WRITTEN BY FUNN LIM
"Roy, if you want to praise Cool Mort, you should do it clearly, he can take it"
I was ready to diss this series but other than the rather old sounding themesong, and the odd Thai looking Skyletter Airlines (what happened to Solar?), I was very surprised by how entertaining episode 1 was. Oh it was sorta pretentious but when it comes to a high flying profession, as long as it is not overly pretentious, I can stomach it. I am not looking forward to Zoe's death, after all in TITS 1, I was all the way for Sam and Zoe. But episode 1 was surprisingly smart, sassy, funny and all things nice except for a few sore points.
We see some old familiar faces which frankly I have forgotten were in the first series. We see Isaac and Roy report for duty at the airport in full I suppose First Officer uniform, looking sharp and good even if older and for Ron, pudgier. Anyway Roy joins Skylette Airlines, and it seems the jumping from Solar Airways is complete with Roy. I am really curious. TVB, why not Solar?
Isaac (brother of Sam) warns Roy that they will be under a new very maverick sort of young Captain nicknamed Cool Mort after Voldemort. Isaac warns that he once yawned and got lectured the entire flight. Roy looks worried. Then came another lower ranked guy whose name I did not catch and he too is worried about Cool Mort himself.
Then we see Cool Mort who is of course Chilam looking rather handsome at a lounge and flirting with a I suppose a pretty celebrity sporting a huge ring. The point is our Cool Mort is a Lothario, he is nice to women, but based on his reputation, not so nice to fellow male colleagues.
Anyway Cool Mort is running late and Isaac told Roy he has to make the call to remind Cool Mort of the time. Roy reluctantly made the call and heard phone ringing and immediately stopped as Cool Mort sarcastically greeted Roy and well, basically lectured Roy on well.. everything. I mean Roy answered the questions about flight to London all well but Cool Mort, super cool and very hard to please and quickly put Roy on the spot and Roy of course felt sorta bullied.
In the plane, we see Chief Stewardess or whatever you call her, that is Coco Ling played by Nancy Wu in what is now her signature sort of role; that experienced go-to character who is wise but you know, not the lead. She is cool headed and encountered an arrogant passenger who refuses to sit next to a sickly old man. So what she did? She changed the sickly old man to a BETTER seat, thus naming and shaming that arrogant passenger.
Pause.
There is an urban legend, or perhaps it may have been a true story where there was a very racist passenger in some flight who refuses to sit next to a black man I believe and complained loudly and so the captain/stewardess agreed to change the passenger to first class but not the racist, but the poor man being racially abused for the inconvenience caused. Clearly TVB reads news or urban legend sites! Anyway pretty cool. Oh I also see Eliza Sum looking like a stewardess!!
Anyway during flight to London, I sorta feel the cockpit is kinda too small for such a long flight. A quick search tells me it is 11 hours. I thought the whole cockpit scene was sorta too unrealistic.
Anyway poor Isaac, Roy and fellow pilot had to sit through the flight listening to Cool Mort retelling every minute of his safari details or something, very boastful and all and Roy couldn't stand it and said "Sir, perhaps we should let Isaac concentrate on the flight?" and of course he got a earful. And so Cool Mort went on and narrated his greatness so to speak and when Roy said he wanted to get some drinks or something, Cool Mort coolly said "Get me a cup of coffee" and of course that is like a big no no. Isaac said "Sir, shouldn't that be the job of a stewardess?" but Cool Mort feels Roy can learn from coffee making. Poor Roy goes to see Coco and complains how Cool Mort is bullying him and he moans "What did I do wrong?!" and Coco says "He is actually a great guy" and Roy groans. Earlier he also asked the same question to Isaac who promptly said "Because you're not a woman". True!! Anyway Coco said "Well he deserves his greatness and his arrogance. Did you know he was in the Australian Military? (P/s I think I heard Austalian Air Force or something). He was the pilot who flies the planes and refuels mid air. He is precise, he is cool headed and he is rightfully arrogant. You can learn a lot from him. I mean he may be late in flight but he always arrives on time. I like flying with him" but Roy is not convinced. Coco made the coffee but Roy took it and drink it and Coco had to make a new one and Coco said "He likes his sugar 3/4" and she walked away and funnily Roy quickly took the sugar cube and tried to hack it to exactly 3/4 size! Coco of course laughed quietly.
In the cockpit, they have been flying for 1 hour and can't land at Heathrow due to bad weather. Everyone in the plane is complaining. All of a sudden, someone needs to attend funeral, graduation, running out of heart pills, etc. You know, the usual. Isaac, Roy and unnamed pilot whose name I still did not catch decided to land elsewhere instead of going through bad storm to land in Heathrow but maverick Cool Mort after discussing with Coco decided to brave the storm.
Long story short, he braved the storm and survived much to the admiration of Roy who said "Wow, that was some great flying, didn't even feel the turbulence!" and Isaac teased "Roy, if you want to praise Cool Mort, you should do it clearly, he can take it". Cool Mort snickered a little and suddenly Roy said "Isaac, how can you openly call him Cool Mort?" and Cool Mort gave some timely advice on how to handle turbulence and all and suddenly Coco rushes in with a cake and shouted "SURPRISE!!!" and Isaac smiled sheepishly and Coco says "You have been punked!! We have been planning this the moment you agreed to join Skylette! We created the Cool Mort persona just to scare you! He is actually Jayden Koo. Oh I already uploaded that video of you cutting the sugar cube to 3/4 size!" and Roy abruptly stood up and shouted "YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?!" and even Jayden was caught by surprise and Coco says "Ok ok I will delete the video..." when suddenly Roy took the cake and smeared Isaac and fellow pilot with cream and was about to smear Jayden when he stopped and decided to lick the cream himself. Jayden smiled and said "Welcome to my team, I am Jayden" and they shook hands.
Pause.
Now that was funny!! I thought Jayden was such an a-hole but it was all a trick! Rather clever! Earlier I was saying Sam was such a cool Captain and all. So Jayden is in the same vein except he is a womaniser. Wait! Jayden? I think you can "Pick an English name for your child by watching TITS 2".
Continue.
In London. Wet. Very wet. But nice. We see Fala looking like some emo girl except she is supposed to be a meteorologist working for NASA. WOW. Talk about credentials. She is supposed to be a Meteorologist, working for Nasa who also sells football mementos and also a happy go lucky girl who travels the world. This is this series' first problem. This character should not exist. And Fala is a miscast. It should be Eliza Sum. Somehow Fala doesn't seem so chirpy to me. Anyway just know she is also Michelle Yim's daughter, who is I think owner of a restaurant where Sam is working as a pastry chef? I don't know. Anyway Sam is not a pilot anymore. He is a pastry chef, and Roy makes it his mission in life to persuade Sam to return as pilot but he refuses. He is happily married to Zoe who we have yet to see and is celebrating her birthday tomorrow (next episode I assume). He has got a great birthday gift for Zoe and so he goes to a gwailo to buy a football shirt memento but was told his girlfriend collected it before him and it turned out to be Fala in disguise as his girlfriend and Sam chases after her, grabs her but Fala pretends not to know Chinese, or English and ran away and poor Sam, no birthday gift for his sweet Zoe.
Pause.
May I say, I am impressed with Francis Ng's attempt at speaking English. I understood every word, in retrospect, he speaks clearer than Kenneth Ma who supposedly studied overseas.
Continue.
Next episode, I read Zoe dies. This is insane.
So far episode 1 is fun and funny. Other than the slight mishap with how unrealistic the cockpit was or the air stewardess were during the "can't we land now? I need my heart pill" moment, I thought the entire Jayden-Isaac-Roy scenes were very very funny to watch. Poor Roy, bullied and I especially loved how Jayden was boasting about his outdoor camping and about how great he was. Now we all know it was just a prank. Very funny scene. I also enjoyed Francis Ng's performance even if his hairstyle is giving me nightmares. He is a fantastic actor and he was the reason TITS 1 was enjoyable. Here he is consistent as the Sam I knew and liked. I thought everyone was good, even Chilam except I did wish his boastful arrogant Cool Mort was the real persona. That would have been awesome you know.
The only problem is Fala as Holly. I find her character impossible. I find her silly and yes I am annoyed. How dare she takes Zoe's shirt!!! Death to her!! DEATH!! By the way, she becomes a pilot later? Seriously? What can't she do?
Anyway I hate that Zoe will die. It seems TVB does not know how to make a sequel without killing off a main character and reintroducing a looklike. Why can't Sam marry Zoe and have children and we see them continue their relationship like how Armed Reaction was with Joyce and Marco's characters?
Whatever. At least there's the scenery even if London is wet wet wet. Someone told me she half expected Shah Rukh Khan to rush out and do a song and dance. It felt very Bollywood. But after so many duds in recent releases, for a first episode that was funny and engaging, and makes me want to watch episode 2 (unlike Karma Rider which confuses me with its 80s costumes with 90s storyline), what more can I ask?
Oh, maybe a better themesong. One of the more memorable aspect of TITS 1 was Eason Chan's themesong. George Lam is a masculine great singer but yeah, the themesong does sound like an 80s wuxia series, which interestingly would have been more at home with Karma Rider!!
