[Review] Tiger Cubs II (飛虎II)

To me, this was a HUGE disappointment in relations to the first season. The first Tiger Cubs was refreshing and exciting. This second season felt like a typical TVB drama that was edited down to fit the 10 one hour long episodes format. Things seemed unrealistic, forced, and random. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there was no build-up. It looked to me as though TVB was just like, "Hmm! Wouldn't it be fun to just stick this event in this scene for no reason but to shock the audience? Haha!"

One thing that really annoyed me was the characters. TVB wanted to focus on the characters this time around instead of the action, and this made the series, well, BORING.

Mandy Wong's character seemed weaker than the first season. For example, she was in danger of being kicked out due to her failing some practices or something. She was then also randomly pregnant and had to abort her baby. It was happening too quickly, and you just really don't have the time to feel sympathetic or anything. She was really no huge help to the team except for that one time where she chucked a bottle of fake bio warfare at the enemy. That was it. I was really hoping her character would've been more badass, but apparently not. Her character development was disappointing, as with many other characters' developments.

Christine Kuo. I think that it wasn't really exactly the character that annoyed me, but rather the actress. I don't quite remember the episode, but I remember a part where she was rubbing her head on Oscar Leung's arm like a fricking dog. Her acting is more awkward than  her speaking.

Speaking of the actors/actresses themselves ruining roles, can we talk about Linda Chung's bulging eyes and clenched jaw? Can we see one episode without her doing that face?

Also, the entire SDU team just sucks. Weren't they supposed to be the "best of the best"? The criminals seem to easily match against them. SDU seemed very incompetent, especially when compared to the first season.

The cases were also pretty disappointing. Here is a quick rundown of the episodes and the involved cases. This is pretty much written from memory so bare with me.

1. Johnson Lee and his crew took over a court. Lots of hostages. He demands to see Linda Chung who is an undercover cop everyone believed took down his boss. The thing is, she was believed to be dead, so basically his demand would have been impossible to fulfill. Coincidentally, she is not only alive, in HK, but she also saw the news coverage regarding his demand. In the end, he died, but not before shooting a curtain down to cover the ocean. Why? It's revealed in the last episode that he did it to either mask his death from his beloved Nancy Wu, or to cover the fact that she was in a speedboat so that she can escape before SDU noticed. That, I thought, was somewhat clever so I enjoyed it. Timmy Hung, who was Linda Chung's handler, became SDU's new commander.

2. SDU were to protect a drug-ring leader, Pal Sinn, and his personal doctor, Sam Tsang so that they would not be killed before standing in trial. Unfortunately for them. they were targeted by a some group. Spoiler alert: Sam Tsang was the real drug leader, and Pal Sinn was actually a cop who was determined to send this guy to jail. Benjamin Yuen was angered at Pal Sinn because well, one, he was pretty much playing the role of a complete asshole, and two, his friend was a victim of drug abuse or something. This episode was decent because of Pal Sinn.

3. This episode features a team of disabled girls whose goal is to be the next Robin Hood. The group leader is Jade Leung, who coincidentally was a childhood friend of Joe Ma and used to love playing the violin, but now she can't speak and so can only use sign language to communicate. This was not very memorable, but I remember that Jade was forced to rob a bank or something because her team was held hostages by some gangsters.

4. This was an episode about a Japanese game show of some sort called "Running Army". Four members of SDU was sent to investigate a doomsday cult's participation in this show. It turns out that in addition to some of the participants in the show, the host was also part of this cult. Again, I don't remember much, but there were weapons that were hidden in some tombs, one of which was bio-warfare which turned out to be harmless.

5. Koo Ming Wah is a retired SDU sniper. In addition to being a bar owner, he also hunts down criminals to collect monetary awards. He retired from SDU at a relatively young age, and the reason was because of his guilt over shooting some guy dead who was holding a fake gun or something. He then questions if it's really necessary that SDU always shoot to kill. Anyway, he was used by the brother of the guy he killed, Wai Ka Hung. and he got caught up in a gunfire fight against SDU. Oscar was ordered by Timmy to shoot to kill Koo Ming Wah. It turns out that Wai Ka Hung also kidnapped two kids to garner sympathy and more money from Koo Ming Wah.

6. Wai Ka Hung claims he was illegally shot, and it turns out that the claim was legitimate. Oscar, guilt-ridden by having to kill his SDU brother, rose up to attempt to take the blame. There is fall-out in A team, and Him Law is unhappy with Joe. Linda also added oil to fire by helping Wai Ka Hung for personal reasons (so that he can tell her who ratted her out before). The real shooter was revealed, and he left SDU and took over Koo Ming Wah's bar.

7. Oscar continues to be troubled and asked to transfer to CIB. This episode also features a group of killers who are out to kill some people for revenge. Again, not very memorable.

8. Stefan Wong helps Middle Eastern groups make money by messing with the stock market. Joe's grandpa lost a bunch of money. Speaking of him, he is annoying by forcing Joe and Linda together a lot. If not for him, Joe wouldn't be with Linda. I think that was the only reason for his character to exist. Anyway, Grace Wong and her brother asked Him to help them. Stefan died, and Grace's brother fell from a building or something. In any case, he became a vegetable.

9. Linda suspects that Timmy Hung is not all what he seems to be. Oscar was sent by Timmy to keep track on Linda. Linda is taking medication for her anxiety due to PTSD. It turns out that Timmy killed some guy while he was a UC himself, and Vincent Lam has his evidence. So Timmy was the guy who ratted Linda out. He also tried betraying the entire SDU team by leading them to Vincent and ordering them to drop their guns. This was all to save his wife and daughter. Timmy escaped by jumping into the ocean, and Vincent was saved by a mysterious van (spoiler: it was Nancy and her crew). Christine Kuo died (yassss!).

10. Nancy Wu's character was introduced as a CIA agent. She asked Joe to show her around SDU's base. I was just thinking that that was totally a terrible idea. I mean, come on, Joe, you're better than this. Anyway, I believe that the best and the only noteworthy episode to watch is probably the last one. Maybe I'm biased toward one of my favorite actress, Nancy Wu, who portrays a villain (she honestly does a fantastic job portraying this type of character). In any case, I felt the adrenaline rush I felt when watching the first season. Nancy and her team took over SDU's base. This episode involved quite a lot of bombs. Both Timmy and Vincent were killed. Another fantastically coincidental part was how Oscar used bubbles from the bubble toy gun that coincidentally fell over and released bubbles in the air to see the reflection of the shooter on the other building. WHAT? Anyway, Nancy died by falling on a bomb in attempt to kill everyone. Failed, but Joe ended up in a coma. In the end, we see him seeing someone is probably Linda, although we didn't see her face. Why though? There was NO reason for TVB to do that. Lame ending. I'm guessing there were budget cuts or this was filmed last minute, and TVB couldn't get the real Linda to show up, so they just dress up her stunt double.

I give the entire drama a 3/10, except for the last episode, which I felt was a 7/10. This sequel significantly paled in comparison to the first season. Despite the flaws, the first season was exciting and refreshing, none of which describes the second season.