I've watched up to episode 4. I'm wondering if ML maybe has a chronic illness of some kind. It seems like there's a lot of different food he can't eat/tolerate, and he is sensitive to dirt and bacteria. Right now FL thinks he is just uptight because he's a rich city boy, but I'm wondering if there might be more to it?
This show reminds me so much of Douluo Continent - much more like watching a cartoon or a kids' show than an adult story. My only "complaint" so far is how emaciated the FL is - I feel bad that actresses in China have to diet to such an extreme. It doesn't look healthy to me, but that's just my opinion.
This show is a bit like eating your vegetables. I know it's supposed to be edifying, but it's just not very exciting. I really wish it was - there are so many good actors in it! I'm also very much interested in Chinese contemporary life and culture. But it's just SO. DRY.
I was comparing this in my head to the American show, The Wire, which is also all about small local government goings-on. I think the difference in The Wire is that its political message isn't delivered/approved by the American government - it's actually a critique of the American political system. But when you try to have a topical drama like this in China, it could never have that same level of social commentary because of censorship.
What I love about Hao Jia's story is that it not only shows how terrible the concubine system was for women, it also shows how the cycle kept perpetuating itself, and how difficult it was for women to escape their circumstances. And Zheng mentions domestic abuse in this episode, too - so it's clearly also a commentary on modern-day domestic abuse, and how it's still hard for women to escape their circumstances now. It's easy to tell a woman who's being abused to "just leave", but the situation is clearly complex, and this show demonstrates that so well.
I was comparing this in my head to the American show, The Wire, which is also all about small local government goings-on. I think the difference in The Wire is that its political message isn't delivered/approved by the American government - it's actually a critique of the American political system. But when you try to have a topical drama like this in China, it could never have that same level of social commentary because of censorship.