The Long Season

For the middle-aged people in the northeast of China, 1990s is an unforgettable era which is full of magic and trauma. The transformation and decline of industry deeply affected the society and every family's life. People lost their jobs and the crime rate became higher. All of them make the era an abundant source for Chinese literature, and the creation of this amazing tv drama.

Basically this is a crime drama, but this is more about the characters' personalities and life, which is familiar with true detective series. It's a brilliant and touching combination of 1990s China style and tough detective novel. The emotion and the connection between people in this drama are so powerful. If you are a fan of true detective, you may love this.

Quite easily the best, most well made Mainland Chinese drama I have ever seen. A true crime story that goes way beyond the crime itself, as it touches on society, human nature and so much more. Everything from the cinematography to details of every character and scene is carefully constructed. The setting is distinctively Northeastern China and China during that time. Not everything should or needed to be painted roses, and I believe The Long Season could serve as a vital lesson to those in charge of this department in China in determining what makes a good TV show. The leads, especially Fan Wei delivers a performance of the ages. The characters are so well sculpted and their relationship with each other are so authentic and true. This is one powerful drama that uniquely celebrates character development and character faults and hits hard long after the end credits. Oh yes, and the end credit, each one featuring a different song to reflect the mood of the episode, is the cherry on top.

... about ordinary lives of ordinary people, which, due to its amazing details and filmography explains a lot, not only about China, but about the ex-USSR and the Eastern Europe.

This is the first humane look, without the hand-wringing so common among the Eastern European "independent" film-makers, at what and how the transformation of the 90ies really happened and what it meant (not much, either good or bad) for the ordinary people.

Overall, this is an excellent multi-decade multi-character character study, which, I am sure will be included in movie schools and anthropology curriculas for decades to come.

10/10.

This TV show triggered self-compassion for my own midlife crisis.

Yes, you may not encounter the sad life in this series, but you will definitely get older. Even the most powerful people will get old, and when that time comes, how to live decently?

It does suck to have your wife and children die abnormally and your best friend die in a car accident like Wang Xiang in this title, but it's even worse to face your own old age. The good thing is that the screenwriter gives a more positive and optimistic attitude, which seems to encourage us viewers not to be afraid of getting old. But specifically for each individual, it may not always be that easy.

Frankly, I've started to have to face some of the signs of aging, my mind gets older sometimes, and trying to act young seems to make me cringe because appearances can't hide it.

Let's hope I get the same optimistic ending, like the ending line: look forward, don't look back!

Snapping my fingers once in a while, shattering the distance between the distant past and reality.

Finally a Chinese drama that is not being overated by its patriotism or some celebrity huge fan base .Scene will beautiful shot and change to bring u into it. Plot was twist naturally according to character personality and environment. Bgm was well select to bring yr emotion in for every Scene.

Every cast performance was suberb, most of the lines u can feel is not from script. The lines are grounded and natural excute by actor life experience. Nice story telling that give u the unexpected turn that shock u. Many golden moment that stuck in your mind even u finished watching it. Kudos to the makeup artist natural separate 20years difference to the same actor. Director sincerely want to bring the audience to his world and didn't play by market needs,Thanks to everyone and director seriously contribute their 101% in this show.