Advertisement

Mirror singers are nerdy entrepreneurs in drama In Geek We Trust

Frankie Chan (left) as Never, and Lokman Yeung as Tony in In Geek We Trust. (Screenshot: Viu)
Frankie Chan (left) as Never, and Lokman Yeung as Tony in In Geek We Trust. (Screenshot from Viu)

In Geek We Trust is the first ViuTV Hong Kong drama this year, which follows the story of Shun (Ling Man-lung), a supervisor of a bank’s IT department. He believes that the IT department is crucial to a company, and he decides to build a system to prove their worth. That backfires, though, leaving him jobless, and his girlfriend dumps him right after that. However, he remains optimistic and intends to make his entrepreneurial dream come true.

We've caught the first two episodes of the 20-episode series. Here’s how In Geek We Trust took us by surprise:

1. It depicts the sad but funny truth about people who work in IT.

When someone mentions IT workers, what would you think of? People clad in T-shirts and jeans? A bespectacled guy typing furiously behind a brightly-lit screen? Or a person you can call to help you fix any kind of electrical product?

Exactly because of these stereotypes, In Geek We Trust playfully blows them up into awfully familiar scenes. These scenes make you unsure whether to laugh or cry, especially if you have worked in an IT department. Though exaggerated, the drama shows how these IT workers are in fact one of the most essential pillars in a company, yet they tend to be one of the most unappreciated or neglected.

2. It's more about the road to entrepreneurship than it is about the “geeks”.

Despite its title placing an emphasis on "geeks", the drama revolves more around entrepreneurship. Rather than rambling on about coding and programming, which may bore the general public, the focus on starting a business is more inspiring to watch.

The pace of the story, however, can be unpleasantly slow, just like how trying it is at the beginning of an entrepreneurial dream. From being unsure whether to take the leap of faith, to meeting a multitude of challenges, In Geek We Trust has been very realistic so far. But if it doesn’t pick things up soon, it may lose the audience’s interest, no matter how motivating the story may be later on.

3. Mirror members Lokman Yeung and Frankie Chan play not-so-ordinary characters.

One of the highlights of the drama is that it features two members of the popular Cantopop boy band Mirror. Lokman Yeung plays a “star boy” Tony, a character based on inventor Stark Chan, the first person from Hong Kong to have a star named after him. Tony is an eccentric character who invented a seemingly useless smart cup. Although subtle, he seems to harbour a rivalry with Shun.

On the other hand, Frankie Chan plays a pessimistic game designer and programmer Never, who thinks that nothing is possible in this world. His personality and contradicting actions unexpectedly turn him into the drama’s comic relief. Apart from thanking Tony for saying he seemed to be pretty negative, Never also hopes to bring joy — the very thing he lacks — through the games he develops.

Fans of Mirror will be delighted to know that the duo will be working together as a team in the drama, with Never as the subordinate of Tony. This is also the first time Chan has acted with Yeung outside of Mirror’s activities, and the first time the duo received a relatively bigger acting role. Despite the lack of experience, they have done a pretty good job portraying the nuances of their characters so far.

New episodes of In Geek We Trust are available on Viu every Monday to Friday.

Get more TV and movie news from Yahoo Life on our Entertainment page.