My main impression of the Tencent series from 2023 was that it was too slow in a certain part in the middle, while the rest was appropriately paced, so I was hoping that and only that was what Netflix were going to cut down to keep only the good parts. Instead, Netflix did a really strange teen-brained speedrun style of adaptation where even the "good parts" are being rushed through like someone's trying to get this thing done as fast as possible to move on to the next project. It's almost like they're intentionally making a mockery of this whole thing, with no time to build appropriate suspense about world-changing discoveries, no time to build deep characters worth caring about, no realism to the science-talk. Ironically I think even the live-action/full-realism presentation of the 3D game is detracting from the impression that part should be making, whereas the lower-grade more early-2000s 3D renderings in the Chinese version seemed the correct way to do that.
As noted by others, the casting is pretty bad and the dialogues are edgy and un-dramatic, which absolutely ruins a story about world-shattering and mindblowing events. And it's not just the young "scientists" looking like fashion models and talking like videogame-playing teenagers (Jess Hong is actually one of the better actors here, just not given a lot of mature script to work with), but also older figures I would've expected far far more from (I'm looking at you Benedict Wong, what a disgrace of a performance). The detective and the nanotech scientist in the Chinese version were sooo much more likable characters it's actually shocking to see the difference. (Nice trick, casting "Ser Davos Seaworth", as well as "Samwell Tarly", as well as "The High Sparrow" from Game of Thrones, to get us to like this show, but not good enough - they didn't save your last show from your bad writing D&D, and they didn't save this one.)
I don't know if I even need to subject myself to any more of this after 4 episodes, it's plowing through everything so fast I'm afraid there might be spoilers already in the first season compared to what I've seen in the Chinese one. I may just stop watching this joke and go back to rewatch the Tencent version to refresh my memory on some of the subtleties and complexities going on there.
As noted by others, the casting is pretty bad and the dialogues are edgy and un-dramatic, which absolutely ruins a story about world-shattering and mindblowing events. And it's not just the young "scientists" looking like fashion models and talking like videogame-playing teenagers (Jess Hong is actually one of the better actors here, just not given a lot of mature script to work with), but also older figures I would've expected far far more from (I'm looking at you Benedict Wong, what a disgrace of a performance). The detective and the nanotech scientist in the Chinese version were sooo much more likable characters it's actually shocking to see the difference. (Nice trick, casting "Ser Davos Seaworth", as well as "Samwell Tarly", as well as "The High Sparrow" from Game of Thrones, to get us to like this show, but not good enough - they didn't save your last show from your bad writing D&D, and they didn't save this one.)
I don't know if I even need to subject myself to any more of this after 4 episodes, it's plowing through everything so fast I'm afraid there might be spoilers already in the first season compared to what I've seen in the Chinese one. I may just stop watching this joke and go back to rewatch the Tencent version to refresh my memory on some of the subtleties and complexities going on there.
Tell Your Friends