Meng Ta: Xue Mi Cheng

This show has a very compelling concept: certain individuals that are deemed exceptionally skilled (or otherwise qualified) are recruited into the Dream Tower to help subdue nightmares/dreams/demons(?) that have gotten strong enough to affect the waking world. The main character is a grifter/thief who is chosen by the recruiters as an exceptionally skilled individual, and he's forcibly brought into the tower while trying to escape arrest. There, the story of his interaction with the dream world begins. Unfortunately, this show is AWFUL. It completely flubs the compelling premise by making the main character extremely unlikeable; he's a pathetically whiny teen with some skills for committing petty crimes,and they completely failed to make him a lovable rogue (which is, I assume, what they were going for). He, like almost every other character in the show, constantly switches back and forth between being smart and being SO. VERY. STUPID. and absolutely worthless in any situation. The show's description plays up that he's "funny", which is simply untrue; I'm not convinced any of the writers for this show have ever worked on comedy before. He can only be described as "obnoxious" and a coward. They spend long, meandering (aka time-filling) sequences where he just causes mischief (because he's a petty criminal and mischief is his defining character trait) or almost dies because he's suddenly literally too stupid to stay alive. This season's entire 13 episodes take place in the space of 2 or 3 days, and almost NOTHING happens other than mischief. They could have fit all of the content into 3 episodes if they cut away the filler and paced it better. The small bit of plot that does manage to come through is barely comprehensible; more than anything, it feels like the writers don't have a destination in mind. Theoretically, these issues may be fixed with more seasons (and a LOT of character development), and then someone could edit this season down to a 20 min prologue. I'm not holding out hope that it'll improve, though.

#10030