John Hart

" They often seek constant reassurance, attention, and proximity to someone" Hmm. If you reword it as this --

"They seek attention and proximity to someone" then yes, and this is true. But this is also true in almost all romances.

The FL is a reason to watch this series. She had so much more to do here than stand in JOY OF LIFE holding a chicken leg looking pretty. The main reason to watch this is the cast.

I'm 5 episodes away from a review here but if you want a general idea --

-- this will not be your favorite series ever. Unless this is the first or second you've ever seen. I've watched 15 Chinese Series at this point and it's only better than 4 of them. (I found JOY OF LIFE more tedious than this, which is not what most people would say but at least I cared about the YOUTH characters.)

As a letter grade I'd give it a B to a B-. It's endearing enough to complete but nothing to rave about. My wife and I are older than a lot of the viewers here and we find a very calming show to watch at night.

So this is the type of show you watch after you've watched a show full of action or magical effects. A 'break' between mayhem. In this way we've enjoyed it a lot.

Did that make sense?

The Male Lead's closest friend reminds of American actor Richard Gere in OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, which becomes eerie when the military part of the story happens.

Either I don't understand what 'clingy' means OR there isn't a clingy FL. I read clingy as manipulative and awful to get her man, and that's not here.

HI AO. I'm 10 eps away from completing and so don't spoil the end. I just wanted to say --

1. I'm Western (American) and have come to learn that some (but not all) Chinese perceive 'kissing' as too similar to sex. So I can forgive them if they want to keep kisses rare, but when what's his name proposed to what's her name... and then they just hugged -- UGH. I wonder if there is a way to label series as 'unnaturally kiss free' as to help people like you and I reconsider watching the series at all. It's like a war movie without bullets.

2. Episode 27 appears to be a series conclusion. The Main Leads return to where they met, the Violinist burns a piece of paper -- but then there's 10 more episodes?!? It feels like someone added 10 more episodes after seeing the first 27. Are the last ten good?

3. We got WAY TOO MUCH depth involving the specifics of profiteering. I wish I had fast forwarded in those parts.

But otherwise I agree that it's an otherwise interesting show.

I'm not directly comparing FX to Harry Potter. I'm saying there's a storytelling style in both JOY and HARRY where rather ordinary things are all 'heightened' as if amazing. "Oh look, that staircase moves!" Yeah, Ok. But so what too?

There's a notion in story telling that less is more. This year's Oscar nominated PAST LIVES I feel was better than OPPENHEIMER because it did more with less.

Similarly, JOY has all sorts of talent and story -- but they all water each other down. I remember being shocked when JOY S1 wrote out Li Qin because... basically... they didn't know what to do with her. I felt half the series was this way, introducing things and then kinda moving on when they got bored.

I may not be the audience for this show, but if it were less actors, tighter story, and more serious -- I likely would enjoy it.

"Great for you if you can Form your opinion after one ep"

Please understand I watched 46 episodes of Season 1, which I felt was terribly over-rated until the last third of that Season. So I started watching this first episode to see if they had adjusted to smarter writing or were still stuck in their cheesy style of writing. Cheesy it still was, congradulating itself for being 'clever' where really it's just more comic book-ish.

I'm currently finishing up a show called THE YOUTH MEMORIES. In it are Li Qin and Xiao Zhan as the leads. The young might consider this show 'slow' or 'nothing special' or 'predictable', and they wouldn't be wrong. But --

-- it's so amazing to see Li Qin actually acting instead of just carrying a chicken leg around. And Xiao Zhan in YOUTH is so much more engaging than 'Fan Xian'. (And better looking.)

Dying for the subtitles to drop on SHANGHAI BLOSSOMS because my fave from JOY1 is Xin Zhi Li and I can't get enough of her.

Also awaiting a strong lead for Song Yi, because her support in LOUYANG was the best thing about that show.

So I tried Episode 1 of this new Season and couldn't get thru it. I'm happy this show makes so many people happy, but to me it's Harry Potter. It thinks it's every move and turn are so clever and 'brilliant' but nothing to me comes off as remotely real. And I'm a big fan of half this cast. SIGH.

Me Three

There's a wild thing in this series, because I fear it's coincidental. There's a couple that are the Chinese answers to Ralph and Alice Kramden.

-- unfortunately this is one of those dramas where nobody seems to kiss. I'm 11 episodes from finishing and it's really unnatural not to see a kiss here and there. It's still worth seeing the series but I'd prefer a kiss once in a while.

I would offer their are five couples focused in on, six technically. So the notion of romance is almost always in the air, one way or another. Mild Spoiler in my reply to this --

I believe we're entering an age where movies are simply too short. That a movie will not be 4-8 hours long, a micro-series.

Do you feel that was her voice? I keep fearing the reason she's not appearing in all sorts of things is that she might have been dubbed. I'm not saying it looks dubbed, but I wonder if that's why.

Once you've seen MAKE A WISH you'll know why I'm DYING TO SEE anything Gia Ge is in.

Well this raises an interesting question. If historically a girl was allowed to be romanced at 16-17 years of age in this period -- and with older men -- is it wrong to cast that age?

This is a surprisingly engaging series for an almost plotless predictable story.

Okay, we've finished SPLENDOR and are now watching the sweet YOUTH MEMORIES, a simple but surprising well made 'soap' on a budget. That gives the translators more time. But after that WE WANT OUR SUBTITLES lol

Thanks for your thoughts. If you don't mind, I have some replies.

My first point is that if we are to embrace your notion that a story based upon reveals is a better form of storytelling, than THREE BODY needed to be a LOT shorter. By the time we got to the 'big' finish boat sequence, to me, it was too little too late. Anti-climatic. But if it had been 12 episodes, better.

I'll also agree that if a story is intentionally stretched by artificial unneeded romances and such, yes, that stinks. But not because emotional bonds between characters are bad. But because it was just 'filler' to give us 40 episodes.

To me -- the entire point of story telling is what Gene Roddenberry once coined 'The Human Adventure'. At the end of the first Trek feature, he didn't say 'Star Trek will return' like Bond movies do. It instead read, "The Human Adventure... continues."

STAR WARS is not a human adventure as much as a series of reveals. This is why there are STAR TREK people and STAR WARS people. I'm STAR TREK.

I learned love, tolerance, compassion, empathy -- pathos and tragedy -- all because of STAR TREK. "May you find your way as pleasant."

Me three. Who is this? Peng Bo?

Look People -- the wifey and I are almost done with A DREAM OF SPLENDOR and we need this damn thing TRANSLATED! lol