Go Go Squid! (2019)

IT'S BECAME MY NUMBER ONE FAV CDRAMA

I never think how good this gonna be! Everything about this drama it's very perfect. It's not just focus on the romance between HSY and TN but it also focus on HSY past, best friend, KK and SP. All the emotions, happy, sad, angry, broken, found, everything I can really feel it!! HSY it's a very green flag man (act of service, gentleman, act of money, responsibility). Tong Nian too it's a green flag gf, she's never angry to HSY she always be right there to support HSY and his team. What a lovely drama! Also all the OST make this drama become very cool! Li Xian very handsome in this drama and I can't wait to see him and Yang Zi in Flourished Peony!

Citeste mai mult

Loved Everything but the Leading Couple

Since Go Go Squid is one of the highest rated Mainland China shows on Viki, I thought I would check it out, and while I made it to the end, it wasn't because of the leading couple.

Set in the world of competitive pro gaming, this drama has an interesting premise filled with quirky young actors that provide humor to every scene that they are in, and they and are almost enough to compensate for the leading couple's lack of chemistry.

Almost.

Separately, the two leading characters are both intelligent and successful in their chosen career paths even if they are both inexperienced in the romance department, so on the surface they should have a lot in common to make their significant age gap seem trivial. Sadly, whenever they are together, their worst faults are only highlighted, which makes watching them as a couple cringe inducing.

Tong Nian (TN) immediately develops a crush on Han Shang Yin's (HSY), and her inexperience manifests in the form of an adolescent crush, as she fangirls over him and tries to insert herself in his life however possible. HSY's initial disinterest in TN slowly evolves into a mutual interest, but due to his lack of dating experience, his exterior behaviors still project a sense a apathy. Overall, even at the peak of their relationship, it still feels like watching a 13-year-old girl with the hots for teacher, a teacher who is doing his best not to engage for fear of giving her the wrong idea and hurting her feelings. This dynamic is especially disappointing because TN is otherwise such an intelligent woman, and I found myself enjoying her character more when she wasn't with the leading man.

Leading couple aside, I would still call this drama "cute," and if you're in the mood for something light, fluffy, and full of entertaining secondary characters, then you may find this drama worth the watch. However, if you are very particular about you're leading couple and don't want a leading woman who becomes a less interesting version of herself when she's in love, then you may want to avoid this drama.

Citeste mai mult

HIDDEN GEM OF C- DRAMAS, BEST OF 2019 , PERFECT IN MANY WAYS, YOU WILL LOVE IT FOR SURE

THIS IS A COMPLETE PACKAGE C- DRAMA OF ALL TIME. I OFTEN GIVE A REVIEW FOR THE DRAMS THAT I'VE WATCHED BUT THIS IS A HIDDEN GEM AND A MUST WATCHED.

AT FIRST, I WAS HESITANT TO WATCHED THIS DRAMA BECAUSE IT HAS 41 EPISODES UNLIKE MY GIRLFRIEND IS AN ALIEN, PERFECT AND CASUAL, PUT YOUR HEAD ON MY SHOULDER AND SUCH. BUT AFTER WATCHING THIS DRAMA, I'VE REWATCHED IT FOR 5 TIMES IN A STRAIGHT WEEK. THAT IS HOW GOOD IT IS.

SOME MAY FIND IT TO BORONG BECAUSE OF THE STORYLINE COMPARED WITH THE MOST FAVORITE A LOVE 020 (ESPORTS THEME), BUT THIS IS REFRESHING AND SO GOOD IN MANY ASPECTS.

CHARACTERS- LI XIAN DEFINITELY FITS THE ROLE. HIS NOT THAT ATTRACTIVE AT FIRST SIGHT, BUT BOOM, YOU WILL FALL IN LOVE WITH HIM FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. TRUST ME. YOU WILL ADORE HIM FOR SURE AFTER WATCHING GGS. YANG ZI PLAYED SO WELL, NO COMMENT, I KNOW SHE ALWAYS DOES. AND THE REST OF THE CAST TEAM SOLO, TEAM SP, TEAM K &K WAS MADE FOR THE DRAMA. THEY GIVE THE SHOW THE BEST SUPPORTING CAST/ ROLE. HU YI TIAN IS MY FIRST C- DRAMA LOVE AND I MISS HIM BUT I AM SATSFIED THAT THIS SHOW WAS NOT JUST ABOUT HOW GOOD HE IS. HE COMPLIMENT THE OTHER K&K MEMBERS. 97, ONE, GRUNT, WU BAI, DEMO, ALL, APPLEDOG, SOLO, YAYA, XIAFEI. THEY MADE THE SHOW PERFECT.

OST- THE BEST OST OF ALL TIME. THE 3 SOUNDTRACKS ARE SO PERFECT. MOST OF THE WONDERFUL OST'S ARE IN KOREAN DRAMAS BUT GO GO SQUID HAS THE BEST IN C- DRAMAS. NOT JUST ONE BUT 3 PERFECT SOUNDTRACKS/

LASTLY, THH STORYLINE IS UNIQUE IN ITS OWN WAY, YOU SHOULD JUST UNDERSTAND IT. YOU CANNOT CHANGE IT BECAUSE IT COMES FROM A NOVEL. THERE ARE SOME LOOPHOLES AND BORING MOMENTS LIKE IN EP 2 AND FLASHBACKS. BUT OH MEN. THE SCENES ARE SO PERFECT. LIKE IN E 3, 4 , 7, 8, 15, 30 AND UP.

ASIDE FROM DESCENDANTS OF THE SUN. GO GO SQUID IS THE ONLY DRAMA THAT I'VE WATCHED MORE THAN ONCE AND TRUST ME I AM PICKY IN TERMS OF WHAT TO WATCHED. JIAYO

Citeste mai mult

Light easy to watch romcom with great storyline

I like how Chinese dramas are having more strong female leads like this one. The female lead is no clumsy naive simpleton, she’s a genius college student. And she’s super confident and very outgoing. I love the relationship she has with her cousin and her bestie in college too. I also liked that even though she was a big internet star, she was genuine and down to earth. She has a very likable personality. On the downside, be prepared for some odd outfits that are a bit oversized and for her hair to always be pulled into a half ponytail. It’s been a terrible trend with Chinese dramas lately. I don’t know why they can’t leave the hair down and put close fitting figure flattering clothes on the female leads.

As for the male lead, at first he comes off as your typical cold unfeeling hot guy thats full of himself and ignores all of the females vying for his attention. But once you get to know him you realize he’s not full of himself or trying to ignore anyone or be rude. His upbringing made him clueless about social situations and an event in the past has him hyper focused on winning the world championship for China in CTF (Cyber security). Plus he co owns a big cyber security company and runs the entire Chinese branch by himself. So he doesn’t have the time to put much effort into friendships or relationships.

Fortunately for the male lead, the female lead comes along and turns his world upside down. Because of a misunderstanding, they have to pretend to date for a while and she teaches him so much about relationships and how to be a good friend. She sees through his rough exterior to the warm caring person he really is and helps his character to grow tremendously. I love their romance with the real kisses, hugs, and cuddles. It’s very sweet and they have great chemistry. The romantic aspects of this drama were done perfectly.

Another big plus for this drama is the CTF (cyber security) gaming competitions. I loved how the teams worked and lived together. The camaraderie and team spirit was quite touching. They seemed more like family than friends. And the way the male lead was more of a father figure to his team than a friend was endearing. The gaming storyline made it much deeper and more interesting than your typical romance drama.

I normally don’t even notice the music in a drama. It’s just not my thing. But I have to say that I found myself humming along to a lot of the songs. I even looked up a couple of songs and downloaded them. The entire soundtrack is really good and added a lot to the drama.

There are a lot of well fleshed out side characters that you’ll love. The male leads grandfather is just adorable. I couldn’t get enough of him! And his gorgeous and talented cousin is so quiet and mysterious. The female leads parents relationship was so funny and cute too. And the whole K & K CTF team is pure eye candy.

In conclusion, I would say that this is a relatively light easy to watch romance drama with an interesting storyline. There’s not too much angst or sadness. It’s there but it’s not drawn out for too long making you want to scream at your tv. The acting is absolutely amazing with a great cast. It flows well never leaving you confused about what happened. All of the questions are answered and the loose ends are tied up in the end too. My only complaint would be that there are way too many flashbacks to the past throughout the drama. They hint at what really happened in the past between the group of friends for way too long. But I guess no drama is perfect, right? But this one is pretty close to perfect in my honest opinion. I would definitely recommend watching this drama.

Citeste mai mult

I should say this is a really cute romance drama, like really really cute, not that i'm complaining tho. Their chemistry is just so good and adorable. How she opens his heart to be a caring man, it's just so cutee. I have to say, i laugh a lot for this series, like how all of the club members misunderstand her and call her lady boss at first, and then they like to tease the couple a lot, and the ml's facial expression, and then the romance starts to grow, all of it are just so adorable. And then there's hu yi tian!! God i love him so much he is just so cute esp when he smirk because of the two main lead.

Things i don't like from this series is just that there's sooo many flashbacks and i tend to skip a lot of parts bcs sometimes it gets boring. But the thing that keeps me going is their romance they are just so cute together TT i keep saying cute a lot but really they are just so adorable. Recommended for fluff and romcom lovers!

Citeste mai mult

My number 1 favorite..i've watched this for over 10 times already..hoping for a season 3 for tong nian and han siang yan..
please do watch this cause it will make you feel better of a happy love story with ups and down..what really strikes me in this drama is the friendship and patriotism side of the story..everytime han siang yan throws the flag it made me feel good andnreminds us to make our country's proud of us cause we owe them a championship title..
The friendship that was broken was fixed with love, love teaches the heart to forgive..
SEASON 3 is highly awaited please..

Citeste mai mult

I enjoyed this drama because I was in the mood for a light rom-com. I liked the show enough to binge thru 41 eps over 2-3 days, putting a few of my currently airing shows in a wait-state. I hadn't met this ML before, so I was pleasantly surprised and hooked base on him as an actor (and admittedly because of his handsomeness). I was familiar with & already grown accustomed to the FL based on a couple of other dramas, most popular being Ashes of Love. She plays a cutesy young college girl in this that falls for a guy 10 years older than her. I liked the storyline and a lot of the mishaps and misunderstandings that lead to these to being perceived as a couple b4 they actually are. I laughed out loud at least a handful of times. The chemistry is there on a slow-burn basis. It made sense, but to an inpatient viewer this could be troublesome.

The real negatives of this show were that there was an overuse of flashbacks used repetitively that became unnecessary filler to an episode here and there. I knock the writers for that. I also was very much aware throughout the show of the fact that they made him look great -- kudos to the clothing stylist and the hair stylist. But in contrast, the clothing stylist for the FL should be shot and the hair stylist right behind her. It was too much of a contrast between the two leads. She constantly looked like she was in a dressed up potato sack. I can count on on hand how many times/scenes they dressed her in something that made her look attractive. Sooo, while watching this show, it was just nagging me at the back of my brain from beginning to end.

There is a good supporting cast, most especially the team of young guys. They added a whole additional layer of comedy and relief to the show. Nicely done. I was surprised to see Hu Yi Tian after being in a successful/popular leading role in A Love So Beautiful. I thought his part, although not very verbal, was impactful and captured my attention with just his facial expressions throughout the whole show. I didn't know about the fact that he had recently gotten him self caught up in a mess of a scandal until I was almost done with the drama. I saw comments where many who are up on Chinese entertainment news didn't want to give him the time of day..slammed him in comments and so on. Me, however, I judged him solely based on his acting performance -- he brought something to the table and I can see why he has 4 other dramas already slated to come out where he is the male lead. Will I watch them, YEP.

Even with the negatives I raised, this show kept me entertained and engaged enough to rate it an 8.5/10. And I will be checking out the other dramas of the ML (Li Xian).

p.s. What took me so long to start this drama was that I thought the title was kinda lame. It makes sense, but I think the marketing people could have done a better job capturing more audience with a different name.

Citeste mai mult

heart-fluttering, nostalgic story!

Finally understood the hype for this show! It's a sweet romance between the main leads with a mix of nostalgic friendship memories!

First and foremost, chemistry between both leads are simply amazing. At first it was awkward, but I assume it was part of character development lol.

Male lead is cold, emotionless, serious man with a strong passion of leading his team to be a world champion and also fulfilling his own dreams when he was young. He might seem very cold, but he's the most sentimental dude i have ever seen. And the more mean he is, the more he cares about the person. He has a sad past and friendships breakup that turned him into this person, but eventually the female lead came into his life and warmed his icy heart!!

Female lead is bubbly, loving, likable, adorable woman who is a genius in programming. She fell in love with the male lead at first sight which seems unrealistic, but oh wells that's how the story progresses. She turns into stalker-mode and starts to pursue the male lead, but actually it would have been better if it went naturally 'cos there were many factors that could have led them to meet each other and fall in love instead.

Here comes the plot, at first it feels too much disturbing as she stalks him just to find out who he is and where he lives. After that, they were entangled in a relationship by accident and misunderstanding. The male lead gradually fell in love with her and the relationship turned real so it got better from here. Would have wished that the way the female lead pursued the male lead was different from the plot here as it felt unrealistic and impossible to happen in real life. Like they had common topic such as cybersecurity or they were related by families or the fact that her professor actually knew the male lead.

Aside from the main love story, the show focuses on the male lead's past friendship with his former teammates. He might have been holding a grudge for the past ten years, but eventually they managed to bury the hatchet and became close again. The pace felt just right and I felt the memories were useful in giving us a bigger picture as to why the male lead turned this way.

The side couple's story was sweet too, Yaya and Mi. The other one which the show didn't focus much on was Ai Qing and Wu Bai. Wu Bai is a very interesting character due to his mysterious vibes. Even though he had lesser scenes and little lines, but it was what made him mysterious. So, I was actually very fond of his character aside from the main leads.

There comes the typical parents not liking the male lead and trying to separate them which the male lead eventually convinced them in the end and they managed to accept him. And also, his grandfather, his stepmother, his K&K kids who were on his side that got him and the female lead together was simply fun to watch. They were the ones who made this relationship happened so kudos to them!

The love rivals were not powerful enough to separate the main leads, but thanks to them, they made the main leads grew to love and understand each other even more lol.

Now comes my favorite part, the soundtracks! I love their main OST, its super addictive and they have many great soundtracks!

Production seem high-cost, seeing that they had to film in hotels, different houses and a club. There were quite a lot of product placements so this show must have been highly raved.

Female lead's wardrobe collection was cute which fits her personality. I love the male lead's choice of clothes, just full black which made him so handsome and stylish.

Other than that, I would actually recommend this show to anyone who wants to watch. It got me quite hooked after I was trying to move on from a previous show. Now, I'm actually hyped to watch the spin-off of this show so that I could get a glimpse of Wu Bai and Ai Qing's love story as well as snippets of the main leads getting married. I would definitely re-watch again if I could!

Citeste mai mult

'Cutesy' story with lots of flashbacks.

Overall, the whole is cutesy romance with the usual pinch of breakup and 2nd lead, clingy FL and stoic ML. The actress tries to play the 'cutesy' FL but somehow for me, she doesn't fit that image. FL's character is a genius but lacks a lot in life experience, which given her age is true. This was my first cdrama which did bring me into watching cdramas back in 2019 but rewatching it again now makes me point out stuff which the younger me would have ignored. The FL gets stalkerish in the start and God trying to be 'cutesy' is so frustrating to watch. Plus I don't know who was her stylist but her clothes almost look like a 4 year old dressed her up. The flashbacks also made it a bit boring. The flashbacks were too long and frequent. I get that it helps understand the ML and his old team, but their frequency and length made me skip those, as they had the same story overall. My favourite parts were those which had the whole team together and Wu Bai. Wu Bai's interactions with TN were sweet and with HS were comedic. Overall not a bad series, but the 'too cute' FL was a bummer for me.

Citeste mai mult

Life is too short for stressful drama.

Life is too short for stressful drama. Why spend all that time watching and be stressed? Don’t our lives already provide enough of that?

Summary of the series:
- Light hearted rom/com; series had great flow
- there was some miscommunication, but it was negligible for the story to move forward
- amazing sound track
- FL acting carries the whole series; amazing surrounding casts and very likable
- great story on friendship
- simpatico characters
- villains are kept at bay easily, no long struggles, calamity or miscommunications to cause more drama and stress
- love how the series dont stop when the ML/FL get together. The series continues. We seldom find this where you get to enjoy the happiness for a few more episodes after they become a couple.
- ending was not done succinctly, so glad no rush endings like lots over series


By far one of my fav of all time since I like joyful, stressless series: recommended to watch for sure

If you are looking for gratuitous stress/drama, frequent miscommunications, abrupt ending, insipid side stories, then this is not for you.

Citeste mai mult

A (slightly exaggerated) c-drama about romance, ambition and friendship

Don't get me wrong, Go Go Squid wasn't THAT bad, but it wasn't as good as I wished it was.
I jumped in when many reviews said that the female lead was a cosplay singer and the male lead was a pro e-sports gamer. As someone interested in both I was disappointed to find out that Tong Nian wasn't actually cosplaying but is really more of "popular singer that covers anime songs"

The casts looked good and were quite suited to their role in the drama - e.g. looking like their intended age in the show. The main leads were cute and their interaction on screen made my heart flutter a lot, HOWEVER story-wise it was slightly hard to believe due to their big age gap and how the female lead mostly felt very clingy to the male lead and generally passive throughout the series.

One big thing that drives the drama is the ambition that the e-sport casts have. I like that the story also includes many scenes of the gamers training and struggling to prove themselves to be the best. It also includes light-hearted interactions like bantering with Han Shang Yan DESPITE him being the "scary boss", I found that refreshing to watch.

Unfortunately some things just don't sit right with me when watching this drama, for example the styling for the female lead - Tong Nian is constantly wearing really baggy outfits that are weirdly put together (e.g. bright yellow knee length shirts, white shoes complemented with a denim jacket). It was most likely put together because they wanted to give Tong Nian that youthful demeanor in contrast to Han Shang Yan but it looked horrible. I don't think I wanna sit through 41 episodes of that ever again.

Citeste mai mult