The week in watching

[maggie33]

The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty episodes 13-20

There were 8 new episodes this week, not 6. Yay! And they were wonderful and funny and cute. Wang Zhi is fantastic and I’m full of squee.

Spoilers below.

There was a hilarious plot about Wang Zhi wanting to send Tang Fan to another province so Tang Fan could solve the case of forged silver there. Everything had to be done in secret, because the reputation of the Emperor was at stake. Tang Fan didn’t want to go on account of it being too dangerous, and he went to great lengths to avoid it. First he pretended to be sick, then he pretended that he was going to get married, and the next he arranged his own funeral (he said that he was going to be killed for sure, so he may as well held the funeral for himself already). Wang Zhi gave as good as he got. And Sui Zhou was rolling his eyes and sighing deeply over their antics in the background.

Also I went into tumblr tag to see if someone made a gif of my favorite Tang Fan & Wang Zhi scene and they did. It’s the scene when Wang Zhi praises Dong’er’s intelligence and he says “I have only seen one genius like her in my life before.” Tang Fan of course asks “Who is it?”. The rest of the scene is here.

And here is another one of my favorite Tang Fan & Wang Zhi scenes in gifset form. I love their scenes. And I could absolutely go for Sui Zhou/Tang Fan/Wang Zhi in fanfic.

And I watched a few BTS vids on youtube. Darren Chen (Tang Fan) and Fu Mengbo (Sui Zhou) are both adorable and resemble their characters a lot. Darren Chen is flirtatious and outgoing and funny, and Fu Mengbo is quiet and cool and a good cook. :)


Royal Sister Returns episode 1

Zhu Yilong is very cute and he looks beautiful, but I was very bored when he wasn’t on screen, so I don’t think I will continue watching.


Ancient Detective episodes 1-3

And to stay in Chinese historical crime dramas genre I started watching Ancient Detective. Well, the main reason was – because Liu Yaoyuan, the actor who plays Wang Zhi in The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty, has a supporting part here. And he’s a great actor, so I wanted to see him in something else.

I watched three episodes and it’s ok I guess. The two male leads are pretty and cute and slashable with their contrasting personalities. One is the brains, the other is the brawn. The female lead is a stereotypical “skilled assassin cold on the outside and soft on the inside” type for now. Liu Yaoyuan was in these three episodes for maybe 5 minutes tops. But I’m intrigued by the main mystery, so I will watch some more for sure. And the main leads together have makings of a nice OT3, and I’m always down for M/M/F threesome. :)

Comments

[trobadora]

Bookmarking this for when I actually watch more of The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty!

What's the premise of Ancient Detective? I like historical crime stories, and it's always good to have something in reserve that I can watch when I feel like it.

[maggie33]

The set up is sort of like The Untamed. There are sects and warriors and demons and zombies, and fighting with flying. 8 years ago there was a big battle where a cruel villain with supernatural powers killed most of the sects leaders. Supposedly the villain died, too, but his body was never found. The main character is the son of one of the victims of that massacre. He took part in the battle, but he was hurt badly and now he has amnesia and doesn't remember what really happened. He tries to find out what happened 8 years ago, but in the meantime he solves other cases he encounters along the way.

I found the 1st episode pretty meh, but I really wanted to see more of Liu Yaoyuan, so I've kept watching. And as shallow entertainments go it's not that bad. It has pretty people and pretty costumes, and at least the first case is quite interesting - a murder that happened in isolated premises, so you know that one of the people present, and not an outsider, is the killer. :)

[trobadora]

Huh, that sounds like a fun genre combination! And interesting cases make up for a lot, especially when it comes to casual watching. :)

[rheasilvia]

I've watched up to ep4 of Sleuth, and sadly no more appears to be coming to YouTube anytime soon... I don't have a Viki pass. But I am keeping an eye out for additional eps! I do still really like it so far, thank you for reccing it. :-)

Ancient Detective... I think I've heard of that! Will see if I can find it. I've been watching Miss Truth, also a drama about sleuthing in Ancient China, and also quite enjoyable IMO. It is clearly a popular genre! :-)

[maggie33]

You can watch shows on VIKI, even without the account. They will be commercials during the episode, but you can. I've just logged out to check. And there are already 14 episodes available here for people without the account.

Ancient Detective is enjoyable to watch while I wait for the next episodes of The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty. I've just googled Miss Truth and it sounds sounds nice, too. Good to know there are more dramas in this genre. :)