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Juelin

United States

Juelin

United States
Joy of Life Season 2 chinese drama review
Completed
Joy of Life Season 2
0 people found this review helpful
by Juelin
Jun 12, 2024
36 of 36 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 10.0
Rewatch Value 7.0
This review may contain spoilers
The show continues to be funny, clever, and very very entertaining. However, the story is missing a central plot that ties everything together.

It's not clear what the drama is trying to achieve. Is it a find your origins story? A quest for power? I have no idea because the plot is all over the place. Season 2 gave more explanation about Fan Xian's background, where his mother came from, but still left a lot of questions unanswered. Several key characters discussed finding the temple where mom came from, but no steps were taken to actually find it. Fan Xian constantly talked about bringing justice to the world, but the never-ending slew of conflict between the royal family and officials always kept him occupied with the current problem at hand. What is the end goal here?

I liked what the writers did with Waner's character. In season 1, I didn't think she fit Fan Xian's personality very well being very submissive and non-confrontational. I always found him having way more fun and chemistry with other female characters. But, in season 2, she came a little bit into her own and started making her own decisions. I also liked how she was able to figure certain things out without falling victim to someone else's manipulations.

Some of the character personalities completely changed. The crown prince was a lot meaner in season 1. In season 2, he is a lot friendlier and nicer. The second prince went from being kind of ambiguous to more villainous. The show spent too much effort subverting viewer expectations, than creating a central plot.

The best part of the story is the music. It's very goofy and completely out of place. We go from fighting sequences with Spanish-esque party music to Nordic yodeling. It's completely ridiculous and hilarious.
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