Pleasantly Surprised (2014)

Pleasantly surprised gets 3/5 stars.

After rewatching the series, I decided to come back and edit my review on one of my favorite Taiwanese dramas.
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Story: There's food, there's love and there's a slice of life. I loved that this drama had more than romance. I'm used to dramas focusing on one or the other, so it's nice that we get to see a healthy blend between Kai Qi's career goals and her chance encounter at love with Zi Jie. It's also a bonus that the food was also very well shot, so my recommend is to not watch on an empty stomach!

One thing that I was critical about was the addition of the drama that was unecessary to the plot and only served the purpose of dragging the show further. Towards the end of the drama, the conflict started becoming overboard. Although, I love longer dramas and I love the opportunity to see cute moments in a drama, at some point, a drama needs to come to a appropriate close. I would've preferred the show wrapping up with less episodes than prolonging the show with over-the-top drama.

Acting/Cast: I felt that the main cast did fairly well in playing the roles they were cast with the exception of a few (i.e. ah jie's brother, du kai's mother, hao wei's sister). I love how affectionate the main characters were and how natural they became with each other. While watching this, I got to see maturity with the main couple, they don't pry into each others business and then get mad about it, which typically happens in many dramas. In addition, I love that the characters have the ability to put two and two together, instead of a long wait for the character to discover the truth about something. Lastly, the great thing about this drama is that there aren't really any despicable secondary characters or multiple love lines.

Music: The music was fantastic, it fit perfectly with the mood and it fit perfectly with the scenes. It also gave you clues to what was about to happen which I found a little cheesy but, It was perfectly fine.

Rewatch Value: Yes, I would watch this drama again through clips because of the excessive dragging.

Overall: I think you should give this drama a chance because it is a unique drama and It will make you laugh and put a smile on your face. Although there are moments where you just feel like WTF, but after those WTF moments you actually enjoy it even more to see through to the end.

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One of the recent Taiwanese dramas that isn't as draggy as others. Totally enjoying myself when watching this drama till the end.
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THE DRAMA: The casts of course! Well, I won't really rate the actors and actresses a very high score because they don't really show their acting potential through the drama. But I was totally attracted by the male lead's smile throughout the show, as well as his personality. I don't think I will ever seen a guy like that in real life! I will definitely give a high rating for the plot. The story was really nicely plotted with no draggy parts (well maybe one or two episodes in between) and how they actually not go off the way like other dramas. Overall, it is really a drama that can make people smile all the time without any frustrations. (:
WHAT I DISLIKE ABOUT THE DRAMA: However, I was slightly disappointed with the ending even though it was a very happy one. I mean, they can show more progress between the two leads or maybe the relationship between Kaiqi and Ah Jie's family or even with Xiao Yi (haven't been seeing him for quite a few episodes though!).
In conclusion, it is one of the top recent dramas that is really worth watching, as Taiwan dramas nowadays are really getting boring or draggy with no new story plots. (: And and and, if you really want to watch a drama with cute male lead with an attractive smile with dimples. ;D

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