Running List of Chinese TV Reviews
2023
Wave Makers 人選之人—造浪者 (2023): Taiwanese election drama loses momentum after episode 4 or so, but I still teared up just getting engrossed in what democracy in Chinese looks and sounds like. 7.9.
The Long Season 漫长的季节 (2023): Another just brutal year for mainland dramas, but this was well-acted enough to hold my interest though six episodes. 6.9.
The Knockout 狂飙 (2023): Through the first five episodes, iQIYI’s The Knockout was the best Chinese modern drama of the 2020s. It’s a Breaking Bad–esque tale of a fishmonger who, bullied by street toughs and frustrated at his lack of prospects, ends up pursuing a life of crime. The antihero is deliciously written and acted, and the initial portrayals of corruption are pretty unflinching. The language is naturalistic, and all the actors feel comfortable in their roles. I’ve particularly been enjoying the sound design, an aspect of TV many contemporary Chinese dramas fail to deliver in.
Having never lived in China in the “bad old days” of the go-go 2000s, getting a little glimpse into that world through this dramatized account was really entertaining. Some of the characters, from the street hoods to the clean cop and corrupt businessmen, seem a little archetypal — but I trust these writers to continue to layer on depth as the drama unfolds. If you haven’t watched a ton of Chinese TV, these archetypes will feel fresh to you! Do consider checking out the first few episodes of the show on YouTube — iQIYI has invested in serviceable English subtitles for those less comfortable with Chinese.
Episodes 5-10: After five more, the weight of censorship began to hold down the writing. The entire creative team, from writers and actors down to the cinematographers and sound designer, has the capability to add nuance and complexity to every character. The good guy, however, is a little too good, and the bad guys a little too bad for the plot to really resonate. Only the lead remains as all that interesting a character. Unfortunately, we’re just not going to get The Wire out of China in the late Xi era.
I’m still obsessed with this Don. He has so many teapots!
Become a Farmer 种地吧 (2023) is a reality TV show taking cute twenty-something guys and making them farm. It’s relaxing and kind of silly: there’s definitely an undercurrent of “struggle poor” and idealizing the lives of poor farmers who probably really would rather have the comfortable urban lives these kids are giving up. The most interesting moments are when the guys do something manually, get frustrated, ask a farmer how do to something better (ie. seed), then rent some machine (a drone that seeds for you) and get blown away by how much more productive the technology makes them. It’s also a little wild watching a show idealizing urban youth going to the countryside as a wholesome anecdote to modern life only fifty years after the horrific “Down to the Countryside” 上山下乡运动 movement of the Maoist era — where educated youth were sent to farm in an attempt to tone down the risks that the Cultural Revolution posed to Mao’s grip on power. I discuss Shan Weijian’s 單偉建 experience in the Gobi in the podcast below.
Chinese Bizarreries 中国奇谭 (2023): Fantastically creative animated series by Bilibili. Discussed in the podcast below. 8.9.
2022
2022 was just brutal for Chinese entertainment. I watched the first few episodes of every top-ten Douban 豆瓣 modern drama, and I can’t recommend any of them. Hip-hop reality shows are really stale, and no other reality season this year caught my attention.
The Reset 开端 (2021): an off-brand Black Mirror miniseries featuring two teenagers stuck in a time loop. Entertaining enough to accompany cardio, but lost steam midway. 6.7.
The Story of Xing Fu 幸福到万家 (2022): its pilot episode surfaced some interesting dynamics around urban-rural norms and gender relations. It’s a great example of why I like watching Chinese TV — the values which these shows spotlight and promote are very foreign to Westerners. Centering a major plot point on tractors destroying leafy greens was pretty novel, and I made it through 14 episodes — the longest I could stick with any Chinese drama this year. That said, the plot is predictable, the acting subpar, and the main baddie’s old-man toxic masculinity insufferable. 5.8.
Draw the Line 底线 (2022): a procedural drama that Douban tells me is actually a pretty realistic portrayal of the Chinese legal system, with many of the storylines ripped from the headlines. Problem is, it’s lifeless. 6.1, with potential some upside through only three episodes.
Wild Bloom 风吹半夏 (2022) (through three episodes) — a less good Like a Flowing River 大江大河. 5.3.
The Eloquent Ji Xiaolan 铁齿铜牙纪晓岚 (2002) (bonus review by A.): an OG “House of Cards” set in the Qing Dynasty, the show follows Emperor Qianlong 乾隆帝 and his two favorite court officials who hold two opposing political philosophies on a series of adventures and affairs in and out of the Forbidden City. The show’s namesake character, Ji Xiaolan, takes the side of the everyday citizens and is determined to undermine the influence and cult following at the court of He Shen 和珅, the most famous corrupt official in Chinese history. I had seen possibly every episode of this four-season series in primary school — on live TV! — along with much of the country, but in hindsight understood very little of the deeper dynamics and social commentary of the show. I love the humor, the acting, and the dialogue that would not pass the censorship bureau today.
2021
2021 was a fallow year for Chinese TV dramas. Whereas 2020 had some real prestige HBO-level quality stuff (including my personal favorite The Bad Kids 隐秘的角落), tightening censorship around scripts and COVID disruptions depressed shows’ quality in 2021. With regulatory gale force headwinds prompting leading studios to shut down and leading players like iQIYI and Tencent Video to layoff staff and axe new shows, I’m pessimistic that 2022 will end up any better.
One bright spot was 山海情, available on YouTube with English subtitles as Minning Town. Minning Town tells the story of a poor village in the 1990s transported whole hog from a barren landscape in Ningxia 宁夏 to a desert that the government ultimately irrigates. At a brisk twenty-three episodes, it’s one of the few Chinese TV shows I’ve watched that’s left me wanting more. The show’s A1 acting doesn’t flatten accents but rather thoughtfully highlights regional variation. It shines in its portrayal of different 1990s workplaces, getting me invested in mining in Xinjiang, piece labor in Guangzhou, and, most memorably, mushroom farming. Yes, it has a propaganda tinge, as a noble civil servant backed by understanding Party bosses ultimately delivers the goods — but unlike a lot of Chinese propaganda TV, it has a soul.
The other solid TV drama was Delicious Romance 爱很美味, available on WeTV with English subtitles. It tells the story of three old female friends, all thirty and single. Two of the three leads are superbly written and acted, and I quite like how the show goes out of its way to make fun of contemporary Chinese TV tropes. While most American shows have avoided making COVID a plot centerpiece, this show’s writing leans into it. My favorite plot beat had a husband caught cheating by government contact-tracers who noticed that his mistress was exposed to COVID. Also, because it’s a Tencent show, it can center WeChat in the narrative in a realistic way.
BiliBili in 2021 delivered the world the best mainland animated series I’ve ever seen, Link Click 时光代理人. A creative twist on time travel, it brings together tight, heart-string-pulling writing and with world-class animation. The basketball arc in episodes 2-4 ripped my heart out. See Western YouTuber Gigguk for a video preview if you’re on the fence. Watch here for English subtitles or here on BiliBili if you’re a member.
In terms of variety shows, I quite liked 戏剧新生活, a BiliBili variety show where directors and stage actors had to put on plays and sell tickets. It leaned into the struggles of contemporary stage actors in China, and hopefully motivates more people to check out shows. It had a weirdly all-male cast, and I’m looking forward to a second season where presumably it goes mixed gender or all-female. And speaking of all-female shows, 黑怕女孩, an American Idol–style rap competition featuring a wide range of sonic styles, also caught my attention for a spell.
2020
Best Scripted Chinese TV Shows: The Bad Kids and The Long Night
Even in the face of an increasingly tightening environment particularly for scripted content, iQIYI put out two twelve-episode adaptations of novels by Chen Zi Jin that raised the ceiling for modern Chinese drama. The Bad Kids (English subtitles on YouTube) focuses on lower-class life in a way Chinese tv almost never does. It is shot and scored beautifully and features some of the best child acting I have ever seen. Only The Longest Day in Chang’an 长安十二时辰 rivals it in terms of domestic cinematography.
The second highlight of 2020, The Long Night 沉默的真相, was also excellent. It tells a multigenerational story of police corruption (see this video for an explanation of how they toned down the original source material to get around censors).
Best Chinese Variety Shows: 头口秀大会 S3 and 令人心动的offer S2
Comedy show 头口秀大会 Season 3 was the breakthrough mainstream moment for Chinese stand-up comedy, a scene which has been bubbling up for the past decade or so but struggled to find a broader audience until recently. See here for an excerpt of my favorite comedian. For intermediate Chinese speakers, do note that this is really difficult to follow, both because the performers are often referencing stuff you’ve never heard of and since you get no visual cues (as when watching a drama) of what they’re talking. That said, it’s really satisfying when you get a joke!
令人心动的offer S2 is the most awkward thing I’ve watched in years. This reality show takes eight recent grads and throws them in the office of a law firm where they compete for two full-time offers. The most painful kid rocked his Stanford mug and lanyard from his LLM and kept throwing in references to, “well, in America they do XYZ.” At first, the partners were impressed by him, but ultimately he realized that he’s actually not special just because he got to study abroad. The cringe was so good.