Cuo Liao (2023)

Frustrating and Draggy

This storyline had potential, but there are so many things that dragged this series down that made it so frustrating to watch. I skipped through a lot of it. The cast and acting wasn't the problem - it's the script writing that is ridiculous and insulting to the viewer's intelligence.

Positives (not many):
- ML (Dylan Wang), I watched it just for him. But his voice did not fit the character (they should have used a voice actor to dub him)
- 3rd FL (the niece Qin Shi Yue) - she started out super annoying acting like a toddler w/ the constant whining, tattling and stomping her feet, but that eventually subsided and she becomes quite endearing

Negatives:
- Main couple's chemistry wasn't great. He's supposed to be the older, successful, idolized one and she as the young bubbly one just starting her career. But she appeared older than him so it seemed awkward, like a big sister and little brother dynamic.
- ML's wardrobe was just terrible - nothing fit him properly! As another reviewer commented, it looked like he was borrowing his older brother's clothes
- FL character was so damn annoying - it's not bad acting on the actress's part, it's the scrip writing that made no sense. One minute she's smart, aggressive and outright daring and flirtatious w/ the ML; then the next minute she's a shrinking violet, overly dense/naïve when it comes to love
- The phone ringing interrupting every pivotal moment was so ridiculous! Literally almost every build up to a kiss scene or a confession, their phone rings and they answer it!!!
- 2nd FL (ShanShan) the FL's BFF was so annoying, giving out relationship advice when her love life is a complete mess
- The toxic male dominance was intolerable - how many times did the ML Shi Yan drag the FL around by the arm like a rag doll - in public, in their home, at work places, etc. Some scenes were meant to be cute and some were meant to be anger-based. Either way, there is no way in hell a woman would allow that so it should not be done to that extent in a modern drama. And that scene where Shu Yi's ex BF shows up drunk and obnoxious at her door - Shi Yan leaves a work event...somehow gets there in time to shove past the ex, slam the door, make out w/ the Shu Yi, comes back out and to send a message to the ex that he kissed her and that she belongs to him so get lost. That was just so gross.

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Wasted potential

First of all, what is this show about?

It’s Zheng Shuyi, a journalist who comes to know Shi Yan, an entrepreneur, as the uncle of her ex-boyfriend’s mistress. She gets closer and closer to him and sparks form, yet she still hides the reason of their meeting. At the same time, there are the love stories of Shuyi’s best friend, Shi Yan’s assistant, Shuyi’s boss and Shi Yan’s niece.

What can be said that’s good about this drama?

- Amazing cast. This show reunited some of the most famous and most recognisable Chinese actors, with Dylan Wang (LBFAD) and Bailu (Arsenal Military Academy) at the helm, accompanied by Wei ZheMing (Unforgettable Love) Jiang Pei Yao (Go Go Squid! 1), Zeng Li (LLTG) and many more. These are indeed also great actors, with Dylan Wang having grown majorly from his questionable acting in Miss The Dragon, although nothing could beat his acting in Love Between Fairy and Devil.

- Additionally, there seems to be quite a lot of budget for this series, with nice camera work, lots of closeups and flattering light. There’s also some pretty decor, background and overall good composition.

Now this is where everything will turn as this is the end of the positive aspects of this series.

What is bad about this drama? Too many things honestly. But what are the most apparent things?

- Storyline and bad use of time:
In the first part of the drama, the romance is dragged way too much, and there is little time dedicated to the progression of the secondary couples. It’s only when we get to the middle that we see the secondary characters become important. Near the end, we are disappointed and annoyed at the amount of couples that they tried to fit in this story. Some seemed natural, while others were completely forced and added nothing to the already heavy storyline. There are at least 6 couples shown in this, with more than half having little to no real screen-time.

- Lack of continuity:
They give us situations, that have obviously been filmed out of order, but when information has already been given to us previously, they go back on it or don’t know this information exists, as if some later episodes were written and filmed before the earlier ones.

-Rushed ending:
Near the end, they struggled to tie up the loose ends created throughout the series, and most were still open. They introduced so many storylines but didn’t do anything more to meaningfully contribute to the story. We are left with so many questions.

-Useless Characters:
They added characters out of nowhere, only to be used for one or two situations and then never be seen again, like a disappearing act. They were also used to force the main leads to experience the famous clichés (Jealousy, cheating, miscommunication, Rich CEO boyfriend, fake rumours…etc). One character appears in the end of the story, we’ve never heard of her, we don’t know where she comes from or why she’s here, but she doesn’t serve any use other than making the FL jealous and looking innocent.

- Main Leads personalities.
The ML was pretty basic, cold CEO who doesn’t like to talk much, and Dylan’s acting makes it a tiny bit enjoyable. What’s bad is the FL’s personality. It makes no sense. She is shy, yet courageous at the same time. And immature all the time, despite being an accomplished journalist respected by many. She tries to fit the mould of the soft, submissive female lead but all of her attributes fail to build a harmonious personality.

-Useless problems/intrigue:
The whole problem with the relationship of the main leads is the total lack of communication. And that the problem is resolved immaturely from both sides, and then forgotten.

To conclude:
This story tries to be the perfect overbearing CEO with a cutesy FL series, partnered with every cliché known to the CDrama industry. With the amount of budget it had, it’s disappointing story wise and doesn’t give us a proper ending.

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Typical romcom Chinese drama and could have been shorter

In general I like it, there are things I liked and things that I didn’t. It made me smile and laugh, but also annoyed me at time. I also like a drama with multiple couples. I think it’s more interesting then a drama concentrating more on a love triangle, with like the 2 leads and a side or 2 SL with unrequited love. That was here a bit, but not for the entire drama.

I didn’t want to start at first because I wasn’t feeling this pairing for the leads. But it wasn’t that bad, they were kinda cute together. The kissing scenes were good, much better outside the drama though. Annoying censorship, they were shorter with not good angles for a lot of them in the drama.

I was annoyed at both of them after her secret was out (how she was using him at first) :
- she was making no efforts and only thinking about work. She lied for so long, she deserved the silence treatment in the beginning. Also, her spending time with Yi Yang was so much annoying, like girl should have told him from the beginning that she’s not interested in him and she should have told him no to hang out (she told him later, but should have done it in the beginning). That guy was so annoying and weird. Bro literally showed up at her parents place and try to get with her went she was already and a relationship, in love with someone else.
- I agree that he had the right to be mad and ignore her, but he still could have let her try to explain too after a while. The breakup was too damn long, both of them incapable of talking was annoying.

The plot was a bit draggy, too many episodes, but still enjoyable. It’s a romcom, you can’t expect much more than that for a plot.

The third couple could have had a better and more interesting story. Their chemistry was amazing, but the misunderstanding and their story kept going in circles before they got together. Since they were already in love at the very beginning of the drama, they should have made them get together sooner, since also all the couples got officially together quite late.

I loved the second couple, I think they were cute. I was looking forward to their scenes, I was patiently waiting for YY to realize is feeling and get jealous.

Anyway too many ongoing dramas, time to pass to another one😂 but I think I would recommend this drama, not everyone would like it. It can be cliche, cringe and dragging misunderstanding for like all the main couples, but it’s an okay romcom

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This drama has nothing but Bailu's pretty face

Like honestly, I was down to see some romance but this drama doesn't know where it's going. The motivations of the main character are terribly explained and for many times I was confused if she knew certain plot points or not. The secondary couples also do not make this more enjoyable, except maybe Bi Roushan and the wealthy man she has on and offs again and again. I just watched it to see more of my girl's beautiful face and to quench my curiosity over Dylan's actual voice for the first time. But it's a whole lot of nothing plotwise and dragged out for no reason at all.

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Typical CEO story, Nothing special

Pros: leads are really proactive in flirting, quick in seeing their interest for each other, not shy and embarrassed abt their romance as in they're not really hiding it, proudly shows the other, good side couples who were actually interesting, cutesy scenes were better than their intimate ones, i wanted the second male lead so bad, there were other women but he did not give the time of day at all and it was a really small part of the story,
Cons: their little breakup was really silly and not needed, I didn't really understand the reason and why they couldn't just talk to each other???, the progress of them getting back together was also weird, all their kissing scenes were kind of awkward (had her eyes open like a lot), for me personally it was not the greatest chemistry but so many loved it so might just be me,
a lot of business stuff which wasn't too bad but bored me near the middle-end,

I love the journalist as a female lead plot and I was going in expecting a lot as it was really popular. Their chemistry was nothing special to me, especially during the kiss scenes. The thing that disappointed me the most was their breakup. Their communication was so well leading up to that and the breakup was played out for an awkwardly boring long time. I liked the side couples a lot, their scenes were cute. My favorite was her coworker and his assistant, I wish they had more screen time. All the characters even the "bad ones" like her ex and his girlfriend were pretty interesting too. I wish they played more into when they all found out the girlfriend was lying. Watching that scene was lowkey pretty awkward to me, I wish there was like a better revenge. Even though I loved the second male lead, I thought his involvement in the story was also out of nowhere and felt off the rest of the show. When he first showed up, I expected him to be a small side part but he ended appearing up so much (not complaining). Overall, I genuinely was interested and enjoyed it throughout. I think it's just a classic cold CEO story. I rated it 8/10 right after I finished but writing the review 2 days later, I forgot a lot about the story already and would give it a solid 7.5.

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Good cast, bad story... A waste of potential.

The main selling point in this drama is on Bailu and Dylan Wang's fame.

The story is poorly written, I can't believe we still seeing a female lead so dumb, so childish, so annoying, and so clingy from start till the end -- and a CEO who blindly in love with all of her antique. That also didn't fit with their character background story. Zheng Shu Yi supposed to be a smart and successful female reporter, but none of her action nor her words in this drama showing how smart she is. Can she be more sensible, please? FYI, yeah I know the actor and actress were only following the script. Thus, I blame all these to the production team!

The romantic scenes in the last 4-5 episodes kinda okay, with hot kisses and hot bed scenes, but that's it. Unnecessary quarrel and misunderstanding dominated the 30 episodes, and its really tiring to see even though I like both ML and FL. Perhaps, this series might be better if they made it into only 24 episodes, not 36. I hope Dylan Wang and Bailu will be more selective in choosing their next project.

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Would I recommend this drama?

If you want to watch a realistic drama, move over, this is not for you . If you want to watch fluffy make your heart smile drama (and generate laughters), then yes I will recommend you to watch this.

The pull and push in the ML and FL relationship is just so awkward and draggy. But don't worry, this drama gets better and better.

I read some parts the novel as I finished watching ep 20 to see which one is worse, the drama or the novel. The answer is, the novel by heaps! Why? Because the novel has no Bai Lu and Dylan. At first I thought this was an adaptation of an anime, so I was surprised to find out it's a novel. The novel is so badly written, so cringy.

I would certainly have dropped this drama after just 1 or 2 episodes if not because I love Bai Lu and how good looking Dylan is as the CEO. In fact, I wouldn't even touch this drama if not because of Bai Lu and Dylan.

The couple with the best storyline is actually ML's niece with the professor. The niece is the youngest amongst the 3 female leads, yet she's the only mature one (with FL's best friend being the worst of all).

The business side of the story is actually not too bad.

CONS:
1. FL continuedly lied to ML all the way (well so far anyway, I'm at ep 20 now).
2. The second leads (Shan Shan and Mr Gu Jnr)... What the heck?!? Fast forward all the way.

PRO:
Bashing this drama aside, I do enjoy watching Bai Lu and Dylan - and the 2ML, and 3ML. This drama is definitely swoon worthy and full of eye candy. I smiled and giggled a lot watching this. I would even rewatch just to watch the ML and FL chemistry. So according to my enjoyment level, I'm giving this a 9 (the novel I would give a 4.5!)

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Waste of Time & Potential!

I did it. I finally watched every single episode without skipping. I was miserable, but I did it because I really love Bai Lu & Dylan Wang. I wanted to give them my full attention until the very end.

This drama had so much wasted potential. I even took down some notes on my phone while I watched. How could a drama with such an amazing cast be so terrible! Okay it's time to let it all out.

Negatives:
- Unnecessarily long staring/pondering scenes. LIKE SUPER unnecessarily long.
- Yi Yang was a useless character. He added nothing to this show. Pure annoyance. This guy couldn't and wouldn't take no for a damn answer.
- Lack of communication within all of the characters. Everyone pretty much knew each other but didn't know that they all knew each other mutually. Does that make sense? Like with Guan Ji and ShanShan... why didn't ShanShan tell her best friend ShuYi that she knew who he was? And even towards the end when GJ and SS got together, she didn't even tell ShuYi until she found out for herself. I actually liked this couple in the beginning, but boy oh boy were they so damn annoying later on!
- Speaking of ShanShan - she gave the WORST relationship advice to ShuYi. And it doesn't help that ShuYi is so dumb. They're basically dumb and dumber, except dumber is giving dumb advice. HAHA.
- Nobody is straightforward with their feelings except the niece, ShiYue.
- So much hesitation with talking & texting. I can't tell you how many times they typed out a decent message but decided to delete it and not send it.
- Many many missed opportunities to clear up misunderstandings. MANY!!!!
- ShuYi's Mom meeting ShiYan was SOOOOO disappointing. We didn't get to see her true reaction to him really being ShuYi's boyfriend. That scene was so boring and the Mom just left right after? What the heck was that all about?! They could have made it so much better. I wanted to see her surprised, but instead she just looked bored and annoyed the whole entire time she was at the house.
- The wedding scene with Tang Yi and her hubby was so awkward. They didn't even kiss... they just hugged it out?! LOL.
- Ending was disappointing and felt empty.

Okay that's enough negatives, now onto the positives:

- I really enjoyed ShiYue's character. She seemed to be the only one giving decent advice, had her head screwed on, spoke her mind most of the time, straightforward about her feelings, great friend and so fun!! Loved her character.
- Great kiss scenes between ShuYi and ShiYan.
- Aesthetically pleasing actors & actresses.

Overall, this was not worth the watch. 36 episodes was way too long. This definitely could have been 20 episodes or less. What a frustrating drama with wasted potential. Disappointing!

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