Entrepreneurial Age (2018)

When I first started watching this drama, I really enjoyed it. I skipped the tech stuff as it's beyond inaccurate. The writers literally have no idea how software development works. As someone whose job is software development, it hurts to listen to how idiotic they sound. In the era of cloud computing, they still think destruction of a computer by bashing it in destroys code. I could forgive these things early on, as the story was intriguing.

The setup of Na Lan and Guo Xin Nian connecting through short voice messages was a nice touch in developing their attraction. Luo Wei's story in the beginning was also pretty good. You can understand him through his actions.

Na Lan is definitely the strongest character in the story. The way she takes lead to solve problems is fun to watch. She understands her job and the people around her so she can plot and come out on top. Na Lan's rivalry with Wen Di was great to watch, and it actually was the only strong conflict I enjoyed throughout all 54 episodes. Wen Di’s story is also pretty good, in a tragic sort of way. She’s not as competent as Na Lan, and she has her flaws which actually gives her more depth than Na Lan as a character.

However, like a lot of Chinese dramas, the story drags on as they add in way too many subplots and side characters. After about 20 episodes, when the first big conflict is resolved and the main characters are triumphant, the writing starts to suffer. I'll try not to give out too many details, as it'll spoil it for anyone who really wants to watch it, but there's a lot of conflict for conflict's sake.

The core cast is pretty big already, Guo Xin Nian’s company has 6 people, including him. There’s also his ex-wife and his parents. Luo Wei has his company and later one friend who follows him. Na Lan works with Wen Di under their boss, Peng Xue Wu. Na Lan’s parents are also important in the early arc involving her breakup with her ex-fiance, Jin Cheng. Jin Cheng’s father and his assistant play a big role through the story as well.

The first 20 episodes follow the lives of 17 different people, each working out what their doing with their lives, how they intersect and the conflicts that arises. Then they add in probably another 10 more characters. They start to take the foreground and some of the other characters are left to the side.

That wouldn’t be a problem if the story was still well told. It isn’t and becomes an absolute trainwreck. While the story starts off as the struggles of Guo Xin Nian, a genius software engineer, as he bounces back from failure to creating a new company for his new vision, it becomes a story of him pushing everyone away through his giant ego. He literally listens to no one except Na Lan, regardless of whether he eventually agrees with them or not. Huang Xuan is basically playing his character Cheng Jiayang from Les Interpretes. Super competent Shouty McShoutface, but the only difference is that when he shares scenes with Na Lan, he’s this innocent boy who’s in love for the first time.

And the main romance story? The reason they can’t be together is setup in the first episode and ridiculously contrived. I feel sorry for Na Lan for her to be stuck liking Guo Xin Nian. He has no redeeming qualities as he literally learns nothing throughout this story. He pines for her because she’s his ideal image of a girlfriend. He listens to her and he only accepts her explaining the logic of others around him. He doesn’t bother listening to anyone else and always feels their against him. Because of Guo Xin Nian, Na Lan is subjugated into the role of being the one who helps him see that he’s wrong or getting on the path for him to succeed.

Overall, it starts off strong, but they should have made Na Lan the main character throughout instead of Guo Xin Nian. Her conflict with Wen Di is all that got me through all the episodes. Because of that, I give it a 6/10.

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