Welp...

In the words of Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti: "I'm neither overwhelmed, nor underwhelmed. I'm just... whelmed."

This was... Definitely something. I'm not so sure I'm ever going to rewatch that trainwreck, even despite its moments (and God knows there were some great moments). The premice was excellent, the commentary on fujoshi culture would have been great had it been addressed instead of taken seriously, the acting was... what it was, and the music lacked some of the flavor that made History 3 a great installment (and the apex of the series's quality to date). To worsen the plot, I found that the filming was often odd and I am sorry for saying it but it felt like watching bad 90's erotica.

There were some good use of tropes, and thank God no one died fetching salt this time (you can say I'm... salty about something here - pun intended) ALTHOUGH people mentioning salt here and there, now and again in the drama triggered some pretty hefty PTSD (still not over MODC). SPEAKING OF! I gotta say what saved the second part of the drama was Sun Bo's return! The return of the king! And yeah, his wedding was as cringe as can be, but what a breath of fresh air and OMG that Haoting mention in the last episode (and he better be in Alaska, snuggling next to Xigu!)!!! But here's the thing here: I'm trying not to think about the implications of Liu Meifang existing both in MODC and CTY confirmed by the existence of Sun Bo and his boyfriend in CTY and the fact that MODC is a canon drama in this universe and the possible existence of a warp in the timeline or in the layers of realities and the existence of a possible second dimension as it pertains to the History series wherein Yu Xigu is alive and well and what it means for the future of the series... Because this is TOO MUCH! WHICH ONE IS THE RIGHT TIMELINE??? SENJOU NO BOKURA'S??? MODC??? OR DOES CTY EXIST IN ITS OWN PLANE OF EXISTENCE???? WHAT IS HAPPENING??? I NEED ANSWERS!

But I digress: Overall, I don't think this installment matched the flavor History 3 had and it might have done quite a little damage to the franchise as a whole. I don't know how the crew, screenwriters, and staff can possibly salvage what's left of this mess that is History 4, what with Lin Pei Yu's talent being now used by Tencent and pledged to WBL. It will take some serious work (or a second season to MODC in which Xigu DOES NOT DIE) to get the quality back. I am extremely frustrated with this drama seeing that many things should have been handled better (such as the fujoshi/bl meta that I think Lovely Writer aced in comparison, the step-bother/rape/assault storyline, the fake dating thing, the "I saw you masturbate therefore I'm in love with you - wait no maybe that makes sense, idk but it was handled quite superficially - and the chief Gao ploy) but what frustrates me more are MUREN'S FUCKING DECONSTRUCTED SWEATERS!!! Homeboy looked better in a ROBE than those abominations! Burn the sweaters! Burn them! Them and Lichen's plushies! ENOUGH WITH THE PLUSHIES! DO YOU HAVE A PARTNERSHIP WITH PLUSHIES COMPANIES HISTORY FRANCHISE??? OR TOY COMPANIES??? BECAUSE IT SURE AS HELL LOOKS LIKE IT WHAT WITH THE AMOUNT OF SCREENTIME THOSE THINGS GET! OR IS THIS A LIU MEIFANGVERSE THING??? HOW IS IT THAT MODC AND CTY HAVE THE HIGHEST PLUSHIES RATE??? (God! I miss Trapped)

Anyway, I have question and this drama's better for the memes than the actual plot. Rant over, I guess... What the fuck was this drama?

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