Potato the cutie

This series is literally about the relationship between a mafia boss' son and his bodyguard with a bunch of drama and side characters on the side. The plot is originally rated 17+ if I'm not mistaken because of some toxic/violent elements and adult-ish scenes I believe, but to sum up the whole issue for you, the production team and the screenwriters wanted to bring the plot down a notch so it wouldn't be as heavy as it originally was, sadly our dear author was having none of that so they argued and she left. She (apparently) started spewing stuff left and right about the company, and many other complications start arising so it all led to the company dropping the project. This is basically the whole problem in a nutshell, if you'd like to know more about this whole situation I recommend checking the Twitter fandom cuz they're the most up-to-date or so I've heard.

Honestly, if it's not your cup of tea don't watch it, and I mean no offense when I say this. Dramas and shows are made for people's entertainment, but if a drama isn't serving its purpose then by all means stop watching it. You shouldn't force yourself to watch anything if you're not into it. Now for what you've said about "overhyping" these two series, I must say I disagree with you on that. If you don't like something it doesn't mean that it's overrated or too "hyped" as you've put it. There are people who genuinely like these two shows so why are you discrediting them on the expense of the few who are only watching for their "faves"? I personally loved the untamed, but WOH wasn't really to my liking, and I didn't watch any of them for anyone in particular so you can't say I'm watching it for my faves right? Same goes for many others. Although I do think that there is some truth to what you had mentioned about people watching stuff not for the plot but for the cast. I've seen quite a few cases like that so I know where you're coming from, but that doesn't mean that everyone is like that. Also, I don't think this is related to the show being popular or anything, maybe it's just the genre that isn't to your liking, maybe it's the plot too, but I don't think this is about it being overhyped. I might sound defensive and I apologize if my way of phrasing things comes off as rude, I'm just trying to be as objective as possible here. You have every right to express your opinion on this drama and every other one for that matter, but I personally think you shouldn't brush off people's likes and favorites like that, again, I'm not trying to teach you how to think or how to respond, I'm just stating my opinion, you're not obligated to take it to face value.

Honestly tho, if only the plot was more thought through and the editing and camera angles were handled a bit differently. This series could have been a groundbreaking work for China in the fantasy genre.

Thank you for talking about this, I'm glad someone finally said it. I've never read the novel, but from what I've heard, apparently the main issue that started this whole mess was about how violent and unsettling her original plot was and how the production team and screenwriters wanted to tone it down a little so it would be more screen appropriate, and apparently our dear writer was so against it she refused the changes, wanting the script to be word for word from the novel and you know how the rest goes. Now for what you've mentioned about BLs in general, I personally think they have some problematic aspects to them, mainly because they're not usually written by gay people, but by hetero females wanting to satisfy their fantasies about men being in a relationship, and sadly their stories and scenarios rarely ever apply to real life because of how unrealistic they are and how harsh the world's depiction and view of the lgbtqia+ community is. Another issue with the BL genre is how very sexualized it often is, how they never portray actual gay people and how it mostly shows only 2 types of gays:
1) the soft/feminine bottoms
2) the strong/masculine tops
There is no diversity whatsoever. And let's not forget the weird additions of what they consider to be "drag queens" or "trans people". Even though I was looking forward to watching this one, I was never fully aware of how problematic the original storyline is. I simply thought that the screenwriters wanted to change some dialogues or something, not remove the most problematic parts so I'm not really sure now whether I want them to continue working on it or nah. And the amount of issues attached to this show and how inconsiderate the industry is towards the thai lgbtqia+ community makes it harder to continue supporting it. And even if a company decides to continue working on it, the hype around it has already died down and it probably won't survive that long in the industry seeing how uninterested viewers are getting after hearing about the whole situation.

Indeed, BDSM is all about consent and safe words. I don't know much about this department, mainly because I'm an ace, but I want to point out the fact that they never said that this was about BDSM. Furthermore, this movie was never advertised as a romance/love story. You can clearly see that the tags for this movie don't include the romance tag. The movie showed a relatively realistic portrayal of Stockholm syndrome combined with the heavily disturbing sex scenes. Even though the plot was all over the place, I really think that this movie did well in terms of portraying this very unnerving plot of an f-ed up sort of "relationship" between a r@pist/kidnapper and his victim, cuz really this plot can't be portrayed in a "healthy" or "romantic" manner anyway.

More like left hanging in the air. Filmania dropped the project but people are still holding on to the hope that another company is gonna pick it up and release it instead. So to answer your question, no technically it's not cancelled, but it's still a possibility if no company decides to continue it.

Yup, after dropping it and picking it up several times so that should tell you something. I won't spoil anything but I will say tho, my biggest disappointment was in almost everything related to ballet in this circus raucous. This might be because of how dear ballet is to me but yeah, it's definitely the most frustrating part(s).

Definitely not the only one. The plot just plummets downhill real quick going forward so, yeah, good call on putting it on hold.

Precisely. I get the excitement and anticipation but people are setting their bars waaay too high their expectations are starting to get very unrealistic, and that just puts unnecessary pressure on the staff and cast .

Yeah, I knew about the new conditions and requirements for applying and the government's not-so-subtle dislike towards idols and their influence. I wasn't referring to it back then. I saw a document circling around about how the chinese government is banning these shows all together, and I tried digging for more info but nothing came up so I took it to here to ask about this whole thing. Thanks for the reply anyway, I didn't know about the situation with Chuang 2022 so, thanks.

True, China feels more uptight about the mentioning of anything korean, but anyways thanks for the info, I was getting really confused about the whole situation.

Thank you, I just read it. Ok but the fact that it's all Korean websites is hilarious lol. Also thank god it's not true. But is it just me or is korean media trying to paint the Chinese in a bad light? I noticed on several occasions that the koreans tend to twist the narrative about anything related to china, and it's not a one time thing.

If you do please tell me because I was really caught off guard when I read that. I did know about the new restrictions and the rules for the trainees to apply to such shows, but to straight up ban them? That is just extreme.

HOLD THE FREAK UP!
I just stumbled upon an article stating that the Chinese government has banned all idol survival shows and that the final line up of this season is not gonna debut. Is this actually true? Because if it is I'm flying over there to throw a tantrum and even cuss them out publicly. I get the cancellation, but to ban ALL idol survival shows? That's just extreme bs, like China what is going on over there? Are y'all ok? Sure you don't need a factory reset?

I absolutely agree with you on this, but honestly I've started losing hope that iqiyi will even address this issue any further now . And Lisa's reaction and behavior were very unprofessional and lacked sympathy towards the trainees. If she wasn't a trainee before and just a dance mentor I would've somehow been more tolerant of her behavior despite my disapproval of it, but because she was one and had went through the same training process and endured even bigger hardships, I didn't support her role this season most of the time, like for example, in episode 15 or something when Jerome D was struggling with the choreo, she didn't even try to hide her annoyance and stomped her feet like a 5 y/o, and I know he wasn't ready to debut and that he lacked in this department, but like, in what world is this behavior professional or acceptable? Ik some people criticized her for being strict before, but her behavior here is not strict, it's straight up mean, I've seen my fair share of strict teachers, and I trained under a russian teacher too so that should tell you something about how I view this. My teacher never acted like she did, even when she was disappointed, her harsh criticism was valid. Some fans really should stop excusing her behavior.

I'm with you on this. Honestly, I was really sad it's come to this tbh, the trainees deserved better and iqiyi is not the one at fault here, I'm sooo tired of people blaming them when it's out of their hands, I really wanted to see these boys debut, but alas, it is what it is, I just hope that they get the chance to actually debut one day when the whole situation is forgotten yk. The mentors were definitely more professional and involved in comparison to the previous season, I would like to add tho, the situation with Lisa (to me) is an obvious publicity stunt to raise the rating and view numbers, they could've gotten any other Chinese idol to be a dance mentor and it would've worked out just fine. I love Lisa, I really do, and I think she's an amazing dancer with a great amount of talent, but unlike others I still feel like she lacks experience mentoring wise, and that's coming from an ex-dancer, Ik I'm gonna have the living daylight attacked out of me for saying this but I fully believe she still lacks in this precise aspect. It might have worked for the first season where the competition was still somewhat light and the choreography wasn't actually that hard to learn in general and when she actually met the trainees, but the trainees of this season needed legit mentors with previous years of teaching. What also bothered me a little is the favoritism she showed towards some trainees, like don't get me wrong it's absolutely fine to have favorites, but if it effects your judgement and overall behavior then it's a big no from me. I would like to highlight something you mentioned too "not everyone gets a chance to be shown during the practice time, and at the end, we end up with 10-20 trainees we remember" that's exactly what I liked about this season, they actually showcased the trainees quite well unlike the previous seasons which mainly focused on specific participants from specific companies.
Overall your review was spot on, and in conclusion, this series was a beautiful ride that ended on a very unfortunate note and I hope that iqiyi would finally provide us with some closure because we really need it.

P.s: you're obsession with huaiwei is absolutely justified, that boy stole my heart with his shining personality and his comedic remarks here and there can I just adopt him already? lol.

Ok damn, these replies are intense. In a LESS rude way, I personally think it's a bit too early to decide whether she's good or not since we barely know anything about her acting background and before anyone says anything, yes ik she acted in stuff before, and I know she auditioned as an actress in the beginning, I've been a fan since pinkpunk's days and I know about her minor roles, but there isn't much to say about her acting for the lack of footage. I understand your concerns and unlike everyone else I think it's in someway fair to think like this, did they choose her based on her skills/talent? Very possible. Did they choose her based on her popularity? Also a possibility. I think both factors contributed in this case, however to say that it's a negative thing for them to choose an amateur? I have to disagree with you here, I've seen a lot of new actors nail their first main roles so we can't really say that it's ridiculous. And I'm really not trying to offend anyone here but people really should try to see things from a more objective point of view. I think your way of replying may have been a bit defensive (not saying that some people weren't either) but I think it's really just subjective viewing here. Ig what I'm trying to say here is, I advice you to keep somewhat of an open mind, your concerns are valid, and you have every right to feel this way imo, but again, the lack of footage can't support nor contradict your opinion so until the drama comes out, nothing I or any other person says can really be of actual validation since everyone has their own opinion so while some may enjoy it, some may not, again, it's a subjective matter we're talking about so I think what I said should offer some clarity (or at least I hope it does)

You're absolutely right. And I haven't watched SOTUS so can't say much about it lol. I watched a bit of UWMA recently after someone recommend it to me and honestly it was..... a lot to take in. The acting was somewhat over the top imo and I'm not really a fan of the reincarnation part so I was somewhat discouraged by it and eventually dropped it after going through this comment. When I posted this comment the replies kinda helped me change my usual ways and habits of watching and introduced me to different perspectives so I'm thankful for them.

Li Ronghao and Lisa did an amazing job. I loved how Li Ronghao let the trainees really showcase their amazing vocals and I loved the vibe of the song as a whole, their facial expressions really projected the feelings of the song and I'm super happy with how it turned out. Lisa's team did absolutely fantastic too, loved the music video-like performance and the trainees were amazing with the execution (I'm still salty that Kingston was eliminated tho). If I had to rank the stages from best to worst (keep in mind that non of the stages were bad, just that some were way better than others) it would be:
1- Will pan's + Lisa's stages (I couldn't choose one because those two were equally as good imo)
2-Li Ronghao's stage
3-Chris Lee's stage
4- The9's stage
5- G.E.M' stage

True, and that's a good tactic. I don't like leaving anything unfinished so I usually keep watching even if I'm not enjoying it in hopes that it might get better, but so far this series hasn't shown any signs of improvement except for ep9, and lately this persistence of mine has been really bothering me when it comes to watching stuff so I'm opting to put stuff on hold and then maybe return to it later if I felt like it.