The Princess, the Hot Werewolf and their Strange Kingdoms.

This series had some fun moments and a cast that played well off of each other. However, if you look beyond the surface there’s not much to this series. The premise was strong. A king from a beastly kingdom needs a princess from a human kingdom to save his life and subsequently his people, with the requirement of love between the savior and the one to be saved being included in this very cliché story setup. For this reason, the beastly king kidnaps the princess and off the story goes…well sort of.

The show spends a lot of time setting up the relationship between Qi Pan and Kui Mu Lang, but not much else. We only see Qi Pa’s kingdom very briefly before she is kidnapped and there’s no insight into how the kingdom works who is on the royal court? Is there a royal court? Who are Qi Pa’s friends etc. We see her parents who of course want her to find her soulmate and that’s it. After she is kidnapped we don’t see how her kingdom is dealing with the kidnapping of their princess, only the royal guard looking for her when it becomes convenient to the story.

In the Beast kingdom, we do learn why many, not all, have beastly features, but beyond that, no insight into the inner workings of the monarch and the society it serves. Kui Mu Lang, the king, only has one right hand man and apparently no royal guards as people can access the palace grounds and the king (and Queen’s) quarters at will, to do nefarious things. Kui Mu Lang had powers but apparently no one else in the kingdom did. This was never explained. Did he have powers because he was the king? Or did he have powers because it was convenient to the story? Additionally, there were individuals who tried to kill the king numerous times, but when caught received a punishment of planting trees, copying the laws of the kingdom numerous times or no punishment at all. Odd.

Moreover, though the beastly city appears to be your typical Chinese kingdom, Daxia which is Qi Pa’s home seems to be a mix of modern experiences and historic Chinese customs. For Qi Pa mentions haute couture, makeup sets, high heels, having jet lag etc. while still dressing, for the most part, like a princess from the 16th century. Very strange. Additionally, when the audience did see the palace grounds for Qi Pa’s home, there was no one around. Just her and a couple characters, who seemed to only be around to prop her relationship with Kui Mu Lang. When she returned after going missing, there were no scenes of her reuniting with her family and when she decided to return to the beast kingdom, she did not inform anyone, but left her kingdom without a word.

There were a couple of antagonists in this series, Kui Mu Lang’s brother (Jing Mu) and some mystery man. Both spent the series failing at their nefarious schemes while Jing Mu whined like a 2-year old about no one paying attention to him. The endgame of their nefarious schemes wasn’t revealed until the last episode and even when revealed it still made little sense considering the mysterious man spent most the series mustache twirling and vowing to make Kui Mu Lang pay while Jing Mu whined.

Despite the storyline and world building for this series making absolutely no sense, the actors did the best they could with the material and seemed to have fun. Chen Zhe Yuan was pretty hot and looked good with Wu Xuan Yi. All of the couples had nice chemistry and worked well. With the leads being most interesting together when Qi Pa was interacting with Kui Mu Lang in his wolf/beast form. The series had a few really good scenes. Specifically, when Qi Pa and beastly Kui Mu Lang were arguing or angsty and there were some scenes that were funny. However, overall, the story was a disaster and execution just okay. Would I watch this again, nope. But I wouldn’t say it was a complete waste of 30 hours due to the actors being fairly charismatic which made the series, at times, entertaining.

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The Price for Heaven, is the fury that can be Hell

This was an interesting drama about cheating. The neglected cheater , the bored cheater and the indifferent cheater. All can be callous with their actions but the reasons for those actions can at times be understood.

This series took a realistic view at how easy it is to slip into cheating as well as how deliberate it can be. Though I don’t condone cheating I could understand why Ji-eun cheated. She was resolved to living the rest of her life miserable with her husband - Chang-gook until Jung-woo walked into her life and stirred an awakening within her. And how could he have not? He was young (her age) good looking and the first person I’m guess in ages who actually showed genuine concern for her. Considering the neglect she’d endured from her husband for three years in him refusing sex with her, showing what seemed like no consideration for her feelings at all and his over the top obsession with their pet birds, no wonder she instantly became intrigued with Jung-woo.

Chang-gook was an awful husband. Severely neglectful and completely inconsiderate of her feelings. I found him extremely annoying . His obsession with those birds made him insufferable, along with his intrusive mother who was more concerned about Ji-eun catering to her son, than them having a balanced marriage. Jung woo’s reason’s for cheating were less understandable, but it was easy to see how he got caught up. He had a savior mentality as evidenced by why he became involved with his wife, but with Ji-eun it went way beyond being her savior. He truly felt a deep connection with her which grew into love.

The chemistry between the leads was perfect. It started sweet and gentle, then evolved into this intense love affair. I enjoyed the push pull of their relationship and the progression of their connection, which became more soulful, deeper over time.

Though I could understand Ji eun’s decision to cheat , I had a harder time understanding Soo Ah’s reasoning. It wasn’t just that she was cheating with one man, she was cheating with multiple men until she found her “true wuv”. And in addition to this she was proud of her cheating and didn’t mind sharing her cheating ways with new women “friends”. Her callousness made it difficult to sympathize with her considering it wasn’t just her husband she needed to consider if she got caught but her children. When her infidelity was discovered her horror and realization at what she’d done was well done and realistic of someone who did care about their family but was selfish and reckless in their actions. However, I never completely bought her relationship with the artist and never thought it would work as they were at different places in their lives.

The focus of the series was on the leads cheating, but their spouses weren’t saints, save for Jung woo’s wife. Ji eun’s husband was behaving inappropriately with the intern and Soo Ah’s husband seemed to be on the verge of cheating with the rising female artist who worked for the gallery. So in turn everyone had wandering eyes and it begs the question what level of intimate activity with someone other than your spouse is considered cheating?

The love and the angst in this was well done as well as the fall out from the cheating. However, I thought the series became overly dramatic in the last few episodes and lost its way. It seemed like one of Soo Ah’s kids went missing almost every episode. Then after neglecting Ji eun for three years Chang-gook refused to allow the marriage to end and just like he’d always selfishly done, wanted to force her to bend to his will, what he wanted without any consideration for her feelings. That had been easy in the past as she was resolved to being miserable so she complied with whatever he demanded of her but in this situation she refused which angered and baffled him.

His ongoing fight to save their marriage was down right ridiculous. Same with Min-Young, Jung Woo’s wife. It was blatantly obvious that he did not love her, had no desire to be with her whatsoever and wished to end the marriage. He told her this flat out. But she was hell bent on forcing him to be miserable with her. The spouses initially attempting to fight for their marriages may have been understood but to dig their heels in and try and force someone to stay with you who absolutely doesn’t want to be with you made no sense. And seemed like drama for dramas sake.

The ending was predictable. I knew Soo Ah and the artist would never work out. I was glad that Ji-eun went off and found herself. She was happy living her life on her terms, which was significant growth from when we first saw her. Though she and Jung Soo didn’t runoff into the sunset, at least their ending implied that this was a
strong possibly.

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If Only I Could Feel the Love

This show started nicely with the FL pursuing the ML in an effort to satisfy her work ambitions. When quickly that pursuit turned into something more. There were some hilarious moments in this, especially between the leads - Dylan Wang (ML) and Bai Lu. (FL). They did great job at playing up those moments and making them funny.

However, despite the show having some good humor surrounding the romance between the leads, the romance itself lacked spark. Shu Yi (FL) kept saying how she was falling for Shi Yan (ML), how she couldn't resist him and wanted him, but her emotions did not not embody the words she was expressing. This could be in part due to Bai Lu as I've seen her in other romance dramas where like here the romance had some wonderfully written words and moments. However, Bai Lu failed to convey the passion of those words in her line delivery and her acting. Perhaps it's a lack of restraint, but passion with nuance. But I digress. The bottom line is she and Dylan Wang didn't have the charm between them that was needed to make this love story glow. Thus it fell flat.

The other romances on the show were there to serve their purpose of characters who support the leads, but who can't just be alone. Lol. These couples were alright. That said, I did enjoy Ru Shan and Guan Ji more than the rest. Though they weren't smoldering either, I did find their romance the most interesting out of all the ones showcased on the show. The business /career storylines were passable, but not overly interesting. The acting was solid. I can't say I don't love seeing Dylan Wang in the historical/fantasy dramas, but it was nice to see him take a break from those type of dramas to do a modern series. Is this rewatchable? Not really. Overall, this was just okay.

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Past, Present and Future Collide via a Mysterious Cell Phone

Good series with a great cast. Though it wasn't fleshed out, the sci-fi element of the story was interesting and was a reasonable catalyst to drive the story forward.

There were a couple of nice twists, like the SFL being completely psycho and the ML being the mysterious guy in the future trying to change the past via the mystery phone. The power struggle within the business could've been better. I still don't understand what the SFL's father hoped to accomplish by getting the phone that could call the future. How was that going to save his health and subsequently his life? It would've made more sense if he wanted the phone for the financial gain he could generate from the technology, rather than his personal health.

The ML could be a selfish ass, but eventually grew and learned the only way he could save the future -the one he loved was to let go of his own personal desires. The love story was sweet. The leads had nice chemistry and their interactions felt organic. How their story played out in the final episodes was predictable. Yet it was entertaining. This wasn’t outstanding . There were some plot points that made no sense, but it wasn’t bad either. 16 episodes was the perfect number of episodes to tell the story. I wish more C-dramas would do more with less, similar to this drama. Enjoyable series.

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CSI Meets Crime Solving in 16th Century China

A disfigured woman is shunned by society due to her “ugly” looks and knack for reading the dead becomes a lead investigator in unraveling a myriad of conspiracies in the town of Heyang. The cases and her investigative methods (along with the help of her love interest, the ML) were interesting as were the layers surrounding the crimes that revealed a bigger conspiracy.

Even better was the big conspiracy was simple, yet intriguing. However, in the last 10 episodes the story started to lose steam. The episodes begin to drag and spent too much time on story threads that were boring or made the main story thread more complicated than it needed to be.

Though the leads were passible as a couple, they looked good together. I actually preferred the ML with the original actress who played the FL when she was scarred and “ugly.” They had good chemistry and I liked the idea of the FL not being this raving beauty. When the storyline called for the FL’s face to change it took several episodes for me to warm up to the new actress in the role. Moreover, when I did warm up to her, I begin to find interest in her interactions with the SML. I liked the potential that was their relationship. It was too bad that there was no chance for them to explore a romance considering their natural chemistry, which wasn’t quite there with the ML.

The acting was good from everyone. Both FLs were the strongest actresses out of the younger cast. The actor who played the ML struggled, at times, when he had to get emotional. The “love” story was anemic at best. I think the leads worked best when they were in that mode of distance and “sexual” (though there wasn’t much sexiness going on. lol) tension rather than when they became a couple. Some of their “romantic” interactions were awkward. I think because their chemistry was mediocre at best.

Thankfully the series didn’t spend much time on their “love” as the focus was on solving the conspiracies at hand. The show started off really good but meandered towards the end on unnecessary storylines. The story could’ve been tightened and completed in 18-20 episodes, rather than 32. That said, this was worth watching. Is it worth a rewatch? Maybe.

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A Bloody Hand of Fate Facilitates Love

The story starts with a bloody hand molesting the face of the ML. We later learn it is a curse stemming from some indiscretion in his past life. This made for an interesting start but the story wasn’t as intriguing as expected. This series turned out to be your typical K-drama romance with a bit of sorcery thrown in.

The leads were the saving grace of the series as all the storylines were somewhat messy. Rowoon and Bo-ah Jo looked beautiful together and had wonderful chemistry. Their characters, Shin -yu and Hong-Jo, not only had great chemistry and thus were believable as a couple but were interesting on their own. Shin-yu was smart, funny and caring. And Hong-Jo was passionate about her work, fun -loving, vibrant and intelligent. They were a perfect match as their bickering had just as much chemistry as their kisses. They had some really hilarious moments, but could also be passionate and loving with each other. Moreover, they both, at times, could be annoying and make really stupid decisions but still remained likable.

Though for a while there was the question as to whether Shin-yu’s feelings for Hong-Jo were real or due to the love spell she had cast, it was clear to me that he had an interest in her before a spell was even thought about. The love story in the present was well written and tied nicely to the past, but the story struggled with incorporating the side characters in an interesting manner. The office bullying and romance was boring as was the drama with the SFL. The corruption storyline could’ve been better, but played as if the writers needed something to fill the minutes not focused on the leads.

The stalker storyline would’ve been okay if the story had been better written, but the series implied that he was practicing sorcery. However, it was never apparent whether his spells worked. Moreover he was an individual who was apart of the leads’ past life but his role in their past life was never tied to the present. This was a missed opportunity and a major plot hole.

I did enjoy the budding relationship between the ML’s mom and his BFF. I didn’t need to see them start a romance, and they didn’t. Thank goodness. But I liked the confidence he inspired within her. It’s too bad she decided to stay with her verbally abusive husband instead of divorcing him.

Despite the weakness in some of the storylines, I enjoyed this series. Rowoon and Bo-ah Jo were fantastic in this. I could feel the happiness, the heart break and the love between their characters. This was all due to them giving their all in every scene. Their characters had some awesome hugs and smoldering kisses and one of the best sex scenes I’ve seen in a K-drama in a while.

This show was far from perfect. Nonetheless it was enjoyable and one that I will rewatch.

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A Human Liar Detector and her Musical Genius Find Love In the Mist of Lies and Crime

This started off interesting. There were some entertaining “cases of the week” where the FL had to decipher lies from truth. I like how she used this “gift” to make a great living. I also liked the music business storyline with the ML (Dong Ha). Dong Ha, living a secretive life due to his shady past was quite intriguing as well.

It was nice to see him become human again once he moved outside of the city amongst people who didn’t know that he was famous and his relationship with the FL was cute. However, this series started to loose momentum about halfway through.
Though the ML/FL looked good together they didn’t have any chemistry. Both were kind of flat. Though Min-hyun is doing a good job at spreading his wings into acting, he needs more work in order to become a believable ML as there was hardly any charisma exuding from him here, and perhaps that was due to the lack of chemistry with the FL.

I was expecting more to happen with the ML’s life once things started to come to a head about his past but besides a few paparazzi snapping pictures of him as he left a hospital that was it. The media who’d been relentlessly trying to track him down at the start of the series seems to have gone on holiday. There was virtually no impact to his songwriting career. The mom’s burgeoning political career was thrown in for good measure to add drama that was essentially window dressing, but not much happened with that either. Honestly, I didn’t think that storyline was needed. It served no purpose except to try and make the audience think the ML had indeed killed his ex, when we all knew that was not where the story was going.

The FL skills did come in handy in clearing the ML’s name. But then once it was obvious, he was innocent the show went from somewhat entertaining to downright boring. They really could’ve tightened the story threads and ended this series in 10 or 12 episodes. Unfortunately, they took it to 16 episodes, with the last 3-4 being pointless. Those episodes were so boring I ended up fast-forwarding through most of them.

Despite the lack of story, the ending was nice. Those who are fans of the main couple will be happy. Is this worth watching? It’s one of those shows where I think viewers will fall heavily across all spectrums as to whether they liked this, hated it or feels it okay. This wasn’t the worst series I’ve ever seen, but it wasn’t really good either. Just okay. Would I rewatch. No.

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Revenge Served with Absolute Perfection

Sometimes with revenge stories the plot ends up half a**ed or it gets bogged down in some silly love story where the person wronged has an epiphany, and decides that revenge is time wasted. But not here.

I liked what Yeo-jeong told Do-yeong, that some people move forward from trauma with forgiveness while others seek revenge. In this case Dong-eun sought revenge and had every right to do so considering the torture she suffered.

Yeon-jin, Myeong-O, Jae-joon, Sa-ra and Hye-jeong were some of the most narcissistic sociopaths I’ve ever seen on streaming. They cared about no one except themselves. Nearly every decision they made, every utterance was about their desires, their life, getting what they wanted or humiliating and ridiculing each other or torturing those whom they deemed beneath them.

Dong-eun’s plan to take down these sociopaths was clever, and the execution brilliant. They were all such horrible people that all she had to do is be a catalyst for their destruction by simply nudging at their weakness. A couple of nudges and their houses of cards came crashing down resulting in them turning on and ultimately destroying themselves and each other.

There were so many great take downs in this series but my favorites were:

Dong-eun going the to visit the teacher who’d beat her for reporting abuse from her classmates. All she had to do was show up which set off a chain of events that cost him his life. It was ironic that
his prestige as a teacher was what led to his demise.

Dong-eun expelling her mother from her life forever. This woman was her MOTHER but she cared not one iota about her. And was an utter menace in Dong-eun’s life. She was almost as bad as Yeon-jin and her crew of bullies. So Dong-eun having her committed to an institution was needed and well deserved.

Yeon-Jin being abandoned by her mother. Everything done to her was sweet justice, especially her ending up imprisoned and now a victim of bullying herself. But her losing her mother who was always her ally, always cleaned up her messes, always supported and encouraged her depraved behavior was an absolute befitting reward for all the horrible things she’d done.

I really enjoyed Dong-eun’s intellect. She knew where to secure allies and how to use them. Moreover, she was always respectful to them and at times helpful. Which was a wonderful contrast to the bullies in this. They had people in their corner but were just as nasty to their allies as their enemies, which in part resulted in them having no one loyal to them when they most needed support.

What was great about this series is that the revenge was always driving the story. There was romance between the leads but thankfully it was sprinkled throughout the series and didn’t overwhelm the main story. And though I thought Dong-eun and Do-yeong had incredible chemistry, making she and Yeo-jeong look like two cold fish together, I was happy that their interactions were kept to a minimum as anything more would not have made sense.

There were very few moments I didn’t like in this, obviously the bullying and torture. I also didn’t like that they kind of left Yoo So-hee’s story up in the air. The audience knew what happened, but they rushed Yeon-jin’s arrest and made it all about M-Yeong-O’s murder with no more mention of Yoo-So-hee. I would’ve liked to have seen her deaf mom learning that her daughter was finally getting justice and also her daughter’s name being cleared in the media considering Yeon-jin had cried and lied on nationally TV saying she killed herself and implied that she was promiscuous by revealing that she was pregnant.

Overall this was a great series. One of the best revenge stories I’ve ever seen.

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New Meaning to “Woman” Power

The love story between Pa’ner and Qianfan was so well done. I liked how they almost immediately got thrown into each other’s orbits due to circumstance and as a result started to heavily rely on each other which eventually evolved into love. They had their issues in the beginning, mainly with trust from Pa’ner due to the hurt she’d experienced in her previous relationship but they were able to move on from that and have a healthy relationship until the past, which had nothing to do with either of them, nearly destroyed their relationship. What I liked about Qianfan is that he was tough, smart and could kick butt, but he was at his core a good man.

This series was good and different in the way it presented the FL and her friends. They were all independent women, during a time when women should not have had independence and were determined to make their own way. They were smart, innovative and most importantly resilient. They went through it due to their status and some of the men in their lives who were horrible people but they persevered. I really liked how the plight of the FL aligned so much with the Empress. The latter made some horrible mistakes which did not reflect well on her character at all, but I understood why she made those choices considering there were several people at Court who were trying to destroy her simply because of her less than honorable past.

The storyline with the FL’s ex-fiancé was a bit much. He seemed to go from a half way descent guy to a mustache twirling villain who would kill anybody who got in his way, simply for plot purposes. Also I found it odd that Ru Zhao disappeared from the story after what he was doing was discovered by Song Yinzhang. He was an official who was well known in the Capital. I would’ve thought him drugging and raping women would’ve resulted in him being destroyed by the community and his destruction would’ve played out, at least a little on screen. But that didn’t happen. After Yinzhang caught him in the act of trying to rape her that was the last we saw him on screen, even though the show spent quite a bit of time on their relationship.

There were other plot holes which I won’t get into, but despite those storyline issues, this was a really good series. My biggest gripe though with the writing is that the writers spent all that time on Pa’ner and Qianfan talking about getting married and their plans after marriage only for us not to see the wedding. The series ended with the audience not knowing whether they got married or not. Huge ball dropped there. Still a good series and worth watching.

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Epic Love Story with a Healthy Dose of Angst and Humor

When starting this series I thought, it would be mostly cliches and contrived plot lines. Though there was a little bit of that, you can’t have a romance drama without cliches, but the story worked so well that these instances were barely noticeable.

The series spent a lot of time focused on building the connection between Dongfang and Orchid, which set up a great foundation for their relationship evolving into love later in the series. Though Dongfang was brooding and morose, and on a mission of great importance, he couldn’t help but to become captivated by Orchid’s kind and cheerful energy.

The “mundane” of the everyday with he and Orchid of just chatting over a drink/meal to conflicts over everything from the history of the battle between Shuiyuntian and Canyan Sea, to eating breakfast, to the laziness that is sleeping in, made it fun to experience their world. Most especially when they were living at Arbiter Hall.

Moreover, Dongfang’s immersion in his hate for the fairies, which was fueling his most powerful magic (the hell fire), yet desire to feel, to love, to be with Orchid who was everything he should hate, was compelling to watch. As was Orchid’s metamorphosis from fun, yet immature girl, to a mature (yet still cheerful and light) and strong woman was also interesting. When Dongfang finally let go, allowing himself to embrace his love for her, he loved with intensity and a depth that was swoon worthy, and Orchid, despite her lightheartedness, matched that love with her own deep devotion and intensity.

The love story in this was epic because these two were are all in with their love for each other, even before they realized they were in love. And being all in meant they did some pretty extraordinary things for each other. Dongfang’s strength was incredible to watch. He went through it, constantly sacrificing, constantly enduring physical and mental angst, but always remained mentally strong.

The B and C stories, had good writing and tied in well with the main plot. I could not stand Lord Hao. His brand of love was the other extreme, which was obsession, an obsession that could have destroyed all three realms, but despite this I understood what drove his actions. Though the fairies were supposed to be the good guys, their community seemed to mostly be filled with bullies, hypocrites and intolerant a******. Orchid and Lord Changheng seemed to be the only truly good people in the community.

The series was well-written, but there were a couple of plot holes, sometimes the Xiyan curse only worked when convenient. Why did Lady Chidi end up in the mortal world after she sacrificed herself to save the fairies? Was that because she violated the rules a fate by saving Lord Hao from death? Did the thousands of years of warring between the Moon Tribe and the Fairies really start over someone getting dumped? Basically someone from the Moon Tribe getting dumped by a fairy? Crazy. SMH.

Really enjoyed all the relationships in this. They all had some complexity and thus were interesting and developed in a direction which was unexpected. I would’ve liked to have seen more of the Moon Tribe and it’s culture. Some intriguing things were revealed but not much time was spent on those things due to the story having to move forward.

The CGI in this was excellent as was the acting. Dylan Wang as Dongfang was the stand out though. The complexity of this character could’ve been lost on a lesser actor, but I think he handled it like a pro. Yu Shuxin was good as well, but she struggled, just a little, with some of the big emotional moments.

I thought the last 3-4 episodes dragged, I was not feeling Orchid pretending to have no memory of her previously life. Moreover there was too much time spent on Danyi’s family drama and Lord Hao living in a fantasy with Lady Chidi. It was painful to watch him living in a lie with her while she gradually became a soulless monster. I know that wasn’t the story but I would’ve liked to have seen Dongfang and Orchid deciding together to work to destroy Tai Sui, instead of secretly doing their own thing. I also really would’ve liked to have seen more of their reunion at the end. Perhaps them finally getting married or a fast forward to hundreds of years in the future with them living happily, but oh well.

Despite some of my qualms, I enjoyed this series immensely. It’s definitely worth the time to watch. It will be one I will rewatch often in the future.

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A Vast Improvement from the Previous Versions

This version was way better than the previous versions which looked extremely dated and where the leads weren’t drunk but just accidentally slept together because it was a dark room and they for whatever reason thought they were sleeping with their significant others. That was pretty contrived and thus unbelievable. At least in this one the leads ended up in bed together due to an excess of alcohol. That made a lot more sense than the previous versions.

Though Jiaxin was way too timid and naive, I really liked all the scenes between her and XiYi on the cruise ship and how the relationship evolved from there.

The story with Anna was ridiculous all the way around. From her suddenly abandoning her planned cruise with her boyfriend literally right before the ship left the dock. To him not telling her one word about his betrayal for more than four months, and the worst part her still wanting him after the betrayal. Honestly I don’t see how they still had a relationship after she abandoned him on the cruise ship. Being that Anna was a confident woman who already had a career abroad, I can’t imagine that she’d realistically still want to marry XiYi after learning he not only slept with another woman, but got that woman pregnant and married her. No matter the circumstances and her choices that precipitated those circumstances that led to the betrayal. It was ridiculous that she’d still want him after what he’d done.

Though I liked XiYi, he was an ass for cheating and an even bigger ass for not immediately confessing the truth to Anna. I liked Jiaxin but her constant long face over not having a future with XiYi got old pretty fast. In the beginning the dude DID NOT love her and was only with her because she was pregnant. I don’t think she thought through the consequences of staying pregnant . She just wanted to keep it because she wanted it but then when the reality set in she saw that the situation was a burden on everyone, which caused her unhappiness.

Also, the angst of the last 10 episodes could’ve been avoided by simple communication. Though there was some insecurity there, XiYi and Jiaxin were in a good place by episode 24. They were doing romantic things together, affectionate with each other on a regular basis and sleeping together. They were living like a real married couple. It made no sense that she would runoff in unreasonable anger after suddenly getting divorce papers from XiYi saying she’d have to give up all rights to their kid when he’d told her a couple of episodes before she’d be able to see the kid anytime she wanted. If she’d simply calmed down and realized how illogical the situation was, then showed XiYi the papers and confronted him like an adult it would’ve saved a lot of angst.

Also, I thought she was stupid for cooking for Anna when the latter lost her memory, then still being friendly with her after this woman told her that she was going to take back XiYi. What was even more ridiculous is Anna ended up at Jiaxin and XiYi’s wedding as a guest at the end of the series. This woman lied , destroying their relationship for three years and indirectly caused Jiaxin’s miscarriage and she was invited to the wedding? I don’t think so. I don’t care if she was Dylan’s sister. She had no right to be there after the trouble she’d caused.

The actors were great and had strong chemistry. The secondary couple worked as did the friends and family members. The story started to get repetitive and boring the last few episodes. With XiYi constantly running after Jiaxin and her repeatedly rejecting him, the exact same way, same words and all, along with Anna vowing to get XiYi back, a man who didn’t want her at all. It got tiring. In fact, towards the end of the series I started to to really despise Anna. I already didn’t care for her anyway after her prior antics but I hated her by the end of the series. And I began to get sick of Jiaxin and XiYi running after her.

Despite all the ridiculousness and annoying characters , this series was entertaining. Would I watch it again? Maybe certain parts but not the series as a whole.

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Tears, Tears and more Tears

I like the backdrop of the story being about sound editing for movies. With that said, the series was okay. The supernatural twists and the reasons for the betrayals were interesting, especially the story with the FL and her fiancé. But there was too much whining and crying over what was, which made it difficult to believe the FL and ML would fall for each other when they were so emotionally entangled with their Exs. Additionally believing that the FL still wanted to be with the ML after learning what he’d done to her wasn’t believable, despite her being a woman who was pathetic in her desperation for love and would be completely broken by any rejection.

The funny drunk girls were not funny at all. Seeing the FL and the ML sister get plastered every night, sometimes getting falling down drunk was not funny or interesting to watch. It got old very fast as did all the crying, whining and brooding.

By the end, I was more happy the series was over than happy that the main couple got their HEA. I really didn’t care that they were running off into the sunset because their “love” became so insufferable I didn’t care if they ended up together or not. Despite all this, the acting was good and the story was strong even with its flaws. The long suffering was just too much. Perhaps this is a series that should be watched in small increments rather than a binge so that the viewer can really appreciate the story and not get burned out by all the tears and angst.

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Cliche, but fun and engaging watch.

This series was your typical contract marriage storyline with the reason for the marriage being ridiculous to start and the leads being completely at odds with each other. You also have the annoying and creepy interlopers who try and win the leads for themselves and thus don’t know when to cut their losses and move on. But outside of the typical cliches this was actually very good.

First off, the leads had amazing chemistry. They did a great job making me believe everything they were going through, whether they were at odds with each other, playing jokes on each other or being completely in love, I bought it. They felt like a real couple.

Secondly, I like that both leads had their own lives and careers before and after they fell in love. Though they loved each other deeply, neither only lived for a relationship with the other, which is rare in a lot of these romance dramas. They both had their own career aspirations and goals, in addition to their desire to have a life together.

Third, the business story which was the foundation of the series was actually pretty good, which again is rare in these dramas. Yes, it was ridiculous that Alex would require XiXi and Yi Chen marry before the contract with Marry Me went into affect, but all the other storylines surrounding the business made sense and worked well.

Fourth, the secondary romance was cute and believable, which again is rare in these dramas. It didn’t feel forced and I actually enjoyed it immensely.

Lastly, the romance was cliche but was very well done. I liked that they did things to help each other from a genuine place, before and after they fell in love. I liked that despite all the struggles they went through they never broke up, but ended up working through the issues together. I liked Mo Zixin in the beginning, but he started to become creepy about halfway through the series. Never understood why he just didn’t ask XiXi out after he gave her a ride to the party in the first episode. His subsequent behavior bordered on being stalkerish and was very creepy, especially when he always seemed to pop up everywhere XiXi showed up. His whole purpose was ridiculous being that he’d come looking for her, deeming her the love of his life, due to her being kind to him when they were kids, which is a cliche I detest in these shows. And then there was XiWei who was the very cliche female who feels like the male lead was hers for the taking and that they belonged together even though he’d shown zero romantic interest in her in the 20 years they’d known each other. She was simply there to cause trouble. Though I must say, the trouble she caused was interesting and worked to push the story forward.

The show was not perfect, there were a few scenes and character decisions that didn’t make sense, but overall it was a really good series.

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Dark and Gritty Crime Story Featuring Poor Police Work

A police detective decides to take her life over the loss of her husband who committed suicide a year earlier, but changes her mind when she discovers dead body nearby.

The story was just as expected, abandoning the glitz and glamour of many Taiwanese shows/movies to explore the dark underbelly of illegal immigration and the vulnerable situations , specifically the women, those immigrants find themselves in. The story was suspenseful and interesting due to the mystery of who was killing these migrant women and why. Come to find out it was some psycho who’d been scammed by his migrant wife so I guess he felt the need to make all migrant women pay for her misdeeds. Strange reasoning, but when has a serial killer’s reason for killing made sense.

That part of the story was relatively okay, but the detective part of the story was not great.The FL was a horrible cop. She managed to lose her gun to one suspect who ended up killing himself with said gun. Another suspect managed to get the better of her and nearly smothered her to death. She would go off with dangerous suspects alone without backup and her terrible decisions resulted in her rookie partner being stabbed by a suspect. They’d sometimes call for back up when needed but backup never showed.

We never learn why her husband committed suicide and why she decided to live. Her solving the case did not result in some profound moment for her where she found a reason to live. At least as far as I could see it didn’t.

So while the premise of the story was an interesting one, the execution was poorly done. The cops in this didn’t have to be perfect but they shouldn’t have been incompetent. Moreover the lack of depth in the characters made it difficult to care about any of them.

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Stalker behavior misrepresented as love

The high school interaction between the leads was cute. But once they went to college the ML essentially stalked the FL until she finally gave him a chance. Also, when the high school actors were switched out for actors playing their older college selves, the actors looked way too old to be college students.

Once in college the ML had no respect for the FL’s thoughts and feelings. He ruined her first day with the one guy she dated in college. And repeatedly called her, showed up at places where he knew she would be and followed her when she went home to visit family during her college breaks, even though she told him numerous times to get lost. She wasn’t even telling him this jokingly or encouraging his pursuit at all. Each time she told him to leave her alone she was very firm. But he continued to stalk her until she finally requited his “love”.

The FL lead’s BFF pathetically continued to be at the beckon call of the ML’s BFF because she liked him. Problem was she’d confessed to him in high school but he rejected her and continued to ignore her feelings when they got to college by asking her to help him pursue her class mates. He was extremely insensitive to her feelings for him and showed no interest in her until she started to open herself to other prospects. Something she should’ve done after he rejected her. At this point, I stopped watching. All of the romantic relationships were manipulative and toxic. I couldn’t root for any of them which is a shame because I actually thought the ML/FL’s relationship in high school had the potential to be interesting and romantic.

The only thing I really enjoyed about this series was the relationship between the FL and her BFF. They were true friends throughout high school and college. I enjoyed their interactions. I also thought the boyfriend the FL had in college was great. Their relationship has potential but of course was destroyed by the need to hook her up with the ML. The series as a whole had potential but was problematic due to the way the romances were presented.

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