While I was still watching Dicey Business, I had heard many positive comments about Brink, in which many have said Brink is just as good, perhaps even better than Dicey. However, after completing Brink, I think that Dicey still wins it for me.
Why am I comparing these two? What do they have in common? Not much other than the fact both have been released pretty much after each other and both series have been highly regarded by many viewers.
Wanting to watch more?
From watching the first episode of Dicey, I was immediately absorbed into the story. I wanted to know what would happen next. I felt a lot of things happen in the one episode. For Brink, it took me a lot more episodes. The first few episodes seemed like they were just introducing the characters and nothing really happens. I wouldn’t mind watching the next episode, but if I skipped parts I felt I didn’t need to catch up on those bits. It was only later into the series where Brink kept me interested.
The Cast
The cast of Brink didn’t particularly catch my attention when I heard about it. Really, only one particularly did and that was Michelle Yim. I’ve only seen Michelle in one series before, and that was a long time ago in “Heavenly Sword Dragon Sabre 2000”. She was so cool there lol I’m not really a fan of Shirley, Ron, Steven, Bernice, Kate, or Kenneth. They are ok, I don’t really mind them though. I haven’t seen a series with Steven Ma or Bernice Liu in a while so tried to be optimistic. The combination of the casts were a bit different from the usual. I heard Shirley was going to play an evil villain so I was looking forward in seeing her perform here as well.
The cast in Dicey was very strong. Michael Miu, Bobby Au Yeung and Jessica stood out the most. There was also Benz Hui playing as a supporting cast. They are very experienced and I just felt the characters were really brought to life. I really like Bosco, so that was also a plus!
The Romance
High level of chemistry between Michael and Jessica, and Jessica and Bobby. The bond between Jessica and Bobby seemed unbreakable. The love triangle between Michael, Jessica and Bobby was very interesting and watching how Jessica was struggling choosing between the two was absorbing. Bosco and Tavia were pretty cute together too. Even for non-couples, there was evident chemistry between Bosco and Jessica- how Jessica cared so much for him , Bosco and Michael- how much Bosco looked up to Michael, and Bosco with Bobby- the brotherly love.
However, in Brink– there was hardly any romance between Ron and Kate. I found the two quite ordinary together; the two just didn’t have a particularly interesting personality to start off with. The two also do not have any conflict in their relationship, and got together smoothly with no bumps in the way even though Shirley tried to get in between them. Steven and Bernice were a little more interesting. There was a small love triangle between Steven, Bernice and Kenneth, but it ended quickly with Kenneth’s death. I also believe Bernice did not really love Kenneth; though she wanted to give him a chance. It wasn’t a hard choice for her to make. I did enjoy the Stephen Wong and Michelle mother-and-son relationship though. No matter how evil Michelle was, she truly loved her son more than anything in the world. Stephen and Ron were nice to watch together too, especially after Stephen was involved in the accident. Ron and Steven were good friends, but that was about it.
The Action
Both series have a lot of action, especially Brink. The action I remember most clearly in Dicey was when Michael and the gang beat Bobby up on the ship and threw him in the ocean, and towards the end when the bad guys were going after Bobby and Bosco. In Brink, there was a lot of killing off of characters; and because there’s a police force involved in the story and investigation; there’s more action/fight there as well.
The characters
In Dicey, the characters develop and grow. They start and finish as different people. They have a background/back-story. Something happens to them, which impacts how they behave and interact with other characters. Michael’s character is gray. He was a good guy turned bad and was driven by his motives of wanting power; yet at the same time, he is deeply in love with Jessica and he has one true friend- Benz. Jessica is a gambling addict that appears to be carefree, but we learn of her dark past she does not want to face. She eventually overcomes this shadow and her character matures, and can live truly in a different perspective. Bosco’s character changes from all sorts and he character was ‘blind’ for a while..Tavia also learns at the end what’s right and what’s wrong..
In Brink, most characters can be labelled. They are either good or bad.
The good guys: Steven, Ron, Kenneth, Bernice, Kate, Stephen
The evil: Michelle Yim, Shirley, Ngoh Wah, Vin, Shirley’s father
Yoyo (plays Steven’s sister) changes for the better though ^^
Steven and Ron’s characters are made so flawless it becomes almost unrealistic. Steven’s character.
The bad guys don’t change. From the beginning till the end they do bad things and don’t learn from their mistakes. They don’t think they were ever wrong. Shirley is a selfish character, she does not care about anyone’s feelings. An odd thing is that the evil guys don’t always trust each other either. Michelle didn’t mean to do any harm to her brother, but her brother ends up hating her thinking she deliberately fooled him so he couldn’t escape. Michelle and her husband often lost trust in each other. A lot of the time, the bad people think others are as evil as themselves.
After all that Michael did to Bobby, the two manage to become friends in the end (sounds sorta unrealistic though). In the case of Brink, the only evil person pretty much ‘not-dead’ is Shirley where Kate still treats her as a friend by taking care of her at the hospital though I’m pretty sure Shirley isn’t grateful towards her anyway..
[poll id=”16″]
