News 
1
1
Fluffy rom com
This show is pretty much just a fluffy rom com. At this length, it has to be at least a little serious, but I’d say it’s the least stressful that it can realistically be while still maintaining long-drama standards.
The premise is quite fun and sets us up for some good solid shenanigans. A little under half the show is about the leads’ fake domestic bliss, and how the beleaguered ML gradually falls for his fake wife. Comedy of errors is a good description- it’s difficult to pull off such a double life, and the ML has to work hard to keep up his act! Of course, situations, dialogue, etc are arranged to be extra ironic.
It is pretty funny. But... well. I get that him deceiving her is the premise of the show, but his approach is uncomfortably gaslight-y (eg making her doubt her observations until she is the one feeling guilty). And also, the show lays on a bit thick about how “good” she is to him. Would YOU be so devoted to a husband you don’t even remember? (Or one you do, for that matter?) Said husband is both useless and suspicious, which she recognizes but doesn’t seem to mind. I think Miantang is only an exaggeratedly too-good-to-be-true wife so the show can drive home a point and make the ML feel extra guilty; it makes no actual sense for her personality.
On her end... I mean, she is actually a girlboss. You just wouldn’t know from her amnesiac behavior. To be fair, during her dutiful wife phase, she is still weirdly capable at running businesses (and this girl can change careers like she changes clothes!) How does she know so much about porcelain? Who knows! She cheerfully devotes all her efforts to this "family business" and says it's for the ML, who clearly doesn't even care. The situation is so odd, the only way I could make sense of it was to consider it as her building her own career, for her own fulfillment. I happily thought this for awhile until the business is quietly abandoned and forgotten... so maybe not, I guess.
Once Miantang gets her memories back, it’s like a total personality change. Three years of memories shouldn’t change personality or intelligence like that! She was so sweet and easy to trick before, now suddenly badass and deadly. ...also incredibly hard to get, while the ML pulls out all the stops to chase after her. Maybe she’s supposed to be a little conflicted or secretly in love during this phase, but I didn’t really see it. Then he finally succeeds, they get together, and she abruptly transforms again. All hints of hesitancy vanish into thin air, and she is once again sweet, supportive, and all-in in love.
I just feel that Miantang’s characterization and personality are a particularly poorly executed aspect of this show, wildly inconsistent and jumping around to whatever is narratively expedient. And honestly, I didn’t really care that much for either version of her- too extreme- even though both are probably supposed to be admirable.
But still, this is a rom com. It is funny and fluffy, and that’s worth a lot. The humor is best during the amnesiac phase, but it still sticks around afterwards. A lot of the story arcs are devoted to harmless conflicts, like keeping up the act, dealing with bullies, sorting out their relationship, etc. There is a little bit of love triangle, but it is over thankfully quickly. There are also some politics and power struggles which certainly play a role, but the show doesn’t seem to care much for the politics in and of themselves; several big developments aren’t even shown. I frankly could not even tell a lot of the older men apart, so I wasn’t really following the intrigue, but that barely affected my understanding of the story. It is mostly a show about the leads and their relationship.
A few side characters get decent screentime. There is a second couple who is cute-ish but kind of cheesy, and I didn’t care too much for them. Ziyu is quite likeable, and I think a good model for SML as somebody who loses his love triangle early but needs to accept this, move on, and prioritize the bigger picture. My favorite character is probably Shi Xueji, who is sort of Cinderella but without Prince Charming. She has nobody looking out for her, but she doesn’t demand or expect anything from others; she just quietly does what she thinks is right. Actually she’s kind of Mary Sue if you take a step back, but since she’s an unloved side character, I still liked her a lot.
Xueji doesn’t get that many scenes. I was just always looking out for them, especially towards the end. After the leads get together again, a lot of the focus shifts towards showing how amazing the FL is, how much the ML loves her, how well they get along, etc. I simply did not like them enough to want this many scenes of it. But I was still glad that a lot of the conflicts at the end are still on the fluffier feel-good side, and the final villain is pretty easy to hate.
The show also has some girl power undertones. It’s not explicitly about female empowerment, but it does spotlight struggles faced by women, and it also clearly believes in their independence and autonomy. The society is not so constrictive that women can’t forge their own paths with enough willpower, and of course our favorite men are the ones who support them.
The acting is fine. I’ve only seen Zhang Wanyi once before (in Si Jin which I DNF’ed) but he has a distinct mumbly style which I think fits this show quite well and adds flare to his character. Wang Churan’s Miantang fell a little flat for me, but it might just be how she’s written. I think everyone does fine but it didn’t really stand out.
The production is also fine. Costumes, styling, sets, choreography, all look decent. Same for the music, does its job but didn’t stand out to me. There is a little bit of fighting, which is pretty but very performative; looks kind of like a choreographed dance.
Overall I think this is a sweet fluffy rom com that will probably leave you with a smile. But Maintang’s character is problematically inconsistent, some things are too unbelievable, and I didn’t care enough for the main characters to enjoy so much screentime dedicated to puffing them up. I really appreciated the laughs at the beginning but ended up watching the middle to end at 1.25 – 2X speed. Still, this is a nice low-stress watch that didn’t leave me obsessing, and sometimes that's just what you need. I'd give it a 7 ("entertained but not a masterpiece") except it's so feel-good, +0.5. Fans of romance might like it more.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
The ending is happy. No sacrifices of side characters and nobody left sad. The last few episodes are unusually not-tense; things don’t even get kind of dire until almost the last episode, and even then, I didn’t believe for one minute that the leads had lost control.
We get flashes of three happy couples at the end. I mean, I wouldn’t have minded a little more on how their lives go (especially Xueji!), but I was still very pleased by this ending.
The premise is quite fun and sets us up for some good solid shenanigans. A little under half the show is about the leads’ fake domestic bliss, and how the beleaguered ML gradually falls for his fake wife. Comedy of errors is a good description- it’s difficult to pull off such a double life, and the ML has to work hard to keep up his act! Of course, situations, dialogue, etc are arranged to be extra ironic.
It is pretty funny. But... well. I get that him deceiving her is the premise of the show, but his approach is uncomfortably gaslight-y (eg making her doubt her observations until she is the one feeling guilty). And also, the show lays on a bit thick about how “good” she is to him. Would YOU be so devoted to a husband you don’t even remember? (Or one you do, for that matter?) Said husband is both useless and suspicious, which she recognizes but doesn’t seem to mind. I think Miantang is only an exaggeratedly too-good-to-be-true wife so the show can drive home a point and make the ML feel extra guilty; it makes no actual sense for her personality.
On her end... I mean, she is actually a girlboss. You just wouldn’t know from her amnesiac behavior. To be fair, during her dutiful wife phase, she is still weirdly capable at running businesses (and this girl can change careers like she changes clothes!) How does she know so much about porcelain? Who knows! She cheerfully devotes all her efforts to this "family business" and says it's for the ML, who clearly doesn't even care. The situation is so odd, the only way I could make sense of it was to consider it as her building her own career, for her own fulfillment. I happily thought this for awhile until the business is quietly abandoned and forgotten... so maybe not, I guess.
Once Miantang gets her memories back, it’s like a total personality change. Three years of memories shouldn’t change personality or intelligence like that! She was so sweet and easy to trick before, now suddenly badass and deadly. ...also incredibly hard to get, while the ML pulls out all the stops to chase after her. Maybe she’s supposed to be a little conflicted or secretly in love during this phase, but I didn’t really see it. Then he finally succeeds, they get together, and she abruptly transforms again. All hints of hesitancy vanish into thin air, and she is once again sweet, supportive, and all-in in love.
I just feel that Miantang’s characterization and personality are a particularly poorly executed aspect of this show, wildly inconsistent and jumping around to whatever is narratively expedient. And honestly, I didn’t really care that much for either version of her- too extreme- even though both are probably supposed to be admirable.
But still, this is a rom com. It is funny and fluffy, and that’s worth a lot. The humor is best during the amnesiac phase, but it still sticks around afterwards. A lot of the story arcs are devoted to harmless conflicts, like keeping up the act, dealing with bullies, sorting out their relationship, etc. There is a little bit of love triangle, but it is over thankfully quickly. There are also some politics and power struggles which certainly play a role, but the show doesn’t seem to care much for the politics in and of themselves; several big developments aren’t even shown. I frankly could not even tell a lot of the older men apart, so I wasn’t really following the intrigue, but that barely affected my understanding of the story. It is mostly a show about the leads and their relationship.
A few side characters get decent screentime. There is a second couple who is cute-ish but kind of cheesy, and I didn’t care too much for them. Ziyu is quite likeable, and I think a good model for SML as somebody who loses his love triangle early but needs to accept this, move on, and prioritize the bigger picture. My favorite character is probably Shi Xueji, who is sort of Cinderella but without Prince Charming. She has nobody looking out for her, but she doesn’t demand or expect anything from others; she just quietly does what she thinks is right. Actually she’s kind of Mary Sue if you take a step back, but since she’s an unloved side character, I still liked her a lot.
Xueji doesn’t get that many scenes. I was just always looking out for them, especially towards the end. After the leads get together again, a lot of the focus shifts towards showing how amazing the FL is, how much the ML loves her, how well they get along, etc. I simply did not like them enough to want this many scenes of it. But I was still glad that a lot of the conflicts at the end are still on the fluffier feel-good side, and the final villain is pretty easy to hate.
The show also has some girl power undertones. It’s not explicitly about female empowerment, but it does spotlight struggles faced by women, and it also clearly believes in their independence and autonomy. The society is not so constrictive that women can’t forge their own paths with enough willpower, and of course our favorite men are the ones who support them.
The acting is fine. I’ve only seen Zhang Wanyi once before (in Si Jin which I DNF’ed) but he has a distinct mumbly style which I think fits this show quite well and adds flare to his character. Wang Churan’s Miantang fell a little flat for me, but it might just be how she’s written. I think everyone does fine but it didn’t really stand out.
The production is also fine. Costumes, styling, sets, choreography, all look decent. Same for the music, does its job but didn’t stand out to me. There is a little bit of fighting, which is pretty but very performative; looks kind of like a choreographed dance.
Overall I think this is a sweet fluffy rom com that will probably leave you with a smile. But Maintang’s character is problematically inconsistent, some things are too unbelievable, and I didn’t care enough for the main characters to enjoy so much screentime dedicated to puffing them up. I really appreciated the laughs at the beginning but ended up watching the middle to end at 1.25 – 2X speed. Still, this is a nice low-stress watch that didn’t leave me obsessing, and sometimes that's just what you need. I'd give it a 7 ("entertained but not a masterpiece") except it's so feel-good, +0.5. Fans of romance might like it more.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
The ending is happy. No sacrifices of side characters and nobody left sad. The last few episodes are unusually not-tense; things don’t even get kind of dire until almost the last episode, and even then, I didn’t believe for one minute that the leads had lost control.
We get flashes of three happy couples at the end. I mean, I wouldn’t have minded a little more on how their lives go (especially Xueji!), but I was still very pleased by this ending.
Was this review helpful to you?
