Eleison

I know, I wondered if one season would be enough to finish this story. It seems unlikely if it's going to be done well, unless it's twice as long as this season. 😅

I don't know if I got an answer fully, but I realize this is a transition season and not complete. It just seems at the end of Season 1 that Fan Xian realized how he'd been played, and had resolved to work outside the Emperor's schemes and try to be a foil to them, but I didn't see that happening in this season after all. He was still going along with the grand master plan of CPP and the Emperor the whole season.

Yes, as they're slowly starting to show what the scheming does to you (as seen through the Eldest Princess, the Emperor, and Chen Ping Ping), since more and more we're seeing these characters' true colors revealed to be selfish and even nefarious.

The Second Prince has an interesting conversation with a character in Season 2 about how he's been dragged into his evil scheming by his father since his childhood and made to fight for his life, and given no other option. It's kind of heartbreaking to see them show the disparity in how HE turned out versus Fan Xian, who didn't get exposed to this side of the world until he was a adult. Xian was able to grow into a healthier perspective which the princes didn't have the luxury of doing since they grew up in the palace (I will chalk that up to Ye Qing Mei's insight and care, watching out for her son by insisting he was raised outside the palace! 😉 She knew where this kind of life led...).

Oh good, so you have seen them. 🥰 I found Start-Up very lovely, too, but I had to watch it slowly because the lying was PAINFUL. It was a fantastic message, but it was still hard to watch. I prefer this screenwriter's other dramas for this reason, but this one was still thought-provoking and beautifully done (gorgeous styling, cinematography, sets, color scheme, editing--all very aesthetically pleasing and high quality for a Kdrama!)

Not as a general rule, but I think people who usually like one of her dramas usually like all of them. They all have love triangles so those that can't stomach love triangles can't do any of them. 😂

I loved Ki Ho, too, and I actually thought the "Who's Ki Ho?" plot was kind of fun, actually, but I think it annoyed some people.

This screenwriter, in addition to poignant themes (my runner up to WYWS is I Hear Your Voice, which has my favorite theme/message of any drama I've seen), also does fabulous pilot episodes and sometimes people get their hopes up WAY too high for subsequent episodes and trash on the whole drama afterwards because their expectations get dashed.

I always look forward to her stuff and keep an eye out for her new releases. :)

But have you noticed ALL the Viki scores are inflated next to MDL scores? See the rating for this on three separate sites/platforms:

IMDB: 6.1
MDL: 7.1
Viki: 8.8

Now take a popular/highly rated drama like While You Were Sleeping:

IMDB: 8.3 (very high for a Kdrama on IMDB)
MDL: 8.7
Viki: 9.6 (about as high as ratings get on Viki, and that's voted by over 300,000 watchers).

Notice the pattern? It's telling. The stronger dramas get consistently higher ratings across multiple platforms (usually), and more middling dramas have ratings across platforms that will be consistently lower; I just think each site calibrates the ratings differently which accounts for the disparity with this rating and Viki's.

I think the low rating came from the ambiguity of who's really the ML. Many people felt played with the way Ji Pyeong was introduced in Episode 1 and that he was given too much attention, backstory, connection to the FL and time spent on his character and that got everyone attached to him (not to mention his acting is stellar 😉). I'd bet the love triangle and the way Ji Pyeong was written is the reason the rating is low. The themes of this are profound and beautiful, though (even if packaged in a way that couldn't realistically happen outside Kdramaland).

I would call this screenwriter's genre light contemporary fairytales as they are also very thematic, which makes her Kdramas unique.

Have you seen this screenwriter's other dramas? Never seen anything by her I didn't like, and a few I absolutely loved. While You Were Sleeping is my all-time favorite Kdrama and it was written by her. Another good recent one is Castaway Diva. :)

Glad you enjoyed it!

It definitely doesn't end as cliffhanger-y as Season 1, but the cliffhanger isn't a serious one since we know you-know-who doesn't actually die. 😉

Keep them coming, I love your recs; I just can't keep up with watching them! Cdramas are SO long, and I'm trying have a better drama-life balance. 😂😂😂

Also, I love that Reset felt like a real world, like I actually felt like I saw more of actual China. The last two modern dramas I watched (I've only seen two) were very good (Hidden Love and WIFTY), but one of my biggest gripes with them was they felt plasticky and pristine and not grounded in any real world that exists. I liked the feel of this much better but I think the posters are terrible, even on Viki. They don't give off the right vibe at all. 😂

😂😂😂 I couldn't help it, I got sucked in. 😭

I did! But you're right, she looked completely different and played a very different role, here.

By finishing I got my question answered; Du Li didn't help in the second to last loop, but he did in the final loop and all they learned about him came to bear on the final loop and getting enough information to convince him to help in just the right way that meant he would ask no further questions and kill more of their precious time.

I did feel like some time spent on loops and characters in those loops whose realizations or journeys just got reversed or overturned in the next loop sometimes felt like time wasted. For the most part the information gathered/learned about people or things happened was almost always used later to help the leads successfully save everyone in the final loop, but sometimes, on closer inspection, the time spent in those loops was actually unnecessary. It wasn't egregious filler but there was a tad bitnof filler there still.

But no matter, still a great drama!

They definitely grew on me as the show progressed, but they also got objectively less intense and suspicious as the drama progressed. They were so tenacious about getting to the bottom of all the stuff the leads knew but couldn't explain why/how in the first half, but after the final loop the main detective sent them away and just said, "I have questions for later." 😅 But I didn't care that he suddenly changed because it was satisfying for them to avoid getting grilled for once (I know it was partly due to the fact that everything "ended well" in that loop only, but earlier on he wouldn't have given them an inch either way). 😉

Wow, why don't people list this with Signal, Tunnel, and Flower Of Evil and such when they list top-notch crime/thriller/action dramas? I was completely sucked in, hook, line and sinker by the end of Episode 2.

The leads were amazing in their roles. Anytime they focused on other characters I got impatient and wanted back with our leads. They created such a gripping urgency for the problem to be solved, and did a masterful job building chemistry as their relationship solidifies and deepens, as well as showing the highs and lows, triumphs and failures of our leads as they face death repeatedly, but never give up.

I loved Shi Qing's compassion and care for others that permeated her every action, and I also loved watching Xiao Heyun rise to the occasion and become brave, selfless, and sacrificial, eventually catching Shi Qing's infectious vision to fight until they had won against the darkness.

There is some romance, but it's woven carefully and subtly throughout the story as the leads grow in trust and respect for each and learn to rely on each other, facing horrific scenarios over and over and over again. It's not in your face nor does it distract from the story, but it has just the right amount of sweetness that slowly grows and which helps to stave off the time loop fatigue.

A super entertaining watch, with a great ending (and pretty short and sweet--only 15 episodes). Highly recommend!

P.S. The premise gave me Edge Of Tomorrow vibes, minus the crime solving aspect with an added sci-fi element (with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt).

What do you think was the purpose of focusing on Lu Di when he didn't enter the time loop after all? I found that a bit odd, as well as the time spent on the ML and FL running away after his "murder" when they're could have just slept sooner and started over? I suppose it was because they were thinking it might be the last loop?

They were very smart and cool, but sometimes they were borderline scary at how dispassionate they seemed about it all.

And I'm with Xiao Heyun, those interrogation rooms do not look like places you want to be in for long. It just felt like if they really wanted to, they could quickly strap you down and start pulling teeth or breaking fingers (what was up with the lap bar?)... I'll take the typical interrogation with detective and witness/culprit sitting nicely across from one another at the same table in a room with mirror-y windows instead, thanks. 😂

Note-to-self: if ever in China, don't do anything that might land me in a police department there. 😅

Yes, agree, he's a great actor!

Yeah, they could do with some healthier perspectives on weight in the film industry in Asia. 😬

Wonderful, thank you. Always appreciate the recs! Slowly chipping away at the recommendations I'm getting. I have too many to feasibly tackle any time soon but I'll work on them slowly. I'll look into Reset and Guardians of the Dafeng!

Yes, ZRY was really great, and I agree, I like how he doesn't have the conventional actor looks. That said, he lost weight and looks positively gaunt for season 2, and it was nagging at me the whole season. It was actually legitimately distracting/concerning; at one point someone was putting a ring on his hand and I had to pause the episode in shock at his skeletal hand. 😳 Health concerns for ZRY aside, I also loved Wu Zhu (and of course Ruo Ruo and Duo Duo). 🥰

Ooh, no royal court? Sounds refreshing! 😅 I wish sageuks would try that more often, too.

I think I will try this drama soon. I loved ZRY in Joy Of Life 1 and 2, and I am now a fan of his. Someone else suggested New Life Begins (anachronistic and has a social commentary element, but I liked it; it was cozy) and Sword Snow Stride, (which I haven't gotten to yet). You said you haven't seen the Joy Of Life seasons, right, since they're not complete? I was bummed watching them, though, because there was so much I wanted to talk about regarding both seasons but since the threads are not active since the dramas are done airing, there's no one to talk to (It's too boring reading people's blogs to get my questions answered). 😭 I was thinking, "Where's ShortCircuit when I need a buddy to process this?" 😂 Since you liked NIF, I'm pretty sure you'll like it once you get to it. ☺️ It's quite the ride! It has a more sinister, yet also mischievous, feel to it than NIF, with more stylized, exaggerated characters. The characters in NIF feel more like real people to me, but the Emperor in JOL is quite unique.

I also started TTEOTM, but I lost steam at the dream sequence; I'm gonna have to ease into the xianxia. It's very different from what I'm used to and it's a lot to take in. 😳

I think I ended up refering her to Wan'er, actually, after finishing Season 2! They just have a similar nonchalant way of encountering things that cone their ways that pairs well together. I'm fine with Fan Xian ending up with Wan'er and they're a good match, but I find Ruo Ruo and Duo Duo more fun to watch and more interesting in general. Haitang is just such a fun character, and I love how quickly she takes a liking to Fan Xian and becomes ones of his besties. They have a really heartwarming dynamic. I feel like Duo Duo, Ruo Ruo and Fan Xian have a trust in one another that is still not fully cemented between Wan'er and Fan Xian, even though it's Wan'er that Fan Xian opens up to the most. Probably partly due to that wedge between them regarding Lin Gong. 🫤

Nope, not in this season, at least!