monstersnroses

Someone could say "Manneheim Steamroller is the best band ever. Trust me its not my opinion only." Someone could say "Tacos is the best food on the planet. Trust me its not my opinion only."

The fact is, your opinion and my opinion are EQUAL in value. Period.

So what if I have different opinions from yours. It doesnt really matter enough to have to bring you to the point that youre actually insulting other people over it.

Itd be interesting if you were to check back in after you finished it to say whether in the end, you thought it did pick up and become interesting or not.

Wee-woo wee-woo.... heres comes the thought police!

More personal attacks because i hold a different opinion on a drama. Color me shocked.

Him 70%, her 30%

If this is what you surmise of me from this, you are mistaken. I am not a BaiLu fan. I fuckin hated her in Love Is Sweet, and thought she was good but miscast in TTEOTM. She was perfect in SoKP, she was right for that part.

The way I feel about her is much like how I feel about LuSi. I hated her in Tiger and Rose, tolerated her in Long Ballad, and loved her in Hidden Love, where she just slayed that role.

I dont play teams or have fan feelings about anyone except maybe Ling He. Maybe. But no, i'm not any sort of fanatic.

Finished it finally.
What I hated about it:

Story is standard boilerplate formulaic story that followed a predictable, tired template: Three FLs are besties, who each have relationship challenges that are eventually resolved. FL has the girl-next door type of romance with an ML she serendipitously met several times in her past. 2FL has a "life in the fast lane" and has to reconcile casual relationships with need for security. 3FL has the spunky lighthearted innocent silly romance story. All get HEs. FL has to gain acceptance from MLs megawealthy family.

Since all this territory has been covered a million times by other dramas, what makes this one different, creative, or fresh? Not much.

Direction was uninspired. OST was god-awful, repetitive, and too loud compared to the dialogue volume. BGM added a cheesy element to it that imo brought the show down, and trivialized some scenes. And just in general there were many instances of painful cringe. Like taking an unleashed cat to a park and slapping a party hat on his head and the cat just sits there nicely on the blanket. I have never once met a cat who will do this. Or the little pucker-kiss while hes covered in shaving foam. Little cringefests like this pepper the drama.

He seems like what I thought an ideal ML would be when I was in my teens.... babyfaced, formidable in business, rich, chef-level cook, expensive spartan tastes, soft and innocent on the inside, never had a previous love interest, acts as her guide and mentor, genius level smart, whose only flaw is emotional repression which she cures him of.

The whole story is clean, neat, innocent, and contrived. The humor is all very lowkey. Much of the acting is mediocre. The pacing unbelievably slow.

What I liked:

2FL and 3MLs mom gave stellar performances. FL gave a "good" performance. Not great but better than average. Business plot was more engaging than most business plots ive seen, you follow her growth as a businesswoman and it was not as snoozy as i was expecting. Storyline comes together nicely towards the end.

Now heres what im really going to get clobbered for by fans: Kai is so megahottttt that I want him to be an excellent actor. I am rooting for him and his career as an actor. I have seen times in other dramas where his acting transcends. But this was not a role where his acting shined. He plays a straight-man, and hes just not emotive enough to pull it off. Instead of looking subtle, it just looks cardboardey and flat. I am not convinced in his love for the FL. I dont sense any sexual chemistry between them, just a platonic sweet "buddy" vibe. I dont see a lot of depth of emotion in his performance, although he is a good onscreen cryer, and his crying scenes are good.

Im giving this one a 6.5 for effort and for 2FLs incredible performance, which to me was the main highlight of the drama.

I am commenting just to express what I thought so others deciding if they want to pick this up can see alternate opinions. Megafans who take this as an invitation to bully me can step off. I dont mind discussing various aspects of the drama, but Im not submitting to a struggle session with any fascists who think my wrongthink needs to be punished with ridicule and shaming just because I dont have the "right" opinion.

Kavvy, can you point out what i have said that led you to believe "i cant digest that this drama is doing well"? I dont mind what others think of this show. But you do.

And its BaiLu, not Bailey, aiya..... who even is bailey.

All you have to do to test your theory is compare it to my watchlist. Do I not appreciate actresses who are not BaiLu? Do I appreciate dramas outside my preferred genre? Just check my watchlist. As far as getting paid.... as I am a gainfully employed individual, i do indeed get paid.... but not for what i say on mdl. :P

I just dont get why my opinion is enough to cause you to engage in personal attacks and calling my character into question, simply because my views dont fall in line with yours. THAT is whats not cool.

Oh yes, if you were to say "i have a captive here, just wondering what shows i can use for psychological torture', i know exactly what are the worst shows on earth to inflict maximum pain.

In case anyone wants to know, maximum torture level is Neil Diamond's movie "The Jazz Singer". Just sayin.

Wholesome, inspiring, and fun to watch = yes. This is the kind of description that would have warned me sufficiently that it wasnt gonna be my bag. I'd also add "heartwarming". I'm allergic to things that are 'heartwarming', except for my cat. My cat is very heartwarming and I adore him. But when it comes to dramas, the last thing I want to watch is 'a heartwarming tale of wholesome inspiration'.

Mainly I ask myself things like "I wonder when the next totally batshit insane hot scandalous toxic mess c-drama will be out, and i wonder if itll be any good."

Yes, but not as well done as this one. Other ones that remind me of it from the business angle:

Love Is Sweet - Very similar in many aspects, romance side too. Also has higher than usual production value, similar pacing. Slightly more comedy in LIS... and LIS has one of the best kiss scenes Ive ever seen.

Search: WWW - about clever businesswomen with mature relationships, slightly tamer romance and kiss scenes.

Fake It Til You Make It - Similar tone of romance and the ML and FL characters. Similar business themed and intelligent. Similar pacing. Romance was hotter in FITYM, chemistry was subtle, but also super fiery.

Special mention---> My Divine Emissary - Not about business,also not urban..... but has intellectually interesting problems that the FL solves through cleverness, combined with a romance thats more "heartwarming" and tame, so i'd think it might make a good recc for someone who liked the actual story of ABAY.

AbAY is the best i've seen as far as just viewed purely as a business story.

I think i'd advise people that its very tame, very fluffy, and more of a formulaic, conventional modern ceo romance, as green flag as it gets, doenst throw a lot of twists at the viewer, the bgm/ost is heavy-handed, its "cutsey", and theres many instances of harsh backlighting. The chemistry is very domesticated, this isnt a scorching romance, its more of a warm soft gentle romance. Theres very little spice content, kiss scenes arent a main highlight of the romance. The stories are "heartwarming". The pacing is comfortable yet SLOWWWW. Lots of basically empty minutes of screentime. Its not bad pacing by any means, its just really really slow.

This one is for green flag "cute" lovers who want something more innocent, people who like empowered FLs, lovers of the ceo romance subgenre, something kind of hallmark-esque.

Stuff like that would warn me off so i'd know what i was signing up for.

I like speed metal, vampires, HOTTT kisses and red flag MLs. So this was like the opposite of my type of drama. I still like stuff outside my preferred genre, im just pickier about it though.

I watch as much stuff as i can. I like having a large background of shows under my belt and watching different peoples careers evolve and change. I like being able to watch dramas with a good perspective of what there is out there. Like watching every version of Hana Yori Dango or A Million Stars Falling From The Sky or watching classics with terrible endings. I watch a lot of stuff. Its something I like to do. Once Im finished with this, I will enjoy the fact that "yes Ive seen that". Even if it sucks while Im watching it. When Im done I will be happy to have completed it.

Im automatically going to rate it at least at a minimum of 5, because

A) it didnt put me to sleep even once, thats one thing I can say for it.

B) A few of the actors gave excellent performances.

C) I didnt get so annoyed with the dubbing that i watched the whole thing on mute... which for a few dramas Ive done.

Whats the facetiousness for I wonder...?

After i finish 2morrow, ill get more into it. Some of my SoKP friends reccd this thinking i would maybe like it too, theyll probably be surprised i didnt like it and want to know why as well.

Ive seen about 350 dramas, have dropped maybe a dozen or two in all that time. I just like seeing and knowing about as much as i can. I like watching actors' careers, watching what different directors and screenwriters bring to the picture with each project. There can be good aspects or good lines or scenes buried in even the worst dramas sometimes. Sometimes a good/creative ending can turn a bad drama into a decent one. It just depends. I like to keep an open mind as i watch things.

Anyone with a few brain cells to rub together can see what yall are doing. People who bully others always hate to be called out on it. But there is no reason to pile on someones free opinion of a show and call into question that persons character or the validity of their opinion just because you dont agree. Another option is to just leave the opinion be. Or to be polite or neutral when seeking to engage thatbperson further. Neither of which is what is happening here. You are trying to employ peer pressure, ridicule, shaming, and character assasination to invalidate my opinion, and i dont really understand why. Because if you try so hard to crowd out alternative opinions, people like me will read comments and reviews and think it must be a good show.... but yhen watch it and get dissappointed and rate low, dropping the mdl score.

My fave is SoKP, and us SoKP fans do the opposite, we try to warn people of the shows drawbacks so people know ahead of time whether its their cup of tea or not. That preserves the MDL rating because people who wouldnt like it know to take a pass on it. When people say they hated it, we leave their opinion alone, we dont pile on for a big struggle session like whats happening up in here.

You say you just want to know why id watch something im not liking (which i explained twice). But right below me, there are interactions where someone who didnt complete the drama says they dont like it, and they catching shit for having an opinion about something they didnt finish. So apparently youre damned if you do and damned if you dont. 😜

I tend to finish things. I try not to drop stuff, thats just how i am.

I like to be a well-versed drama watcher. If i hsd time id watch every drama there is, thats just my way. Some are good, some are bad, and some are good-bad. To be fair, im a hard rater, i dislike about a third of the dramas i watch. But thats no reason to me, not to watch something and give it a fair shot. Even bad dramas can have gold in them. You never know unless ypu watch it. Im a huge drama/movie buff, i watch bad shows all the time.

Likewise sometimes i wonder if fake accts get paid to shill. But in this case, no, im just a regular person who extremely disliked a drama and am voicing that opinion. I keep watching because in order to have a valid fully formed opinion of a drama, you have to actually watch it all the way through. Regardless of if i like a drama, i rarely drop. Thats just how i watch shows. Some dramas start out not great but then surprise you. This one was not one of those for me. I'll finish it before i articulate why i hated it.... but you dont have to read any of it or agree. I dont comment just to figjt over something so useless to fight sbout. Might as well fight over whether chocolate ice cream is better than vanilla. Its a pointless argument. But i dont let people bully me without pushback. Bullying is not ok.