any good TV series recently?

[sekkar]

Right now I'm watching these two:

 

顫抖吧 阿部: A period drama with a sci-fi twist. Quite enjoyable, it's light-hearted and funny, which is a nice change of pace from all the melodrama you find in most other series. And it's only 25 episodes! This is a pet peeve of mine, so many Chinese series would be soooo much more enjoyable if they condensed it down to 25 episodes, instead of the bloated 67 episodes you usually get, where half of it is just boring filler.

 

明星大侦探: A variety show where the cast plays different roles in a murder mystery and the goal is for them to uncover who among them is lying and commited the murder. Each episode has its own theme or setting, e.g. that last one I saw was set on the Titanic and the love triangle between Jack, Rose and the other guy was a part of it. Entertaining  and contains lots of banter, which is nice from a language learning perspective.

[abcdefg]

4 hours ago, sekkar said:

Entertaining  and contains lots of banter, which is nice from a language learning perspective.

 

I agree, banter is useful in your Chinese language toolkit. 

[大肚男]

On 12/3/2018 at 3:19 PM, sekkar said:

明星大侦探

 

My wife absolutely loves this show, but I think that's because she has a secret crush for 何老师。

 

I think it's fun, but drags on for a bit too long towards the second half of the investigation. I think people talk too fast in it, and I find it hard to follow even with subtitles.

[Wurstmann]

I've started watching 悍城 and so far it's excellent! I always get excited when a show only has 24 or 12 episodes. In my opinion the pacing is one of the main problems of Chinese TV shows.

[zander1]

On 11/29/2018 at 5:40 PM, zander1 said:

Still watching! Currently on episode 45, I actually kind of love it..

 

So I finished! To be honest this show had all the perennial problems of Chinese TV shows, the pacing, random new plot lines, poor acting etc but I have to admit that I really really enjoyed it. It was fun, didn't take itself seriously at all and by the end I was kind of hooked (I stayed up finishing it until 2am watching it despite having a 7am flight the next day, whoops!).

 

In terms of practical benefit, the formalised language has actually helped a lot with reading and my 成语 knowledge/bank has increased dramatically. This has been really helpful as when I'm listening or watching something now a significant amount of vocabulary I don't understand will be a 成语 or idiom so this has helped my comprehension when dealing with more 'modern' materials. Despite the setting most of the language is useful to learn.

 

I have wanted to watch 后宫·甄嬛传 for a while so I think I might watch that soon but I'll probally take a short break from the costume dramas first. Will read through what people here have been watching and make a decision for a post-Christmas show.

[zander1]

On 12/20/2018 at 9:13 AM, zander1 said:

甄嬛传

 

Am on episode 10, it's good, it's real good.

[Publius]

I'm watching the 2017 series 《白鹿原》 (White Deer Plain), based on an award-winning novel of the same name by 陳忠實. I remember the year 1993, when two books, written by two authors from the Shaanxi province, rocked the Chinese literary world. One is 賈平凹's 《廢都》 and the other 陳忠實's 《白鹿原》. The story I cannot recall but I remember it's a great piece of literature. So I'm quite happy to find out that it's been adapted into a TV series. The show reportedly took a staggering 17 years of preparation and had a production budget of 230 million yuan. It follows the stories of two families through three generations living in a village on the fictional White Deer Plain near Xi'an during the tumultuous first half of the 20th century. The acting is descent to good, the scenery breathtakingly beautiful. A bit of magical realism, a bit of Guanzhong dialect. 10 episodes in and I'm enjoying it.

[Jim]

1 hour ago, Publius said:

I'm watching the 2017 series 《白鹿原》 (White Deer Plain), based on an award-winning novel of the same name by 陳忠實. I remember the year 1993, when two books, written by two authors from the Shaanxi province, rocked the Chinese literary world. One is 賈平凹's 《廢都》 and the other 陳忠實's 《白鹿原》. The story I cannot recall but I remember it's a great piece of literature. So I'm quite happy to find out that it's been adapted into a TV series. The show reportedly took a staggering 17 years of preparation and had a production budget of 230 million yuan. It follows the stories of two families through three generations living in a village on the fictional White Deer Plain near Xi'an during the tumultuous first half of the 20th century. The acting is descent to good, the scenery breathtakingly beautiful. A bit of magical realism, a bit of Guanzhong dialect. 10 episodes in and I'm enjoying it.

One of the first long form novels I read right through, on the recommendation of a friend who taught literature. I even went along to hear Chen Zhongshi talk one time and he signed my copy. My wife watched and enjoyed the TV series but haven't got round to it yet. Didn't it end up getting pulled from broadcast?

[Publius]

59 minutes ago, Jim said:

Didn't it end up getting pulled from broadcast?

According to Wikepedia, on its premiere run, it was taken off air after one episode but resumed three weeks later when 《人民的名義》 ended. I don't really know because I seldom watch TV.

[zander1]

On 2/21/2019 at 7:39 AM, Publius said:

I'm watching the 2017 series 《白鹿原》 (White Deer Plain),

 

Just started this based on your recommendation, on episode 4 really enjoying it so far.

[StChris]

On 12/4/2018 at 4:19 AM, sekkar said:

明星大侦探: A variety show where the cast plays different roles in a murder mystery and the goal is for them to uncover who among them is lying and commited the murder. Each episode has its own theme or setting, e.g. that last one I saw was set on the Titanic and the love triangle between Jack, Rose and the other guy was a part of it. Entertaining  and contains lots of banter, which is nice from a language learning perspective.

 

I watched a couple of minutes, but just couldn't stick it out. Although the concept sounds interesting, I have zero tolerance of those TV shows with sound effects and cartoon punctuation marks.

[feihong]

I’ve been enjoying 遇见你真好. Apparently it is a Chinese clone of Terrace House that you can find on Netflix (I have not seen the original). Even though it’s a reality show, it has plenty of twists and turns and is much faster paced than your average Chinese drama. I’m not sure how it is language wise for other people. The show is set in Shenzhen so almost all of the cast members speak with a bit of a Southern accent. I can imagine it is a bit harder to understand than your average 都市 drama because there’s probably more slang in the conversations than in scripted dialogue.

[roddy]

On 2/21/2019 at 7:39 AM, Publius said:

I'm watching the 2017 series 《白鹿原》 (White Deer Plain), based on an award-winning novel of the same name by 陳忠實. I

Just watched the first episode of this - really good, enjoyed it. I'm not going to pretend I'm going to watch all 77 episodes though...

[zander1]

22 minutes ago, roddy said:

I'm not going to pretend I'm going to watch all 77 episodes though...

 

Perennial problem with every Chinese show ever...

[roddy]

They don't even break it up into manageable seasons!

[Wurstmann]

All because of money. Still better than the American way of doing things though. At least they tell one story from beginning to end. I hate how a lot of US shows just add season after season until they get cancelled.

Recently there are a lot of Chinese web series with only 24 or 30 episodes. As a result the pacing and quality is often much better.

[zander1]

28 minutes ago, Wurstmann said:

Recently there are a lot of Chinese web series with only 24 or 30 episodes. As a result the pacing and quality is often much better.

 

Yeah I need to watch more of these, the ones I've watched I've really enjoyed (北京女子图鉴，最好的我们) it's nice knowing that I may actually finish something haha. I've only watched 3-4 shows all the way to 70+

[Wurstmann]

3 hours ago, zander1 said:

Yeah I need to watch more of these,

人不彪悍枉少年

悍城

白夜追凶

寒武纪

河神

假如没有遇见你

如果蜗牛有爱情

失控

我的青春也灿烂

原生之罪

镇魂

鬼吹灯（之怒晴湘西 etc.）

are some relatively new and good ones. 滚动的钢蛋, 未择之路, 影, 我不是药神 and especially 无名之辈 are some good movies.

 

For more click here and look at the episode count.

[Publius]

5 hours ago, roddy said:

I'm not going to pretend I'm going to watch all 77 episodes though...

I've watched all 77 episodes, and reread the novel.

 

The TV series made quite a few changes to the storyline. For example, they moved the 1911 Xinhai Revolution to before Bai Jiaxuan married Xiancao, making it impossible for Bai Ling to be more than 10 years old when the KMT and CPC split in 1927. In the novel, Bai Ling was buried alive during a purge in the Red Army; Bai Xiaowen went unpunished as the county magistrate after the Liberation. The stereotypification of characters in the TV series is a disappointment.

[StChris]

Two I've been watching recently:

 

《创业时代》

 

This seems very loosely based on the story of the rise of Wechat, Weibo etc. Three tech startups compete for funding from a venture capitalist company. There's also a really dumb love subplot threaded in. Being interested in tech myself, I appreciate the amount of tech and business vocab, and this is enough to power me through some of the more stupid parts.

 

《都挺好》

 

This is a brand new one about a dysfunctional family (the domineering mother, cowering father, old 重男轻女 ideas). While this is a common theme in Chinese dramas, it's often played for laughs, whereas here it's a lot darker. There are some real selfish arseholes in this family. I hope it keeps its dark perspective and doesn't succumb to sentimentality.