The suspended drama, now in its 18th episode, tells a story
of Hai Anh, a coma patient who dreams he travels back through time to a kingdom
where he unveils many mysteries.

On air from March, the series produced by Nang Dong Viet
Company, has stirred widespread concerns over its sloppy script, feeble details
and its cast’s poor acting skills.

Nguyen Thanh Luong, deputy head of VTV, said the suspension
was necessary for its partner (Nang Dong Viet) to gather more time and
resources to do a better job for the rest of the series.

The film’s production process, a hasty and problematic one,
was attributed by many to its disappointing final product.

Having a total of 36 episodes, the first part of the series
was filmed in less than one month before it was officially aired on VTV3 in
March.

Nang Dong Viet also needs to settle their internal problems
with the cast and film crews, Luong said, after a sudden change was announced
to the initial cast.

The new cast, however, shows signs of disappointment and one
of its leading actors, model Hua Vi Van, has even backed out of the series.

“The Time Traveler” is not the first TV series that has made
the audience discontent of the conflict between the producers and actors.
Previously, some TV series which are poor in quality were known for the quarrels
between producers and actors in the media.

Apart from “The Time Traveler”, another TV soap opera series
which is being aired on VTV, entitled “I Swear to Tell the Truth” is also
criticized by both the audience and critics for absurd details in the movie and
poor acting skills of the leading actor and actress.

Two years ago, the Vietnam Television Company (VFC) made an
unprecedented decision to stop producing TV series “Joyful Singles” at the 171^st
episode, since it was no longer attractive to the audience. Earlier, the
producer planned to make up to 250 episodes.

However, the two cases–“Joyful Singles” and “The Time
Traveler” are different. Joyful Singles was stopped because it was not been
interesting to the audience, while The Time Traveler was temporarily banned
from airing for its poor quality.

The case of The Time Traveler shows problems of the TV soap
opera series at present. A well-known TV film director recently said that a new
record in making TV films was made: 2 episodes in 3 days. However, this record
has been broken. A new record has been made: 1 episode in 1 day.

With such short time, the quality of the TV series is unable
to be good. Producers argued that they were under pressure of production time
and short funding. However, these reasons are not enough to defend for the poor
quality of the TV series.

Hanh Phuong