Performative and lame
Halfway through episode 8, and I decided to drop the show. I really love Esther a lot, and don’t mind her cute characters at all, BUT even if she is supposed to be 19 in the show… some of the things Jiang Mu does to get close to Jin Zhao are too much for me. It’s a little cute at first, but after a while it’s just annoying. The people who say, “Well, that’s how it’s written!”, … you need higher standards, because Jiang Mu is borderline infantilizing herself, and it’s just not that cute to be honest! (And just because it's written that way, doesn't mean that it's good!) Also, sometimes the styling is too cutesy, Esther is a gorgeous, gorgeous woman, but she does not pass as 19, so some of the hairstyles and clothing just look a little too young on her.
While I really do like the cinematography, the OST, and the use of colors to help with storytelling, I just… don’t feel the vibes at all. This show feels so performative, every shot is meant to make everyone look cool, hot, and sexy—but in a way that feels disingenuous and fake. Like, you can tell that this is a show and that their actions are being directed and filmed, it’s not immersive at all. Also, it’s corny as hell: “I hate cream the most”… girl. WHO put that in the script!? The fight and race scenes are cool, but at the same time… eh, I don’t know. Since everyone is acting so “cool”, it ends up looking lame as hell to me. This feels like a really badly done web drama with a run-time of 5 minutes per episode. Some of the characters feel like caricatures, i.e., Wan Qing, the “baddie” girl bullying people, but lowkey just ends up looking embarrassing and desperate; Jin Zhao, the bad boy with a soft heart; the racer dudes … Lin Sui and Liang Yan Feng, who act and look like wannabe posers; Na Na… I don’t know, she’s just weird AND her advice sucks; the step-“mom” is also weird, I don’t like her (sorry, this just turned into a rant!🤭) It’s the end of the year, and I just don’t have the will or patience to dedicate my time to something half-baked and performative like this show. It’s good when you want to turn your brain off for a little, but it’s just too corny to withstand for me right now. Bummer.
While I really do like the cinematography, the OST, and the use of colors to help with storytelling, I just… don’t feel the vibes at all. This show feels so performative, every shot is meant to make everyone look cool, hot, and sexy—but in a way that feels disingenuous and fake. Like, you can tell that this is a show and that their actions are being directed and filmed, it’s not immersive at all. Also, it’s corny as hell: “I hate cream the most”… girl. WHO put that in the script!? The fight and race scenes are cool, but at the same time… eh, I don’t know. Since everyone is acting so “cool”, it ends up looking lame as hell to me. This feels like a really badly done web drama with a run-time of 5 minutes per episode. Some of the characters feel like caricatures, i.e., Wan Qing, the “baddie” girl bullying people, but lowkey just ends up looking embarrassing and desperate; Jin Zhao, the bad boy with a soft heart; the racer dudes … Lin Sui and Liang Yan Feng, who act and look like wannabe posers; Na Na… I don’t know, she’s just weird AND her advice sucks; the step-“mom” is also weird, I don’t like her (sorry, this just turned into a rant!🤭) It’s the end of the year, and I just don’t have the will or patience to dedicate my time to something half-baked and performative like this show. It’s good when you want to turn your brain off for a little, but it’s just too corny to withstand for me right now. Bummer.
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