Novice

Excellent dating show. Highly recommended.

No scripted scenes or scripted drama. All real. A bit slow (as it's common with Japanese shows), but very authentic.
I could actually understand every participant's point of view in this show; What type of person each one of them is, why they chose the people they chose, what each of them was looking for, why things worked out, and why they didn't.

This is really rare. There were no side characters in this show. Just humans that you can relate to.

So, is this supposed to be the Chinese version of "Begin Again" and "Moving Voices"?
Traveling with a "group of music friends", performing music for people (so Busking?), and a bit of Food display in-between.
I hope they execute it well. I love busking programs.

The one thing I'm wondering is what type of music they will play. The Korean programs work well worldwide, because of the Korean Wave and the world generally being accepting of it: K-pop, K-music in general, K-drama, K-movies. So a couple of musicians singing for strangers IN KOREAN still works. On top of that the caliber of singers is usually very high (Sohyang, Lena Park, Lee Su-Hyun from AKMU, Roy Kim, etc.)...the Korean singers on those programs are usually top tier.
Now, what would be the equivalent of Chinese artists? That's my question. Who are those "group of music friends"? Are they going to sing in Chinese? What songs? What genre? Would foreigners in any country like those songs? A lot of questions.

Again, I just hope that they execute this program well.

At this point Single's Inferno is just another mindless eye-candy show (like Love Island etc. in the west). You watch it, turn your brain off, and just coast along. Maybe it's always been like that, or maybe it changed in later seasons. I don't know. But now it definitely feels that way. There are very few genuine interactions, and it's all just vague. It's just disappointing to watch.

HOWEVER, I don't blame the participants for it. It's the producers of the show who just love this formula. They edit episodes in a way that interactions feel vague, empty, and awkward so that nothing is given away. It's kind of boring to be honest.
You watch unedited clips on TikTok or Youtube and you'll notice "ah yes, those 4 or 5 characters actually have great chemistry, different pairs, different settings, and look here the conversation is flowing, look there they get along well, look there a misunderstanding someone has instantly gets cleared up" - just very natural conversations. But then you watch the official show, and it's all randomly clipped together to create awkwardness and drama. Classic editors.

What about Midje and Nini? Are they still together? They seemed to be the most genuine to me. That's the couple I thought might actually get married and last long term. I'm just not sure if long-distance was an issue for them. Is Midie living in China? Was he just visiting?

Finished Ep5, and damn, I got this feeling again: Everyone on this show acts like a teenager, and then you have MeDie and Nini who are adults. I don't know what it is. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I enjoyed the depth of the conversation between MeDie and Nini a lot more than the other participants.
Also, when the girls came to console (or cheer up) Nini in her room, and she guided them outside slowly, I could clearly tell, that's an adult move. As if to say "you kids can go play, everything's ok" meanwhile thinking about her situation, processing events. That's mature behavior.
Then MeDie coming back again to console her, telling her that he might have spoken too harshly. That's also an adult move.
Whatever the hell is going on between those two is bittersweet, but it's appealing to me, because they are so mature about it. If we put it bluntly, it looked like Nini officially rejected MeDie, but there is still some sort of lingering understanding between those two. Some emotion.

The other participants are a bit boring to be honest. But that's just subjective. I might find them boring, but others might find them super fun and exciting, and MeDie and Nini boring. So I suppose it's personal preference.
But TO ME the other participants are quite boring. The necklace making date was boring, the golf date was boring, the sculpting date was boring.
The date between Tomo and Qiqi was fine (the wakeboarding), it was cute, they were opening up to each other and relying on each other. But again, it feels like innocent teenage love.

On the other hand, every time I see MeDie and Nini interact, I sense depth. It might not be romance...I don't know what that is...but there is some kind of chemistry or understanding between the two. It was just wonderful to see. But they had so little screen time, Jesus Christ. It's a shame. I wanted to see more.

PS: On a side note I'll say something about the production sequence. Usually the production team (and the editors) will line up events a certain way, and usually you save the most engaging or dramatic event until the very end. It's to hook the audience in at the end to have them talk about the drama and the emotions,but also to make the audience sit through all the other content first, to ensure viewer rating, and only at the end show the climax of an episode (what people probably want to see). It's done in the music industry like that (at concerts for example, saving groups and songs that are the most anticipated until the end, so that the audience doesn't leave midway), and in the Entertainment industry as well.
So even-though MeDie and Nini almost have no screen time...notice that last episode (Ep4) the focus was on their couple last (where MeDie was watering the plant...), and now in Ep5 it's MeDie and Nini's segment as the final one again. So the production team knows exactly what they are doing. Regardless of the amount of screen time, the couples are sequenced in a way that the most impactful is shown at the end, and they decided it to be MeDie and Nini. That's just something I noticed.
Also, this sequence is just for now. In future episodes it might change. We'll see.

But yeah, that's it. Thanks for reading.

If you want almost exactly the same format - hidden identities, secret room to reveal what they are hiding, choosing between love and money - then try:
- Love Catcher (Korean show)
- Love Catcher Season 2 (Korean show)
- Love Catcher in Seoul (which is Season 3, Korean show)
- Love Catcher in Bali (which is Season 4, Korean show)
- Love Catcher Japan (Japanese show)

You might also try:
- The Secret X (Chinese show)
It has nothing to do with X's by the way. No ex-boyfriends or girlfriends. It's just a show about dating with participants who are hiding their intentions. Some are there for love, some only for clout/exposure. It's a good dating show though. Give it a try.

"Fortune tellers" LOL
Oh well, at least they will be able to read clues when they speak to each other. I guess that's a plus in a way. That's all that "fortune telling" is. Someone is slightly more "attune", slightly more "sensitive to information", slightly more "perceptive to information", someone who pays that little extra attention. Reading language (spoken language and body language) and reactions of people, and then exploiting it: either guiding the client a certain way, or manipulating a certain way. All that's being used is what you give them.

I hope they don't over-analyze what's being said though. Their job is probably a serious handicap in the dating game. You'll either manipulate people all the time (which makes you an a**), or you genuinely want to date, but you're so lost in over-analyzing that you aren't natural yourself anymore, and end up having trouble forming relationships. So a "fortune teller" is either "an a**" or "troubled". Good luck.

I haven't started watching this show yet; I will give it a try now. As I explained though, the best possible character in this show that I'll probably find will be someone "troubled" (someone who's overthinking things, someone who can't form relationships easily) but genuinely trying to find love. That is the BEST scenario given their jobs; Given how much their jobs influence their own brain. All alternatives are bad characters...manipulators.

edit: As I'm watching this show it's actually hilarious. It's your regular dating with a bunch of bullsh** on top of it. They are all so in their heads, so that they are only confusing themselves. Just as I expected though, they are all sensitive to information they perceive, they overthink, and it's a handicap when dating for them.

Fun program. I'm watching this.

The coaches aren't going hard on the girls though, especially seen during the CrossFit episode. The coaches demonstrated sets without breaks, all continuous, but the girls then did something completely different where they went up against different groups...doing one exercise at a time...and resting after...and then doing another exercise completely fresh...and resting again...etc. They got too many breaks between sets, which isn't CrossFit at all. They weren't pushing their cardiovascular system.

Just to compare things; What the coaches demonstrated was CrossFit, multiple different exercises stringed continuously, where they had to pace themselves, trying to keep a steady heart rate, and literally "endure" the load of different movements without breaking down.
What the girls did was just doing one exercise, which is "the same movement", basically "sprinting" through it without regard for their heart rate, and then having a break to completely recover. After just one exercise the girls were in no shape to do the next exercise. That's how wrong they were doing it. Do you understand? That's like me wanting to run a marathon (I need to train endurance, heart rate, pace), but instead I just do sprint exercises until I can't move anymore, then rest, then spring exercises again, and rest. That is so strange...

It could be because the coaches don't want the girls to quit, so they are just making them do parts of exercises, or perhaps the producers (and coaches) are trying to drag the episodes out as much as possible, so there is more content to edit.

I wouldn't criticize it so much if it weren't for their final goal. I just hope this "soft" training (or perhaps "strange approach to training") is enough for their bodies to adapt to the eventual triathlon. I honestly hope they succeed. For now the jury is out.

I'm watching this show for Me Die (the shy guy from Kazakhstan). To me he has the most class, the best manners in that entire group. He's somewhat shy and sensitive, but with that sensitivity he reads the room well. He sees how people feel, and then his actions follow. I like him.

I know that he probably won't end up with anyone there, because let's be honest, he's sort of an outsider (a unicorn) in that group. Everyone else is bonding based on their hometowns, their language, food they've eaten as kids, and also the beauty standard they are all used to. I understand. It's like that everywhere in the world. Me Die is good looking too, don't get it twisted, but to Chinese women on this show he's still an outsider first, which is a hurdle, which they can not look past, and if they do, ONLY THEN they look for similarities. On the other hand, a random Chinese guy flashes a smile to random Chinese girl, complete strangers, and sparks fly, like teenagers they are instantly into each other. Again, I understand. Everywhere in the world it's pretty much the same. Since childhood people are used to a particular look, a particular type, and that's what it is. There usually aren't any instant sparks with outsiders. Oh well.

But objectively, I like the Me Die guy. Just high IQ, high EQ, manners, attention to detail, polite, and despite being shy he acts on his unique skills (I liked his attention to detail during the craftsmanship date, or in a later episode when he danced, it just all looked skillful [and yet polite and relatable, he isn't snobby]).

Honestly, I've watched a couple of Japanese dating shows for contrast where they had a mix of native Japanese participants and Caucasian Westerners, everyone spoke Japanese, and everyone was vibing a lot more than in this Heart Signal season. So based on my observation, even when speaking the same language fluently, Japanese dating/flirting/chemistry is a lot more compatible with Westerners than Chinese chemistry with Westerners.

I finally finished the season, and overall it's quite boring. I wouldn't recommend it. Hear me out.

The entire time in the "house" the atmosphere was mostly serious, and there was very little romance and tingling/butterflies/chemistry. It was just weird. So as a show about "love" this season is disappointing.
Even the final scenes (the confessions) seemed kind of scripted. On the one hand I totally believe certain people had feelings and wanted to make things work - I like you, you like me, ok this works, etc. - but on the other hand the events / the production was definitely scripted - the final confessions - you go there, you wait here, create a bit drama here, perhaps cry, now come together. The production just felt odd. Honestly, at the confessions I thought they all might actually fail, and it was just a display for the cameras. It was so stagnant / not believable.

If anyone is about to watch this show for the first time, I recommend going all the way to the final clips; By those I mean the trip to Disneyland the three couples made (there were lovey-dovey moments there, there was chemistry, sometimes a bit clumsy, but it felt romantic for sure), and the short clips after the show. That's all you need to see. At least there is some chemistry there. During the entire show (in the house) there was hardly any.

I was about to suggest this dating show to you (but you're already here, so no need to recommend it), since you mentioned you were looking for a "mature dating show" on the Love Actually S3 page. So you'll probably like this "Last Love" show. The contestants here are in their 40s and 50s. It's definitely a different league of dating (everyone has an established life already). Interesting to see how it develops.

I'll go and finish "Yes, I Do Season 5 / I'm So Into You S5" first. It's one of those recent 2024 shows too (aired May to Aug 2024) that I haven't touched yet. By the time I finish, more episodes of Last Love and possible other shows will be out as well. :)

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll go check out iQIYI. :)

I put my post in a Spoiler tag so save space. The post is too long, and I don't want it to occupy too much space on the page. In a Spoiler tag it's hidden, nice and compact. That's the only reason. Keep reading if you want an explanation on the translation AIs for Chinese to English.

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I noticed that all translations on videos on the web - between Chinese and English - always get personal pronouns wrong: I, you, he/she/it, we, they. ALWAYS. (Possessive Pronouns too...my, your, his, her, its, ours, theirs) Anyway, here comes my point.

It's literally on all translations on youtube, iqiyi, bilibili, etc. That's how you can tell that it's translated by an AI/machine, and not a human being. AI just doesn't take context into account at all, and the pronouns are wrong most of the time.

So for example you end up with a conversation like this. It's supposed to be something along the lines:
"When we first me I was nervous and couldn't look at her.
She looked cold on the outside, so I was hesitant to approach her.
I'm usually outgoing, but I was surprised by her attitude, so I held back."

...but the AI translation (on iQIYI and on Youtube) gives you this:
"When I first met me I was nervous and couldn't look at him.
I looked cold on the outside, so she was hesitant to approach her.
He's usually outgoing, but she was surprised by my attitude, so I held back."

Personal (and Possessive) Pronouns are all over the place basically. Wrong grammar. Some sentences lose meaning, some you can vaguely make out.
That's what you can expect when you watch Chinese dating show translations. It's sad, but they are all translated by AI, so you get this weird English sub when you watch them.
I'm still grateful. It's better to have at least this type of sub (where you can guess what's being said) rather than nothing at all. But it's definitely something I noticed. I think it's been like this for 10+ years now: broken English translations by AI (or by translation websites/scripts that are being used), and it hasn't improved one bit. A human translator at a short glance at the material would instantly correct all pronouns and make the sentences make sense. But no human is doing this.

A bit of a rant here. I ask myself: "Is it really that hard to translate pronouns properly from Chinese to English (to program it into AI correctly)?" The answer is, "I don't know". Maybe it is. I THINK in Chinese a lot of sentences are formulated in a "passive voice" where the pronoun is not important, or is not mentioned at all.
"Passive voice" like you would say in English "The car was cleaned" for example. It doesn't say who cleaned the car, but the translation AI is trying to translate it into "active voice" in English, guessing who cleaned whose car, and picking random pronouns to insert there, and that's what probably causing problems. So you have a language that uses passive, after passive, after passive, after passive most of the time, but is being translated into weird "active voice" sentences. I think that's what's going on.

- Divorced Singles (there are several season of this, and some of the participants have children, etc. )
- I Am Solo (I think they only have mature participants there, 30s, 40s, and 50s, people with lives...who try to find partners)

Only 2 episodes out, and even those are hard to find on the web. I've seen cut up clips of the episodes on youtube, and the singing was really high quality there. Wish there was more; However, at this point I don't even know if the show is concluded or still airing. I think it's done.
Two weeks have passed without an Episode 3. What a shame. This show had great potential. I'm a connoisseur of good music shows, and I'm sad to see this one being cut short. :(

Yup, this one should be coming to different websites soon (perhaps in a week?).

Today's the 26th of November 2023 and there's a 22min clip on MBC's Youtube channel featuring scenes from this new season. I looked around the web, but there still aren't any official "episodes" out. Season 3 of Adventure By Accident is nowhere to be found yet. I'm looking forward to it though.

Nicely put. They literally edited out a whole relationship on a dating show.

I think I've watched all Korean and Chinese dating shows that are out there. I'm up-to-date on all of them, and right now I'm discovering a Japanese one: "Shuffle Island" seasons 1, 2, 3, and 4. Pretty good too.
They have girls on one island in the tropics, and boys on another island, and every day the girls and the boys vote to transfer someone from the other island to theirs, or they go to the other island themselves...to meet the boy or girl they like. They don't have any scripts either. Just natural interaction. It's not amateurish. The show is well produced, so don't worry about that. It's pretty cool. Contestants are usually between 19 and 29 or so. Most Shuffle Island seasons don't have any subs though. Just RAW Japanese.

So that's something I would add to a show to watch, if you already through with most of the Korean and Chinese ones.

I agree the editing is horrendous. The producers kept it up until the very end. This is just complete dogshit.
Ep15 is about 1h55min long. The scripted talks all happened, the couples chosen, the episode is almost over...and then basically in the outro at 1h51min they start showing flashbacks how YS went to MGs room 4 times and they talked.
This was COMPLETELY cut in the show. They literally showed us a couple seconds of their interaction in the show. They could have just showed all the MG YS conversations in the house in full as they were happening in each episode, and the viewers would have understood how those two bonded in the house over time, and why MG and JY drifted apart slowly. We weren't shown it though, so it makes absolutely no sense. That's why MG's choice on the trip came as a such a surprise to the viewers. Why didn't he choose JY for his last date? Why did he choose YS? It didn't make sense (because all the interactions were cut). And this choice on the trip [I think] hurt JY the most.
This entire show was a scripted, edited, drama production. More "fake/produced" than "reality" from a production point of view. I think that's the wrong approach for a "romance reality show".

The viewers were so mislead.
The way I understood the finale, reading between the lines.... is that JY likes/liked MG a lot until the end (even after the trip selection at the table), but he pushed her away more and more. MG was ignoring JY in the house more often than not, but was having multiple long talks with YS (which the viewers weren't shown). So because MG chose YS at the end, JY had to choose someone else. To me this is what it looks like.
The 2 hugs between JY and GR after the finale are so awkward, Jesus Christ. That's literally how I hug my grandmother, trying to avoid her face, so she doesn't kiss me. The good old shoulder hug, sometimes with your hands inbetween too.
The MG YS footage after the finale looks somewhat OK I suppose, but even there the producers cut away whenever they go for a hug (or a kiss it looks like), as to keep the relationship vague and unclear. Bad editing until the end.
I'm looking forward to the AfterShow episode, and how awkward JY will be sitting next to MG...the guy she likes...but who chose another girl. It is what it is.

Honestly, I don't mind the choices. It's just life. Relationships. I DO mind when interactions are being edited by producers to spin drama and fakeness. This irks me a lot.

Yes, this right here. Scripted scenes and editing throughout. I'm on Ep13, it's almost the finale, and the PDs still spin the scenes as if there was uncertainty - drama, cut scenes, edited snippets one after the other - this production and editing is just bad.

This season is extremely produced. There is almost no reality in it. It's so god damn fake!
Watch it with a grain of salt guys and girls. This isn't something you should get invested to. Don't expect any couples after the show. It's all just drama tv. Disappointing.

I like the glasses guy so far. We only have Ep1, part 1, part 2, and part 3 out so far, so my opinion of him might change in the future, but so far so good. Just to make it clear; By "glasses guy" we are talking about the guy with the HUGE reading glasses that cover half his face, and at the dinner table in part 3 he wasn't wearing his glasses at all to make a better impression. That guy.

He really seems like an intellectual. In the couple minutes I saw him interact at the dinner table with the girl 1on1, and later in a bigger group setting (that was Ep1 part 3 I believe), he was very composed, approachable, intelligent, perceptive, and gentle with the girl. To me, so far, he is the only real person on this show: inviting emotions in, talking about childhood, principles, guiding the conversation. He just seems real.

Everyone else is just being smiley - still in the polite phase, trying to keep a friendly persona up, making jokes, and grinning/smiling a lot. Their mouth's are smiling, but their eyes aren't. There are many scenes where I noticed that. A lot of forced smiles. Nobody showed their real selves yet. Nobody has opened up.
The glasses guy, at least the way I perceived it, was opening up straight away. I like him.