Not enough going on for my taste
Story-wise, this series has good potential to be interesting: rivals-to-lovers tropes tend to be very exciting since they usually start with mutual respect (even when it's reluctant!) and it leaves room for character development and introspection.
In this case, the writers decided to neglect that potential entirely. I was hoping that the series would get better despite that, but instead it felt like the story never developed a distinct flavor. Most events happened without me having much of a reaction, simply because they felt like they were meant to fill up space and nothing else.
The actors were decent, I'd say, but the characters weren't explored and their relationships were barely portrayed. Shu Yi is supposed to be a very close childhood friend of Zheng Wen and Yu Xin, but judging on their scenes together I'd barely consider them acquaintances; there are a couple moments of them teasing each other that are probably meant to show that they're close, but these elements are way too inconsistent to amount to something.
Unfortunately, the relationship between Shu Yi and Shi De is also damaged by this. I don't want to give further details and risk spoiling anything, so I'll just say that the chemistry was nowhere to be found.
The finale was also extremely unsatisfying. It didn't feel like an ending at all, and what's worse is that, since I've seen the teaser to the second season, it made me lose all the interest I had in this series.
I might be biased because of the high rating, but to be honest I expected much better. I'm glad to see that this series reached its ideal audience, I guess, but to me it felt flavorless, which is quite bad when compared to the multiple amazing Taiwanese BLs out there.
In this case, the writers decided to neglect that potential entirely. I was hoping that the series would get better despite that, but instead it felt like the story never developed a distinct flavor. Most events happened without me having much of a reaction, simply because they felt like they were meant to fill up space and nothing else.
The actors were decent, I'd say, but the characters weren't explored and their relationships were barely portrayed. Shu Yi is supposed to be a very close childhood friend of Zheng Wen and Yu Xin, but judging on their scenes together I'd barely consider them acquaintances; there are a couple moments of them teasing each other that are probably meant to show that they're close, but these elements are way too inconsistent to amount to something.
Unfortunately, the relationship between Shu Yi and Shi De is also damaged by this. I don't want to give further details and risk spoiling anything, so I'll just say that the chemistry was nowhere to be found.
The finale was also extremely unsatisfying. It didn't feel like an ending at all, and what's worse is that, since I've seen the teaser to the second season, it made me lose all the interest I had in this series.
I might be biased because of the high rating, but to be honest I expected much better. I'm glad to see that this series reached its ideal audience, I guess, but to me it felt flavorless, which is quite bad when compared to the multiple amazing Taiwanese BLs out there.
Was this review helpful to you?