Of course they have to keep a safe distance between airing and shooting. Regarding the plot, I think they don't totally depend on viewer's opinion. I'd better tell u an example to make it clear
In Smile Pasta (one of SETTV's lastest drama), the elder brother accidentally made the younger's girlfriend die so the younger brother left home and their relationship went estranged. At first, they want the younger brother to fall in love with the elder's fiancée so there would be a "triangle" (the first 8 episodes goes on that way). However, when this series was airing, ppl love it since it has a happy atmosphere. It's such a light-hearted drama that can make everybody smile whenever thinking of. The "2 brothers falling in love with the leading girl" is so old and boring. People don't want the revenge to ruin their lovely drama so they had to change the script. Then the younger brother is only the fiancée's good friend who is always by her side to help her win the elder's heart
In Mr Fighting (a series about 'boxing'), the 2 leading actors were supposed to be rival at the end and one of them suffered serious head injuries in the last round and lost his memories. In fact, it was totally different. They're still good friends and none of them lost the memories
There are some examples to tell you not to believe 100% in what are written in the official site
The lastest drama of SETTV has a sad ending was in 2004. All their drama since then have a very happy ending for the leading couple. If there were a complaint abt the ending, it would be that all the characters are happy. Sometimes it's so fast and unrealistic
but being a sucker for happy ending, i don't mind
Yes, i can tell you it's very very tired for the actors for shooting and promoting at the same time. A successful drama of SETTV usually has 20 episodes which is aired in 5 months. It means the actors must stay in TW for at least 5-6 months
Regarding the quality, a drama that is filmed in half of a year can't have bad quality. SET's crew make the 'editing' very well (when i watched "Green Forest, my Home", i had to pause every 2 minutes to take screencap since all the scenes are beautiful). And SET only releases 3 drama a year (while TVB releases 10-20 series per year
) , i think it's only 2.5 drama since they can't air 3 drama (15-20 episodes) in 52 weeks
Jimmy went to mainland to shoot drama for such a long time. So all his fans get acquainted with Chinese drama which is totally different from Taiwanese taste. That's why you'll find some details overacted but they're very common in TW idol drama