Reviews

One of the most powerful first episodes!

I was hooked from the very first episode—definitely one of the most powerful openings I’ve seen! At first, I thought the FL had some kind of psychic ability because she’s so observant and sharp, almost like she sees through everything. But when it was revealed at the last minute that she had orchestrated everything from the start, I was completely speechless. Her mind is on another level! I also wonder if she can fight—she has so many secrets and sometimes plays dumb or weak, but I feel like it’s all an act. As for the ML, he didn’t leave the best first impression since he jumps to conclusions too fast, but I’m curious to see how his character develops.

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Run faster

I am glad Qiao Ling was able to get to the train station and follow Liu Ye to the police station. He makes a statement but the only comfort he can take is that they can’t confirm guilt, NOT that he is innocent. Qiao Ling tries to comfort him but is unsuccessful. Liu Ye is doxxed once videos went viral. The main culprit is so happy with number views that she has a big crowd in front of his workplace to catch him getting arrested. They are making a carnival atmosphere out of it and not worried about truth at all. They have their culprit handy and plan to get as much viewership as possible from the encounter. Liu Ye already notices his new book is getting negative reviews and removed from shelves because of the fake news. It is heart rending to see the suffering he takes upon himself because there is no escape from the cyber bullying or face recognition from viral videos. Once he saw the crowd he resigned from his workplace to save them the grief of dealing with the mob. He bravely faced them and told them he had resigned and to leave them alone. He runs away with the crowd in pursuit. I respect that his boss tried to defend him and wanted to stay by him. She accepted his resignation eventually and her attitude later made me sad. She had accepted that in spite of her knowing his innocence that her job could not deal with all the bad press. They were willing to throw him under the bus to keep the peace with the masses. As much as I want to loathe them for it, and do to some degree, it is very hard to escape popular opinion when it is determined to find you at fault with no letting up. Everyone wants the hot list of praise, but that hot list of bad press is hard to deal with. His kind soul wanted to clear the air, but there was no venue for him. He also made the mistake of letting the hate comments devour him rather than just shutting his devices down and ignoring it. Qiao Ling is trying to get confirmation from assaulted girls to get to the truth of the matter but so far is unsuccessful. Here, her selfies can come into play to try to find evidence. Cheng Xiao Si and Lu Yuang are combining their talents with hers and working a timeline to find the real culprit. They are working hard but first try was a no go. I really hate they chose the gentlest soul for this crime arc. It makes the biggest impact, but that such a sweet spirit is being crushed by pure volume of hate for a crime he didn’t commit and can’t prove innocence to is really hard to watch.The actors definitely make you feel it and did an excellent job of bringing on the angst.

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Please make vampires sexy again!

PROS: (i) main couple spending more time together, (ii) vampire setting/lore seems to be in service to the BL (serves as a pretext for Mark and Tong to come closer), not overshadowing it (at least for now), (iii) Fluke's performance was entertaining (despite weak writing), (iv) Mark's eyes seemlessly turning from "beast mode" to "human mode" when he was following Tong, run into Thara and had to compose himself. CONS: (i) exposition dump at the start of episode (indicative of lazy writing), (ii) Mond's performance, (iii) vampires (so far) being surprisingly unattractive and emotionless (except for Nakan, but his portrayal is weak). Joss' performance - again - was a mixed bag. There were moments were he radiated a quiet, calm confidence or appeared cool and collected (which contrasted nicely with Fluke's antics) - but there also were moments were he seemed lost and confused about what to do. Not sure the "strong and silent" type was ideal to portray a vampire - who (I would imagine) should be passionate, emotional and a little unhinged. Not sure what to think about the tone of the show either - is a badly veiled rom-com? Is is supposed to be serious? Scary? I really don't know.

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