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This review may contain spoilers
Resolving the Destructive & Never-ending Family Affairs | A Masterclass in Writer Manipulation 101
"Everything in the world that repels each other can live in harmony too. If you want to find an antidote, you must go to the place where the poison grows." - Wang Youheng
NOTE: This is the longest review I've written since I started leaving reviews here on MDL. I poured my all into this. Phew! Haha!
For the record, I just wanted to say that it was quite a challenge to watch this show, particularly the opening arc and the climax. That being said, to maintain a logical order, I will address the opening arc first, followed by the upsetting and tiring repetition in the plot, and conclude with my thoughts on the climax, denouement, and ending combined.
Although the story opened strongly—successfully introducing the main leads, the dynamics of the Lian household, and the series' "game" mechanics—the narrative stumbled by dedicating nearly half its time to the ML's (Shen Nuo) solo missions. To me, this prematurely derailed what could have been an excellent foundation for the leads' chemistry. Given the title and theme, the writers should have allowed him to assimilate into farm and family life first, establishing his role within the household and the story while forming a genuine connection with the female lead. Instead, he acted entirely on his own whims to fulfill his mission, even resorting to clever tricks—like manipulating the children—to avoid his chores. While some viewers might find this entertaining, I found it to be plain laziness. Truly annoying! Furthermore, this narrative choice introduced a host of other issues into the plot.
• First, the farm theme of the story wasn't fully highlighted because the ML's side quests tended to always steal half the screen time of each episode.
• Second, the story's focus was split into two parts: the chaos within the Lian household, and whatever mission Shen Nuo was doing. It felt like I was watching two different shows in one drama because his mission simply did not align with the current plot.
• Third, it became extra hard to connect with and attach myself to the ML because he himself felt detached and distant. He was always preoccupied with his mission and frequently half-assed his farm work, which made him annoying to watch.
• Fourth, the chemistry between the leads became hard to establish and invest in because he simply wasn't putting in the energy to begin with. I read the synopsis, so I was aware that he was written as a mysterious, tsundere character, but dang, his character was assassinated early in the story because aside from the fact that his aura didn't exude chemistry, his actions didn't show it either. What's worse was how he used the female lead (Lian Man'er) to toy with the 2nd male lead's (Wang Youheng) feelings to make him jealous.
This is exactly why, during the first 10 episodes of the show, viewing them as the "supposed" main leads became challenging, simply because the male lead failed to bring any romantic energy to the table. To make matters worse, the story slowly fumbled and grew increasingly frustrating as it progressed, due to the never-ending treachery and backstabbing occurrences within the Lian household. This exhausting cycle brings me to the next point of my review.
Honestly, I don't know whether to feel relieved that I can finally vent about the Lian family plotline, or furious because I have to relive the sheer amount of frustration and anger I accumulated while watching it. *Sighs*
The proverb "charity begins at home" serves as a powerful reminder that a person's upbringing and moral foundation depend entirely on their home life. When parents instill strong values early on, children possess a steadfast moral compass to ground them, no matter how chaotic or challenging the real world becomes. Unfortunately, this vital moral grounding was entirely absent within the Lian household—with the sole exception of Lian Shouxin, the youngest son, and his family (the 3rd branch in the Lian Household).
At first, I felt really proud of Lian Man'er when she said she had no problem dealing with all the family issues in the game. I figured she must have been so used to dealing with them in the real world, given that she also comes from a broken family. However, learning how intense and severe the situation actually was within the Lian household made me feel sad and full of pity for her instead. Imagine dealing with a hundredfold version of the family issues you have back in the real world. Just how excruciating and suffocating must it have been for her? Not to mention, the same "taking advantage of and scheming against one another" plot kept happening like a broken record. What a traumatic experience she suffered. 😭
Right off the bat, let me declare that this is the most chaotically dysfunctional household I have ever encountered in C-dramaland. They are a family that never prays together, yet desperately tries to stick together—a supposed family that isn't "family-ing" at all.
I know this might sound like an exaggeration, but I completely lost hope in this entire "family" thing they were so frantically trying to establish right before the show reached its first half. Whenever I expected that they had finally learned their lessons and would, for the love of God, change, I would then be shocked in the next episode by how well-prepared they were to stab one another in the back once again. It was endless—an infinite loop of events that kept happening over and over and over again. It dragged both the plot and the Lian family down into the mud, completely beyond salvation. They were a true disappointment!
This is precisely why the "family splitting" arc is my absolute favorite plotline. First, it brought the immense relief of finally escaping the pointless, childish rivalry of the Lian household. Second, it introduced Lian Man'er’s maternal side—the Zhang family—who were such an awesome bunch of people. They are the true definition of what a family should be.
However, everything felt short-lived after they successfully split from the family, because even though they were finally divided and living their own lives, the Lian household still never failed to create trouble for them out of mere spite and jealousy. They were unstoppable! Despite being given countless chances, they still managed to fuck up by repeating the same mistakes every single time. Gosh! Which is why I was extremely disgusted by how hard the story tried to redeem the unredeemable, immoral Lian household. Can't the writers just give up on them? I know they wanted to embody the core value of "staying together through thick and thin," but the more I watched this drama's repetitive plot sequence, the more my patience wore thin. And as it continued, it arrived at a point where I was on the brink of snapping. Grr!
This raises the question: Just how much lower can her paternal family drag her down?
Furthermore, just when I thought we were only dealing with Lian Man'er's grandmother, uncles, and their wives, here comes her equally, if not more, vile cousin named Lian Hua'er. She was a shameless, ungrateful, hypocritical, and totally two-faced bitch! Lian Man'er should have never rescued her from that ghost marriage/widow-burning wedding. Thinking about it, she was practically involved in, if not the mastermind behind, 90% of the ordeals the main leads faced. Without her, we could have enjoyed a much lighter and more entertaining show. I was even overjoyed when she was married off, thinking that we were finally getting rid of one vile schemer in the family. Little did I know, her reach knew no bounds as she became even more wicked after she finally obtained wealth.
It was truly sickening to watch the script scramble to whitewash and trivialize the family's atrocious acts. The writers constantly tried to suggest these people possessed some hidden conscience—even after they had inflicted catastrophic, irreparable damage without showing an ounce of genuine remorse. It was incredibly frustrating; I could practically combust just thinking about it. A toxic crab mentality is what ultimately poisoned and destroyed this family from within. No matter how hard the story tried to manufacture unearned harmony at the end, I just will not buy it. NEVER.
Finally, looking at the last three episodes—the combination of climax, resolution, and ending—I am left with nothing but aggravating fury. Where do I even begin?
The last three episodes (Episodes 24–26) are where I truly lost every single ounce of patience I had stored up for this drama—especially during the climax. The number of times I was baffled and infuriated by how utterly careless and indecisive the FL (Lian Man'er) suddenly became is beyond my mental capacity. Considering that she was in high-risk situations, shouldn't she have been more cautious? Most of the dangers she faced during those episodes could have been 100% avoided if she had only worked with the utmost caution and rationality. I myself feel exhausted from my rants, so let me just say that the climax of the story was ultimately ruined by the writers' agenda of squeezing more 'drama' into the scenes—to make them more dramatic... which unfortunately backfired heavily as it suddenly stripped the female lead of her rational thinking, turning the climax into a cliché, anticlimactic downfall.
In regard to the denouement or resolution, God as my witness, I have lost count of how many times I rolled my eyes while exhaling heavily to suppress my pent-up anger and keep myself from totally lashing out. If I were to describe this entire part of the story in a single word, it would be FAKE! Instead of genuinely apologizing and repenting, Lian Hua'er and her mother, Madam Gu, still have the audacity to guilt-trip and blame the Lian family for their demise. Good grief! I refuse to squeeze any more juice out of my brain just to describe how brazenly unapologetic and shameless they literally are. Even how their entire cognitive process works puzzles me.
My hatred for them was so deeply rooted that even playing sad background music when it was announced to the family that their eldest son (Lian Shouren) had gone insane got me so mad. After the countless atrocious deeds he had inflicted upon the family, this show still had the audacity to forcefully extract and solicit pity from its viewers to feed into a "pity party" for this unforgivable, despicable man? Oh, geez! The only saving grace of this family was Song Hailong, Lian Hua'er's husband. He was a living symbol of righteousness they must look up to. Aside from him, the whole first branch of the family was a basket full of rotten apples that were beyond saving.
If only they had allowed the first branch of the family to have a character development arc during the middle of the story, similar to what they did with the second branch, I could probably have at least reluctantly accepted them. However, they did not, and instead resorted to making Lian Shouren (the eldest son) suffer trauma that led to his mental illness, while letting his wife and daughter—who are equally vile and obnoxious—become poor. Like, what were they trying to achieve with this, really? Sorry, but that is such an inadequate and completely insufficient redemption arc for them. What they badly needed in order to redeem themselves was a genuine form of repentance through action and absolute accountability, not just a convenient plot device set up to make them appear pitiful and deserving of mercy and forgiveness. It is ludicrous and extremely disturbing how the story low-key manipulates us to accept them just because they suffered their well-deserved retribution and became poor and struggling. Undermining what they have done, and without them offering a proper apology? Sorry, but no. I flat-out refuse. That is not how it works.
Lastly, the ending. Seeing them all together at the end, eating at one table, feasting and conversing with one another was truly comforting and heartwarming. I might have consumed all that and accepted the hypocrisy surrounding it only if I hadn't witnessed them pull off filthy tricks left and right, like absolute monsters, throughout the entire drama. But since I did... sorry, but scratch that. I just cannot let them off the hook so easily without proper punishment. The retribution they suffered was actually much too lenient compared to what they inflicted. So, no. N-E-V-E-R!
This family is beyond saving despite their family reunion and reconciliation at the end. I don't believe a single one of them has the strength to resist committing yet another heinous mistake if an opportunity arises.
I also just want to point out how I can't stand the act of magnanimity in this show. It was unbearable and suffocating, in the sense that we were forced to consume an ideology just because it is what's ideally correct, while it completely fails to acknowledge the moral aspect of it. It was truly revolting how the writers have been gaslighting us ever since. It's like they are trying to prove a point by experimenting on people's capability to understand and forgive—even when the deeds done are truly unforgivable. It is an attempt to be innovative in the most negative, illogical, and nasty way! Disgusting!!
To conclude my review, all I can say is that this drama was fun, and I won't deny that I laughed out loud at some scenes. However, it also caused so much frustration and anger, which outweighed all that positivity. The Lian family is on a constant downward spiral. The more you watch them, the more you will realize that their stupidity and irrationality reach past the horizon—beyond human understanding!
Story - 6.0, The story had potential. It had a good premise and was truly promising. What killed it was the never-ending, repetitive, and destructive family schemes, the lack of accountability, the inadequate time allowed for consistent character development, and the combination of an utterly revolting climax, resolution, and ending. Another factor that greatly ruined my mood regarding this show was the shameless attempt by the writers to manipulate and gaslight the viewers' judgment of what is right and wrong. That was truly nasty of them! Furthermore, for a "Game World" setup, it is truly weird that she only received one mission throughout the entire duration of the show. Talk about an unpolished storyline. Tsk, tsk!
Acting/Cast - 9.0, I have no complaints about the actors' and actresses' performances. My main issue is how their characters were written. Joseph Zeng's role annoyed me during the first 10 episodes, as it deprived him of the presence and energy needed to build chemistry with the FL. Same goes for Tian Xiwei's role. At one point, I was even thinking about how she was taken advantage of with this character. It's the first role of hers that I know of that made her character look indecisive and, in a sense, reckless. Not to mention the rest of the supporting characters. *Facepalm*
Music - 9.0, I like the soundtrack a lot. It is a combination of fun and melodious tracks. The lyrics are very uplifting and empowering for women, too.
Rewatch Value - 4.0, I am giving this score in consideration of the fact that this show has its good and fun sides, too. However, personally, I don't think I will ever watch it again.
Overall - 7.0, Upon reflection, what truly frustrates me the most about this story is the characterization and how it was written. I am especially furious about how manipulative the writers were! Talk about gaslighting to the absolute maximum. Grr!
IF you find my review helpful please let me know.
NOTE: This is the longest review I've written since I started leaving reviews here on MDL. I poured my all into this. Phew! Haha!
For the record, I just wanted to say that it was quite a challenge to watch this show, particularly the opening arc and the climax. That being said, to maintain a logical order, I will address the opening arc first, followed by the upsetting and tiring repetition in the plot, and conclude with my thoughts on the climax, denouement, and ending combined.
Although the story opened strongly—successfully introducing the main leads, the dynamics of the Lian household, and the series' "game" mechanics—the narrative stumbled by dedicating nearly half its time to the ML's (Shen Nuo) solo missions. To me, this prematurely derailed what could have been an excellent foundation for the leads' chemistry. Given the title and theme, the writers should have allowed him to assimilate into farm and family life first, establishing his role within the household and the story while forming a genuine connection with the female lead. Instead, he acted entirely on his own whims to fulfill his mission, even resorting to clever tricks—like manipulating the children—to avoid his chores. While some viewers might find this entertaining, I found it to be plain laziness. Truly annoying! Furthermore, this narrative choice introduced a host of other issues into the plot.
• First, the farm theme of the story wasn't fully highlighted because the ML's side quests tended to always steal half the screen time of each episode.
• Second, the story's focus was split into two parts: the chaos within the Lian household, and whatever mission Shen Nuo was doing. It felt like I was watching two different shows in one drama because his mission simply did not align with the current plot.
• Third, it became extra hard to connect with and attach myself to the ML because he himself felt detached and distant. He was always preoccupied with his mission and frequently half-assed his farm work, which made him annoying to watch.
• Fourth, the chemistry between the leads became hard to establish and invest in because he simply wasn't putting in the energy to begin with. I read the synopsis, so I was aware that he was written as a mysterious, tsundere character, but dang, his character was assassinated early in the story because aside from the fact that his aura didn't exude chemistry, his actions didn't show it either. What's worse was how he used the female lead (Lian Man'er) to toy with the 2nd male lead's (Wang Youheng) feelings to make him jealous.
This is exactly why, during the first 10 episodes of the show, viewing them as the "supposed" main leads became challenging, simply because the male lead failed to bring any romantic energy to the table. To make matters worse, the story slowly fumbled and grew increasingly frustrating as it progressed, due to the never-ending treachery and backstabbing occurrences within the Lian household. This exhausting cycle brings me to the next point of my review.
Honestly, I don't know whether to feel relieved that I can finally vent about the Lian family plotline, or furious because I have to relive the sheer amount of frustration and anger I accumulated while watching it. *Sighs*
The proverb "charity begins at home" serves as a powerful reminder that a person's upbringing and moral foundation depend entirely on their home life. When parents instill strong values early on, children possess a steadfast moral compass to ground them, no matter how chaotic or challenging the real world becomes. Unfortunately, this vital moral grounding was entirely absent within the Lian household—with the sole exception of Lian Shouxin, the youngest son, and his family (the 3rd branch in the Lian Household).
At first, I felt really proud of Lian Man'er when she said she had no problem dealing with all the family issues in the game. I figured she must have been so used to dealing with them in the real world, given that she also comes from a broken family. However, learning how intense and severe the situation actually was within the Lian household made me feel sad and full of pity for her instead. Imagine dealing with a hundredfold version of the family issues you have back in the real world. Just how excruciating and suffocating must it have been for her? Not to mention, the same "taking advantage of and scheming against one another" plot kept happening like a broken record. What a traumatic experience she suffered. 😭
Right off the bat, let me declare that this is the most chaotically dysfunctional household I have ever encountered in C-dramaland. They are a family that never prays together, yet desperately tries to stick together—a supposed family that isn't "family-ing" at all.
I know this might sound like an exaggeration, but I completely lost hope in this entire "family" thing they were so frantically trying to establish right before the show reached its first half. Whenever I expected that they had finally learned their lessons and would, for the love of God, change, I would then be shocked in the next episode by how well-prepared they were to stab one another in the back once again. It was endless—an infinite loop of events that kept happening over and over and over again. It dragged both the plot and the Lian family down into the mud, completely beyond salvation. They were a true disappointment!
This is precisely why the "family splitting" arc is my absolute favorite plotline. First, it brought the immense relief of finally escaping the pointless, childish rivalry of the Lian household. Second, it introduced Lian Man'er’s maternal side—the Zhang family—who were such an awesome bunch of people. They are the true definition of what a family should be.
However, everything felt short-lived after they successfully split from the family, because even though they were finally divided and living their own lives, the Lian household still never failed to create trouble for them out of mere spite and jealousy. They were unstoppable! Despite being given countless chances, they still managed to fuck up by repeating the same mistakes every single time. Gosh! Which is why I was extremely disgusted by how hard the story tried to redeem the unredeemable, immoral Lian household. Can't the writers just give up on them? I know they wanted to embody the core value of "staying together through thick and thin," but the more I watched this drama's repetitive plot sequence, the more my patience wore thin. And as it continued, it arrived at a point where I was on the brink of snapping. Grr!
This raises the question: Just how much lower can her paternal family drag her down?
Furthermore, just when I thought we were only dealing with Lian Man'er's grandmother, uncles, and their wives, here comes her equally, if not more, vile cousin named Lian Hua'er. She was a shameless, ungrateful, hypocritical, and totally two-faced bitch! Lian Man'er should have never rescued her from that ghost marriage/widow-burning wedding. Thinking about it, she was practically involved in, if not the mastermind behind, 90% of the ordeals the main leads faced. Without her, we could have enjoyed a much lighter and more entertaining show. I was even overjoyed when she was married off, thinking that we were finally getting rid of one vile schemer in the family. Little did I know, her reach knew no bounds as she became even more wicked after she finally obtained wealth.
It was truly sickening to watch the script scramble to whitewash and trivialize the family's atrocious acts. The writers constantly tried to suggest these people possessed some hidden conscience—even after they had inflicted catastrophic, irreparable damage without showing an ounce of genuine remorse. It was incredibly frustrating; I could practically combust just thinking about it. A toxic crab mentality is what ultimately poisoned and destroyed this family from within. No matter how hard the story tried to manufacture unearned harmony at the end, I just will not buy it. NEVER.
Finally, looking at the last three episodes—the combination of climax, resolution, and ending—I am left with nothing but aggravating fury. Where do I even begin?
The last three episodes (Episodes 24–26) are where I truly lost every single ounce of patience I had stored up for this drama—especially during the climax. The number of times I was baffled and infuriated by how utterly careless and indecisive the FL (Lian Man'er) suddenly became is beyond my mental capacity. Considering that she was in high-risk situations, shouldn't she have been more cautious? Most of the dangers she faced during those episodes could have been 100% avoided if she had only worked with the utmost caution and rationality. I myself feel exhausted from my rants, so let me just say that the climax of the story was ultimately ruined by the writers' agenda of squeezing more 'drama' into the scenes—to make them more dramatic... which unfortunately backfired heavily as it suddenly stripped the female lead of her rational thinking, turning the climax into a cliché, anticlimactic downfall.
In regard to the denouement or resolution, God as my witness, I have lost count of how many times I rolled my eyes while exhaling heavily to suppress my pent-up anger and keep myself from totally lashing out. If I were to describe this entire part of the story in a single word, it would be FAKE! Instead of genuinely apologizing and repenting, Lian Hua'er and her mother, Madam Gu, still have the audacity to guilt-trip and blame the Lian family for their demise. Good grief! I refuse to squeeze any more juice out of my brain just to describe how brazenly unapologetic and shameless they literally are. Even how their entire cognitive process works puzzles me.
My hatred for them was so deeply rooted that even playing sad background music when it was announced to the family that their eldest son (Lian Shouren) had gone insane got me so mad. After the countless atrocious deeds he had inflicted upon the family, this show still had the audacity to forcefully extract and solicit pity from its viewers to feed into a "pity party" for this unforgivable, despicable man? Oh, geez! The only saving grace of this family was Song Hailong, Lian Hua'er's husband. He was a living symbol of righteousness they must look up to. Aside from him, the whole first branch of the family was a basket full of rotten apples that were beyond saving.
If only they had allowed the first branch of the family to have a character development arc during the middle of the story, similar to what they did with the second branch, I could probably have at least reluctantly accepted them. However, they did not, and instead resorted to making Lian Shouren (the eldest son) suffer trauma that led to his mental illness, while letting his wife and daughter—who are equally vile and obnoxious—become poor. Like, what were they trying to achieve with this, really? Sorry, but that is such an inadequate and completely insufficient redemption arc for them. What they badly needed in order to redeem themselves was a genuine form of repentance through action and absolute accountability, not just a convenient plot device set up to make them appear pitiful and deserving of mercy and forgiveness. It is ludicrous and extremely disturbing how the story low-key manipulates us to accept them just because they suffered their well-deserved retribution and became poor and struggling. Undermining what they have done, and without them offering a proper apology? Sorry, but no. I flat-out refuse. That is not how it works.
Lastly, the ending. Seeing them all together at the end, eating at one table, feasting and conversing with one another was truly comforting and heartwarming. I might have consumed all that and accepted the hypocrisy surrounding it only if I hadn't witnessed them pull off filthy tricks left and right, like absolute monsters, throughout the entire drama. But since I did... sorry, but scratch that. I just cannot let them off the hook so easily without proper punishment. The retribution they suffered was actually much too lenient compared to what they inflicted. So, no. N-E-V-E-R!
This family is beyond saving despite their family reunion and reconciliation at the end. I don't believe a single one of them has the strength to resist committing yet another heinous mistake if an opportunity arises.
I also just want to point out how I can't stand the act of magnanimity in this show. It was unbearable and suffocating, in the sense that we were forced to consume an ideology just because it is what's ideally correct, while it completely fails to acknowledge the moral aspect of it. It was truly revolting how the writers have been gaslighting us ever since. It's like they are trying to prove a point by experimenting on people's capability to understand and forgive—even when the deeds done are truly unforgivable. It is an attempt to be innovative in the most negative, illogical, and nasty way! Disgusting!!
To conclude my review, all I can say is that this drama was fun, and I won't deny that I laughed out loud at some scenes. However, it also caused so much frustration and anger, which outweighed all that positivity. The Lian family is on a constant downward spiral. The more you watch them, the more you will realize that their stupidity and irrationality reach past the horizon—beyond human understanding!
Story - 6.0, The story had potential. It had a good premise and was truly promising. What killed it was the never-ending, repetitive, and destructive family schemes, the lack of accountability, the inadequate time allowed for consistent character development, and the combination of an utterly revolting climax, resolution, and ending. Another factor that greatly ruined my mood regarding this show was the shameless attempt by the writers to manipulate and gaslight the viewers' judgment of what is right and wrong. That was truly nasty of them! Furthermore, for a "Game World" setup, it is truly weird that she only received one mission throughout the entire duration of the show. Talk about an unpolished storyline. Tsk, tsk!
Acting/Cast - 9.0, I have no complaints about the actors' and actresses' performances. My main issue is how their characters were written. Joseph Zeng's role annoyed me during the first 10 episodes, as it deprived him of the presence and energy needed to build chemistry with the FL. Same goes for Tian Xiwei's role. At one point, I was even thinking about how she was taken advantage of with this character. It's the first role of hers that I know of that made her character look indecisive and, in a sense, reckless. Not to mention the rest of the supporting characters. *Facepalm*
Music - 9.0, I like the soundtrack a lot. It is a combination of fun and melodious tracks. The lyrics are very uplifting and empowering for women, too.
Rewatch Value - 4.0, I am giving this score in consideration of the fact that this show has its good and fun sides, too. However, personally, I don't think I will ever watch it again.
Overall - 7.0, Upon reflection, what truly frustrates me the most about this story is the characterization and how it was written. I am especially furious about how manipulative the writers were! Talk about gaslighting to the absolute maximum. Grr!
IF you find my review helpful please let me know.
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