Started out nice: deep and less of a caricature than other Chinese shows I've seen. This was soon blemished by what I saw as drama for the sake of drama. Several plot points seemed to appear out of nowhere and then go away, never to be mentioned again. If that had been all, I could have accepted the show as simple though enjoyable, though it wouldn't have blown me away. Sadly, it ended up feeling more and more like it just wanted to jerk the audience around to get emotional reactions, all of which felt unearned. I want complexity and artistry. It failed the former in its depiction of "good" and "bad" things happening with no real implications or commentary. The latter is a little harder to assess, but I would argue that the lack of anything groundbreaking or "whoa moments" just bleaches the stained tapestry that is Du Jia Ji Yi--you end up with just a blank shroud of what could have been a good work of art.
Review of Somewhere Only We Know
