Mystal
Ashland, OR
Where'd the plot go?
I was pretty excited about Love O2O. The idea of merging MMO culture with Asian dramas is exciting. The first few episodes focus heavily on two opposing ingame power couples, famous in their generic Chinese MMO and renowned for their prowess in PvP. It also draws parallels to the real world, wherein the main character Bei Wei Wei attends college and struggles with her renown as a campus beauty. It's a pretty awesome premise.
But like most Asian dramas that have awesome premises, the show-runners just couldn't resist the temptation to gradually turn Love O2O into every run-of-the-mill rom com. Over time the game is featured much less and more focus is given to real-world character relationships and endless inconsequential scenes where side characters act like toddlers.
And the show couldn't even do that right. Once Wei Wei and her emotionless cardboard cutout of a love interest get together in real life (not really a spoiler since the show screams it at you from the beginning), the plot comes to a screeching halt.
I don't mean "comes to a halt" like most dramas do. We're not dealing with an endless barrage of scenes where nearly-identical Asian actors look constipated in slow motion for five minutes while a power ballad plays loudly about "loving you" and/or "missing you."
I mean the show just comes to a halt. I dropped the show at 18 episodes, so I don't know if it picks up or not, but after 5 episodes of absolutely -NOTHING- happening, I had to drop it.
It doesn't help that Wei Wei isn't an interesting main character. I don't know if the actor playing her just sucks, but Wei Wei doesn't emote much. She sounds friendly, emotes very carefully and very precisely, but there's just nothing beyond that. No character to be seen behind the friendly voice and unchanging face. An endless void lies beyond her eyes.
Her love interest is no different. He has no flaws, no personality, nothing. The relationship between Wei Wei and Forgettable Male Drama Lead No. #75831 is so boring. Nothing happens. Nada. Nothing. Nich! I was questioning whether or not Netflix was looping the same five minutes for five hours. What a complete waste of time.
But like most Asian dramas that have awesome premises, the show-runners just couldn't resist the temptation to gradually turn Love O2O into every run-of-the-mill rom com. Over time the game is featured much less and more focus is given to real-world character relationships and endless inconsequential scenes where side characters act like toddlers.
And the show couldn't even do that right. Once Wei Wei and her emotionless cardboard cutout of a love interest get together in real life (not really a spoiler since the show screams it at you from the beginning), the plot comes to a screeching halt.
I don't mean "comes to a halt" like most dramas do. We're not dealing with an endless barrage of scenes where nearly-identical Asian actors look constipated in slow motion for five minutes while a power ballad plays loudly about "loving you" and/or "missing you."
I mean the show just comes to a halt. I dropped the show at 18 episodes, so I don't know if it picks up or not, but after 5 episodes of absolutely -NOTHING- happening, I had to drop it.
It doesn't help that Wei Wei isn't an interesting main character. I don't know if the actor playing her just sucks, but Wei Wei doesn't emote much. She sounds friendly, emotes very carefully and very precisely, but there's just nothing beyond that. No character to be seen behind the friendly voice and unchanging face. An endless void lies beyond her eyes.
Her love interest is no different. He has no flaws, no personality, nothing. The relationship between Wei Wei and Forgettable Male Drama Lead No. #75831 is so boring. Nothing happens. Nada. Nothing. Nich! I was questioning whether or not Netflix was looping the same five minutes for five hours. What a complete waste of time.
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