I rarely write reviews and ratings, but I believe this drama deserves one. My whole family watched this drama together for once (usually we don't do that) because we would find the storyline interesting as we are doing our business around the house.

SPOILER ALERT: My review will reveal some of the plots in a very general way but won't get to the specifics or include all of the plots. None of it will be in order in any way though, but if you want to find out yourselves maybe it's best to skip it. I can tell you my family enjoyed it though.

I think one of the most interesting aspects of the drama is how realistic it is. Like my headline says, it shows some of the harsher realities of life. It touched upon a lot of things in life that most of us would probably seldom mention. This would include the difference in treatment between siblings, disease/illness, childhood traumas, misunderstanding between family members, miscommunication between family members, economic problems arising from certain decisions, former spouses and their interactions (a lot of dramas don't explore separating but still entangled), etc.

It doesn't try to beautify anything. It includes things that can happen in life. It showed how hard growing up can be. While the solution it offers at times is to throw money at it (the family is pretty lucky to have some members capable of earning lots of money), it exposes A LOT of problems that can occur between people.

The best part for me is how well it ended. It shows that, at the end of the day, these people are still your family. It is not always a sign of weakness to give up something to accommodate each other. All the main characters had their own regrets in their lives, but they can still live on together while physically apart at the same time. They ended up finding a nice middle ground. Like the Chinese title (I don't think the English title reflects this as well) suggests, everything “都挺好.” It is not the best of things, but it is far from the worse.

Finally, I want to share what I feel like the message is. I think it is trying to say growing up is tough. Growing up is not about making correct decisions all the time, but to understand why some decisions/things happen even though you don't agree with it. Most of us will end up with a scar or two from bad decisions and mistakes, but that shouldn't stop you from living a full life with people that are important to you.