dramabaobao

I submitted a new photo from Bai Lu's official pictorial from last month's Tencent All Star night. Her styling is much more natural looking than the current one from Synear Foods.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bai_Lu/comments/1prxffa/bai_lus_official_pictorial_for_tencent_video_all/

Totally agree, lol. The photo is from Synear Foods. A lighter makeup would highlight her natural beauty better. Maybe a photo from one of her many fashion photo shoots

Meng Zi Yi and Dylan Wang are rumored to star in a new costume drama "The Only Daughter of a Military Family."
https://youtu.be/4XxFL3nQXCs?t=424
BTW, they have worked together in the variety show Wonderland for several seasons (she is an original cast member, now in season 5, and Dylan was in seasons 2, 3 and 4). They also appeared together in an episode of Keep Running earlier this year.

Several days ago Bai Lu discussed a complicated disease she had been dealing with in July-August when she was filming Mo Li. She says she is fully recovery now which is a good to hear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehaELDCpKn8&t=303s

Great!

One of Bai Lu's funniest KR segments was when she first became a regular cast member in 2021 (Yellow River S2) and Qin Xiao Xian intentionally caused her to be dunked in the pool saying that she needed to be punished. But Bai Lu got her revenge, and then some. And at the end of the segment Qin Xiao Xian said he didn't want to play anymore 😂
Don't mess with the queen!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgxq5sxXUb4

Article from yesterday: Zhao Lusi wages war against her agency...
https://news.mydramalist.com/article/zhao-lusi-wages-war-against-her-agency-refusing-to-stay-silent-any-longer
Excerpt:
"Because of unexpectedly falling ill, I was forced to cancel part of my brand endorsements and reduce filming workload. They kept saying they would take responsibility for my sudden illness, yet in the end, I was the one who had to pay. How can you just take money from my studio? Then [you] even tricked my finance person into signing off on the revenue split statement."

In an episode of Wonderland this season Meng Zi Yi said she was sick and feeling terrible but that someone was coming over to give her a shot. And that she'll be okay after the shot 😟

Yes, MDL counts each airdate as a separate episode. The first episode, according to ZJTV's counting, aired on April 25th and May 2nd.

This can also be confusing with variety programs that air its episodes in several parts, such as twice a week. An MDL staff member said they were going to add a box clarifying how it counts episodes for programs that have this issue.

For this program, if someone was looking for "Episode 13," they won't find it. Chen Zhe Yuan is listed on MDL as appearing in Ep.13, but can actually be found in ZJTV's Ep.12, the season finale.

For more information see discussion below.

Fair point. The influx of raters could've moved the average rating by a lot. It doesn't explain why they gave this season a low rating though. This season had some very exciting and entertaining segments. What is top of mind for raters though is usually the most recent episodes.
It probably didn't help in Ep 11 to show Zhou Shen being flung around like a rag doll by the pro basketball player in the blindfolded name tag ripping game. He has a huge fanbase and many watch KR just for him.
A user told me that the fake PD episode was a belated birthday gift to Fan Cheng Cheng. If so, they shouldn't have done it in the last episode. Bai Lu, Yuqi, Zhang Zhen Yuan, among others, also have large fanbases, and watching the season finale they might be wondering why the special focus on Fan Cheng Cheng? "Doesn't *my* star also deserve special attention and more screen time?"

If it was a belated birthday gift for FCC it shouldn't have been done in the season finale where he was given special attention among his fellow cast members. Although Bai Lu made the intro in her home town the episode didn't revolve around her.

Didn't Zhang Rou Nan receive the black rose from Zhang Kai as a result which would've meant she and FCC would've received the punishment, except for the fact that Zhang Rou Nan was able to subsequently rip another player's name tag and save the team. It was FCC and Zhang Rou Nan against Song Yan Fei and Zhang Kai. FCC is 6'1" Zhou Shen 5'3" would stayed and fought. Yuqi 5'4" would've also stayed and fought... ("girls always help girls!").

As I mentioned before, subterfuge adds an interesting element to the games. But FCC was serving as a (temporary) PD. If this was an audition it would be a fail - including stacking the team in his favor.

We really don't know if a star's on-screen-persona is different than how they are in private life. We only see what they present to the public - unless there's a scandal of course (e.g. Lucas)

Checking to see if the site added a box clarifying how it counts episodes (which is different than ZJTV's, 13 vs. 12). Not yet.

Wow, show's user rating dropped four points from 8.4 to 8.0 in one week!?
Viewers, at least international ones on MDL, must've really not like the recent episodes including the season finale.

LOL, if it was up to you the show would be re-titled FCC and his supporting cast. The show was fine before him and will be fine if he left - and I'm not suggesting he should leave. FCC is kind of obsessive about getting his screen time bringing it up on many occasions. I don't think the rest of the cast cares nearly as much. But it's kind of shameless to openly talk about it (in one episode he said "I've already gotten enough screentime...").

You completely missed my point. The show didn't need to have a fake PD episode. The writers probably thought it would be fun though given how FCC was always griping and complaining about PD Yao and the staff - that he could do a better job. In one episode he said everything about the show was bad

Why did FCC abandon teammates Zhang Ruo Nan and Sha Yi in the name-tag ripping games? The way he interacts with the staff reminds me of someone who feels he is entitled, e.g. like a nepo baby.

I've watched all the seasons, including the Special Seasons.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. IMO Bai Lu is the best addition and among the original cast members Angelababy was the best - super competitive, smart, and quick witted. Li Yun Rui has been impressive and is always cheerful.
Li Chen is probably the closest to the PD and staff. Then Zheng Kai. Sha Yi would probably be a good fake PD.

The class clown is also funny and entertaining, But you only need one in the group. And I would hesitate to let him lead anything. The only reason they even had a fake PD episode is because of FCC's complaints. Without FCC, there would be nothing to "pull off." They also had an episode in Bai Lu's hometown, one celebrating Zhou Shen's birthday, etc.

A celebrity's character is often revealed through gameplay. Player subterfuge, e.g. lying and cheating, is an interesting element of the games. But a director is expected to be fair. And evenly matched teams are more entertaining.
In the final segment, in the pool, the Temporary PD is given the task of creating the teams. And rather than trying to balance the strengths of the two teams he stacks the deck in his favor - the regular PD suggested he change it but he refused. So naturally his team wins 2-0. He also won the overall competition by lying (wearing the director's hat) to Li Yun Rui - which the regular PD also pointed out indirectly saying "Yun Rui didn't trust me"

MDL/Yuanwei explained that air dates are counted as separate episodes in order to agree with the program's calendar episode release dates:
https://kisskh.at/edit/titles/release?id=788926

I suggested adding a box in the program's Details page that clarifies how MDL counts episodes. And it looks like they will do this, which would also be helpful for variety programs that have multiple parts.

Yuanwei:
"Unfortunately, we cannot follow the numbering of the streaming sites/production companies. We tried, but it was a mess, and we had a lot of complaints about the calendar not being displayed properly."

"Now, a few users are complaining about the episode number. So we cannot please everyone. We can only find the best solution that works with our site. But yes, as a compromise, we plan to add a note about how the episodes are counted on MDL on each variety show that has this issue to avoid confusion."
~~~
Per Yuanwei's profile, s/he joined about a month after MDL was launched back in April 2011. So s/he might be fairly senior and have the authority to make changes the site

I just got a message from a MDL volunteer staff member that my edits were rejected. (Are all staff unpaid volunteers?)
The reason given was that MDL counts each air date as a separate episode. Ep 1, part 1 ("Premiere") aired on April 25th, and Ep 1, part 2 aired on May 2nd.
It doesn't look like they care if their episode numbering is different than the production company's or the confusion that it creates

👍
Yes, kudos to the director for being a good sport. He gets a lot of abuse from certain members, e.g. in Ep11 allowing himself to be sprayed with black ink. 😂 Other directors might be like "okay, no screentime for you!"😠😂
Also bravo for giving the production crew some screentime and recognition in the season finale

I sent MDL staff a message describing the issue to see what their response is.

Same issue with Wonderland, but for every episode. The variety program airs twice a week (Tues & Weds) for 10 weeks. Tencent counts each week as an episode which has two parts, e.g. Ep 1 (Part 1), Ep 1 (Part 2), etc. But per MDL that's 20 episodes!

Looks like the Episode numbers are correct for the guests except for the last episode where Chen Zhe Yuan is listed as Ep13, Also where episodes are listed for regular cast members , e.g. "Bai Lu (Ep. 4-13)"

Since Chen Zhe Yuan has many fans on MDL (flowers ranking #1 All-time), if you send the staff episode #12... "finale" that shows it includes him, they might be persuaded make the change(?). Also for the regular cast members who are also very popular, e.g. Bai Lu (#9), Zhou Shen, Yuqi. Fans may not be happy searching for "Episode 13" only to learn there is no such episode

Recall that the episode numbering was out of sync from the very beginning when ZJTV aired Ep 1 in two parts and MDL counted them as 2 separate episodes (Ep 1, Ep 2).
On YouTube/ZJTV EP1, Part 1 is now titled "EP1: Premiere Episode!" followed by EP1(Part2).

If/when you get to episode 12 you might be tempted to raid the refrigerator. That is if you're still awake 😂