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Time to Fall in Love chinese drama review
Completed
Time to Fall in Love
0 people found this review helpful
by cwinterbrisk
Oct 14, 2023
24 of 24 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 4.5
Story 3.0
Acting/Cast 6.5
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 1.5
This review may contain spoilers

Painfully Cliche And Poorly Written But I Still Continued Watching

There's so much I found frustrating with this show that I don't even know where to begin. Going into it I had my expectations set really low since the rating wasn't the highest, but I thought I'd give it a chance since I liked the cast. Unfortunately, the show probably deserves a lower rating than what reviews indicate. Since I can't organize my dislikes in a coherent storied way, I'll just provide a list of things I liked and didn't like instead.

What I liked:
- The cast (for the most part). Lin Xin Yi and Luo Zheng played their parts well, although the cliche scenes and poorly written story didn't make it easy for them.
- The chemistry between Xin Yi and Zheng was good (when they weren't fighting or misunderstanding), as much as the script allowed.

What I disliked:
- The story is very poorly written. Full of cliches that I physically cringed when sitting through. Characters don't really make logical decisions or communicate with one another. Kind of felt like a fanfiction story written by someone who wanted to make themselves the main character and live vicariously through Yan Xi.
- The way conflicts were handled and resolved. It seemed like every time something happened that added conflict to the story, Xi Cheng was the one who had to step up and try to fix things, whereas Yan Xi was portrayed as the victim in every situation (even when it was her fault or partially her fault). It seemed like Xi Cheng had to take responsibility for so many of the conflicts that occurred, even when he wasn't really at fault, yet the show tries to brush past it like it's normal. For example, when Yan Xi gets annoyed at Xi Cheng because she sees him interacting with his "ex" (even though they work together so it can't be avoided), so she goes out to an arcade with Fu Bo Ya and even takes him out to dinner. Then she happens to run into Xi Cheng and the "ex" eating at the same restaurant (yet another cliche), and gets so mad to the point that she storms out and Xi Cheng has to chase after her. She then proceeds to kick him in the shin and yell at him for eating with another girl, even though she's literally doing the exact same thing eating with Fu Bo Ya. At least Xi Cheng tried to draw the line between him and his "ex" early on (and acted mean/indifferent to her most of the time), whereas Yan Xi was openly friendly and hung out with Fu Bo Ya so many times, even though Xi Cheng expressed his discomfort with it. Such a large portion of the show was spent on the two leads getting jealous of each other for no good reason, and Yan Xi acting hypocritical made it so much harder to watch.
- Speaking of love triangles, this show has some of the most painfully hard-to-sit-through love triangles I have ever seen. Fu Bo Ya and Nangong Lui Li were so incredibly annoying that I actually skipped through some of their scenes (which is something I rarely do). Fu Bo Ya was conveniently everywhere all at once, and was always there to swoop in whenever one of the female characters was going through a hard time and it was so annoying. He just felt like a forced constant distraction that just slowed everything down and added unnecessary drama. Lui Li was just as annoying, but at least she was kind of supposed to be annoying for most of her screentime, whereas Bo Ya wasn't "intentionally" a nuisance until later on in the show. Bo Ya's sudden "departure" from the show near the end was so cliche and out-of-the-blue that I actually laughed a little when it happened because of how absurd it was. And why was Lui Li depicted as such a psychopath for the majority of the show? Her character went full psychotic Joker villain mode and it didn't really make sense to me.

...I'm going to try and keep the rest of these points short since I've typed too much already.

- Xi Cheng gets blamed for everything. Even when it's not entirely his fault, everyone blames him (including his grandma).
- The whole "secret" thing goes on for way too long. Yan Xi not explaining herself was so painful.
- Very cliche and unrealistic views on relationships. The scene when Situ Shuo has to box a professional boxer in order to get Lu An An's number was weird. I don't know why it was supposed to be romantic, and I don't know why she didn't stop him from getting hurt sooner.
- Xi Cheng's OCD thing didn't really play as big of a role as I thought it would. That one time Yan Xi tried to use his OCD against him because she was jealous of him eating with Liu Li was kind of messed up and just brushed off.
- Some of the acting was off at times, even with the leads (I think Lin Xin Yi did a very good job though).

I'm probably missing so much that I wanted to mention, but this review is so long already. Thanks for sitting through my complaints if you read this far!
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