Beautiful Tan Jianci and Art, what more do you need?

Another completely biased review from me to you.

This is the show that introduced me to Tan Jianci, and I must say I am hooked!? What an incredibly talented entertainer he is! I have watched this show a few times. I'm keeping this on my permanent list of shows to watch over and over again.

The opening credit visuals are really striking and set the mood for the entire series nicely. The series can be rather dark at times but it does keep your interest and your heart rate going. The music and lighting all add to the atmosphere. Probably a not-very-realistic depiction of forensic artists but damn they do such a beautiful job showing the process of creating these portraits. I really wish I knew who was doing the drawing when they show close-ups of the hands. Beautiful! And who did the paintings that are part of the series. Whoever they are, fantastic job! Do they show in the credits? Sorry, I can't read Mandarin.

The friendship that develops between the 2 MLs is good, after a rocky start. A spoilery bit: it's sad to know that the age-progression drawing basically ruined/changed both of their lives forever. I find it hard to believe that Shen Yi forgives the cop for the way he blamed him and treated him and ruined his life. A promising young artist has his creative life forever cut short ?

The different cases are interesting, strange, and somewhat twisted. The methods used to solve the cases may require you to drop your logical thinking for a bit but I really love how they show the process. Being able to draw someone's portrait from a blurry partial side view of a masked person? Hmm, nice skills?

The ending credit song is just so gorgeous and dark and emotional. It perfectly fits the series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXOsDojKP0k

I cannot wait for Season 2!

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The bromance is strong with this one

Another completely biased review from me to you.

I adored this series! It definitely doesn't take itself too seriously. The story has some ridiculous parts to it but is done so damn right! Both MLs are absolutely gorgeous, and their outfits are stunning. (Except for the hats, but oh well, historical accuracy and all that? I could do without that little bit of accuracy though) Seriously, whoever did their wardrobe, especially their three-piece suits, should win an award, just beautiful. I wonder if they get to take their suits home with them. And can we talk about dressing the one ML up in a frilly apron? Yep, strong bromance. And the other ML rocking an ascot? Yep, he does.

The sets, music, camera, lighting, everything in this series are really good. The music is wonderful and really adds to the story. As far as I can see, high production values for such a silly short series. Episodes are 10-11 minutes long. Opening is 1 minute 21 seconds. End credits are 2 minutes. So each episode is actually ~7 minutes long, give or take a few seconds lol. But surprisingly I don't mind watching the open/end credits. They are pretty darn good and show the strong bromance between these 2. And the end credits are different each time, showing a bit of a preview of the next episode so fun to watch. Plus check out the words of the ending song. Oh my, strong bromance.

Yes, this is a delicious, silly little series but so easy to watch. And perfect to get you out of a heavy drama and angsty things. A It's a light and fluffy republican era drama (who knew there was such a thing?) with 2 hot MLs shooting their way through the bad guys? Oh yes, sign me up for this one! Maybe I enjoyed this a bit too much! Would love to see more like this. And no annoying FL to mess up the bromance!

Here's the spoilery stuff.

There are so many bits to love:
The getaway with both of them on one bicycle with them bickering the entire way is so damn funny!
Defacing the family motto!
The blind date stand-in.
The way the one ML drinks liquor!
OMG, ML2 breaking the gun ML1's dad left him, then handing him his undercover Anti-traitor Corps badge LOL 'Crap! I got exposed.' So damn funny I almost hurt myself laughing!
Oh lord, 'No one is on opium guard duty tomorrow night' over and over and over. 'Do you think he heard us?
How f*cking cool the ML looks in his silver mask.
The ridiculous code names 'Starry Boy' lol.
'Fine, I'm mad now. Stay here for some introspection.' while wagging his finger at him.
ML1 and other anti-traitor corp dude wearing matching silk robes and pajamas and ML2 with different silk pajamas on sitting in the middle. Yep, other ML said it best, 'Idiot'
ML1 is trying to explain to ML2 that he isn't a traitor, and all the things that he's done to try and protect him, then it somehow morphs into a wife complaining about the husband's bad habits: 'You never wipe your shoes bottom when you come indoors, leaving the floor all muddy. You make a lot of noise when you eat and sleep. I can't fall asleep at all.' I am dying laughing here! The best part is you never know when these gems are going to come out, they just organically appear.
It's always nice when a gang attacks the good guys, but then all wait their turn to fight.
The slow, romantic music, while they are trying to find each other after being attacked, with lots of bromance flashbacks!
The look on ML2's face when he finally sees ML1. The look on ML1's face when he sees ML2. Oh my, this is a bit more than bromance.
If ML1 keeps knocking out ML2 all the time he's going to suffer permanent brain damage. And he's very slow to begin with!
The dynamite sticks duds pretty damn funny! Such a dramatic build-up.
The fight scene in the church, awesome!
The little smile on ML's face, priceless!
Snore/punch lol
Wonderful ending, including the gun fumble and door handle.

This light bit of froth is just a perfect binge watch. I highly recommend this. Enjoy!

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Hilariously Funny Thieves vs Cops

Another completely biased review from me to you.

How to describe the esthetics here? Kind of like a cross between Get Smart (ancient U.S. series), the old Batman TV series, Austin Powers, and every campy James Bond parody ever made, and all with the typical zany over-the-top Japanese insanity. So much damn fun to watch! And just silly as hell.

The entire extended family of thieves are so stupid funny. The brother is an absolute gem! The way he wears the disguise, or his own version of it, even though he stays behind in his batcave working the computers and the ladybug lol. The parents who are too busy flirting with each other (reminds me of Morticia and Gomez Addams, only with stealing)! The cute little Grandma who is a badass in her own right! And I love Akira and Hana's musical numbers. Yes, really, musical numbers!

The cop's family, down to the dog, are just as silly. And the Grandpa with the bad Elvis wig, wow.

If you need a break from heavy, angst-filled dramas this is a nice light palate cleanser. Turn off the brain, laugh, and enjoy!

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Silly Sexy Little Romp

Another completely biased review from me to you.

This short series seems to get a bit of hate, but I have to say I loved it. Even though the one ML is a walking talking redder than the Sorcerer's robe red flag, he's still sexy as hell. And the other ML is a cute but dim little chipmunk. The 2 of them together strangely have a ton of chemistry. Lots of nice skinship. The shower scene....

The story is not ground breaking. There are some bits in there that you wonder why they were added. Watch it and see what you think.

All in all I really enjoyed the hell out of this one too. Turn off your brain, stop criticizing so much, smile and enjoy!

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Now that's how you do a sword fight

Though it's actually sword vs scabbard fights, but still awesome! Saotome Taichi is mesmerizing to watch. I can't imagine how many hours of training he goes through to be that beautiful to watch. Each fight scene seems like a well choreographed dance. Just beautiful! Add in Endo Yuya to the fighting and it's over the top good!

The series is known as The Sealer on Viki in case anyone is looking for it. The series itself is quite short but doesn't suffer too many from that. The story is quite interesting and different and very dark, so not my typical happy smiley type of series to watch. But damn, it is really good. Even though it looks like a few people have complained about the music, I think the music adds a perfect touch to this intense drama.

The look is gorgeous. I love the costume design for most all of the characters. The Osagami character looks especially good with his flowing black outfits. Gorgeous!

The only complaint I have, which is a repeated complaint from me for a lot of series, is the FL. Good lord, could they make a more irritating, useless person? The FL's only purpose seems to be to fall over and have to be rescued! I do like that there seems to be subtle diss'ing for the character cause she is the only one that wears just awful outfits and hair. Sort of like no one can stand the character so they punish the poor actress. Or maybe that's just me ?

Anyhow, give this a watch. It's short so won't take up your entire weekend. It's worth it just to watch the lovely Saotome Taichi.

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One of My Favorite Adaptations of a Priest Novel

Where to start to unpack this series? First of all, the main leads Bai Yu and Zhu Yi Long are magical together! Even though this is a censored adaptation (thanks china) you can see and feel the characters love for each other. Somehow this series got away with a lot more physical contact then others I have seen ?lots of touching of hands and shoulders and even my favorite scene in the car with Zhao Yunlan sleeping on Shen Wei's shoulder! Yep, magic. Oh my, the necklace! ? That one got me.

The rest of the cast is pretty much a hit or miss. The purple-haired villain was so bad I was waiting for him to say "And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!" I would have loved to have had more Cat (Da Qing) story, who wouldn't like to know more about the Cats? Would love to know more about Chu Shuzhi too! What a cool ability with the puppets! The delusional snake lady's story really didn't add much to the series and they could have taken it out completely. And I really wish that the Guo character would have died a horrible death, sorry. ?He just irritated the hell out of me and by all rights should have died early in the series. The rest of the team pretty much sank into the background for me so not much to say.

The actual story itself was kind of all over the place, probably because of all the changes that had to be made to satisfy the censors. Read the novels! I'll admit I got lost a few times and had to rewatch some episodes to try and figure out what the hell the story line was. The FX was either really good or really bad, like they ran out of money and had to half-ass most of the special affects! And the sets were either really good or really bad too, money again?

So even though this series had some issues with cast and story and FX and production, it's still one of my favorites and I will still give it a 10 because of the leads and will rewatch it over and over.

And the ending, oh boy, be prepared to cry. However, I believe they ended up finding each other again, someday.

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So funny up to episode 10

Another biased review from me to you.

Fingers crossed this stays so good! I only finished up to episode 10. More tomorrow.

The little bit of light fluff is so damn funny! I watched each ~5 minute episode (skipping the intro/credits) with a goofy grin on my face. The premise is good, the execution is excellent! Guan Yue is delicious as the serious CEO and the sexy hallucination. I really love how he portrays both versions! Lin Xiaozhai is so funny as the girl with the very overactive and sexy imagination.

Lots of tropes here to cross off the list but they don't distract. Does anyone have a trope bingo card?

This one is for inhaling like a bit of cotton candy. Very satisfying even if not very filling.

Episode 11, omg the silk pajamas a fluffy coat! I thought it was another hallucination! And running hand-in-hand in a tux/wedding dress....whose hallucination was that? I think it was his!

Episode 12, well he moves fast, doesn't he?

Some of these machine-generated subs are unintentionally very funny!

I really wish the YoYo English channel would translate text messages too

Episode 13, well damn, it started out so good, why did they have to add the dark history/drunk dad to the mix. Couldn't they have left it light and fluffy? I may be taking some stars off of this, we'll wait and see.

And episode 14 we're back to light and fluffy. I don't quite understand this show but I am enjoying it ?

Episode 15, why are they hiking in the mountains? What did I miss? Since she stopped having the hallucinations this isn't as much fun ?

Episode 16, well that's one way to avoid the parents! LOL! She is serious about not wanting to get married isn't she.

Episode 17, oh here comes the evil dude. You know he's evil because of the really bad hair ?

Episode 18, it's cute how ML is the one who wants to hold out until marriage but the FL wants to go for it. hmm, upcoming angst ahead

Episode 19, not really feeling the SFL and SML. Seems like a really weird match

Episode 20 is just sad. All the fun and joy has gone out of this completely. I'm going to have to struggle to finish the last few episodes. I want to go back to the hilarious hallucinations!

Episode 21 SML is pretty darn funny in a little boy psychotic way. ML and FL are just boring now. At least this episode is even shorter at around 8 minutes.

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