Debut is a Chinese TV Show that was broadcast, in China, between 7 February 2018 and 14 March 2018, I recently saw this show and here is my review.
The original name of the show is 二分之一美少年, which translated actually means, roughly, “One-Half Beauty Boy” or “One Half of the Beautiful Boy”. The show is produced by Horgos Graphical Media Co Ltd. and Beijing Fast-forward Culture & Art Co Ltd. The show is directed by Xin Juzhen.
As I see it there are two distinct storylines in this show:
- A manufactured boy band is in training but preparing for their debut in front of the world
- The lead in the band is in an accident, and survives but gets split into two separate bodies sharing the same thoughts. Those two people cannot be awake at the same time, when one is awake the other is asleep. One body is slim and the other is overweight.
I would say the genre of the TV show could fall into these categories: Youth, Comedy, Drama, Musical, SciFi, and Fantasy. It really does have a mix of everything.
Here are my general thoughts on the show:
- The script could have been tightened up, but I would say just sit back and enjoy it for what it is.
- It is a very cute, non-stressful, bubbly show where you more or less like every character, even the ones who are possibly considered nasty.
- There are some very talented actors and actresses in the cast, the support toles often give more amazing performances than the main ones.
- Maybe fat shaming is prevalent in China so I do like how it handled those issues. However, the guy who was supposed to be overweight didn’t really seem that way to me. I wasn’t keen on how they kept calling him “fatty”, he has a name.
- It handled some suggestions of gay relationships pretty well too, there was some hint of that in many episodes, maybe some that would never have made it onto US TV. There was one overly camp bisexual character which was badly done, maybe it was comic relief but it didn’t work.
- The last two episodes were actually really well done, with some unexpected twists and turns. There was one part of the ending that I didn’t like, relating to the supposed overweight character, you may know what I mean when you watch it.
- The closing song to every episode is very cute and jolly [YouTube Link], something I kept singing in my mind afterwards. The other songs in the show were good too.
You can watch the show on YouTube, just search for “Debut TV Show”, it’s on 3 separate official Chinese Television accounts, and English subtitles are provided.
If you want to watch something that is not too taxing on the brain, that is cute and bubbly, then this show is for you. I would give it 3.5/5.
