This review may contain spoilers
A Good Premise Wasted
Despite the drama's premise not being that unique, its first episode really caught my attention with all the comedic stuff that happened.
So even if I wasn't that interested in watching cdramas anymore these past few years, I decided to give this a try.
But before I start, I want to say first that I really like the transmigration genre and I've already read/watched a lot under it. This is one reason why I tried watching this drama in the first place because most transmigration genres have quite the same premise but a lot of the stories I've read make something unique about it along the way. So I watched "A Dream Within A Dream" carrying this expectation. But yes, as apparent in my ratings, I was disappointed. And I dropped it.
As someone who has read a lot in the transmigration genre, I noticed a few flaws during the first few episodes. Still, I decided to not mind them much (?) because the comedy really bought meðŸ«
It was too funny so I thought it'd be a waste to judge it early. Plus, the actors and actresses, especially Liu Yuning and Li Yitong, were really good, and I especially loved SYM's voice. To add, I also heard that this drama aims to be female-centric and wanted to rally against those prevalent male-centric dramas who only use females as stepping stones.
I get it, I get the goal. So my expectations were quite high, but the flaws kept on piling up. I'll enumerate some major flaws I noticed that made me ultimately drop it.
1. During the first episode. SYM kept on dying. However, despite dying countless times, her character didn't seem to show the slightest bit of trauma. But of course, the comedy covered for this. However, what I really didn't get was the fact that she was afraid to die ONCE while following the script's plot instead of dying MULTIPLE TIMES by not following the script. And what bothered me more about it was that she did not once consider to find a way to GET OUT of the world. She only ever thought of GOING AGAINST the script. The drama made her seem like a very relatable heroine at first, she didn't seem that relatable when not once did she consider that there might be a way out of the world by just following the script. Anyhow, despite noticing this, I expected them to fill this hole in the next few episodes. But still no. And that leads me to the second flaw.
2. The show that wanted to be "female-centric" ended up providing the biggest irony they could attempt. Man, I was expecting more character development from the female lead, but instead of her gaining the spotlight, others took the stage. After that? FL became like a supporting character while the ML takes center stage. Istg, in the middle episode, FL doesn't even have much of a screen time. This really made me think that I might've expected too much from this. I could mention a lot of transmigration manhwas that gave this female-centric theme justice like Beware the Villainess, For My Derelict Favorite, It's Time to Change the Genre, My In-laws are Obsessed with Me, and my two fav in the genre, Surviving Romance and Death is the Only Ending for the Villainess. This drama doesn't even come close to all of these.
3. Nan Heng's character. Although I really came to like him (Liu Yuning's unique charisma was a big contribution), I couldn't help but notice another hole in his character. As the show went on, he ended up becoming the "good person." I know, this isn't necessarily bad. That's the reason why I came to like him too. Still I couldn't help but think that this character became too shallow after the show portrayed him as the "good person." I wish they could've explored his character deeper, he had a lot of potential. But instead, they made him only look like a deeply misunderstood person, a very typical ML. They could've shown more about his personality, just like how the author from the danmei "Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know" very meticulously showed how complicated of a character Wenren E (the ML) was. This novel did portray Wenren E as a deeply misunderstood character, but at the same time, he was not a completely good person. But well of course, Wenren E was the lead so the author had more time to explore his character. Nonetheless, they could've done the same to Nan Heng without stealing FL's spotlight. At least, the author from "Death is the Only Ending for the Villainess" managed to do that with Callisto's character. So in the end, I simply think that the drama could've added more substance to Nan Heng's character and they could've still done this despite being female-centric. So my conclusion was that this was just lazy storytelling.
4. But, if Nan Heng's undeveloped character portrayal alone already disappointed me this much, then the me who was expecting for a very relatable female lead and an extremely well-crafted character development for her had my final straw during the middle episodes. Man, she didn't even have much screen time, and with the meager screen time she had, no character development happened at all, absolutely nothing. And I just couldn't help but notice how selfish she truly was. I mean, I totally understand how she only sees the "people" around her as only characters made through words on a script. Yeah, I get that. But isn't it common human nature to develop affection when we stayed long enough in a place? I mean, she even fell in love with LSL, one of the "characters" btw, so why can't she see the other people around her as "people"? Up until the middle episodes, despite realizing that she loves LSL, she still doesn't care about the other people in that world. She only came to care about SYT because she felt understood by her. So in the end, another lazy storytelling. The FL I was looking forward to seemed to become an FL I'd definitely hate if I continue on with this. Hence, my decision to drop the drama once and for all.
It really was good at first. It had a lot of potential. But, the potential was once again gone to waste with lazy writing. These four points aren't even half of the things I wanted to point out, but they summed it all up. There's a lot of wasted potential here. The acting was so good. I liked Shagguan He's character. I liked the supporting casts too. And I really loved the main leads. I'm especially obsessed with SYM's voice. I wanted to continue watching, but I just can't, or else I'll end up hating this drama. So I'll just leave it there.
So even if I wasn't that interested in watching cdramas anymore these past few years, I decided to give this a try.
But before I start, I want to say first that I really like the transmigration genre and I've already read/watched a lot under it. This is one reason why I tried watching this drama in the first place because most transmigration genres have quite the same premise but a lot of the stories I've read make something unique about it along the way. So I watched "A Dream Within A Dream" carrying this expectation. But yes, as apparent in my ratings, I was disappointed. And I dropped it.
As someone who has read a lot in the transmigration genre, I noticed a few flaws during the first few episodes. Still, I decided to not mind them much (?) because the comedy really bought meðŸ«
It was too funny so I thought it'd be a waste to judge it early. Plus, the actors and actresses, especially Liu Yuning and Li Yitong, were really good, and I especially loved SYM's voice. To add, I also heard that this drama aims to be female-centric and wanted to rally against those prevalent male-centric dramas who only use females as stepping stones.
I get it, I get the goal. So my expectations were quite high, but the flaws kept on piling up. I'll enumerate some major flaws I noticed that made me ultimately drop it.
1. During the first episode. SYM kept on dying. However, despite dying countless times, her character didn't seem to show the slightest bit of trauma. But of course, the comedy covered for this. However, what I really didn't get was the fact that she was afraid to die ONCE while following the script's plot instead of dying MULTIPLE TIMES by not following the script. And what bothered me more about it was that she did not once consider to find a way to GET OUT of the world. She only ever thought of GOING AGAINST the script. The drama made her seem like a very relatable heroine at first, she didn't seem that relatable when not once did she consider that there might be a way out of the world by just following the script. Anyhow, despite noticing this, I expected them to fill this hole in the next few episodes. But still no. And that leads me to the second flaw.
2. The show that wanted to be "female-centric" ended up providing the biggest irony they could attempt. Man, I was expecting more character development from the female lead, but instead of her gaining the spotlight, others took the stage. After that? FL became like a supporting character while the ML takes center stage. Istg, in the middle episode, FL doesn't even have much of a screen time. This really made me think that I might've expected too much from this. I could mention a lot of transmigration manhwas that gave this female-centric theme justice like Beware the Villainess, For My Derelict Favorite, It's Time to Change the Genre, My In-laws are Obsessed with Me, and my two fav in the genre, Surviving Romance and Death is the Only Ending for the Villainess. This drama doesn't even come close to all of these.
3. Nan Heng's character. Although I really came to like him (Liu Yuning's unique charisma was a big contribution), I couldn't help but notice another hole in his character. As the show went on, he ended up becoming the "good person." I know, this isn't necessarily bad. That's the reason why I came to like him too. Still I couldn't help but think that this character became too shallow after the show portrayed him as the "good person." I wish they could've explored his character deeper, he had a lot of potential. But instead, they made him only look like a deeply misunderstood person, a very typical ML. They could've shown more about his personality, just like how the author from the danmei "Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know" very meticulously showed how complicated of a character Wenren E (the ML) was. This novel did portray Wenren E as a deeply misunderstood character, but at the same time, he was not a completely good person. But well of course, Wenren E was the lead so the author had more time to explore his character. Nonetheless, they could've done the same to Nan Heng without stealing FL's spotlight. At least, the author from "Death is the Only Ending for the Villainess" managed to do that with Callisto's character. So in the end, I simply think that the drama could've added more substance to Nan Heng's character and they could've still done this despite being female-centric. So my conclusion was that this was just lazy storytelling.
4. But, if Nan Heng's undeveloped character portrayal alone already disappointed me this much, then the me who was expecting for a very relatable female lead and an extremely well-crafted character development for her had my final straw during the middle episodes. Man, she didn't even have much screen time, and with the meager screen time she had, no character development happened at all, absolutely nothing. And I just couldn't help but notice how selfish she truly was. I mean, I totally understand how she only sees the "people" around her as only characters made through words on a script. Yeah, I get that. But isn't it common human nature to develop affection when we stayed long enough in a place? I mean, she even fell in love with LSL, one of the "characters" btw, so why can't she see the other people around her as "people"? Up until the middle episodes, despite realizing that she loves LSL, she still doesn't care about the other people in that world. She only came to care about SYT because she felt understood by her. So in the end, another lazy storytelling. The FL I was looking forward to seemed to become an FL I'd definitely hate if I continue on with this. Hence, my decision to drop the drama once and for all.
It really was good at first. It had a lot of potential. But, the potential was once again gone to waste with lazy writing. These four points aren't even half of the things I wanted to point out, but they summed it all up. There's a lot of wasted potential here. The acting was so good. I liked Shagguan He's character. I liked the supporting casts too. And I really loved the main leads. I'm especially obsessed with SYM's voice. I wanted to continue watching, but I just can't, or else I'll end up hating this drama. So I'll just leave it there.
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