Deminia

Today's episodes made my blood boil. The FL was right to misunderstand initially, but she rarely gives him a chance to explain anything. I find her to be a very frustrating character.

I have never felt it came across as sexual at all. More like trying to be cutesy and girly.

Update: as of episode 30, I did start to skip a few parts

That is just a cultural thing. Everyone you know casually is "brother" or "sister" or "uncle" "auntie" even if they are just friends of the family or family of your friends. Even "sister in law" "brother in law" is used for friends of a couple who is merely dating. It sounds a bit awkward in English perhaps, but it is just a cultural way of addressing people who are not strangers. Translations also generalize rather than explaining "called brother but is actually just a family friend who is older or even maybe a cousin or neighbor"

I don't think this was based on a novel. It is a remake of a 2014 Korean drama called A Gentleman's Dignity, with quite a lot of changes in this version.

He might not have slept with her. From his very confident response to his buddies, that is how it sounded to me.

I am glad I started watching before reading the comments here. I was really shocked at how much some people hate this show. I have enjoyed most of it so far, with no skipping until around ep 30 where I got a bit tired of the married couple's story and the cycling team stuff at the college. It is not perfect, but there is also a lot of good story and very good acting. It seems like it is a drama you either hate or love.

Yes, exactly! I noticed his reaction to that incident as well and thought then that he already had feelings for her. The others were worried about her too, but his reaction seemed more like a worried boyfriend/spouse. He also, without fail, comes to help her/fetch her etc whenever she asks, no matter where she is or how late it is. It always seemed to me like he was doing a bit more than I would expect from even a close friend of her brother to do.

I have also felt that every time he has told her to go away, his eyes and further actions have indicated that he was really saying those words to himself. He was forcing himself to reject her due to feelings of guilt over his lost wife, guilt over having feelings for his best friend's sister, and concern over their age difference. He keeps her gifts, eats the food she brings, delays pushing her away even sometimes before he realizes what is happening and only then pushes her away and scolds her.

I wonder if people are skipping so many of her scenes because they don't like the fit throwing she does sometimes, so they missed a lot of these details throughout the show.

I am up to ep 30 and they have not yet made it clear whose son he is yet. In the Korean original, the son was indeed the ML's, but the original was very different in so many ways from this version. Everyone is just guessing so far.

I actually like their story a lot. I agree that Jia Lin is sometimes a bit over the top. I like that she is at least shown to be more mature, professional, and competent at work.

I have been enjoying it also. It has a lot of realism and perhaps is too much of a slice of life drama for people who find the pacing too slow. I usually dislike heavy slice of life dramas, but I have been really enjoying this one a lot. I have liked that most of the issues have been talked out fairly quickly and that we have been spared from the usual fluff romps through the amusement park, claw machine adventures, etc. The only story line I dislike is the married couple - and even they have had good points for me as well.

I agree. He didn't realize it before, but he had to have feelings for her much sooner. In one of the earliest episodes (possibly even ep 1), he was shown opening a cupboard of snow globes all nicely lined up in rows, to which he added the newest snow globe gift Jia Lin mailed him from overseas. In later episodes, the snow globes get mentioned again as something Jia Lin always sent him, so it is not like he just loves them and collects them. She was special to him all along, and he just didn't recognize that his feelings were deeper.

No one knows yet. Their official Weibo page has been sharing photos recently and is accepting reservations for it on Tencent, but no air date mentioned.

The Shadow's official Weibo page posted a new video last night for Lunar New Year with the cast. I didn't see a date but this has me very hopeful that it might premiere soon.

The judges had voted a "top tier" performer from each vocal group. Each of those top tier performers had to then select the person on their own team who did the worst (aka "low tier") as their "reward" for getting first in their group. The low tier people get sent to one area and the high tier guys to another for the next mission.

I have been trying to find the original sources for you, but a lot have vanished. The Chinese NRTA regulations changed to address drama length and a lot of other restrictions regarding not just fantasy, but other aspects of dramas as well. I will link what I have found and will update if I find more:
https://radii.co/article/costume-dramas-banned-chinese-internet
https://technode.com/2020/02/21/regulators-unveil-rules-for-tv-shows-aiming-to-lift-industry/
https://www.reddit.com/r/CDrama/comments/15h3t45/new_nrta_policy/ (highlighting mainly drama length)

I do not believe the director has any say in release dates.

Yes, The Shadow has already passed review, which means they are allowed to air it. However, China also has laws regarding how many new fantasy releases can get aired at a time.

They completed filming it already a long time ago. It passed review already (censor board) back in the spring of 2023-ish. It has been shown as "coming soon" for months on WeTV (Tencent) but no date has been given yet.

Chinese laws are quite strict on fantasy releases now. I am assuming this is part of the delay.