You're not going to understand this drama is you haven't watched Chinese Rom Coms before.

The whole drama is a satire of Chinese Rom Coms. So if you're viewing it as a pure Chinese Rom Com, you're going to miss a lot.

It particularly aims at Gu Man and Zhao Qian Qian's Rom Coms, and makes constant references to both. But in holding up the tropes of rom coms, it also aims to subvert them with a lot of love and inject reality into the drama.

Gu Man always has the rumor mill as part of her writing as why the characters get together, but this drama plays heavily with the idea that rumors can get characters together.

And Zhao Qian Qian's dramas always plays with the woman/girl being in humanities, like English/Lit/Chinese, etc and then the guy being in science of some sort. But the drama plays with this trope and inserts a sweeter message about this idea. It particularly takes shots at "Put your Head on My Shoulder", but also some of her other dramas (with a lot of love).

Lu Wan Wan ends up being the person who is the science major. And looks like she'll earn more money. And Ren Chu isn't made dumb at a cost of this. Ren Chu is more smart on the humanities side--mentioning foreign languages, etc.

The basic format is to set up the trope, then subvert the trope (this is second and third act), then insert a sweeter message about the philosophy of love. The setting up of the trope always comes with a bit of second-hand cringe which comes from the inexperience of the characters and I'm always finding myself hiding behind blankets, pillows, etc as it is happening and then going wrong. The subversion is always, always funny, as what you expect to happen never happens and what the characters state should happen never happens in some of the funniest scenes. But the thing that really captures your heart in the end is the ending messages of each of the episodes on various subject matters. Some of the subjects include how to deal with rumors, love contracts, forced and accidental kisses, "trapped mystery room", "Best friend knows best", evil girl, etc. And the ending message is always uplifting about what love is and could be compared to how it is portrayed in dramas.

The top complaints about this drama are probably unfounded based on the fact many of the commenters don't seem to understand how subtle of a hand this drama has.

The comments about how long it takes for the characters to get together--the drama justifies this up front with you and tells you this is going to be the case--because that's not the point of the drama. It doesn't sacrifice character development to do this, if anything, it's spending time on each of the "How they get together" tropes to develop the characters and their sense of what love is so you really, really believe the ending of the drama that much more.

The writing's downfall is because it relies so much on tropes, it can make it seem slower than people expect it to be. Sitting through uncomfortable tropes makes it a bit difficult, but it always pulls out of the nose dive and inserts feminism later. And the other weakness of the writing is that the "evil" best friend isn't really fleshed out--but I kinda feel like this was cut out of the drama rather than intentionally ignored/cut down. But the better messages about what love is and is not are worth watching the drama for. (The Second Lead's love story enhances the Lead's love story and is wrth the watch for the character development and message it says).

The acting and directing though--there are some really gorgeous and well-thought out camera work from the director, as the director uses various types of shots to communicate how the characters feel, but doesn't substitute that for the trust in the actors. And the acting exaggerates the character types to the nth degree on purpose, so it reads as overacting in some parts, but doesn't betray the character's write up. This shores up some of the weaknesses in the writing and enhances it, so I did find it stronger than the writing.

The production values are probably around 7 or so. They didn't have the highest budget in the world, BUT they used it well. There are various locations, there are filters naturally applied, the actors are (mostly) not dubbed over without their voices. So if you don't pay attention that closely you won't notice the budget is not really that high. HOWEVER, it doesn't scream to you they had over-the moon budget.

This is slow, steady, slice of life and delivers laughs throughout with the best messages about what love is, if you're willing to take the time with it and not treat it as a fast food drama, but pay attention to some of the details.

Feminism tests:
Mako Mori: Clean pass, but it takes a while for the female character to find what her goal is and that is for herself. But it's done in the sweetest way possible and the drama constantly promises you along the way it'll get there. So when you do, your jaw drops at the feels. (I wasn't crying. No really. And I wasn't pounding my chest. I swear.)

Bechdel Test: Clean pass first episode within a few minutes of the episode, without question. Two named female characters talk about... medical issues related to the class.

Sexy Lamp: Easy pass first episode and keeps passing into the second episode with an even cleaner pass. Lu Wan Wan is not a sexy lamp. She's shown to be smart, able, makes decisions that affect other characters which changes the direction of the plot definitely, definitely more than one time and isn't only a pretty face. This is true throughout the drama where instead of losing agency like in the melting or evaporating woman trope, she gains agency and makes more firm decisions which naturally grow with her character development. (Honestly, this made it a pleasure to watch since the drama promised from the first it would do this, and really delivers on the promise.

Other feminism it does includes, but is not limited to, examining codependent relationships, asking questions about "wanting to change the romantic partner", and gendering of some of the rom com stock characters.

If this were food... I'd rate this Taro Cake. You were expecting sweet, but did you expect the taro to be nutritious and in there? No. But do you enjoy it anyway? Yes.

I tried knitting to this drama, but made a lot of mistakes because it was too good. So I wouldn't craft to this.

Front burner type of drama, not back burner. Pay attention and you get rewarded highly.

If you pay attention well enough, it'll ruin all the rom coms you watch after it. I'm struggling with some rom coms currently where I can't help but think back to this drama and how they showed how love could be done better. Only one other drama has ever done this to me--The King of Dramas (Korean). So that says a lot. (And I watched a TON of dramas, more than listed on my profile.)