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Misunderstandings^2 - ML Is Entitled Baby
This is very much a turn your brain off show. Beyond that it revolves around: how long can a man who has NEVER met his wife continue to have an affair WITH his wife while NOT knowing she IS his wife. That is essentially the plot. Yes there are small other things happening aside from this major plot but they are just that, small other minor plots.What follows is a woman CONSTANTLY hearing how much he hates her and despises her AS he's kissing up to her telling her how much he adores her as the "other woman". Again, he so thoroughly hates and despises this woman he has NEVER once met.
I was vaguely entertained by the ML's clown acting but overall I just could not turn my brain off enough to enjoy a man who so thoroughly did not care about his original marriage OR her "fake" marriage because only what HE wanted was important.
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Bloody REVENGE with a mere HINT of Romance
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich NietzscheRevenge with a capital 'R' and romance with a lowercase 'r' is the theme of this minidrama. The main protagonist is the FL and the the 'boogeyman' ML is mostly a shadow following her around to provide 'slight' assistance. This is especially true in the first portion of the drama which focuses on her personal revenge as opposed to uncovering the masterminds behind the scenes.
Negatives:
🚫 Short length requires break-neck speed and waving hand over details of the past
🚫 Some revenge is shown in detail and some, the end is left hanging in the end offscreen
🚫 There is no ACTUAL kiss between the leads (personally not a negative but for many I know this IS so listing here)
🚫 Typical last second ending
Positives:
✅️ Nietzsche
✅️ A take no prisoners style FL who isn't afraid of mass manipulation
✅️ Multiple layers of character stories told through lines of dialog and brief flashbacks
✅️ Unhinged OTT acting at it's finest (beyond more than just the leads)
IMPORTANT considerations:
🌸 This FL gets her hands dirty and her schemes may have you wonder if the is the same or possibly becoming worse than her object of revenge.
🌸 You must be able to overlook such things as full facial change and later a character having a 'full skin suit'..
🌸 Background information is given out scarcely and sprinkled unevenly. There is a LOT left unsaid which leaves the viewer either frustrated that 'nothing makes sense' if they can't make logic jumps with 2 lines of dialog episodes apart; OR wishing the story were longer so that the show could be more fully fleshed out and characterized.
🌸 This is pure entertainment value with MANY actual flaws, some seemingly in place because of the sheer nature of the scope of work limiting how the novel could be adapted.
🌸 The show provides PLENTY of scenes presented for 'shock value' but does not actually utilize on-screen rape and/or miscarriage - there are scenes of force and violence against woman as well as men.
🌸 If anything could possibly cause someone who is clapping their hands along with the mayhem to sigh it might be the switch-over from 'act 1' to 'act 2' as my personal reaction was: '....And suddenly there's comedy? The stare wide-eyed mouth open for flies, head cocked to the side, can't believe it sort...' Then... 'Omg I can't... This girl isn't acting unhinged but just plain off her rocker 🤣🤡'
🔥Final Rating: 9/10🔥
This is HEAVILY weighted for enjoyment factor and scenes I feel will leave a lingering impact on my mind.
I greatly enjoyed the style of acting the actors were asked to portray, though the ML with his single tear drop was, in my opinion, a 'choice'.
The music was 🤷♀️ - it was background music and it fit the scenes
I doubt I will ever rewatch this show in its entirety again, but if clips came up on my screen or if someone were already watching, I'd sit down and rewatch parts.
I paid for the Express Pass and do not regret it.
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An "Okay" Season One
Overall I'm found it slightly difficult to rate because on the overall show aspect I definitely enjoyed the series. But at the same time, one of the major factors of the show IS the case solving and I was absolutely and completely lost during this aspect.They would come up with evidence that just made me ask "did I miss something?" over and over again. So in that aspect it became a "just go with it" type show that I had to ignore. THIS I didn't care for.
What I did like was the varied filters and lighting or scenes... the ACTUALLY shooting scenes in the dark when it's night... and the character camaraderie that grows between everyone.
Fair warning, this wraps up fairly well "as is", but it IS a Season One drama. I liked it well enough that I will probably watch Season Two whenever it comes out.
Overall Rating factors in the things I REALLY liked against how much I did not care for the case solving... :
6.5/10
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A Show to Slowly Savor Rather Than Binge
This is NOT a show to binge on, it's a slow-moving slice-of-life type show about a "Nursing Home" (more like an assisted living facility since most of the seniors live mostly independently). There are a lot of story arcs, most lasting a 3-4 episodes at most (the opening arc lasts 8 episodes), and after each one there's a sense of resolution which does make the show fairly easy to put down and not pick back up again for a while.While there "is" a romance between the two leads it is NOT the main focus of the show in any way, and if you're watching it for romance you'll likely be frustrated as the FL is very much a I don't "NEED" a man type of person and has a flavor of FLR dynamics. Meanwhile the ML is a puppy who needs to be protected at all costs.
There is a LOT of filial piety stories and discussions in this show. Other topics include absentee children, money leeches, "You're old now so I know best", scamming the elderly, finding love/companionship in your final years, health issues such as dementia and loss of mobility and a LOT more.
Hands down the best character is the ML. He his a ray of sunshine, an adorable puppy, and an absolute clown at times. During the show he blossoms from being a down and out indebted scammer to having a place and purpose in the Nursing Home. The FL meanwhile, has such a huge responsibility thrust upon her that she becomes someone you hope can loosen up and live a little. There are times you want to knock sense in to both him and the FL for being dumb, and times you want to give them a hug and tell them it will be alright.
As for a final rating, on a technical level I'd say it's probably an 8 because there are absolutely some places where the story could be tightened or the characters appear to regress for no apparent reason, but from an EMOTIONAL standpoint I'm giving it 9/10.
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He Falls First AND Harder
Built upon the idea that marriages don't last and love is a lie, the ML tries a lot of antics to sabotage the FLs matchmaking efforts. This of course leads to funny little "clip worthy" moments between the two characters.That's honestly really it thought there isn't anything really "special" about this show, it's just cute and quirky, a nice diversion that can be quickly ran through without much brain power.
Story is full of loopholes and plotholes that are dropped or unexplained or waved away as "coincidence" by the characters. But it's not super plot heavy so even these issues don't leave a truly lasting impression.
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Short and Bare Bones But A Thrilling Ride
A Jade pendant, Revenge and Rebirth may be a bit cliché but this Mini drama definitely takes those elements and weaves them together rather well. What first glance seems like a open-and-shut case get unraveled deeper and deeper then further down the spiral the leads go within the story.Where the show excels is with its fight scenes, wire work, and morally grey characters. Almost everyone has a reason for their actions, whether it is a "good" reason or not is beside the point.
As for the plot, everything is bare bones told, nothing extra added which honestly does sometimes mean things you would like to have further explained are dropped and not discussed or shown on screen. But as for the MAIN story, everything important is shown and discussed.
One thing I found interesting was that the ending was expanded upon as much as it was. Without spoiling anything, the main conflict is resolved and then there is a final bit of romance in the last bit of the show. There are MULTIPLE times I could have seen the show ending earlier with a "lesser" ending but the one we got was VERY satisfying in my personal opinion.
8/10
(If it had had the budget to delve a "little" deeper it probably would have been higher but there's only so much when some episodes are 7 minutes cutting out the credits).
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How Do You PROVE You Love Someone?
First, I can absolutely understand why this show would not be a favorite, or even liked by some people. It does require it's own form of alternate universe rules that end up being a common issue with any show dealing with mental health in China. Because of this there are quite a few negatives that some people will not be able to look past and I can respectfully understand this.For instance, the oversimplification of saying Meng Hui has PTSD and not really mentioning anything about DID (or even an outdated MPD) can give people the wrong idea about what her issues actually are. However, I can honestly overlook this pretty easily as the DID is a symptom of the PTSD where she dissociates to the extreme.
Next people would bring up that the characters in the show ALL bend over backwards to give in to her delusions even having her run the ML's company despite having no actual knowledge of how to do this. Yes, this makes for a bit of an eye-roll but at the same time the STORY explains in a way why THEY choose to do this. People point out that it is stupid and the ML does not care. There are indeed people like this in real life. Is it illogical by "most" standards, yes; but it's still within the realm of possibility for people to like a person so much and want them to get better so much that they will go along with these plots.
As for the story itself, there are small little mottos/morals that often relate to the show themes and make-up at the end of each episode. I loved these as they were often very good words of wisdom. For instance, one of my favorites was Ep 17's "If the foundation isn't laid down well, any attempt at repair will only be a facade to cover it up."
Shen Yi / Meng Hui - Our main characters, these two are the most "obviously" broken to the outside world. Our ML is rich, has a rich father, and yet the first time he and FL meet on a bus he quibbles over $0.20 because swiping a bus card is $1.80 but paying cash is $2.00 so he will only reimburse her the $1.80. He starts out miserly to an absurd degree but this is good in a way that it allows the viewers a chance to see his character growth over the course of the show with how Meng Hui changes him for the better. Meanwhile, our FL is honestly a Mary Sue with a "flaw". Even the show admits this though as there is a conversation the couple have at one point where she talks about there being no such thing as a 100% perfect girl, so she was given the scar as a way to remove that 1% and make her a 99% girl. Their obstacles are her scar and the past. Questions about guilt vs love, taking responsibility for ones actions, saying you forgive someone vs ACTUALLY forgiving someone, fears of future resentment, being a burden to the other party, communication break-down and secrets.
The other characters in the story are also flawed and each has a small story so even if the main couple isn't the most attractive for you, there might be interest still in finding out about Jiang Jiang/ Ah Tao, Sui An/ Wei Lei , or you "might" even count ML Dad/step-mom as a very minor side-story couple.
Shen Yi / Sui An (bromance) - If you want a show with good bromance on a deep friendship level, the bond between Shen Yi and Sui An will ABSOLUTELY do it for you. Without giving away spoilers, there is a crying scene with these two in it near the end that will tear your heart out if you have been enjoying their relationship throughout the show. If anything could be a negative, I wish the spent even five more minutes on their relationship to give it that final polish of depth regarding their past, but easily 9.5/10 as is.
Jiang Jiang / Ah Tao - ML's assistant and FL's friend/therapist this is a sM/DF storyline. He is a wet puppy who was bullied in school and has a "servant's personality", while she exudes confidence and was the "Prince" of her school. They have the least amount of psychological issues to overcome which makes their relationship by far the easiest to watch. Their major obstacles are being on "opposing" sides at times and his feeling of inferiority towards her.
Sui An / Wei Lei - ML's best friend "since college" and ML's ex/FL's Best Friend ("very" minor spoiler) start out as a doctor/patient relationship. He is a plastic surgeon and she uses this to her advantage when she determines she likes him as she likes getting treatments. These two have honestly one of the worst relationships but who need the most out of their being together. Without giving spoilers, their issues have to do with inferiority, one person using the other, being worthy of love, guilt and a feeling of responsibility vs love, and the biggest one is probably the inability to let the other person into their head (they are a show-er not a tell-er and don't explain themselves)
All in all, this show went over a LOT for "only" having 24 episodes. Things that I personally was left still unclear on at the end were mostly past issues with the ML/ML mom/ ML dad, and weird editing with the original childhood timeline which had me questioning 1. how he didn't know her name, and 2. how long they had been talking to each other before the "incident" (this is mostly due to the scenes with she sitting down to lunch, asking mom for backpack, getting the backpack). These are all VERY minor issues for me though as they take up almost no actual time within the show, but they do seem to be plot holes.
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Fun But Nonsensical Vertical in Horizontal Format
This show was both fast paced and addicting if you follow vertical plots as it attempts to take the formats and satirize them. It's not often that a show takes a full 1/4 of it's plot just to serve as an introduction. Plots jump from one instance to the next in lightning speed and everything is very surface level.If judging the show strictly on a romance development metor, there is essentially no in-between; the "romance" goes zero, one, ten, one hundred.
By the end of the story the show has a feeling that the writer threw up their hands and started writing the first thing that came to their mind. The vaguely coherent but weird beginning devolves into an end that feels like a dreamstate where someone wakes up as a "twist" in the last second of the show (this doesn't happen, it's just the feeling it gives off).
Ultimately, I laughed and enjoyed myself greatly while watching this train wreck. I have plenty of scene clips and screenshots but perhaps few braincells remain.
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Cute Kitty, Weak Story
This starts out not too bad. It has a cat demon which turns into a cat and the cgi is passable, especially for it being a mini drama. Where it breaks down is that the story lacks really ANY detail...There were multiple times that I was waiting for something to be further explained only for the thread to be fully and completely dropped. Whether it was the ML/FL actually falling in love, what the artifacts she collects are, who the ML meets in the Demon Realm, why the poison was administered originally, or more... NOTHING is explained.
The one positive in my opinion was that Chen Fang Tong and Fang Xiao Dong can both act relatively well and had chemistry with eachother.
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Comedy vs Drama Badly Fight It Out
My favorite parts of this show were absolutely the comedic portions but the show felt like it didn't know what it actually wanted to do. The beginning episodes feel like a revenge drama with an intense first episode to give the FL meaning to needing to get her vengeance...But then the show flips and it's like "okay... so this is ACTUALLY a comedy?" And the comedy was rather good. Both Yan Zi Xian and Chen Fang Tong are great at comedy and their over the top expressions and actions were a joy to sit through; especially when their two attendants were in the scenes with them.
However, the show had actual PLOT it wanted to push forward and so every time this would occur, the comedy would end and instead it was time to switch back into "serious drama" mode. I thought it felt jarring and would break me out of the show.
Now, this is NOT to say that these scenes were ALSO not good in their own way, they were just different and so the overall show comes off with a slightly disjointed feeling. For instance, if you KNOW your cooking is "the best", so good that it leaves an impression on someone long after eating the food, and you're trying to gather information... why are YOU the one doing the cooking? Playing the scene as a comedy might be acceptable, but in DRAMA mode it seems absurd and like the characters aren't smart.
Basically, I would recommend this show for fans of Yan Zi Xian and/or Chen Fang Tong only. Everyone else will have a large YMMV experience with it.
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Baby's First 'Red-Flag' Republican Spy Mini
If any other actor had played the Male Lead I would absolutely not recommend this show in the slightest except as a "dip your toe in with a "safe" mini" recommendation for someone who has never watched the genre before. Everything about the writing of the show is extremely safe and almost bland.All the twists are broadcast well before they happen so nothing TRULY shocks. The main villian is basically a non-threat clown so there's no real stakes to think he's a danger to the main leads. The 2ML and 2FL are nice and cute people so there's no real threats from them. Even the "big" problem that "kinda" separates them was resolved because of someone else doing it in truth...
YZX carries this show uphill and is THE reason to watch, nothing else. He kisses well, he cries well, he looks obsessed and heartbroken well... He is just VERY easy to look at.
As for the music, it exists. It's okay to listen to but it doesn't really evoke any deep emotions like a lot of these mini drama songs do.
Basically recommend this ONLY if you are a YZX fan and have nothing better to do.
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Healing Anthology Stories with a Side of Star-Crossed Lovers
The highlight of this one is absolutely the gorgeous cinematography. You can debate if the cgi is good or not, personally I really enjoyed the look of it in this show. It didn't feel cheap or rushed at all in my opinion.While a romance, this one is definitely on the more tragic end of the spectrum. It's theme of helping people through their dreams is present throughout the show, as is the underlying tale of the innkeeper FL who is cursed to the inn in exchange for the bargain she made in a past life.
This whole thing with the past is actually where is loses most of its points as it is very convoluted and never FULLY explained, rather, a lot it left up for you to get the "gist" of what happened.
There's parts of the original love story, parts when she was a child, parts when she was already the innkeeper all woven together as one sort of past time line for her.
Despite the slightly unsatisfactory past timeline the show as a WHOLE is very well done and is something that should be experienced, especially if you are looking for a short with star-crossed lovers type angst in addition to anthology-type stories of the FL helping people in the inn.
8/10
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Ultimate Comfort Drama
This entire show was beginning to end so sugary sweet it's amazing that the viewing audience isn't given immediate diabetes. This story follows the main leads as well as their friend group from their first year of high school through university, entering the work force and ultimately marriage and having a child by the last episode. It made for an experience where each and every episode my lips were unconsciously smiling or even giggling.As for the relationships, you could not go wrong with either RangRang OR Gu Ran as your life partner. Both showed complete devotion and I just wish we'd also been shown Gu Ran proposing but we just have to be content knowing it was literally only a simple matter of finding a "proper" time.
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Slow Paced "Drama" Without Much Actual "Drama"
A drama that is a slow, meandering ride through two people meeting and eventually falling in love. Each has their own life with their own goals and interests that are explored during the duration of the show.
Ultimately, someone clicking on this show will either really like the slowness and cheesiness of the romance; or, they will be put of by the doctor/patient relationship in the initial episodes and long, drawn out shots throughout the length of the show.
Personally, while I initially enjoyed the slowness, with each episode closer to the end, I found myself pushing the speed-up and hoping the story would just end already. It's this factor which has me lowering my rating from the 9/10 I was initially prepared to give the drama before the final arcs.
By the end I realized easily that while I had liked the show while on air it's not one I'll be revisiting, the OSTs, while nice, are not especially ones I'll have on repeat, and I was ultimately confused how her study abroad process went.
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Amazing Philosophy with Okay Leads and Cringey CGI
While this show was far from perfect, the overall philosophy driving the underlying story was well done. If you are the type to enjoy the discussions of shifting morals and how various people can see the same issue, this drama will be worth watching for that aspect alone. Among the various subplots, different moral questions are raised as the philosophical differences between mortals and immortals are explored. It has the charm of moving its plot forward via a varied cast of characters, some that will resonate more than others.So, who would like the drama?
• Someone who likes deep philosophical ideals discussed
• A fan of morally grey side characters who do both positive and negative things
• Someone who does not feel the need to have a "traditional" and chemistry-heavy romance depicted by any character
• A female lead who gets stronger as the male lead gets weaker
At the same time, these are negative aspects if you can't stand these features:
• Fight scenes that are essentially 100% CGI
• Main leads being apart from each other doing their own thing
• Side characters doing things that seem disconnected to the main plot at the time
• Cliché plot flags
Personally, more so than the leads, I felt that the supporting cast is where the true watch value lies. Among this varied group, the majority consist of highly grey characters, many with minor character arcs demonstrating their growth. This is especially true of several of the Immortal Sect side characters. As is discussed in one of the philosophical questions near the beginning of the show, the Immortals are tasked with being separate from humanity and assisting humanity; but how can those two things co-exist when a cultivator lives so much longer than a human? Morals shift and one sees groups as enemies and what is "best" becomes a matter of perception. As such, many of the side characters will do awful things at one point to one person and be a completely different personality to another person, which makes for an interesting watch.
Meanwhile, the leads were slightly less interesting on an overall basis because they consistently erred on the side of staying "good". The few times either lead fought and killed someone was in the name of justice for their atrocities previously committed, and they never seemed to waver in their ideals. Our FL Xin Mei never sought power and was constantly fine with actually going down rather than advancing. Her personality was to want to see the best in others and, as one character puts it, her temperament is close to what many would consider a Goddess if they needed to picture one. As for our ML Lu Qianqiao, he also has a rather emotionally stunted appearance. His greatest wish is to be a "normal" human, and he chases this dream the way so many cultivators chase increased power and eventual Godhood. Together they are, in theory, a married couple, yet for much of the drama he refers to her as his friend, and they don't even hold hands. Both characters feel as though there is a bubble of space around each other and if they get too close, that bubble will burst.
All in all, this is a rather difficult drama for me to process in my mind because I both liked it greatly and felt there was a lot that just didn't sit right with me on a personal level. For instance, I had a love-hate relationship with A Sheng and Jin Lun's character arcs. Their interactions were often so brief that while each time was pretty, I couldn't help wanting to speed their scenes up. Another pet peeve was the feeling that time didn't always match up in a logical way; for instance, a character being locked up for days or weeks with nothing happening. Also, for me, I hated the CGI battles. They looked like bad AI to me and any time someone would throw out a chain, especially when I died a little inside.
Final Rating: 7.5/10
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