Skibbies

that's how all platforms release their dramas, 6 or 8 ep dump at the beginning. it's 2 free ep + 6 vip ep, the update schedule is 2 at a time. There's 8 episode dump because it's on demand/vvip which started from summer 2019, and was mass implemented after Joy of Life (end of 2019).

The initial ep dump is to draw in audience, update 2 at a time, 3 days (or 4 if the drama is longer) to keep the audience. normally on demand/vvip starts on the third week, but this drama got it early, looks like iqiyi is desperate to grab more money from the audience. (on demand/vvip tanks the drama's viewcounts + discussion and thus popularity, but it gets money for the paltform and it's friendlier to binge watchers)

mhmm I see what you mean by putting the genie back in the bottle. She did struggle between "being hip and fashionable in Fujian" compared to her hometown being so "backwards" but she came to appreciate it. I agree on glossing over how she end up going back to Ningxia, but I actually took it for granted, since in 2010s, a lot of migrant workers end up moving back home to start their own business, or just find work there because it's developed enough for that. You get to be close to your family + escape the stress of big city. I actually would have been interested to see how they start up on vineyard and various promotion tactics to sell it, especially in days of streaming and such.

I loved Shuihua and I liked how she struggled in face of adversity, and she do her best with what she have and what she can, and I did like their more realistic relationship, but somehow I regularly forget about Defu (sorry bro). Maimiao wasn't put forward in front of Shuihua, Shuihua was nominated for best main actress and lost, when Maimiao (who had more screentime I think) was nominated for best supporting actress and won. I guess they thought Shuihua deserve to be nominated as main actress since she was THE most memorable character of the drama for most people.

LOL, Tong Yao's character in Nothing But Thirty was apparently very memorable. I liked her in Like a Flowing River 1, she's ML;s sister, and she shone despite having limited screentime. I think it was her amazing character than her performance though. She won best supporting for that role for Magnolia and got Golden Eagle award (which doesn't distinguish between main or supporting) for it, so she got lot of backlash THEN and got more NOW due to winning over Rayzha lol.

You finished it! Hooray! There's actually a standard mandarin dubbed version, but I think you lose out on the fun with that version XD My favourite arc was the mushroom arc and the education arc, since they were such vital part of poverty alleviation. By the way, the small village that half the drama is shot in was built from grounds up, the mushrooms were also planted for real, Daylight Ent really go as realistic as you can go when it comes with these things. Not huge on the closing arc, but I think I mentioned that already, and it was still kind of neat to see how much it had changed, and neat to compare how the kids see Xihaigu (fun adventurous place) vs the kids from beginning of the drama (a place they are trapped in).

Rayzha got nominated for Magnolia (one of the three big tv awards in China) for best main actress, but she lost out to Tong Yao for her roles in Nothing but Thirty (which I never watched but it was really popular and decently received critically). I really think it's due to her not having enough screentime, she would have been sure in for best supporting actress. Instead they put Huang Yao (Mai Miao, the girl that went to Fujian to work) down for best supporting (I think she had more screentime lol...), and she won the award. I actually really loved Maimiao too, since she was very relatable as a young girl that wanted to see the outside world, that wanted to break out from the poor village she grew up in. But she got grew up and she eventually did get the chance to see a different place, but eventually came back to home because there's no place like home, there was new found appreciation for her hometown + she bought back skills and ideas to help develop it. That was the story of many many migrant workers in 90s and early 00s. I liked Debao too for similar reason actually, Defu pales in comparison for me (even though his character was essential and he was always the person solving various problems they have).

there's multiple body swaps, the first lasted three episodes

yeah that confuses me sometimes, but I think it's somewhat explained in the dialogues? ML is on temporary hiatus due to "health issue" (made up from first body swap). Set up for ML seems like a popular idol but his schedule doesn't feel like it hahaha, guess they are nearly at the end of the group's life expectancy so they don't have as much work while prepping for solo debut. FL works with her bestie and as long as she brings back stories, it's ok (she also make up for it).

original script, probably happy ending. modern dramas usually have happy ending.

...it's an original plot, not a remake. body swap existed before secret garden.

yup yup :D I like that you can ship any two characters in the group too and it totally works, so much fun. I sort of like Ancient Detective for similar reason, but that group have more characters that comes and goes. I like JoL for its set up more than anything else.

LMAO I can't believe you googled his nose job. He looked all puffed up in the wrap up photo for 君九龄 too but that's probably temporary. I mentioned the nose job cos when Imperial Coroner aired, all the fans were like "bye Wang Kuan, I'm getting a new son in law till you fix your nose" LOL

I'm super happy you liked this, the ensemble camaraderie is my favourite part of the drama. I'm such a sucker for these kinds of relationships/dramas, too bad it doesn't seem that common in historical dramas. It seems far more common in modern school dramas (so I end up watching lot of those too lol) and esport dramas? I definitely prefer Xiao Jin x Wang Kuan, sorry Chu Chu x Prince An LOL

Wang Juan is hilariously fond of too many twists, and it's totally going for gotcha moment half the time. Totally agree on the noticeable drop in writing in latter arcs and such. If you are up for more twisty ensemble cast historical, you could try 舞乐传奇, but it's oldish drama (late 2014) so might have to look around for a bit. Lot of people kind of dislike the costume too + find the beginning bit slow, I did too but I rather like the setting of the drama in the beginning, Myanmar in the beginning then Yunnan for most of the drama.

i'd say the portrayal of c-ent is closer to the truth than most, I rather like a lot of little bits of c-ent "open secrets" they put in. If you are interested in more of c-ent, you can also try We Are All Alone, the FL is an agent and she manage different kind of celebrities, I find that fairly interesting and enlightening too. The Brightest Star in the Sky also shows bit more of idols and fan relationship, but I find some of ithe story rather draggy and unnecessary.

While I don't sympathise YMG much and think her redemption arc could be better, I actually rather like her as a character. Femme Fatale, selfish and manipulative are rarely seen in female characters in cdramas. I'm also annoyed at Xiao Mu and Chen Mu being both too nice, I do know that if they aren't that way, then they wouldn't be them, but at times it's rather frustrating to watch. YMG and SC's relationship was kind of neat in that they seem like two peas in a pod, it's too bad he ends up like a lost puppy and keep on giving instead of pulling back like he said he would.

you know those monologues that say what they do and such, i think they cut out some stuff there as well? i don't find it too abrupt honestly? maybe it's just cao dun pacing, he films meticulously but sometimes it's excessive. this drama keeps lulls me to sleep, i blame cao dun. or maybe it's 12 ep x 45mins, so 8 ep x 60mins? lol?

yeah i'm watching it. i heard it got cut 4 ep too. I get the impression it cut the more gorey scenes,

it's 60mins episodes instead of 45mins, Hunan TV have a different schedule for this slot starting from this drama.

If you are asking why it ends today, it's because on tv, it's going to air ep 4. Mangotv vip is ahead by 2 ep (ep 6) and it'll have on demand ep today for the last two ep (ep 8). Following the tv schedule, it'll end on June 15th.

3 ep about 30mins each or something, it's about planning the proposal.

I liked LYT in Bloody Romance, there were fair bit of depth in that character. This could def have been breakout role for her, Yu Zheng is good at promoting his dramas, but then he got slammed, alas. She was pretty well cast in GGS2 too as well, but that story + director had lot of issues, and the character isn't super interesting. I think her fans are bit disappointed too, but most fans sort of gave up on pushing the drama around second or third week, so it's all just non fans popcorning.

Well, Li Chengqian is one of the most well known princes, so I wouldn't be surprised if his experience contributed to Royal Nirvana's plot, since that plot is basically about "how difficult is it being a crown prince". Wasn't Luo Jin casted in RN cos of the producer? Even if Li Zefeng was casted, I'm sure they'd make him cry too :P If it's his character you are talking about, lol then I would actually watch Royal Nirvana. Cnet will tell you what flag waving dramas are good, most young cnetizens don't really care for them either. So far it's just Awakening Age (it's getting more views now than when it was airing, which is kind of hilarious), I don't think Minning Town even counts, and I don't think any of the remaining dramas will surpass them. :P Neither of them were overly in your face about flag waving till like last two episodes, which you can skip or fast forward (I still find them watchable, and interesting in the case of Awakening Age, in a visualising history way).

Hahahhahaha I love the way you write! I saw someone else describe Li Yitong's characters as always radiating Mother Teresa energy even in dark stories (like this one or Bloody Romance), so she can be bland and uninteresting. I think she might have had to be because gray characters aren't really ok by NRTA, but she definitely could show bit more conflict or they could have kept her quirk somehow.

The drama is definitely messy messy lives of inner court through eyes of FL, much like Held in Lonely Castle (Serenade in Peaceful Joy's book) was looking at tragedy of imperialism through eyes of a eunuch. I feel like this drama on paper could have so much better. If Feng Nong/scriptwriter could bring her writing in the beginning or her passion when writing Crown Prince's arc to other arcs, if the plot wasn't so weirdly misogynistic (?), if they could have kept the rebellion plot (I'm not sure if they got deleted due to trying to air on TV or is it just big budget drama gets more scruitinisation, Imperial Coroner's entire plot is technically related to rebellion but it got away unscathed, yay for small budget dramas?)

Wasn't Li Zefeng amazing in Winter Begonia too? :P I first noticed him in Go Go Squid, his character was one of the more complicated ones of the drama and he played it pretty well. He got more popular with Nothing but Thirty, where he played a terrible character but was very charismatic, I skipped out on that drama though cos it had too much that would sent me raging. He was supporting in fair few big dramas, and will be in few more slated to air dramas, He's lead in one of the celebratory dramas airing at the moment, but it's not being watched by many so I don't even know how he did there. The only thing i heard about the drama was criticism of Zhou Ye's acting (Word of Honor's Ah Xiang) so oof.

yeah that's what i mean! fandom doesn't like it cos ML doesn't have enough screen time and the romance is terribly written (?). I wanted to watch it cos i heard good things about the crown prince plot + i like that actor, but.....at the same time I think i'd be really annoy at the story if i watch it LOL.

court lady is also weirdly historically accurate apparently, which is kind of hilarious considering how outrageous it is. (i still haven't seen it and likely won't now, but knowing this amuses me.) it's also the drama that's getting the most view count despite its messy messy story and characters + not very good feedback in fandom, so there's a lot of people that's just watching and popcorning at the show.

in my experience both iqiyi and tencent usually do dramas in count of 6 because of the release schedule. they dump 8 ep on the first day to attract the audience, update for 2 days/2 ep, so it's 12 ep first week. so your 36 ep have 4 weeks for vvip, 5 for vip, maybe 6 for non vip. it's not overly short but not too long either.

they'll experiment with the release schedule every now and then. like several dramas this year had more update days in the first week to attract maximum amount of audience. and they have changed schedule from 3 to 4 days sometime to make sure enthusiasm for the drama doesn't go down too much. (but that's usually for dramas that's 40+)

iqiyi's thriller series last year was 12 ep and had like 2/2/2 and then 6 ep vvip/on demand on third day, vip wait till next week to finish, so its schedule was super short and pirate videos were everywhere. 24 ep dramas that i watched last year were like 2 update days/week, but vvip wasn't as wide spread.

youku is bit different because they are bit smaller than the other big two, and have wonkier schedule. their non vip is usually much longer to attract more sub members. i think their webdramas are also in count of 6 though lol.

Oooh I see why you were feeling mix about the ending and big bad. I did find it somewhat anticlimatic, but it was still satisfactory for me. I guess because the drama felt like it was focused on the how and why, and not who? So while I was surprised that they revealed the big bad so early, I wasn't disappointed. The mystery never invited me to really guess who and how and why, or maybe I'm just used to being an audience in mysterys series LOL.

You guys are all more elaborate than me and wrote fantastic reviews, so I don't think I'll write one, feel free to dump my simplified explanation of the background :D For those that might want to learn bit more and understand Chinese, there's:
https://www.douban.com/group/topic/226319758/
https://www.douban.com/group/topic/225733640/
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Mq4y1E7jb (video explaining historical background and major characters' rather complicated relationship. quite a bit of SPOILERs!! Video spoils up till ep 24, danmu spoils the ending.)