Eleison

Thanks for the rec, and happy drama watching to you as well! I always enjoy the respectful dialogue even if my conclusions end up being different than others whose opinions I respect. I think you actually helped me like it more by helping me calibrate expectations. 😅 And I get why people dislike it/thought it was disappointing.

I finished both seasons and posted about them both on In The Name Of Blossom page if you want to see another take. I didn't actually dislike Season 2. It's more angsty and frustrating at points, for sure, but it still really worked for me.

Hmm, I don't fully agree skipping wouldn't cause you to miss anything, but it would certainly help diminish frustrations while watching. 😅

Okay, so I finished both seasons.

This is not a different story written by a different writer (many of the complaints I've read), but an extension of the story we started last season with our characters having to face the vulnerability--as well as the challenges--that come with closeness.

I wasn't a huge fan of the business stuff in either, but overall I enjoyed both seasons very much. Here's why.

Honestly, many people's reactions to this season (negative ones) remind me of people's reactions to Part 2 of Alchemy Of Souls. So many people hated it in comparison to the first part and thought it was a huge step down in quality and writing, etc. But I never thought so. I didn't have specific expectations going into that season or this one, and that helped a lot. Also, keeping in perspective what the writer was trying to do with the tropes/cliches helped me keep the frustrating bits in context of the bigger picture.

For instance, Mu Dan's angst about her mom's death helped her to redirect her passion for making money in a more altruistic direction, and allowed her to extend her natural compassion towards a vision much bigger than herself and her own personal ambitions, financial or otherwise. This new vision ended up aligning more with Jiang Chang Yang's goals/dreams as well, and allowed them to work together more effectively as a team.

Jiang Chang Yang's noble idiocy was the last thread of cultural "masculinity" that he had to set aside to finally allow Mu Dan to be her own person, rather than merely his wife or his beloved. He had to allow her to choose her challenges, struggles and dangers, just as he has done for himself (and as men are often allowed to do more easily without question). He had to realize he can't protect her if she doesn't want his protection, since that's just controlling her and holding her back, in the end. This is always something he has been stellar at throughout this whole series, but once he learned to care for her more deeply, he had to learn to let go of being her knight in shining armor. It was his final holdout, and it had to go. It was the only way these characters could be true partners.

I thought Jiang Chang Yang was a fascinating case study in how the man in a relationship can function, and I kind of loved it. I ended up loving that he was rarely there to swoop in and save her when she encountered trouble (or when he tried, she had already gotten herself out of it by the time he showed up), and trusted her to make her own choices, solve her own problems, and win her own battles. The role he played had its own, unexpected charm, and felt refreshingly new. I think the word that comes to mind that describes how he treats Mu Dan is "dignity"--it's what Jiang Chang Yang extended to Mu Dan as a fellow human, not just as "a woman." Not something you see very often in a romance, and somehow they still managed to make their interactions romantic, even though this is a very nontraditional relationship dynamic that many are probably not used to.

I laud the writer's attempts at paving new paths for depicting relationship dynamics. I say, well done!

Was it perfect? Certainly not, and Season 2 definitely has more angst, lack of communication (would it be a drama if it didn't? 😅), and frustrations than Season 1 (buckle up if you plan to watch!), but keep the big picture in mind without expectations, and enjoy the ride.

You might be pleasantly surprised. 😉

P.S. The OST and BGMs were better in Season 2, actually (imo). Loved them.

I haven't gotten to WLGYTs yet; still dragging my feet. 🫣 But I actually did finish both seasons of Flourished Peony, and I actually thought it was okay. I think a lot of comments I saw made me think it would be way worse. Because I was prepared for the angst going into it, I actually liked it more than I expected to. I can totally get why some watchers may not like it, though. It definitely had its flaws.

I ended up finishing both seasons. I think the fact that so many people said it was terrible kept my expectations low. And I actually didn't think it was as bad as everyone made it out to be. If someone had really specific expectations for this season than I'd see why some are upset, but while there is a lot of angst, I think they still made it work. There was a reason for it, even if they were some frustrating tropes; in the context of our characters, they made sense to me. It wasn't perfect, and probably could have been better, for sure, but I think many users are being much too harsh on Season 2. There were a lot of things to like, and I still enjoyed it quite a lot.

I Can Hear Your Voice was a good drama. She's the 2FL in that (and in The Beauty Inside).

It does seem to bring out these opinions very strongly in some who watch this drama! 😅 Some just seem to hate it with a passion, and those that do seem to frequently feel obligated to make sure others feel the same.

Lovely Runner has a similar effect on people (but not QUITE as bad as this one).

Did you notice they switched their roles/personas in each season? Gloomy, intense, and broody/heartless--that was Naksu in Season 1, constantly saving/helping Jang Uk; but in Season 2, that persona became Jang Uk's role, as he switched and became the intense one, saving Naksu over and over.

Cheerful, hopeful, and bright-eyed--that was Jang Uk in Season 1, constantly helped by Naksu; again, these roles switched in Season 2, with Naksu becoming the bright-eyed, cheerful one who becomes helpless (at least at first, just like Uk at the beginning of Season 1).

In both seasons, the characters have come into a power (within themselves due to their connection to the ancient lovers they are constantly compared to) they can't even fathom. They slowly grow into that power.

I think that people wanted to see girl boss Naksu in Season 2, and didn't like that she took on more of the stereotypical "feminine" helpless role getting saved by powerful Jang Uk. But I think the writers were trying to parallel their stories/roles, and never intended to focus on Naksu as a girl boss. Naksu was still clever in Season 2, but wasn't supported by all the memories and experiences that shaped the tyoe of cleverness we see in Season 1. Girl Boss Naksu was her defense mechanism in Season 1 due to pain and hurt; it became the same for Jang Uk in Season 2 (and let's remember his beloved killed him and then died; that's a lot to get past. I think someone feeling jaded and disillusioned after that is 100% warranted).

I found it, unexpectedly, more rewatchable than much of Season 1. That surprised me!

2013, 2015, and 2017 are solid (2013's my favorite, but 2017 is the runner up). 2021 is... very low budget. It was not great in my opinion, especially after the other three which were all very good, and well-acted. The story was clunky, the acting was not great, and everything felt plasticky and stilted. I think Sassy Go Go was actually more a School drama than most of these. It's very much like a School drama vibe, and I loved the leads in it.

Loved Lee Jin Wook in Sweet Home! Curious to see if this will be any good.

Thank you!

Well, I love Mun Jeong's character. 🥰

Going from calling his teachers "Saem" in School 2013 and now becoming "Saem" 😅 (not sure how to write the romanized spelling of the nickname for teacher ("seonsaengnim") that always crops up in the high school dramas; I think this is it?).

Kinda reminds me of the Dutch Tulip Craze.

Ah, so they don't do well in China unless carefully tended to? Thanks for sharing; I don't know much about them, but I do love peonies. I think they're stunning flowers! I fell in love with them when I traveled to England and saw them growing beautifully with gigantic blooms.

When I was a child, our family used to get Chinese food every New Year's Eve for many years from a place called Peonies, but we didn't know about the plant back then (we're from California and they don't grow well here at all, so you don't come across them often in gardens and such) so we pronounced the restaurant name incorrectly as "Pee-own-ees" (emphasis on "own"). 🫣🫢 We know now how to say it, but the name stuck and we still refer to it with the incorrect pronunciation for the sake of tradition. 😅

He's SO different from Li Haichao in Go Ahead! Almost didn't recognize him in this.

Are peonies not supposed to get wet? In the opening scenes of Episode 1 of FL she kept trying to keep them from rain (so confused by this), but I've seen peonies in garden beds in England (so much rain there), and they looked as happy as clams.

Maybe when I finish FP you can fill me in on any important stuff (very briefly) preceding Episode 17 if I skip everything before that. 😅

😆😅