Not the best, but not the worst
Honestly, there is just so many bad reviews out there for this drama. "My Strange Friend" did not make it to my list of favourite C-Dramas, that's true, but it's far from the worst.I can understand that the bar is higher for a series with the ML of Yibo's caliber, but one must admit that good plot is not among the strongest points of most C-Dramas. Given the budget, I think the production already did the best they could with what they had, and I was quite surprise that they managed to pull off this much out of the limited resources that they had.
There were lots of plot holes and the series was dubbed over in the original Chinese version to make up for the inconsistency, but some part of the story and dialogue were still very interesting. I especially liked the first few episodes, the following not so much, but still passable. My favourite character in the entire series was Afu. I think he got the best story line, and the actor really nailed it portraying his character.
To summarize, do not expect another "Untamed", but "My Strange Friend" is not so bad as a story.
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This drama is a perfect example of how to destroy something with great potential. A story with good base and was interesting in the start but as the drama continued the plot didn't even make sense! From the summary, I was waiting something more like the Avengers (I mean as a theme), a team/friends with superpowers trying to find a solution and fight the evil. The love stories with completely no chemistry and building were unnecessary. And of course a completely random end. All these things for nothing? Not even a final battle? Why will someone see a "superhero"/fantasy drama without a final battle?The only good things, and I mean it, is 1) Wang Yi Bo, but, of course the role was a loooot less than what he can do and deserves, and 2)A-Fu's arc, the only interesting and realistic arc. But seriously, can someone give a proper role to Wang Yi Bo? Lan Wan Ji was perfect and interesting, even with minimum words. But everything else is similar... I really hope his upcoming dramas will be better and his roles actually interesting.
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A Wild Goose Chase w/an anti-climactic ending
I fully understand this production had lack of funding and I watched it only because of Wang Yibo. It was a comedy but it lacked a lot. The ending was stitched together like a bad rag doll. Yibo's character getting constantly beat up was hard to watch. It should have been renamed "Where's My Notebook?" There were a lot of plot holes that never got filled, like why did the teacher cooperate with the ultimate bad guy? Or how did the fat guy and Lexi end up with powers? The ending was very haphazard and random. For one of Yibo's first series, I'd say it was a good start and his acting was the only thing that I admired. I won't rewatch it but I look forward to seeing his future works.Was this review helpful to you?
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The first season was better than the second
Honestly I didn't see so much bad in the first season, but the second season really needed a slap in the face.The first season was pretty addicting, I binged it. The plot has lots of potential, and characters have lots of room for development and complexity. The comedy portions were, in fact, funny and I enjoyed watching the lighthearted scenes, especially with the leads.
The three main leads are wonderful. However, the villians seemed to be quite one dimensional and childish.
Overall, I would watch the first season again for the comedic value, but not the second season
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Could watch it only if you are a Wang Yibo fan
Honestly, I never wrote a review and I have seen over 200 Kdramas and started Cdramas lately.This drama (no offence to the writer) but is a waste of time.
The story could have been interesting as a concept... Especially if you enjoy supernatural dramas and more. BUT the plot makes no sense. The way the incidents move on is from 10 to 100 in a minute.
The only reason to watch it is seriously if you like Wang Yibo or any other person from the cast. Or if you want something to pass your time.
I feel bad to the cast and the whole production team for the harsh review since I believe they did a good job but the plot didn't help at all.
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A questionable first part
I will here only review the first part of the show and is, for the moment, the only part that I saw when I wrote this review. If you want to know more, wait for me to watch it all and see my review for the second part where I'll probably make a conclusion of it.The starting of the drama was quite intertaining and interesting. We start directly with the plot, the purpose of our protagonist Wei Yichen played by Wang Yibo is revealed and so the show must go on... That's what I thought.
Even if the first three episodes was interesting and quite funny in a ridiculous way - since it's supposed to be a comedy too, the more the story goes, the more the story became quite boring and hard to watch. Characters such as Nan Ruoyi played by Wang Mengli was quite apealing, strong and pretty woman are my weakness, I thought she would have more development since they let us see her more than Wei Yichen, but they just dealt with what they gave us in the first place and did nothing special even after some special events that happened to her, that's a bit sad.
The only character that changed in an interesting and logical way was Afu played by Xu Xiao that came in the second half of the story, sadly not for the best in my opinion. Developing him truthfully was one of the reason why the story became very slow. The way they did it wasn't the best since we do not see these kind of development for the other characters. They tried it sometimes with Wei Yichen, but then they forgot and we're coming back to step one. Same with Duan Muhao played by Zhang Yijie that... oh wait, he has no development at all! Truly frustrating.
With what they gave us as an ending - that frustated me the most, of this first part, I can't really tell if it's good or bad. Developing absolutely nothing except one character for I-don't-even-know-what purpose is not efficient at all. It has potential but we truly feel like they're trying to make the story goes longer and longer and I'm afraid that we're trapped in what I will call in French in a story "sans queue ni tête" (a nonsensical story).
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Interesting Plot with Disappointment Story Progression
I watch this because of Zhang Yi Jie and honestly, I find the acting for this is good, the character may be so-so but the actor and actress brought it to life.I watch the first 2 episodes, I found the comedy and everything else decent. I just found the romance a bit weird because it is the classic FL fell in love at first sight with ML and there is no real progression in the romance part in my opinion. then I continued to watch, I was excited because FL looks strong and I thought that the plot of the power will be handled well. but I thought wrong. There were so many plot holes and the ML keep getting beat a lot and not trying his best to escape, which I found not satisfying.
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Supernatural powers, comedy and wasted potential
This can't really be considered Season 1 because it ends in the middle of nowhere.In fact, it also starts in the middle of nowhere. The story is rather confusing at the start. Until now, I'm still wondering if there is an Episode 0 that I missed or something. There are too many things in Episode 1 that take quite a number of episodes to start making sense of. How Wei Yi Chen loses most of his supernatural powers is eventually explained but not really shown--there seems to be missing scenes. It would have been nice to see what Wei Yi Chen could do or had done prior to losing most of his supernatural powers, but there is nothing directly shown here.
It is possible to continue watching with some knowledge something about the protagonist's goal of finding his stolen notebook, until one pieces the fragments into a picture that remains incomplete. It isn't really a torturous experience to watch the series, but it seems to me that there is a relatively good story that does not get told fully.
The characters are often silly. This works to enhance the humor at times but also makes many characters hard to take seriously or feel a lot for. But all too often, something is set up only to be abandoned, like building a part of a nice building only to abandon the project. For example, the misunderstanding that Wei Yi Chen and Duanmu Hao are a couple is used to generate some humor but just when one is expecting this to be developed further, it seems to have been abandoned suddenly.
If you enjoy shows featuring people with supernatural powers while having some comedy, this may be for you. But you may have to brace yourself for confusing moments (especially at the start). You will probably still end up feeling that the show has a lot of wasted potential even if it is entertaining in some ways.
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Starting was awesome but ending...
To be honest, I watched this only because of Wang yibo. At first it was really nice. I really loved it. But after ep 15, I really don't understand how Cong Lexi, Mr. Ma and Jiang dongdou got their superpowers. Especially the last two. There're many plot holes and I don't know whether there's Season 2 or not. If someone know about Season 2 please tell me. I was really annoyed with the ending. I started to think "what? Wei yichen became a time changing God?". The last 2 episodes really made me feel very annoyed. I never expected the ending would be completely different from the starting which was awesome. I even awed. They totally forgot about that notebook after 20th ep. Maybe there's really a season 2?? That's why there're so many plot holes? Bruh! Whatever... I'm fed up with the ending that's all.Was this review helpful to you?
Where to watch this with eng subs?
can someone tell me any website or app where I can watch this show with English subtitles?..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Was this review helpful to you?
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Não gostei!
Vamos lá... Assisti por causa de Yibo, e na esperança de ver ao menos um bromance (da China as expectativas são baixas). Só não me decepcionei mais, pois ver Wang Yibo é sempre um prazer, e boa parte do elenco também atuou muito bem, alguns nem tanto.Esperava mais em qualidade, justamente por ser da China, que faz raiva no BL mas estrega muito na qualidade, e senti aqui alguns pontos fora da curva. Efeitos especiais amadores, o roteiro muitas vezes não fazia o menor sentido, a música combinava, mas a filmografia me lembrou filmes muito antigos, com pouca qualidade. A fotografia teve tantas chances de ser bem aproveitada, com cenários estonteantes, mas não foi. Enfim, não perderia meu tempo vendo de novo. Assista por sua conta e risco.
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