The Road to Ordinary (2023)

Really enjoy this drama about life, forgiveness, fighting for injustice.

"The Road to Ordinary" is a drama about a group of lawyer trainees (Pan Yan, Shu Yinan, Zuo Na, and Zhu Xin Xin) working at Rongke Law Firm as they encountered confusion when they first entered the workplace as interns.

During their internship, they are exposed to various litigations, from divorce to embezzlement, sexual harassment, etc. They also face growing pains in the workplace and in their own family, including relationships with their parents. With the guidance and help of senior partners Lan Hong and Du Fei Yu, they learn how to communicate effectively with their clients and parents and eventually become effective lawyers themselves.

This is my first drama with Guo Qi Lin as the ML (he played Pan Yan,) and he did a great job with good humor. Gina Jin played the FL (Zu0 Na), but it feels like a supporting role. The script surrounds the four trainees, but Pan Yan seems to carry the most weight. Gina Jin looks so skinny in this drama. There is definitely no romance between the ML and FL. It is more of a sister/brother relationship because Pan Yan dated Zuo Na's cousin (who later broke up with him.)

Surprisingly I like this drama because of the flow of the story and all the characters in the story. They are facing an ordinary day-to-day life situations, trying to help their clients and being extraordinary in what they do.

I enjoy it and give it a 7.8 rating which is higher than 7.5.

Read More

#thestruggleisreal as an ordinary life is hard

Let me dive right in to what I enjoyed about this drama (which is quite a bit).

What I liked:
- Excellent acting from the entire cast, especially the main cast. They were truly believable in their roles. Eventually, I really liked Lawyer Du and Lawyer Yi. They made sense and they showed how they turned out to be the way they were when we met them in the show. For the other characters like the trainee lawyers, Pan Yan and Shu Yi Nan, it was nice to see their growth. Growth is usually challenging and deeply uncomfortable.
- There are two sides to a coin and there are many sides in a multi-faceted world. The cases presented were simple and yet, complicated; complicated and yet, simple. It is hard to get past all the emotions which cloud one's judgement. The head and the heart sometimes find it hard to be friends.
- The drama truly depicted the ordinariness of life -- the petty fights, the ridiculousness of situations, the bizarreness of life, the confusion of life, the stark differences in perspectives, the irreconcilable differences, the love which turned to hate...
- Some parts of the plot were draggy... perhaps to showcase the ordinariness of day to day life and how mundane it can be and how tiring it can be.
- Most times, the drama delivered by solving cases fairly quickly and by keeping things going. The drama was fairly riveting.

What I didn't like:
- Zuo Na's parents cased dragged for way too long and her mother was a pain. She just dilly-dallied and wanted this and did not want this and changed her mind and changed her mind again... it was not fun to watch. However, this may be the whole point. Life isn't straightforward. Life isn't an equation that can be easily solved.
- I did not like the cases about fighting for the son because he's a boy and he carries on the family name etc. However, I understand that in society, this is the case for countless fights.
- I found the Zuo Na's family issue to be exceedingly saddening for her. She turned out to be as strong as can be despite the many f-up things in her life -- father wanting to divorce mother, father being with best friend and fathering a child with a young girl (who is his daughter's age, annoying uncle etc.
- There were unpleasant and unlikable characters but, isn't life like this?

Overall, I'd rate this as a good watch because of the very fine acting from the cast. They made the show shine. They also spoke really well and I enjoyed listening to them speak. Some lines from the script were witty and meaningful. This a drama that is, perhaps, more suitable for mature viewers. I liked it!

Read More