Editor’s Note

The "First Episode" series is here to help you watch the drama. Are the recently aired dramas worth watching? Let's take a look at the good ones and the weird ones.

Some shows may gradually get better, while others may start strong but end badly, so this article only represents the author's opinion on the first few episodes, for reference only. If there are any subsequent slaps, I will keep you posted.

My Altai

Broadcast platform: CCTV-1, iQiyi

Premiere date: May 7

It's so good, so good. As I watched, my eyes became red unconsciously.

It has been a long time since I have seen such a work without any ambition in domestic dramas. It does not try to please the audience, does not want to preach to the audience, and does not want to shock the audience with any advanced techniques. It just tells the life in Altay, the livestock, the streams, and the grasslands.

The overall temperament of the series is consistent with the original novel. When watching it, you will not want to fast forward or think about how long this episode will last. It seems that in the blink of an eye, an episode is over.

It is not easy to adapt prose into film and television. The creators did not give up on capturing the charm of Li Juan's writing. The vastness and natural scenery of Altay are quite shocking, and the blue sky, grassland and life of nomads are all pleasing to the eye, which is also the biggest advantage of film and television adaptation. But on this basis, the simple life of nomads is interwoven with the scenery of heaven and earth in a light comedy way, retaining indifference and taking into account playfulness. Absurd plots such as collecting debts at a funeral and encountering wolves when offering sacrifices to the deceased husband make the series lively and interesting, and the rhythm is full of spirit.

"My Altay" ended its membership on May 10, and its Douban score rose from 8.5 points at the beginning to 8.6 points, becoming the No. 1 Chinese drama on Douban this year.

The series is also controversial, mainly focusing on the adaptation of characters and plots. The series changed the grandmother to grandma, highlighting Zhang Fengxia's nostalgia for her late husband, and made Zhang Fengxia deceived by a man, and refined Wenxiu's ignorant emotions into one of the main plots of Xia Ranch's life...

But Zhang Fengxia is really charming. The expansion of her emotional life cannot cover up her courage, wisdom and sense of humor. The emotional part is also restrained and does not destroy the overall tone. Li Wenxiu is cowardly and impulsive. Her relationship with Ba Tai is adapted into the main line, but it is also faint, full of the haziness of the first heartbeat of a girl and a boy, like a cup of grassland milk tea, melting in the summer pasture. If adapted properly, love can be full of beauty.

The group portrait in "My Altai" is well portrayed.

Finally, the casting is really amazing. Every actor fits in so well with the role. Yu Shi's carefree grazing boy, Ma Yili's boldness, Jiang Qiming's shrewdness, and the innocence of the girl who plays Token, all melted together in the desert, Gobi, woods and grasslands, so accurately and naturally.

A heartbreaking arrow, dreaming back to Jifa.

"newborn"

Broadcast platform: Youku

Premiere date: May 6

The Olympic bid is indeed very good at shooting commercial works. The story of fraud was moved from the violent park to the high-rise buildings in the city, and it was still fascinating.

The creators and the audience played a trick. In the first six episodes, almost every episode tells a story about how the scumbag Fei Ke (played by Jing Boran) creates a persona, accurately captures the victim's hobbies and weaknesses, etc., and makes a little effort to reap huge benefits. These story patterns almost all start with emotions, making the other party fall in love with themselves, and then cheating money through various schemes, and completely disappearing and running away with the money before the explosion. The screenwriter is restrained, the pace is fast, and various details show the strength of the liar, which is indeed quite eye-catching.

By the seventh episode, the true colors of several leading actors were revealed, which overturned the previous exciting story. There was a sense of interchange between the identities of the victims and the perpetrators, which further enhanced the sense of excitement.

Jing Boran as Fei Ke

However, the series also has many problems. The script and dialogue are rough and unpolished, and many details are transitioned in a hurry, making it difficult to examine them in detail. There are also some bugs, and it remains to be seen how they will be justified in the later stages.

Such a reversal returns to the routine pattern of "everyone deserves to be guilty". The sense of preaching and being fooled is very unfriendly, tacky and boring to the audience. Although the length is not long, it may be easier to stand out by simply filming a huge and wonderful scam.

Jing Boran’s performance is remarkable and he fits the role very well. The addition of Huang Jue and Wang Yanhui also adds icing on the cake to the overall texture of the series.

"hidden"

Broadcast platform: iQiyi

Premiere date: May 8

With the other two platforms' suspense theaters chasing closely, Misty Theater has been somewhat defeated. This time, "The Untold Story" has an overall quality that is below average among the recent suspense dramas. Criminal investigation dramas have been filmed with too many routines, but it is not impossible to innovate, but you have to work harder than before and race against the audience's aesthetics and wisdom.

This drama is not bad. The overall story is interesting and contains a lot of dense information. It starts with two old cases and tells the stories of two generations of police officers who sacrificed their lives for justice and were trapped in life.

The two cases involve complex and intertwined relationships between people: some relationships seem connected but are actually broken; some relationships seem confrontational but are actually cooperative; and there are also interactions that are mixed with interests and emotions.

The popularity value of "The Unspeakable" on iQiyi has exceeded 8,000.

However, the creators really found the wrong direction to shine. They tore the smooth and attractive character relationships and plots into pieces, and tried to increase the sense of sophistication through montage, memory superposition, and time confusion. However, if such techniques are not mastered well, they will backfire, greatly reducing the smoothness of the story and making the characters' emotions inexplicable. The audience is sometimes too tired to piece together information, and sometimes it is repetitive. The creators are not lacking in showing off their skills, but they also make people feel insincere and not refined enough. They look tired and aesthetically fatigued. The mystification, the superposition of memories, and the perfunctory treatment of the emotional part make the series lose its charm.

But overall it is watchable. Its advantages are that it contains a large amount of information and has a fast pace, which makes people dazzled. A lot of story points are crammed into one episode, so you need to concentrate and not miss any of them. If you stick to the fifth or sixth episode and roughly piece together the story, the viewing experience will be better.

Please Fall in Love with Me Like This

Broadcast platform: iQiyi/Tencent

Premiere date: May 3

I really don't want to admit it! At the age of thirty, I still roll over with excitement for a kiss! This drama is a remake of "Gentleman's Dignity". It has been two years since the filming. The overall script is nothing special in the category of modern idol dramas. After all, there are already a lot of idol dramas about older youth. Thirty years old, editor-in-chief, teacher, college buddy, good girlfriend, just type these keywords into ChatGPT, and you can produce several familiar IPs.

Although it is somewhat mediocre in all aspects, the emotional atmosphere between the male and female protagonists is somewhat different from other idol dramas, and reminds people of the previously popular "The Pretend Revelation".

The story begins with a dramatic crush between the two. The male protagonist has a crush on the female protagonist who likes his brother. He has to confess his love and endure a large-scale Shura moment. The ambiguous atmosphere at this time is well shot, grasping the restraint and tension of the emotions between adults.

Stills from "Please Fall in Love with Me Like This"

The character of the male protagonist is also remarkable. Unlike the popular cold and domineering CEO in online articles, Ye Han is also a fussy editor-in-chief, but he is gentlemanly and romantic. He has never thought that he is very handsome, and he always maintains a stable love state with the heroine. Such an old-fashioned gentleman, romantic and brave male protagonist is really heart-warming! Lines such as "I will no longer hesitate" and "Don't let me waver again" are rare sincere, unpretentious, romantic and gentle confessions in idol dramas nowadays. Hu Yitian's slightly cold, cold humor and rational performance also fit the role requirements. The overall feeling is that it is a natural and sincere urban love.

Of course, the series as a whole is still relatively rough, and the love between the other couples is not that attractive. With a length of 40 episodes, you can imagine how much water is added. It is recommended to skip the cp part that you are interested in.