South Sea Tomb (2023)

Another weaker season, possibly the nail in the coffin for this series.

I'm having trouble judging this fairly, because the (AI translated?) subtitles on WeTV were so incredibly bad and incomprehensible.
I barely got why the protagonists went to the coral spiral and it feels appropriate - because it didn't matter in the slightest.
SPOILER - they just find the bone mirror randomly in a place. And after a brief fight with an octopus that's it, they have it and it never comes up again. Why was it important? I don't think it was.
This season was just annoying to me - none of the actors felt like they wanted to be there, they all looked tired of this series.
What do I even write here? Is it objectively horrible? No. Overall it's a bit of a step up from Kunlun - the CG of the ship looks mostly solid (even though it's very obvious) and I get why they did it - filming on the ocean is probably an insurance nightmare.
That said, the pacing didn't feel great. We spend a lot of time on the ship and when we do get into the tomb raiding, it's not actually tomb raiding. This one was more of an adventure movie, but it lacked tension and drive, or a sense of adventure. It just felt like actors running in front of a green screen and on sets.
One of the major problems of many tomb raiding series is the lack of antagonists and obstacles - if you don't have bad guys and tomb traps, what do you place in our heroes' way? Usually it's animals or natural hazards.
And like in Kunlun, the protagonists have to battle "animals" in this one. It's as ridiculous as ever - the mermaids are competently made in CG, but the fights lack any stakes or a real sense of danger. They just attack, because...And the heroes absolutely murder hundreds of mermaids.
Most of the side characters are weak, and the minority ones feel offensive - their dubbing sounds like mentally challenged children. And of course the minority characters die, because of course they do. Even the show acknowledges they always die in this series.
There is some overarching conflict between Shirley and Hu Bayi this season, revolving around his adventuring spirit and how that puts him in danger. But it doesn't really resolve in a satisfying way, she just accepts it after he almost dies yet again.
The show keeps flashing back to Lost Caverns or Worm Valley and I kept thinking how much better the show was then. Stop reminding me!
What happened?!
Was it covid complications? Did the actors just get tired, do they dislike the story?
They do a setup for another season and another adventure to save Duoling's life, but I seriously doubt there will be a sequel.
And if so, I don't think these actors are coming back.
It's just all such a shame.

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