Shen Yin (2023)

Nothing really good about this tbh.

TLDR: Stiff performances across the board with an immature, shallow ML and no real world building to speak of.

Disclaimer: 5 is average for me so everything above that is pretty good to perfect and everything below that is pretty bad to horrendous. I know nothing about how to make a good TV show but I can give me opinion on how much I enjoyed certain parts of a show relative to what I've seen in the past. Only watched to episode 8 but I can't see it getting much better.

Overall: This is the first show that was below a 5 for me. The story is simple on the surface but follows a nonsensical path with stiff performances across the board and a distinct lack of world building. When it comes down to it, the only real positive thing I have to say about what I watched is that I am really going to appreciate my next run through of Who Rules the World because I now realize it could've been soooooo much worse.

Story: The summary is a pretty straightforward Mcguffin search quest that quickly goes off the rails. The world building is pretty bad and I had no real sense of who was who or why certain people were important. Everything happens because the story needs it to rather than the characters have any motivation to do so. I never knew why anyone was doing what they were doing and it felt like the story just jumped from plot point to plot point in order to progress the story rather than the characters logically progressing the story. "Oh, we want this character to get introduced, i guess he has to get hurt here so the leads can find him. Why is he there? who tf cares." Spoilers but the master ascending to godhood at a completely random moment was the most shoe horned in 'just kill him off' I've ever seen. They wanted the leads to have some tools to not get wrecked but also realized it couldn't happen forever otherwise the story wouldn't be fun so they chose the lazy way out and had his character serve his purpose then dip. Like, you've said you care a lot about this person, you've been monitoring him and making sure he is ok, you know who he actually is and seem to have a vested interest in his safety, he is about to go on this dangerous journey.. yup seems like a good time to yeet yourself out of the story.

I will say it is harder to build a world in a fantasy setting than in a real world setting because viewers have no inherent knowledge of how things work. But this show didn't even try. They just had subtitles pop up identifying characters and places as they appeared on screen but forgot that we have no idea why these people/places are important or how they connect to each other. Rather than a fantasy world that felt like people actually lived there, I got more of a greenscreen for the actors kind of vibe which made the world feel very claustrophobic even though the scale of it was likely meant to be much larger than the real world. Side note, but if you ever have an inn/public setting in any story across any medium, there have to be more characters than just the leads... Otherwise how am I supposed to believe this is an actual world where people live rather than a poorly constructed vehicle for story. I cannot express how artificially small you can make a setting feel by having a huge location with only the main characters in sight. Obviously they're the only ones that really matter in the scene, but if I ask myself the question of who made this building? Who rented them the room? Who served them the food? and I can't immediately conjure someone to mind then the world building hasn't done its job. (it doesn't even have to be the actual someone that did it, I just need an inkling that people outside of the main cast exist at all)

Apparently this is a sequel to another drama so I may revisit this after seeing that but I wouldn't count on it.

Characters/acting: Not my favorite performances. I think Zhao Lu Si does ok as the FL but I haven't watched enough of the show to see how she handles the progression of the character. Though I'm assuming she does well given what I've seen from her in other stuff but I can't see this even coming close to some of her other roles.

My big problem is most of the other performances with an emphasis on the ML. For whatever reason his character just doesn't click with me. He starts off as immature and not in the charming sense but more the annoying 'I want to kick his teeth in' kind of way. His motivations and ideals are inconsistent and go from super mature wanting to atone for his sins to drinking wine while thinking with his lower half. I haven't seen many Xianxia dramas but I have read quite a few Xianxia mangas and some of my favorite protagonists follow this journey where they start off immature and grow. However, you are always shown little glimpses of the kind of person they are underneath. They always get several moments or scenes to show you that they are a good person with the potential to be better in the future which draws you in, keeps you going, and even makes their shenanigans charming. And almost always you are shown the hard work they are putting in to improve which gives them some leeway in the immaturity department because it feels like they've earned it. My favorite lead from Xianxia manges is probably Cheon Myung from Return of the Mount Hua Sect. On paper, he has a lot of similarities to the ML from this show. He is arrogant, brash, rushes into things without a plan, and would probably sell an unhealthy amount for some good booze. The notable difference is that when the time comes to be an adult he locks in. He understands when its ok to mess around and when it isn't which goes a long way in making me enjoy his immature moments because I trust him to get serious if he needs to. Obviously this is a different medium but I think the principles still apply. If you can't get me to empathize with, or at the bare minimum not despise, the ML why should I care about the romance, the journey, or the story in general.

My problem with the ML in this show is that he does get these moments, but they don't land. The performance didn't convince me that he was anything more than a hormonal teenager reading off lines for the sake of it. The story didn't do him any favors either because right after his big atonement scene at the beginning, you'd think we would see a more humble version of the ML who takes ownership of essentially murdering a child and committing the worst crime the world has seen in likely thousands of years. Instead we are left with someone who is doing the equivalent of waiting by their phone for a call from their crush. If that doesn't show you his maturity level then I don't know what does. I don't think there was a single moment in the first 8 episodes where I thought he was capable of being mentally more than 15 years old. The actor managed to pull of the immature parts well but couldn't make me believe he would ever grow out of that which is a problem. Because now I'm left with a ML I don't like who probably won't get better, which means I'm not going to like the romance, which means I already dislike a large portion of the drama.

Needless to say the leads didn't have much chemistry if any from what I've seen (unless you count slavery as chemistry) but haven't made it to the later stages of the show so that kind of makes sense for where I left off.

The other characters were pretty one note and shallow as well though I've only seen a fraction of their total run time so maybe they show more facets of their personality maybe they don't (I wouldn't bet on it though).

Music: Not a music person and didn't get to listen to everything.

Rewatch: If I can't make it through the first time it gets a 1.

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