super disappointed. such a cool concept.

They get so bogged down in the minutia of this love story that they forget to flesh out the fascinating mythology. the apocalypse is nigh and we're playing house? the environment is one the brink of supernatural collapse? lets go to work at the travel agency! They also spend an absolutely mind numbing amount of time on characters that amount to little more than set dressing with lines. Sometimes these drawn out threads of story or pointless characters intersect with the plot but when that happens it feels less like an intentional choice from a skillful writer or editor and more like "why not use one of the people floating around the office doing nothing?"

few of the characters are compelling. the ones that are lost to bad development- or no development. the villains feel flat and unconnected to their stated motivation.

the acting is....passable i guess.

Alice Ke is the only one who really shines. But she's just doing the best she can with a criminally undeveloped character. she can't act a good character arc into existence. Joanne Tseng is Joanne Tseng. if you've seen her in anything else, you've seen her in this. they are the only two worth mentioning. everyone else just sort of showed up and clocked in.

in conclusion the bones of this are interesting. The mythology is vibrant and will be new to most viewers but it's poorly utilized. Rainless Love in a Godless Land leans too hard on modern Taiwanese romance tropes, a choice that eats away at the magic of the story. Weak writing and acting that ranges from ok to lackluster further dull what should have been a spectacularly different gem of a drama.