To be fair to poor Peter Ho, I doubt anyone playing Liang Shan Bo in a drama series can beat Nicky Wu in the 1994 movie version. It's called the "classic" one for a reason, and Nicky Wu and Charlie Yeung played their roles incredibly well. In addition (and maybe more importantly), this story and the characters are much more likeable when you're watching them for 2 hours, and not, say, 45. There's only so much melodrama and tragedy a person can take before running out of tears and tissues and realizing how silly the extended version of the story can get.
And, just wondering-- does anyone else really like/feel bad for Ma Wen Cai? Pre-going crazy and turning into a reaaaaally evil bastard type? Because I do!
For almost purely superficial reasons, but still..