Anchors, Hosts, etc

Is it just me or do both Pearl and ATV need to reconsider who they put in front of the camera? News on Pearl anchored by Denise Tom reminds me of highschool English class, where students would take turn reading out loud from novels. Being literate / having a knack for news / looking good doesn't mean having the eye-lip coordination to read out loud. She focuses so hard on not stumbling she ends up stumbling and sounding robotic. The only smile cracked out of her pretty face is at the precise moment she lets out that sigh of relief as the newscast comes to an end. ATV news with Edna Tse is more pleasant; she throws in humanistic intonation and facial expressions and all. But her somewhere-between-Brit-and-Aussie-plus-unmistakable-Canto accent is still less than natural. Whatever it takes to get CCTV-quality female anchors, apparently neither major Hong Kong television broadcasters think is worthy.

Of the handful of locally produced English programs, Pearl's Dolce Vita got my attention from early on. Lifestyle in Hong Kong, especially expensive lifestyle in Hong Kong, is one of the topics that seem to only appear in magazines nobody in the right mind would pay to read. As much as the content of the program still gets my attention, however, I'm very reluctant to support it. The three program hosts have a very similar manner in presenting the material, which is much like elementary school drama at its worst. Makes me wonder if the restaurants they visit are so bad that they must force such phoney mmm faces for the camera. And the girl they so like to put in control of most parts of the show, the one with the killer body, sadly does not have the face to match it.

I miss good TV.