Embrace in the Dark Night (2024)

Equal Parts Scared and Excited

This drama… Oh, this drama. I don’t even know why I started this as I rarely watch present-day Chinese dramas, minis or otherwise, and most I do watch are because they have an actor I like. But I have to say, what a ride this has been. I would categorize this drama as a dark romance. The story has another one of those troupes where the male lead is basically screaming through his actions “I’m giving you trauma because I love you and want to protect you”. But this one had an added spiciness to it. A lot of it. Every time I read the title, I wondered if it was an analogy for us viewers to embrace the darkness of the show. This one definitely kept me wondering about my own moral compass…

The male lead becomes more and more unhinged as the story moves forward. The word psycho kept popping up in my head every time he did something. I’ll be honest, this man both scared and excited me. I never thought WX, the female lead, was the brightest crayon in the box, but I didn’t think she was a dumbass either. That is until around episode 10, I changed my mind then. Her actions had become particularly sloppy and it was clear she was winging it. This is not a situation where you just “wing it”. The male lead kept having to save her. Although, he was also working against her. If he had communicated with her, she probably wouldn’t have done some many things without thinking them through. Am I giving her too much credit? I am. Their dynamic mostly screamed of abusive relationship and even for me, some things were hard to watch.

The acting… Okay, so the actress portraying the female lead was terrible. She had mostly one expression throughout the whole show and that was scared bunny. She was also very stiff. All of the characters, villains included, were cartoonish versions of what a well depicted character of their type would be. This includes the main leads, although the main lead actor did act really well in a few scenes. Ling Yuan, the “second male lead”, if he can even be called that, was also unhinged. He was also as obsessed with our male lead as I was. In one scene, he laments he has to buy his own chocolates, as if he went through a break up with Xu Zhe Qing. Which to be honest, he kind of did. You can have break ups with friends also and these break ups sometimes hurt more than one with a partner. Should that have been as funny as I found it? Probably not, but I was dying from laughter. Also, the OST was perfectly chosen for this show. The songs echoed possession and being possessed and of danger lurking in every corner. I enjoyed that very much as I felt it was fitting. The show also ends in what can be considered a cliffhanger, but it can also be considered as a "their adventures continue" and I don't need to actually see, but am happy to imagine it.

Did I think this was a masterpiece? Not at all. Was it entertaining? Yes. Also, Did I mention it was spaaaicy? Because it was. If you try to make sense of how things happen in this drama, you will get a headache. However, if you watch it for what it is, mindless fun, you'll be wheezing from laughing so much.

Note: If you have a hard time watching abusive relationships and possessive male leads on screen, it would be best to skip this one.

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