Just watch for Luo Yunxi + Bai Lu, the rest is whatever
This is worth watching for Luo Yunxi and Bai Lu's chemistry alone. The business stuff is fine but I personally don't really care about that, the 2nd couple (Xu Li and Li Xiaochuan), nor the SML rival (Du Lei) at all. I just want to watch the main couple be cute together, and they definitely did not disappoint. They were cute and funny together and made my heart go pitter patter. Chemistry between the two leads is 10/10, everything else is 5/10 for me. It's better than a lot of modern cdramas, but I just don't care. I don't think things were poorly executed, don't get me wrong; modern office dramas with business dealings and jealous coworkers just isn't my jam, so keep that in mind that that lowers my ratings. I'm usually more of a costume-drama watcher; I just watched this because I wanted to watch LYX and Bai Lu make out some more since they were so great in Till the End of the Moon.I knew that, as with all dramas, after they finally get together, there would be other shenanigans to drive them apart. I was amused by some of the business dealings they had in the first 10 episodes and stuff about Li Xiaochuan's project (no spoilers), but otherwise only care about the main couple. Once they finally got together, I just read episode summaries to get an idea of what would happen, and skipped to the end.
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Better than I expected but still not great
This series is very divisive: people love it or hate it/couldn't even get through it. After watching it I can see exactly why. If it was entirely bad or mid, that's one thing, but there is so much potential and there are genuinely good aspects that kept me hanging on. Each time I wanted to drop it for one of the negatives, there was still enough positives that I was intrigued enough to watch a little more, then a little more.Negatives:
-Cut scenes not only took out some of the kissy-face stuff we craved but it also made the story hard to follow at times or just made moments we were really looking forward to fall flat (like a key scene we've been waiting for so long to see got cut and only part of it is shown via a freaking FLASHBACK). The ending sucked, thank goodness they gave us the extra episode (that was actually filmed and not just a voiceover reusing old scenes!)
-Tonal shifts felt like whiplash. They may have been able to spin it as a dark comedy but the comedic parts were too slapstick and the dark parts were really too brutal.
-Yukee Chen's acting was better than I expected but still needs work. You can read other reviews, I won't dogpile on her.
Positives:
-The story was actually quite intriguing; not just the premise but enough of the story through the whole series has just enough interesting aspects that as I said above, kept me curious and wanting to see it through, despite the negatives. I wish someday we could see the whole thing uncut.
-The FL is not stupid and the couple trust each other. Obviously the plot needed there to be a few times where ML rushes to her aid but that's mainly early on when he doesn't realize she's capable of handling herself. As things go on they trust each other; there's even one time when she's captured as a trap for him but he doesn't go rescue her, assuring his aide that she can figure out the situation herself. There's other times when he had to act out but she trusted him to not hurt her. Other than one instance of noble idiocy, they're mostly pretty understanding of each other.
-Dylan's acting was good, he could do both the cold smoulder as well as convincingly play a man who isn't actually cold at heart but is tired of putting on the facade. Some people didn't like that he fell for the girl early but I think it made sense in this way. Usually the cold ML is truly cold but melts for just the ML, who then changes him; in this, he's never actually cold at heart but has had to pretend for so long that he's tired of it and found refuge in being able to lower his guard with her.
-Yukee Chen's acting was better than expected. She was funny and devious but in some serious moments she actually was quite chilling.
-Peter Ho's acting was very convincing, a bit too convincing in fact, it was honestly frightening
I rated the rewatch a bit higher because I think after watching, you can then know where to skip to watch the good parts. You can also find most of the cut scenes on YouTube to fill in gaps.
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