She and Her Perfect Husband (2022)

Wasted Potential: 'She and Her Perfect Husband' Fails to Deliver on Its Promising Premise

"She and Her Perfect Husband" takes skillfully drawn characters and a unique plot premise, assembles them, and leaves the production team in limbo. The plot follows Qin Shi, a young lawyer with the ultimate career drive. She suddenly finds herself in a very difficult situation, a fabricated marriage, caused by her equally well-meaning brother, becomes the cause of the complicated web of lies and misunderstandings. The beginning of the story, although very promising, quickly transforms into a muddled, tangled and frustrating adventure for both, the authors and the readers.

The cast is unquestionably a major strength in this drama. The male lead (ML), who has a notably impressive background in the financial field, seems to have a real star quality about them. This is, however, unnecessary since the script (a frequent setting in the law firm and legal realms) is so densely packed that sometimes characters are left out and the main romance is treated very superficially. Consequently, the one-sidedness of ML and FL is reflected in the audience who sees less of the chemistry and emotional depth that should be given to a drama with such a title.

Forty episodes are way too long for the story of this type. Many of the scenes, particularly ones associated with the law firm, are too complicated and as such, for an ordinary viewer, it becomes a tough nut to crack. This protraction is a major obstacle to the drama's accessibility to a broader audience - it seems to be more tailored to a very exclusive merchant group that is knowledgeable about legal matters.

The drama's storyline linking Qin Shi and Yang Hua, who are supposed to be the centerpiece of the powerful drama, is instead made blurry by the trials and tribulations they face, and then by the subplots that add very little to the drama. The prospect of a "perfect husband" is rarely emphasized, nevertheless, the plot which ends with the divorce, and then sudden together, does not feel like the correct conclusion to the story.

Aside from that, the side plots like Qin Shi's brother's and his wife's subplot seem to be redundant and, in this case, they do not quite add to the main one. The transitions feel chunky rather than seamless, which ultimately results in the drama losing focus.

In the final analysis, "She and Her Perfect Husband" have fallen short of what it is supposed to be. The principal cast plays their best role within the framework of the script, which is rather incoherent and has many disjointed character developments, hence it is a painstaking watch. It might have been a fascinating elaboration on love, marriage, and professional ambition, but the story seems to go off-course in the end. Yet, I would still give it a 7-star rating largely because of the efforts of the main cast but it is in no way satisfying for anyone who would expect a more engaging and emotionally resonant story.

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A day of my life was wasted I will never get back

this had had me contemplating that I'm wasting my life watching this show a whole bunch of episodes that was unnecessary and in the ending didn't resolve none of the relationships I feel like I watch a conclusion to a TV show that ended with no conclusion to nothing, the brother and the girlfriend you didn't resolve anything in the relationship in the end and she just had a kid they look happy what the Frick. On the main lead came back to the girl in the ending but she still has the issues of not talking about her feelings. How could you say your feelings to your friends but not to the man you love this is ridiculous. I feel nowadays they make stories that's fucking stupid didn't resolve nothing or try to resolve the relationship aspects of the stories their wrights they just make a whole bunch of chaos and ended in chaos

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Disappointing Story

I started to watch this drama because of the lead actors. They have not disappointed me in their performance. After watching this drama their performance was very good but I felt the story was not up to part. By the tittle I thought it was a romance between 2 professionals and how the romance grows. But this is more about the Female lead career and her ambition in her Law firm. We see a small amount of what is the male lead all about. Of course he is younger so his character is made to be very smart in finances but very naïve. I did like that the women in this drama are fierce and strong minded. I did not like all the twist and turns with added characters that confused us even more. The romance between the lead characters is very minimal, so their chemistry is minimal. As partners in their career there chemistry was fantastic. They were great in supporting each other when ever a problem at work happen. The supporting characters gave me mix feelings. At first Wu Fei was all friendly to the lead female character and acted as an immature girl but then she becomes this hate monster that made no sense. Then in the last 10 episode we get thrown a new character Yao Yao, who had a relationship with the male lead. Why? In the beginning the male lead is so naïve that we are let to believe he had never been in a relationship. The ending was the most disappointing as we are left with confusion and dissatisfied. The actors performance is very good but the writer let us down trying to make such twist and turns with little information to the watcher.

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Messy, muddled plot

I really wanted to like this drama, but it was 40 episodes of case after case with little emphasis on the relationships between the main leads. I always like older woman, younger man dramas as long as the writing is engaging. This drama, however was too muddled with the minutiae of cases rather than develop a natural path between the main leads and their supporting characters. I should have dropped this early on, but I wanted to see it through because I respect the main leads and their talents. Unfortunately, the writing did not do them justice.

Qin Shi (Yang Mi) is an ambitious young lawyer gunning for a promotion to partner in a competitive law firm. She is tough, smart and capable and has the respect of all her colleagues. The one thing she doesn't have to make it to the next level is a husband. She decides to foolishly make one up and steals a picture from the internet from a dating site. When she is required to attend an important work event with the spouse, she is forced to "hire" one for the role.

Yang Hua (Xu Kai) is the young man in question--a hermit with a past. He decides to accept Qin Shi's business proposition to get his overbearing mother off his back. Both parties feel this is a great solution to their mutual problems, but neither count on the possibility of falling in love with each other. Add an ex-fiance that never got closure, and his jealous new girlfriend, and we have an interesting plot for a good drama or rom-com. Alas, the opportunity was wasted in favor of in-depth cases that took the attention away from the romance building of the leads.

One would think that the plot would find a funny and romantic way to focus on these two individuals and their slow gravitation towards one another, and to an extent we do. However, it's boringly written and one has a difficult time believing in the plausibility of this odd couple's relationship. You wonder what such an overachieving young woman would see in such a hermit of a kid six years her junior. There are some sweet moments, but the kissing scenes are so poorly rehearsed, that it makes you uncomfortable.

I enjoyed the relationship between Qin Shi and her professional work rival, Li Dai, more than any other in this entire drama. They had really good chemistry and they brought out the best in each other professionally. I even liked Qin Shi's ex because he wasn't a jerk, but a victim of his own unwillingness to stand up to the women in his life. I imagined different ways his story could have gone, but again, the writers missed a great opportunity. He definitely didn't deserve the ending he got. I think the last episode was used to quickly wrap up the storylines they had abandoned earlier on. Characters central to the drama in the beginning tended to disappear by the end and some supporting cast were just nuisances.

The acting was good among the lead and seasoned cast. I liked Xu Kai's performance as the hermetic, oddball nerd and Yang Mi as the high-powered lawyer. The one dynamic that really worked among them was the house-husband/working woman roles. The themes of inequality and harassment are also taken on here.

To wrap up, I think this drama falls into the trap of not being able to decide what it is wants to be. I think one should first decide what kind of a story is central and write along those lines rather than have so many side plots and characters that don't do anything to further the drama's main theme. Otherwise a drama with a messy, muddled plot is the result.

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Worth the wait

Man I have been waiting for this forever. And the start of this drama didn't disappoint! Yang Hua a quirky meek introvert genius who is too lazy to work hard, yangmi a hardworking female lawyers
that needed to be married so she would not face glass celieing aka women not progressing at work for their marital status, she picks yang Hua photos and says that he is her husband, all that he doesn't, thinking that they would never meet each other, this lie went for 2 years until fate made them encounter and thus begins their pickering and a possible contract marriage. 10/,10 it has been so long since I loved a drama this much

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Chemistry's just not that good! (don't shoot me)

Listen friends, when a show is relying on its main couple for success, the chemistry better be damn good.

Good chemistry relies on at least 1 heavyweight.
Either the ML is milking the hell out of it, with heated gazes, body language, subtleties, etc.
Either the FL is really milking it with either the push/pull or the getting embarrassed thing.
or,
Either BOTH of them are the heavyweights, in which case, it's great.

For SHPH....it's neither.

PROS:
- Im glad we get to hear Xu Kai's actual voice! if only we'd gotten this for FIYS
- Yang Mi is really beautiful, and her acting is OK as well (though its concerning to me how skinny she is—this isn't a jab at her, but more at China's insane beauty standards.)
- this CP has the looks. Tons of eye-candy whenever they're on camera.
- ....that's it.

CONS:
- Xu Kai's acting --
wait don't skewer me just yet!! His acting's not bad here, it just feels so awkward! I hate that I can tell when actors are acting—I'm not supposed to be seeing Xu Kai pretending to be Yang Hua, it should be Yang Hua who looks surprisingly like the actor Xu Kai!!

- Terrible melodramatic script.
So much of the story gets bogged down down by her brother and sister-in-law's terrible, toxic relationship (that the writing is encouraging them to stay in...????), the petty ex, the absurd law firm rule about partners' marital status, the ML's mom, etc. So much of it just feels like filler.

And the worst offence of all:

- This CPs chemistry just isn't that good. If newer eps come out and prove me wrong, I'll gladly take it back! But XK just seems awkward with YM, and YM just seems to awkward with XK. I've yet to have a seen where I'm kicking my feet giggling, you can feel the tension/chemistry in the air, you see the *gaze* of either leads, you feel embarrassed for watching them...I can almost see the bright fluorescent lights of the cameras, and the 20+ crew standing in front of them, staring. *shivers* so awkward. (tho I will say, XK's chemistry was only *slightly* better in FIYS)

Anyways, I'm kind of disappointed—the story's not that good, we see virtually the same sets all the time, every episode feels a little bit of a rinse and repeat of the same thing, it's all just exceptionally DRAGGED OUT, there are NO SCENES that make your heart flutter, and the CPs chemistry isn't that good!

Worst of all, half the plot is Qin Shi's struggles in her career at the law firm—but our ML has no ambition of his own, and its quite boring to see. His scenes all revolve around the FL, or are him....doing nothing.

Of course, I'll keep watching, but not on an ep. by ep. basis. This isn't good enough to make me wait each day for the next ep. to come out. I'll wait till there's at least ~20/30.

I hope it starts picking up, pleaseeee. I paid VIP for this (ಥ﹏ಥ)

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Snoozeworthy Love Story with Characters Who Lack Chemistry

I knew this series was in trouble when it spent the first 15-20 minutes on characters who weren’t the leads in a silly dispute. The FL lead was involved, in a attempt, I’m guessing, to set up who she was but she was playing a supporting role in those first 15-20 minutes in a storyline that was neither good nor interesting.

The story eventually progressed to its main storyline introducing the the male lead who couldn’t be more dull. The overbearing mother demanding that he immediately find a wife didn’t help matters either. The leads finally meet and unfortunately they are about as exciting as watching paint dry. No chemistry whatsoever. Both actors are attractive and can act but their characters are as dull as dishwater.

The contract marriage trope always has an element of ridiculousness but the suspension of disbelief required for this story is a lot. This was because the lies to keep up the illusion of the contract marriage were so over the top, so unnecessary and so far from who these characters are it just didn’t make sense. If the FL was smart she would’ve made sure the lies closely aligned with the truth. Thus they’d be easy to remember but the fibs she came up with were ridiculously elaborate which I imagine will eventually lead to the undoing of her and the ML’s scheme. The side stories with the brother and the FL's ex are annoying rather than intriguing or funny. And the leads apparently starting to fall for each other is just not believable, due in part to the lack of chemistry between them and their love story being poorly written.

I gave it 10 episodes because I like Xua Kai, but stopped watching as I was FF through episodes more than I was watching them. Needless to say I won’t be finishing this series and don’t think it’s worth watching.

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AGE GAP

At least in this drama, they're opened in saying the 6 years age different, which is ok. As Yang Mi looked so much older and tired look here (still beautiful though) and Xu Kai wasn't like bubbly himself. Yang Mi didn't look her best compare with other actresses in this drama; messy long hair, oversize dresses, tired eyes, downward red lip. The good pair of an experience family lawyer who lied about her marital status and a stay-home finance advisor (fake) husband. They stayed together for their own reason and benefit which eventually fallen in love and formed an actual marriage.

I like Yang Mi best friend-sister in law (factual her ex husband's girlfriend) which a very dynamic friendship and sister in law both legally and informally. Xu Kai's character was kind of blah....no lively character that get him interesting. Qin Shi had a very competitive with Lawyer Xu and ex boyfriend Lawyer Tao professionally and romantically. Yang Hua's meddling mom was pretty annoying, not sure what she really wanted from her son. Girlfriend, yes. Marriage, yes. But not with Qin Shi (Yang Mi) so they had to play a trick to get even with her...so what did she really want then? The more they avoided her, the more vigorous Mom wanted to solve her son's love life, the more annoying it became. I don't know if that's a normal in China, we're supposed in modern set up, it's pretty out of line when the mother restricting a child's choice of life. But anyway....

Decided to drop it, kind of tired with Yang Mi's acting. Sometimes she acted like a spoiled-child, a professional lawyer, naive adult, while Xu Kai acted spiritless uninteresting man. I think I have watched it enough and don't want to invest my time to unworthy drama. Quit!

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Just wasn't for me

I am aware lot of Yang Mi & Xu Kai fans don't like to see negative reviews, I will probably be branded a hater or toxic but this is only my opinion. I am sure plenty still watching & plenty enjoying it and hope they continue to.

This drama just wasn't for me.... After 9 episodes decided to drop this drama.

The theme of the drama just too light, bit childish for me even though suppose to be mature theme....

Acting wasnt bad. Yang Mi felt was solid. The Ren Mei Mei character I thought was very very good. Wouldn't mind tuning into more of her Dramas. Xu Kai was OK, I suppose he played the role as per the script but I just didn't feel the connection but as mentioned felt he was OK. Acting I gave 7/10, highest part of review.

I will compare this to 'The Rational Life' with QIN Lan & Wang Hedi. Another mature theme with mature Lady & younger male. I felt the structure was good for what the theme was suppose to be. Lot more maturity to that dramaa while this one at times felt while trying to execute some of the more comedic scenes it lost touch with the maturity.

I am not a hater, this drama was highly anticipated however just didn't live up to my expectations. That's life. Please do enjoy the drama, I remommend at least give it a try.

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defy the patriarchy... by breaking the law?

Qin Shi (Yang Mi) is a lawyer apparently motivated by her career above all else, because she wants to help people. However, we don't actually see much of her doing this. Instead, most of the focus in this show is on her rather cliche relationship with a stay at home stock trader Yang Hua (Xu Kai).

The show tries to portray Qin Shi as a woman who nobly defies gender stereotypes in the world of men to be a top lawyer, but this is ironic because Qin Shi has no professional ethics. Firstly, she blatantly steals Yang Hua's identity to move up in her career and makes up a huge backstory for their relationship. She gets angry when he refuses to cooperate as her 'husband'. And every single episode from then on she is lying--- to her boss, her colleagues, her best friend etc about her marital status. But not just that. She also lies in order to get into a dinner where she can become close with an important client.

Why all these lies? Is there no law firm willing to take in a single woman? No, rather, it seems to be because of her workplace and law specialty. Qin Shi has also obtained considerable personal benefit. Her lifestyle is expensive, as evidenced by her lavish clothes and belongings and the fancy dinners that she attends. She's not cozying up to clients to make the world a better place, but to help her boss win more contracts and get richer. The entire 'gender stereotypes' problem that Qin Shi faces comes off completely artificial in this context.

I can accept a machiavellian character that is well acted and who has interesting career ambitions. However outside of Qin Shi's personal drama, the show has little substance. Besides the giant lies, it basically focuses on her love triangle with Yang Hua and her ex-boyfriend, where Qin Shi acts cute and childish and Yang Hua acts possessive and sweet in turn. So much for breaking gender stereotypes. BTW, Xu Kai puts forth a pretty uninteresting performance himself, like an awkward Ken Doll.

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Nothing Perfect About it

Not sure why some are calling this a 'masterpiece' (unless they are new to drama land and don't have much viewing experience).

Starting out, episode one was a dumpster fire.

It got progressively worse from there.

I kept waiting for the FL to pass out from hunger.

Several close up scenes of her hands throughout episodes show she has the shakes.

Is she cold?

Does she have low blood sugar?

In need of an alcoholic beverage?

The ML is dull and his mother is obnoxious.

There is no chemistry between the leads; feels like forced comradery.

I'm not particularly fond of either of them, but together I dislike them even more somehow .

Then the FL brother and his wife ...

They are the epitome of relationship trash.
Childish. Ridiculous. Toxic. Both of them.

The opening song has to be one of the worst I've heard in all the decades of watching dramas.

I've dropped it and doubt I'll pick it back up.

The amount of flops that keep getting churned out is disappointing.

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Doesn't completely do away with gender stereotypes

I was watching this show with the expectation that it would not have traditional relationship dynamics. In many aspects, it meets my criteria: the FL is older, earns more money, and she's more of a go-getter type, while the ML is rather a reserved personality. However, the ML ends up to be the sexually dominant side in the relationship, just like 99% of other asian dramas. These stereotypes must be carved inside the writers' minds deeply, as they default to bridal carry scenes to bond the characters, or for fillers, even in series like this. It was pretty watchable if you enjoy/don't mind these omnipresent stereotypical dynamics though.

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