Go Ahead

This is not what I expected

(This is for ep1-22 as it was written when I was watching)
I am not dropping this drama but it really disappoints me with the way the plot is going, so I am gonna do a short review.
Story- I’d give first 11 episodes 10/10, but ep 12 onwards 3/10. If you are currently watching, you can understand why. First 10 or 11 eps are brilliantly done, capturing our hearts with heart-warming family scenes, but ep 12 onwards, I didn’t enjoy that much anymore.

First reason : I don’t understand why they are using the same logic again. I don’t believe both of the non-biological brothers like a girl whom they sincerely treated as a sister before. It creeps me out though Song Wei Long and Zhang XinCheng are good-looking.I still feel awkward when Ling Xiao tried to kiss Jian Jian in her sleep, it was so sudden and it is really creepy.

Second Reason : Something’s wrong with Script writers, They should just go with family scenes and it’d be a very good drama but now what did they do? They put all secondary characters in a loop relationship. Tang Can likes ZiQiu’s friend but ZiQiu’s friend likes Qi Ming Yue. Qi Ming Yue likes Ling Xiao but Ling Xiao likes Jian Jian.It is so messy.
So why didn’t I drop this and still watching?
Reason : Because of spectacular acting and I am curious how they will solve such messy relationships.

Edited (After Watching Final ep) -the story picked up again at ep 29 or 30. I really like Zhang Xin Cheng’s acting here, he did a very good job expressing his emotions.I really love certain scenes, such as family and friendship moments. But again, I still don’t feel right with Romance aspect. I still feel awkward with Ling Xiao x Jian Jian couple moments, she was still calling him “brother” and I still can’t imagine them as “Lovers”, as their interactions are sometimes like brother & sister. I had to fast-forward those couple moments and watch other scenes, which I still find interesting.
It wasn’t that bad for me to drop it but I surely didn’t enjoy as much as others. I still think it could be done a lot better if they mainly focus on family moments.

This is only my opinion and I mean no offense to all of Go Ahead’s fans
Just because I didn’t like it, doesn’t mean you won’t like it. There are still a lot of people who love it but I won’t recommend this drama if you expected a heart- warming family drama like I did.

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I never bother reviewing any dramas here, so you know this is worth it if I do.

In all my years (approx 15years) of dramaing, I never bother to create an account or write a review here. But, I thought this drama deserves a go. I really fell in love with this drama, to the point I dropped ALL of my other dramas to focus on this drama alone, which I've never done. Not even with Eternal Love Peach Blossom or any other great dramas. I have a tendency to skip episodes or skim through episodes, I even skipped an ep of Eternal LovePB, but I never did with Go Ahead, so that should say a lot.

The first two eps already brought me to tears, the child actors played phenomenal in their roles. You can already distinguish what their personalities would be like as adults so I think the child actors played an important role in this drama to bring the feels in such a short beginning of this drama. I was first attracted to this drama because of the trio, Tang Songyun, Steven Zhang, SWL, as the three all have their respective successful works this year. So to have all three in one drama is unheard of and just such a treat- it will also never happen again.

Now on to the drama, the drama is more family centered, hence the Chinese name "in the name of family"...I honestly don't know why they went with "Go Ahead". The drama depicts serious topics that not many would delve into, that is mental health and childhood trauma. How childhood experiences can traumatically influence adulthood. This drama also touches a lot of other spectrum of different family dynamics: tiger moms, moms that exploit monetary values of their children, left behind children (villages), divorced families, single dads. How all these types of family dynamics influenced the individual's adolescences and the person they become in adulthood.

No character is perfect, everyone seemed to have a scar of their own, especially the main two male leads. LingXiao (LX) seemed like the most perfect guy: tall, handsome, highly educated, smart, great career, high paying job, gentle and caring. Yet, I find him to be the most scarred and most pitiful character. His scars and sadness can't be seen bc it's all mental. What he went through as a child and later on in younger adulthood was truly unfair to him. He never got the proper mental help he desperately needed as a kid, thankfully JianJian(JJ) was there to save him. ZiQiu (ZQ), is another male lead, his abandonment issues was pretty evident. He was a tear jerker yet also the comedic part of the drama. I think Steven did amazingly as ZQ! JJ seemed like the saint in this drama, she has no jealousy and no resentment on anyone. She always forgave and was the one that supported everyone. Perhaps, it's bc of her artistic side that gave her a more empathetic and perceptive insight in life. So when she is sad and upset or cry I instantly cry along with her. Imagine the happy sunshine crying, that's outrageous and abnormal and everyone should do something to stop the sadness being emitted from her. I liked the cp, ok I'm obsessed with the cp, especially knowing how much JJ means to LX. How JJ was basically the light and hope that helped LX carry on that 9 years of hell and torment. I seriously think he would've given up and suicide if it wasn't for the fact that he wanted to see her again. When JJ asked him what he did all theose years in Singapore, LX replied with "missing you, missing home, day dreaming. Dreaming about being with you, dreaming about marrying you and having a kid....I even thought of our baby's name." I think anyone can tell how desperately he wanted to leave Singapore and go to JJ, how thinking about JJ was his only salvation to endure all those pain and hardship. Sadly, I think some people don't understand LX enough so they dislike his actor and SWL that acted as LX. I think it's bc he doesn't express his feelings and pain as openly as ZQ, he doesn't cry openly and he's not a happy sunshine like ZQ. It's bc he learned to be understanding as young as 7 years old. He keeps his true feelings and emotions inside all bottled up which is really really aversive to his mental wellbeing. He's a more closed off and solemn character that doesn't like to be close to anyone except his family (excluding his mom for good reasons). He has no will or energy to interact with anyone, and I find it heartbreaking but also understandable. Some people can't accept the fact that he suddenly liked the female lead or that he forced her to like him. Well if any viewer was perceptive enough for just a tiny bit can see that he viewed JJ as more of a female of the opposite sex than a sibling. I believe it was in ep 3 where his behaviours already portrayed his feelings towards JJ was different from how ZQ sees JJ as a kid sister. As you can see I've analyzed LX's character to a T, so I love LX's character very much.

The OST are all soo good, to the point I dl all the songs on Spotify. Each song does so well to bring the emotions in the drama out. The only pet peeve I have with this drama is the side characters have way too many scenes and unnecessarily bigger roles than they should have. There were 3 episodes where the main male lead wasn't even in it!! What kinda blasphemy is this, I've never in my entire life watched a drama with no main lead in it for so many eps. I get that the drama is trying to draw a closure to other characters' problems but I don't need 3 freaken eps of it. I had to grind through that. I also didn't like how the director or writer simply wiped clean of all the antagonist's wrongdoings by simply suiciding. I thought it was a selfish act upon the antagonist as it would've brought much more pain to the main lead and antagonist's family. Sometimes, not everything or everyone deserves forgiveness. I also didn't like how there wasn't enough air time for the cp, I was thirsting for their sweet scenes and I didn't get enough of it. I had to keep reminding myself this was a family centered drama not an idol romcom.

Overall, I really enjoyed this drama! This drama has a deep meaning, it portrays different family dynamics, mental wellness, child abuse/trauma, abandonment issues, departure and re-connection, forgiveness and reconciliation, friendship and love. A drama that's definitely worth watching.

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Overall Warm Lovely Family Drama

I was hooked onto this drama since I watched the drama before its release and started it right away when it aired, but only finished it now because I didn't like the romance element. However, I continued the drama where I left off (at the ep after Zi Qiu and Ling Xiao came back) and was so surprised at how interesting it still was so I kept watching. It turned out that the drama doesn't have that much romance scenes between Ling Xiao, Zi Qiu, and Jian Jian which was such a relief! It was more focused on the family aspects than I expected so I binged watched the remaining episodes. It was totally worth it! I would recommend those who liked the family aspects to continue just to see those parts because it really is worth the watch!

Now some things I really enjoyed:
1. The acting of course! - The family was so real that it didn't seem like that were acting at all! The chemistry is no joke! I especially love Zhi Qiu's acting! So amazing!
2. Some great points regarding family are brought up
3. The OST -such great bgm for the tearjerking scenes T_T
4. The first 12 episodes- such great sibling chemistry between Jian Jian, Zi Qiu, and Ling Xiao when they were young and as they grew up! very fun to watch!

Things that were not so great:
1. The romance between Jian Jian and Ling Xiao - wasn't that hard to understand why they like each other but still weird for me to watch them hug and interact as lovers; the brother-sister vibe is so strong that they could have stuck with that for the entire drama and it wouldn't have made a big difference, it was pretty unnecessary to also make Zhi Qiu thinks he likes Jian Jian (although his reasons for doing so made sense)
2. The ending - felt a bit rushed towards the end to have the story wrapped up for Ling Xiao's mom portion and the conclusion overall; could have shown a bit more although I liked how everywhere ended up
3. Too many complicated love triangles/squares between Jian Jian's friends - was hard and boring to watch

BUT I would totally recommend this drama for anyone looking for a great family drama (you can just skip the romance parts)! If you need another reason, just watch it for Steven Zhang (Zi Qiu)'s great acting!

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All I want is to be Loved

This is a fantastic series. It fulfills the hypothesis of the story in its’ entirety. The series deals with real societal issues without dodge anything. It illustrates how parental actions can truly and deeply affect a child and their surrounds, especially when adults do not own up to their own mistakes and blames the child(ren). It shows blackmailing and manipulation of a child to their adulthood by a parent, which runs parallel to the parent that wants to care and does care for the child to their best ability. In this series, a mother emotionally blackmails and traumatizes her son, while a father within his own capability joins forces with another single dad to give his son all he can. The care of both fathers is admirable. The story is neatly weaved, which makes the display even better. The other angle which is shown is a divorcee scared and chasing life until she realizes her biggest mistake was running away from it and abandoning her son. The series also deals with stigmatism of two non-official adopted children relationship the extends beyond siblings. This shows that sometimes adults and the best of adults fail to recognize the seriousness of a child’s decision at the very moment it is made. It teaches us not to assume that everyone in the relationship feels the same way. Loved the fact that Ling Xiao not only followed his heart but fought for it because his love and courage are one in the same, Li Jian Jian. The bonding between the different characters is absolutely amazing. Sometimes we tend to ignore the obvious, like when Ling Xiao bought a lace bra for Li Jian Jian. A “brother” adopted or not, will not go out and by his sister a bra. Everyone in the room missed the elephant in the room completely. The development of their romance is subtle, sweet, and funny.

Heart wrenching when Ling Xiao spills the entire turmoil of his life, heart, and soul and she hugs him asking are you sick. This scene truly demonstrate how damage Ling Xiao is by his mother’s actions.

The two fathers, He Zi Qiu, Ling Xiao, and Li Jian Jian could not have survived without each other’s love, support, and care.

The entire team, not just actors and actress, is t be congratulated for a phenomenal job, congratulations!

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WOW!! Just Wow

This has got to be one of the best dramas I've seen. Ziqui character was so amazing, I found myself so invested into is storyline. I wanted nothing more then for him to get a happy ending. I liked all the characters but for some reason his character touched me the most. Everytime he cried, I felt myself crying 😭
Those two mothers really got under my skin for the whole show. I can't even begin to talk about how mad they made me.
The only thing I wish is that we could've got a small glimpse into after Haichao and Heimei got married and what life was like for the siblings after.

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Embrace the warmth and meaning of what family actually means!!!

Growing up and parenting, they both are extremely tricky. Life has endless troubles ready for us to deal with. At times when the world makes you feel like it is crashing upon you, having someone to shield you from it, having a shoulder to lay your head on, having someone to hold onto , to wipe away your tears and reassure you is the greatest blessing one can receive. This drama taught life lessons with the cast bringing their characters to life. Relationship require patience to work also taking turns in complementing eachothers flaws. To all the tears and smiles brought by this drama. The drama is priceless and surely it is gonna be an ageless drama too. If this drama isn't in your watchlist, it definitely is a loss.

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A family oriented drama

This drama deserves a million stars. The forty episodes will not get you bore...Every scene will give us the moment to cry, laugh and love. The characters really played their part. The main leads. Song Wei Long as Ling Xiao and Seven Tan as Li Jian Jian were both a versatile actors. I love them both. Also, even Steven Zhang played his part well. The music also will inspire you to never give up in watching this drama. THIS DRAMA is totally worth to watch.
I really love how Song and Seven played the characters in Go Ahead so well. I guarantee that this drama will give you another view of Chinese Dramas. It's worth your time.
I will continue to support every cast :)Jiayou!

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Heart-warming drama about family and love

"Go Ahead" is one of the "talk-about" dramas this season, and though I am not a big fan of modern drama, I went ahead with it. I really like it.

First, let me share what I like about this drama.
Firstly, there are a lot of relatable family dramas to cry about. The story about three unrelated children growing up with two dads is extremely bitter-sweet. It shows in a heartwarming way how family love can look like despite not connected by blood. Particularly the start of the show had so many beautiful scenes between Li Hai Chao and the children that made me cry a river. At the same time, it shows the naked and honest of how relationships between parents and their own children could be like if one becomes self-centric, especially when the cruel reality called "life" hits you. I appreciate that the drama depicts many of these realities: single-parenthood, loss of own children, adoption and relationships between own and adopted children, depression of children, grow apart due to physical distance, relationships between parents and children when children are young vs. when they grow up, re-marriage of own parents... and the list goes on. Though you might not agree with how characters have dealt with each situation, this is one version that you can take away and learn.

Secondly, it is the acting and the characters. My favorite characters in this story: the dad Li Hai Chao, played by Tu Song Yan, the daughter Li Jian Jian, acted by Seven Tan, and finally, He Zi Qiu, starred by Steven Zhang. Let's first talk about Li Hai Chao. He is the type of loving father that every child would want: always supportive and loves his children unconditionally. The most important aspect of all, he understands his children and treats them like an equal. Tu Song Yan depicts Li Hai Chao flawlessly and shows what veteran actors have in their arsenal.
Then there is Li Jian Jian, the tomboy who grew up among four men. Righteous, down to earth and speaks openly about everything. Seven Tan fits Li Jian Jian's character perfectly. Despite being the oldest among all three actors, she plays the middle school girl or the young adult without effort. I really liked Seven Tan's performance in Under the Power, but her achievements in Go Ahead make me respect her even more.
Finally, there is He Zi Qiu, the adopted son, and the audience's favorite 2nd male lead. Abandoned by his own mother at a young age, he hides his hurt, insecurities, and longing for motherly love by always carrying a smiling poker face around everyone. In shadow, he does whatever he can to pay back the Li Family. He Zi Qiu probably the biggest tear dripper in the whole show. It is not easy to act out such a three-dimensional character, but Stephen Zhang absolutely did it. This is probably one of the most impressive performances I have observed among young Chinese actors. My top 5 best actors of China drama land just found a place for him, and if you don't believe me, you just have to watch it.
This drama also has many other interesting characters, one that is for all kinds of taste.

Let me quickly speak about what this drama could have done better.
I have no problem with this drama being too "dramatic" or, as they say in Chinese, "dog-blooded," but I have a problem when actions become unlogic as a result of this. Some examples would be Ling Xiao's mother's abandoning her son in the first place and then coming back for him no matter what. Or the reason for Zi Qiu's mother abandoning Zi Qiu for more than nine years and realizing her mistakes at the end of the show. And let's not even go there why the two brothers were not even able to come back for even once during the nine years. I appreciate the drama trying its best to show the diversity of life and some of the real struggles people have to go through, but I wish the makers have come up with a better script for this drama's essential storylines.

Another weak point is this drama's 2nd half. I agree with most audiences that the makers made a too strong turn after the two brothers' return towards the loveline. The drama gained popularity with the strong start of the family-line and should have shown more of that: How did Jian Jian and her two brothers grow up? How was it for Jian Jian to leave home and live alone? How did Zi Qiu live his life in the UK all by himself? How was it Ling Dad not seeing his own son for nine years? How did Li Dad live all the years without his two sons by his side? How were Ling Dad and Cheng Ting's relationship before the passing of their daughter? .... All these could have been great material for this drama, even if they only show snip bits of that in retro-perspective.
Though I have no problem with this drama showing a loveline (who does not like it!) It is not well thought through. Two people grew up together but had to leave each other due to some unfortunate events. After returning, the brother-like character suddenly confesses to his sister-like character though the girl only looked at him as a family member. They quickly got together; the only person who was "in the way" is the mean mother-in-law who does not like the girl her son has brought home. How is this different than any other melodrama's loveline? No difference at all! Where is the struggle to overcome the fear of losing your sister if this does not go well? Where is the development of "brotherly" love to something else for Jian Jian? Where is the awkwardness for the rest of the family members? These are some of the points which the makers could have detailed to make this special.
Apart from that, I did not see much of the chemistry between the two leads, but that might also be only a preference thing. I found Song Wei Long's characters really out of the league with the rest of the cast though I am sure he did his best.

All in all, despite the shortcoming, I still think this is one of the most heartwarming family dramas of 2020 with a lot of laughter and tears. I would recommend it to anyone who likes this kind of genre.

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Heartwarming perhaps but lacks depth and consistency

I started watching this drama long before it shot up in ratings on mydramalist, so when I saw it on the top drama page I have to say I was quite surprised. I have always been in agreement with the dramas that make it to the page and have found so many gems as a result, but this time I was shocked. I felt that if I had gone to watch this drama after seeing it have such a high rating I would be quite disappointed, especially with the comparisons I’m seeing to Reply 1988, and reviews calling it the best Cdrama of the year. I watch a lot of Cdrama, and it my option this drama is far from that title.

I will say good Cdramas sometimes seem far and few between compared to Kdramas. So when a seemingly good one comes out, there’s often a lot of superlatives involved. So it’s not completely inconceivable why this drama is receiving such praise and hype. I just think it’s not quite deserved in this case, especially when dramas like 隐秘的角落 （The bad kids) and 摩天大楼 (horizon tower) have come out this year as well. And maybe crime dramas aren’t your cup of tea and that’s fine, I love a good family drama as well, but in my eyes this drama lacks so much depth in terms of it’s storytelling that it seems artificial and shallow at the end. This is a far cry from the Reply series and even other Chinese family dramas I've seen (such as 小欢喜 A little reunion).

So what exactly about this drama is disappointing?
There are three major things:
1. The ending plot
2. The one-sided characterizations
3. Sub-par acting that can’t live up to the character

I have to admit, I’m a sucker for family dramas with some good angst and heartwarming relationships. So I did enjoy the beginning of this drama. So what’s the problem? Simply speaking, this drama stops being about family. Without giving too much away, this drama goes from being about families of choice to a forced love story that was poorly executed and unbelievable. Needless to say, I did not like the main couple. But unlike other dramas, it’s not because I hope she ended up with someone else. In fact, I think it would be better if there was no love story at all. It was that uncomfortable. This is a pretty big issue because it encompasses at least half the drama.

So what about the characters? Well, I did enjoy some of them. I think Jian Jian was a good character. He Ziqiu was absolutely one of the best characters in the show. And the two dads were heartwarming and some great moments to the drama. He Ziqiu’s birthday episode was my favorite in the entire series (it’s also ep. 4 so I think that says something about how the drama progressed) because I think it showcases everything good about the drama. My problem is so many of the characters don’t seem real. For how much I loved Jian Jian’s father, he was too perfect. The two mothers offered some great angst, but had so little redeeming qualities. In fact with the exception of Jian Jian, the women in this drama are stereotyped and vilified to the extreme to the point where Chen Ting for example does not even seem real. Compare this to the Reply series. The characters of the parents were each unique in their personalities. They were all good heartwarming characters, but what was so amazing is they seemed real. They were good parents, but weren’t faultless. The parents all had different parenting styles and family dynamics, but none of them were worse than the other. This drama goes the opposite route: the bad parents are so bad, and the good parents are basically Mother Teresa type characters.

My last complaint is some of the acting was not good enough to meet the requirements of the character. You might be able to guess already who I’m referring to: Song Weilong. His acting wasn’t awful, but the character was pretty awful. And I think part of that is his acting and part of it is the writing. But I think with a better actor, the character would have been much more well-rounded and less creepy and stiff. I don’t think Song Weilong is a good actor, but I see why he was cast. The problem is, his character was pretty complex. He has some issues, and Song Weilong just couldn’t bring those to life in a compelling way. And the way he approaches his relationship in the drama? Ummm, in a word: creepy.

If you’d made it to the end of this rambling review, thank you. And if there’s one thing I would say to end this, it would be: this is not a terrible drama. In fact the beginning is quite lovely. But go in prepared to be disappointed as the drama progresses. And I would not go in expecting to find the same quality and depth as Reply 1988.

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Honest opinions about this drama

Yes, we all were sooo tempted for this drama to come out. I was sooo excited when I heard a drama like this would be airing. The first few episodes left me in tears. I would watch non-stop. But now? The storyline starts to downfall halfway through. I’m missing the happy childhood moments as this is becoming more of a romance type of drama.

When this drama first aired, I would be continue watching the few episodes aired at no costs. I was at episode 30 or so when the last episode (46) finished airing. I waited about a week before I started to continue watching the last bits of the drama. If it’s a good drama, I wouldn’t take such a long time to finish it. My review is given for the episodes beyond 20. A strength of this drama would be the acting, the visuals, and the music. The acting for all the actors are on point. Left me in tears. So did the music. I’m still listening to the OST cuz it’s so heartwarming. Other than that, I wouldn’t continue to watch this. Nor would I recommend newbies to watch this. If you want, watch the first 10 or so episodes and stop there. Like the episodes when the two are together, it doesn’t even show LJJ’s affection for LX! I didn’t even know when she started liking him and why she would choose him over HZQ.
Anyways, that’s my review!

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if a drama was able to get me to reflect on myself this much...you know it's worth a watch

Story: Okay so in terms of the story, it would have gotten a full10/10 from me if not for the draggy story midway through the drama. At some point mid way through the drama, I kind of lost my focus on the drama? I think it's because of the characters took too long to resolve their problems. Another thing is that the sibling to relationship development felt extremely rapid for me. I think I would have preferred if there was a scene that straightforwardly shows us all that they really have decided to date? Now for the good parts...Usually, I'm not a big fan of dramas taking up like half of the drama to show the past and rush through the character development and plot development. However, I find that the screenwriters and director of this drama did really well in including the main characters' past and how they each develop. As for the ending, honestly I was kind of upset at first. I didn't want Chen Ting to be forgiven so easily after she kinda chose to run away from her problems but after my 30 minute drama withdrawal syndrome session, I came to realize that, like what she wrote in her suicide note, she loves her son, but she just doesn't know how to love properly. Although the ending did not show it, I hope she's learnt how to not only love her son properly but love herself as well.
Acting/Cast: Y'all I'm not even joking when I say that I have never watched a cdrama where ALL of the characters(main, support etc. even the damn waitress) acted so well. I'm not gonna say much about JJ, LX, ZQ as well all know how great the character development and acting from Seven, Weilong and Steven are. The one character that has made me cry for the most is probably LiBa. The way that he raises these kids and treats them and TEACH them, like we all need to applaud for that. Growing up in an asian household where you are pinned by so many expectations and pressured to be perfect in every aspect, LiBa made me wish that growing up, I had someone who didn't expect me to be 100% in everything and didn't pressure me to do things I didn't want to do and instead supported me in my passions. Most importantly, someone who stands up to another person to defend their own child. Moving on, we're not here to talk about my sob story. I'm glad that LiBa had his own happy ending rather than a happy ending where it's the typical as-long-as-my-child-is-happy-i'm-happy-too, it's true that if JJ, LX, ZQ is happy he'll be happy but I wanted him to have a life besides his children, if you know what I mean. Other than that, all the characters(HeMei, MingYue, TangCan, MingYue's parents, TangCan's parents, ZhaungBei) also preformed just as well and was also able to show us character development despite being supporting characters. Shoutout to Chen Ting and Cheng Zi for being so HATABLE and somehow is able to make me forgive them at the end anyways (Forgiving ChengZi was understandable but ChenTing? man, i definitely did not expect that comin). Guess that just goes to show how well the actresses preformed.
Music: The amount of times I cried just listening to the intro song...honestly, I can't tell if I'm just an emotional b*tch or it's just really really sad. (Especially around when LingXiao and ZiQiu had to leave in highschool)
Rewatch Value: honestly, the only reason why my rewatch value is so low is because I don't like rewatching dramas in general. I lose all the excitement and adrenaline since i already know what's going to happen. Just my preference though!
Overall: Great drama, awoken the depressed asian black sheep daughter of the family within me. Definitely wished I had that type of family growing up but also made me appreciate the things my own family does for me every single day. Y'all, if a drama was able to get me to reflect on myself this much...you know it's worth a watch...just sayin...

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