Jungshooky

OMG, that's why he looks so familiar! It's been bothering me XD

I still need to finish AMBF, I was waiting for all the eps to come out on iQiyi and then this (and life) distracted me . . .

They've combined two of my favorite supernatural/fantasy TV tropes - Groundhog day/time loop and stuck in a painting. Absolute gold so far XD

I’ll raise you HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey from the 60s

We can’t say we weren’t warned 🙃

So the main takeaways I got from the Reunion Inn/Puppet demon arc are:

1. Artificially created lifeforms (*coughAIcough*) will inevitably turn against you
and
2. Pets are better than children

(I personally agree with both XD)

As an aside - I do highly recommend Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty (I'm currently on my second watch), and it's one of the rare series where the second season is just as good if not better than the first!

It's less like Buffy and more like Scooby Doo (without the dog lol) in that it's not really magical, but people masquerading as the supernatural! It's quite good!

Haha I could have watched it while it was airing, I just didn't know about it at the time. My parents controlled the TV back then and they weren't into that genre so I didn't know about it until later!

I didn't watch Buffy live, but I became a really big fan several years after it ended. I'm about to age myself a little, but I remember buying the DVD box sets on ebay and praying they were the legit releases because ye olde mail delivery Netflix (let alone streaming) wasn't even a thing yet XD

And yeah, I'm sure the special effects makeup is not cheap, but again I'm glad to see it being used. I feel like it's becoming a dying art form now that CGI is so readily available (and likely cheaper)

MDL ratings are untrustworthy, particularly since the site refuses to publish the way in which they decide ratings. User ratings can be wildly different than the published MDL rating for no apparent reason. I've seen shows with a completed watch rating of like 9.0, but the MDL rating is in the low 7.0s (make that make sense). Ratings here can also be heavily influenced by non-watchers hate rating in order to "sabotage" actors they hate. It's a known phenomenon, and I've seen it happen in real-time for multiple shows starring various actors.

Also, I don't think anyone in c-ent actually cares about MDL ratings. There's the rare drama that will cite a high MDL rating if they get one, but the ratings here really don't matter in the larger scheme of things. I have watched many 'mediocre' dramas according to MDL ratings, which I have rated highly (9.5-10). Just let yourself enjoy (or not enjoy) a show based on your own tastes :)

Oh, another Buffy fan! :D I agree! The sound eel/worm character design is very Buffy-adjacent haha

I like that they're not utilizing CGI for everything in this show. A lot of the humanoid demons are live-action with makeup/special effects prosthetics, and even the rabbit and cat in episode 9 were real. I hope this trend continues, it's a nice break from overdone CGI

Only on episode 3, but I really like that they've used special effects makeup/prosthetics for some of the more humanoid demons (esp. sound worm). Some may think it's cheesy/campy, but I prefer it 150% over cheap, cartoonish CGI that you see in most c-dramas nowadays. My inner Buffy fangirl is very happy lol

The creature CGI is unavoidable for this genre, but at least in this show it's not overly cartoonish either. Nothing rips me out of a live-action show more than Disney-esque/anime animal spirit/demons. So far (and granted it's still early), eye size to skull ratio has been within the realm of reality at least ^^'

He's a Kpop idol. Member of NCT, particularly the subgroups WayV (current) and NCT 127 (formerly/on hiatus)

It could end up like Si Jin, where the drama/cast wasn't officially announced until after they had wrapped filming.

Unrelated but . . . is that a Team Wang T-shirt I spy???

Indeed it is :3

Dude, he's honestly quite distracting . . . I may need to look up some of his other dramas. He is very nice to look at and his acting is quite decent!

Dude you've said the EXACT thing I've been thinking for ages now and it kills me when people poo poo really well written shows with thought-out plots and that take time to develop characters because people aren't being spoon fed everything.

Every time I see people complain "Wow, this 30 episode drama could have been like EIGHT episodes easy," I just shake my head in resignation. A lot of people don't care about plot, depth, or real quality anymore. They just want two pretty people in pretty costumes to get together in an easy, superficial way then move onto the next pretty, shiny thing.

People complain about plot, dialogue, and things not making sense then turn around and say "ugh, I like had to fast forward through like the entire last 3 episodes - the plot is dumb and there's so many holes it makes no sense." And I just roll my eyes because what do they expect? I have never felt the need to fast-forward and when I started getting into C-dramas, I thought (and still think) that concept is some of the strangest, most illogical BS in a fandom I've come across.

I hate to sound like a grandma (because I'm really not that old), but you're right - social media is rotting people's brains, stripping them of the need to actually think. Why think for yourself, when you can watch a bunch of 30-sec reels by self-proclaimed "experts" and just absorb, copy, repeat (*coughTikTokcough*).

It's why I now live in a dystopian hellscape of a country full of idiots run by an orange turd and his league of criminally incompetent con men . . . but I digress.

TLDR; Yes, agree with you 100% ^^'

Oh no! I hope you’re feeling better and that you can finish your PhD. I’m in academia and several of my friends are in midst of or about to start their PhDs and it’s not an easy thing at all to accomplish (especially right now if you’re in the US). May a spark of inspiration come to you soon so that you can finish and get that hard-earned degree! Fighting!

Haha I feel you on the names - I also give nicknames as placeholders for a lot of characters XD

And like I said, when you read stupidly long and detailed (i love it though) series like "Wheel of Time" and "The Stormlight Archive," you have to either remember details or take notes, because ain't nobody got time to flip through a 600+ page book, three books prior, to remember why a thing or person is now important haha

(If only my ability to remember stupid small details in fantasy series would also work on the many long, dense (dry AF) textbooks and papers I need to read and remember for my upcoming board exam. But alas, my brain does not work that way T_____T)

She was shown to have bad intentions several times: first with the curse magic that Tanyin saw her doing, and then she was also the handmaid that tried to poison Yuanzhong by claiming it was "medicine" from her master (the lady doctor elder). After catching her lie, Tanyin confronted her and returned her magic items, but she was then caught by Zhi Dai. Because they didn't want to ruin Youhu-human relations, Zhi Dai and her friend/ally (Mr Shen?) didn't want to turn her into the Elders, so she was sent away (imprisoned) under the excuse her father had died.

I think her small, and I agree somewhat forgettable, role in the beginning was intentional on the screenwriters' part. We didn't know her motives, but it plants this seed of awareness that not all humans are as enchanted and subservient to the Youhu people as we were led to believe at the very beginning. Then we got a hint that this dissatisfaction is maybe more than an individual's grievances and more organized when a group of humans decided to commit terrorism on the flying boat to send a message (Humans don't need Youhu magic). Then an organized cult (read: terrorist organization) is confirmed - and the characters make that connection in part because of that handmaiden's shady past. So to me, it all makes sense from a story telling perspective.

I read a lot of dense, long high-fantasy series, which have tons of minor side characters and side plots that at first don't seem to be important, but later (sometimes like books later) become quite relevant to the main plot . . . so I guess I just trained myself to pay attention to even insignificant details in case they're needed later on XD

I assume he's a member of the Cult of Wushuang - the group of humans who want to team up with the War Demons to kill Yuanzhong and his people. Now that girl's cover has been blown she's a liability, so they killed her

Not yet - but it's on my (very very long) watchlist haha so I may get to it one day XD