Man's Best Friend

Cast: Louis Koo, Jessica Hsuan, Sammi Cheng, and Joe Ma

This series stars two of my favorite actors, Louis Koo and Jessica Hsuan. Unfortunately, they are the only two redeeming factors about this series. If I hadn't already rented all 15 episodes upfront, I wouldn't have sat through the torture of watching this.

This series gives the impression that it is about dogs and their relationships with humans (hence the title: Man's Best Friend). However, it has very little to do with dogs and too much to do with ridiculous love triangles and unrealistic drama.

Warning! Spoilers!

Characters:

Louis Koo - plays a police officer who works with dogs. He falls in love with Sammi Cheng, but they soon break up once her career takes off. He then starts dating Jessica Hsuan. Louis is a typical 'nice guy' that you pretty much can't help rooting for.

Jessica Hsuan - is an assistant vet by day and bartender by night. She lives with her grandmother and is Louis' neighbor. She is also Sammi's best friend. At first she can't stand Louis, but gradually begins to fall for him. She struggles with her feelings because he's her best friend's ex. I liked Jessica's character, but found her insecurity a little aggravating at times.

Sammi Cheung - is a career-oriented woman, a free spirit, who's unsure about her future. I found Sammi's character to be extremely annoying. She broke up with Louis because she put her career before him, but when she found out he was with Jessica, she decided she wanted him back. She's a very fickle woman who goes through three men throughout the series. I couldn't stand the outfits she wore in this series or the way she wore her hair. And she always seemed to show up at the worst times. Very annoying.

Joe Ma - is the veterinarian that Jessica works with. He is a true friend to Jessica and is always there for her. I found his character to be very likeable. He made a dry, seemingly boring, drama funny and almost bearable to watch (almost).

Besides these main characters there were supporting characters as well. At first I found them unnecessary and irritating, but half-way through the series they grew on me. At certain points I found the subplots much more interesting than the main love triangle.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for romantic stories and will put up with love triangles as long as the couple that was meant to be ends up together. But in this series, the reasoning for the break-ups and all the melodrama was just really stupid and rediculous. I don't know how many times I was cursing at the screen at how stupid the characters were being, especially Sammi's. I wanted so badly to go into the tv screen and throttle her.

I felt that there was no apparent reason for the dogs to be there. I thought this was really lame. The ending to the series was incredibly lame too. Not because of who ended up with whom (won't spoil it), but the way they wrapped up the series. It made me feel that the director thought his audience was really simple-minded. I guess a stupid series deserves a stupid ending.

The opening and ending songs were sung by Sammi Cheung (of course). Whoever chose the background music for this series had a very funny sense of humor. The songs were all really cheesy and made me laugh during "emotional" and "serious" moments. I couldn't take any of it seriously.

The bottom line: Like I said above, I rented this series because of the two main actors, and have since learned this is not the way to go. Just because you like the actors doesn't mean you'll like the series. Actors can't carry a series if the storyline sucks and vice versa. I also rented it because of a review I read on spcnet; someone gave it a raving review, praising it for its originality (for the life of me I can't understand why), but to each his and her own. Everybody's opinion varies, one person may love something you detest, so with that in mind, if you still want to give this series a try, be my guest. Just don't say that I didn't warn you.

I'm giving this one star because spcnet won't let me go lower than that. Rent this if you like Louis Koo and Jessica Hsuan, don't rent this if you like Sammi Cheng because after watching it you'll despise her. Word to the wise, just fast-forward to all the Louis and Jessica scenes. ^_^