Audiences drawn to changing times

Suspense drama becomes one of nation's highest-rated TV series

A week after the final episode of the suspense drama The Long Season aired on Tencent Video, about 450,000 viewers gave it a score of 9.4 out of 10 on the popular review site Douban, making it one of the highest-rated Chinese TV series.

The show is true to life, as it portrays aging, has twists of fate and mirrors changes in society.

The 12-episode series, starring Fan Wei, Qin Hao and Chen Minghao, premiered on Tencent Video's X Theater on April 22, and has since then topped the platform's hot search list.

The show has been discussed more than half a million times on Sina Weibo, and when the last three episodes were released, the hashtag "The Long Season Masterpiece" was among the platform's top searches for three consecutive days.