Right from the start I was hit by the complications from the two families, and I found the conflicts very realistically displayed. As someone who grew up seeing my parents fight, I immediately connected with young Ling Xiao. I enjoyed watching the three children grow up and grow closer. The progression of their growth was very logical and relatable, as I recognized some of the milestones that children usually hit (the rebel phase, childhood drama and shenanigans, etc). At the same time, the drama also wove in a lot of adult relationship conflict that I also was able to recognize. Overall, the depiction of relationships in this drama was very well done. I could clearly sense what the characters felt for one another. Very well executed by the cast.

Acting was phenomenal. As I said above, I could easily tell how the characters thought about other characters, especially in the difference for how Li Jianjian treats both her brothers. The drama cleverly wove in some subtle hints from the start and I could easily figure out how she felt about both her brothers. Tan Songyun and Zhang Xincheng acted out the relationship between their characters so well. I cannot imagine their characters being acted by anyone else. Song Weilong's character was very complex, and he did a great job too.

Of course I can't talk about acting without mentioning some of the older actors. Tu Songyan's portrayal of Lin Haichao was so convincing, and he really became the embodiment of his character. His dialogues and behaviors were so smoothly executed it was like he was the character, not acting at all. I love that the drama gave enough attention to the struggles of the parental figures, and the realistic depictions of their conflicts. Chen Ting is a super complicated character and Yang Tongshu portrayed her so well. There were moments where I hated the character, then other moments where I really empathized with her internal struggles. I thought it was a great depiction of mental health struggles that people could be going through in real life.

Despite this being a family style drama with not too many dramatic scenes, it did not fail at all in making me cry. There were times when one episode made me laugh so hard my cheeks hurt and I had tears then the next episode would make me sob. I have to say that part of the middle episodes started to get a little draggy and stagnant, but the plot still was able to move along and picked up near the end. I gotta say I think the ending is perfect and really fits the overall theme of the drama.

Lastly, I wanted to strongly praise the sound effects. I rarely encounter dramas that purposely use comedic sound effects to make the audience laugh, but this drama did, and I greatly appreciated it. The comedic sound effects really added points to the scenes (that were already really funny), but they made the scenes knee-slappingly funny. At one point I was feeling the drama drag a bit, so I watched on 1.5x and oh boy the comedic scenes were 200% funnier.

I'm extremely glad I watched this drama, and I am happy I am venturing out into more genres outside of my typical xianxia/wuxia. Please don't hesitate to give this drama a try!