{year}=2025{episode}=33.END{type}=TV{completed}
Summary
If you like CDramas, this might be a gem worth checking out, especially since it offers better production and acting than the star-studded dramas. If you're really disappointed with the series that's already been released, this might not be the canary in the coal mine, but it's still worth checking out at least a few episodes to consider.
Review
After the disappointment of the highly anticipated costume drama and the spin-off offerings, I was really looking forward to this one, to save the costume dramas for 2024. Alas, that's not the case. Except for maybe Strange Tales 2, which I'm not so sure about, since Strange Tales 1 was so depressing, the 2024 costume drama series could end in total annihilation. The Great Nobody is great, but that's really a modern workplace comedy. Heroes will be with each other, but that's the end of the Qing Dynasty, I mean, they have guns.
To be fair, the show is serviceable, hence the 7.0 rating. The sets, costumes, and production are beautiful and well-shot. The veteran cast is better than the usual cast you see, although some of the dialogue and lines can feel a bit too modern. I like it more than Strange Tales, which was a huge disappointment. Maybe I would have watched this show to the end earlier in the year, when other great shows weren’t represented. But after episode 9, it gives a clear indication of where it’s aiming, and its goals just aren’t ambitious, original, or engaging enough. Nothing is more telling than injecting some ambiguity into the show for laughs and cheap entertainment. I’m sure there are plenty of people who like this, and that’s why the writers keep making it. But the many jokes in 家官里短 don’t offer the observation and humor. If the setting were changed to modern, I'm sure such a boring and archaic plot would be met with enthusiastic criticism. This is a Marvel Chinese comedy/heartbreak series that after a few viewings you've seen it all. No matter what kind of color, flavor, or mold they use to sell it to you, it's still the same old thing that's been played out over and over again.
There have been too many things this year that have taken this route (looking at you Joy of Life 2 with anger) and this is not a recent phenomenon (Advisors Alliance and GTRD). This race to the mainstream may get some viewings, but it will never produce a memorable masterpiece. Who knows, CDramas will make me quote Coco Chanel: Elegance is a refusal. Unless you refuse to serve up late, you're just telling me that your maximum goal is above average quality, regardless of how good the production looks and how strong the cast is. And as much as I feel like giving it a 7 despite the expensive production, I still wonder if a 7 is too generous.
