This review may contain spoilers
Mediocre - Great actors, Average story.
First off, this is just my opinion - the facts as I see and interpret them. Secondly, I didn’t find everything terrible. There were really good parts too (especially later in the series). Thirdly, you may like this if you bear past the cliché. If you’ve watched many dramas before, you’ll likely find this one unexciting and shamelessly lacking in creativity(which some reviewers here seem to praise a lot - beats me how). I am driven to write this review because I found most of the reviews here too robotic and untrue (I recognize and appreciate they are personal opinions of people - of which they are entitled to - but I found them mostly dishonest and misleading at best.) But, for the very same reason that everyone is entitled to their opinion, please spare me some space in this review tab to type out my runt(which it really isn’t, but is instead an honest, level-headed opinion).
At first, when I began to watch(~1st-3rd episode), I thought, 'alright, I can cast a blind eye to the uninteresting old storyline because the actors are cute and I like the guy from Meteor Garden - Darren Chen. I mean how much of the glory and depth of how you adored Darren Chen in Meteor shower can rub off into a poor show until the weaknesses of the film get grossly conspicuous that no matter how incredible the actor(s) acts, the storyline and plot falls too short to ignore so that slowly the good actors begin receding into the background and the flaws of the story and screenplay start becoming obvious and soon disturbing? So it is that as the story progressed, I found it impossible to overlook the unoriginal, unrealistic, and infuriatingly redundant cliches. Some dialogues, expressions, and/or scenes were simply too average… I can't for the life of me, figure out why jealousy, for instance, needs to be communicated so stupidly (it's unreal at best - and not in a good way).
Lemmi highlight a few things I found troubling - to avoid spoiling too much. I’ll avoid specifics.
1) Accidental kisses. If you are going to do an accidental kiss, please - there's no way people that have serious height difference and standing on level ground can bump into each other and wind up in a kiss. And to see this ten times(metaphorically speaking) is simply...
2) Typical cross-dressing drama(girl feigning to be a boy). Really?! They should really figure out how to make a convincing act here - because I simply just can't buy it, besides the fact that this is getting pretty old. Logic and reason kick in where gender (perceived) is so obvious that the storyline loses any interest for me (and it has nothing to do with poor acting: the actress, after all, was incredible). Anyway, I’ll not even try to explain this…
3) College scholarship and admission to a girl(misidentified as a boy). What college? What world? And this is not a gender-identity or orientation issue. In a normal world, a typical college application involves personal identification documents to verify your identity or at least something to show you are who you claim to be. Right? No? OK, I won't make a big deal out of this.
4)Realism. Case in point, Jealousy portrayals for example the scene in ep. 9 where they're in practice. I find this simple(I mean foolish). The portrayal of jealousy is at best boring.
5. There was a little hope that the film might address sexism (A girl who excels more than his male counterparts in a predominantly male sport: and also coached by a woman). Was that too much to expect. I am not requiring that they should have addressed this issue, but I getting frustrated with how most films promote gender inequality in the quest for entertainment and revenue. Seriously though, writers, directors, and actors should begin to seriously consider, to the fullest extent, the stereotypes in films that promote a culture of gender discrimination. Should women be made to look subservient and mostly dump or at best one step below a man?
At episode 9 is when I began to write this review and I hoped to dear life that I find the will and strength not to drop the show. It would be a shame if I did. Much as I recognize the effort in production and acting, I must be true in this review.
I finished the show and while it got A LOT BETTER TOWARDS THE END(about last half), what I’ve written above is a true record and my honest opinion.
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Loving the Leads, Hating the Message
I would wait until the end of the show to write a review, but halfway through this drama is good enough. I doubt anything will alter what I have seen so far. Here we go:Besides everything I'm about to highlight, you will find yourself loving the drama and the incredible lively personality of the lead character and support character Wu Suo Wei and Jiang Xiao Shuai. I found myself gravitating to shipping these two, but 🤷♂️. I loved the other lead and support character too - great acting. Beside my critique in the following paragraphs, the rest of the story is good, and the acting and execution is decent and among the best for dramas of the same genre and culture and region.
But here's my real take: It's sad that this show learns nothing from many before it, and it's sadder that it got so popular yet rooted at its core is a glorification of rape culture. This reflects a disturbing pattern I keep seeing - too many BL productions have an unsettling fascination with abuse, assault, and romanticized Stockholm syndrome. Asian LGBTQ+ media seems particularly drawn to these harmful tropes, and frankly, it's gross and shouldn't be tolerated.
My heart broke watching sexual consent get thrown out the window in this series. Literally every romantic interaction - save for maybe one or two by episode 13 - was non-consensual. What the hell? Perhaps the community often consumes this content anyway because of severely limited representation on screen - that is at least true for me. And with so few high-quality queer productions available, viewers feel they have no real choice.
Why do writers, directors, and producers keep romanticizing rape? Is this supposed to be entertainment? What kind of fetish finds this content worthy of an 8 or 9 rating? The broader story has potential. But this needs to stop. This should be the last series that suggests forcing yourself on another person through threats, brute force, or manipulation is remotely acceptable.
I'm a BL fan, and I genuinely found myself enjoying parts of this drama. But these scenes and storylines robbed it of any special place in my heart.
While I should be talking about the funny moments in the drama, or portrayal of genuine love(don't hold your breath), nuanced societal and cultural themes on LGBTQ, good acting, I'm reduced to rant about how repeated rape could ever possibly be a show of love.
Oh, and this drama is another of those - gay person falls for a straight person who then "turns" queer.
irl, gay culture is often marked by experiences of inequality, societal ostracization, and lack of legal protection or acceptance worldwide - which unfortunately includes cultures of assault and abuse. This drama mirrors that reality and, worse, glorifies it.
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