MyLangyaList

You are not alone. Having just watched YB1, I'm more relieved that the beginning of YB2 is much improved over the end of last season and less focused on its lack of early YB1 humor.

Do keep in mind JOL *is* comedy first and drama second. It's definitely one of the funniest shows the last 5-10 years. But if you are not Chinese speaker, I can easily see how the humor will fail to resonate as most of it is based on puns or cultural references, the physical humor that's cross-cultural is a smaller part.

From the start, the screenwriter Wang Juan is telling you in his signature humor style to not take it too seriously, this is not NIF nor intended to be. The plot twists and political stratagems are there for variety, depth, and excitement. But make no mistake about it, it's the humor that provides the lubricant to keep the whole show running.

Sword Snow Stride is another example, where the humor is the essential component of the show.

Now if you are Chinese speaker, then I'd actually be curious about your comedy list, as they would be top tier.

This is not intended in any way to be an attack. I actually appreciate your rigorous review of shows, unlike the prevailing trend on this site of overrating every garbage drama.

The book trilogy is a great read, up there in the pantheon of SciFi classics, of any language.

As little confidence as I have in Dumb&Dumber's ability even outside of 3 Body, I was actually pleasantly surprised by the released trailer. Even though they are clearly not as faithful to the book.

And frankly I'm sick of the regurgitated responses of Chinese netizens getting all territorial over 3Body and shitting on others even attempting to make an adaptation. Netflix wants to adapt 3Body because it's beloved outside of China. So the more the merrier, and I root for others to succeed rather than dismiss and root for failure.

Frankly the best hope for high quality *Chinese sequels* will be if Netflix knocks it out of the park. Then there will be enough domestic and nationalistic pressure to give the sequels the necessary budget. The $10M for the 1st book was quite stingy, and it showed in the uneven production quality. And despite the inherent advantage of cultural familiarity and making a story set in China with Chinese people, this show was still undercut by the censorship buzzsaw.

And yes, it's specifically the cultural revolution scenes, parts of which were taken out, that hampered the story. Any readers of the book will know that the CR part was essential in setting the despair and decision of Ye Wenjie. This adaptation lack emotional punch and motivation because this part was heavily sanitized.

Don't even get me started on why the Wandering Earth received so much budget and focus, when the far superior/popular 3B Trilogy can only raise a pittance. Hint: one of them is more politically sensitive (and only mildly political at that) than the other.

/rant over

Likely an awful long time. Don't think they've even raised the necessary funding yet. Also Book 2 'The Dark Forest' will be far more difficult to adapt as it's far more futuristic and will require a far bigger budget. Three Body only had a modest budget of $10M.

Ironically, the best hope for a good S2 will be if Netflix does a great job with their adaptation. Then the race will be on and there will be pressure in China to not embarrass itself with the biggest Chinese Scifi IP.

*I'm not talking about pressing a button to release drones*

Lol. Wuxias of the future, with super dramatic and stylized button pressing. I'm already looking forward to a lot of blood being spat over buttons.

Does anyone know if the heat indices follow linear scaling, or something like logarithmic? Because 25k-30k is only 20% difference and I'd imagine the engagement gap between mediocre and super popular is far wider.

Here you go. There might be better character guides, but this is the first that came up. It pretty spoiler light, though there will be many characters that haven't showed up yet, but you can just scroll to ones that have already made appearance. https://lesbloggerables.tumblr.com/post/157788020760/nirvana-in-fire-character-guide.

And also episode synopsis that might help https://nirvanainfire.fandom.com/wiki/List_Of_Nirvana_In_Fire_Episodes

Not sure what episode you are on (tho you might need to start over anyways 😂), but here's a quick overview of what's happening and what's intriguing early:

TBoY is straight up happy ending, no romantic complications, all MCs live, except one whose fate is open-ended.

For LOCH, it's fairly obvious who the FL interest is so I don't really need to tell you. For HSDS if I tell you it kinda spoils things. Fine ... she doesn't show up until halfway in the show 😂.

Do keep in mind though that these are classic style Wuxia, so romance isn't the main focus. Many so-called Wuxia shows today are really just romcoms with Wuxia slapped on.

That said, with your criteria, Mysterious Lotus Casebook is the far safer bet. It has an extremely similar vibe to TBoY, and negligible romance. The plot is also tighter than the other 2 shows and a lot of MDLers have been raving about it lately.

LOCH and HSDS are a different type of show, with some flaws, but also their own charms.

NiF series are actually self-contained stories that exist in the same universe. So 'seasons' is really a misnomer. They are really NiF1, NiF2, etc... You don't need to watch 1 to see this.

So if you are waiting for the show to finish before diving in ... well good news, you can do it now as they are fully finished and spectacular shows.

Yeah, can't see how the dubbed version can be good especially since the veteran actors here deliver their lines with such nuance. Also it's a serious period drama, so foreign dubbing would be especially out of place.

That said I've come to really respect all the subtitle viewers for Asian dramas. Since I have the fortune of watching Cdramas without needing subs, I never realized how difficult it was until I tried watching the Kdrama Reply 1988. I know it's a masterpiece that I'll love, but the first episode left me hunting for a dubbed version in ENG/CN like some degenerate pleb.

So I can totally understand how many of the inaccessible Cdrama masterpieces doesn't resonate with international audiences. And as much as I sometimes bemoan all the derivative romcoms taking the spotlight over more refined shows, I can see where they are coming from.

Nice, welcome to the Lanya Club

lolol

It was actually the 2nd funniest show after JOL for me, though I haven't watched many shows. Some of the humor actually reminds of Wang Juan. I hear some don't like the 2 leads of Cheng He and Wang Ziwen. I haven't seen enough shows to be impacted by their past work. Only seen WZW in this and Three Body, and her acting impressed in both.

Sounds good. Almost done with S1, can start on this after.

Mengmeng (daughter that died) is the cause of the loop. In Chinese cultural context, tragic deaths can leave the spirit of the deceased not being able to rest, resulting in ghosts, haunting, and other supernatural phenomenon. So even if the precise mechanics are not explained, a supernatural time loop would be reasonable within the lore.

In the end, the tragedy had been resolved. The leads not only prevented her parents from multiplying the tragedy by killing more innocents. They also compelled a police investigation that brought Mengmeng's victimizer to justice. Her parents were saved, innocents were saved, and Mengmeng finally got an actual investigation to hold the wrongdoer accountable. So finally her spirit can rest/return. The ethereal image of Mengmeng at the end would be enough of a hint to Chinese audiences aware of the cultural context.

Yeah even though this show is low budget, the writer Wang Juan is top notch. Same guy behind Joy of Life and Sword Snow Stride. He's really good at creating dimensional characters and weaving humor and heart into the plot, and does it here once again.

He was also a pretty good leather-jacket gangster cat-lover in Bureau of Transformers. It's actually the best Cdrama procedural I've seen based on a very small sample size. Lots of absurdist humor, decent acting, and pushed the boundary enough to make me wonder what if NRTA didn't exist and they went all out.

That's great to hear. Was a bit nervous due to mixed reaction based on early episodes. But it sounds like the doubts have been shattered. Was it comparable in quality to S1 for you?