Only For Fans

Out of all the DMBJ dramas, this one probably works the least well as a standalone. If you're watching them all without having read the novels, this one may also confuse you the most.

However, what I personally dislike about it the most is how they did Pangzi dirty. He is played by the same actor as in The Lost Tomb 2, yet you immediately notice a difference in the way he is written. It's normal for him to be the butt of a joke here and there, but not to this extent. I also don't think Wu Xie would play a prank on him that would literally endanger his life, just for the fun of it.

Other than that, I'm actually ok with this Wu Xie. Bai Shu clearly did a great job (sometimes he eerily reminded me of Hou Minghao or Li Yifeng despite looking completely different), and the intense trauma the character just went through perfectly explains his erratic behaviour.

I also think people are judging this Zhang Qiling a little too harshly. I can't believe they didn't leave his hair black (why would he suddenly dye it??), but I think the actor did well enough.

The pacing is, as usual with this director, not great. Not sure if it's even worse than in TLT2 or if TLT2 just makes up for it with its other positive qualities. Either way, it does get better over time.

On the whole, it's my least favourite DMBJ drama and I wouldn't recommend it to newcomers, but it's not so bad that established fans can't get some enjoyment out of it.

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Conflicted Feelings

Before reading other people's reviews and speculative blog posts, I thought this drama was a very high-quality production of an engaging story with an oddly weak ending. After finding out about all the clues I missed (hint: always watch the credits), I can certainly appreciate the brilliance of the storytelling but have some quibbles with how it was done. I also don't particularly like the "secret twist" because it is boring to me. That's just personal preference, of course.

Spoiler-free complaint: I think there are better ways to mislead your viewers by mixing multiple characters' perspectives than how this drama did it. To be honest, finding out that it was based on a book made me think the book was probably better because text is a more suitable medium for that sort of thing. But of course I haven't read it, so I don't know if it's actually better.

Spoilers below:

I can easily believe that the ending was just Zhu Chaoyang's wishful thinking. However, in that case they might as well have thrown in a scene showing Pupu alive, if it was all fake anyway. Instead we got many scenes featuring Yan Liang that I doubt Zhu Chaoyang would imagine in such detail. At some point, in their quest to make the mystery difficult for viewers to figure out, the creators of this drama unfortunately went overboard and starting including contradictory evidence instead of mere red herrings.

I still think it's a fascinating story exploring many interesting themes. The acting is phenomenal, I love the animated intro, and the soundtrack is very unique. But before I understood the complexity of it, I thought the ending was weird and underwhelming, whereas afterwards I just felt disappointed because "nerdy loner kid who seems so nice and polite on the surface is actually evil" is such an overdone trope. If I had known I was supposed to be watching out for hidden clues to a secret twist, I would have figured it out immediately because that is ALWAYS it.

A certain other drama recently surprised me by pulling a "guy who seems suspicious is actually just a nerdy loner kid" instead. XD

In conclusion, I have very mixed feelings about The Bad Kids. Aesthetically, it's so well-made that I wish I could like it more.

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