This review may contain spoilers
A comedy worth its name
So to start, I want to say, do not take this one seriously. At least in the beginning, it is very clear that this is a comedy and the show doesn't even take itself seriously initially. But it is hilarious. I mean I probably missed a lot of the easter eggs, but the ones I caught, referencing other shows, had me cackling. It's essentially a commentary on all these other popular dramas, and what sells with the audience.Eventually, the show does get a bit more serious, and the vibe becomes less comedy and more drama, but I still enjoyed it because by then, I was fully invested in the characters.
Story:
The story surrounds the lead actress of the FL in a cringy/bad drama series. After reading the screenplay pages, she gets thrown into the story, and quickly determines that to navigate and survive in the story where her character is murdered and mutilated by the ML, that she needs to either marry the SML and/or kill the ML.
This unfortunately is very hard to do as she can't completely defy the story line, and she loses her free will in critical moments. But she's not the only one. The ML also realizes that he can't control himself around her, and believes she put some sort of spell on him, making him follow one of the main cardinal rules in the show : "The ML must always save the FML when she's in danger." He really puts himself through it as he tries multiple ways to kill her to free himself from the 'spell'.
Enter ML's alter ego LSL, which everyone in the audience knew was the ML except FML was oblivious, forgetting the one cardinal rule of dramas is that if there's a cool mysterious bada** character with a secret army and a mask, he's probably the ML in disguise. He saves her from his own assassination attempt, and quickly earns FML's trust. And in doing so, also her wish to hire him/cooperate with him to assassinate the ML. It's hilarious. One of my biggest regrets is that the alter ego LSL doesn't appear again after the reveal. He had strong aura in that costume.
ML despite his character origin, falls in love with FML and begins to defy the script and his fate to kill her and betray her and later mutuliate her. (Which wow what a concept screenwriter, like seriously how would that story line have been popular with an audience -- even the tsundere male leads are facing backlash these days and you just want to write this guy as a complete psycho). Eventually, as a result, it seems that all these horrible character traits of his are then passed onto the SML who needs to take up the mantle as the villain (which makes more sense, and was done quite well in my opinion).
FML and ML have a rollercoaster of a romance, mostly surrounding her inability to trust him because she knows his story line, and is biased against him, and his lack of communication about his plans, which to be honest, she wouldn't believe anyway because she doesn't trust him - which is valid, but still so frustrating.
But eventually they get it right and get together for a happy ending.
Characters/Acting:
FML: honestly she did amazing. I was very frustrated with her character sometimes, but I could still appreciate the nuances and her motivations. The actress did an amazing job portraying an actress pretending to be a character while also falling in love and caring about the people in the story. Honestly, in some scenes she gave a strong Bai Lu aura (and they do look pretty similar), and I thought she did a great job.
ML: basically. wow. Always a fan, no notes. Just watch him. I'm gonna watch it again later. Because wow. Appreciated. I think this is his best drama yet honestly.
Remaining actors and characters: the cast was great. They all did a wonderful job with their characters. I think they did great by way of chemistry and clearly appreciated their characters.
Music: beautiful, and hilarious. Those songs are so funny. Just read the lyrics to some of them, kills me.
Rewatch value: I can't decide to start another drama now and rewatch it later, or rewatch it now. It's so hard to decide. But yes 10/10 rewatch value.
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