Michelle Topham

No. Or you will miss the entire backstory of their relationship. It's the SECOND season,

Yes. Or you miss the entire story of the point of their entire relationship. The story in One and Only is integral to the story in Forever and Ever. Crazy anyone would think it isn't.

And re: pacing, we are already over halfway through it (Ye Gods, that went fast!) and, by this point with many other dramas, I'm often trying to figure out if I can motivate myself to finish it. ROTFL.

With this one, I'm wishing it had been a 60-episode one, it's so entertaining!

Yep. They really are.

Yep. It's both very tightly written and very tightly directed, and then immaculately post-produced, so the pacing is exceptionally well done. I've watched many many hundreds of C-dramas over the last couple of decades, and get bored easily.

In this one, other than the one scene with the FL going on and on and on about the abuse of humans and berating the sect members while holding the Jade tokens, which should have been shorter in my opinion (writing should have been tighter) as it harmed the pacing, there hasn't been one scene that I've thought "That should have been cut". An exceptionally well-created in all respects drama.

Fight scenes in this are incredibly well choreographed. They're nicely paced as well, and don't drag on too long like fights in some dramas. Looking forward to the completion of the latest fight in Ep 23 :)

Not every drama or actor works for everyone :) For instance, I'm loving this drama and Allen Ren but speed-watching through all of Wang He Run's scenes, especially as she has ZERO chemistry with Allen Ren. Oh for a better FL :)

Same. The cast was exceptionally good in that one too, and loved all the characters.

Don't try to educate the "woke" and idiotic. It's like the saying about pigs -- "Never wrestle with a pig - it gets mud all over both of you, and the pig likes it" :) Just block these "virtuous anti-racist" morons and move on. Makes your day much more pleasant I've found :)

They never are black, these "defenders" of blacks. They're just woke, white liberals who feel "virtuous" because they're calling out so-called "racism". Meanwhile, actual blacks care about actual racism, and not fabricated b.s. like this one. I block all of them, btw. They're a waste of space.

Oh I absolutely agree with you, especially in Chinese dramas where looks surpass pretty much everything else when casting women for wuxia/xianxia etc dramas. (It's similar in K-dramas although that does seem to be changing, as there are now more average looking Korean actresses without already large fan bases who can actually act becoming household names).

I'm just holding out for the day where most FLs (and MLs) are portrayed by people who are more than just a pretty face and a big fan club. Although I don't mind a pretty face if there is substance behind it as well :) As for Wang He Run, she is nowhere near the worst actress in C-dramas, as she's at least palatable in most scenes in this :)

And btw, it is changing somewhat with the men, although we still have a plethora of pretty boys grabbing MLs.

Look at Allen Ren, average looking honestly and aging, but still grabbing the main roles, Cheng Yi, who is quite plain, Xiao Shun Yao not remotely stereotypically attractive - huge nose, a heavy, not delicate face, Liu Xue Yi (who has more of a villain's face if the truth be known - I'm writing an article about that as we speak :), Xiao Zhan (sure, he has a massive following since The Untamed, but he's not stereotypically attractive), Dylan Wang -- all actors who, if you saw them on the street and they weren't famous, you wouldn't look at twice. But... one thing they all have in common, they are superb actors.

I'd like to see many more female actresses like that. And I'm fine if they're beautiful, as long as they can act :)

BTW, just remembered the scene I was thinking about -- if you want a cryin g scene that's actually authentic and shows incredibly acting skills, watch Song Zu Er in Episode 3 of The Demon Hunter's Romance -- Starts at 8:50 into the episode when she finds out her father has died. An incredible scene, and an FL's performance that pulled me into that drama after I felt it was pretty mediocre to begin with.

She's an actress that's pretty enough, but has incredible acting skills, which is why she is also one who will still be around decades from now if she wants to be, IMO.

Oh sure, there is always some of that going on, so you're correct there :) Problem with Wang He Run she's not new talent, she's been grabbing decent roles for a decade, had a slew of main roles, and still can't even half-carry a drama. Annoying :) Ah well -- the drama itself is excellent, and I'm now off to watch the newest episodes :)

Oh and btw, there are some very interesting characters in this besides the ML.

Loving Fu Wei Lun's Meishan Jun, Zhang Kai Ying's A Sheng, and Sun Ze Yuan's Lin Mu Han (especially as he started out as annoying and now is just funny :)

I lost interest at Episode 16, so am watching the rest of it on 2x speed just to get through it (I can speedread subs easily but I wouldn't recommend doing that if you can't, as the dialogue is quite plot heavy - and then you just keep rewinding, which defeats the object of the exercise :).

That's primarily because I'm interested in the supposed twist at the end, but the drama itself unfortunately hasn't been what the first few episodes promised.

EDIT: It's also sooooo heavy with the stupid clenched fist trope, I'm about ready to scream every time it happens. Usually in every 1 to 2 episodes :)

I'm at Episode 20 and her character is still completely uninteresting. It's working for me as I'm watching all her scenes on 1.5 speed, so they're not as excruciatingly dull :) The rest of the drama, and actors, are superb.

The ensemble cast is, for the most part, extremely well-cast, with only one actor who jumps out as not having the skills necessary for the scene-heavy role, and one bit part actor whose performance was a bit over the top :) Throw in that the writing is also on point, that the pace moves extremely fast, that the costumes and sets are nicely done, and I think it's almost impossible to be bored in a minute of this. One of my favorites in quite a while in this genre.

Good news on this one too is it's supposed to be a happy ending, so, Yay! :)

My criticism has nothing to do with the character, although I think the female character is uninteresting as she's not remotely complex. She's also not inconsistent, as she has been this way from Episode 1, and it's now becoming uninteresting and predictable.

My criticism has to do with Wang He Run's portrayal of Xin Mie. It's shallow, and it's unauthentic, I can literally see her thought processes playing out through her brain as she acts certain scenes and considers how her character "should" act before doing just that. Even her tears aren't genuine, they're as fake as mine when I used to persuade my father to give me something I wanted and he had refused. That's not acting, that's role-playing or cos-playing, and she's excellent at that.

Ren doesn't do that, so when you analyze the scenes he's in with Wang He Run, he jumps off the screen as feeling those emotions he's portraying and she jumps off the screen as cos-playing them.

The problem is a large number of Chinese actresses are chosen for their looks and not their talent in these kinds of dramas (as are many younger male actors unfortunately as well), and it shows when they are given an FL role, and they don't have the skills to portray a main character with any authenticity or strength.

The ones who are talented tend to be older, have been in the industry for a long time, and are continually cast as they CAN act. Even when they're in their 40s, 50s and beyond. That's why many younger actresses slowly fade away in their 30s as, once their looks begin to fade, there isn't much left to bring to the table. Unfortunately, it appears Wang He Run is one of those.

And btw, maybe you can't see it, but I trained for 12 years under the RADA system in London (a world-renowned drama school, in case you haven't heard of it). I am the first to admit, I am a TERRIBLE actress, hence why, even after starting out my university degree with a degree in theater I dropped it midway through as I knew I would never make a living at it. But... I am trained to spot a poor, inauthentic actress who is just going through the motions when I see one and, unfortunately, in this case, that's the FL in this.

If you like her performance, good for you, I'm not here to tell you not to. But if you are looking for an authentic performance from an actress with talent, this one is not it.

Nope. I'm just as critical of male actors who don't have much talent and your take is just a lazy opinion pushed by a plethora of fans of "actresses" who would be laughed off the set of most western productions.

I see it all the time.

It's unimaginative, and nothing more than pushing the popularity of low-talent actresses because you think that "supports" them. It doesn't. It just makes them the laughing stock for the general public who watch their atrocious acting skills and then laugh at them -- and make fun of the fans who boost them.

Ratings usually go up after a drama ends and the people actually WATCHING it instead of the trolls downrating it because they don't like an actor/actress have disappeared :)