Mom, Don't Do That! (2022)

Not entirely a sexy romantic romp

WARNING: If you are looking for a light and fluffy sex-romp. THIS IS NOT IT.

I admit, I can be shallow. I came here at the prospect of seeing "more" of Chris Wu (Wu Kang Ren). Also, because I love Alice Ko (Ko Chia Yen). I must admit I do like the prospect of finding love later in life. And sure, this is a show about sex, and it IS hilarious, all the way through. BUT don't be taken in by the trailers: the very clear themes of this show, are loss, abandonment, grief and trauma, and as the episodes progress, if you invest, you will find yourself crying as much as laughing.

The story centres around Mei-Mei and her two adult daughters, Ruo-Rong and Ruo-Min. Both daughters are seemingly failing in their lives, because they are unmarried. And as the trailer will tell you, Mei-Mei believes marriage is a woman's purpose.

Mei-Mei decides to find a man to try to fill the gap left by the sudden passing of her husband Guang Hui Chen (played by Johnny Kou/Kou Hsi Shun). Ruo-Rong is a cheap romance novelist, working as a high school teacher, to pay the bills, whilst collecting stories from her uninhibited best friend, Kate (played by Vicky Tseng). Ruo-Min is a chicken shop manager, who is unable to let go of anything from the past, including an unapologetically cheating ex-boyfriend, whose smell reminds her of her father. Circumstances bring the three women together in the one house. Chaos ensues as they try to find a balance between their differing values, and their individual traumas.

The editing of the show is very sharp and sudden, and at first can be off-putting and confusing; however it becomes evident in later episodes that it was done this way for a reason. It also contributes to the sense of confusion and bewilderment the characters are experiencing, after the sudden loss of their husband/father.

Mei-Mei swings from spoiled teenage princess (quite a feat for an older woman to pull off - props to Billie who plays it with conviction), to desperately grieving widow. But as the show progresses, it shows us who she truly is - loving, supportive and desperately optimistic in her pursuit of LIFE! And with her progression, we also witness the subtle growth of both of her daughters.

Alyssa Chia plays a compellingly complex Ru Rong but I can't say I was satisfied with her conclusion, even if I'm meant to believe that she was, and even if the whole "telling" of the story is essentially hers. And whilst we do see substantial growth from Ruo Min, played with beautiful subtlety by Alice Ko, I still felt like I had to fill in the majority of the story with my own imagination. Admittedly, I usually like shows like this - that assume you are smart and can figure the story out for yourself. But this time, for me, the characters were not explored enough. I was left wanting more, hence my lower "story' rating. The show admits to its limitations in telling the stories of the support roles - especially Xioa Cha , Ruo-Min's cheating boyfriend, played with gleeful charm, by Austin Lin. We get almost nothing about the true character played by Chris Wu. The lack of character name in the MDL page is a giveaway, but he is only ever referred to as '"Senior". I could have watched a whole drama about Jin (Shen Hairong) and Lu Yi (Wasir Chou). And don't get me started about the side characters like "The Live Streamer" (played with an endlessly photo ready smile, by Chole Xiang) and "The Pokemon Grandpa". All of this makes the "re-watch" value high for me, as I feel like there is so much subtlety I have missed.

The acting was fantastic. Even when there was potential for it to become pantomimic and melodramatic, it continued to be very realistic. My one area of disconnect was, the scenes in Australia. Robert's (played by John Henry Richardson) accent slips. A LOT. But we (being Australian) have a long and storied history of famous actors, getting the Australian accent WRONG. The supporting cast in Oz, don't even attempt an 'Aussie' accent. But if you accept that Australia is in reality multicultural, varied accents are perfectly ok and quite realistic. The travel scenes however, are HILARIOUSLY unrealistic. I took it as a tribute rather than an attempt at fact.

With all of that, I still rate this a 9 overall. It took me by surprise and probably caught me at a good time, to cry and laugh through the grief and mayhem.

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A Delightful Yet Annoying MESS...

When something is this all over the place, I find I have to use bullets instead of having a way to tie it all together.

1. All the cutesy cartoon sounds? Makes the series almost unwatchable for someone over 12.

2. This is a series about a 60 year old Mom finding her 'groove thing' before her weird daughters do. What 12 year old would watch such a series? I know a 15 year old that was charmed by this (she recommended to me) but she didn't get deep enough into the series to realize it has adult themes that don't gel with video game notions.

3. Although each episode was about an hour -- they were tedious. Some episodes you'd watch a big bunch of twists and then wonder, this episode is almost over, right -- ONLY TO FIND OUT -- you weren't even at the halfway point yet. The pacing was painful.

4. The cast is fantastic. You soon love the leads and boyfriends in almost no time. If it wasn't for this I'd have ditched on Episode 3. Kudos to Mom with all her crazy energy, the youngest daughter who was forever stuck in 'whatever', and the eldest daughter dancing between boring fact and fabulous fiction. Also -- Mr. Perfect with a picture of himself on his wall was the best surprise comic relief ever.

5. The show was exploding with some great ideas but failed to deliver half of them. It was like a writer/director who wanted to do 80 episodes but was forced to do 11. Both in a good and bad way. As entertaining as it is exhausting.

6. I technically haven't finished it and soon will watch the final episode -- but if it's the best thing on Planet Earth it won't fix the previous 10 Episodes, no way. The best way to consider this series is 11 episodes in between some brutally long Imperial Dramas. An odd unique pit stop. Or skip it. It depends how much you like the first two episodes.

This final note is kind of a spoiler. But since it's the oldest and dumbest trick in the book, it lacks any real surprise quality.

7. As a screenwriter myself, there's a terrible horrible relentless cliche in some stories I call WRITERS WRITING ABOUT WRITING. Once you catch onto it -- you're going to see it everywhere.

If the lead story is a writer -- think of who came up with this idea: a writer. Now, what does that tell you about this person's creativity level? Nothing, right? The best they could manage is sticking themselves into the story? It's as sad as it is common.

But what's the harm in that, you ask? Writers, especially young writers, are unsuccessful and insecure. But the writer in their story? SPOILER: confident and successful. Never fails. It's annoying to watch a writer tribute their story to themselves. The point of a story is engage all of us, not to force people to like your character (which is you) as a writer. Painful.

When writing about writing gets really bad -- the story you are watching becomes the lead character's novel or screenplay at the end of it. Did you catch what that trick does? Again: it's the writer saying the story you just watched is SO good that some talented writer in a movie would write a novel about it.

I originally gave this thing a 6. But when these cliches sunk in I changed it to a 5.

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