#also I actually really like when the FL isn’t interested in the secondary ml and is aware of what’s going on

[obstinaterixatrix]

lmao they’re so funny

[eun-cafe]

q’s thoughts on: love o2o

You know what? (Yes, I’m using capital letters for this) Let’s do a proper review of this drama, because I feel like this could actually be very interesting but first, let me confess that I am a very negative person. Bad things just stand out to me more prominently, even if the drama itself isn’t all bad itself.

Before anyone bashes me for this long negative review, I have to say that I enjoyed this drama at first. It was a cute drama, a bit on the fluffy side, but it was a bit like chewing gum, in that it lost its taste towards the end. Anyways, let’s get started :)

Okay, so I started this drama purely because the ML is Yang Yang (I’m watching The King’s Avatar atm and thought I would check out his other stuff cos he’s so prettyyy *squeal*) Ofc, it helped that this was a romcom as well - what is life without romance and comedy? But honestly, both genres weren’t portrayed as well as I had hoped, and even some of the characters were a bit annoying.

(This review may contain spoilers - read at your own risk)

First of all, romance. Please fight me if you disagree that kiss scenes are literally the reason why dramas get tagged with the romance genre. This drama had the most horrible kiss scenes ever. We have the ML kissing the stick of wood that is the FL. I read somewhere that someone compared it to kissing a piece of cardboard and seriously, I completely and utterly agree. There aren’t even that many kiss scenes in the drama itself and in every single one of them, she is LIKE A PIECE OF CARDBOARD! It was frustrating as heck and I hated all of them because it was just so... urgh. 

Okay, maybe you think kiss scenes aren’t the reason why dramas get tagged with the romance genre, and it’s more because of the interaction between the ML and FL. Legit, their relationship just feels so forced and I can’t help comparing it sometimes to the relationship between a human and their pet dog. (I’m sure even the characters themselves mention it somewhere in the drama itself)

Next, comedy. I admit I smiled and chuckled at some of the scenes, but the drama itself really dragged towards the end. Most of the comedy involves the ML teasing the FL, the FL teasing her friends (or vice versa), the ML messing with his friends or the ML’s friends messing around. Honestly, it was funny at first but it got kinda tedious after about 20 episodes. 

Just the fact that these two genres weren’t that great really isn’t helped by the lack of plot either. Most romcoms have a driving backstory so as to the reason why the ML/FL have a certain characteristic, but this drama really doesn’t really have a plot or even any sort of story like that. There is no overwhelming plot and the drama itself just plods along at its own pace. 

Now, let’s talk about the actors/actresses. I like Yang Yang in The King’s Avatar, but I don’t like him in this one. He plays the perfect Xiao Nai, who is kinda robotic, a bit rigid and honestly, a bit too perfect. Like, his only flaw is he can’t cook? That’s cliché and not even a flaw (technically) But for a romcom, I can let that slide. However, the fact that his only expression is a blank face (or the occasional smirk) was kinda irritating. It would have been nice to see some other expressions. Honestly, he even speaks pretty monotonously as well, it’s pretty much the same tone, the same tempo, and even the same frequency sometimes. Whenever I watched an episode, I can’t help but feel that he forces his voice to be a bit lower as well.

The female lead was played by Zheng Shuang, who is pretty but looks unhealthily skinny. I don’t want to hate on her figure because it’s up to her how she wants it to look like, but I don’t think she should have been the FL for this drama. Heck, one of her friends compared her figure to her supposed rival-in-love’s figure, and all I could think of was the fact that rival-in-love had a healthier-looking figure. The entire drama really has double standards. It tells that looks aren’t everything and that inner beauty is more important, but at the end of the day, all the characters just focus on looks. For example, the FL is meant to be this really brilliant computer science student; she even gets a scholarship at Tsinghua university (which is really hard to even get into btw) yet when she interns at the ML’s company (which consists of all males because one of the guys has gynophobia), she does some computer-related stuff for a bit and then resorts to bringing food, drinks, blankets and even mattresses for the guys when they have to work overtime constantly. Honestly, I get that she hasn’t graduated yet, but she could have been a bit more helpful, right?

Secondary leads just annoyed the heck out of me. I can’t be bothered to even complain about them. Let’s move on.

I’m not sure if you could call this a redeeming feature but there wasn’t really a villain in this drama, just a bunch of people there to annoy the ML/FL and the people around them. I guess it made the entire drama relatively lighthearted without much angst, but at the same time, once the ‘villains’ had annoyed the leads and friends, the scenes got a bit repetitive and it meant that the entire drama didn’t really have much of a point. 

The soundtrack was just passable. I liked the tracks but I felt like there weren’t enough tracks to keep the scenes different. The music was also very repetitive, with several of the tracks used multiple times in the same episode.  Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/album/5GNOi7LU0lzQmMjAgwGFP2?si=oBoZ8TRmS-25vd24jTb7tg

Overall, the entire drama feels dragged out, as though it was made purely for the viewer ratings. I definitely won’t watch this again, but I think I might give the movie version a try instead or maybe read the novel it’s based on. I feel as though this drama really doesn’t do the story justice.