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Boring

To be brief this is an incredibly boring and deeply predictable show with little substance to any of its characters or proper thought towards the overall plot.

To be less brief, Coroners Diary clearly went in with good intent but failed to reach anything that I think it aspired to. The acting was fine but the characters were bland and one note. Even though they tried to give Shen Wan depth and make her seem like there was layers the writing did not reflect that. Slowly giving her more emotions would work if they did it in parts but the made her a serious mary sue and then all of a sudden were like whoops need her to smile some more. Yan Chi was fun but again boring and deeply deeply unrealistic, they made him a mary sue too. I also have the maybe controversial opinion that Li Landi and Ao Ruipeng had absolutely no chemistry as Shen Wan and Yan Chi, like I did not believe them in love for even a second. For a show that is primarily a romance that's severely disappointing!!

As for the plot, I decided to drop the show because I got to ep 23 and there was absolutely no progress in the original mystery/goal of the show. As much as I love an episodal mystery there should be better tie-ins to the original intention, otherwise it makes it look like the writers just forgot it. And the mysteries were not great either unfortunately. They were either too predictable and handed the answer to the audience wayy too early on or were completely nonsensical and left you in the complete dark until the mc magically discovered the answer. This lack of balance made it hard to want to invest in the mysteries.

The directing was also very distracting. The director was clearly trying to establish a pattern with his shots with the focus switches to different plants/objects but it was really distracting and not well done. None of the other shots that were set up to be interesting quite hit the mark either but the editing kept it coherent.

I wish there had been more thought to the balance of the episodes and the way the characters develop. The acting was fine, visually it was okay, some of the villains were interesting. Unfortunately nothing can save a romance without chemistry or a mystery that never comes to full fruition.

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The most okay series ive ever watched

Love Game in Eastern Fantasy was such a genuinely mid series its hard to write a good review on it. The bad parts balanced out with the good parts and left me feeling conflicted on whether or not I should finish it until literally the very end.

Acting: Shockingly subpar. The character writing was all over the place with some characters getting such genuinely bad writing, like the literal main character Ling Miaomiao, that no acting could save them but even then most of the main performances felt pretty weak. I literally watched the show for Yu Shuxin and felt like it was arguably her worst performance to date. Ding Yuxi was actually quite good, his character definitely allowing for more emotional range but the other main actors never stopped feeling stiff in their performance. If the entire show was actually framed like they were supposed to be acting as book characters the performances would have made more sense but they were supposed to become more human and their acting alongside that never really got better. However, I do think a bunch of the side characters had spectacular performances and really made it up for me. Gou Xiu, Lu Huai'an, and especially Luiniang's actors all had phenomenal performances.

Characters: The characters were all pretty one note outside of Mu Sheng. Like all their supposed character growth from the storyline's being changed kept happening with such little fanfare that it didn't actually feel like growth. And you had to keep being told they were changing or why what they were doing was so important to the character, it did not add any life into these people. Mu Sheng/Ziqi having all these growths and changes was literally the entire plot of the show so he was well developed but very much at the expense of everyone else. Ling Miaomiao did not escape this side-lining either. Like her character changes were never really about her, they were more about how she felt towards someone else, so you can't call that growth either. I wouldn't say I disliked any of the main characters but they were all kind of boring.

Writing/storyline: STOP PUTTING RANDOM CHILDREN AS A MAIN CHARACTER. I do not care if they were in the book stop it! Its never not annoying! Outside of that the writing was weird. The show was oddly paced and there was a lot of twists/resolutions that had absolutely no build up to them. The overreaching plot of LMM trying to complete the game was disappointingly sidelined like a bunch of times but that may just be my preferences for isekais butting in. The in-game plot of fixing the bad endings and finding the Resentful Woman was decent and well focused on, with the sideplots actually supporting it well even if they dragged a bit. I can see that they wanted to have a "everything is connected" moment in the last couple of episodes but it did not have a strong impact when you weren't given any lead-up to it. The very final twist of Fu Zhou would have been better if there was literally any foreshadowing but it wasn't a bad twist and I like happy endings so I'm not complaining about that. There was also some really poorly utilized plot points that I am guessing came from the book that they just wanted to pigeonhole in. LMM losing her memory of reality was done terribly, as the prime example. They also stopped really incorporating the "game" element of the show after the first episode. There was also weirdly good comedy in it.

Directing/Editing: Terrible editing, like distressingly bad all the time. There were so many cuts in so many scenes that did not need them, with scenes also cutting off at awkward times or starting at random places. All of the fight scenes were also super weirdly edited but that may have been the directing instead, but yeah bad fight scenes. The choreo was uninspiring and with so many cuts it was clear they were not doing anything impressive. The special effects were nothing special despite them trying to be funny about it and I think the director needs to be wacked for some of his choices. There was a scene were there was multiple lines of dialog back and forth between MS and Luinian and Luiniang was not in focus once. Visually the show was fine, nothing special but not ugly.

I realize i wrote a lot for a show I said was mid but it really did have such an odd mix of good and bad that there was a lot to comment on. Would not rewatch and kind of regret actually putting in the time to finish instead of just looking up the ending but oh well. Not the worst show I've ever seen, not even the worst I've watched this month so good for them.

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Peak HeiHua

This felt like an apology for the abysmal dynamics/writing of Hei Xiazi in the Reunion series. They brought back arguably the best actor for Xiazi and Ji Xiabing made a perfect Xie Yuchen, with their chemistry and character writing showing one of the best dynamics between HeiHua. Perfect communication and teamwork while the teasing fights and slightly homoerotic relationship was well portrayed. I appreciated how it showed Xiao Hua at his best - flipping all over the place and using his power to help those he cares about.

The story was simple and mostly self-contained, with a good motivation and well wrapped up ending. The visuals were decent for what was clearly limited time and budget and the fight sequences were well planned out and fun to watch. The fight scene around the coffin was especially fun! The first half hour was a bit too fast-paced to get all the setup going but then the director when lowkey god-mode at minute 30 with one of the best directed sequences in any of the Lost Tomb series. The rest of the movie was done at a reasonable pace, directing, and editing, and the side characters were simple but acted well in their roles.

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Kim Sehyun was the better lead!!!

I'm writing this review with bias but also with the intention of judging it as a sequel rather than a stand alone. (The with bias is because I personally love it so my subjectivity will leak in a bit)


As a sequel the cast and crew had a very hard task of taking an established world and completely changing the genre of it. Go Yohan's actor dropping out is, in my opinion, arguably the best thing that could have happened to the series. He was a) not a good actor and I need everyone to stop pretending otherwise and b) the reason why the first season was a romance and was also the reason why the second season could NOT be a romance. When the entire premise of the first season is that him and Yeonwoo are this destined couple and they're so in love that Yeonwoo tried to kill himself rather than even think of hurting him, you can't just move on in a second from that.

The production had to make a hard left turn where they took the established premise and hints that were dropped in the first season and continue on with that as best as they could. And I think they did a really good job. Despite it originally being a romance, the premise of the world in Color Rush is kind of horrifying. The treatment of Mono's, the extremes Yeonwoo was willing to go to, the mystery of his mom; It was all there in the first season, just unexplored. So making the decision to focus on that and turn it into a more serious mystery/action show was smart and kept as much consistency as they could.

There are big pros and cons to this season.

The cons are that it does feel jarring when you start and they have to make up why Yohan is gone by using CLOWN COSTUMES that are then never explained. As well the production budget feels lower and the story has to move at a much faster pace to fit everything in, leaving some scenes feeling choppy or plot points rushed. Also them being in high school still makes absolutely no sense in context with the series. There are also none of the black and white world shown which is sad because it was a cool effect in the first season and had a strong impact when done right.

The pros!! The introduction of Kim Sehyun as a character was the single strongest change they could have made. Not only does Mr Hyuk from Vixx have 100x the acting abilities, he also has 100x the chemistry with Yoo Jun (Choi Yeonwoo's actor). They have a much more natural flow as both friends and potential love interests. The storyline of Kim Sehyun losing his sister to the curse of being a Mono was deeply touching to me and all of the scenes surrounding them make me want to throw up they're so good. Sehyun as a Mono is an amazing foil to Yohan as a Probe and really opened the world up. Like I mentioned before I really liked the storyline this season because it follows the horrors of the world more, and though they're kind dumb in the execution it was still really interesting to see how different people are effected by being a Mono. The acting this season was overall better, as each character got more time to shine (like Yoo Yirang!!) and the growth of the characters was much more subtle and natural. Yoo Jun as Choi Yeonwoo was once again the star of the show, he really does a great job in bringing such much life and conflict to the character.

I've rewatched this season like 4 times so like i said i am biased but as a sequel I think it by far surpasses the first season, especially with the conditions the production were working with.

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I love you spirealm

I lovveeeeee The Spirealm. Having watched it before there were proper subtitles and read the webnovel it's based on (Kaleidoscope of death) I think they were able to make an incredibly world come to life, with storytelling that went beyond even the need for language some times!

To begin with, there were a lot of changes made between the original novel and the drama. Maybe controversial but I actually like The Spirealm better than KOD. There is a lot more elaboration in the drama on the stories in the doors, making them the focus rather than the character, and the ending is arguably more coherent. Though there were some doors I wish they had included, I think all the decision made in adapting it to a live-action made sense and were, for the most part, for the better. I understand that censorship forced it to be a "bromance" rather than a romance but mannnn there was a reason it was forced off 2 hours after it originally dropped.

Acting: The acting in the show was probably the weakest part of it, which is saying something because it was still very good. Xia Zhiguang was so good as Ruan Lanzhu it made me forget he is an enemy of mine (in r1se). He perfectly embodied the character as someone who is both mischievous but also clearly very powerful and smart. He nails the subtleties in switching between RLZ in-doors and RLZ out of doors. The chemistry between him and Huang Junjie as Ling Jiushi, read as romantic or platonic, was fantastic. They work seamlessly as partners and their emotional moments are deeply touching because you really believe how much they care for each other. While Huang Junjie is not the best in the show he plays LJS well, clearly getting better in the role as the show goes on and he is allowed to be more jaded and emotional. Most of the side characters hold up just as well against the main pair, with even the door NPCs doing a solid job. Liu Ruogu absolutely kills it in the dual role as 2 very different people and carries his emotional scenes.

Characters: I love you Ruan Lanzhu, one of the greatest to ever do it. A deeply complex character who has mysterious motivations and seemingly multiple personalities. He is a joy to watch and try to figure out and also is just really cool. LJS is a refreshing foil to him, much more straightforward of a character and much more reliable in who he is. Its a key point in his personality that he is essentially unchanging but how his character is able to subtly develop in the show adds to the depth. Almost every character is given a personality and motivation for why they are the way they are, even side characters that are killed off. It makes the world of the show so rich and really lets you connect with every character. The re-occuring characters are such a delight, there is someone for everyone as they are all very different and interesting (Tan Zaozao my love) and all serve a different purpose.

Visuals: I think this show is near perfect in terms of visuals. The use of practical sets and props plays a massive role in this. They kept most of the doors very limited in their space but they were all so beautifully designed it didn't feel trapped. You could feel the wealth of these worlds in the set designs. Yes there was some cheesy CGI but I don't think there was any world in which there wasn't considering its a show with supernatural elements. The door masters were also really well done. Keeping them more visually simple meant that the little things that made them inhumane were striking. Directing was also spot on, there was nothing i noticed that stood out in a bad way which is very rare for such an elaborate show.

Storyline: Like I said, I actually like the drama better than the novel because the drama took more time to add to the stories in the doors. By giving more thought into the doors they were much more engaging and allowed the characters in them to develop in a way that showed, not told, us the audience they were developing. I also really liked the mysteries, they were fun and left hints along the way so you were able to start guessing the mystery along with the characters. The story gave the audience time to understand what was going on rather than forcing the plot too fast. While there were obviously things that could never be guessed by the audience I don't think there was any door you couldn't engage with even a little. There was also a good balance with the overall plot (beating the game/finding out why it involved LJS friend) and each of the subplots in the doors. For as much as it is an action/mystery show, the heart of the story is how the characters connect with one another. The emotional beats are strong and feel justified. Making the doors a game and some sort of Chinese national pride thing is pretty funny but it doesn't take anything away from the show in the end so its whatever.

I once said The Spirealm was a bad adaptation but a better show for it and I still believe that! I personally love this show and have rewatched multiple times so I cannot recommend it enough!

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Everyone involved in this should have burned the script

Plain and simple I hate this show. There are a shocking number of high reviews and I frankly don't believe any of them are for the actual show, rather Lay's fans. Now I like Lay but this was an very poor choice in drama, the same goes for everyone else involved in it. There are a ton of actors in this show that have been in great stuff and know how to act and you would simply never know watching this show.

It's clear this show was trying to ride off the coattails of The Lost Tomb / Mystic Nine popularity, which is not a bad thing, but literally everything else about it is bad.

Acting: Like I said there are some great actors in this. Wang Zixuan is my darling and just the year before this she was spectacular in TienTsin Mystic. I don't know what happened that made her unbearable and also seem like a bad actor here. The same thing happens to the other main characters. Lay is not the strongest actor and though they tried to play to his strengths in this role (lowkey he fits this better than he did Er Yue Hong) his characters was not good and he couldn't make me believe he was anyone but himself.

Characters: Every character is kind of bad. None of them grow as characters on their own and they are all kind of stupid sans Zhaung Rui who is not only special because of his eyes but also is a genius but hes too humble and sweet for that. Mary sue main character to the maximum. The side characters are not given much personality aside from one defining trait, the best friend being the best example. They also make everyone deeply incompetent at what is supposed to be their job, just to prop Zhuang Rui up.

Script: Horrendous. The plot moves too fast and yet somehow repeats itself over and over again. They are constantly info dumping, like constantly and for such long periods of time. There's also a massive disconnect between scenes a lot of the time and maybe it was censorship but like that would have to be a lot of censorship for it to happen every 4 scenes.

Filming/Directing: Speaking of disconnects, this show has some of the worst filming and directing I've ever seen. The reason I eventually had to drop the show is because there was a scene where two characters are talking for like 5 minutes and one person is the foreground, out of focus, the entire scene. I could not take it anymore. There are a ton of camera mistakes and visible filming errors and the scenes where the director was clearly trying to add drama look so bad and out of place. Also the sets were not good! If you're going to be doing a tomb raiding show make your sets look good!! That's the whole point!!!

I really tried my best to find anything redeeming in this show and aside from the occasional joke I couldn't.

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