Anais

Strangely, for me it's the opposite, unless it's a romance without a love triangle, because in dramas, the second male lead is ultimately always the best and the one whose LF should give a chance.
These dramas perpetuate the idea that the first love/crush is the good one, usually when the FL meets the ML first, and throws in the second male leads just for decoration and a little reaction to the ML, but they are ultimately the ones who behave - in general - the best with LF.
I just hope that the dramas will become more inventive with these love triangle or create more complex second male lead than those shallow and erase ones, because in the end, compared to the ML, they objectively seem the best for a relationship.
Good article, it's nice to be able to discuss it.

I agree with you, a lot of people miss things by locking themselves into criteria for their tastes.
Personally, the less romance there is, the more I am delighted, I like big productions, often historical Chinese or beautiful mature Korean productions, with complex, tortured characters, especially with a story that holds up, it's my personal taste. But that doesn't stop me when there are good romantic productions coming out to watch them.
I think it's a shame they don't give more of a chance to other genres that are often mind-blowing. It reminds me of Westerners who don't want to watch foreign series just because the language isn't the same, it's ridiculous.
But, it is their loss.

Note that I didn't say they don't have any.
For Chinese dramas, it's not that common, and even often when having another season they change the original cast or the main actors, not all the time of course, but it happens a lot especially for successful series which are released years after filming and the main actors in the meantime have other projects and their popularity increases.
Then I'll be honest, I'm not going to dwell on the j-dramas because I don't see many of them, so I'm less familiar, so if you say they have several seasons, it's probably true.
And then for BL Thai, they do several seasons, but the productions are not big, nor the shooting time, it's quite fast between two seasons to do, especially since the scripts are not very demanding and the episodes are few.

So, it depends on the country, the type of productions but Asia does not - in general - even do till 4 seasons.
Western series have on average at least 3 or 4 seasons minimum up to more than ten seasons for some.

I hope the day will come when I can discover this series, I can't find it without the bad auto-generated subtitles, and so I don't want to see this series if I don't understand the plot, nor the characters correctly.

Yes, they don't do multiple seasons in Asia, only for shows that have enough source material for one or two more seasons, and that's rare.

But, personally, I who appreciate series more than movies because it really allows you to tell a story, I who appreciate western series with several seasons, I find myself satisfied with an Asian series in general which contains few episodes - as long as it's done well - or else a season with more than thirty episodes, it's enough.
The Asian series, to my taste, are far better developed and made than the Western ones these days.
That's why it's more and more popular.

Don't worry, at this pace, 2022 will see the Korean wave spread again, and not just in the cinematic industry.
People are more and more interested in South Korea and Asia in general, and it's about time because they have plenty of cultural treasures to offer.
The light that these Netflix k-dramas shed on the rest of the industry and the country as a whole is good.

I hope there will be more and more light on non-American productions, in recent years on Netflix we have been able to see good European productions that have been successful, and from now on Asian productions are getting more light, I hope in the future it will open the field not only for Korean productions but also the rest of Asia, especially the historical Chinese productions which are incredible.

I watched the first episodes but decidedly the series is not for me. I dropped it.
The ML is quite unobtrusive, we can clearly see that it is the FL who will lead the series as well as the relationship, the ML who is announced to us as the son of the Demon King is not that incredible, it's a shame that in this role Xu Kai is erased and spends his time languishing after LF.
It may also be my personal taste, I like mature, complex characters and balanced relationships.
You can have a strong ML, even manipulative and cruel as the role of Xu Kai would have required without being bad towards the FL, here, they clearly wanted to highlight the FL in the role of the woman who is strong but there is a clear imbalance in their relationship.
The story itself is not that attractive either, the secondary characters have nothing special, rather superficial and overplayed.

In short, an average start to the series that could have done better.
It's not my taste, but I think for someone who wants a story with heavy romance, a little theatrical story that's not really serious and mature, then it does.

It's really one of the series that I'm really waiting for, everything seems to indicate that it will be for 2022, I cross my fingers that these hopes are not in vain.
It's the kind of series that I love, incredible sets not to mention the costumes, breathtaking scenes and an exciting and mature story.

No, I believe that only the police barely accepted a complaint/case from him a few weeks ago, I don't know where it will lead, I hope he can do the necessary steps in clearing his name and maybe to be an actor again one day.

Do you have any recommendations for series with the same kind of production as this one or Nirvana in Fire ?
Something that has magnificent settings, deep and complex characters, not heavy romance but more a series with suspense, manipulations, intelligent characters, strategies that make us question what's next.
I know there aren't many, especially with a mature shade, but hey, if you have any suggestions ...

Note that I have already seen JOL, Nirvana in Fire, The Longest Day in Chang'an, Sword Snow Stride, The Long Ballad, Luoyang.

Thanks, I've seen people ask, I sincerely think they're going to release it this year, the information is getting more and more consistent, but when is the question and what transformation from source material to the show they did.
We'll see.

Obviously, people are not aware, so since I already answered the question for the Winner is King, I will do the same for Immortality.
On January 24, CDHOME_STUDIO released the list of dramas that will be released this year. Immortality and Winner is King were part of it, we will have more news in the weeks or months to come, I don't know when they plan to release them but, it's for this year.

On January 24, CDHOME_STUDIO released the list of dramas that will be released this year. Immortality and Winner is King were part of it, we will have more news in the weeks or months to come, I don't know when they plan to release them but obviously, it's for this year.

It is set to premiere this year, I'm so glad.

Joy of Life crew provided an update and announced that Joy of Life 2 finally announced to take place in the fourth quarter of 2021, the official casting has not been revealed yet.
It is largely assumed the second season would be released either in 2022 or 2023.
It is known that Zhang Ruo Yun will be present, it is just strongly assumable that Li Qin and Xiao Zhan will not reprise their roles.
It's not really impactful for the case of the character of Li Qin but more for that of Xiao Zhan, which is a shame.
But the series will happen.

As for SSS season 2, this isn't confirmed yet but they have more than enough source material to make 1 or 2 more seasons. As with all such c-dramas we won't find out anytime soon about the next season but the viewership ratings are pretty good so we can hope.