TLDR; An interesting sci-fi premise with amazing production value, promising characters, and interesting themes, but ultimately lacking in the direction it was taken and its use of the original setup and characters.

Whump meter: ▲◭△△△ (Light on the whump)

【spoiler-free】

LIKES:
► Stellar cinematography.
► Unique, realistic settings and locations.
► Mostly good performances from the actors, with some even being very good.
► Flawed characters.
► Promising premise and themes.
► Interesting final villain’s arc.
► Seemingly intentionally written as mediocre.

DISLIKES:
► Weak villains with little development and goals.
► Underused characters.
► Drama where not necessary, and no drama where necessary.
► Too few female roles and those relevant are only relevant to the MLs.
► Fade to black in a LOT of important scenes.
► A lot of things were brought up but went nowhere or added nothing while important things weren’t elaborate on.
► Uncertain subgenre, thus ultimately juggling conflicting narrative approach and progression.
► Low stakes


【!some SPOILERS below!】

CHARS:
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎You have a group of university students trying to save the world from a dangerous app after losing someone close to them. The usual characters are there: the troubled idealistic leader (SML), the kind one (FL), the hothead friend (TML), the preppy girl, the sensitive girl, and the bully. They take up most of the screen time for the first couple of episodes, as the typical students in a mystery-thriller would, while the ML, mostly just messes around on the side. But then everyone but SML and FL takes a tremendous backseat. No longer is it about an unconventional group of youths trying to save the world but rather about a troubled young man’s descent into madness after being stood up once (he was giving sigma male (basically an introverted alpha male) the whole time, tbh). And once this happens, ML starts getting significantly more screen time and importance.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎The problem? ML isn’t a good protagonist. Not only does he fight his chosen oneness throughout the ENTIRE drama, but he has no skillset, is consistently the dumbest person in the entire cast, and doesn’t care about anything other than his mother and sister. Not only that, he has no fighting, investigation, or other ability of any kind. In every sense, he’s useless. One protagonist makes sense (SML), the other does not (ML). But there are four lead roles. The other two being FL (who’s supposedly the second lead) and TML. ‎FL is merely a catalyst for both MLs' stories. To ML, her brother, she’s the only reason he does absolutely anything. To SML, she was the last drop in his cup before it tipped over, sending him spiraling. For both men, she was, in some way or another, the cause. But as herself? She does little to nothing. Extremely disappointing leading female role. As for TML, he did consistently NOTHING for the entire drama. He had a side arc that added nothing, had a very relevant skillset that was only used thrice, and other than that, was only a supporting role to the already supporting role that was FL.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎Other side characters include people who are only ever serving ML for no good reason or characters who do all the relevant stuff off-screen. ML has a lawyer friend who constantly helps him, an assistant-like character (who was my favourite) who does EVERYTHING for him but all off-screen. Then there’s SML’s father, who does most things off-screen too, but when he’s there, he’s rather solid (though nothing revolutionary). His story, however, ends somewhat inconclusive and underwhelming.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎As for the antagonists, we know little to nothing about them throughout the entire drama. Not only the organisation itself but also the leader of it. She seemed promising in the beginning but quickly went from mysterious and scary to outright pathetic. the final villain was fine in theory but terrible in execution. He is a plot-twist villain, which was well done—albeit a bit rushed—but him being the final bad guy in the way he was set up was laughable at best and irritating at worst.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎Then there’s the character relationships and dynamics, which, like everything else, were lacking. They started good with the group of youngsters; there was a clear conflict between them, and it had the promise of being interesting with how the story progressed, but then they dropped the ball, leaving us only with SML and FL, who were fine together; they did seem to have chemistry and bounced off each other well—but nothing really relevant with the direction they took the story. FL is supposedly besties with TML, but it feels very one-sided (with him giving the most). There’s ML and his lawyer friend as well as SML’s father; he has good scenes with both. Then there’s one of the main dynamics, which is between FL and ML, but they only ever scratched the surface of it. Their scenes together are surprisingly few. And finally, the most important dynamic between SML and his long-lost father… EXTREMELY underwhelming. Their relationship goes nowhere before it abruptly ends and then causes no further issues.

ACTING:
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎Acting was alright for the most part. Everyone did a good enough job, some better than others, but none of the main cast really stood out to me either. Those that did were Hu Wei (who slayed as usual), Wang Zhen, who nailed the bubbly cutie, and Fu Mei, who made my skin crawl (in the good way). Fan Chengcheng (SML) had a difficult role with a lot of depth and intrigue but didn’t have the best execution. I do think the mediocre character was in great part the writing, but I also think his performance was a bit lacking. I’d complain more, but I honestly don’t think it was an issue of the actors but rather direction/writing.

STORY:
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎The story is set up as a youth thriller, balancing a good deal of relationship drama with an overarching thriller plot. It’s the kind of story that depends tremendously on its characters to make things interesting, but unfortunately, it simply does not do that. What starts as a promising setup turns into a mediocre saving-the-world chosen-one style plot with one of the most weirdly written protagonists I’ve ever seen. About halfway through, the focus shifts entirely from the original setup and becomes a classic buddy-cop situation, only without the buddy and without the cop; it’s just two middle-aged men doing something (one significantly more than the other).

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎The original premise itself also becomes irrelevant after the first couple of episodes. Sure, characters still use the Wisher app, but the application itself doesn’t cause the same amount of issues as it did early on in the later parts of the story. It’s merely a thing that exists in the background rather than the main point of the whole drama. It’s like the original premise was somewhat forgotten in the convoluted plot that came later.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎A lot of things are brought up but not elaborated on; various important things happen off-screen (darn that fade-to-black nonsense), and we’re only ever told these things after the fact. The drama, however, is not clever enough to give subtle hints without explicitly needing to state them which overall makes for quite a confusing and ultimately frustrating watch. Just when you think you got something, it’s revealed to be something else, and you’re constantly left to draw conclusions with the mere breadcrumbs thrown at you. Viewers are only ever allowed to see about 40-50% of the story.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎The origin of the Society of Wishers is such an example. The original creator is revealed at a certain point and briefly explains what went down, but it’s so vague that it’s immediately forgettable, which consistently makes his character feel out of place. Then the organisation itself is uncertain in background, goal, leadership, position, and values, which makes them quite a pathetic antagonistic force. We see very little of them, so one can only draw conclusions, which are then immediately shot down in the next batch of scraps thrown at you.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎The ending was rushed, but honestly fine. Not particularly satisfying or conclusive, but it was passable. Then there were the bonus epilogue scenes, which hint at a second season… and, uh, I’m confused.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎And finally, the drama has this issue where it cannot kill off characters, so the stakes are extremely low. This is quite bad for a * thriller* of all things, and was especially disappointing after the buildup every death got… * sigh*

PRODUCTION:
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎Absolute perfection. Everything from the CGI to the cinematography, locations, and even outfits were top-notch. The futuristic city looks quite legit for being mostly, or in great part, CGI. The shots are stunning. Filming locations are largely real, as well as varied and unusual, catering to the type of show rather than maximizing aesthetics. That’s not to say that aesthetics aren’t important; sets and locations are beautiful, mixing highly futuristic elements with very vintage stuff, all wrapped up in a whole lot of greenery. Character styling was also very good. I especially loved FL, SML, and Bo’s outfits!

MUSIC:
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎Good. Felt very fitting for the genre, scene, and moment. Nothing particularly stands out in the good or bad sense, just good futuristic thriller vibes.

─

◇ Was it what I was expecting? In a way, yes.
◆ Did it live up to its potential? No
◇ Would I watch it again? Unlikely
◆ Would I recommend it to others? Yeah