vylmen
Berlin, Germany
Leave alone if you're a feminist
Much of this series is a reinforcement of traditional roles. At times it feels like psychological warfare by China's ministry of culture or an American after school special, aimed at forming teens in 1950's roles. The commanding male, worshipped by pining females, including his obedient girlfriend. Money, power and good looks are taught as measurements of success and if you don't have them, you should know your place in life.
I honestly do not get the praise this drama has got - the integration with the game is the only thing that I can give points for. Most of the tech added up, which is hardly seen in series. But the bulk of the drama is a bunch of cliche plots and plot devices, such as the much overused "staring at the moon at the same time at night, while being away from each other" scene, backed by the romantic theme song for the lead couple.
The female lead can hold her own, she has her own skills and wit and yet the story is such that the male "allows her from time to time" take care of things herself without his help. Music, lighting, sound effects all support this "magnanimous" gesture. It's really cringing for someone with opposite moral values, especially since not just her character has skills of her own, she is by far his better at acting. The male lead is basically a bland pretty face that has been typecast to walk straight, smile and be arrogant. The story carefully manoeuvres around plots that would require the ML to show some real emotion, which also gives him no depth, no base in reality. His three buddies were much more amusing and needed to provide some comic relief.
A character that is also "seemingly perfect" is Lee Young Joon in "What's wrong with Secretary Kim", but it was done much better. When he was perfect, it was in such an over-the-top way that you just have to laugh at it. Secondly, he had a really good back story and acting to match that showed us the cracks in the armour and characters around him that made fun of him. But none of that here and maybe it's for the better, cause I doubt the actor could've pulled it off.
All in all It was really hard to get through 30 episodes and I only did because I wanted to see if anything changed at the end. That maybe it was all a bad dream and we really are in this century.
I honestly do not get the praise this drama has got - the integration with the game is the only thing that I can give points for. Most of the tech added up, which is hardly seen in series. But the bulk of the drama is a bunch of cliche plots and plot devices, such as the much overused "staring at the moon at the same time at night, while being away from each other" scene, backed by the romantic theme song for the lead couple.
The female lead can hold her own, she has her own skills and wit and yet the story is such that the male "allows her from time to time" take care of things herself without his help. Music, lighting, sound effects all support this "magnanimous" gesture. It's really cringing for someone with opposite moral values, especially since not just her character has skills of her own, she is by far his better at acting. The male lead is basically a bland pretty face that has been typecast to walk straight, smile and be arrogant. The story carefully manoeuvres around plots that would require the ML to show some real emotion, which also gives him no depth, no base in reality. His three buddies were much more amusing and needed to provide some comic relief.
A character that is also "seemingly perfect" is Lee Young Joon in "What's wrong with Secretary Kim", but it was done much better. When he was perfect, it was in such an over-the-top way that you just have to laugh at it. Secondly, he had a really good back story and acting to match that showed us the cracks in the armour and characters around him that made fun of him. But none of that here and maybe it's for the better, cause I doubt the actor could've pulled it off.
All in all It was really hard to get through 30 episodes and I only did because I wanted to see if anything changed at the end. That maybe it was all a bad dream and we really are in this century.
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