Alliance

One step forward, three steps backwards

This drama should serve as a cautionary tale for women to choose wisely in a marriage. It tells a story of empowerment, healing, and new beginnings. Lin Shuang gives up her brilliant career to be a housewife and a mother just to find out a few years later that her husband is unfaithful. Instead of sulking in depression, she picks herself up and pursues self-improvement for the sake of herself and her daughter.

The plot moves between different storylines of friendship, marriage, workplace, parenthood in a very realistic way. Lin Shuang achieves through trial and error overcoming multiple roadblocks all the while having to deal with her soon to be ex-husband's dirty schemes. She is kind and likable, hard to anger, and tends to avoid confrontation, which makes her an easy target for manipulation, especially by her overbearing in-laws. But, while I enjoy a good tale of female empowerment, Lin Shuang's character is just too good. She lets a lot of things slide for the sake of dignity, which is unsustainable and quite often hard to stomach. The breaking point is when she checks Wei Ming's parents into a nice hotel after they abducted her daughter to use as a bargaining chip in the divorce proceeding.

The pacing starts to drag as soon as the drama introduces secondary and tertiary characters nobody cares about. I couldn't care less about Jiang Xi mom's cancer or a continuous marathon of her brother's failures. I am here to watch a woman brave through a divorce, not filler characters being ridiculous. Another issue is that Lin Shuang has to deal with too many roadblocks. It's a drama, not someone's life story. For every step forward, she always takes three steps backwards, which makes the drama tedious to watch.

Lastly, the story reaches its logical conclusion at around episode 28 when the divorce is finalized. Everything moving forward is Wei Ming's new set of matrimonial problems with the next missus and Lin Shuang's incredibly slow and uninteresting romance with Gu Xu. The romantic development with Gu Xu should've been part of the story much earlier. After the divorce, it felt like the writers tried to scramble the plot because they forgot something.

Overall, this is a good slice-of-life drama with likable characters and semi-decent pacing. I recommend having a fast-forward button on stand-by.

Read More

Never thought I would be tempted into watching a drama like this

It was more focused on the Female leads struggles as she tries to leave her despicable cheating husband. The struggles were so beautifully and her relationship with the mistress was also an eyeopener.

The actors did a great job, making each moment worth the watch.

As much as I like it, I am not a fan of the direction the story took. Despite her trying handle things calmly, her trash of a husband tried to gaslight her and make it seem like it was all her fault. He even kidnapped their daughter who he rarely makes time for.

I wanted this to be more empowering for her but it lacked in that way.

Read More

It is a good-centric drama about vengeance on a cheating husband. Good drama.

Alliance is a modern drama about Lin Shuang, a brilliant student with great potential who ended up giving up her career to be a full-time mom. She was betrayed by her husband, who had an affair with a co-worker.

She teamed up with the mistress to avenge her husband and, in the process, rekindle love with an old classmate, Gu Xu.

I like the plot, and the flow of the drama is good. It kept me engaged in the story. The acting is okay; I wish there were more romance between Lin Shuang and Gu Xu.

Li Ze Feng was good at playing a selfish and conniving bad husband. Overall, I enjoyed this drama and recommend you should check it out.

Read More

Inspirational

Without question, this is a high calibre, well thought out and impeccably acted drama. I love how they did away with silly tropes and that, even though we knew what ending was coming, it never felt boring or unnecessary. Kudos to the actors and those involved in any way with this drama. Bravo indeed.

My only reservation ...and it's a minor one because this wasn't truly the point of the drama...is that I never really felt the connection or chemistry between the two leads. I know we heard often enough of the ML's longstanding devotion for the FL but it wasn't something I felt beyond his loving gaze...and I'm still not sure how she went from being an appreciative friend and beneficiary of the ML's kindness and connections to being in love with him. It just didn't jive with me..in fact I felt a greater connection between her and Martin, her best friend's love interest.

I do appreciate the comraderie that grew between the wronged wife and the mistress. Lovely and so supporting and deep. To me, that was the greatest love in the tale...the unbreakable friendship between two women who should have been wary of one another.

Read More

Didn't expect that Drama to blow me away

I have to say - i didn't expect much at first because my go-to Genre isn't normally this one BUT! The Story was really good, and the acting!!! Oh what a rollercoaster!
Everyone did such a great job - the twist and turns in the story were really nerve wrecking and kept me at the edge of my seat.
Wei Ming and his parents- i'm at a loss for words...the actors did such an amazing job, because i reaaaaally hated those characters, they were so hard to bear (Wei Mings Mother...i can't pff). Buuuut- Wei Ming got what he deserved in the end., while even then he wasn't able to admit he was in the wrong - no conscience whatsoever.
Lin Shuang had to deal with so much and she still fought through and did her best to be there for Guo Guo while building up her life again- and without the help of her parents and good friends a lot of that wouldn't have been possible - and Gu Xu played a big part in all of that to find herself again. She could be herself with him and they made each other stronger, while Wei Ming took everything from her, always put the blame on her and even after the divorce still tried to tear her down.
Jiang Xi had a really hard life and then encountered so many situations that were hard for her (the one with Wei Ming was on her), but she grew so much as a person from that and we see until the end that she fights with herself because until Lin Shuang came along that she had no one stand behind and protect her. So even when i first wasn't that amused about their connection and growing friendship - with every episode i grew fonder of the bond between Lin Shuang and Jang Xi.
Alliance shows a perfect example of people who can't and won't take accountability for their actions and those who see that they have been in the wrong to correct their path and grow and that even when enduring hardships - a good and clear heart is the way to go.

Read More

The Power of female friendships.

I wasn't expecting this drama to be so good, but it really is very good.

It reminded me of First Half of My Life in a way.

The female lead's outlook and the way she approached her dilemma of a cheating husband was so impressive, graceful, mature and pragmatic; she's also a genuinely nice person so that makes her endearing.

My biggest takeaway from this story is its portrayal of female friendships, the way women support and help each other is what made this story so refreshing. There are many instances where there is genuine animosity between women but the narrative takes us through a journey of the women reaching an understanding of each other and appreciating each other's challenges.

Additional themes are the role of women in marriage, the workplace, familial relationships and society in general. The story shows how difficult it is for women to balance family and career and it also highlights the different and higher expectations placed on women compared to men. Men have fewer expectations placed on them beyond being a financial provider.

This is an excellent drama with a worthwhile message.

Read More