MarkWasHere

In my opinion, this drama fell short of its potential. One positive was the eye candy with our two very pretty leads wearing very short skirts or party dresses in almost every scene. I'm no expert, but I suspect that doctors usually don't go to work in stilettos and a mini-skirt.
The acting was quite average across the cast. This is understandable from the novice actors, but even the experienced actors playing the parents struggled to convincingly show emotion.
The story had potential, but it wasn't fulfilled. Initially Pat was teased as a red flag character, but she turned out to be a very green flag. With better writing, she could have been a much more interesting character. Prem was originally portrayed as a strong, independent professional woman, but then turned into a doormat when her mother cried. This was disappointing. Just once I want to see a character tell their homophobic parents where to go, instead of just submitting to their wishes. On that point, the evil homophobic parent(s) trope is starting to get a little bit tired in GL dramas.
And now on to my biggest gripe. I hate unearned redemption in a drama. A skilfully written, EARNED redemption arc can be one of the most satisfying parts of a drama. So when a character is redeemed by the writer without doing anything more than just stop being evil, it robs the viewer of a potentially emotionally impactful scene, and replaces it with a shallow and uninteresting one.
I really appreciate these small Thai studios discovering new talent and producing these GLs, and I hope they continue to do so, while gradually improving the quality.
Even though I've had a bit of a whinge, I still mostly enjoyed the drama and would certainly recommend it to any fan of Thai GLs.
My score 8/10

I'm not entirely sure why, but during episode 7, I just realised that I didn't care enough about the characters to keep watching.

It's on YouTube for free. Stop trying to steal their income you greedy POS.

Even though verbal consent is the gold standard, personally I have no objection to the "move in very slowly so they have time to refuse if they want" first kiss strategy.
I'm also less bothered by an entitled over-enthusiastic male non-concessionally kissing a female that I am when the make physically restrains the female. Once a male is physically restraining the female (as happens in "Go Ahead"), we are getting very close to sexual assault.

The ML is an immature jerk and a bully.
The FL is a doormat.
I don't think this drama is for me. Dropping at episode 7.

An easy to watch, cute, fun and low angst rom-com. Although there was nothing especially innovative about this drama, I really did enjoy it. It stuck pretty closely to a standard fluffy rom-com template, but the story was entertaining, the production was excellent and the acting was better than you will see in many Thai GLs. I especially enjoyed Jane Methika Jiranorraphat's acting. She absolutely nailed the determined, but slightly goofy character of Rin, and her flirting with Aokbab really was fun to watch.
Having only 8 episodes resulted in a focussed narrative that didn't drag and wasn't padded with unnecessary subplots and characters. I also appreciate the fact that the character of Mind earned her redemption, something that most drama writers forget about when "forgiving" evil characters.
An absolute must watch for Thai GL fans, and also recommended for any fan of fluffy rom-coms.

A slightly above average drama, but unnecessarily long with too many subplots and couples. I found myself skipping through some of the subplots that I wasn't interested in, especially in the second half of the drama. This drama could have been significantly better if it was cut almost in half with the writing focussing on the main plots. I enjoy slow burn romances, but this drama was SLOW burn, with no skinship at all other than one very platonic hug. Even so, I quite liked watching the relationship between Hou Jue and Shi Yi develop.
I really did NOT like the relationship between Zhi Rong and Xiao Yan primarily due to the massive age-gap of 29 years. Coincidently, I am the same age as Wang Ce's character (55), and my daughter is about the same age as Cheng Cheng's character (26). The thought of dating girls the age of my own daughter is very icky. But the film makers cheated a bit to try to minimise the ick factor by choosing actors only 7 years apart in age to portray characters who are 29 years apart in age. This allowed them to have the edgy and controversial massive age-gap subplot without half the viewers switching off because they felt uncomfortable watching an old man dating a girl less than half his age.
I wouldn't really recommend such a long drama to anyone unless you are a fan of one or more of the cast, or you find the plot summary extremely compelling.
8/10

I would imagine it is being released on some international platform - hopefully YouTube, but perhaps GagaOOLala. I doubt they ever intended to try to get it broadcast on Chinese TV.

Thanks

I'd love a second season too, but I suggest that you don't get your hopes up. The drama is based on the novel, and season 1 will complete the novel. So there is no content for a second season.

I haven't watched "To My Shore", and nor do I intend to. But I'm curious, are you referring to this drama: https://kisskh.at/781606-city-of-the-sun
I ask because this is a Chinese drama, and my understanding is that Chinese censors are extremely strict and won't allow NC scenes or the "promotion" of homosexuality in dramas. Am I simply wrong?

I'm very keen to see who Faye's partner will be. Assuming the actors are playing characters roughly their age, if Nina (age 45) has a daughter, then she's probably about Yoko's age (24). So I'm predicting Faye's new love interest will be about the same age as Yoko. Time will tell if I'm right or not.

The cut version of "Love Design" is availalbe on wetv for FREE. The link is at the top of this page.

I'm a big fan of age-gap noona romances, so I was excited to watch this drama. After now completing it, I would say that I found it an enjoyable but flawed drama. In my judgement, it deserves a higher MDL score than what it currently has (7.8), but it certainly isn't the masterpiece that some reviewers suggest that it is.
I found the story to be quite compelling and I really wanted to know where it was heading. I found the character of Ogawa Manami to be entirely believable, but the character of Takamori Taiga less so. Some of the support characters were just walking stereotypes - especially Manami's father (the evil mysoginistic psychologically abusive parent) and her fiancé (the cheating manipulative scheming controlling partner). The later transitions of these two characters from pieces of shit to supportive, upstanding citizens was far too sudden and consequently not really believable. Also, neither of them "earned" their redemptions - they just decided to stop being evil. For some reason, writers struggle to write compelling emotionally rewarding redemption arcs for characters, which is a shame.
The production was generally of a high standard, but the editing was terrible. At times it seemed like random scenes were just shown one after the other, separated by an annoyingly long blackscreen trying to soften the jarring caused by the editing decisions.
One thing that Japanese dramas often get wrong in my opinion is the balance between angst and feel good moments, and this drama suffered from that imbalance. Too much angst, and too little happy, feel-good moments for my taste.
The ending was much less satisying that it could have been. It seemed rushed, and it was disappointing that the writers chose to have Taiga regress so much after we watched such character growth from him. After watching him physically throw Manami out of his room, my advice to her is to leave him. He's incredibly immature and volatile. He's also indifferent to her feelings, something that she should be warey of after seeing her sexist father dismiss and ignore her mother for years. I love Noona romances, but I NEED the younger male to have (or develop) the maturity to deserve to be with the older woman. In my judgement, Taiga didn't do this and unless he grows up a LOT and quickly, their relationship has little chance of lasting.
My score: 8.5/10

That is your subjective opinion, and I'd be interested in hearing you justify it. Can you refer me to one specific scene that you think best illustrates her allegedly inadequate acting skills?

I liked the premise of this drama, and it started off really strongly. However, like most dramas, it didn't finish as strongly as it started.
Some things which I didn't like and wished were done differently or not at all:
* The drama moved away from being a light and humerous rom com to being far more serious, even dark. KDrama writers seemed almost obsessed with inserting a 'thriller' subplot into their otherwise fluffy rom coms.
* I hate injustices that are not corrected such as Bok Gyu Hyun's unjust demotion of Son Hae Yeong. I also hated that Nam Ja Yeon made no effort to address Son Hae Yeong's unfair demotion with Bok Gyu Hyu. Not much loyality from her "sister".
* I hate unearned redemptions. Bok Gyu Hyun's behaviour towards both Kim Ji Uk and Son Hae Yeong was extremely unacceptable. Quite frankly, he acted like a total piece of shit. But then without making any attempt to remedy any of the situations he caused that hurt people, he's forgiven by Kim Ji Uk, who calls him "brother", and it didn't even bother Nam Ja Yeon.
* I hate pointless or unjustified breakups that are manufactured for no reason other than to provide the set up for a "reunion" in the last 10 minutes of the final episode.

This could have been a really funny, feel-good age-gap romance, but for me it ended up falling well short of what it could have been.

I'm only up to episode 7, and so far, I've found his acting to be quite mediocre. But I will admit this could be affected by the style of acting in most Japanese dramas that never seem entirely believable to me. It almost seems like the actor is trying to impersonate a manga character rather than a real person. Actions and dialogue seem more theatrical than natural.

I'm only up to episode 7, and its mostly angst. There was some romance squeezed in-between the angst in episode 6 which was quite sweet, but its really mostly angst. One of my criticisms of Japanese dramas in general is they seem to prioritise angst far more than does a typical Korean or Chinese romance drama. In my judgement, this is to the detriment of the drama.

She perfectly portrayed the character as described in the novel. That is evidence that she is quite a good actress.

No one is forcing you to watch it.