lilmeow

I know what you mean... I actually made a list because I looked up so many recs for shows with strong FLs and a lot were more like "strong FL with asterisk". https://mydramalist.com/list/4J5oW2x3 <-- see if you've watched the ones at the top of this list, they might be better about it. However at the top of the list they are sometimes not the most interesting dramas because it's just about one girl kicking ass everywhere.

As for this show, I think they did female empowerment well. Personally I think the FL overshadows the ML, and even though he saved her a lot, it's because her skillset lies elsewhere. Another thing I look for is side character women who have positive relationships with each other and care about things beyond their love lives, and they had that too (iirc, been awhile). Just unfortunately I didn't like the FL for other reasons so I had a hard time rooting for her or relating to her.

Thanks for your comment, interesting point. Hm, I don't think anyone would last long watching historicals if they actually expected realism. They're all full of genius teenagers. I don't know how quickly everyone grew up back then, but afaik frontal lobes are still developing into the 20s (especially guys) sooo yeah. But make them any older and they'd have to be married with children, so the entire timeline of achievements gets pushed up.
That said, I don't know that I've noticed a particular bias towards criticizing female characters more than male for being unrealistic. If you have... I know a lot (most?) drama watchers are female, so maybe people are comparing themselves and feeling inadequate. I read somewhere that that's one reason BL is so popular. But there is definitely an entire class of feel-good female empowerment shows with strong FLs putting everyone in their place, and then everyone watching is on the same page because nobody would watch it if they didn't like that sort of thing ;-)

I don't remember this exact moment, but she was super super love brain for Changheng for awhile, so I could see it 😅

that's true! in which case it makes sense to just not watch their shows. No point making yourself upset!

glad you agree on these points! I like Cheng Lei too, and thought he did fine for what he was given... just... 🙈 an actor can't save a show

thanks for your nice comment! wah, I am still hungover from this show 😭 I don’t know why I was so convinced it would all work out 😭

thank you, you just saved me a lot of time. I thought this show would have great female empowerment, but opening a perfume shop in 5 minutes as a secret side hustle does not count o.O Now I'm about ⅓ through and the show is feeling more and more off... so I read reviews to decide if I should continue, and "lazy storytelling" describes it perfectly. Sounds like it doesn't get better. Thank you for struggling through this show so the rest of us don't have to!

Yeah, I think she is going for some sort of... quiet, elegant, and noble sort of vibe. You're right, I think it's because she doesn't seem to have many real emotions that we can relate to, she's just flat and unrelatable. Too busy being a saint. I am still confused why almost nobody else seems to think this, so thank you for your comment!

thank you!! I'm so glad you agree, it's a good sanity check for me 😊

Actually at first I was laughing at his superhero scenes, then I realized they were serious. lol. But yes of course his clothes have to come flying off in tatters each time! iirc it gets less over-the-top after awhile, but it's still similar stuff (he finds different ways to take off his shirt etc). After maybe 32? eps he gets his free will back to make his own decisions, if you can wait until then. lol. I truly don't know if it was worth watching this show (even at 1.5X) just for one nice story arc near the end... then again, lots of people seem to like it, maybe I'm just missing something.

thank you! Yeah, somehow on MDL there are always lots of 10/10 for every show and I suspect it’s fans of the actor who have fallen in love =P I read some of the other reviews and was wondering if we watched a different show! Then I was thinking maybe everyone who didn’t like it just dropped it early so it’s only the 10/10s left.

I agree, 10 eps less in the middle might have made this show a lot better. Plus the description made it sound like half the show was about his other identity and it was really 25%. I was really surprised it got better though. Most dramas only get worse =P

glad to help! everyone has different tastes so maybe you’ll still end up liking it ;-)

haha. "Angry bird" is such a good description for Julia's face in this show... not sure it's what she was going for, but you're right, it is pretty cute! Thank you also for the last paragraph. I hadn't even considered that, but it fits much better. I don't think it would save the show for me (I was just too disappointed by the final answers) but it would have improved it a lot.

thank you! i actually did some quick googling earlier and couldn't easily find anyone else with this opinion, so i was wondering if i was crazy. glad it's not just me =}