Skibbies

I was spoiled on some huge plot twist before I watched it, even though I tried to watch it asap, but I still find it pretty entertaining, since there were lot of ways they could have spin the story, and I kept waiting to see if they would spin it one way or another. Its earlier criticism definitely included "suspense being too simple/easy to guess" or "feels too familiar", but it didn't really hinder my enjoyment.

I was spoiled on some huge plot twist before I watched it, even though I tried to watch it asap, but I still find it pretty entertaining, since there were lot of ways they could have spin the story, and I kept waiting to see if they would spin it one way or another. Its earlier criticism definitely included "suspense being too simple/easy to guess" or "feels too familiar", but it didn't really hinder my enjoyment.

If you aren't too confused, you can keep watching, you just miss some callbacks. s1 have vastly different tone than s2 IMO. I don't think it ever really mentions their specific age, which I think it's on purpose. Cos usually people would marry pretty early and none of them are, so you can take it they are 18 ~ 23 or something.

I know the ages of branch 8's kids from the script though, it's 16, 19, 25 to give you an idea.

omg i don't even remember his role in MHH anymore, I don't actually remember last thing I saw him in. Checking his dramas, I think it was Murder in Kairoutei, which was all around horrible so we shouldn't speak of it LOL. He's been in lot of modern dramas this year that I've been skipping.

I think this was better than Ning Chuan, he's lot smarter and aggressive here, so OP! I really love him though, not just because of Hai Yitian's performance, but also the really unfunny jokes that he makes that make him more sadistic and terrifying.

but i love them!!! they are so fun!

If you have a vague collections of s1, it works fine. Some stuff comes back to me as they mention it, but even if you don't remember, it doesn't super affect the drama, since a lot of callbacks are like easter eggs, and those important to the plot, they explain it with dialogues/flashback usually.

The average person in China wouldn't consider themselves religious, a lot of stuff that's religious are filed under traditions and such, so it wouldn't offend them. Do I go to temples and offer my respect? oh totally, do I consider myself religious? No I don't. I honestly haven't seen anyone on any chinese sites being offended about "religion" part of the dramas, a lot of them honestly see it as superstitions.

Back to the drama, it softly criticise the Song government for bureaucracy and corruption as explanation for why its people turned to superstition and religious beliefs. The team happens to focus on destroying those that uses beliefs to scam money out of people, that's just fixing part of the problem, it doesn't talk about simplifying process or anti corruption because it's outside of their scope, nor does it cover real temples that help people during difficult times.

It's always kinda odd to see people jump to ccp pressure, but never consider the writers might just want to write that kinda story. It's entirely fair to see it as propoganda and such, but it seems kinda dismissive to just jump to conclusion "censorship and propoganda" for everything that came out of china.

I think it's better off you don't remember the details, cos I saw lot of fans being disappointed that it's not like s1 XD Memories sort of come back to me as they mention stuff, even if you don't remember it, the plot works okay.

I'm not actually familiar with the original book, I've only seen couple of drama adaptations haha. I've heard people praise it as adaptation, it's apparently surprisingly close to the book (far more than most adaptations) but manage to make it coherent, which is a feat honestly.

It follow straight after s1, so it's better to watch it I think. I think it's possible to follow s2 without watching s1 but you might be confused over character relationships and miss callbacks?

It does look dated due to being filmed in 2018-2019 and special effects done over time, and through covid + financial failure of the main investor (it's why it took so long to air). I wouldn't really call it a hit when it's barely recouping its cost (yes it cost a lot, i think 16 yi for filming + vfx of first movie, doesn't include marketing cost), but it did make enough to attract new investors so the special effects for 2nd movie has started?

there are fair few name puns and references, some are easier to pick up, others harder. I think the hardest one to pick up might be in ep 18, the guy saying "your god plan is terrible" is literally "your feng shen is terrible", the actor is also in the first movie of feng shen bang (investiture of gods) trilogy that's airing in china right now.

Yeah it sort of requires language/cultural context for some of the jokes, agreed the comedic timing isn't the best and the directing can be pretty bad. It does ocassionally have great scenes, but it can be rare.

Plot twist + side switching + its ideals were all present in s1 so I think it's pretty much as expected.

Oooh you are liking it more than lot of people I think, hooray :D There's more terrible homonyms later and other references that I think you'd like too, I'm almost caught up now, I really like the Xi Xia royal family hahaha.

and lol at nif3, I wish that's true, I don't even know if they'd film it this year.

Yeah that's the one, zhang xincheng was filming the daylight drama when they filmed that, same reason he missed their temp gathering at magnolia awards. They are filming the other variety show now, I think it's a case solving one?

They aired You Are Desire already (zhou yiran and zhuang dafei modern drama). Then after that summer is over, and I guess they don't need to line it up so tight? idk i don't follow mango's drama schedule that closely.

I liked him quite a bit in the Hikaru no Go cdrama adaptation :) I think ep 1 have quite a range of issues but I really liked the callbacks and 4th wall breaking explanation and humour.

Just saw your question below, I'm still watching but rather slow since the update schedule was atrocious. (I just started this week's updates, 15-16) I think ep 1 is probably the worst episode, lot of people didn't like the first mini arc (1-3) but I liked it fine, there were usually something that I liked in every episode. The plot tends to stack on itself as it goes on, since the plot twist and information you get stacks on, so I liked it more as I go. I liked a lot of the historical/folklore bits wang juan throws in, the speeches, the gang's trust in each other and when they work together to mess with someone and the humour.

I think they are fast tracking on tuesday, which is *incredible*. A TV drama getting webdrama treatment, so the tv broadcast is functionally 1.5 rounds, and it's getting fast track for maximum profit. They have two variety shows tied with it (one is airing, the other just started filming, which is kinda hysterical since it'll air when the drama finish its fast track + vip + tv + non vip broadcast). *sigh*

I don't need subs, so I'm just using mangotv.

oh that's good to know! They are subbing lot faster than I expected :P I saw someone complain about bad subs below.

there were five directors listed last season, love between fairy and devil's yin zheng was billed first, wang fei was billed second, it's unclear who was responsible for what. wang fei is billed first here, and zhou nan who directed dear diary is billed second.

iirc, directing actually got criticised last season for pacing and cos action scenes was *really* badly shot. this season, the awful horse riding scenes is noticeably bad, and some of the fuzzy background scenes that make them look green screened even though they clearly shot on site. I liked ep 2's grandiose scene though.