Meari21

Personally, I found this season more engaging. The first one was very reminiscent of J-dramas and manga/anime series I've seen in the past. It was a good watch, but to me, it was just another "death game" series with lots of elaborate games, scheming characters, and bloody deaths. But this season has more depth in terms of character motivations and relationships. Sure, it does end on a cliffhanger because it's basically the second act of the story, it's neither the beginning nor the end. But I think there's more to the human aspect of the story in this than in the first season. It further asks the question why it's in people's nature to risk life and limb for the .000001% chance at gaining the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow when push comes to shove. Plus I love that two of Korea's finest and most famous leading men play baddies here. Not to mention, TOP who was one of the most well-known members of Big Bang back in the day.

This! Not to mention that Da Vinci's life's work is proof that artists can also dabble in science. From the first season they've already established that Shen Yi is no ordinary artist. His expertise clearly lies in forensic art but he could've studied other forensic fields such as forensic photography, psychology, and chemistry to make him a more well-rounded forensic scientist/police officer. Many people who specialize in forensics do. He did demonstrate his ability to reconstruct images from blurry photos so that can be attributed to his knowledge of forensic photography. He also showed his knowledge in psychology. It's just that they kind of downplay his expertise sometimes, especially since Shen Yi often introduces himself as a mere sketch artist.

And also because in the first season, Du Cheng didn't fully trust him yet so he played a relatively smaller role in investigations. But if you notice, as the season progressed and Du Cheng learned to rely on him more, Shen Yi became a more integral part of the team. This season, he has already proven his worth, so they're giving him more leeway. Even their chief supports him. In the first season, it was already established that Shen Yi became a cop who specializes as a sketch artist because of his remorse for getting Du Cheng's mentor killed. His art mentor even tried to persuade Du Cheng to tell Shen Yi he should give up being a cop and go back to being an artist. So he was never just a sketch artist, he has always had the authority to interrogate suspects.

He's also a cop. He's not just a sketch artist. He also studied psychology and forensics so he's a valuable part of the team.

This season is off to a great start.

They've only released 4 episodes so far, then two episodes every day after that. I no longer have VPN and I don't want to renew it just for this, so I'm just going to watch it on KissKh.

Try iQIYI US

Yep. I am now watching it on KissKh. I would rather watch it on my paid subscription apps though. Bummer!

This is Joy of Life 2 all over again. I specifically subscribed to WeTV for that drama but I ended up watching it on other sites because it's not available in certain territories. This is also a highly anticipated sequel and both WeTV and iQIYI in my region do not carry it. iQIYI often releases their shows globally, but WeTV or Tencent seems to be the one doing most of the region locking for their highly anticipated dramas. They did that with Blossoms Shanghai and The Wolf. I'm still salty about that.

Ahhh... this sucks!

Agreed. I watched the anime but still felt confused by the way they handled the plot progression. I found the talking babies especially jarring and some things were just plain cringe. I understand the interviews are adapted from the manga but there are some things that do not translate well to live action and that's usually my problem with live action adaptations. They don't quite know how to balance things out and make them more palatable for live action. I also didn't appreciate some of the changes they made because it made some things a little less logical. I watched this solely because I was curious how they would adapt certain stuff. But all in all, it's just decent for me. Just your garden variety live action adaptation, which is a shame because this could've been great. The plot is unique and refreshing and it shows the reality of the Japanese entertainment industry. They had the budget and talent to turn this into something bigger. Too bad, this could've been an easy slam dunk.

Prime Video

I'm not questioning that. I'm just pointing out your obvious bias for him.

More like the three of them. Zhu Yan, Zhuo Yichen, and Li Lun. It was they who fought together in the boss fight too.

Oh, I do. I teach English for a living. I know what that word means. You're the one with Neo as a profile picture and yet I'm the one that's biased. Okay.

No, it's not. At least not from my point of view. While I agree that the focus shifted towards Yichen's character during his character arc, when he was merely the wielder of a demon slaying sword, he didn't get that much screen time. Only Neo's avid fans have been stating these as facts but there has been no real proof to back them up. There's a reason why Zhao Yuanzhou became a favorite among Chinese netizens even though the drama didn't do well in China, it's because his character was a refreshing take on the usual immortal demons found in xianxia, flamboyant, flirty, but dark and mysterious, and the drama was largely about him. His fans started complaining and the heat index started going down when Yichen's arc started. That's actually when it became obvious that Yichen is supposed to play a bigger role than the female lead.

But you do. It's like when you accuse someone of murder and just say, oh it's obvious he killed that guy because he looks like a murderer. It won't hold up in court. We're talking about screen time as a whole here, not the last part of the drama.

No, it isn't fair. But I do understand why they would do such a thing. They can market it as an ensemble drama, sure. But the BL elements would still be glaringly obvious that the censorship board just won't let it pass. They won't be able to get away with it unless they put in a female love interest and push it as a romance. They could've changed the genders of the villain and Zhuo Yichen, made them women instead and then create a love triangle. That would've been the safer route. But I guess they didn't want to do that.

No, I said that I liked Tian Jiarui's role in this drama more, same as Zhiguang's Sikong Changfeng in Dashing Youth. That is all. You misunderstood it and got offended when you don't know me at all. But think whatever you like, you've obviously made up your mind about me. As for the screen time that you're stating as a fact, do you have the actual hours of screen time of both actors to compare? Did somebody actually count the minutes they were on screen?

Me mocking Neo? I watched this drama for him not knowing what the story was or who else was in it. Why would I do that if I disliked him? Yes, I came to like Tian Jiarui because of his role in this drama, but I liked Hou Minghao first. You misunderstood the joke I made and took it personally. You're the one who is biased and is turning it into a fan war when it isn't. These actors don't care about us, they don't even know we exist. I am only stating what I have seen from the start, the story revolves around Zhu Yan. It's all about him and his relationships. This was never a romance, it's a BL story in disguise, that's why Wen Xiao's character is severely limited and the romance is practically non-existent.