Reviews

a mystery done just right

Episode 21 resolved most of the mysteries, and with that warm hug, it definitely made me give this drama a solid 10/10. While watching, I initially really wanted Xiaoyan to return to her own world. But then I started worrying: what if the Xiaoyan of this world comes back, and Qi Lian ends up falling for both of them? The thought of him loving two different people genuinely bothered me, but then the truth was finally revealed. Even though that truth was tragic for Xiaoyan, it made total sense for the plot and served as an exceptionally well-crafted detail.

I absolutely love the mystery in this drama. Right now, on episode 22, I’m wondering if Qi Lian was also in the capsule—is that why he is the only one who remembers his friend Xu? Even so, I’m sure the show will continue to surprise me in completely unexpected ways. Even when things I anticipated happened, the execution still managed to blow me away.

In episode 23, Qi Lian’s jealousy scenes added a nice, lighthearted touch to soften the mood. Honestly, if it weren't for the dynamic of the trio friendship group, I definitely would have deducted a few points.
The reason I deducted points for the acting is that Lin Yi's performance in quieter, calmer scenes sometimes feels quite lifeless to me. As for my rewatch value rating, I initially gave it that score thinking I’d only come back to revisit specific scenes whenever I missed them. But on second thought, whenever I crave a great mystery, this is definitely a drama that easily pulls you in from start to finish. I changed my mind!—rewatch value is a solid 10/10.
Also, the trio's hangout scenes in the recent episodes really reminded me of the Korean drama Goblin.
I usually don't like time travel dramas, but I really enjoyed this one. Also, since I started the show without expecting any romance, I can say I found exactly what I needed. There was just enough romance to soften the suspenseful tone with sweet, gentle hugs—which is honestly my favorite kind of romance in dramas.

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Come for the Romance, Stay for the Friendship

It was such a sweet, comforting drama, and I think the biggest thing before starting it is simply knowing what you’re signing up for. I went into it with the right expectations, and that definitely helped me enjoy it much more.

Despite the title, I wouldn’t really call this a romance-focused drama. Yes, there is romance, but the real focus is friendship, growing up, support, family, and eventually falling in love with your best friend. It has that When I Fly Towards You kind of vibe where you can clearly tell someone has feelings, but those feelings are shown through actions and little moments rather than immediate confessions.

The romance is also VERY slow burn. The main couple doesn’t properly get together until quite late, so if you’re watching purely for romance, you might be disappointed. But when they finally did get together, I genuinely felt robbed because their chemistry as an actual couple was SO GOOD. We only got around three episodes of them together, and their scenes made me wish we had gotten so much more.

What really made the drama for me was the friendship group. I love a good friendship group, and theirs was beautiful. The female lead starts as someone who has struggled to make friends and eventually finds this solid group of people who stay by her side throughout the years. I especially appreciated that the writers didn’t constantly create unnecessary conflict between them just to manufacture drama. They genuinely cared about and supported one another, and every actor had great chemistry with the rest of the group.

The casting in general was really good. Everyone suited their character, and I loved how different their personalities were—from the incredibly intelligent but shy and socially awkward characters to the quieter “I’ll protect you without saying much” types. The acting felt natural, and everyone worked really well together.

But one of my absolute favorite parts was actually the brother-sister relationship. Their dynamic was so good. The actor playing the brother was incredibly charismatic, and I loved that he wasn’t just “the brother” existing outside the story—he was genuinely part of the friendship group. Seeing the female lead surrounded by her brother and this whole group of people who had her back was probably one of the most comforting parts of the drama.

I also thought all the couples were matched really well, but I have to give a special mention to Lei Weiming, because this man has been having a ROUGH year as a second male lead. He was genuinely one of my favorite second male leads I’ve watched. I loved his relationship with the female lead, but even more than that, I loved his friendship and dynamic with the male lead. He never became bitter or evil simply because he didn’t get the girl. He knew when to let go, and I really respected how his character was handled.

His storyline with his patient was also probably the most heartbreaking part of the drama. I was genuinely rooting for them, and it hurt that almost everyone else got their happy ending except him. He didn’t get the first girl, and then he couldn’t get his happy ending with the other girl either. Their storyline was beautiful but genuinely sad, and I really wish the drama had given him some happiness too.

Another thing I appreciated was the lack of ridiculous, unnecessary drama. Even when the male lead disappeared, which easily could have become one of those separation tropes that drives me insane, I actually understood it. I understood why he left, but I also completely understood why she was angry with him. Neither character felt unreasonable, so the conflict worked for me rather than feeling like something the writers threw in just to separate them.

The weakest part for me was probably their adult work/career storylines. Once everyone started moving into their careers, I honestly wasn’t very interested. Every character had their own future and professional path, but that part of the story just didn’t grab me, so I skipped through quite a bit of it.

The styling was cute but nothing particularly memorable. Although I do need to mention the male lead’s hair journey because that man went through approximately five hairstyles before they finally found the one that actually looked best on him at the END of the drama. Questionable decisions were made.

What I really loved, though, was how the drama wrapped everything up. The ending didn’t only focus on the main couple; it gave the entire cast a sense of closure. Everyone got their moment to say goodbye, and having them return to their high school uniforms at the end felt like such a fitting way to close the story. Because ultimately, that’s what Genius Girlfriend was about: a group of people meeting when they were young, becoming each other’s family, growing up together, falling in love, finding their paths, and carrying those relationships into adulthood.

Is it groundbreaking? No. The tropes aren’t anything particularly new, and I wouldn’t call it one of the greatest dramas I’ve ever watched. But it doesn’t need to be. It succeeds at being exactly what it wants to be: simple, soft, cozy, comforting, and genuinely enjoyable.

It’s the kind of drama you watch and just feel happy.

If you want heavy romance, this probably isn’t for you. But if you enjoy coming-of-age stories, strong friendship groups, found family, slow-burn romance, and comforting slice-of-life dramas, I would definitely recommend giving it a chance.

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Must Watch

Honestly I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.

Today I went on a Short BL Drama streak and that was the very best I saw.

The story was great, acting was amazing. And despite the short format, I was able to find the characters quite endearing, including some side characters we often see.

There's one thing stopping me from giving it a ten (spoiler coming in)

is the fact that JY was shown as straight and somehow falls for Doha. While bisexual people exist, the way it was portrayed was like "Oh if you're hesitating with your feelings, it means that you like him" which is just not that easy.

Maybe under a longer format, we could have had better hints at JY's interest being more than just friendship or that he had a girlfriend and a boyfriend (or a male crush) in the past which would better the couple forming.

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Take a deep breath, let the delish toxic-love fumes permeate you, its time to get seduced!!!

Damn the high of this series hits you right from the start!!! The delish, toxic, red-flagey and scintillating chemistry ... the push-me-pull-me angst....and the insane face cards...Woooooof!!!

A tough undercover cop getting into a 'no-one-must-know' lust-love entanglement with young CEO who seems all shades of doubt, dark, and irresistible charm....with enough elements for conspiracies, scheming family members, big-company board politics, guns, blood, lust and angst-driven love....damn are we done for!!

This lands up right at the top of my watching-now list

Verdict: YESSSSSS!!! Watch!!!

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A hidden gem

Amidst a wave of BLs that feel increasingly repetitive and obvious, The Boy and I surprises with a mature narrative that deviates from expectations.

Japanese series have an incredible ability to turn everyday themes into sensitive works with an impressive script.

I love the device they use in the first episode; the documentary style works really well and creates a unique edge compared to what we usually see. And then, the series surprises us, breaking the narrative into a construction that is sometimes slow, sometimes surprising, and sometimes melancholic.
The characters are very well-developed, and right up to the final scene, the series has something to say. The ending might disappoint, and honestly, at times we really root for them to end up together.

But the message here is more realistic, rawer, and yet, it manages to be beautiful and full of subtleties.

I wouldn't complain about a second season showing them together again. Without a doubt, it leaves you wanting more.

Definitely deserves more recognition.

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Bittersweet Love review

In a world full of over-sweetened romances, this series stands out in its somewhat ’90s brutality.
...
One more thing I must really appreciate. Actors have a particular problem with this, especially when they are so-called established actors. There are these moments where there is nothing prescribed for a character to do, think, or feel. So they are standing there as a person, not as the character. Here, with Guan Yue especially, but really with both actors, we can see that even when he leaves after a hug, in those milliseconds, in those unscripted steps, he is still being the character. Fan Fan’s mind is still running through his eyes and actions.

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The drama had potential, but it feels bland & neutered.

Every year I'm worried that tightening censorship & by association genre specific mandatory content will permanently prevent me from enjoying new cdramas. While hopefully we are not quite there yet, to me it feels like Genius Girlfriend is skirting that line. There is so much educational content & social engineering in this show that it's crazy. I think the first 18 high school episodes are largely poisoned by this & were barely enjoyable to me. It's not just the endless messaging about what high school students should be doing / focusing on, but also the entire setting feels super fake, written -or perhaps rather rewritten- by adults that have long forgotten what their high school life had been like. I'm okay with an unrealistic fantasy high school setting, but the fun police hit these kids a wee bit too hard & they were not really allowed to do anything other than the one off forming of a temporary band called Class Break of all things.

17 out of 28 episodes are depicting the high school era, so I'll keep referring to this as a high school cdrama. It's technically only 60% of the show, but there are flashbacks & the adult life is also based on the high school friend group. Though it's certainly one positive aspect of the drama that we left the teen years behind earlier than average in this genre.

It's rare that the ML is the dumber, less assertive one in a high school setting, despite all the negative sentiments that can be found in this overly verbose review, this makes me curious about the novel.

Unlike in most prior high school cdramas I've seen, there is basically no romance in the high school era. The boys have crushes & their own small rivalries, but there is no slow burn, since there is no burn at all. It's friends forever spam until the time skip, not even mutual attraction is allowed now I suppose. Romance is not mandatory in a drama's high school part, I get that, it's just super unrealistic that the girls wouldn't even have crushes that they would've discussed among themselves and let's not forget the title is Genius Girlfriend, not Genius Friend Girl. Nonetheless even if I completely ignored the lack of romance & tried to enjoy bro/sis-mances, it wouldn't be great, since most events & dialog in the high school era were rather bland & filled with educational purpose. Tian Xi Wei's own earlier drama `Lovely Us` is a great example to demonstrate how to make a good vibe drama in a high school setting, or we could look at how much more vibrant & livelier `A Love So Beautiful` is & could come up with at least 10 more examples.

Turns out Hu Yi Tian is too old to pull off a high school tenth / eleventh grader. Not only is this immersion breaking by itself, he also has a lot of awkward body language that makes this even worse.
Anyway mostly the cast is very talented, doing a brilliant job, but it's not quite enough. The sibling

Let me address the adult life part of the show. This by itself in a vacuum would be a solid 8 maybe even 9 out of 10. There are some minor issues here and there, like they wasted an entire epi on the twenty something FL not understanding why her heart is beating so fast in ML's vicinity, which imo is one of the stupidest tropes in Asian dramas, because while sometimes adult women can be unsure about romantic feelings, they are never unsure about being turned on, or being attracted to someone, shocking info I know. FL's post grad? plot is also really weird & filled with propaganda content. I suppose it's important messaging that even geniuses should know their place for the greater good or whatever.
Anyway I went a bit off tangent here, what I really wanted to say is that the adult era is enjoyable to watch. There are many touching scenes & the happy ending is decently long & overall quite well thought out.

Though I have to say I found the Jin Bai Hui X Lin Ze Qiu couple way more interesting than the main one. Of course it's a minor gripe that the toxic parents had a mini redemption scene. Suppose should be at least happy that they were allowed to register their marriage without approval.

Finally let's talk about AI. I'm very pro AI compared to the average population. I think it can be an amazing tool if used well with patience and restraint. In this drama however AI is used really sloppily without any tact. The quality of image / video generation is low, but that could be a budget issue, I'm alright with low quality special effects too, I consider myself very understanding in this regard, but some really awful AI imagery made it into the drama. No self respecting director / producer should have allowed these, since it wouldn't have been difficult to keep prompting for better results. Right away the entire intro is completely AI generated & mostly it's quite fine, but there are two scenes in it that are garbage, one is an abomination featuring LP records & the other is the mechanical device with rotating elements, scary stuff really..

I think 7 out of 10 is fair, though I cannot believe what a bloated review I ended up writing about a 7/10, food for thought, ha!

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Find a man who will slap ghosts for you!

Oh, Arthit, the man that you are!
Fun fact: I was never keen on Arthit in the first series. I found him egotistical and brash. That changed once we saw him fall in love with Daotok. How that sweet boy became Arthit’s entire sun, stars, and universe.
As I said in my Besides the Sky special episode review, I feel blessed that we got one more episode from these wonderful characters. Seeing how much they still love each other and would do anything for the other’s happiness warms my romance-loving heart, because with any wonderful show and excellent characters, I easily get attached.
I loved this special episode – it’s actually my favorite of them all – and I will always think fondly of this world and go back to it for re-watches.

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When a feel-good, wholesome show comes along.

Oh my gosh, my heart is overflowing with how much I enjoyed this show.
It was the perfect amount of feel-good and wholesomeness.

I couldn’t have chosen better actors to portray these roles. I love a great group of friends when it’s shown clearly in every episode, and I truly felt their friendship bond, to the point I wasn’t sure how I’d feel once we moved from the school era, but the show managed to retain those connections between them all.

I don’t get the ML hate I see in comments and reviews. I thought he was the perfect Jiang Yu Bai, who was just always quietly and understated by Lin Zhi Xia’s side, first as her only friend and then as something more. I loved how he looked at her and how diligently he worked on his own. I hated how he missed all those years with his friends through no fault of his own. No other ML could have looked at her the way he does. His love confession was one of the sweetest I’ve ever seen; my heart is still fluttering over it. If I could have these two lead actors in a show together again, I’d be a happy gal. Lin Zhi Xia will be one of my favorite characters.


Jin Bai Hui would have done better cutting ties with her parents altogether. I can’t stand when we’re given demon parents in a show. They’re absolute control freaks, and one little crying scene at the end is supposed to make the viewers think they’ve changed their ways. Hell no. Girl, you’re in for a lifetime of them trying to control your married life! If they can’t see that Lin Ze Qiu is the best man ever for their daughter, it’s their loss! I have to give a special mention to Lin Ze Qiu. He was a fantastic big brother. Every scene he was in just stole my heart. I wish his role had been bigger. (Also loved the Lin parents!)

Oh, Shen Fu Xuan. I loved his arc. (I did not like his grown-up hair, however; he looked like Eddie Munster lol) Though it was obvious he would never be the leading man in Lin Zhi Xia’s life, the scene when he finally let his crush on her go felt bittersweet. But it was even crueller to kill off his little patient. I know not every secondary character needs a romantic ending, but I felt his loss in my heart. What is it about this actor? He’s always playing the unlucky-in-love second ML. For the love of Zeus, please give him a happy leading role so the curse can be broken, lol.

The drawings at the end of each episode were just a lovely finishing touch that truly makes this drama stand out. If you’re searching for a low-angst show, definitely give this a shot (and I’ll say it again, the ML was great in this role! His proposal and love confession are worth the watch; you’ll be swooning your eyes out!)

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No-no-no-no-not bad! (pls pun intended)

It was pretty good! I loved the sibling dynamic (LZQ, the brother you are), and their friendships are genuinely heartwarming. The leads do have chemistry, even if it wasn't full-on fireworks—still completely enjoyable to see them together. Emotional scenes are definitely TXW's forte; she really had me cutting onions over here 😂 When she cries, I cry.

It kind of reminds me of the past. The adolescent years are always bittersweet, with regrets and fond memories completely intertwined. Now that I’m getting older, I understand things better and appreciate the little things more. It makes you want to cherish the time we have left with the people we love before time consumes what's left. Life is a journey, after all.

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Waste of time

Just don't.
The comedy was bare.
The acting wasn't enough to justify watching this.

I felt like I wasted my time. Unsatisfied isn't enough to describe my feelings.

It was a nothing burger. The guardian spirits were truly unneccessary and without them the plot could have worked just as much, if not better - because they're taking over the potential romance itself.

The constant bickering till the very end was irritating, it feels like for every pull there was between the main roles, there were 3 push backs just because.

Save yourself don't watch it unless you're extremely bored.

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