Early Access: Reset [China] E1

E1. Ooh. Ok, I am intrigued.

I'd had very little idea of what to expect, coming into this one. All I knew, before starting on this, was that there was a Groundhog Day-esque sort of set-up, where our main characters find themselves in a continual time loop, where they die in a bus explosion, and their main focus is therefore to get themselves out of that loop.

How interesting, that we also get an Inception-esque twist to it all, where our female lead Shiqing (Zhao Jin Mai) experiences the loop as a dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream.

Even more interesting, to me, is how she appears to exit the loop, this first episode, by getting off the bus, and therefore is even able to recount her experience to the detective who interviews her.

I do like the touch, that her memories start out really mashed-up and confusing, such that she appears to be an extremely unreliable witness/narrator, where she's talking about someone calling an ambulance for her one minute, and then saying that someone molested her, the next.

I can't blame the younger police officer for getting impatient with her, because, on the surface, it does seem like she's talking in circles. However, I do think the officer was out of line for accusing her of not taking things seriously, and messing around, because it's clear that she's confused. Plus, she's suffered a concussion, so it makes sense that she might be incapable of getting her thoughts straight, in that moment.

I do really like the senior detective, Zhang Cheng (Liu Yi Jun), for keeping an open mind, and at least listening to what Shiqing has to say. Also, it's kinda refreshing to see Liu Yi Jun on my screen as a decent sort of character, after not so long ago revisiting his more villain-esque (but very excellent) character, during our NIF group watch.

I like that Detective Zhang listens to Shiqing long enough to pick up on the fact that it's unlikely that she would have known the details of the accident, like how the motorbike came onto the scene suddenly, from the right, causing the bus to swerve, and collide into the oil tank truck.

This assures me that he's a thoughtful, openminded and objective sort of person, and that's exactly the kind of person we need on this case, I think. I mean, if anyone's going to believe Shiqing's account of her experience, the best bet we've got, is someone like Detective Zhang, isn't it?

How intriguing, that each "dream sequence" - quotation marks because I don't feel certain that each sequence really is a dream - can be so markedly different, in the lead-up to the inevitable explosion. It indicates a whole range of possibilities ahead of us, as we continue to accompany our main characters in this time loop.

Additionally, how fascinating, that with each sequence, everything feels more and more real, to the "dreamer" - again, quotation marks, because the way Show is setting this up, it seems unlikely that these are actually meant to be dreams. I wonder what this means? Are any of the sequences less real than others? Or is this fully a perception sort of thing?

What a great twist, at the end of the episode, that Shiqing's fellow passenger, listed as Heyun (Bai Jing Ting), ALSO is experiencing the dream-within-a-dream thing. Woahhh. I hadn't seen that coming.

The possible implications are so intriguing! Are Shiqing's "dreams" and Heyun's "dreams" connected, and if so, how?

Next episode notes will be out on: Sunday, 6 Feb 2022!

*This show will be covered on the VVIP Early Access (US$20) Tier*