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If you like to raise your Blood Pressure...
(Note for the curious, you won't see this drama on my account, I only keep a Completed List and a Currently Watching list. I don't list Dropped titles).
I've started this show at end of April... At the time I'm watching these lines... we're reaching the end of July and I've just decided after 22 episodes and a lot of "speed watching" of following episodes ( which is watching a couple of key scenes here and there to know what to expect when the angst is too much). I've decided to throw the towel and yes... I had to take big brakes between chunks of episodes because my frustration level was just sky high.
The special effects are... not really good, but the show is old so I didn't hold it against it... My issue though, is that he show is mostly frustrating and really pissed me off non-stop. Hao Chen is unsufferable and Sifeng is basically suffering most of the series... I've checked. It actually gets even worse in later episodes as if I wasn't about to break my screen already.
I'm not having fun watching this. I don't mind a little bit of angst and misunderstandings but when the whole show is basically relying ENTIRELY on this to create drama for 59 FREAKIN' EPISODES... that's when I give up. The worldbuilding is rich enough that we could have had enough conflicts without having the ML literally suffering physically and psychologically for 59 episodes straight. This is just too much.
Is it entertainment?
BECAUSE I AM NOT ENTERTAINED!
This is one of these series that I think worked well for the audience when it initially aired but didn't hold well the passage of time. Seeing one character being misunderstood and remaining totally selfless after being tortured physically and/or psychologically by everyone including his love interest is not something today's audience would tolerate for 59 episodes straight. At some point, it just becomes masochism and apart from the selfless martyr, you just end up hating everybody including the writers.
I think they failed to realize that rewarding the sacrifices and selflessness of the hero shouldn't just happen at episode 59. BUT NO, when Sifeng finally gets all his misunderstandings cleared and his love secured... he's just about to die, and we're supposed to be happy that he gets his girl on the brink of death? We don't even have a scene with the father sincerely apologizing for all the grief and hurt he caused him. F*** NO!
THIS SUCKS!
Overall I'm giving this a 4 because I feel there should be a better balance between angst and happy moments so that the conflicts/misunderstanding/suffering blabla doesn't reach a point where your viewers, who are already stressed enough IRL, are mostly pissed off watching your show.
This is the second time I'm watching one of these oldies with rave reviews which is just a whole lot of misunderstandings piling up. The other one was Ashes of Love, but I finished that one even though my frustration level was also very high. At least in Ashes of Love, the 2ML was a good vilain you could understand even if you wouldn't root for him and even if the ML got misunderstood, there were OTHER conflicts as well so that he wasn't THE ONLY ONE suffering for 63 episodes.
Hao Chen though? What a nasty piece of sheep. Everytime this character opened his mouth, I just wanted to slap his face. I'm so disgusted with this character, I don't even want to see this actor's face anymore... And I know its a role, but it's gonna take a while for me to cleanse my brain and forget how frustrated and angry I was everytime he appeared on my screen.
Anyway, no way in hell am I giving this show 1 single more minute of my precious time. I've watched a third of it and have seen enough scenes from episodes 23 to 59 to know what to expect. I've given it a fair chance.
It's not necessarily a bad show... but clearly not a show for everyone. For me, this show is just a good way to raise one's blood pressure. Honestly it's akin to torture.
I'm not signing for that but to each one their own.
I've started this show at end of April... At the time I'm watching these lines... we're reaching the end of July and I've just decided after 22 episodes and a lot of "speed watching" of following episodes ( which is watching a couple of key scenes here and there to know what to expect when the angst is too much). I've decided to throw the towel and yes... I had to take big brakes between chunks of episodes because my frustration level was just sky high.
The special effects are... not really good, but the show is old so I didn't hold it against it... My issue though, is that he show is mostly frustrating and really pissed me off non-stop. Hao Chen is unsufferable and Sifeng is basically suffering most of the series... I've checked. It actually gets even worse in later episodes as if I wasn't about to break my screen already.
I'm not having fun watching this. I don't mind a little bit of angst and misunderstandings but when the whole show is basically relying ENTIRELY on this to create drama for 59 FREAKIN' EPISODES... that's when I give up. The worldbuilding is rich enough that we could have had enough conflicts without having the ML literally suffering physically and psychologically for 59 episodes straight. This is just too much.
Is it entertainment?
BECAUSE I AM NOT ENTERTAINED!
This is one of these series that I think worked well for the audience when it initially aired but didn't hold well the passage of time. Seeing one character being misunderstood and remaining totally selfless after being tortured physically and/or psychologically by everyone including his love interest is not something today's audience would tolerate for 59 episodes straight. At some point, it just becomes masochism and apart from the selfless martyr, you just end up hating everybody including the writers.
I think they failed to realize that rewarding the sacrifices and selflessness of the hero shouldn't just happen at episode 59. BUT NO, when Sifeng finally gets all his misunderstandings cleared and his love secured... he's just about to die, and we're supposed to be happy that he gets his girl on the brink of death? We don't even have a scene with the father sincerely apologizing for all the grief and hurt he caused him. F*** NO!
THIS SUCKS!
Overall I'm giving this a 4 because I feel there should be a better balance between angst and happy moments so that the conflicts/misunderstanding/suffering blabla doesn't reach a point where your viewers, who are already stressed enough IRL, are mostly pissed off watching your show.
This is the second time I'm watching one of these oldies with rave reviews which is just a whole lot of misunderstandings piling up. The other one was Ashes of Love, but I finished that one even though my frustration level was also very high. At least in Ashes of Love, the 2ML was a good vilain you could understand even if you wouldn't root for him and even if the ML got misunderstood, there were OTHER conflicts as well so that he wasn't THE ONLY ONE suffering for 63 episodes.
Hao Chen though? What a nasty piece of sheep. Everytime this character opened his mouth, I just wanted to slap his face. I'm so disgusted with this character, I don't even want to see this actor's face anymore... And I know its a role, but it's gonna take a while for me to cleanse my brain and forget how frustrated and angry I was everytime he appeared on my screen.
Anyway, no way in hell am I giving this show 1 single more minute of my precious time. I've watched a third of it and have seen enough scenes from episodes 23 to 59 to know what to expect. I've given it a fair chance.
It's not necessarily a bad show... but clearly not a show for everyone. For me, this show is just a good way to raise one's blood pressure. Honestly it's akin to torture.
I'm not signing for that but to each one their own.
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