Abruptly paused today's episode and tabbed out when I realised the drama has become a fantasy version of The Bachelor, with every character involved or about to be involved in multiple love triangles and a bunch of stereotypically annoying female characters lining up to trick Jang Uk into marriage.
The plot was moving quite slowly up until now, but at least the filler was fun. Today's episode was not fun.
Sounds like a cool role and I look forward to seeing her pull it off. She has the intensity and charisma to make the audience sympathise with such a character. I wonder who the ML will be. I think someone like Kim Nam-gil would complement her nicely (and I don't think they've appeared in a drama together before).
The first episode was really fun. There's a lot of tension/potential conflicts between the different characters and the drama doesn't do the typical cdrama trick of pretending all law enforcement agents are completely pure of heart, which makes for a more interesting story.
I suppose Youku's official subs are the only subs we can expect? I was hoping to get more than one episode today, but I'll have to be patient.
It's a dramaaaaaa not reality... Why do they have so many censorship rules just release it 🙄😔😔😔
Well, a lot of things that aren't real affect reality. State censorship is about politics, politics is about ideas, and ideas can be conveyed through fiction as well as non-fiction.
This looks so great. The trailer promises a dark, suspenseful historical drama in the vein of The Longest Day in Chang'an and The Wind Blows from Longxi.
Am I the only one who's noticed how respectful are the males towards the females in this drama? I personally don't…
Well, it’s a historical fantasy drama with a romantic subplot that hasn’t fully kicked in yet, not an office romance about a CEO who’s allergic to women and his secretary or whatever. Wrist grabs don’t happen in every drama…
Do we know why this was held up in review for so long? People seem to assume it's because of paranoid homophobia, but there are plenty of Chinese procedurals with all-male main casts (too many, if you ask me) that don't get the same treatment.
I think it might be because of the drama's portrayal of the police actually. One of the two main characters is a disgraced policeman who's involved in criminal activity--whether he was framed for murder or not, he seems shady in some capacity--and the cops are shown to have made big mistakes in the course of an old investigation. The first part in particular is virtually anathema to Chinese censors; the police are always portrayed as infallible and incorruptible in Chinese police dramas.
If that's the problem, then that's a big issue IMO because moral ambiguity, acting according to a private code of honour, and police failures seem totally central to the premise of the drama. They're not something you can edit around.
This is a great drama for many reasons, but can I just single out the romance here? I’m a huge fan of romance as a minor subplot in action/thriller dramas, but it’s so rare to actually see it play out. Usually it’s all subtextual/implied/at the level of ‘chemistry.’
But in Reset there’s just the right amount of it. I really like the leads’ relationship development and how they go from strangers to people who only have each other in an extreme situation to people who cover up the fact they’re time travellers by pretending to be a couple to, well, people who are actually a couple but haven't quite said it yet. The progression of their relationship is so smooth and understated and really quite sweet, but there are no unnecessary scenes and the focus is always on the main plot, with the romantic development happening under the surface. Yet it is obvious from their body language and eye contact/level of intimacy with each other.
And then in the final episode we get the perfect amount of scenes acknowledging their feelings explicitly to reassure us that they’ll be happy together after the story ends. It’s a very satisfying romantic resolution IMO! Sometimes in action dramas with a romantic subplot it gets resolved in a rush in the final episode, but here, as I said, there was enough fluff to leave me satisfied as a viewer.
Wenjie is an extremely frustrating protagonist because he keeps making the same stupid decisions even though they never work out for him.
I dropped this around episode 21 because I got too annoyed by his inability to be honest with the cops and not do illegal shit. Luo Jian has been his supporter the whole drama, but instead of sharing information with him, Wenjie is going to let some suspicious uncle with a criminal record rope him into abducting and assaulting a millionaire for no reason other than the guy knew his father? Like, Uncle Xu is obviously the villain; there's no other reason for a shady character like that to show up 2/3rds into the story and gain the protagonist's trust immediately. Transparent plot twist based on expedient characterisation.
It wouldn’t bother me so much if Wenjie wasn’t supposed to be a. smart and b. determined NOT to go to jail. Like, he has done so many illegal things already, invariably to his own detriment, and I’m supposed to be rooting for him to get his shit together and become a police officer or whatever? Absolutely not! The guy has terrible judgement and should NOT be in charge of investigating crimes!
Speaking of his desire to lead an ordinary life and stay on the straight and narrow in contrast to his father, that’s supposed to be his defining characteristic, yet it gets overridden by a sudden impulse to get justice for his father halfway through the drama and he starts acting even more recklessly even though nothing changes in what he knows/feels about his dad…? Again, poor characterisation serving the whims of the plot.
It would have been far more satisfying to see his relationship with Luo Jian evolve instead of having it stagnate and even regress due to Uncle Xu’s appearance. As I said, Wenjie keeps making the same mistakes in his dealings with Luo Jian/the police; it’s annoying to see no character development over 20 episodes.
This is actually more fun than I expected so far... I wasn't sure about the leads' dynamic and the potential for plot development after the first episode, but both leads have grown on me since then. They're both annoying in different ways--Jae-hee with her snap judgements and one-track mind and Han-joon with his faux nonchalance and childishness--but in eps 3-4 we're seeing both of these facades start to crack. HJH is starting to suspect there's more to NHJ and the story of her brother's death than meets the eye and NHJ's deeper motivations are starting to come out.
I like the humour and exaggerated mannerisms, reactions, body language and sound effects too. They lend a cartoonish air to the story that makes me more forgiving of plot holes and cliches.
I've only seen the first two episodes, but I'm already thinking of dropping this because there are no likeable characters. The Cheng household's grandmother and her daughter-in-law and her maid are cartoonishly evil, Shaoshang's mother is cold and aggressive toward the daughter she hasn't seen in 15 years, Shaoshang herself is manipulative and self-absorbed and Ling Buyi doesn't have a personality. Might give it another couple of episodes, but the fact there's no one whose scenes I look forward to is a bad sign.
1 
The plot was moving quite slowly up until now, but at least the filler was fun. Today's episode was not fun.
https://twitter.com/kdramacasting/status/1547819835282796546
Sounds like a cool role and I look forward to seeing her pull it off. She has the intensity and charisma to make the audience sympathise with such a character. I wonder who the ML will be. I think someone like Kim Nam-gil would complement her nicely (and I don't think they've appeared in a drama together before).
I suppose Youku's official subs are the only subs we can expect? I was hoping to get more than one episode today, but I'll have to be patient.
https://twitter.com/dramapotatoe/status/1547766453171998721?s=21&t=JuZRsGeN9WBHgnX1XBnABA
https://twitter.com/dramapotatoe/status/1547786330972622850?s=21&t=JuZRsGeN9WBHgnX1XBnABA
https://twitter.com/dramapotatoe/status/1547790672702238731?s=21&t=JuZRsGeN9WBHgnX1XBnABA
When is it supposed to come out?
I think it might be because of the drama's portrayal of the police actually. One of the two main characters is a disgraced policeman who's involved in criminal activity--whether he was framed for murder or not, he seems shady in some capacity--and the cops are shown to have made big mistakes in the course of an old investigation. The first part in particular is virtually anathema to Chinese censors; the police are always portrayed as infallible and incorruptible in Chinese police dramas.
If that's the problem, then that's a big issue IMO because moral ambiguity, acting according to a private code of honour, and police failures seem totally central to the premise of the drama. They're not something you can edit around.
But in Reset there’s just the right amount of it. I really like the leads’ relationship development and how they go from strangers to people who only have each other in an extreme situation to people who cover up the fact they’re time travellers by pretending to be a couple to, well, people who are actually a couple but haven't quite said it yet. The progression of their relationship is so smooth and understated and really quite sweet, but there are no unnecessary scenes and the focus is always on the main plot, with the romantic development happening under the surface. Yet it is obvious from their body language and eye contact/level of intimacy with each other.
And then in the final episode we get the perfect amount of scenes acknowledging their feelings explicitly to reassure us that they’ll be happy together after the story ends. It’s a very satisfying romantic resolution IMO! Sometimes in action dramas with a romantic subplot it gets resolved in a rush in the final episode, but here, as I said, there was enough fluff to leave me satisfied as a viewer.
Other dramas should take notes!
I dropped this around episode 21 because I got too annoyed by his inability to be honest with the cops and not do illegal shit. Luo Jian has been his supporter the whole drama, but instead of sharing information with him, Wenjie is going to let some suspicious uncle with a criminal record rope him into abducting and assaulting a millionaire for no reason other than the guy knew his father? Like, Uncle Xu is obviously the villain; there's no other reason for a shady character like that to show up 2/3rds into the story and gain the protagonist's trust immediately. Transparent plot twist based on expedient characterisation.
It wouldn’t bother me so much if Wenjie wasn’t supposed to be a. smart and b. determined NOT to go to jail. Like, he has done so many illegal things already, invariably to his own detriment, and I’m supposed to be rooting for him to get his shit together and become a police officer or whatever? Absolutely not! The guy has terrible judgement and should NOT be in charge of investigating crimes!
Speaking of his desire to lead an ordinary life and stay on the straight and narrow in contrast to his father, that’s supposed to be his defining characteristic, yet it gets overridden by a sudden impulse to get justice for his father halfway through the drama and he starts acting even more recklessly even though nothing changes in what he knows/feels about his dad…? Again, poor characterisation serving the whims of the plot.
It would have been far more satisfying to see his relationship with Luo Jian evolve instead of having it stagnate and even regress due to Uncle Xu’s appearance. As I said, Wenjie keeps making the same mistakes in his dealings with Luo Jian/the police; it’s annoying to see no character development over 20 episodes.
I like the humour and exaggerated mannerisms, reactions, body language and sound effects too. They lend a cartoonish air to the story that makes me more forgiving of plot holes and cliches.