At last something different

I got curious about this series when I saw the poster, showing middle-aged and elderly people, something unusual for Chinese dramas these days. I had not watched Chinese series in quite some time, really tired of the twenty-something surgeons, CEO's, lawyers, hardened police detectives, etc....Ridiculous. The ageism in Chinese shows really got bad these last years. That's also the reason why my friends in China, all above 45, usually don't watch Chinese series anymore. But here we have something fresh and to a certain degree, realistic. It portrays the struggle of a quite capable woman employed at a Construction company and her struggle to achieve success, and respect as well, in a male-dominated industry. Making matters worse is her treatment by some elderly managers solely because they are older than her. There is no usual "rags to riches" story where by the 6th episode she starts climbing the corporate ladder only to end as CEO or just rich by the last episode. No, this shows the daily work, frustrations, backstabbings and gossip in a big corporation. Almost no situation gets resolved in the "usual Chinese Drama" way, that alone makes it much more interesting to watch, and more life like. Example would be her love life. Add to it the gorgeous views of Shanghai periodically sprinkled through the episodes and you have a worthwhile show to watch.

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A drama "light"

The premise seemed pretty good, the trailer as well so I started watching on the YoYo channel on YouTube. The first episode was really good, 2nd one as well. Gorgeous scenery, looks like Yunnan or Tibet but then it went down. There is really no one to root for, no cliff hanger at the end of the episodes, nothing that would make you wonder what is going to happen to this or that person. Nothing. There is really no tension, nothing that did prevent me to get sleepy when I watched the 6th episode. Almost insipid. I guess I will go back to the historical fantasy dramas, at least there is some action, twists and a good portion backstabbing. What drama should be.

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It could have been better

I saw the first 2 episodes and didn't like what I saw. Stuff that was not in the book and that didn't add anything to the story was already visible then, so I said to myself I'd rather wait for the Netflix production. But then some of my best (Chinese) friends convinced me to give it another try as they were it watching it every day. So I continued until ep.6 and then I had enough when falling asleep twice while watching the episodes because the series is so slow. Really really slow. Why not take something out of the "Korean Playbook" and make just 16 or 18 episodes? Cut out the fluff and you should be fine. Anyway, then there are the usual exaggerated reactions that some people in the series have to completely mundane situations, familiar to anyone watching Chinese series, and the insisting on trivial matters to the point of getting on one's nerves, again just like with most Mainland series. The disconnect between how people live and act in China nowadays and what they present in their series is getting bigger and bigger everyday. You can see it with constantly the same stories, the horrible ageism and even in hyped up series like this one. I'll stick with the Korean series for the time being.

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Nothing new here

What stands out is how lazy the script writers were. Suddenly meeting a childhood friend, so that the main female protagonist is torn between 2 men like in so many other Asian series? Yep, in none other place than.... Shanghai, a city of 24 million people! Then the cringe worthy scenes, especially the ones where some of the female characters are idolizing their male counter parts like Gods. Seriously? Sad to see the mostly good actors participating in this. It's 2020 and series like these are still made? Clichés left and right, etc... Anyway, watch it if you have nothing better to do.

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Same ol' same ol'

The trailer was interesting, unfortunately after watching just 2 episodes I saw that it was again just the typical "romance" C-Drama with the typical twenty-something actors/actresses. Only difference, at least in the episodes I watched, the action is somewhere in Eastern Europe. Okay, but when Victoria Song talks to her boss in Chinese and he answers in English for quite a while I was thinking: "Seriously"? They couldn't get a Chinese actress that speaks English for this part? How realistic is that? Then I saw Leo Luo acting his part as a tough agent/broker in a fight with several people. For heavens sake, he is just too young for this role. If at least he looked kind of tough and mean, but no, quite the opposite....From then it just went downhill for me. Apparently someone thought let's make a series with some more or less fresh faces, underutilized actors, for people like me that are getting tired of seeing the same actors in more or less the same roles. I have no problem with this idea. Only problem is, these actors should be in some other series. The action genre, no, most definitely not. "Broker" is screaming for actors at least 10 years older than the actors here plus some common sense added to the scenes.

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