I had high hopes starting this drama, but by the end I felt rather empty and more neutral. The side relationships were more entertaining and developed compared to the relationship between the two main characters (Fanxing and Yuan Song).

Fanxing has literally no reason besides Yuan Song being young and attractive to be interested in him. From the moment Yuan Song begins to pursue her my largest question was how was this 'taboo' relationship going to develop. The answer was that is really didn't.

The relationship between Fanxing and Yuan Song just felt void of anything that truly connected them as a couple in love beyond what felt like forced romance between the two of them for the sake of telling the audience they were indeed together. "Look they've kissed so they are in love!" It was so dry and dull when 90% of their relationship is just dedicated to them keeping it a secret. So secret they barely actually are shown dating despite them being together for half of the series.

There was so much more development between Fanxing and Luming and even all the side relationships that the one between Faxing and Yuan Song.

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Anyone who has watched this 2nd season will probably get this joke, but the first thing I want to write about in regards to this series is the super awful annoying product placement within it. I'm serious when I say it's so frequent you could probably make a drinking game based upon spotting the products they push during every episode; ADOLF, meal replacement drinks, herbal sanitary pads, and the least brought up was the facial cleansing product at the beginning of the series.

I couldn't help but get pulled away from what was going on in a scene because there it was... product placement yet again. So, based on episode 15 this relationship has only really occurred for 2 months (iirc the engagement contract was for 1 year and it was revealed there were 10 months left). Besides that being super fast to get married the amount of times someone has bought that ADOLF product one would assume these people were constantly taking multiple showers were day.

Now, with that off my chest...
I much prefer the first season even with all it's cringey story and plot points the overall development of the relationship between the character was overall just done better.

This AU take falls short in development because it literally ignores what is has written. In S1 when Xia Lin doesn't want him to interfere with her job, he does and she gets pissed. She says point blank in this S2 to not do that and he gets another actress fired from a role, but Xia Lin is totally fine even when the crumbs of his actions are so damn obvious.

Then there is the failure at an attempt of the love triangle with Chu Yan, only this time it was completely and utterly hollow. It literally could have been left out with Chu Yan not being even possibly romantically interested in Xia Lin and the rest the whole season would remain unchanged. That is how little impact it has.

The relationship is still as strange as the first season, but they try to make Ling Yi Zhou seem less like a stalker by having them not interact with each other for two years time. That still doesn't make his ulterior motive and actions and taking advantage using an engagement contract to get closer to her.

I will say on a more positive note that I did like the darkness of her manager driven by revenge. They did a decent job at refraining from exposing her too early on. That doesn't mean I was impressed with the cast of the villain roles this time around. The motives are so... lame. I don't know how else to describe them.

All in all, I'm just forcing myself to finish this S2 because I am already close to the end and one episode away, but dear god if I see one more product placement... it had better be to jog Xia Lin from the "I got hit on the head and forgot my husband" trope and get her memories back.

"This meal replacement drink, these herbal sanitary pads, ADOLF products... I REMEMBER!"

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While I have not finished this drama series (it is still currently being aired), I have enjoyed what I have seen thus far.

I did not care much for the early episodes with the young characters, though I do understand that these episodes were important so that you can understand the history of the characters.

Story
The story is different compared to the other dramas I've watched, though that doesn't mean there aren't moments that have that dramatic flourish of being almost completely unrealistic. However, in the 10 episodes I've watched, there actually hasn't been as much progress as I would have hoped being this far into the series.

Acting/Cast
Kim Bum, oh my goodness he is perfectly cast for this. The moment he makes his appearance as the older Tae Do you will swoon. Moon Geun Young as Yoo Jung Yi is also very good as she does translate the characteristics of the younger version of herself fluidly.

Music
I really haven't paid much attention to the music and so far the OST doesn't have a song I would want as part of my music collection.

Rewatch Value
This is a long series. I probably wouldn't rewatch it for a long time for this simple fact. Though Kim Bum would bring me back for sure.

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