The Taoism Grandmaster (2018)

"Forget the distinction between Good and Bad...."

Like the song says, you can't watch this if you are too worried about what's good and bad about it. There's a lot of both.

First, the series drew me in with the male lead at the beginning. I liked his happy-go-lucky idea of going where the leaf blew, and his seeming wisdom in dealing with the plum-blossom evil. But for some reason that seemed like the high point of his character. I also liked the way the female lead literally "fell" in love. Though this is perhaps somewhat of an overused trope.

But it was all down hill from there. He seemed to never figure things out until they blasted him in the face. I guess you can say that he was like the leaf blown around with no sense of agency. But it was not a positive thing IMHO.

I also hated his face when he was crying. He seemed to turn into this ugly petulant child.

The female lead was OK. She had a crooked tooth that I kept noticing that was kind of distracting, but apart from that she had a strong personality that grew over time.

But both the male lead and the female lead seemed quite at sea some times. I guess if they were too smart it would have been hard to keep the plot moving but at times ... dang!

The secondary male lead drove me crazy. He was so presumptuous and narcissistic. It was like the world revolved around him---he was too self-absorbed to see anyone else's feelings, in particular those of the male lead, who was his best friend.

He looked like one of those high school football stars that gets the prettiest cheerleader and QBs the football team, but knows almost nothing.

There was a clever touch using a trope from Cyrano de Bergerac that fit his character perfectly, only I had far less sympathy for him than for Christian in the Cyrano de Bergerac play.

The secondary female lead had a great role that she played well. Her clingyness would have been annoying in an actual human but was endearing if you remember she was a fox creature. She was an "innocent abroad" who by choice ended up feeling the full weight of the human condition. I loved her bug also.

The secondary characters were mostly great. One thing that really annoyed me, though, was numerous instances of misplaced loyalty. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me ten or fifteen times, uh...shame on me???"

I loved the untrammeled school. I loved the researcher. I loved how she never knew exactly what her inventions were going to do, and how her brother was always trying to palm them off on someone else.

Many of these secondary characters had great character arcs, developing as human beings as they went through trials and heartbreaks.

Minor spoiler: kunlun was amazing as someone who went from a strong, righteous, capable character to an absolute wreck. He was a flawed hero in the classical tragic sense. He made the struggle visible and that was IMHO really good acting.

One thing about kunlun that I found totally distracting---he looked just like the "Q" character in Star Trek Next Generation. Once I realized who he reminded me of I couldn't stop seeing it. But that's nobody's fault except my own.

I absolutely loved the 9-tailed fox as an evil character. Of course she was very overplayed, but these kinds of stories are quite cartoonish anyway. She had this giggle that at first seemed annoying but it really fit the character.


I really loved the contradictions in her character. She was desperately dependent on having people to accompany her and love her, but she abused every person she encountered. She was a total control freak. Just like real life, this character. The ultimate malignant narcissist. And her punishment fit the crime.

I also liked her agent among the "good" guys and how she changed from the way she started. Both she and kunlun were the victims of their weaknesses but also of the burden others placed on them, which they were unable to bear.

I REALLY HATED THE OVERACTING AND FLASHBACKS! For one thing if you binge-watch the series they are not very useful. And they always made an overacted scene long and drawn out. I really think they are trying to manipulate the audience into a certain emotional response, but it never worked for me because the original scene did not produce much of an emotional reaction in the first place. This use of flashbacks in dramas seems quite common and I wonder if it's just a way to pad the episode so it has enough length.

The grief of these people was earth shattering. Or at least annoying enough that I had to keep skipping forward. I'd skip forward a minute or so and they'd still be blubbering. And they all did it the same way! They just kept calling out the person's name over and over again. I guess they wanted to make sure they didn't forget it or something.

The problem with overacted melodramatic scenes is after a while they become funny.

The ending was actually really well done from a dramatic perspective. Unsatisfying in some ways but definitely in line with the main idea of the series. I've always found the idea of Tao interesting, and while this series uses it more as a prop and plot aid, there was enough allusion to it to pique my curiosity. What would a real Taoist grandmaster be like?

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