Even if you throw out all the 1* ratings on Douban and take the average again the Douban score is actually lower,…
I agree with you on the historical inconsistencies. Indeed, if this was a mirror of History, this would make one raise eyebrows from the start, quit, and wonder why it is shown, making kids less sure about what they learned in school and books about the way emperors behaved, the way punishment was meted out on courtiers, the way women were considered, etc. So yes, a lot of suspension of disbelief and perhaps transporting this as a mirror of present day attitude towards rulers and women is needed, on top of simply admiring the pretty faces, colorful sets and costumes, and nice acting by the whole cast who each stand out recognizably as characters with own individuality.
I do enjoy that show a lot, after initially thinking, in first episodes, that this was going to be just showcase for main actors and maybe too predictable, too average - I have not read the novel. Now, I just love it and go with the flow. Whatever improbable plot twist is ahead, I am still happy with it. I even like the music, and that so funny tea-picking song at end of episodes. I think this is one I would like to rewatch, like the impossible Chinese mermaid stories (watching an old one starring Zhao Liying!), xianxia, or sword and fairy stories! So, I will put in a good rating from me, even if it's just a drop and too many rely on Douban opening rating or other ones. Your observation is probably accurate that it may not move up a lot, now; sigh, and the reasons you give are valid. So I prefer to watch the popularity through the lens of audience measure : it is forecast to remain #1 among web dramas watched for this week.
It is not wuxia, it is not xianxia, it is not really historical, it is not xuanhuan, it is just costume romance, but who can deny the appeal of those flowing "Hanfu" ones, with their pleasing hairdo, hairpin, and jewelry, furniture, interior and garden designs ? It is removing the most unpleasant aspects of History to keep just enough "cruelty" from outdated feudal but fictional "Da Qing" ruler and treacherousness from the greedy, to keep us glued to screen. This drama struck me as having less unlikely flowing loose hair than in most "historical" or costume dramas. (The platforms where i watch don't have ads, but i assume these soap operas come with a lot of push for shampoo and creams and beauty masks, when shown with the sponsored commercials).
And yes, it's been a while now that I enjoy Hu Yitian and Zhang Jingyi separately in the few dramas I watched that featured them. I thought it would be improbable that they could achieve chemistry together, but well, they do look sweet together with those eye and slight movements of head to communicate wordlessly, the hand holding, leaning against each other when they can... Those who shout they can't act are just biased against them, I don't know why : they have never offended anybody, have they ?
It was #6/10 among the most popular TV shows of last week. Not too bad since aired for just a week and not that…
No, darling, I pointed out the observation of audience.
Meaning "in CHINA", country-wide which is the primary market there: Best Choice Ever is shown on television (TV show) in China : television is the primary market, broadcasting to millions, or hundreds of millions.
MDL is very small, compared to that..... It mostly offers a median index evaluation "rating" of what the small slice of active mostly foreign audience saw fit to key in on a mostly non professional, voluntary basis, with or without reviews, often without having watched an airing show complete, and sometimes even without watching the show at all.
Furthermore, MDL has no tool to measure weekly audience.
The measure of audience of Chinese shows is done daily by companies, the most prominent of which is Vlinkage. Some reporters bring us the weekly performance that is adding all the audience measured daily to get us an idea of how the show performs at large. The weekly audience number of people sitting to watch, is what I referred to by #6 out of 10 most watched for that week.
I haven't been as active in this comment section because of it. Some people are commenting on episodes that I…
26-27??? they must be confusing with other dramas. 21-22 are up for today after 19:30 BJ time. That's in ten minutes btw. Just enough time to unwrap the chocolate bar and sip a cup of coffee while opening credits play....
The pace has so far been decent but the cooking competition has dragged for too long. One episode would have been…
The cooking competition was fine. What's with the impatience : pace is brisk enough ! If you need quicker fixes, I suggest you turn to mini drama of the 5 minutes length variety.
As for Second Prince, attempted murder on a ruler is blatant treason. And the ruler is known for bloodbaths. Can't well see how the would-be emperor's assassin would escape the 1000 cuts 凌迟 execution for his deed. Even if he did not himself poison the emperor and if the emperor survives. Don't know if the torture will be as graphic as the one in One and Only, since young and sensitive eyes need to be spared. But no-one will mourn that villain prince as the (wronged) Junior Nanchen one was.
The Profile can be navigated using the Table of contents links in the beginning. -- Enjoy! (and if pictures don't show, or some links don't work, you can warn me here, of course; I check them once in a while, but sometimes they are taken down so only the Gif keep the memory).
oh well, some say they can see those gif. Good for them.
I think you have no problem watching the ones I make or collect.
I made quite a few new ones (because the limit is 30' on giphy which I have been using successfully enough to trust it uploads on MDL for everyone), to add to the Chen Zheyuan profile, for the Dubai feature. I use eZgif to cut them and add texts or rearrange original material, btw.
I will make a new post so everyone can find the "new stuff" and benefit from admiring "our hero" and reading that feature, even without trawling through the avalanche of posts here and links... 🥰😍
Also this is 2nd time grandma insisted on word “HUMAN touch” for ML. LOL letter reading scene was more impactful…
yes, I got it that this won't be torrid romance 🤣🤣 🤣🤣 🤣🤣 The Mai family is one big bag of mismatched crayfish of various hues that ML would like to cook to his taste, perhaps. The Mai mother is relentlessly crabby 🦀🦀🦀🦀 Hairy crab is a delicacy in China, btw.
Because of grandma he became a successful person ... so this time its her grand daughter 's turn 😍😍
Yao never was entitled or deserving to get anything he wanted just because of bloodline or work abroad; his grandmother had every right in China to dispose of her property as she saw fit. She had found out he had come only to squeeze the Xing An Li hotel from her to hand it over, "streamlined" and "rid of obsolete personnel" to be handed over to the larger international group under which her grandson was just a pawn. So, she wanted to protect the people first, and grandson had to learn his lesson there ; Grandma had been grooming her "heart" granddaughter for the task so she had no qualm making it into title for Chenghuan. Giving the house to Yao was a test : if he tried to oust the Mai family, or even exchange inheritance, he would totally lose any trust from Chenghuan, because despite difficulties she would not back down, faced with challenges.
"He could have had it all, rolling in the deep", to paraphrase a famous song, but he "played it to the beat", almost losing all confidence from Chenghuan. She knew well that he had helped her before, but his last lie to her tainted everything he had done with the color of greedy dishonesty.
I finished watching in 2 sittings today and added a rather descriptive review. I like Edgar Poe's work enough to have gone reciting the Raven and toast him in a group at his grave in Baltimore, back in another century, when fellow Poe admirer Stephen King was not the legend he has become ! That was one of my most treasured World Fantasy convention going days. So yes, Ligeia, MS found in a bottle, all that, does ring an attractive bell.
The booking by Chen Zheyuan of a movie theater to support the airing (when he was busy with Gucci duties in Shenzhen) had eluded my radar then, but since I found the link in comments section here, I had to add it in one section of my Profile of CZY ; here is the link : https://mydramalist.com/discussions/an-ye-yu-li-ming/119875-profile-of-chen-zhe-yuan?pid=2762209&page=1#p2762209 (that profile is housed under Discussions of upcoming Dark Night and Dawn series, only for convenience's sake. It is easier for me to add and modify in Discussions sections than it would be in a fixed Article...).
Since Zhang Jingyi is now also starring in delicious Blossoms in Adversity, I was toying with the temptation to add a mini profile for her in Discussions there, but it is a lot of work, and these days I'm busy with other stuff too. She is in my list of preferred actresses, of course.
I still like this drama. It's more of a romance drama afterall.I would like to suggest people who haven't watch…
I agree the two leads were hot and often sweet. Will remember them (cutting off memory of the hot mess end scenes not really redeemed by the "happy end") if they play in other roles.
OMG.. I just tire of these sort of plots and storylines!! Aarrggghhhhh… someone please bash these writers! It’s…
yep, stay for the hot kissing scene. And go with the nice dreams after, turning off the rest, good idea. You will at least leave with a positive impression of hot chemistry between the main leads who probably deserved a better story to act in :) Off my hat, it's around 19-20, but this is one I will not re watch to check.
Although I liked the drama until ep.19-20 or so, and especially the very hot office kissing scene, I grew very disappointed and bored in the last third of the drama, when the conundrums took over with the SFL psycho step sister (daughter of ML's adoptive father) and the "best friend" of FL (step brother of SFL with same father, still wanting to possess FL when she had made clear she loved ML only). ML "CEO", who lacked acumen to see through the jealousy of his "secretary" cum "amnesic hidden sister", became increasingly boring, despite a few randomly thrown in kissing scenes, break ups and make ups. The over repeated "I can do everything for you" bgm song grew on my nerves, so I almost slammed computer shut. But being a completionist, I stayed to watch the drag and chore of last episodes. They are not worth purchasing into express package, btw; it was a tedium for me to stay until the "happy ending" with SFL standing in a field of flowers facing the ex hostile scion of the antagonist family, to accept his proposal! while a drone brought a white head veil to be plucked from the sky by ML to accompany his proposal, said drone operated by "best friend" who had taken over the role of CEO at ML's company, to push it into merging with the once hostile competitor. The unraveling of the unnecessarily convoluted knots of the story ended up devoid of any meaning, so, I can't leave a nice rating any longer and will cut it down to 6.5. (which is lenient all considered)
This drama, which was filmed last year, April 1 to May 28, 2023. had won attention to be in the top 10 web dramas previous week, and was still #5 in the top ten ratings for last week ending 2024.04.14. But I doubt it will get a high Douban rating, now. Relatively high ratings here on MDL are very lenient, in my opinion.
The ML Zhao Zhiwei and FL Lu Yangyang had good chemistry, and SML Brian Chang, looked good, that's all. I hope the leads will get better roles in the future.
2 
5 
1 
1 
1 
So yes, a lot of suspension of disbelief and perhaps transporting this as a mirror of present day attitude towards rulers and women is needed, on top of simply admiring the pretty faces, colorful sets and costumes, and nice acting by the whole cast who each stand out recognizably as characters with own individuality.
I do enjoy that show a lot, after initially thinking, in first episodes, that this was going to be just showcase for main actors and maybe too predictable, too average - I have not read the novel. Now, I just love it and go with the flow. Whatever improbable plot twist is ahead, I am still happy with it. I even like the music, and that so funny tea-picking song at end of episodes. I think this is one I would like to rewatch, like the impossible Chinese mermaid stories (watching an old one starring Zhao Liying!), xianxia, or sword and fairy stories! So, I will put in a good rating from me, even if it's just a drop and too many rely on Douban opening rating or other ones. Your observation is probably accurate that it may not move up a lot, now; sigh, and the reasons you give are valid. So I prefer to watch the popularity through the lens of audience measure : it is forecast to remain #1 among web dramas watched for this week.
It is not wuxia, it is not xianxia, it is not really historical, it is not xuanhuan, it is just costume romance, but who can deny the appeal of those flowing "Hanfu" ones, with their pleasing hairdo, hairpin, and jewelry, furniture, interior and garden designs ? It is removing the most unpleasant aspects of History to keep just enough "cruelty" from outdated feudal but fictional "Da Qing" ruler and treacherousness from the greedy, to keep us glued to screen. This drama struck me as having less unlikely flowing loose hair than in most "historical" or costume dramas. (The platforms where i watch don't have ads, but i assume these soap operas come with a lot of push for shampoo and creams and beauty masks, when shown with the sponsored commercials).
And yes, it's been a while now that I enjoy Hu Yitian and Zhang Jingyi separately in the few dramas I watched that featured them. I thought it would be improbable that they could achieve chemistry together, but well, they do look sweet together with those eye and slight movements of head to communicate wordlessly, the hand holding, leaning against each other when they can... Those who shout they can't act are just biased against them, I don't know why : they have never offended anybody, have they ?
Meaning "in CHINA", country-wide which is the primary market there: Best Choice Ever is shown on television (TV show) in China : television is the primary market, broadcasting to millions, or hundreds of millions.
MDL is very small, compared to that..... It mostly offers a median index evaluation "rating" of what the small slice of active mostly foreign audience saw fit to key in on a mostly non professional, voluntary basis, with or without reviews, often without having watched an airing show complete, and sometimes even without watching the show at all.
Furthermore, MDL has no tool to measure weekly audience.
The measure of audience of Chinese shows is done daily by companies, the most prominent of which is Vlinkage. Some reporters bring us the weekly performance that is adding all the audience measured daily to get us an idea of how the show performs at large. The weekly audience number of people sitting to watch, is what I referred to by #6 out of 10 most watched for that week.
Not too bad since aired for just a week and not that highly anticipated at the time.
As for Second Prince, attempted murder on a ruler is blatant treason. And the ruler is known for bloodbaths. Can't well see how the would-be emperor's assassin would escape the 1000 cuts 凌迟 execution for his deed. Even if he did not himself poison the emperor and if the emperor survives. Don't know if the torture will be as graphic as the one in One and Only, since young and sensitive eyes need to be spared. But no-one will mourn that villain prince as the (wronged) Junior Nanchen one was.
-- https://mydramalist.com/discussions/an-ye-yu-li-ming/119875-profile-of-chen-zhe-yuan?pid=2762153&page=1#p2762153 (new Gifs and short presentation of the ad work, in Modeling section)
-- https://mydramalist.com/discussions/an-ye-yu-li-ming/119875-profile-of-chen-zhe-yuan?pid=2762187&page=1#p2762187 (new Gifs adding ice cream and Dubai exotic breakfast to the Food section)
-- https://mydramalist.com/discussions/an-ye-yu-li-ming/119875-profile-of-chen-zhe-yuan?pid=3029323&page=1#p3029323 (new Annex with text translation copy, pictures from the Wechat feature, and Gif excerpt from the vlog)
The Profile can be navigated using the Table of contents links in the beginning. -- Enjoy!
(and if pictures don't show, or some links don't work, you can warn me here, of course; I check them once in a while, but sometimes they are taken down so only the Gif keep the memory).
I think you have no problem watching the ones I make or collect.
I made quite a few new ones (because the limit is 30' on giphy which I have been using successfully enough to trust it uploads on MDL for everyone), to add to the Chen Zheyuan profile, for the Dubai feature. I use eZgif to cut them and add texts or rearrange original material, btw.
I will make a new post so everyone can find the "new stuff" and benefit from admiring "our hero" and reading that feature, even without trawling through the avalanche of posts here and links... 🥰😍
even when I tried "Reload image" or "open in other window" or "open link"...
The Mai family is one big bag of mismatched crayfish of various hues that ML would like to cook to his taste, perhaps. The Mai mother is relentlessly crabby 🦀🦀🦀🦀
Hairy crab is a delicacy in China, btw.
"He could have had it all, rolling in the deep", to paraphrase a famous song, but he "played it to the beat", almost losing all confidence from Chenghuan. She knew well that he had helped her before, but his last lie to her tainted everything he had done with the color of greedy dishonesty.
The booking by Chen Zheyuan of a movie theater to support the airing (when he was busy with Gucci duties in Shenzhen) had eluded my radar then, but since I found the link in comments section here, I had to add it in one section of my Profile of CZY ; here is the link :
https://mydramalist.com/discussions/an-ye-yu-li-ming/119875-profile-of-chen-zhe-yuan?pid=2762209&page=1#p2762209
(that profile is housed under Discussions of upcoming Dark Night and Dawn series, only for convenience's sake. It is easier for me to add and modify in Discussions sections than it would be in a fixed Article...).
I had also done a mini profile for Tan Jianci in Discussions of LYLMV (because I and some others here among commenters, do "love his voice" lol ! ) ; that one is here : https://mydramalist.com/discussions/really-miss-you/121599-love-you-love-my-voice-playlist-and-more?pid=2904475&page=1#p2904475 (updated with same piece of news).
Since Zhang Jingyi is now also starring in delicious Blossoms in Adversity, I was toying with the temptation to add a mini profile for her in Discussions there, but it is a lot of work, and these days I'm busy with other stuff too. She is in my list of preferred actresses, of course.
Off my hat, it's around 19-20, but this is one I will not re watch to check.
(I am harsh, but this drama ended up tiring for me).
This drama, which was filmed last year, April 1 to May 28, 2023. had won attention to be in the top 10 web dramas previous week, and was still #5 in the top ten ratings for last week ending 2024.04.14. But I doubt it will get a high Douban rating, now. Relatively high ratings here on MDL are very lenient, in my opinion.
The ML Zhao Zhiwei and FL Lu Yangyang had good chemistry, and SML Brian Chang, looked good, that's all. I hope the leads will get better roles in the future.