ivybis
United States
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.
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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