273
645
135
11
13
14
12
3
10
32
6
14
1
2
17
25
1
8
5
2
4
2
2
4
7
1
2
4
7
18
18
35
When the jokes land but the feelings don’t.
How Dare You was so high on the entertainment value side, it kind of lost me on the emotional impact it could have potentially have. The comedy was easily the highlight of the whole drama, they did pretty good job with the romance (be warned, it is rather slow burn in terms of developing feelings and figuring them out), but with how much the characters had to go through it felt somehow emotionally empty.
Out of the two leads, I do believe Wang Cui Hua’s story was better written and delivered, mostly because it was far more simple, less impactful and with that, blended better into the overall silliness of the tone. Not to say the whole drama was completely emotionally flat, because that’s not true. One of the aspects I loved about it was the internal conflict the female lead had between knowing she is in a fictional world and nothing is real, and feeling emotionally connected and caring for the characters she interacted with, since they did feel real to her. I appreciated how we slowly witnessed the shift in her thinking and how far she is willing to go and use “people” around her, the longer she stayed in that story.
With that, I feel like overall the women were treated better here in terms of writing and development. Xie Yong Er became my favorite character of them all. The best character development and surprisingly consistent writing (with one “small” hiccup). Not gonna lie, there were moments when I wished she was the lead and her story was the center of it all. Maybe because her stakes felt higher than Wang Cui Hua and her plotline had more ups and downs, I was more invested.
As for male lead - his set up would fit better into a show without the “comedy” genre. It was way too traumatic and tragic for the “entertaining idiocy” here, it actually made me feel uncomfortable a few times. Mostly because many things that were extremely serious were shown as a background drop never to be fully addressed nor explored. Maybe I’m just a watcher that focuses and connects to characters too much, sometimes it overshadows the plot for me, but the constant sadness behind his eyes and the lack of proper elaboration on the source of it took away from the fun and comedy that the drama centered around. Still, this is for sure the best role I have seen Cheng Lei in - sad, tragic, silly, fun, sexy, domineering, soft, caring, unhinged, the role truly expected him to deliver everything, and everything he delivered.
Then we have the menace in two personas - Xiahou Bo and Empress Dowager aka probably the weakest part of the writing. Did they feel like a threat? Not really. Rather than being scared for the leads life and well-being, I felt more annoyed with the background shenanigans. At least Mommy Dearest was consistently stupid, but Xiahou Bo was turning his brain on and off whenever the plot needed it.
What was good though, was the supporting cast. The small support system the leads had gave a good feeling of found family trope. While I did not find the stakes concerning leads high, the supporting cast for sure gave me more anxiety about their well-being.
Plot wise, big props for making me question everything in terms of “who is whom, how much they know, and what reality are they from”. It was well crafted confusion and I appreciate that.
Sadly, I struggle with deciding how much of a silliness and illogical things and lack of explanation, convenient twists I can excuse by the plot happening in the trash cheap poorly written novel (as stated by the leads themselves). This seems a bit too much like a cope for me. “This smart character acted dumb this one time, because the writer of the original novel is dumb” is not exactly an excuse I can just accept and move on.
The music was great, but sometimes the placement was questionable. Why are we getting badass fight music during sad and emotional scenes?
Production was great, though for once I wish it was more simple especially in the make up department. Wang Chu Ran’s face was whiter than my white walls.
Overall, it was a fun watch, but I just wish it was more emotionally impactful.
And that ending was awfully crafted.
Out of the two leads, I do believe Wang Cui Hua’s story was better written and delivered, mostly because it was far more simple, less impactful and with that, blended better into the overall silliness of the tone. Not to say the whole drama was completely emotionally flat, because that’s not true. One of the aspects I loved about it was the internal conflict the female lead had between knowing she is in a fictional world and nothing is real, and feeling emotionally connected and caring for the characters she interacted with, since they did feel real to her. I appreciated how we slowly witnessed the shift in her thinking and how far she is willing to go and use “people” around her, the longer she stayed in that story.
With that, I feel like overall the women were treated better here in terms of writing and development. Xie Yong Er became my favorite character of them all. The best character development and surprisingly consistent writing (with one “small” hiccup). Not gonna lie, there were moments when I wished she was the lead and her story was the center of it all. Maybe because her stakes felt higher than Wang Cui Hua and her plotline had more ups and downs, I was more invested.
As for male lead - his set up would fit better into a show without the “comedy” genre. It was way too traumatic and tragic for the “entertaining idiocy” here, it actually made me feel uncomfortable a few times. Mostly because many things that were extremely serious were shown as a background drop never to be fully addressed nor explored. Maybe I’m just a watcher that focuses and connects to characters too much, sometimes it overshadows the plot for me, but the constant sadness behind his eyes and the lack of proper elaboration on the source of it took away from the fun and comedy that the drama centered around. Still, this is for sure the best role I have seen Cheng Lei in - sad, tragic, silly, fun, sexy, domineering, soft, caring, unhinged, the role truly expected him to deliver everything, and everything he delivered.
Then we have the menace in two personas - Xiahou Bo and Empress Dowager aka probably the weakest part of the writing. Did they feel like a threat? Not really. Rather than being scared for the leads life and well-being, I felt more annoyed with the background shenanigans. At least Mommy Dearest was consistently stupid, but Xiahou Bo was turning his brain on and off whenever the plot needed it.
What was good though, was the supporting cast. The small support system the leads had gave a good feeling of found family trope. While I did not find the stakes concerning leads high, the supporting cast for sure gave me more anxiety about their well-being.
Plot wise, big props for making me question everything in terms of “who is whom, how much they know, and what reality are they from”. It was well crafted confusion and I appreciate that.
Sadly, I struggle with deciding how much of a silliness and illogical things and lack of explanation, convenient twists I can excuse by the plot happening in the trash cheap poorly written novel (as stated by the leads themselves). This seems a bit too much like a cope for me. “This smart character acted dumb this one time, because the writer of the original novel is dumb” is not exactly an excuse I can just accept and move on.
The music was great, but sometimes the placement was questionable. Why are we getting badass fight music during sad and emotional scenes?
Production was great, though for once I wish it was more simple especially in the make up department. Wang Chu Ran’s face was whiter than my white walls.
Overall, it was a fun watch, but I just wish it was more emotionally impactful.
And that ending was awfully crafted.
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