sun remains undeterred and starts to become bolder and take the initiative to chase Isaac. Isaac then makes his own to-do list of demands, like writing him texts everyday to express her concern and love, and to sneak peeks of Isaac and act coy, etc. etc, to which Ha Sun agrees readily and really follows through! 

Isaac has his own troubles to deal with concurrently. Having failed his captain's test 2 times already (the first time being him taking up the blame for a faulty plane and the second time being him panicking and being rash while landing at Taiwan due to Josie's illness acting up), he only has one more attempt allowed before he is banished to being a senior first officer forever. The pressure builds up especially when his batch mate Roy got his captain status earlier than him. He starts to get cold feet and finds excuses to get out of the upcoming test. Sam approaches Zoe to ask her to help Isaac and she agrees. She competes with Isaac in a short cycling race. If she loses, she will disappear from Isaac's life from that moment onwards. However, if she wins, Isaac must listen to every word of hers. During the race, it is apparent that Ha Sun is losing because she is not attired properly (wearing a dress and high heels). Isaac sneaks a peek at her struggling and deliberately crashes himself against the rocks beside the road. Ha Sun seizes this opportunity and races ahead of him. Together with his brother and Ha Sun's encouragement, Isaac finally becomes a pilot!

The scene where his brother handed him the four golden stripes is quite funny as well. Sam is the training captain assessing Isaac's performance and things didn't appear to go smoothly during landing, because Isaac is trying to land in a typhoon. Before leaving the cockpit, Sam throws the book at Isaac and Isaac seems disappointed but shrugs his shoulders to admit defeat. Imagine his surprise when he opens the book and finds the badge as well as a short congratulatory note by Sam!

Jayden and Ha Sun 

 

Ha Sun was checking an aircraft and gets molested by this Caucasian pilot who is well known to be a "ham-sup" horny octopus. Jayden gets wind of this and immediately storms up to the gwai-loh and punches in the face, as well as kicking his most vulnerable part! The rage on Jayden's face when he learnt of the news is really humourous! Sam reports the whole matter to Mr King and the gwai-loh meets Jayden as he emerges from Mr King's office. He then threatens Jayden, "See you in court!" Jayden coolly replies, "Well, make sure you sue!" Yeah! Score one for Jayden!

Ha Sun learns of Jayden's beating up of the angmoh guai and then reprimands him for his rash behaviour. Jayden, in a choked voice, then makes a speech which moves Ha Sun deeply. She then cries out, "You are the worst brother ever! But, I forgive you!" One of the most memorable scenes. The two siblings then patch up.

Overall

 

As a sequel, 衝上雲霄II fails because there is very little follow-up and continuity from the first season. For example, what happened to Donald, Zita and Belle? A brief mention of them should suffice but this was not made. As a standalone drama, it is enjoyable. There was a lot more focus on romance than on flying, but that's still ok. My main gripe with the drama is the whole lot of unnecessary characters which made the pace draggy. I often got impatient at the frequent side stories and literally resorted to fast-forwarding through them so that I could enjoy the main plot. This is bad because I never, ever had to fast forward through a TVB show before. In spite of this, I would still recommend the drama.

Too Many Romantic Combinations and Side Stories 

 

If this show was named "the philosophies of love" or something along that lines, then probably the side stories would add more value to the drama. For example, the friends-with-benefits situation (Roy and Heather), or accommodating a sick girl (Josie), or loving someone despite her surrogate mother's status (Coco and Jim Jim vs Nick). But this show should be primarily about flying, so if I had a say, these are the characters and stories I would axe:

1. The first to go should definitely be Pink Pink. Her story about her relationship with Mr King and Hero is plain boring, period. Her acting is also severely inadequate.
2. Josie. Her back story about being born with a chronic illness doesn't evoke any sympathy from me. I don't mind love triangles as long as the vying parties don't irritate me, but her as a party to the triangle is simply not appealing. Her acting is okay (since she actually manages to be annoying!) but definitely there's lots of room for improvement.
3. Roy and Heather's story totally doesn't add any value to the story at all. If they disappeared from the show, I won't be missing anything, which is a real pity as both Kenneth Ma and Elena Kong are accomplished actors. Such a waste of talent in this show.
4. Teddy (aka Bee) is also annoying and has too much screen time. He is also super rude to almost all the characters in the show.
5. Last but not least, Apple and her 2 male associates Fergus and Tucker should disappear from the show. Their story doesn't interest me the slightest bit. I always fast-forward the parts about them.

The Main Characters

 

Issac's and Ha Sun's love story is cute and I enjoy seeing them together. It was a pity that the coffee girl Josie had to come between them and delay their getting together as a couple. Ha Sun's relationship with her once-estranged brother Jayden is also very heartwarming and a joy to watch.

Coco and Jim Jim also looked good together but I really dislike the story about how Coco made such a huge sacrifice to become a surrogate mother for Colby and Victor. I find the reasons for wanting to have a baby so flawed. To Colby, the baby is just a lifeline for her to cling on to in denial if Victor dies. It is unhealthy. If Coco really meant well for Colby, she should be advising her to give up such delusions and not egg her on. But Coco is really the best BFF ever! I'm not sure if I will make such a sacrifice my my best friend. Colby is very lucky.

If it isn't bad enough that Colby wants a baby for the wrong reasons, it's worse that she was not there to support Coco throughout the pregnancy, but preoccupied with Victor's illness. She simply disappeared to Taiwan without even informing Coco and even sent a very pregnant Coco a text message (honestly!) to update her on Victor's worsening condition and wanted to call off the pregnancy. If I had to name the bad guy of the show, Colby takes that honour.

The family scenes of Sam, Issac and Coco together provided comic relief and they really have great chemistry together. Thumbs up to them! I highly enjoyed their scenes together.

Finally, I will now discuss the three main characters, Sam, Jayden and Holiday. Normally I am apprehensive of love triangles but surprisingly, I actually enjoyed watching this particular love triangle.

 

Initially, I was very uncomfortable thinking of Sam and Holiday as a couple. Goodness, he is old enough to be her dad! Holiday is more matched to Jayden in terms of physical appearances as well as character. But TVB eventually won me over as it is clear that throughout the entire show, their relationship had developed slowly, right from the point where he discovered the diamond ring in her telescope and she broke down in his arms. Holiday and Sam might be good for each other. Sam learnt to be less of a prune and be more playful, while Holiday learnt to be more down-to-earth and responsible. Jayden is the die-hard romantic while Sam provides a firm sense of stability. If I had a choice, I would choose Jayden as a boyfriend but Sam as a husband! :P

Acting

 

In my opinion, most of the cast performed well. Francis and Chilam did excellent performances as Sam and Jayden respectively. Ron is not a very solid actor but he did well as Isaac. Nancy Wu performed as well as usual with her Coco. Myolie did as well as she could within the confines of her Ha Sun whose stoic personality prevented Myolie from showing her true potential. She definitely had a much better role as Zoe in the first season than as Ha Sun in the second. Poor Myolie, her leading actress role got stolen by Fala's Holiday and she was demoted to being a supporting actress.

Many other reviews bashed Fala for poor acting in this show, but I think they are being too harsh. She was convincing as a wild and free-spirited Holiday, although at instances she portrayed her too childishly. Perhaps she is slightly inadequate in her emotional scenes but it shouldn't relegate her performance to being "poor" or "bad". Certainly there is room for improvement, as always. Apparently the entertainment news revealed that she is going to the US for acting school. Hopefully it does her good and she returns to TVB to continue acting. Looking at the talent drain currently, TVB needs some big shots to keep their shows afloat, because using less established actors in leading roles can be risky for their ratings.

Anyway, despite what other reviewers say, TVB is still churning out decent dramas with solid acting and direction. I can't really compare with old TVB dramas because I don't have much memories of them as a kid. TVB's worst shows are still miles better than Singapore's Mediacorpse (yeah, I added two extra letters at the back on purpose!) which has boring plots and lousy acting, if you can call that acting in the first place.

And so I must finally bid goodbye to Triumph in the Skies 2. I must say that I immensely enjoyed chasing the drama (apart from all the side stories to throw viewers off track). 

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.