1
Sinasina
This review may contain spoilers
Relatively well written thiller, sponsored by RAZER©. (only minor spoilers below)
Okay so 8/10, objectively this should probably be worse, but for a CHINESE crime/thriller drama this is quite incredible, the best that I've seen thus far. Most of the plot is cleverly written and the acting ensemble is up there with the very best cdramas. Also it's extremely laudable that they did not try to explain the magic, how the time travel/loop aspect works, that always leads to unsolvable plotholes that they've nicely sidestepped here.
Speaking of plotholes there are quite a few non time travel related ones though. For instance, it's established that ML's parents exists & also that FL has a "home" to call. Does it make any sense that the police would not rally those people, not even once in any of the loops? Also why was the innocent truck driver held responsible?
The young hot headed police officer really behaved out of character in the last episodes.
Another nitpicky point is related to how the police attempts to stop the bus with cars pushing up against it with their tires spinning so fast that smoke is generated, that's not how physics works in real life :P
I could also talk about how incredibly competent the Chinese police is in this drama. L, L2 & their old master is nothing compared to the reaction time & intellect some of these policemen have. Normally I don't particularly care if Chinese nationalism, or some sort of political agenda shows up in a cdrama, but this was way too much for poor old me.
Besides the nitpicky problems I've highlighted above, I have three major problems why this is not 10/10 amazing.
The first is that in the first 5-6 episodes the police interrogations are way too draggy & it's annoying how the leads willingly walk into them without a plan. (We dutiful citizens must inform the police!)
The second is that the perpetrator backstory is utter garbage, in a bad kdrama-like fashion and not only is it garbage, but also an entire episode is wasted on it.
The third and final thing is that there is no peace for the leads, there is not much intermission. They had the option to chill, to mentally recover between more active, traumatizing loops, at least before they have become aware of a certain issue & they've not taken it once. In other timeloop stories those intermissions are often the best parts. (for example Jack kissing Carter in Stargate SG1 and many other intermission scenes in that episode)
As silly as the ending is & as much as it's not exactly the ending I've wanted, I enjoyed it very much despite how juvenile I felt it being. (I wanted the leads to produce some 40 minute long fluff after everything's over)
Based on reading other reviews before starting this show, I thought that this would barely have any romance. The reality defied my expectations, the romance is actually quite excellent here. Not only is it great how the OTP is bonding during literal life and death situations, but also their progress felt really natural. There was no silly courting & silly confessions, they have just become each other's everything after all that they've gone through. (It goes without saying that there is no time for a love triangle)
Some of the supporting characters were pretty mundane, borderline boring, but "Lu Apostle of Cat, Conqueror of Asthma, Chosen One of the Light, Di" is the absolute best drama side character in the history of dramas.
Then again it would have been way more unrealistic to have 8 super interesting individuals randomly show up on a random (or not so random!?) bus ride.
The rewatch value is low, because there is not all that much fun to be had after completely knowing the plot.
Speaking of plotholes there are quite a few non time travel related ones though. For instance, it's established that ML's parents exists & also that FL has a "home" to call. Does it make any sense that the police would not rally those people, not even once in any of the loops? Also why was the innocent truck driver held responsible?
The young hot headed police officer really behaved out of character in the last episodes.
Another nitpicky point is related to how the police attempts to stop the bus with cars pushing up against it with their tires spinning so fast that smoke is generated, that's not how physics works in real life :P
I could also talk about how incredibly competent the Chinese police is in this drama. L, L2 & their old master is nothing compared to the reaction time & intellect some of these policemen have. Normally I don't particularly care if Chinese nationalism, or some sort of political agenda shows up in a cdrama, but this was way too much for poor old me.
Besides the nitpicky problems I've highlighted above, I have three major problems why this is not 10/10 amazing.
The first is that in the first 5-6 episodes the police interrogations are way too draggy & it's annoying how the leads willingly walk into them without a plan. (We dutiful citizens must inform the police!)
The second is that the perpetrator backstory is utter garbage, in a bad kdrama-like fashion and not only is it garbage, but also an entire episode is wasted on it.
The third and final thing is that there is no peace for the leads, there is not much intermission. They had the option to chill, to mentally recover between more active, traumatizing loops, at least before they have become aware of a certain issue & they've not taken it once. In other timeloop stories those intermissions are often the best parts. (for example Jack kissing Carter in Stargate SG1 and many other intermission scenes in that episode)
As silly as the ending is & as much as it's not exactly the ending I've wanted, I enjoyed it very much despite how juvenile I felt it being. (I wanted the leads to produce some 40 minute long fluff after everything's over)
Based on reading other reviews before starting this show, I thought that this would barely have any romance. The reality defied my expectations, the romance is actually quite excellent here. Not only is it great how the OTP is bonding during literal life and death situations, but also their progress felt really natural. There was no silly courting & silly confessions, they have just become each other's everything after all that they've gone through. (It goes without saying that there is no time for a love triangle)
Some of the supporting characters were pretty mundane, borderline boring, but "Lu Apostle of Cat, Conqueror of Asthma, Chosen One of the Light, Di" is the absolute best drama side character in the history of dramas.
Then again it would have been way more unrealistic to have 8 super interesting individuals randomly show up on a random (or not so random!?) bus ride.
The rewatch value is low, because there is not all that much fun to be had after completely knowing the plot.
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