Infuriating slop
I'm nearing the end, so I'll amend this if needed after I finish.
But I have feelings and thoughts I want to write down.
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The second season had me a bit worried and annoyed, because its basic premise of taking place in the "western territories" dogwhistled towards Chinese "activities" in Xinjiang. "One Strong China, look how beautiful and varied this empire is!"
I despise courtly intrigue plots, so moving far away from the imperial family was good. But even in the far west there was a constant link to the politics.
This time it's nowhere near that subtle - we're in Chang'an and it's all courtly intrigue at all times.
Even if I were to excuse the constant trembling before The Law of Tang or obnoxious royals and their scheming (and I don't!), the overall quality of the show took a nosedive off a cliff - the cases are all absurd and boring, with unbelievable last minute twists and out-of-nowhere motivation reveals. There's no tension or a reason to care about anyone's safety or actions - Lu Linfeng and Yingtao are unbeatable and easily handle nearly any foe. Everyone's kinda just phoning it in, because the script and direction are infuriatingly bad.
Without much exaggeration - like a third of the runtime is purely consisting of people doing that stupid Tang dynasty finger bow, or standing in a group and loudly and collectively deepthroating the Tang dynasty while epic music swells. This happens ALL THE TIME. There used to be a few scenes like this here and there in the previous seasons, but here it's absurdly common.
And everything in between is just tedious melodrama - to the point of self-parody.
It's one thing to try and make something good while cutting off the pound of flesh for the censor. And entirely another thing to intentionally craft propaganda slop.
Shame, I used to like these characters, this used to be fun.
But I have feelings and thoughts I want to write down.
---------------------------------------------
The second season had me a bit worried and annoyed, because its basic premise of taking place in the "western territories" dogwhistled towards Chinese "activities" in Xinjiang. "One Strong China, look how beautiful and varied this empire is!"
I despise courtly intrigue plots, so moving far away from the imperial family was good. But even in the far west there was a constant link to the politics.
This time it's nowhere near that subtle - we're in Chang'an and it's all courtly intrigue at all times.
Even if I were to excuse the constant trembling before The Law of Tang or obnoxious royals and their scheming (and I don't!), the overall quality of the show took a nosedive off a cliff - the cases are all absurd and boring, with unbelievable last minute twists and out-of-nowhere motivation reveals. There's no tension or a reason to care about anyone's safety or actions - Lu Linfeng and Yingtao are unbeatable and easily handle nearly any foe. Everyone's kinda just phoning it in, because the script and direction are infuriatingly bad.
Without much exaggeration - like a third of the runtime is purely consisting of people doing that stupid Tang dynasty finger bow, or standing in a group and loudly and collectively deepthroating the Tang dynasty while epic music swells. This happens ALL THE TIME. There used to be a few scenes like this here and there in the previous seasons, but here it's absurdly common.
And everything in between is just tedious melodrama - to the point of self-parody.
It's one thing to try and make something good while cutting off the pound of flesh for the censor. And entirely another thing to intentionally craft propaganda slop.
Shame, I used to like these characters, this used to be fun.
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