Roxyone03
US
This review may contain spoilers
Letting a good opportunity slip away
With Aaron's return to acting after his major accident, I was greatly anticipating this drama and had high hopes for a great story. For those who don't know, it is a loose remake of the drama "Just You". While the bl remake idea was decent, the execution fell flat and the reason it failed had nothing at all to do with the cast. This drama is a great example of where you can have the best actors in your lineup, but if the writing, direction, and editing are subpar, even those talented actors cannot save it. Hank and Aaron are the only reason I kept watching, as I'm sure it was the case for many others, rather than the story itself. My overall score is pretty much me being generous for the sake of both Hank and Aaron's acting as they are what held this show together.
Issues with the story:
1. What has bothered me most while watching this drama was the fact that they had two great main leads who work well together, yet they weren't given many opportunities nor had much to work with plot-wise to show off their talent. We are already on a time limit. There are 12 episodes, about 24? minutes long, meaning it's crucial to convey the storyline and also build the relationship between our main leads Shi Lei and Yu Zhen. But rather than focusing on our main couple, many episodes were instead wasted on side characters (2nd couple, work employee couple) and business cases that didn't push the plot forward. The 2nd couple had miles of progress in their relationship straight from the jump, while our main leads barely had anything. Whenever it seemed like we were finally getting a breakthrough, they just ended the episode and then we had to wait a whole week and repeat this torturous cycle of nothingness. Their progression was the slowest up to the very end of the show. Waiting every week for a super short episode with little to no progress in Shi Lei's and Yu Zhen's relationship slowly built the irritation and disappointment over time. The few times Hank and Aaron were given a chance to increase the romantic tension between their characters to build a closer relationship, their chemistry was through the roof. It's a real shame that the poor writing/directing is what held them back and also held the drama down from being something better.
2. The poor editing of almost every episode created a disconnect with the flow of the story, which made things either confusing or the scenes felt out of place, didn't make sense, or were unnecessary. The same goes for the music. They had nice songs, but sometimes they were mismatched in certain scenes. The lyrics are sweet, yet nothing is really happening between our main leads and over time it felt like those songs were for the 2nd lead couple since they seemed to be the only ones in an actual relationship throughout the show.
3. This isn't an issue persay, but there were so many cliche moments. If you've watched dramas for awhile, you can easily predict what will happen. People tripping and being caught, accidentally touching/kissing the other person, etc. The same goes for the ex who they threw into the mix towards the final episodes to add drama. Very predictable, also wasn't really necessary. I feel if they were going to add his little arc, then it should have been earlier in the series and ended maybe around the 6 or 7th episode. Doing so would have given more time to show Shi Lei and Yu Zhen being in an actual romantic relationship after finally getting rid of those ridiculous rules and without the ex or anyone else in the way.
I think many of us gave this drama a couple episodes to prove itself, thinking the relationship between Shi Lei and Yu Zhen would be a slow burn, but thanks to the director it was barely kindled. The moment it finally flourished, the drama was over. For this being Aaron's comeback drama, I personally feel he deserved way better, but nevertheless this is still a decent, light-hearted watch and am happy to see him acting again. It's also hard to not like how cute Shi Lei and Yu Zhen were together. I'd love to see him and Hank work together again in another drama in the future as they seemed to have a great relationship both on and off-screen. On a final note, Wayne's sudden cameo hurt my heart! lol it was bittersweet
Issues with the story:
1. What has bothered me most while watching this drama was the fact that they had two great main leads who work well together, yet they weren't given many opportunities nor had much to work with plot-wise to show off their talent. We are already on a time limit. There are 12 episodes, about 24? minutes long, meaning it's crucial to convey the storyline and also build the relationship between our main leads Shi Lei and Yu Zhen. But rather than focusing on our main couple, many episodes were instead wasted on side characters (2nd couple, work employee couple) and business cases that didn't push the plot forward. The 2nd couple had miles of progress in their relationship straight from the jump, while our main leads barely had anything. Whenever it seemed like we were finally getting a breakthrough, they just ended the episode and then we had to wait a whole week and repeat this torturous cycle of nothingness. Their progression was the slowest up to the very end of the show. Waiting every week for a super short episode with little to no progress in Shi Lei's and Yu Zhen's relationship slowly built the irritation and disappointment over time. The few times Hank and Aaron were given a chance to increase the romantic tension between their characters to build a closer relationship, their chemistry was through the roof. It's a real shame that the poor writing/directing is what held them back and also held the drama down from being something better.
2. The poor editing of almost every episode created a disconnect with the flow of the story, which made things either confusing or the scenes felt out of place, didn't make sense, or were unnecessary. The same goes for the music. They had nice songs, but sometimes they were mismatched in certain scenes. The lyrics are sweet, yet nothing is really happening between our main leads and over time it felt like those songs were for the 2nd lead couple since they seemed to be the only ones in an actual relationship throughout the show.
3. This isn't an issue persay, but there were so many cliche moments. If you've watched dramas for awhile, you can easily predict what will happen. People tripping and being caught, accidentally touching/kissing the other person, etc. The same goes for the ex who they threw into the mix towards the final episodes to add drama. Very predictable, also wasn't really necessary. I feel if they were going to add his little arc, then it should have been earlier in the series and ended maybe around the 6 or 7th episode. Doing so would have given more time to show Shi Lei and Yu Zhen being in an actual romantic relationship after finally getting rid of those ridiculous rules and without the ex or anyone else in the way.
I think many of us gave this drama a couple episodes to prove itself, thinking the relationship between Shi Lei and Yu Zhen would be a slow burn, but thanks to the director it was barely kindled. The moment it finally flourished, the drama was over. For this being Aaron's comeback drama, I personally feel he deserved way better, but nevertheless this is still a decent, light-hearted watch and am happy to see him acting again. It's also hard to not like how cute Shi Lei and Yu Zhen were together. I'd love to see him and Hank work together again in another drama in the future as they seemed to have a great relationship both on and off-screen. On a final note, Wayne's sudden cameo hurt my heart! lol it was bittersweet
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