First up is the family drama 四喜 or Those Days. This 36 episode drama stars 童瑶 Tong Yao、蒋欣 Jiang Xin、黄明昊 Huang Ming Hao and began airing on CCTV 8 and Tencent on Nov 7.
Here’s the synopsis: Shen Ming Zhu 沈明珠 (played by Tong Yao), lives in the ancient town of Nanxi 南溪. While pregnant, she suddenly loses her husband, who dies while helping others. She also comes to discover that she is adopted. She becomes entangled in emotional conflicts among three pairs of elders, her biological parents, adoptive parents, and parents-in-law, and she must navigate how to manage her relationship with all three groups.
Financially, Shen Ming Zhu must handle the debts from her late husband’s family business, and confront the sobering realization of the challenges that older sister Xu Zhi xia (Jiang Xin), her sister-in-law, and her husband’s younger sister all face. Huang Ming Hao plays Shen Ming Hui, the “ultimate Maserati brother,” who protects his family with passion and sincerity. The series explores the complex bonds and tensions with women of different backgrounds in Chinese-style family relationships.
This is both Tong Yao and Jiang Xin’s 3rd drama to air this year with Jiang Xin having a string a hits ever since last year’s Romance in the Alley. Speaking of, Jiang Xin won best supporting actress for her role as Song Ying in this year’s Shanghai Magnolia awards. Tong Yao hasn’t had as much luck, with her last drama Zu Ji Footprints of Change underperforming. I saw quite a bit of marketing for this drama when it first started airing. This drama has performed extremely well ratings wise, coming in 4th so far in terms of ratings for CCTV8. It seems viewers really do enjoy dramas from more familiar actors. Jiang Xin’s character Xu Zhi xia has some similarities to her Ode to Joy character Fan Sheng Mei and fans were joking that for each Song Ying, who has a loving family, Jiang Xin decides to reward herself with characters like Fan Sheng Mei and Xu Zhi Xia who have pretty terrible families.
Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty III to Chang’An
We are on Season 3 of The Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty! This is a direct sequel to the 2022 hit and we are now back in Chang’An for more gruesome and strange cases with the crew of 5 people. We have Su Wu Ming, disciple of the famous Detective Dee. He is a top detective and scholar but has no martial arts knowledge. After that is Lu Ling Feng, he has a slew of titles but he is from THE famous Lu family from Fan Yang and son to Princess Tai Ping. He is very righteous and extremely skilled at martial arts. He is betrothed to Pei Xi Jun, of the He Dong Pei family. She is a skilled artist and invaluable to the team for sketching out potential suspects. After that, we have Chu Ying Yao. She joined the team late in season 1. She and Su Wu Ming are a pair but she is trained as more of an assassin and is crucial for her more secretive skills. Rounding out the group is legendary doctor Fei Ji Shi who loves his drink and chicken and finds time to be a top doctor as well.
This time, this crew is in Chang An where Lu Ling Feng is given a government role. But, if we follow how things are supposed to play out in history, this is when the Emperor, Tang Xuan Zong, Li Long Ji, who is a young man at this point, is currently fighting tooth and nail for power from his aunt, Princess Tai Ping, who is also Lu Ling Feng’s mother. So not only do Lu Ling Feng and Su Wu Ming and company need to solve various gruesome cases, they also have to watch their backs to not step in political land mines.
This drama has breached 10,000 on iQiYi’s popularity index with ease and it dominating the charts. It seems that audiences are quite pleased with the IP that is Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty and are willing to tune in for it. I would say I like this season a little less than season 2. There are a few cases that shine but there it is not as emotionally connected as season 2. By nature of being in Chang An in season 3, there are many more references to what happened with Emperor Wu Ze Tian, the first and only female Emperor of China who is Princess Tai Ping’s mother. THere’s references to many famous people in the Tang dynasty at that time that I think would actually go over many people’s heads if you don’t have a decent grasp of history at that time. But because several of the cases are tied to those individuals, if you don’t know the history as well, the reveals or at least the tensions don’t land as well.
Overall though, this is a strong showing for this IP that does not feature an idol. Yang Xu Wen for some reason has not been able to be a breakout star even though people really like this series. There is a season 4 and season 5 in the works though so we’ll see more of this cast. There are plenty of meta jokes for this drama which has made the viewing experience quite fun. I will publish a review for this show over the weekend.
Next up is 凤凰台上 or Love and Crown. This 35 episode period romance drama stars Ren Jia Lun and Peng Xiao Ran. It began airing on Youku and Jiang Su Television on Nov 14.
Here’s the plot summary: Xiao Huan 萧焕 (played by Ren Jia Lun) is the young emperor of the Nan Qi 南祁 Dynasty who works hard for his people. However, the Grand Chancellor and his faction, in collusion with powerful groups from Jiang Hu, have seized control of the court and corrupted the empire. To save the people from suffering, Xiao Huan goes undercover under the alias “白迟帆,” to travel across Jiang Hu. There, he meets 凌苍苍 Ling Cang Cang (played by Peng Xiao Ran), the leader of the Feng Lai Pavilion. This sect is dedicated to upholding justice. The two travel together, fighting evil and protecting the innocent, gradually forming a bond until Xiao Huan discovers that Ling Cang Cang is actually the Grand Chancellor’s daughter and is soon to become his empress.
Xiao Huan and Ling Cang Cang join forces to rescue the empire, punish corruption and ensure its people can live in prosperity.
Well…just by reading the plot this seems like a pretty standard period romance drama. This is Ren Jia Lun’s 2nd drama to air this year after The Demon Hunter’s Romance, which was pretty well received. This is Peng Xiao Ran’s 3rd drama to air this year although I really count it her 2nd because she merely had a cameo in Love in Pavilion. She had a bigger role in Blood River.
This drama made no impact. For those that DID watch it, Ren Jia Lun was panned performance of always having a furrowed brow. Whoever did his eyebrow makeup should also be questioned because those eyebrows are SO long! The biggest splash this drama did make was the feud between the original writer of the book and Peng Xiao Ran. The original writer wrote a long post praising Ren Jia Lun while demeaning the portrayal and characterization of Ling Cang Cang. Peng Xiao Ran clapped back saying that she didn’t have much to go off based on the script. The original writer had a lot of demeaning things to say about the female character including that the woman should always be subservient to the man, which is shocking because um, she wrote the book. Anyways, this did not receive critical or viewership acclaim.
Next up is the drama Why is He Still Single or 他为什么依然单身. That’s the literal translation of the drama. This 16 episode drama began airing on Nov 16 on Tencent and then on Nov 18 on Dong Fan TV. This drama stars Huo Jian Hua and Zhu Zhu.
As you can probably guess, this is a romantic comedy about well, why the main character is still single!
Yu Yu 俞瑜 (played by Wallace Huo 霍建华), is an interior designer in his forties who claims to be “anti-marriage”. He also repeatedly finds himself in relationship predicaments that offend the other party, resulting in his single status. After a chance encounter with Gu Yejia 顾叶嘉 (played by Zhu Zhu), a physician in general medicine, the two begin a series of amusing interactions in places like movie theaters and supermarkets, gradually revealing the truths beneath their seemingly tough appearances. Through the emotional clashes between a sharp-tongued designer and a rational doctor, the drama explores differing views on love and marriage.
This is Huo Jian Hua’s 3rd drama to air this year after Hide Games and Forget You Not. I saw a decent marketing push for this drama especially since this drama is more of a short romantic comedy. Huo Jian Hua’s character has an extremely sharp-tongue and is quite sassy to everyone in the show. All the comments have been meta jokes about Love in Ruyi’s palace how Huo Jian Hua is finally airing all his grievances from filming in that show here. I mean, this is his first romantic comedy in a LONG time so it’s not surprising people feel that way. Zhu Zhu looks as beautiful as always so it’s always a treat to see her.
Next up is one of my most anticipated dramas of the year. 枭起青壤 or Love on the Turquoise Land. This 32 episode drama stars Dilraba and Chen Xing Xu in this modern supernatural drama.
Here’s the plot summary: In ancient times, aliens descended upon the earth in the form of man-eating monsters called Di Xiao. The ancient Chinese formed a small group of hunters, known as the Nan Shan hunters who forced the Di Xiao underground. For thousands of years, the Di Xiao and the Nan Shan hunters have been waging a secret war over dominance on land. In modern times, Nie Jiu Luo (played by Dilraba) is a renowned sculptor but has ties to the Nan Shan Hunters. Yan Tuo (played by Chen Xing Xu) is trying to solve the mysteries surrounding his adoptive mother Lin Xi Rou (played by Zhang Li). Yan Tuo clashes with Nie Jiu Luo but then comes to realize that she might hold the key to unlocking the mysteries about his family.
The drama is based off the book of the same name and penned by the same author as the dramas Parallel World and QI XING JIAN TONG. I’ve been chasing this live and this has been a visual treat. The cinematography for a modern day drama is stunning. The fight scenes are really visceral. It’s not your traditional kung fu fighting. There’s fighting but it feels less choreographed as in, people are fighting to hurt or kill. Dilraba is gorgeous in this drama and plays the somewhat distant and haughty, yet engaged Nie Jiu Luo to perfection. She has great chemistry with Chen Xing Xu who is finally able to showcase his muscles in a drama. I read the original book and thought the source material was weaker than Parallel World. In general the adaptation is a worthy adaptation especially as it has to skirt around the censors. There’s also been some legitimately hilarious memes that have come out of this show.
The drama unfortunately has been struggling viewers wise, not yet breaching 28,000 on Tencent’s popularity index. The drama does struggle with some pacing issues and it does have some legitimate jump scares and it is quite bloody, which might turn off audiences. However, if you like Stranger Things and other supernatural modern day dramas, this is a great drama to watch.
The drama that is dominating television ratings right now is Legend of the Magnate 大生意人 which features Chen Xiao as the main lead.
Set in the late Qing dynasty, Chen Xiao plays Gu Ping Yuan 古平原 who was wrongfully accused for a crime and sent to NingGuTa. For those that are familiar, this is where Zhen Huan’s family was sentenced to in Empresses in the Palace. In the cracks, Gu Ping Yuan was able to change his fortunes by becoming a tea merchant to start. THen he transitioned into salt. After that, he connected with various merchant powers across the land to help both people and country. He was able to change his life from exiled convict to a top magnate in the land. In his journey to becoming the merchant king, he meets many different people to create a complicated coalition in this legendary late qing dynasty journey.
This drama started airing on CCTV8 and in just a few minutes breached 3% in terms of TV share, the fastest of the year. This drama is currently dominating the charts for dramas airing on TV and is in the 8000 range on iQiyi which is an impressive feat given there is usually a disconnect between these dramas that air on TV.
We haven’t seen a Qing dynasty drama in quite some time. I think actors don’t like shaving their heads for the role so it’s nice to head back to the Qing dynasty. We’ve had too many Tang dynasty dramas this year. I like the diversity.