Review: Reset (Bai Jingting, Zhao Jinmai)

When you press play, the music is already talking to you, it gives you hint of what’s coming next. The opening theme was sticky, I couldn’t get my eyes off the screen even for a second. No pun intended but the first episode started with a bang! It felt like I was watching Final Destination but a developed one. I don’t know how to explain it… It’s just something out of this world. I’m not a fan of hollywood movies ( because I watch Cdramas all the time), but Reset is similar to a movie 2:22. The concepts of both projects don’t differ much, just few differences here and there. It’s crazy getting stuck in a time loop and you know what will happen two minutes after waking up.

 I want to discuss the storyline first because I have a lot to discuss. First of all, the story isn’t perplexing and it’s mind blowing. It was well sequenced, every episode had it’s own ‘It factor’ that would make you go ‘wow, this is really awesome!’ At the beginning, the writers gets you hooked on the time loop thing but then they begin to take things to the next level by answering the questions anyone would ask.

I just loved how they used the time loop thing to tell background stories of other passengers one by one without ruining the story. It’s like we all thought Li Shiqing just had to escape before the explosion and everything will be alright but what did they do? They brought Xiao He Yun in the picture and did the same thing with other passengers. I was a bit worried that the storyline will eventually turn cold along the way judging from the way it started but it was all for nothing.

As they were doing background stories on the passengers, I began to realize that there’s more to the story than what neets the eyes. You begin to ask yourself, why would this person do this? Who planted the bomb? When will they get out of the loop? All these questions makes you jump to the next episode and miss your sleep time. They always keep you hooked, they make it look like the main leads have finally came up with a plan and have solved the mystery and then boom(literally)!

There I was rushing to the next episode “ so their plan failed again, what happened?” I just don’t know how to explain the greatness of this storyline without spoilers, it’s just perfect. In the end I began to understand why the time loop? Why did the time loop continue even when Li Shiqing managed to escape death? Why was Li Shiqingthe chosen one from the beginning?

I wish I could discuss this face to face with all of you, maybe one day I’ll be rewatching it with one of you. What makes me love this drama a lot is the fact that the whole 15 episodes took place in a single day, those two just fell back into the loop again and again. Them falling for each other was inevitable, you can’t experience life and death with someone without falling for them. I think the only miss with the story was not getting a therapist for the main leads, imagine experiencing the same thing they did.

There weren’t a lot of characters which is good but the most useless character was that guy who loves taking pictures and videos. The guy was so useless the entire drama, all he did was just take videos everytime something happens. People fight, he takes a video, someone gets stabbed… You know it, he takes a video. Yes, his character once helped out with building up a background story for the old man with the watermelon when they watched his streams but he was still irrelevant. I could also say the guy with the headphones was useless but he was a major help when they took down a criminal. Except for the main leads, my favorite character is definitely captain Zhang. Captain Zhang really made me enjoy the interaction between the main leads and the police, he was just incredible. My respect for him grew when he sacrificed himself for the people. What can I say about the main leads? There’s nothing negative about them, I just feel like they went an extra mile to portray their respective characters. I still can’t believe that Zhao Jinmai is 19 years old, she’s way too comfortable on the camera. She’s an incredible actress and seeing her relationship with Yang Mi, I can say she is going to be the next big thing in the industry.

Normally, the police aren’t that important in such novels/movies/dramas but it was different here. Each and every time loop had the police’s intervention and they were very useful. The writers didn’t just use the Police for guest appearances, they made them part of the drama. Without the police, the time loop wouldn’t have ended. If you have watched the drama I’m sure you have noticed how fast the police were, they didn’t spend 2 hours trying to find information on someone. Everytime someone made a call, they reacted fast and their interrogations were on point. So far, I was impressed by the way they protected the police.

I didn’t find anything to complain about, you can notify me when you find one.

I went crazy when I watched the last episode. It felt like watching your favorite team aiming for the final score, especially when all the passengers worked together. I was grinding my teeth and sweating with goosebumps everywhere. It was nothing but fantastic, I even clapped my hands and screamed out of excitement, mind you that it was 2am in the morning. Everyone in the house thought I was crazy, of course I was… Crazy about Reset! I swear, I’m going to save this drama in my hard drive and rewatch it whenever I’m free. I wouldn’t mind getting another season plus 15 episodes was way too short. There’s no need for the ratings, it’s 10/10.