First episode 70 : 爱情公寓 iPartment

[roddy]

Up to ep.14 of this. To be honest I've found the last few episodes pretty dull - there was far too much of Zeng Xiaoxian (probably the most annoying of the guys, although it's a close run thing) and I didn't like . . . his ex-gf, whose name I've forgotten. And then the whole disappearing after kissing Yifei was just daft - unless I've missed it there was no build up to that at all. If Meijia had kissed Guangu, or . . .whathisname had kissed whatshername . . there would at least have been background. But Renzhe rated episode 15 very highly, so I shall soldier on no doubt.

Incidentally, where'd the storyline about whatshernames dad trying to find her go? He's not trying very hard.

Fun though this is, I actually don't care about any of the characters, with the possible exception of Meijia and Guangu, and even then it's pretty superficial caring.

[renzhe]

Yeah, it's not too consistent, some episodes are better than others. The whole flying bat monster thing was a signal that they were running out of ideas

Overall, it's great fun, though.

As for the build-up between Yifei and Xiaoxian, they were bickering so much that they almost felt like they were married much of the time, you knew that something was coming

[daofeishi]

计划生育 birth control

I haven't seen the context yet, but shouldn't that rather be the "one-child policy"?

Edit: Or perhaps not, after looking up the usage in a dictionary.

Anyway, after this I think I'd pay a lot to see Pirates of the Caribbean as an actual 京剧 play

[roddy]

As for the build-up between Yifei and Xiaoxian, they were bickering so much that they almost felt like they were married much of the time, you knew that something was coming

Oh, was there a slightly higher level of bickering between those two characters? I must have missed it among all the other non-romantic bickering

[roddy]

Finished this (there are only 20 episodes, right?). I'd say the quality drops off pretty significantly around the halfway mark, and I don't feel like the (decent) jokes were coming at anything like the same pace. But it still manages to be likable right the way through, and the last couple of episodes draw it to a nice close. I still reckon the main romance should have been Meijia and Guangu, but maybe that's just me.

They could have done so much more with this by turning the dial a few marks away from 'stupid' - bit of back story on Meijia and Ziqiao, more on Wanyu breaking away from her family, blah blah. But that's not what it wanted to be, so fair enough I guess.

Worth a watch, and a potential alternative to anyone who wants to take a combine harvester to the cast of 奋斗 and 我的青春我做主 but wants the same age group?

[renzhe]

Next round!

Stream which works! http://tv.sohu.com/s2010/aiqinggongyu/

No download links, VeryCD got pressured into stopping.

The second season of the popular sitcom. It helps to watch the first season first, but most of this can be watched out of order. Three of the characters from the original cast were replaced by carbon copies: 美嘉 was replaced by a failed idol actress who becomes Guangu's love interest, 宛瑜 and Zhanbo went travelling and were replaced by a mysterious school friend of 一菲 who becomes everybody else's love interest, and a geeky friend of 吕子乔, a lawyer-in-training. Sound familiar?

Several episodes into it, and basically, they continued where they left off. This feels very much like the first season, both in terms of style and quality (it's hard to say if it's as funny just yet, but there are laughs to be had). Although 美嘉 is sorely missing (especially her bickering with 吕子乔), the new characters fill in the gaps well and the show did not suffer much for it.

As with the first season, the show is highly derivative of US sitcoms, but still made purely for Chinese audiences and making all sorts of references to things only Chinese would know. This makes it quite entertaining, and more interesting than translating bland jokes from "Friends".

[renzhe]

This is still quite funny. It oscillates as much as the first season, and not all the jokes work, but there are some really good laughs in there.

My favourite so far is episode 5, where 关谷 looks for a fake wife.

That and the 打东边来了一个喇嘛,手里提着 一包鳎蟆,打西边来了一个哑巴,腰里别着一个喇叭,提一包鳎蟆的喇嘛,想拿蛤蟆换哑巴腰里别着的喇叭,别喇叭的哑巴,不愿拿喇叭换喇嘛手里提着的鳎蟆,提鳎蟆的喇嘛急了,拿起手里的鳎,打了,别喇叭的哑巴一鳎蟆,别喇叭的哑巴也急了,摘下喇叭打了,提鳎蟆的喇嘛一喇叭,也不知，提鳎蟆的喇嘛,用鳎蟆打了别喇叭的哑巴一鳎蟆,也不知，别喇叭的哑巴,用喇叭打了提鳎蟆的喇嘛一喇叭,提鳎蟆的喇嘛回家炖鳎蟆,别喇叭的哑巴站那儿,嘀嘀嗒嗒吹喇叭 part.

I think I'll add this to the list of recommendations. As far as comedies go, we only have 武林外传, and this is quite popular.

[Gleaves]

and a potential alternative to anyone who wants to take a combine harvester to the cast of 奋斗 and 我的青春我做主 but wants the same age group?

Somehow, this has me sold. I'm going to try to and make a run through the first season in February. I'm also intrigued by this notion of a second season.

That quote, renzhe, is out of control.

[renzhe]

LOL, is nobody watching the second season? You should, it's good

I'm almost finished with it.

[phyrex]

Great, thanks a lot, renzhe! I've been waiting for the second season forever!

[imron]

LOL, is nobody watching the second season?

Unfortunately SohuTV can be painfully slow for me at times, which makes it difficult to watch.

[KonW]

here's the whole 爱情公寓II

http://www.youku.com/show_page/id_z8acc113c6fbf11df97c0.html

and here's more:

http://www.soku.com/search_video/q_%E7%88%B1%E6%83%85%E5%85%AC%E5%AF%93

[imron]

here's the whole 爱情公寓II

Click on this and outside of China and you get "Sorry, but this video is currently available in China only"

[KonW]

try http://bilibili.us/video/av52838/index.html

with comments for almost every screen, ,probably helpful for the understand of references or puns,parodies,etc(use the button under the screen to hide all the comments if it blocked your view too much)

[Gleaves]

If anyone is looking for a download option - I grabbed a torrent for season 2 here. It is only moderately well-seeded and the quality of the download is not great. Hopefully a better download option comes along. I am being spoiled by the high quality download of the first season that is available, which you can still get from emule if you search (the one marked uncut), but it doesn't look like there is much for the second season.

I'm still on season one, up through episode 14. I think my favorite thus far is the epsiode where they are caught in traffic (epsidoe 9, I think). The random characters were great and the 关谷 ending was almost Kramer-like.

Thanks for all the word lists, renzhe.

[renzhe]

I've finished the second season, and it's roughly at the same level as the first one.

美嘉 is missing, but the three new characters are not worse than the three that left overall. 悠悠 and 张伟 are quite funny as the kind-hearted failed actress and the chronically jinxed lawyer-in-training. Wanyu and Zhanbo were the weakest characters in the last season anyway.

Overall, the second season is a bit more consistent, and less reliant on culturally-loaded references, at least I found it easier to follow. I also had the feeling that characters were defined a bit better this time, and that the actors felt more comfortable with their roles than in the first episodes of the last season.

Overall, easy viewing for upper-intermediate and advanced crowd that's entertaining and doesn't require taking notes like most Wuxia shows.

There is also an intermediate season consisting of very short episodes, called 爱情公寓外传. Anyone seen them? They seem to be glorified commercials, between 5 and 10 minutes in length.

[imron]

I've started watching more of this, and there a good few laughs in every episode (although at 50 mins long, some of them tend to drag on for a bit). Definitely worth continuing with so far. Favourite episode currently is no. 6, when Yumo's boyfriend Richard returns.

[Glenn]

I haven't gotten to 6 yet. I just watched 4 last night (as in 4 episodes and episode #4), and it's taking me probably two hours to get through each episode because they speak so fast and with such a Beijing accent that I'm having to do lots of reading to get any meaning out of it, which means pausing for pretty much every sentence. It's cracking me up so far, though. Just the whole concept of "Richard" is hilarious to me, for example. And I didn't even realize this was season 2 until I had seen 3 episodes. haha I haven't seen the first season.

[imron]

I haven't seen the first season either. It doesn't seem to be causing any issues.

[Gleaves]

I finished of season 1. I enjoyed the whole thing. I will probably take a little break, but I liked it enough that I will definitely be back for season two.

I loved the fixation the writers had with Transformers. I got a big kick out of 小贤's performance of 擎天柱之死 in episode 18。

Minor point, but episode 19 has some 神雕侠侣 spoilers. I've never read or watched it, so I don't know if minor or major, but it was interesting to be basically in the same shoes as 关谷。