The longest day in Chang'an was exceptionally well made. Jackson Yee, Lei Jiayin did an en excellent job on their respective roles. As a matter of fact, all the cast and characters were all excellently acted and the direction was superbly handled by Cao Dun.
I have been contemplating on this one as well and I will hate to agree with you regarding the creative space being hampered by the censorship in China. But in my opinion when it comes to period/costume drama the Koreans in my opinion aren't there or able to compete with the best from China. But with respect to the more contemporary settings and topics, South Koreans win hands down due to a more flexible environment for the creative talents to experiment without getting their work blunted due to censorship.
Carlson is a grifter and a phony. He's great on expounding and espousing populist talking points that have great resonance to the American right and Americans that are leaning on the middle of politics. Since the liberals are too busy virtue signaling everyone they're going to be marginalized pretty soon. If someone from the right manages to nominate another Reagan like candidate expect another historic shellacking for the Democrats.
HELLBOUND is too Christiany for my taste which speaks volume of how South Korea has been so thoroughly penetrated by the evangelical nutjobs that are now fully entrenched in government and businesses of that country.
Nothing appealing or special, I can watch it or choose not to watch it. After 30 minutes or so, I just don't feel like I want to waste another few hours to see the rest.
I actually finished the first season and it's was ok. I agree with you on the too christiany front. My biggest problem with a lot of K dramas and C dramas too is there are a lot of things that don't make sense and people straight up doing stupid nonsensical things. For those who are interested in a really good Chinese crime drama that has good logic and direction (IMO), here's one of my all-time favorite C dramas. It's called Day & Night. Ignore the 2 there, the second season has been cancelled.
Hollywood is in a steep decline, while Korean entertainment is growing bigger day by day. Many insecure white incel weebs are already extremely triggered by white girls enjoying K-entertainment because they perceive it as Asians "stealing" "their" women, LOL. Props to Korea for promoting Asians instead of whites unlike Japan, which produced games, anime, and shit about white people instead. I hope China follows the same path and people who produce shit like "The Great Wall" (white-worshipping white savior movie) will get shamed & purged.