anopinion
Pittsburgh, PA
Most disappointing drama of the year
The Worm Valley was one of my most anticipated dramas of 2021 having watched both its predecessors. Tomb raiding plus a good production crew is a sure-win formula in general, so I was shocked that it failed so spectacularly. I actually extended my WeTV subscription specially for this but still I did not finish the series, and that tells you how bad it is.
I have seen many domestic reviews of this series saying how it is a departure from the original novel and due to censorship there are scenes which cannot be filmed and the excitement level took a huge drop because of all these restrictions. I am not concerned about these things. I will admit that I have read the novel before, but I cannot remember anything from it so I am looking at things without bias.
The biggest issue about this show is pace. The show spent about 8 episodes getting into the tomb. Mind you, the length is just 16 episodes. Literally half the time was spent dilly-dallying on things which are not supposed to be the focus. What was more outrageous was that the tomb exploration itself was lame. One episode fighting an invincible worm and another episode fighting a cluster of monsters, with very basic background digging and puzzle solving. There is no excitement at all. It drained my interest in the lore, and the fights were just run and gun.
The next thing which bothered me was how deliberate the jokes were. They were so not funny that it became awkward watching all these scenes. The romance subplot was another thing that turned me away. Hu Bayi and Shirley Yang should not making long eye contact inside a crashed plane. The romance subplot should be subtle and natural. This is NOT a romance drama! There is no need and no place for inconvenient, cringeworthy tropes. These are recurring scenes in the drama and I had to fast forward through all of them.
I am not sure what happened, because the show is wrong on so many levels. It is perplexing because I had so much faith in the cast and crew. Unfortunately, the drama was a huge let down. I still have my fingers crossed for the sequel though.
I have seen many domestic reviews of this series saying how it is a departure from the original novel and due to censorship there are scenes which cannot be filmed and the excitement level took a huge drop because of all these restrictions. I am not concerned about these things. I will admit that I have read the novel before, but I cannot remember anything from it so I am looking at things without bias.
The biggest issue about this show is pace. The show spent about 8 episodes getting into the tomb. Mind you, the length is just 16 episodes. Literally half the time was spent dilly-dallying on things which are not supposed to be the focus. What was more outrageous was that the tomb exploration itself was lame. One episode fighting an invincible worm and another episode fighting a cluster of monsters, with very basic background digging and puzzle solving. There is no excitement at all. It drained my interest in the lore, and the fights were just run and gun.
The next thing which bothered me was how deliberate the jokes were. They were so not funny that it became awkward watching all these scenes. The romance subplot was another thing that turned me away. Hu Bayi and Shirley Yang should not making long eye contact inside a crashed plane. The romance subplot should be subtle and natural. This is NOT a romance drama! There is no need and no place for inconvenient, cringeworthy tropes. These are recurring scenes in the drama and I had to fast forward through all of them.
I am not sure what happened, because the show is wrong on so many levels. It is perplexing because I had so much faith in the cast and crew. Unfortunately, the drama was a huge let down. I still have my fingers crossed for the sequel though.
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