Contrary to many opinions here, I had no issues with the chemistry between the leads. I thought they made a cute couple, despite their age difference. Jerry holds up very well for his age, and his character had a childish, sweet side, so I wasn't weirded out to see them fall in love. There was a lot of potential because of this. Unfortunately, the rest didn't deliver.

Now I'm not one to care much about wardrobe, but it was grating to see him wear the same 2-3 unflattering outfits. If he had pulled a Steve Jobs, he would have looked fine, but those outfits looked ridiculous. It's like they ran out of budget when they got to him, but he's the ML and a designer???

Wardrobe aside, the story was not good. There were a few good moments with the FL's storylines, watching her grow in confidence and seeing her struggle but not give up on her dreams. But his storyline was nonsense, cheesy and overdone. People can have trust and confidence issues, even without the most horrible things to have happened to them in the past. This hidden, tragic past trope has gotten old for me, and I have no patience for it. Apart from this, everything about his career and the design competitions felt nonsense; I was only invested in his development related to the FL, which was not good. The antagonists were mostly caricatured villains. The SL was too much of a white knight to find him interesting. The rest of the side characters were ok, but I wasn't that fond of their stories.

Now I did mention having felt good chemistry between the leads. It did put a smile on my face a few times, but overall their romance was disappointing. There weren't many great moments between them. There was some cute bantering, flirting, but I needed more substance. It's not the actors fault; it's just the script they were given.

Why did I watch this then? The answer is Shen Yue. For some reason, I find her adorable, and I like her characters. Even though I don't always find them relatable, I always end up caring for them.

I'm disappointed with C-dramas. Lately, they are starting to seem like a waste of time. The stories all seem quite samey: overstretched, uninspired, cheap comedy, telenovela-style conflicts, too superficial relationships between the leads. And I'm not talking about skinship. I've just watched a few mini-shows taking place during the quarantine, and the chemistry and connection between the characters felt off the charts. But those shows focused on what's essential, the leads and a couple of side characters only, and the storylines were relatable but straightforward. C-dramas nowadays seem to be bloated with a gazillion characters that I didn't give a cracker about, and the stories just so cheesy and removed from reality.