My Strange Friend Season 2 (2020)

Ok it was pretty bad

I'm kinda disappointed by this because it started off really strong and then fizzled out to the weakest, most confusing ending.
I really don't understand the point of including the teleportation Mr. Ma. His character was just too dumb or silly, and it felt like he took up valuable screen time for the drama. The screen time could have been used for a better ending.
I actually did like some of the comedy portions, but overall the plot was just not it. It had potential but felt severely underfunded.
To be honest, the music was kind of catchy, which I wasn't expecting. The actors are all pretty good in my opinion, none of them had facial paralysis or anything. I feel like the charater for Wei Yichen was supposed to be really deep, and he could have been, but the dry plot sucked away all acting potential.
I actually binged the first 23 episodes and then when I got to the 24th one I just
"bruh"
Like it actually had an interesting beginning, and I really wanted more conclusion to the orphanage teacher lady.

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There was a plot to this, it was just very badly executed.

I think this story suffered from contrasting story perspectives behind the scenes. It may have been one person who came up with this story, but as it played out it felt like two people with different ideas were involved. On one side, there is the humorous somewhat pseudo-serious unraveling of quirky villainous events and odd supernatural powers, then on the other side there's a few cliche love stories. Unfortunately, these contrasting things are not well balanced, and that results in a messy narrative where the scenes go from following a linear plot with some action/comedy and superpower/bad guy reveals, to girls and guys falling in love (very quickly) and then lamenting over their poorly or barely developed relationships in every other scene.

The creator of this show, who clearly felt it was necessary to couple off everyone by the end, should have done a better job of managing the romance. They had 24 episodes, which was not much considering the intended plot idea of this show, and with those 24 episodes they should have chosen their romance moments more wisely. As it stands, the romance and filler side scenes took up so much screen time, that the actual plot wasn't tidy enough and fell by the wayside.

The acting of this show was okay, nothing special but for the roles they had, they did well enough. It was both funny and too obvious that Wang Yibo (Wei Yi Chen, the literal main character) was filled in with a body double in quite a few scenes (important and filler). I can only assume WY was not able to be present for filming, but I found it funny anyway. It honestly didn't change much or affect the story in any major way.

And I don't usually care much for the OST of any show, but this show had like two songs and they used them over and over which was really lame. Same with the wardrobe choices. It was fairly easy to tell which scenes were all filmed on which days by what the cast was wearing. There were also continuity issues. Also, I'm not sure why it's tagged for bromance, when Duan Mu Hao and Wei Yi Chen barely got along 90% of the time. Same with the strong friendship tag, makes no sense, by episode 24 I didn't get the feeling that the five of them were particularly close to each other, not even the couples. They felt more like five people who circumstantially ended up spending time together occasionally.

Eh, over all, I'd say it's okay to watch if you have some free time. The first half of the show is better than the second imo, and it was pretty funny in many places. I didn't have trouble watching it in the end, it wasn't a struggle to get through the episodes, it was just a bit jumbled up, but it wasn't horrible.

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Isolated sparks here and there that result in disappointment

Don't watch this without watching Season 1 because Season 2 starts in the middle of nowhere. It's not really a new season but a continuation of an incomplete "Season 1". Just don't expect yourself to be confusion-free if you watch Season 1 either. There are things that are not properly explained after you watch all 24 episodes.

The premise of someone with supernatural powers (apparently gained after touching some alien stone) accidentally having most of his powers transferred to others can be interesting, even if it is turned into a comedy. However, after watching Season 2, one may still feel that there could have been a good story if there is proper effort put into writing a good story.

The humor in "Season 2" doesn't really work very well, especially when it is juxtaposed with the generally more serious tone as the mysterious person trying to kidnap the people with superpowers comes into the foreground. And though it doesn't feel like a new season, it seems that the production team has put in even less effort in the production in "Season 2". Often enough, scenes end abruptly (and for no good reason). The introduction of new characters is haphazard.

Season 2 can be rather exasperating because the story seems to be getting somewhere, with the identity of the biggest villain being revealed while the suspense regarding his motivations is maintained. I think the supernatural powers should have received more attention, perhaps with the characters already having powers in Season 1 strengthening their powers. Unfortunately, this does not happen.

Still, the story is worked into a climax. Then the story is wrapped up rather abruptly. It is not that the story ends in the middle of nowhere like in Season 1--there is a sense of completion, but the denouement leaves much to be desired. In the last episode, the series takes such a dark turn with the near triumph of the villain--it is actually quite nicely done, but it is incompatible with the largely lighthearted tone of the rest of the series in Seasons 1 and 2. Then the crisis is solved with the abrupt introduction of a supernatural power that has never been introduced, which is the way you do things if you are suddenly given less than half an episode to finish the story and you have to come up with something, hoping that the audience will buy it. After the deus ex machina, there is a pathos-filled scene at the end that can be moving in itself but is again very much incompatible with the rest of the story. If a series could suffer from dissociative personality disorder, this series would definitely be diagnosed with it.

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If you are not a hard core fan of Yibo, please do not watch this series

This series is a complete time waste.......on every 5 episodes a new charactor pops up and with zero logic that charactor has super natural Power as well..... For the entire 24 episodes Yibo was searching for a book so that he can have his powers back. But he got a chance to turn back time ( I still am confused how the hell he got the time reversal power all of a sudden) , he just went back to a time where he did not even have any super power and decided to live without it. Every charactor in the series had a power with which they did nothing. And the most disappointing part is, even after searching for 24 episodes, Yibo still did not get the book. And when the time reversed ,, everyone had a diffrent life which will never involve Yibo in any ways( even the girl he loved) ...he just walked away and the story ended....for me it was a complete dissapontment

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The title should only be "strange"

So here is the second part of my review for this drama. I wasn't sure if I was able to watch it all at first but I did it somehow.

With part one, I was afraid that the story will be trapped in a "nonsensical story". But with the two parts combined, the story not only didn't make sense, but it felt like everything that I watched was pointless. With everything we went through in part one, Wei Yichen's "friends" didn't realize that having superpower was dangerous and that they should be careful and listen to him when needed.

Not only they don't realize it, but they also reproach him that he's thinking that he's way better than others when he's in fact, just socially awkward. Honestly I don't know how I was able to stay calm while watching this. I wasn't able to see a good friendship towards them. I've talk about Duan Muhao's development that wasn't here at all. Well, he finally has one in this part and that's being the stupidest of them all (with lots of contestants for this place surprisingly).

The one that I was really happy to know more about was Cong Lexi played by Zhang Nan, she went through a lot and somehow was a great help for Wei Yichen that truly needed it. He tried to change for real here (not halfway like in first part) and she did too for the best.

Even so, I can't believe after everything they've done, we just have this ending that truly wasn't a happy one. I just talked to a friend about it and I theorized this ending because of anger but that's just me trying to save my mind from what I just saw. Still, if you want to know them we can talk about it though.

Well, to conclude with this drama and this review: It was clearly a disappointment. The first part of the drama was questionable, but watching it all only made me feel angry and frustrated. I won't really recommend watching it, why not if you have some free time like I had. If you want to know the scenes of where Wang Yibo is in it (most people watch this drama to watch him), I can save your time by telling them to you.

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What did I just watch?!

Okay I read the reviews and I was like, I’ll give it a try for Yibo, but as other reviews have said honestly just rewatch The Untamed...

The plot is alllll over the place, I had no idea what was going on 90% of the time. How did he lose his powers? Why do other people have powers? Why are people chasing him? I felt like I skipped episodes and was missing parts that would help me make sense of it.

The acting was okay, they did there best with what they were given that’s for sure.
It really could have been great with better writing, the actors were ready to make something great but the plot let everyone down.

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Satisfactory

I know, I know... most people came to watch this series because of Wang Yi Bo, personally I also came to watch this series because of a familiar actor.

But after watching a few episodes of this, I came to really enjoy it because of the comedy, wholesomeness, mystery and open ending.

People may say, it has a lot of plot holes but, in my opinion if you think about it, the way they got their supernatural abilities were all related to that one situation, and all was sort of present or nearby, that’s why they received it and all sorts of other things.

This story even though people may dislike it, it really satisfied me and I’m willing to rewatch it cause it’s my kind of cup of tea, my reason of watching it changed not because Wang Yi Bo acted there, but because the story and plot was good although the Low budget for the series and rushed ending.

People say Wang Yi Bo used a double because he couldn’t act in it due to projects he was currently working on, to be honest, I don’t even care about that because I didn’t even notice, not a fake fan, just interested in the story.

The good thing about this series in season two is that, although Wang Yi Bo is busy, at least they made an effort to show that Wei Yi Chen wasn’t left out and that he appeared in every episode.

They didn’t suddenly cut Wei Yi Chen out of the whole season which is great, cause he is one of the main characters and should be there, even though sometimes it’s not Wang Yi Bo acting as him.

They found a solution, trying to make up to his loss, trying to satisfy viewers. So I don’t get why people aren’t happy with it, it’s not cringy, it’s light hearted and hilarious.

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