Big_Red_1011

Go Go Squid has an amazing OST 🥰

This is a very lovely thoughtful review. In the end. I think what frustrates many people is: (A) they could’ve easily got everything into 40 episodes by removing needless drama that takes up 2/3 of Season 2; and (B) writers didn’t need to resort to tried tropes and cliches to get their points across. I still think this is a good drama, but the plot/writing could’ve been better in Season 2 to really get the most out of the wonderful cast, production, costumes, etc.

You raise a great point. Ultimately, it wouldn’t have been that hard for the good guys to stage a hunting accident or something like that. It’s very, very unconvincing plot device that we have to overlook. That’s why I found the plot of Are You the One more realistic when it comes to fighting the Big Bad Person.

Have you seen Are You the One? Bad people pay for their sins in that one.

It’s a combined series/story. Season 2 has a different name to make it seem like a different drama. That was done, supposedly, to avoid having to wait a full year between seasons (regulations).

First season was called Flourished Peony but reportedly they had to change the name for the second season to make this appear as a different drama. Supposedly new regulation is a full year must pass between each season (probably so that studios wouldn’t try to circumvent episode limits by splitting one season into multiples and airing them back-to-back). So this second season got a new name and was allowed to air sooner.

No children for the main couple but one of FL’s friends is shown to be pregnant in the end. And they do have a relationship, but it takes a very, very long time.

Since this show is 95% about female empowerment, I choose to believe that 2FL hired the crazy guy who did a very bad thing to 2ML in the last episode 😈😉

Coming to Netflix on August 31 (at least, in the US).

Haha… She’s probably like third-fourth FL, so it’s not super important. And it’s not luxurious banquets but small snacks or common-people’s food.

It’s partial amnesia (for a valid reason) but FL is probably my favorite historical drama FL. Ignore MDL summary (not entirely accurate) and definitely don’t read comments (there are secrets & new facts that get revealed throughout). In addition to FL (great!) and FL+ML pair (❤️‍🔥), I like that the scope of drama increases (unlike, say, Peoni). What starts as a local events (ML using FL as bait to catch local bandit leader) eventually leads to business venture(s), to war campaign(s), to political machinations, and to empire-wide events. P.S. One of the secondary leads is a foodie and YouTube comments really like her too 😁

Probably Ep. 26. It’s available on WeTV/Tencent Video as part of SVIP.

We just have to roll our eyes 👀 a bit at this trope. Even serious K-dramas do things like that during firefights (like an enemy is shooting at them, but two leads spend 5-10 minutes saying tearful goodbye to each other hiding behind a flimsy cover).

“Romance” better reflects that this is not super emotionally deep drama full of angst 🤣

Nice! FYI, if you haven’t already watched “Are You the One”, it’s a really great drama (better than Peony; not as many tropes & things are more logical). Best thing — all episodes are on YouTube with good subs (I’ve watched it completely on Viki and on YouTube).

We knew the screenwriters didn’t care about logic when ML had to rescue FL from an ankle-deep river. 🤣

Viki is often a few day to a week behind when it comes to C-dramas, so that’s normal. iQIYI VIP members and WeTV VIP members are on the same schedule (at least in the U.S.; both have episodes 1-25 right now). And then WeTV has SVIP option (“express package”) which gives access to 1 episode early. That’s also common for WeTV/YOUKU/iQIYI. Not sure why iQIYi doesn’t offer SVIP for this drama but probably due to contractual terms (meaning, only WeTV/Tencent get it).

There’s a second secret tunnel that only ML knows about? But I do agree that this drama in general has some moments which aren’t very realistic or don’t make much sense (like when FL was drowning in a 20-cm deep river). So we have to roll our eye a little bit and overlook those details. It’s still an enjoyable drama that’s entertaining and not overly serious, but definitely not going to be winning awards for logic 😁

It starts in Ep. 29 based on the trailer on iQIYI.

Flourished Peony is/was a very well received and highly liked drama (Viki’s subtitles seem fine to me). I’d not worry about MDL rating differences between the two :) FYI, second season of Peony (named “In the Name of Blossom”) will require more patience from you (abundance of tropes).