I genuinely enjoyed this show. It's not perfect and it may not be the best drama you'll ever watch but it'll have a special place in your heart. Cinematography was well done. Filming locations were beautiful. There are some things that are different from the other versions of Meteor Garden and that makes it really exciting because it keeps you guessing what was changed in this version. The story is still the good old Meteor Garden tale that we all loved. As someone who grew up watching Asian dramas, this particular story (Meteor Garden, Boys Over Flowers, Hana Yori Dango) is a classic and timeless tale. It's always fun to watch the modern remakes of this story and I'm glad this one didn't disappoint me. Everything cliche in an Asian drama is in this drama lol but I mean, it IS Meteor Garden, so it's expected. This story is basically the foundation of all Asian drama cliches lmao. But it's always so refreshing to go back to this story again in a different setting & with a different cast. If you truly want to enjoy this show, I highly recommend NOT to compare it with the other versions and nitpick on the inexplainable and ridiculous things that happen in this show. Just take it lightheartedly and you'll be able to truly enjoy it. It has 50 episodes (49 on Netflix idk why lol) but it never felt like it was a task for me to finish it because it was so much fun to watch (besides the side story that dragged on for too long *cough cough*). Just don't have extremely high expectations or else... that'll ruin it for you. Other than that, it's really enjoyable to watch. There is a lot of comedy, romance, and it shows the value of friendship and family.

ACTING
Acting was just okay, nothing too spectacular. Most of the cast members are new to acting so I wasn't surprised that they were somewhat lacking. It didn't bother or annoy me, though, because the characters were still very likable and cute. It's so fascinating how much Dylan Wang suits playing as Dao Ming Si. I'm so glad he was chosen to play as DMS because I honestly can't imagine anyone else playing it. Dao Ming Si is such a difficult character to pull off, so I give props to Dylan for doing a great job, despite this being his first drama ever. Out of the 5 main characters (F4 & Shan Cai), only Shen Yue and Darren Chen had some experience acting in dramas prior to Meteor Garden. Shen Yue is an excellent actress (became a fan of her during her previous drama!) but for some reason, her acting here felt a bit unnatural sometimes? But she is amazing in dramatic scenes. Her tears fall down so quickly and she makes me wanna cry too ;___; I liked all the F4 members but my fav was Darren Chen/Kuan Hong. I fell in love with him while watching this show. His smile and dimple is to die for!

MUSIC
I LOOOOOOVEEEE THE OST OF THIS DRAMA. I love how they included old songs from the original Meteor Garden. It brought back a lot of memories of my childhood so I was really pleased to hear them again. They included old songs like Qing Fei De Yi by Harlem Yu, Liu Xing Yu by the original F4, and the new version of Ni Yao De Ai, which was still sung by Penny Tai. The songs that the 2018 F4 sang were lowkey cheesy lol but they're really catchy and I found myself listening to them a lot! Honestly, most of F4 can't really sing besides Caesar Wu (Ximen) lol but they're super cute so it's okay hahahaha. There are two English songs that was played throughout the show: Say Something by A Great Big World, which really set the mood, and Anyone of Us (Stupid Mistake), which really ruined MY mood bc it's such a terrible song lol.

OVERALL, this wasn't such a bad show at all. I would wait for the new episodes every week and had so much fun watching it. It kind of became my stress reliever since I enjoyed it so much. A lot of my friends enjoyed it as much as I did too.

So now... the final verdict: SHOULD YOU WATCH IT? YES. Absolutely. Go for it. It's funny. It's cute. It's romantic. It's dramatic. F4 members are eye candies. What else could you ask for in a drama? I highly recommend it. Like I said before, it may not be the best drama you'll ever watch, but it'll have a special place in your heart. PLUS, it's on Netflix so it should be easy to watch for a lot of people!


(don't read past this if you don't wanna get spoiled lol but I just wanted to share my personal thoughts)


SPOILERS/MY THOUGHTS
- Shancai and Dao Ming Si's relationship is bipolar and cyclic af lol the same shit kept happening over and over again, just with some minor changes lol BUT THAT DIDN'T KEEP ME FROM LOVING THEM. THEY ARE WAY TOO CUTE.
- JING AND LEI'S STORY OMG idk why but it had so much impact on me in this version. Darren and Sun Yi Han are so shippable! Til the end of the show, I still kept waiting for Jing to come back to Lei so that he wouldn't be alone... at least in this version... ;____;
- Xiao You and Ximen deserved so much more screen time ;___; I'm literally craving for more of them ;___; they're so adorable
- Cai Na and Terrence, a.k.a, the most irrelevant characters and have contributed NOTHING to the show, had so much screen time, I almost went insane. SAVE YOUR SOUL AND SKIP THEIR SCENES.
- the last ep was a big wtf lol but it's weirdly NOT disappointing?? lmao