haleku
Germany
This review may contain spoilers
Great start, meh ending
The first section is spoiler-free:
This is one of the series that had me hooked once the characters were played by the main actors. Waiting for the next episode was truely painful and every week was too long. It was the first time I read the book the series is based on because I couldn't wait for the next episode to air. It has a really high rewatch value up until around episode 10.
The series is for anyone interested in angsty characters, slow burn and trauma/drama. The characters feel like real people, the dialogues are just so natural. Chris was an amazing actor and I loved rewatching episodes to focus on his facial expressions. Although there were many known tropes or story points, they managed to twist it so it wasn't too predictable or if it was, it was still extremely engaging. And because of these things, I was kind of disappointed in how the series ended. Overall I would say it was worth watching, and if I'd binge-watched it, I might feel differently. But because I waited 10 weeks for it to finish, the ending wasn't as satisfying as I had hoped. I was certain this would be my second 10/10, but sadly the ending wasn't as cohesive as before and the more I think about choices in the script, the less I like the ending.
Spoilers ahead:
The more I think about the last three episodes, the less happy I am with a lot of the choices. Some of the choices felt so out of character. Qian would never let Yuan kiss him in the office. Why did they insert so many montages and why did the montages include the same scenes? We don't need more than one montage in every episode... WHY did they show Yuan as a kid when they had the NC scene? I liked how they started in the middle of kissing and then went back to the beginning, but why insert so many montages in between? Yuan and Qian didn't really talk the last three episodes. From episode 7? to around 10 they were constantly talking about how they feel, but once they have sex, they do not talk about anything except for Qian's illness anymore. It just felt so empty suddently. They made a lot of scenes just to get a few laughs, and while they were funny, they didn't fit the characters too well (Qian finding out Lily is pregnant and going after San Pang, getting kissed at the office, hearing how the others debate who's top and who's bottom etc).
It just felt like they couldn't use some of the material they shot and had to improvise by adding a lot of filler or montages.
I think I'm just a little disappointed because the series was able to turn typical plot points (e.g. Yuan getting beat up by the gang and Yuan and Qian having a near-death experience) into something where I was actively stressed out or engaged in general, but the last episodes didn't feel like they belonged to the first 9.
This is one of the series that had me hooked once the characters were played by the main actors. Waiting for the next episode was truely painful and every week was too long. It was the first time I read the book the series is based on because I couldn't wait for the next episode to air. It has a really high rewatch value up until around episode 10.
The series is for anyone interested in angsty characters, slow burn and trauma/drama. The characters feel like real people, the dialogues are just so natural. Chris was an amazing actor and I loved rewatching episodes to focus on his facial expressions. Although there were many known tropes or story points, they managed to twist it so it wasn't too predictable or if it was, it was still extremely engaging. And because of these things, I was kind of disappointed in how the series ended. Overall I would say it was worth watching, and if I'd binge-watched it, I might feel differently. But because I waited 10 weeks for it to finish, the ending wasn't as satisfying as I had hoped. I was certain this would be my second 10/10, but sadly the ending wasn't as cohesive as before and the more I think about choices in the script, the less I like the ending.
Spoilers ahead:
The more I think about the last three episodes, the less happy I am with a lot of the choices. Some of the choices felt so out of character. Qian would never let Yuan kiss him in the office. Why did they insert so many montages and why did the montages include the same scenes? We don't need more than one montage in every episode... WHY did they show Yuan as a kid when they had the NC scene? I liked how they started in the middle of kissing and then went back to the beginning, but why insert so many montages in between? Yuan and Qian didn't really talk the last three episodes. From episode 7? to around 10 they were constantly talking about how they feel, but once they have sex, they do not talk about anything except for Qian's illness anymore. It just felt so empty suddently. They made a lot of scenes just to get a few laughs, and while they were funny, they didn't fit the characters too well (Qian finding out Lily is pregnant and going after San Pang, getting kissed at the office, hearing how the others debate who's top and who's bottom etc).
It just felt like they couldn't use some of the material they shot and had to improvise by adding a lot of filler or montages.
I think I'm just a little disappointed because the series was able to turn typical plot points (e.g. Yuan getting beat up by the gang and Yuan and Qian having a near-death experience) into something where I was actively stressed out or engaged in general, but the last episodes didn't feel like they belonged to the first 9.
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