Profhulk
Great adaption but patience required
I have read the entire Remembrance of Earth's Past series. I suspect most watchers would have at least read the first book, which this show is based on. The show is now just past the halfway point.
As an adaptation, this show is great. It is close to being "Lord of the Rings trilogy movies" great. It is very faithful to the original book and where changes are made (which are quite minimal), you can see why they are necessary. I especially appreciate the shuffling of the chapters from the book - one can see why going by the original novel would be problematic in a TV series. The figurative layman's explanations of the physics concepts are also very useful to viewers not that well-schooled in the sciences.
That said, for people completely new to the book and show, some patience is needed. The first 10 episodes or so are fairly slow and mostly spent in world-building and setting. Things begin to pick up pace in the middle 1/3 of the show where some of the mysteries are revealed and people know the stakes involved.
The actors are also great. All are well-established character actors. There are not many pretty faces in this show, as you can imagine. That is to be expected.
Nonetheless, there are a few minor negatives.
1. The OST is generally terrible and unmemorable.
2. The sound production needs work. In some scenes, the voices are hard to hear. For instance, Wang Miao's baritone is especially boomy and unclear in many scenes and I was forced to adjust the sound settings frequently whenever he is talking (and this is a very talky show).
3. The video production also needs work. The CGI parts (where the characters are in the VR game) are amazing and generally the cinematography is suitably dark and gloomy. What bothers me is the frequent appearance of visible artifacts, especially in moving dark scenes. I am not sure whether it is due to noise or compression or both. I have a high-speed connection and watch at the highest possible resolution on an OLED TV. Given the obvious investment in the best recording and CGI capabilities in this show, is it too much to ask that they don't ruin that with substandard post-processing?
I am kind of hoping for Netflix/Disney+ quality video/audio in such a high production value show. So it is somewhat disappointing that the video is still 1080p and the audio is stereo (not even 5.1, much less Dolby Atmos). That said, this is common on all Chinese dramas at the moment and I don't really take that many points off for that.
As an adaptation, this show is great. It is close to being "Lord of the Rings trilogy movies" great. It is very faithful to the original book and where changes are made (which are quite minimal), you can see why they are necessary. I especially appreciate the shuffling of the chapters from the book - one can see why going by the original novel would be problematic in a TV series. The figurative layman's explanations of the physics concepts are also very useful to viewers not that well-schooled in the sciences.
That said, for people completely new to the book and show, some patience is needed. The first 10 episodes or so are fairly slow and mostly spent in world-building and setting. Things begin to pick up pace in the middle 1/3 of the show where some of the mysteries are revealed and people know the stakes involved.
The actors are also great. All are well-established character actors. There are not many pretty faces in this show, as you can imagine. That is to be expected.
Nonetheless, there are a few minor negatives.
1. The OST is generally terrible and unmemorable.
2. The sound production needs work. In some scenes, the voices are hard to hear. For instance, Wang Miao's baritone is especially boomy and unclear in many scenes and I was forced to adjust the sound settings frequently whenever he is talking (and this is a very talky show).
3. The video production also needs work. The CGI parts (where the characters are in the VR game) are amazing and generally the cinematography is suitably dark and gloomy. What bothers me is the frequent appearance of visible artifacts, especially in moving dark scenes. I am not sure whether it is due to noise or compression or both. I have a high-speed connection and watch at the highest possible resolution on an OLED TV. Given the obvious investment in the best recording and CGI capabilities in this show, is it too much to ask that they don't ruin that with substandard post-processing?
I am kind of hoping for Netflix/Disney+ quality video/audio in such a high production value show. So it is somewhat disappointing that the video is still 1080p and the audio is stereo (not even 5.1, much less Dolby Atmos). That said, this is common on all Chinese dramas at the moment and I don't really take that many points off for that.
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