Our Generation

Slowburn drama that’s so slow it forgets where it’s headed

Our Generation is a slow-burn character study about youth — first crushes, academic pressure, and the awkward stretch from small-town innocence into the messier world of adulthood. At its core Our Generation is a collection of realistic moments of how childhood memories can grow into something that transcends time and distance.

The best part

Zhang Linghe as aloof math genius Jiang Qiaoxi, is why you want to see this. I’ve been following him since Love Between Fairy and Devil, but this is the first contemporary drama of his I’ve watched. (I know I know there’s The Best Thing). He’s extremely talented — while he shines in idol and costume dramas, his subtle performance here is a real standout and feels different from his more popular roles. I liked that the creators didn’t just throw his “face card” at us to distract from character development. He isn’t scared to be shown in an unflattering light here. And I respect an actor with entire image built on his looks attempting to do something different for a change. And that honesty might be the best part of the drama, that tired, beaten down young man in Hong Kong stretch of episodes. If for nothing else (and there is truly nothing else), the drama is probably worth watching for Zhang Linghe’s performance alone.

Zhao Jinmai as Yingtao is good, but I’m not a big fan overall. Her performance here doesn’t measure up to her work in The Princess Royal, which I enjoyed much more because she was actually convincing there. In Our Generation there are really great emotional moments where she lands the feelings like a blow, but her overall portrayal as a high school girl didn’t fully convince me and it was a little hard to watch at times. It’s like you can tell it’s a grown woman acting as a little girl. I don’t think she’s cut out for those roles. She has her strengths elsewhere. Still, I like Zhao Jinmai in this drama better than in Shine on Me. Plus the emotional scenes between her and Zhang Linghe when they are both playing adults is where she really packs a mean punch.

There are lot of interesting supporting characters, but this is also the drama’s one of biggest issue. Some supporting roles got a lot of screen time while others felt like they were there just for the sake of having supporting characters. The stories weren’t distributed evenly across the gang. A lot of stories had foundation, but nothing ever came out of that foundation. I wish the drama had either stayed tightly focused on the main couple or actually distributed storylines evenly among the whole group.

I liked the family dynamics between in Yingtao and her parents. I liked how they were contrasted with Jiang Qiaoxi’s completely opposite family dynamics to showcase why he is the way he is. It’s an understanding and loving family against a dysfunctional family that doesn’t remember what it means to be a family. Still I wish they showed his parents at the end asking for forgiveness, even for a second, especially his mother. There was so much emphasis on her broken relationship with her son at the beginning of the drama that it felt strange not to have their story come full circle.

Pacing is the biggest problem

The show has a really strong foundation, but it drags. And I mean it. You can skip through minutes and minutes of dialogue and still not miss anything crucial to the plot. Yes, this is mostly character-driven rather than plot-driven — slice-of-life youth vibes for the most part — but the pacing still hurts the overall impact. Stretching the high-school portion of their lives across so many episodes and leaving only a handful of episodes for their adult reconnection does the story a huge disservice.

The drama does have a great ending — you get butterflies — but the last couple of episodes feel almost like a different drama: faster paced, upbeat, with comic relief we hardly see earlier. That tonal shift is jarring but it does leave you satisfied.

Bottom line

If anything, watch this drama for Zhang Linghe’s performance. I skipped quite a lot, and his acting was the only reason I powered through. There is plot, but it’s paper thin and nothing new and so much screen time could have been just taken out and it wouldn’t affect the plot one bit. The show has real heart and honest moments, but uneven supporting arcs and painfully slow pacing keep it from being great. Still, when it works, it really works — just be ready to grit through long stretches to get there. Or skip. In the end, it’s hard to say if the show is trying to be a youth drama, a family drama or a romance.

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came for the romance, but stayed for the friendship

This drama had made me cry nonstop. I was already crying by the 2nd episode until it ended. It was so beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time.

I would admit, the love story part of this series isn’t strong. There wasn’t a strong memory or experience for the female lead to suffer all that for the male lead. But what made it so beautiful isn’t the romance. It’s the friendship.

The friendship the female lead had with her childhood friends. Their loyalty and love to her. It was proof that what they have surpasses any kind of romantic love. It was a kind of soul bond that was so beautiful I can’t help but wish everyone experience that kind of friendship.

Trust me, the series is toxic- with male leads parents and the teachers more focused on math trophies and recognition than a childs welfare. It was toxic in a way that the male lead is so prone to ghosting and to just being so bad at communication that the female lead suffered 90% of the time. It was also so bad that the male lead got away with everything because the female lead was so in love with him. I actually am angered by the fact that she had to do everything for them to workout.

The truly saving grace of this show was the friendship.

I can proudly say, I came for the romance, but stayed for the friendship.

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horrid writing and an absolute waste of time and potential

first episode set up some solid context with alot of potential for a decent show, saying i was disappointed in how the story developed is an understatement.

the acting is fine and the side characters are great, the plot itself isnt bad, its just a cliche romance story like most other dramas.

and as someone who has watched MULTIPLE dramas, this was no doubt the one that pissed me off the most.
the plot develops like any other c drama plot, two kids got separated, somehow they get reunited and work out their differences and misunderstandings, then they get tgt and work out the relationship conflicts, boom marriage and done.

my issue is with the two mcs reunite part. my first imprssion when i saw how jiang qiaoxi pretended to not know liqinle at the sch was just mad red flag okay LIKE BOO THIS GUY IS HORRIBLE STAY AWAY FROM HIM

he then proceeds to try to get her attention and interact with her in the most inconsiderate and ridiculous ways that i personally think is rude and nasty to linqile.

making her pick up ur water bottle after making her think she made it fall and making her get a drink for you is horrible and manipulative, who does that. idc if hes a guy and hes clueless, and i also dont care if hes sorry and remorseful cus he doesnt apologise, not any time soon at least. thats lowk objectifying women cus where did feminism go and why are u treating the girl u love like a slave?

coming out of nowhere to "stabilise" linqile when she learns how to ride a bicycle is insanely idiotic and unsafe. jiang qiaoxi is characterised as a genius, hes top of his class. YOU CANT TELL ME THE TOP STUDENT THINKS COMING OUT OF NOWHERE TO GRAB THE BACK OF BICYCLE OF SOMEONE WHO JUST LEARNT HOW TO RIDE IT IS SAFE.

1. shes shocked and may lose focus or balance (which is what happens and she FALLS AND SCRAPES HER ELBOW BADLY and proceeds to defend himself saying he was trying to help her, then proceeds to change subject and deflect by saying he just wants to start over w her when u literally just INJURED HER. HELLO? WTH BRO ACTUALLY PMO SO BAD ATP)
2. you control a bicycle by the handles. when u someone teaching someone else to ride a bike u see them on their SIDE holding their HANDLES. who does it from the back? that firstly doesnt make sense at all and lacks all logic and secondly is mad unsafe. im fine w the idea of using an injury to get them to bond or interact, esp when its done WELL. here its horrible and makes me think they didnt have the budget to hire a decent writer.

this is bad ESPECIALLY cus it contradicts the characterisation of the character jiang qiaoxi in general. if they wanted to portray him as the genius academically but aloof in social situations, they have to SHOW THAT and set that context. they have the perfect abilities to do this cus he has a bad childhood and lacks friends for the first half of his life and the majority of his childhood. but they dont. and thats the issue.

i didnt make it to the end of the 5th episode before dropping the show. the acting is rly fine and not the issue, and i promise this plot and these characters had POTENTIAL. but the execution was just horrible cus i dont want to see a guy REPEATEDLY disrespect a woman, only to do it again and again in a so called attempt to make it up to her. he completely ignores the boundaries she constantly makes clear and reminds him of, agreeing and letting it pass but comes back to disturb her ONCE AGAIN when he decides he cant let her go. thats TOXIC and may this love never find me. ever.

linqile i can let past cus ok she loves this guy and thus she keeps forgiving him and not scolding him or wtv cus she likes him, which we can clearly see in the show due to the effective portrayal of her character's feelings towards her first love. she pmo too but it makes sense.

dont recommend. i cant rly give it a rating cus i didnt want the whole thing and prob will never do.

TLDR: this show pissed me off the next level degrees, esp jiangqiaoxi. if ur the kind who doesnt read into shows alot and analyse stuff like acting quality, writing quality, realistic-ness or wtv, esp whether the shit they do is ethical and morally ok or not, then sure you'll prob love this show. but if ur like me? oh haha dont event try. i found male mc extremely manipulative and horrible

side note: ik i didnt watch the full show (i only watched 4 and like the first 5min of 5), but like if u have to watch a full show for it to be good thats not a good show. if i cant make it thru the first few ep and ur telling me i have to trust the process and wait it out then no thats a freaking shitty show no show shld ever be like that. why would u waste ur time on a show that u have to wait for when u can watch other shows that are good from start to finish and dont make u wait?

also this is all my opinion if u disagree we can agree to disagree calm down its not that deep just chill and move on there a ton of ppl that like this show

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So far not great

I was very excited for this drama because I’m a sucker for these type of romances and the genre in general but this is disappointing me. I’m in episode 8 and all I feel is frustration.

At first, I was all happy and giggly because they were so cute as kids. When Qile moved to the city, I was rooting for her to toughen up a bit and let the guy suffer more. But I shouldn’t have expected because of course, they had to make her this weak FL who’d go crazy for the boy even after experiencing sh1t.

Her friends and their friendship is what kept me going until this episode but her girl best friend riles me up a bit. I guess there’s no doubt that they all have a sense of immaturity but her in ep8 with what happened between the FL and the other guy… idk she just rubs me off in the wrong way.

It’s at Episode 8 and all I’ve felt was confusion about where the FL and ML’s relationship is heading. It’s getting tiring 🥲

Yet, I’m still giving this a shot because maybe I’m just frustrated with the current turn of events and maybe I’m writing this out of frustration 🤷🏻‍♀️

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It dragged on sooo much

This started off so good. I was obsessed. I like binged watched like the first few episodes, but then it started to get boring.

For me this drama wasn’t realistic at all, and if you disagree, hear me out. Why does Yingtao still like Qiaoxi when they hadn’t seen each other since they were kids? It doesn’t make any sense for me that she thought about him everyday and wrote letters and stuff.

I dropped this like a couple months ago at episode 22, but I just started to continue, so if some of the things are off, don’t mind them.

Something I didn’t like was how Qiaoxi just ran away. I understand he has such a sad and difficult life, like how his mum wishes he was his dead brother, but he wasn’t thinking about Yingtao’s feelings. Yingtao had to literally tracked him down, and he expected her to leave as soon as she saw him? Um Qiaoxi??

But I also found Yingtao so annoying throughout the show. I don’t know why, ok? I just found her annoying.

I also feel like it went so off track. Like I was so confused in the later episodes when they were in Hong Kong. Maybe it was just me but like what’s going on?

I wish Yingtao gave him a hard time when they were in Hong Kong and didn’t forgive him so fast. I mean maybe she did and it’s out of my memory, but she followed him everywhere. He doesn’t deserve her. The fact he was even having any doubts about them being together was bad, and Yingtao was almost too understanding. Like I know she gave him a hard time by not leaving him be alone, but I think she could’ve you know, done more?

Again, I know Qiaoxi has a hard life and he’s used to shutting himself out and all that. He’s realistic-ish, but Yingtao was there for him, and he didn’t want her to be.

I’m my opinion, they were too different and they just didn’t match. That’s obviously my opinion and you can think whatever. I just think Yingtao deserves someone that doesn’t hide and lie about his feelings and doesn’t lead hers the wrong way. As I mentioned, it dragged onnnn. I think they could’ve stopped after high school or collage, we didn’t need Hong Kong. I’m literally just trying to get through the last couple episodes, wish me luck

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I tried but just could not

So it started good...had potential, poor intelligent boy with a chirpy happy go lucky go girl. Seemed like a safe enough story, but then it went all down.
I really tried to overlook the almost stalker tendency of the FL who went so crazy for a boy she met one summer at the age of 4-5! That's kinda creepy...but i was still willing to give this a shot.
The story just is not as engaging, you feel pity, anger, frustration...all for the wrong reasons.
I dropped this drama, just could not make myself even fast forward watch this.
Maybe this story is for some people for me it did not work.

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SO MUCH SLOW PLOT AND VERY DISAPPOINTING

i started this drama because of the main leads. the story of a kunning palace and amidst of a snowstorm of love are one of my favorite dramas and i thought i will get the same experience here but in reality this drama is not even close to these two. after 12 episode i literally gave and pushing my self because of the FL actually. the ML is a vey good actor but in this drama his acting was so so. anyhow i completed this drama with a lots of fast forward and cuts. the story is not that powerful to capture everyone's taste and the plot is so slow also the dialogue are not that good.

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Male Lead A Reflection on Trauma and Growth

Our Generation on Netflix explores how childhood trauma shapes the male protagonist, but his overall contribution to the story often felt underwhelming compared to the female lead, who truly carried the narrative. Her journey and emotional depth gave the drama its strongest moments. That said, as the series unfolded, I grew to understand and even appreciate his story as well.

At its core, Our Generation is a tender coming-of-age romance with a satisfying ending. It’s well-made and worth a watch for fans of the genre, though for me it was more of a one-time viewing experience rather than something I’d revisit. Since it was available on Netflix, I gave it a chance — and while not unforgettable, it offered some worthwhile reflections on love, growth, and healing.

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Assista, mas com o coração aberto.

É um drama que mexe com a gente de um jeito que poucos conseguem. Confesso que em muitos momentos eu fiquei com raiva, especialmente do prota. Achei ele egoísta, egocêntrico, narcisista (tudo que nos tira do sério quando alguém parece não retribuir o amor que recebe). Já a protagonista parecia sempre correr atrás, sempre se doar, mesmo sem ser valorizada. Isso me irritava profundamente, porque eu via nela uma mulher que não tinha amor próprio, e isso machuca de assistir.

Mas aí vem a parte mais bonita do drama: ele não é simples. Ele exige maturidade emocional para ser entendido. muita mesmo. Eu tive que aprender a ter essa maturidade até o fim do drama, eu confesso.
Com o tempo, fui compreendendo o porquê das atitudes dele. Ele foi formado por traumas, por ausência de amor dos pais, de si mesmo, dos outros. O único amor genuíno que ele teve na vida veio justamente dela… e do primo. Quando a gente entende isso, a raiva começa a se transformar em empatia. Ele não sabia como amar, porque nunca havia sido verdadeiramente amado. A prota, por outro lado, transborda amor. Mas não aquele amor idealizado, o amor dela é real, é sacrificial, é doador. Às vezes até demais. Ela cuida de todo mundo, pensa nos outros antes de si mesma, principalmente nele. E mesmo assim, dá para perceber que ela não é completamente dependente dele; ela tem um coração generoso com todos. O grande erro dela é não se cuidar tanto quanto cuida dos outros. Mas apesar disso, o drama é lindo. E eu recomendo sim que todos assistam, mas com o coração aberto. Não é um romance leve e fantasioso como amamos num geral, é um retrato dolorido, mas honesto, das relações humanas. E embora nos traga reflexões profundas, é importante dizer: não devemos romantizar a dor ou nos submeter ao sofrimento dos outros como se fosse nossa obrigação. Todos nós sofremos, todos temos traumas e precisamos aprender a dividir nossos fardos, a viver com leveza.

A própria Bíblia nos ensina que não fomos feitos para andar sozinhos. Precisamos uns dos outros, e o amor quando é verdadeiro não deve isolar, mas curar. E é aí que esse drama me tocou profundamente: ele me lembrou de que o amor sacrificial, aquele que cuida sem esperar nada em troca, é o mesmo amor que Jesus tem por nós. Cristo sofreu por amor, se doou completamente, mesmo sabendo que nem todos o valorizariam. E ainda assim Ele ama, ainda assim perdoa, ainda assim permanece. Quando olhamos por esse ângulo, entendemos que esse tipo de amor, que parece até loucura, é o mais puro que existe.

Esse drama me confrontou. Me faz ver o quanto às vezes estamos cegos dentro das nossas próprias relações. Nos faz repensar a forma como amamos e até como esperamos ser amados. Nos lembra que não precisamos ser perfeitos para sermos dignos de amor, e que dividir nossos sentimentos não é fraqueza, mas maturidade.

No fim das contas, esse drama me trouxe uma nova consciência. Sobre mim. Sobre o outro. Sobre Deus. E por isso eu recomendo, assista, com o coração aberto pra entender e chorar, sofrer, se divertir e amar. Aprender um amor diferente.

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Amor que enfrenta barreiras

Resenha sincerona da Lari: Nossa Geração

Prepare-se pra embarcar numa história que cresce junto com você.
A trama acompanha a infância, adolescência e vida adulta de dois personagens que se amam com o tipo de amor que o tempo não apaga — só separa, machuca e depois reencontra.
👧🏻A protagonista é uma menina cheia de luz, criada no interior da China, cercada por amigos.
Eis que aparece o novo aluno da escola: Jiang Qiao Xi: Todo de preto, calado, gênio da matemática e com uma aura de dor que nem Freud explica.
Eles se apaixonam ainda crianças, mas a felicidade dura pouco porque… adivinhem: a mãe dele é uma vilã de novela das oito. Fria, controladora e profissional em destruir afetos, ela faz de tudo pra afastar os dois. E consegue. Ele vai embora. A gente chora.
⏳ Anos depois, reencontro.
Sim, o amor ainda está lá — meio envergonhado, meio calejado, mas vivo. Só que como todo bom dorama, nada é fácil. Eles vivem uma eterna dança entre “eu te amo, não me esquece, vem, volta e vai embora novamente”, se amam, se perdem, se procuram… e a gente torcendo e pensamento: uma boa conversa resolveria tudo… (será?!?)
⚠️ A leveza da protagonista é o que dá respiro nessa montanha-russa. Mesmo com tanta dor, ela segue como uma brisa de primavera — e transforma cada cena em algo bonito, mesmo quando o coração tá doendo. É impossível não se apegar.
📌 O roteiro tem um quê de Amor Oculto, mas só lembra, viu? A profundidade emocional é outra. Aqui o foco é o crescimento, o tempo, as perdas e os reencontros. É doce e melancólico ao mesmo tempo — aquele tipo de história que aperta o peito e acaricia depois.
Sim, dá uma raivinha do prota às vezes (eu faria tudo diferente!), mas se a gente vê tudo pelo ponto de vista dele, até entende. Trauma, senso de responsabilidade, pressão dos pais, síndrome de salvador… é complicado. Mas nada que o amor não supere ❤️
📊 Nota da Lari: 9,0 – porque o roteiro é lindo, mas faltou mais beijo, mas cenas de o porquê que esse amor vale tanto a pena!
🔁 Veria de novo? Sim!
📣 Indicaria? Com certeza! Especialmente pra quem ama romances.
🧮 Se fosse uma equação:
Dor + infância + reencontros + mãe controladora – beijo = aquele dorama que gruda no coração e fica morando de favor.

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