Swivla

Early review notes

Jotting down some notes early; I have only watched about 15 eps so far

[Update: Completed -- My previous thoughts below pretty much look like they are still accurate. The final arc moved at a fast pace, just completing each beat without much fanfare. Frequently characters just state the situation outright, without any nuance to actually portraying the situation, and then move on to the next generic genre trope for a final arc. Final antagonist has no motivation of character development. First half much better than second half.]

OVERALL:

The good is very good but the bad is so annoying that multiple plotlines are begging to be skipped. And skipping without dropping is not something I normally do.

THE GOOD:

Everything is beautiful. The costumes. The sets. Everything is boldly colored and elaborately designed. Visually a joy to watch.

Lots of magic. This is fully fantasy, magic is everywhere. The fantastical world is rich and detailed.

The FL gives an excellent performance, taking the role seriously and infusing nuance into the portrayal.

The FL's character writing is much stronger than this genre usually does. She is portrayed as smart and determined, and it isn't just lip service -- it is SHOWN in intuitive ways. She figures things out alongside the audience. She makes strategic decisions and plans based on her knowledge. While there is still a "beauty and the beast" dynamic, (most of) her situations are not just being damseled, she actually has a lot of agency, and even when she doesn't, she still acts appropriately based on the established strength of character. A very refreshing portrayal of FL strength, without just "claiming she's a general" and then failing to show it in practical ways.

A few standout performances by the support cast.

THE BAD:

Rushed romance. Not just for the leads, all the romance plotlines are just suddenly "love at first glance" without any support or transition from actual experiences/scenes.

Obnoxiously over the top humor. There are entire groups that just behave incomprehensibly stupid, which is both frustrating that their motivations and choices constantly don't align, but also that it seems to be just draped in dumb comedy to make it more palatable. It fails. The worst part is that we linger in these situations for very long scenes and return to repeat them frequently. Spending this much focus on entire scenes of people we don't care about and doing things that are not enjoyable to watch, is exhausting.

The 2ML is a very attractive actor that only does 1 note. Perhaps it is the writing's fault for giving him nothing to work with, but either way it quickly goes from being annoying to completely frustrating to watch the same exact loop over and over and always have 1 expression ever on his face.

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Cute cute cuuute

THE GOOD

This show is so cute!

The actors have great chemistry.

Many of the little moments feel very organic, as though the actors were allowed to experiment and try things.

The costume styling is all super fun.

Some nicely impactful and emotional moments and personal growth. Especially for the leading characters. Also some more complicated topics about love and life and flaws are engaged, if only briefly.

Each episode is engaging and has its own stuff going on. Nothing drags and nothing feels like filler.

Having a secondary couple at an older age range is nice for those of us getting too old for the new-adult age range of the main leads.

The music is really well utilized, pairing with emotional moments and then calling back to the familiar melodies. This soundtrack is going to stick with me for a long time.

THE BAD

To be honest, some of the writing and directing is not very polished. Sometimes character motivations just don't seem very thought out. If all the cuteness and vibes weren't as great as they were, then I probably would have been more bothered by this.

Not a lot of depth to many plot points. In general, many of the plot points, and character arcs are somewhat lacking. Again, this seems to work as long as you are enjoying the show as "light and fun", but a more serious viewing would probably find things to be a bit superficial and breezed over.

There are some moments where it feels like they should have done another take, which contributes to the overall feeling that this production was a bit amateurish. I gave this aspect a pass because it seems to be a tradeoff for the more organic moments that we got -- they seemed to favor letting the actors feel out the scenes and just find things that work, rather than mapping out and performing specific expressions and gestures.

Typical for this genre, people who do bad get the lowest possible consequences for their actions. Nearly no accountability.

THE NOT FOR ME

This show focuses heavily on the new-adult aged leads, who are arguably portrayed as being even younger and more childish than their characters ages, which are already very young. They are like barely 20 and styling themselves as tween influencers.

This is oddly combined with the 18+ rating which is ...heavily utilized. There is a lot of focus on ...spicy scenes. Which is fine for the audience that is looking for that, but is odd when this is broadly a very "cutesy" show (Watch the title sequence and tell me if you expect graphic sex scenes). Other shows in this genre usually make a clearer choice when focusing on very young couples to limit the love scene portrayal to some degree, or to focus those scenes on the older couples instead, but this show doesn't bother doing that at all.

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Cute and cozy couple

This show was amazinggg

THE GOOD

The main couple's chemistry is amazing.

The show spends tons of time focusing on the coziest moments. This is what I'm here for, and they gave me LOTS.

The secondary couple is also amazing. Both amazing actors and portrayed really complex/nuanced characters. Their future work as leads is going to be incredible.

We actually get some complex and imperfect characters and treat their problems in an earnest way. I really thought I would hate you the whole time, and I ended up caring about you so much ^_^

THE WHATEVER

Omg there was SO much PPL it had to be an actual record. But also I never really minded it because its just like "watch your favorite cozy couple be cozy and use a product" so like I am happy to do so.

There is some crazy melodrama plot points. Some iffy things and some things that are wild but then never revisited.

THE BAD

This genre has a bad habit of not actually giving satisfying resolutions to the people who do bad things.

The age gap is a bit icky. Just the young one is a bit too "cusp of adulthood" for an age gap relationship imo. It didn't help that the older actor is actually even older irl PLUS her characterization was "cold" so she comes across as even more mature PLUS they actively lean into the age gap dynamic

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Better than many

This review is mostly for my own personal tastes. If you are curious, you can look over the GOOD list for some highlights, but the BAD list is very much focused on what doesn't suit *my personal* tastes, rather than actually being bad.

The high level overview is that this is a really well done show, but I personally am not a big fan of intrigue/politics/power dynamics and those things are very much the center of this drama. For me, the romance is not well done and the slice of life moments are weak, which means I probably won't finish it.

THE GOOD:

The FL absolutely kills in this. If she was more centered in this drama, I would have been in love with it.

The cinematography is very strong. Many things are done very well, especially the action. And as a bonus, it seems like they were willing to be a bit artistic and add some personal style, so things are not just "standard" the way every other drama directs/edits things. Love to see productions that are innovating.

The action is very well done. Especially the FL, has got to be the most convincing action sequences I've ever seen from an FL. As well as being just dynamic and engaging choreography/camerawork. For a taste of that, you can simply watch the first 10 minutes. It is immediately intense and captivating. The rest of the show doesn't quite get that intense again, but still some cool scenes.

The costuming is gorgeous. Bold colors and elaborate detailing are all a joy to look at. Each character gets distinct and thought out color palettes in their wardrobes, just A+.

Some excellent supporting actors. Especially the doctor and the ML's right-hand man. I hope they are both being noticed, because the whole time I am thinking they should be leading actors, they are that vibrant.

THE BAD:

For me, it is just really frustrating to keep seeing the same "I'm bad and actively cruel to the FL" Beauty and the Beast tropes, especially when they are not well supported with motivations.

That dynamic is doubled down with another tired amnesia trope. So in addition to abusive behaviors we will get endless gaslighting. Just exhausting writing choices.

It is such a common plot at this point that there must be an audience that likes this, but just how long do you have to watch a show for anyone's motivations to be clear? 10eps 20eps? It is way too long that you ask me to "just sit through it" for some distant payoff, that in my experience is rarely actually that profound. Maybe this one is different, but I will probably never get far enough to find out.

Did I mention unnecessary abuse and gaslighting? Sure, well, lets add to that pile that the "strong FL" (Who the FL portrays very well) is just continuously declawed by the writing. So far she is just a victim over and over again, and even when she does have a heroic moment, she will still fail at the last moment so the ML can swoop in and take all the glory. Just very heavy-handed heteronormative writing, despite centering on "women can do anything even be a general". If you want to write a damsel story, just write a damsel? Setting up the FL as a strong and independent person and literally cutting her ability to fight and making her a "happy prisoner" is actually infuriating.

Okay that is probably enough to remind me of my general feelings, should I ever try to come back to watch more of this. There is also just a lot of weak writing and convenient writing (forced misunderstandings, characters doing things for no reason other than to cycle back to another pass of "oh he's a bad boy, but not REALLY", etc) But I don't think I need to go through all of that. Just stuff that is annoying if you aren't into the specific sub-genre.

Maybe I will be back, because the FL is really cool and I am still a bit hopeful that the doctor gets a more detailed arc. But probably not, unless I want something in the background that I can ignore 85% of.

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If you're looking for light comedy

Flash review--

So the reception on this one is pretty mixed, and I will try to summarize why I think that is, as well as what I personally cared about.

*NOTE: I only watched 3 eps

OVERALL

If you like silly comedy and aren't going to take things too seriously, you may have a lot of fun.

Personally, I am not a big comedy person and have a hard time turning my brain off, so this was not for me. The rest of this review is about what I personally liked/disliked. So like, don't just take my opinion man, there is nothing wrong with liking what you like. Go have fun, hopefully the above review can help you make the decision as to whether its a good fit for you

THE GOOD

Suzy is pretty much good in this, maybe some things could be a bit better but I don't think she is a problem in this.

Her grandmother and the surrounding community are great. Both in being interesting to watch and what the writing does with their setup is interesting and potentially really important portrayal related to mental health and diversity.

The ML is hot. His acting is probably fine but, for me, the writing made him the focus of my problems with this show (See below)

THE BAD

The writing is just sloppy and half-hearted. Especially when it comes to the ML's motivations and behavior as well as the fundamentals of how magic works and what it means for the characters in the story. I had to turn my brain off and then turn my brain off again. And I still dropped it, because it was that pervasive.

The comedy is very ...well, I struggled (and failed) to think of an accurate way to describe it that wasn't mean. I don't want to bully people who like this type of comedy, but my eyes have limits to how much they can roll.

This show doesn't handle any topic with care. The flippant use of cultural stuff around genies is a pretty obvious issue that many people are accepting. But perhaps less talked about is the cartoonish portrayal of an actual mental health condition. It barely reflects the actual Antisocial Personality Disorder, and (as far as I watched) constantly plays it for laughs about the "psychopath". I am still a little hopeful that the rest of the show at least does SOMETHING good with the topic, which may actually be the case from what I saw about the community accepting her and raising her, but the comedy seems to mostly just play it for laughs.

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Mediocre Fantasy

Very mediocre drama. Watched ~11 eps, may put it on in the background to see where it goes, but spent more time being confused and frustrated by the writing than enjoying myself.

The good:
- As a fantasy production it is pretty decently put together. Not poorly produced, decent effects, decent filming angles etc
- There are some characters with charm, though a lot of this falls apart when the writing muddles their personalities and motivations. I feel like the actors were probably good, but the scenes and arcs that were written for them just failed their characters
- If you want to watch a show with intention to heckle it, turn on comments and there's a stack of people just laughing at it or tearing it apart

The bad:
The writing is really frustrating in its lack of consistency and its lack of respect for character motivations.

The FL:
Her characterization jumps all over the place, is she clever or an idiot, is she strong and willful or a baby. She doesn't feel consistent at all. In theory she starts out as having grown up on the streets among younger street kids who she takes care of, but as soon as she is off the streets she becomes the ultimate spoiled child. There is no sense that she has street smarts, she is completely gullible, and she acts like a total dependent child - there is no sign at all that she used to shoulder all the responsibility for a group of kids. She is shown to have never relied on anyone when she was homeless, but immediately just becomes completely dependent on every man we encounter once the show starts.

To that point, the FL is regularly portrayed as child-like when around any men, while they are almost universally portrayed as interested in her. It really gets to be pretty creepy with the grooming and possessive vibes, to a degree that even many xianxia "cutesy" FL's don't come across this bad.

Eventually as we forget that she was ever a street kid, and accept her new baby persona, the writing still can't stay consistent. Will she suddenly be willful or will she just let people push her around? Will she suddenly inexplicably be competent and powerful or will she just be mowed over? Will she make the absolute dumbest decisions just because the writers need to set up a misunderstanding plotline, or a persecution plotline? It all just jumps all over the place, and it makes it really hard to stay engaged and invested.

The ML:
Is a wooden block at best, but seems to just be grooming and keeping the FL isolated and we are meant to take it as romantic? Ew.

Other characters:
Too many love interests, basically every man we encounter, and almost all of them give no reason to care or root for them. Personally the most annoying is these romantic interests are regularly just totally disregarding the FLs autonomy. Tons of wrist grabbing and talking over her and "pushy flirting" which is really gross.

Basically no women anywhere. The only other woman in this show is the "bully" who also will be portrayed just as inconsistently in power and authority just suddenly ramping up, despite her also being new to the cultivation world.

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Great lead, terrible show

This show was very disappointing, especially since the female lead just outclasses everything about this production. Her performance is excellent, but everything else about this show ruined any attempt to push through just for her.

The direction and the writing are both so flawed that it really became unwatchable. It was actually very odd that every episode begins with a recap "last time on this show" and ends with "next time on this show" (which would spoil the whole next episode), both of which are a level of handholding that I have never seen used since like shows from the 80s or something.

But despite the choice to coddle the viewer with these episode framings; the actual scenes just start abruptly with no explanation of what happened since the previous scene. Many times the show just starts a fight scene and we don't know how the people fighting encountered each other or why they are fighting or where the other people that were present just seconds ago went. The continuity feels completely slapped together.

Along the lines of the jarringly poor continuity, the character motivations are also handled with similar lack of care. Characters take inexplicable actions that make no sense for their character for seemingly no reason other than the writers need to move the story to some specific plot beat, usually with some contrived conflict. To some degree, many shows do this, but this show does it to a degree that feels like it has no respect for the audience's intelligence.

Ultimately, I keep wanting to push through because the main character is such a pleasure to watch, and the core concept of good and bad "heart" cultivators is really interesting, but in the end the quality level was just too low.

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Decent comedy but weird choices to make her a groomer

Maybe not bad, but not my tastes. Personally I found it too heavy on the comedy, it might even be considered slapstick. But if you like a lot of comedy and only a splash of romance then maybe you will like this, if you can overlook the next issue.

People trying to reduce this to an age gap show are missing a fundamental issue. The gap isn't the issue, the problem is the grooming that is heavily emphasized and treated as romantic. She was literally his teacher and idolized by him. They emphasize how much he has put her on a pedestal because he was going through such a rough time in school at the time and was super vulnerable. This is not a background part of the plot, it is a core part of his character that dominates multiple episodes. This is actually text book grooming, so to give it the kdrama sparkle of romance is really uncomfortable.

Weirdly they also just show her desperately clinging to men, at least from what I could see, she just clings to whoever is in front of her, which made it hard to feel like the character had any dignity or the prospective romance had any value, since she's just willing to settle for anything.

Beyond those issues show was decent, the characters and acting are good, and the broader plot about the historical preservation people is really interesting.

Though I found it weird that his character is supposed to be a devoted historical reenactor type, but has a modern haircut? I am by no means an expert, and even I expected him to have his hair tied up on the top of his head, especially wearing that hat, it was jarring to have short hair under it.

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Interesting premise, great lead, mediocre writing

The good:
- Zhao Lu Si is always a joy to watch perform. She definitely is the best thing about this show.
- The setting and concept are interesting and not very common. Combining the early 1900s with fantasy has tons of potential for a fun an interesting story
- Focusing on healing magic / skills is interesting. While there is some fighting, this is a rare chinese fantasy that isn't just focused on wuxia or xianxia themes, it develops its own fantasy ideas.

The bad:
- The writing is very bad. Plotlines don't have internal consistency. Scenes make no sense, or are clearly forced just to have a specific story beat whether they work or not.
- The characters are dumb and not very likable. With maybe the exception of the 2 leads, especially the antagonistic characters or just peripheral characters are just really annoying. It goes beyond "they are making trouble for our MCs" and more to a degree of "why is everyone letting them be clearly and overtly evil and then acting like they're not. This gets back into the above point about continuity consistency. Every bad thing someone does is immediately forgotten about for no clear reason.

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Very weird to frame as a romance

The age gap for the actors is very concerning, but also the age gap within the plot is also very uncomfortable. The basic premise that a 15 year old has been essentially living in isolation for her whole life, means that her mental age is even lower than her physical age. A full grown man swooping in and developing a relationship with such an inexperienced child is really disgusting to portray as a romance genre show.

Beyond that, the actual plot starts with some interesting supernatural ideas, but it jumps away from them very fast and then it loses the thread on most of the interesting plot points.

It is really a shame that this drama made so many bad choices, because Jang Hee Jin gives a strong performance, but it is not enough to warrant giving this drama a full watch

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Only if you really want to watch fantasy

Overall I would say that this was not very good. You would have to really really just want to watch a fantasy show to watch this.

The good:
Honestly there is not much. One lead female actor tries to give a good and dignified performance, and does really well. The other lead female actor gives a fun and charming performance, and does really well. They both do well but just are not enough to salvage the rest of the show being so rough.

The bad:
Personally my main issue is that the main character seems like something a 14 year old boy would think is cool. Just a lot of unearned swagger, and everything always works out for him just because.

The other main issue, and the one that probably everyone will struggle with, is the pacing. The story is indecypherable for multiple episodes. We bounce between character arcs without any real idea of who they are or why we should care. The story momentum randomly seems like its picking up and then just flounders and resets, multiple times. If you watch on Viki and turn on comments, you will just see a stream of people being frustrated and giving up on the show over the course of the first 6 episodes.

The other thing about the writing is that plot points are written exceptionally badly. Like really badly, to the point I was regularly confused how it even made sense that a character would say or do things. Do not expect any character's to behave in any consistent way, or to do things that make sense.

Beyond those main issues, there are more issues, just generally very bad and cheap looking costuming. The fights are not filmed well. These points I personally did not care about that much, and would have forgiven if the story was better, but alas failing on all fronts really has me questioning how much I have to just want to watch a fantasy show to stick with this one.

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Too much misogyny

Tried to push through but dropping this because there is just way too much misogyny for my tastes. At first it's the 2nd ML and I think to myself "okay maybe this is just to illustrate that he isn't a good fit for her". But even then it KEEPS going on for way too long, and she's not even portrayed as being bothered it? And while this keeps going on, we introduce the actual ML and he's JUST AS BAD. Just constant groping against her will, and ignoring and overruling her decisions, just really unpleasant stuff to watch and especially to have it be presented as romantic. Strangely the FL is portrayed as strong and independent, but any time a man shows up that all is just forgotten.

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