Wang Long

BLGLFlix editorial view

Three episodes is the longest run of any of this production’s small parts, which puts Xu Ying in an awkward and interesting bracket: too present to be scenery, too brief to be a subplot.

Series built around two leads tend not to have this bracket at all. A character is either in the main story or is furniture for one scene. A drama that carries a dozen roles at three, two and one episodes is running on an ensemble logic borrowed from film rather than from romance television, and that is the most useful thing a page like this can record.