First Episode 83: 家的N次方 (Family)

[renzhe]

A part of the Grand First Episode Project -- See this thread for more info.

A modern comedy/drama set in Beijing that is somewhere between 家有儿女 and 奋斗.

Language Difficulty Level: Intermediate (modern Beijing language)

Finding streaming shows has become difficult of late, but at least the mighty potato still has a heart for Chinese language learners abroad.

--- Summary ---

楚牧 (played by the same actor as 华子 from 奋斗) has a nightmare that his mother (文南, played by 宋丹丹) is going to marry the father of his girlfriend 赵雯. He has these phobias because it's the third time his mother is marrying. Instead, she marries 薛茂祥, an ultra rich widower (nomen est omen) with a troubled, spoilt son suffering from the Taiwan bad boy syndrome called 薛洋. Unlike 薛洋, who is still mourning his mother who died when he was 7, 楚牧 is an ambitious student who dislikes instant millionaires and wants to, well, 奋斗.

The first episode revolves around the wedding and the predictable troubles the two sons have integrating into the new, dysfunctional family.

--- Summary end ---

This was not too bad, at least the first episode. There is some funny dialogue, room for development, it wasn't trying to be too funny, and it wasn't taking itself too seriously.

[WestTexas]

I've been watching this show recently and I find it pretty interesting. There are some likable and unlikable characters. I particularly hate 周浩. I feel their accent and diction are closer to the way real Chinese people talk than most TV shows, which I appreciate. In addition, it seems to be a popular show where I live (Shenyang), so a lot of people know about it if I want to discuss it with someone.

[doraemon]

I'm watching it at the moment, pretty interesting and enjoyable. I like pretty much all the characters apart from 赵雯, she not a very likeable person, something irritating about her. I also wince every time I look at Spring, but apart from that, everything else is quite good.

[WestTexas]

Regarding 赵雯, when you say there's something irritating about her, do you mean the fact she's a heartless, money-grubbing 三八？

Also, I don't like 周浩。It says a lot about the Chinese guanxi system that this kid has some kind of fancy job where he seems to do practically nothing, and he basically tells his own bosses what he's going to do because his father is some kind of big shot. Or maybe I'm missing something. I hope something bad happens to these two characters at the end of the series (don't spoil it for me!)

As far as speaking goes I think 楚牧, the protagonist, mumbles a lot and is difficult to understand unless I read the subtitles. And the actor who plays him is clearly over 30 years old. When I saw the first episode I got confused because I was like "Huh is this supposed to be his mother or is he about to marry that lady? He's way too old for her to be his mother." But actually I find the character himself very practical and likable.

[doraemon]

Well, apart from all those obvious traits you stated, there's something about her appearance that annoys me. When I first saw her in some other drama, where she wasn't playing some atrocious character, something about her face just bugged me, and the way she talked, her mannerisms etc...

周浩 doesn't bug me too much, I think he's quite a hilarious figure, and neither does 薛洋, despite him acting like a total brat at the beginning. Haha, I think it's best not to be thinking about the ages of the actors, or nothing would make much sense. The actor playing 楚牧 is quite likeable, he tends to play ordinary, the-boy-next-door characters really well.

I've only finished episode 6 though...so there's a lot that happens which I don't know about.

[renzhe]

As far as speaking goes I think 楚牧, the protagonist, mumbles a lot and is difficult to understand unless I read the subtitles. And the actor who plays him is clearly over 30 years old.

He's equally difficult to understand in all shows. He is cashing in on his strong dialectal Beijing accent, which is why he gets cast in these sorts of roles (honest, down-to-Earth, low to lower mid-class Beijing guy).

[heifeng]

Just finished this soap opera. I think there should be a law that soap operas cannot exceed 25 episodes....yawn. It's always the last 5 episodes that drag due to trying to wrap up all the loose ends after the main conflict is resolved.

Other than that it was watchable...in a modern Chinese brady bunch with some arguing, relationships, inter-family rivalry, and Cosplay along the way.

Finding streaming shows has become difficult of late, but at least the mighty potato still has a heart for Chinese language learners abroad.

we watched this via PPS