Lovely

Her acting game is really on another level.

I thought Any Deng performed well in Melody of Golden Age, but in my view, she improved significantly.

I find it amazing how much younger Ding Yuxi looks here compared to Melody of Golden Age. You could really see the leads age gap in the latter, but here it's barely noticeable.

You almost can't beat the chemistry, but as for the story, I just wonder what the point of it was?

Honestly, though I'm enjoying this – I can very much see your point. In real life Okumi would seem very creepy. But this is a romance, will most likely have HE, and that's why we let our guards down. Stories like this can be explored (even romanticized) because we expect them to solve all their problems and be happy at the end. I also agree, that it's too short and too fast to explore the complexity of an age gap that big, and I wonder where Ai's specific interest for an older man stems from. Based on observation that is seldom a sign for maturity.

Haha, I don't find his smile creepy. To me he has just a very big smile and is showing all this teeth and that was kinda unexpected.

PS- Since you haven't watched more than 2 eps when you commented, here comes a spoiler: → It's not only an age gap, but it also becomes an employer-employee relationship. The dynamics of this couple is too off, and it seems that now they try to make Ai seem maturer and understanding of their lack of balance, even though he was so childish in the first two eps. I guess it works for this story but in real life young people aren't often so reflective of age gaps.

I'm really enjoying this. So far this has been very solid in characters, plot, comedy, romance, and mystery. Lately, I've been trying to keep my expectations low – and I had zero for this one – but I'm truly positively surprised at how nice this has been up to now.

I'm scared at how excited I'm for this, because expectations are usually followed by disappointment, and I wanna love this so so much.

It's like waiting for forever.

I only watched one episode and I think that's enough.
But for this to be one of the most anticipated Chinese dramas of the year? Produced by iQIYI and Tencent? With Zhang Ling He and Wang Chu Ran? Fumbled like this?
That's truly so funny. I feel like watching this, just so I can talk about it. :D

Yes, you're so right!!! I am a hater. What else could I even be?
I went to check this out, didn't like the acting, commented my opinion, then dropped it, and will now probably simply avoid any series with Bas – that definitely makes me a hater, and not just a dissatisfied viewer.
I'm so proud of you for being loyal!!! <3

ay it's my opinion. I didn't like his acting in Fourever You either.
I've seen blank characters being acted better

I would love to read something that challenges the fated lovers trope and omegaverse.

I would love to believe that they tried and failed at commentary, instead of just wanting to make a semi-plotted softcorn show about ABO.

Yeah, I also don't think that they are thinking so deeply about it. It's just that the scene came directly after his "You don't force me, you just want me to stay". I was automatically connecting the dots, but it's probably more of a coincident, and the scriptwriter only did it for the pregnancy plot.

Yes to everything you said. The balcony scene was arguably the best scene so far.
I'm grieving the potential of this script and the characters if they were fleshed out.

Ideally, they would've found a way to mirror Phatsa's and Nakhun's intimate scenes with Nakhin's and Ongsa's. One driven solely by heat, the other driven by their own longing for each other. But they don't know how to do that.

I think the green juice scene is a way to show how they slowly rob Phatsa of his autonomy in the disguise of love and care. It's just that the scene was too long and after he drank it, there were shown no consequences for him. We didn't see him scared or annoyed. Didn't see him trying to stand his ground or ask questions as to why the juice was so necessary. We didn't see him argue that he is a grown man that can decide for himself if he wants to drink it or not. Instead, Phatsa felt like a little kid, that just doesn't like vegetables. They introduced the scene not for commentary but to make everyone think he is pregnant.
The mother's backstory has so much potential, I hope that they'll draw parallels of her life, her lack of autonomy, to Phatsa in later episodes.
I hadn't yet thought much about the atmosphere in which this drama is filmed, but after you mentioned how empty the rooms feel, I can see you're definitely right. There is no mood, the interior looks as empty as the thoughts that went into the script. There is something, but not enough to convince you that people actually live there, that this is their home. The same way the characters are not fleshed out and only caricatures of what they should be.

This has more horror elements than it has romance.
This could be an excellent commentary about (body) autonomy and heteronomy, the importance of sex education, and the toxicity of uneven relationship dynamics and love bombing – but even if it touches those topics briefly, it's in no way acting critical with it.

I needed this like yesterday ughghghghg

I liked it until ML's sudden rage at his child bride having had a crush three years ago. Somehow that was the moment it went generally downhill.