Honestly, I almost gave this five stars just for Zhou Shen's outfit alone. He looks really good with the vest. Also, we got a bit more of Shen Shen dancing :) Or trying to dance. My favorite part of this episode by far. Also, Huang Ma gave much more constructive criticism, and did not ask any irrelevant and inappropriate questions. I was really happy to see more professionalism from her. I feel like she contributed well to contestants' feedback. The only thing that really took this down from a 10/10 was that they showed really uncomfortable and very personal arguments between two contestants, which was a bit difficult to watch... And also one of the judges gave me second hand embarrassment asking if two contestants were dating "for real" in front of the live audience. But, to be fair, the contestants were giving everyone second hand embarrassment watching their very lovey-dovey performance, haha. I am a big fan of both of them.
I enjoyed a lot of the performances this round. The contestants are getting more creative, though this is sometimes at the expense of their actual singing, which makes me feel conflicted about some performances. But I can largely overlook this because this episode we got a Zhou Shen stage collab! I could listen to Shen Shen for days <3 Also, I loved Amber as a guest mentor :) She is so full of energy and has a lot of great constructive feedback. I'm also glad that Huang Ma seems to have dialed back on her "sharp questions"... I often feel that they are inappropriate and irrelevant.
Great performances, great interactions between mentors and contestants
I think this is one of the best rounds of performances yet. The contestants have really come a long way. I'm also happy to see more of Zhou Shen mentoring the contestants! Adorable. The only reason this was not a 10/10 was because I'm starting to think Huang Ma isn't very suited to judge these types of shows . But there were no other problems to complain of. It was also good to see solidarity and friendship between the contestants, even in the one-on-one competitions.
The first time I've been genuinely surprised about a survival show...
Ah. This episode reminded me about all the reasons why I don't tend to watch survival shows... A performance was cut entirely from the main episode, and all we got to see was the result, which was the lowest score a performance was given the entire round. Both contestants ended up leaving the same episode. I watch on WeTV because my mom and I pay for VIP (the main episode is already for VIP only, though they release episodes on YouTube for free). We had to go to the "essence" episode (also VIP) to see the cut performance. While there was a large skill gap & it did give me secondhand embarrassment, this seemed like a tasteless decision, seeing as the performers won't get a chance to perform again on the show. Wouldn't it be more appropriate to leave out a high-scoring performance? But, I ended up being really surprised this episode for a different reason. The stage recommenders also seemed to share my shock. While I know it was up to audience votes, I couldn't help but feel indignant on a performer's behalf when she ended up leaving. I think she did wonderful. IMO, she had a much stronger stage presence and gave a more emotive performance than her partner, who ended up staying. She was in the top 5 the last episode! I can't help but feel like this was more like a popularity contest rather than true evaluation of skill. I can't criticize the show for this, though, because this was mostly an audience issue (and is with pretty much every survival show that allows audience voting). But, I will say that this episode really knew how to take me through all the highs and lows. It was really sweet to see Jackson Wang helping out the contestants during rehearsals. There were a lot of endearing and heartbreaking moments in the interviews too. It was because of them that this episode made me come around to Wang OK and Li Tianzi ❤️ Looking forward to seeing more of them in the next episode.