NOBODY KNOWS [TV SERIES, AUGUST 8]

The much-awaited TV series is an adaptation of Swallow, a novel from young and controversial writer Zheng Zhi shortlisted for the Blancpain-imaginist Literary Prize in 2018. The timeline jumps between the lives of four friends on the cusp of adulthood in an unidentified part of run-down Dongbei, China's Northeast, finding their way in a society navigating a world of capitalism. On the surface, it's a teen drama that lays the nostalgia on thick, from a scene filled with the joy of a first Mcdonald's meal to the quintessential Mandopop soundtrack. But the plot hinges around a set of grisly murders, first in 1999, again in 2001, and for the last time in 2011. Some Douban reviewers have been completely bamboozled, given how often the action jumps back and forth between these three points in time. Others have urged viewers to stick with it for the sudden, excellent twist towards the series' finale.