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Devil Beside You taiwanese drama review
Completed
Devil Beside You
0 people found this review helpful
by Zhang Qiling
Apr 7, 2023
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 5.5
Story 3.0
Acting/Cast 5.0
Music 2.0
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers

Typical 2000s cliché romance story with toxic ML and utterly stupid FL.

Okay so since I saw the high ratings and how many people seem to praise this drama in the comments, I decided to watch it to see if they are right and guess what? It was trash like seriously what the hell?!

First issue: it's filled with all types of toxic ass tropes that came out/were popular during the 2000s.
1- The overly naïve, weak. helpless, crybaby, irresponsible, indecisive, FL with no braincells and likes to make stupid decisions that lead everyone around her to get hurt and be pissed off, that allows the male leads to control, abuse, sexually harass, bully, and be overall misogynistic as fuck to her, and the bitch just stand there looking either dazed, or scared letting them do and say whatever they want. In this FL's case, she so annoying I don't even feel bad for her at this point like seriously...
She never speaks to clear misunderstandings, just hide them to add more fuel to the fire and make herself seem like the one who is doing wrong things then when people hate her for it, she runs away to cry alone like a brat.

2- Creepy, abusive, overly violent, rude, piece of shit ML who of course has mommy/daddy issues to use an excuse for being a total scum. As soon as he realizes FL is into someone else he goes and decide to kiss her forcibly and create problems between her and her actual love interest in the start. He bully her a lot first then only shows interest after she is into another guy then he decides that he owns her, he knows she is gonna be his step sister yet doesn't care, makes her miserable and cry all the time, put her in dangerous situations, and yet expect her to fall hard for him (Which what happens sadly) instead of attacking him with a baseball bat.

He is supposed to be the tsundere, cold, cool, rarely kind and good deep inside type, but he didn't grow on me at all. Maybe because I despise Tsundere characters, though some of them can be cute and very loveable like few cases in anime (Kyo from fruits Basket, Misaki from Maid-sama, Kagura from Gintama, Erza from Fairy Tail. Inuyasha from Inuyasha, and Yun from Akatsuki no Yona are very good examples). ML in this drama isn't the good type.

3- Some incest elements, like why are people obsessed with this step siblings...etc disgusting bullshit?!

4- Second ML who clearly is a better option, yet FL rejects him and go for the toxic freak after playing well with his feelings.

5- Annoying as hell parents.

6- Nosy ass friends who seem to suffer to keep their mouth shut exposing the leads secretes, and love to include themselves in everything related to ML and FL's love life. To be fair the FL's friends are way more likeable than her and one of them is actually useful at times, scolding the FL which she deserves.
The friend falling for the second ML was kinda odd at start, but then I actually liked it cause at least he is better than ML, and she is better than FL, besides she waited till FL rejected him before flirting with him and before she tried to help them become a couple so I actually support them.

7- Second FL who is an absolute unlikeable gross bitch, with very criminal like behavior and extreme obsession with ML. Of course they give her a sad past which is supposed to make watchers sympathy with her, but seriously she deserves getting bullied for being a bitch, she doesn't deserve pity or help at all! Then make another guy be obsessed with her (And why?) nothing about her is likeable in first place! He is such a simp that he allows her to make him do stupid criminal shit as well.

8- Very boring and typical plot that gets dragged to the point where it's exhausting.

9- Love triangles and crap. Also why did that Ahrang dude exist? He is basically a literal psychopath who stalks and chases after FL and even threaten and tries to get his ass killed to force her to date him and is like "I never had any girl reject me, so even if I have to attempt suicide I will make you love me!" lmao really! Do people really find these fucked up guys attractive and charming?!

10- this one isn't a big deal, but the part where the ML decided to play guitar in a concert and wears some sort of mask that covers his eyes only and all of a sudden no one in his college seem to know who he is, including FL who only figures out it's him from the scarf he was wearing around his wrist, which he took from her earlier. This is actually a thing that became popular from super heroes shows and it never fails to irk me lol

Second issue:
Overacting, it felt as if I was watching an awful live action drama, inspired by some old shoujo manga, and everyone tried so hard to act like anime characters which never works in real life. Every single one of them does it to make it more horrifying.
1- FL tries so freaking hard to seem cute and childlike by pouting, over smiling, and making ugly confused or sulking expressions half of the time. Like the actress is kinda cute look-wise, she doesn't need to be that forcibly childish to be cute. It ruins everything. They are supposed to be in college, whole ass adults, so why make her act like a 4 years old?! Only perverted weirdos will find that shit cute lmao

2- ML does everything in such a hardcore way it's not even funny, he runs, walks, and fight like it's the end of the world. Don't get me started on his smirk thing that is supposed to be sexy I guess? But it makes him look like a maniac that enjoys stabbing others or something. He is really hot though and his odd hairstyle actually fit him, but obviously he looks way better with his hair down.

3- The parents...these two are a walking cancer. The mom acts like someone punched her so hard, she kinda lost it. The father is either acting like a total middle aged creep that love assaulting teen girls like what he does to the FL (Like when he is talking to her and suddenly grabs her arms by both his hands so aggressively while saying weird shit like "Now I have a cute daughter! I will take care of you!" blah blah, and looks crazy while she makes a very startled expression to make it even more disturbing), or he acts like a retard in a very irritating way.

Other issues:
I don't get why they rushed the relationship between ML and FL, I expected them to take at least 10 episodes before officially becoming a couple, to give more time for FL and second ML to interact properly, but I blinked and the main leads were into each other already even though FL was so into the second ML for kinda long time (Which shows she didn't truly like him, cause if she did, ain't no way in hell she would fall for ML that quick and forget second ML instantly).

Good things:
Most cast are very good looking and the fashion/hairstyles were not bad considering the time the drama was made. Their looks kinda reminded me of many shoujo animes that also came out in late 90s - early 2000s. Sadly this is the only good thing I have about the drama...lmao

Honestly only 10-13 years old millennial kids who were raised during the times these shows were made can enjoy this shit, I was very young back then and I'm 24 years old currently so there is no way I can find this kids-teens focused crap good. Even back when I was a kid, I didn't really enjoy most of the overly cliché romance stuff. (Obviously other cliché garbage came out during our gen Z era like Twillight...etc which I also hated, so no offense to older generations, and some old things were very great even better than newer ones, I know well, but most people would prefer things that came out during their time since they feel attached to them).
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