Cambear
Originality
Ambitious and complex story
Good cast who portrayed multiple characters, time periods and a wide range of emotions
Not using stupid misunderstandings to create conflict
Not dragging this out to too many episodes
I did like this drama, but the back and forth on the time travel wasn’t completely clear (not sure all of it made sense) so I stopped being logical and just watched for the emotions at the end. (They don’t follow the time heist rules for time travel.)
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Then, about half way through, the ML basically does nothing for which completely halts character development. They keep describing him as “wild” but he’s really quiet and passive. He disappears and to make way for the second ML. Obvious plotting to sacrifice characters.
Then the last half meanders around and the second couple gets more screen time and it’s icky for a 32 year old teacher to chase after his totally immature student. I didn’t buy the chemistry between them either. Then we get to the ending where the FL gets a personality transplant. Yeah, this didn’t work for me.
So good start, but then it struggles since it should be at least 6 episodes shorter. Victoria song dresses great and pulls off the role until the end. Song Weilong needs to add some more personality to go with his youthful handsome. The second ML pulls off likable which is usually quite hard for the third wheel.
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The story and characters are simple and the first half is childhood and the later half gets to the romance.
The secondary characters are pretty good with a special shout out to the teacher romance which is unusually amusing.
The product placement is so obvious and written into the story, viewers may think that sunscreen is the best gift you can give a friend. Yikes.
Also the hair stylist likes helmet hair and it’s so stiff and shiny that it looks almost like everyone’s hair has locks of grey. So odd.
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There isn’t a lot of joy so I’m not sure why it’s titled that way in English.
The idea that this is a modern man’s story adds a fresh perspective which is refreshing. Points to the music also being modern.
The first 2/3 are interesting and great, Then he goes on a mission and then a dozen new characters get dumped in without any real character development. The last 16 episodes then feel like any other palace intrigue drama with lots and lots of talk and then more and more talk. I wish they found a better way to keep this as fresh as the first part.
Also one plot twist was so freaking obvious that I felt the character was stupid for not seeing it.
Anyway, obviously there’s is a lot more story left since this ends on a cliffhanger.
Despite my drawbacks, I will be tuning in for the next season.
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Boyfriend calls you stupid? Fine.
You think the other is cheating on you? Fine.
The other person is in love with someone else. Fine. I’ll go after them anyway.
We’re supposed to root for the female lead when she tries to get into an established relationship the later we’re supposed to cheer for her again when someone is trying to break up her established relationship.
Yeah, this makes no sense,
The actors are capable, but the characters make no sense, There are a couple of cute moments, but really there are better shows out there.
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The beginning sets up the characters and the complicated political situation. All great stuff. Good cast, great costumes, beautifully shot.
Then...we start chasing our tails. They betray each other left and right, but shoemhow are alllowed to live. They battle to great big climax...and no one dies. The romance and bromance are stalled and repeat. Repeat.Repeat.
It got so bad, I felt Vazini from The Princess Bride — “He didn’t die? inconceivable!”
I wanted to like this, but got too frustrated with the last half. They needed some new characters or a new plot direction to keep the last third fresh.
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It’s so difficult to balance all these stories and to develop all the characters. The whole ensemble is uniformly strong. It’s really a bunch of short stories which get pulled together in the last scene. It wasn’t needed to bring everyone together, but it is nice to see them all interact.
Also, hats off to all the animal wranglers since all the animals are great. It’s refreshing to see real animals and not CG everywhere.
So if you’re looking for something fluffy but with heart, this is lots of fun.
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Then the last episode and a half happens and it goes really weird. The cap the season with an explanation, but it made this super short season a little draggy since it was off topic and weird.
So aside from that strange tangent, it is a tight and focused extension of the original series with a bigger budget if the costumes are any indication. You do need to know the original series to enjoy this one since most of the plot is based on storylines from that. If you don’t remember every detail, they give enough detail to jog your memory.
Overall, enjoyable as just a little taste of a series, but that weird turn was just too weird.
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I was also hoping for some gorgeous scenic views, but it didn’t quite get there. The action sequences ranged from good to ridiculous.
There is a nice surprise epilogue that was just about the best thing which is disappointing.
So it was a whole lot of effort, but didn’t seem worth the fuss. Sadness.
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The cast is all good to great, the costumes are good and the set design is gorgeous.
More than other shows, this earned its episode count. Too many others have too many filler plot lines, but this kept moving forward.
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You know what’s going to happen to the characters since everything is telegraphed in the first half hour. It follows just about every cliche so you know that each early scene was a set-up to a predictable outcome.
This hits you on the head with the emotional scenes and, yes, the patriotic scenes. If this were an American Muppet movie, Sam the Eagle would pop up and say “at times like this, I’m proud to be an American” about a dozen times. Also, I haven’t seen so many grown men burst into tears this often, This is not a subtle movie.
The cast do what they can to ground this movie and there are some great (and not great) special effects. That’s as much upside as I can come up with.
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My biggest problem is the cast. Angelababy is slightly better than her drama counterpart, but WeiWei is still a giant set of eyes in tiny skirts that looks shy and wide-eyed as everything happens to her. As Xiao Nai, I prefer Yang Yang considerably more. Overall, they are not a very interesting couple and since the relationship must move quicker in a movie, they don’t develop the same kind of feels so the movie falls short.
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it’s starts off okay and despite all the common tropes (rich boy/poor girl, cold boy/lively girl, chance encounter, evil ex’s, love triangle, etc...) it’s still effective.
And then the story continues and we get into ridiculous plots with evil characters who manage to still get away with things. The actors aren’t that interesting, but the script doesn’t do them any favors either so I don’t know who to flault.
But when a guy is apologizing for being too controlling, he could not give her earrings....with a GPS tracker. Come on!!! How is this an acceptable way to NOT control your girlfriend? UGH!
A stupid quibble — whoever is doing the hair on the men needs to find a new job. it’s not flattering and I feel the desperate need to send them all some conditioner since their hair looks painfully dry and brittle.
Anyway, skip it since there are better ways to spend your time.
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Both of the leads are great and can sell some awful storylines. They are the reason that I made it to the end of this series.
The writers think the audience is too since the flashbacks are excess, sometimes random and sometimes quoting something that happened 10 seconds before. Literally. ugh.
There is no character development. The really awful characters get away with everything and the good guys are so stupid they let them. I liked the second male lead in Goodbye My Princess, but his character is so inconsistent (and stupid) that I started to question his acting capabilities. The writing is THAT BAD. Characters pop up for their plot point and then leave for a half dozen episodes for no reason. it’s super lazy writing.
And the plot! So predictable and every cliche you can imagine.
Really I watched for the adorableness of Zhang Ming En, but towards the end, the writers really shortchanged him with very little material. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.
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Kudos also for avoiding annoying secondary romantic couple that detract from the story. There are additional characters and plots added, but it’s mostly dealing with the political games so it makes more sense.
Yeah, a few plot points kind of go nowhere or get dropped for a bunch of episodes and then resurface later. Also, the network was clearly stretching for time with extended flashbacks which didn’t add to the plot. One other quibble, a few relationships needed more development. Given some of the hurdles, I didn’t quite buy that she would be so attached to a guy that’s verbally and physically abusive. UGH! I needed him to grovel a bit before they could move on.
But if you’re looking for a tragic romance, this has plenty of tragic and plenty of romance, It feels fresh since they aren’t going for obvious villains and the plot twists are so major it’s hard to understand how the leads can come back from that.
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