absurd

I'm up to episode 21 and my impatience is almost killing me, but I really like recent episodes. Dai Mu Bai stopped being annoying, because I now understand where it's coming from. Hu Lie Na is still a creepy stalker, but she's kinda... cute? I don't even know. I like how it's progressing, but still want to wait for the ending, before I comment on the whole plot, especially, since there's supposed to be a twist (yes, thank you, dear screenwriter, that didn't add to my impatience at all). The only awkward thing was that musical interlude in the middle of episode 21. I didn't actually have any problems with BGM, like I saw a lot of people in the comments did. But they basically inserted the whole XZ song in the middle of the episode and then interrupted it with impromptu musical number in the forest. I was like: are they going to burst into the song next? :)))

The whole twist thing is killing me even more with curiosity. I haven't even started with JOL because of the cliffhanger at the end.

If you go to qq website, there under the video to the left is the number of views. 万 - means 10 thousand，亿 - 100 mln. Right now it's 10.1亿

So with subs it's only 2 episodes ahead, then. Definitely not worth the effort. They are killing me! Usually I wait for something to end, before starting, but couldn't stop myself with this and I will probably be in the same situation with the oath of love, when it airs.
I am also not a patient person, so let's look at this as a useful exercise :)))

Nah, I'm just lazy. VPN takes too much effort (finding the one that would actually work) and without it they are only available without subs, and without subs I can only understand about 30% of the conversation, which makes it even more frustrating.

There's also a joint V day gift box between Roseonly (company XZ is a spokesperson for) and OralB (which YZ is a spokesperson for). I mean roses and toothbrushes, match made in heaven LOL

I see so many people saying they've watched until ep 25. On one hand, I'm envious, because I want to know what's going to happened next, but on the other I don't want it to be finished too soon, so I'll stick to my 2ep a day pace. All of this vpn business is too complicated for me :)
But, please put it under spoiler tag if you comment on the scenes from the episodes, social media already makes it hard to avoid spoilers.

Yeah, the world building part is for us newbies, who know nothing about this :) Hope you'll still give it a chance, it does pick up later on

I would add to that, that it's better if you give book a try after the drama. A lot of people who read the book, were disappointed in the adaptation because it was too different from the source material. So, maybe, try the drama first, to avoid comparison.

Now I can't unsee it. Every time he activates his Marital soul, it just pops in my head. *dying*

I don't think I've ever left a comment here, even though I've finished this around half a year ago. This was the first drama, I've ever seen and I actually had to try two or three times to watch it. First I've watched the anime (Mo Dao Zu Shi), because that's what I mostly stick to watching. I didn't know there was a novel, it was just one of the highest rated Chinese animations on MAL. Then I found out about the drama. Tried it... and gave up after seeing WYB do the white bat imitation in the first episode. It just looked so ridiculous, I decided that I won't be able to take it seriously. And then some time later I stumbled on the video comparison between drama and the anime on youtube and the moment that actually made me give it another try is the one at 1:45-46 of the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ya3-PN2a-g
My first reaction was: Whoa! Is that guy real? He looks like animated character!
It is definitely not a perfect drama, but the overall impact that it leaves on you makes you forget all the minor problems it has. I could really feel that the production team wanted to do a good job and put a lot of work and thought into it. As much as I loved the animation, the drama gave much more attention to details and characters. And the acting (for the most part) was good. Well, Jin Guangyao was a theatrical disaster, but he didn't spoil it for me.
Overall, I really enjoyed it and can understand why so many people love it.

It is sad for me also that such a good drama gets a negative impact just because it's literally impossible to make an adaptation that would please everyone. But I also think that if it will continue to be good till the end and actually shows Tang San's strengths, making him more like anime, the overall feedback won't actually be that bad.

They seem to be doing it with everything. Definitely the more popular dramas: JOL is the same and Untamed is half and half

I think not even the most supportive of XZ fans will support it if his character is sidelined :) I hope the story will focus back on him too, previews seem to suggest so.

Yeah, I get where the negative comments are coming from. I'm not as bad with adaptations, but never get me started about remakes, I can go for hours :)))
If at all possible, try to look at is as a... fanfiction? A "what if" situation, where Tang San wasn't reincarnated.

It's really not about Xiao Zhan though. Adaptation vs Novel is a problem that exists for every adaptation.

It might also have to do with the message that the hero is sending. The Lead can not, under any circumstances, be bad. Nor ambiguous. He has to be good to the core: if he kills someone, they are ether a bad person or it was not his fault. Suicide is also not allowed. So there are probably many reasons why they avoided that. Maybe they just decided that the less possibility there is for censorship cuts, the less money they'll spend on remaking everything time and time again.
Sorry, I seem to ramble a lot :)))

I really don't know. Just seen a lot of comments about it from Chinese viewers in comments (on Chinese sites). I think it has more to do with time travelling, past life - something like that. Censorship is kind of ambiguous - they just cut whatever they consider "not right", they also change the rules every year. So from my understanding if drama needs reincarnation, they try to make it not obvious. Also dramas with real actors (unlike anime) are censored more, even more if it's broadcast on TV. And this is airing on CCTV.
The truth though, no one will say it outright, so everyone is just guessing :)

I think it's too early to judge how it will go, but it definitely didn't "not hit". Free users only got 6 episodes and I don't think a lot of people outside die hard fans would buy vip just like that. Also binge-watches are a thing. Tencent is promoting it like crazy, though and having CCTV as a support is actually very important in China. If the next season is produced with CCTV they won't have any delays or problems with censoring.

I haven't seen any original material. What I gathered from the comments is that it's different from the novel too. The main difference is that there's no reincarnation sublot (Chinese viewers say: censorship), it was changed into the dream sequence. So because of that Tang San's character is different - not as knowledgeable, strong and composed. He is shown as young and still having a lot to learn, but brave and smart.
If I had to compare, this has a pretty typical Japanese shounen storyline - hero that seems simple, but has hidden talents and powers up as the story goes.