This is a trashy show. You don't start episode 1 of a TV show on The CW network expecting something from HBO or AMC. I'm not sure what all these negative reviewers were expecting when they started this show. If you take this show seriously, then you're watching it wrong. If you're watching it for fun, just to tap out at the end of the day, maybe to shut your brain off so you can watch an overdramatic storyline that will have no effect on your being, then do give this a try. The overall storyline is ridiculous and completely unbelievable, but this is a teen soap drama. For a teen soap drama, I think it's very well-produced.
Script & Story: 6/10 – Like I said, the storyline is ridiculous, but the story does get better.
Acting: 8/10 – The four main actors are still fairly early in their careers, and you can tell which ones are less experienced, but they do get better in the second half of the first season, when they become more familiar with their own characters. Plus, the acting from the parent figures (e.g. Madchen Amick, Skeet Ulrich) helps provide more emotional realism to make certain scenes more convincing.
Set Production & Costume: 8/10 – I love how they designed the "small town feel" to their filming locations. The natural wilderness of Vancouver, British Columbia helps a lot in some of their scenes.
Characters: 9/10 – I'm not crazy for the lack of development for Archie, but they did really well in developing both Betty and Jughead. The introduction of Veronica's father in the second season will definitely help Veronica's character development, and I'm very confident Archie's character will undergo some changes in the second season too.
Cinematography: 10/10 – Some of the shots in this show are truly beautiful, especially for a teen soap drama.
I really wanted to like this drama. It has two of my favourite Taiwanese drama people: Winnie Chu (director) and Ray Chang (actor). However, no matter how much I enjoy watching the works of these people, this show falls a bit flat.
The script tries to stuff a lot of plot points into a 20-episode TV drama. Considering it tries to cover two main couples and a couple of other side couples, there just isn't enough space for all of these characters and their respective side plots to fully develop for the audience to enjoy. Instead, story arcs that should run naturally two episodes or more are stuffed into one episode only. For example, did we really need the entire arc of Zhi He's parents and their relationship with her and Da Shu? Not really. Her father didn't need to die either. And even if he did, they should've at least extended this show to a couple more episodes so other characters have breathing room for their own stories. Instead, they crammed his death into two episodes. It made his death insignificant, especially considering how much time they put into fleshing out the parents' relationship with Zhi He and Da Shu.
Acting from all the actors are fine, but Sonia Sui knocks it out of the park in several episodes. Her acting is incredibly nuanced. It doesn't require much for her to display her character's internal emotions. The music and cinematography in this show also help lift this show a lot too; they help distract you from the alcohol product placement that happens in some scenes. Another standout feature is some of the outfits these characters wear. There were so many times where I was distracted by what Sonia Sui or Gillian Chung were wearing. (Those earrings! That top! That hair!)
All in all, this show garners a solid 70% rating for me. It's the plot-heavy script that drags this down.
This is a great adaptation of Taiwan's In Time with You. The two leads - Rika Adachi and Jin Shirasu - have great chemistry together, and they're also talented in acting some of the more nuanced scenes between the two best friend characters, but this Japanese series lacks the magic that Taiwanese director Yu Ningchu brought to the original Taiwanese series that made the show a truly unforgettable small-screen experience.
It's been a while since I've seen the original Taiwanese series, but from what I can recall in comparison, this adaptation drags out the ex-boyfriend subplot far longer than the original show. He takes up 8 episodes of the full 16 episode series, whereas in the Taiwanese version, he is a less prominent character and the focus is shifted to Li Daren instead. By stretching out this subplot, I think it took away some of the sentiment the audience feels for the best friend relationship that's supposed to be in the spotlight instead.
I'm a bit disappointed that this show didn't meet up to my expectations as a ~perfect~ drama adaptation of In Time with You, but I also realize that the original Taiwanese version had just set my expectations far too high. Despite all of this, I would still recommend this Japanese adaptation to anyone who has seen the Taiwanese drama and wants "the feels" again. Jin Shirasu plays the "Li Daren" role to a tee.
God fuck, Korean dramas are so fucking illogical. I started watching this under recommendation of a couple of friends, so even though I have my doubts about how good this drama is, I decided to give it a try. The first two episodes were OK. They were fast-paced enough that I could look past some of the stuff that I had problems with (e.g. the misplacement of idiotic jokes, some pacing inconsistencies etc.) But by the end of the second episode, I knew that I couldn't sit through all 11 episodes - even though they were only 11 episodes - so I skipped ahead to episode 10.
The first half of episode 10 is actually quite good. I enjoyed catching up what I had missed in the 7 episodes I skipped over, but when the second half of the episode rolled around, I just got more and more frustrated at the drama series. Why are Korean dramas so frustratingly illogical and coincidental?!
Korean dramas have a habit of prolonging even the most intense scenes and story plots, ironically making them less intense with characters staring at a point slightly off-camera. Or they'll blur out knives (!) but not guns (!) in a show about murderers. Or they'll have characters just sitting idly in cars while waiting for important phone calls. Or they'll have V.I.P. victims taking instructions from a stranger over the phone, even after he says "I can't... I can't trust any of you!" (but you're trusting a random stranger on the phone, bruh). Or they'll have a character about to shoot a guy's head off, but oh-so-conveniently, they'll have another guy enter the scene just in time to stop him, but even when that's convenient (and I look past that), when the character falls onto the ground during the attack, and the gun is still near his hand, he doesn't grab the gun to retaliate, he just gets up and allows himself to be punched again.
Stop stretching out these scenes! Stop treating audiences like dimwits and that we can't solve things by ourselves. These scriptwriters need to stop laying out the details of a murder plot line-by-line as if the audiences can't figure it out ourselves, and as if we need a constant reminder of what happened the previous episodes.
Also, I bet if Korean dramas could take this entire series and trimmed out all the camera shots of characters staring emptily slightly off camera, I bet each episode could probably be at least 10 minutes shorter. Thus, the entire drama maybe one or two episodes shorter. Instead, they could use these two episodes and fill it with actual character development and actual story development, instead of filling it with prolonged over-dramatic stares.
This was OK. It's a pretty fun watch if you're looking for an easy romantic-comedy-ish TV show to watch (or movie, depending which version you're watching). My problems with it was that it was too modern at times. I felt it was absurd that the Bennet family took in Amanda Price so easily even though she first greeted them in a black leather jacket and jean pants, they didn't blink an eye or react to the fact that she looked completely different from the average girl in 19th-century England. In fact, all through the series, the other characters didn't question her at all! Even though she used words normally not used in that era. But even aside from the cultural inconsistency in the series, I also had problems with the last episode of the show. It didn't explain how or why Amanda Price was suddenly able to magically pop back into 21st-century London through a random door, when she wasn't able to open up the other door at Longbourn despite her dozen tries attempting to open it.
Other than the script problems I didn't like, I found Amanda Price (her character or her actress) really annoying. The way she complained all the time even after days in the new world. If she so loved the Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen world, then she should go with it, instead of whining all the time.
The finale bothered me as well. It felt too much of a happy-ending to be realistic. If the writers were able to write Jane and Mr. Bingley back together at the end, then I don't understand why they would dump Elizabeth Bennet to modern independency to stay consistent to the original story. I think Amanda Price ending up with Mr. Darcy at the end contradicted itself by not staying consistent with that theme.
Overall, I think the show is good for a fun easy romcom watch, especially for a modern fantasy take on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, but it could have used a more consistent script. I understand the events of the book were important to portray for the series, but still, some things needed to be explained to make it more realistic.
Honestly, I feel like Justin is just misunderstood. You can tell from the 'present' scenes of him and his home situation that the stuff at home affects him deeply. That he's been acting stressed the past few episodes because he feels powerless to protect the women in his life (e.g. his mom, and now Jessica). This is probably why he just sat there on the couch at the party, because this has happened before, where other men have harmed the women he loves, but psychologically, I guess, out of habit, he didn't feel like he had the power to stop it. Then, maybe coincidentally, but after he visits the home of a "regular family" - that interaction between Alex's dad and Justin broke my heart; the way Justin's eyes literally warmed up and gave Alex's dad a big smile when he got offered leftovers from their dinner - it sort of becomes the tipping point of when he realizes that he does have power to change things.
I really love the entire character arc of Justin, to be honest. The writers did a fantastic job in crafting his story, and the actor did an equally fantastic job in portraying all of Justin's character nuances.
This was a great episode overall. I love the fact that we got glimpses of what the families are like for a couple of the minor characters: Alex, whose dad is strict/firm because he works as a cop, but loving too, as we can see by Alex describing how both his parents cook (e.g. his mom cooks, his dad grills); Zach, whose mother is the atypical overbearing Asian mother, but he has an adorable relationship with his sister (e.g. eating his sister's veggies for her when their mom isn't looking); Mr. Porter, who we slowly begin to find out that everything, at both work and at home, is taking a toll on him; and of course, we get more of the families behind Clay and Hannah.
10/10 to the writers, director, and actors. Stellar job all around.
First of all, Veil's death at the end of this episode was completely unwarranted. After suffering for so long in Quinn's underground prison, she deserves some sort of redemption, and not a supporting role in Sunny's battle against Quinn. She was a major reason as to why Sunny did everything to stay alive, and why he fought his way through to return to her. Why didn't Sunny double check that Quinn was actually dead?! The characters in this season have a notorious pattern of not double checking that their opponents are actually dead. You can't just walk away. You need to make sure the guy is friggin' sawed in half, ok. So upsetting that Veil just flat out died. I mean, Sunny stabbed a sword right through Quinn's body twice, yet it was a meagre little dagger that actually kills him. We spent so much time this season developing Veil's inner strength and her role in Sunny's drive to live, but poof, one mistake and one little dagger later, she's offed. The showrunners need to check themselves.
Second of all, I still don't like Bajie. He's only out there for his own objectives. He seems like a good guy with good intentions, but when it comes down to it, he's only there for himself. I can't wait to find out what happens to him. I assume he will die there in that radio signal tower from his injury... Although he has Sunny's bike, and this is Into The Badlands where characters who you thought were dead will pop back into the story, so. Also, how did Bajie find that tower anyway? Was it in the book?
Third of all, the producers better hire better scriptwriters for next season. They have a ton of story to write about now - Tilda running away, Widow's offer to Waldo, Widow's deal with M.K., Bajie's radio signal to Azra, Sunny becoming a father... I'm going to assume the antagonists for next season will be the Widow and Waldo - both of whom don't have strong morals. We can't trust any barons or wannabe barons in this show.
All in all, a decent season. I'm looking forward to seeing what will be the repurcussions of Bajie reactivating the Azra radio tower.
P.S. What on Earth happened to Jade? She was one of the better actresses in this show, and she just disappeared after that one episode.
I can't tell if it's the writing or the acting, but Asian romantic comedy dramas always feel very clunky to me. They're always super over-the-top, where multiple characters in the show will ignore the actions of an obnoxious Mary Sue character while the rest of them act realistic. It's like watching two characters' completely different cinematic worlds try to merge together to form the TV show's story in the most cohesive way possible.
In this show, it's Eugenie Liu who I have problems with. She acts over-the-top, yes, but compared to other Asian shows I've seen, she acts consciously over-the-top in character, and I think it's this that takes the show away from me. There are some shows where actors exaggerate their acting, but there's a nuance to it that makes their characters still feel genuine and authentic. Eugenie doesn't do that. Comedic acting is a different skill that I find not a lot of Asian actors are good at. But hey, maybe it's a problem with the writing too. It's so tacky, maybe Eugenie just can't do much with it.
Jasper Liu is charming as always though. I'm hoping his character can balance out the annoying-ness of Eugenie's character later on in the show.
