Daytimel

Had lots of hope for this one because I really liked the edits for this drama even before it was released. But as they say, don’t judge a book by its cover. Anyways, let’s dive in!

✨️ Things that worked well for me:
• The chemistry between the leads
• Some of the romance scenes (at least the ones that weren’t questionable, like the ML forcing himself onto the FL)
• The ML being an interesting, sexy, gray flag character, easily the most compelling part of the show if you ask me
• Zhou Yiran’s performance as the ML, he basically carried the whole drama on his back
• The side characters were decent. Yu Jia Cheng as Song Yuzhi was lovely to watch (I have a weakness for the quiet, scholarly types), and honourable mention to Li Yun Rui as Mu Zheng Yang, whose visuals were absolutely stunning. I genuinely couldn’t take my eyes off him whenever he was on screen 🤭
• The OSTs were beautiful, with several tracks I’d still listen to after finishing the show
• The cinematography was also stunning, with some genuinely gorgeous scenes throughout

✖️ What did not work for me:
Characters:
• The FL felt weak, even though she is literally the protagonist of the show
• The actress playing the FL had almost no range in facial expressions, a different actress might have elevated the role
• The villain had almost no proper build-up and ended up feeling underdeveloped and his death felt unrealistic
Story:
• The concept sounded interesting on paper,  learning from the previous generation, but it didn’t work because their struggles didn’t really mirror the protagonists’ issues in my opinion
• There was almost no real character development, aside from the ML becoming slightly more tame???
• The dialogue was mostly dull and didn’t add much depth to either the characters or the story
• The most pivotal moments, like the reveals, had no proper build-up, which is why the whole series felt flat and monotonous throughout, even major reveals couldn’t lift it out of its constant boredom
• The ending was sloppy and relied on shock value with the ML’s "death" which I doubt anyone actually believed
• The villain killing himself also came out of nowhere, again with no proper build-up
• The last two episodes had people dying left and right, but it had no emotional impact because there was barely any connection to those characters. Even the main cast’s deaths didn’t move me because the groundwork simply wasn’t there

📍Final thoughts:
In the end, Zhou Yiran’s acting was the main reason I kept watching. Like someone else said, he felt completely overpowered for this show and had to carry it on his back.

I know I might not be the right person to say this because I’m such a sucker for Li Yun Rui, so naturally his scenes were another highlight for me, but even a visually beautiful drama cannot carry a weak story ☝🏻🧐

If I had to give this drama a different name, I’d probably call it "No Build-Up Generation" or something like that because there was almost no build-up for anything really 😅