Anita

So I wanted to like this more than I did. The story itself is really interesting. It's based on a real town in China called Longgang, where farmers built a whole modern city on tidal flats without any money from the state. That's a crazy thing to build, and I enjoyed learning about it.

The supporting actors are the best part. I really like the performces of Zhu Yuanyuan, Chen Minghao and Geng Le. Zhu Yuanyuan's scenes made me emotional, especially knowing it was her last work and she filmed it while she was sick. The two leads felt a bit stiff to me, and honestly the side characters stole every scene.

The tone didn't work for me either. The real story was hard and serious, but the drama makes it funny and light. Some jokes felt silly, it treats history like a comedy sketch. Also some of the romance stuff was bad. There's a guy sneaking into his crush's house and a girl following a man around, and the show treats it like it's cute. It's not.

And I have to say it, this is propaganda. It's not subtle at all. The government supported it, CCTV helped make it, and it aired on CCTV 8. The heroes are Party officials who fix everything, and nobody really questions anything. I read somewhere even Huang Xiaoming wrote a piece in People's Daily about how the role taught him what "serving the people" means. So watch it for the story and the actors, but don't take it as the full truth.