There’s not really a lot to say about this drama, whether positive or negative, but it’s been in the back of my mind since I finished it to write a review, so I will just have to write it in order to get my brain to shut up, lol.

Attention, Love! is a very typical story for its genre. It has its charming and funny moments, but it also has its fare share of frustrating character choices and some wheel-spinning. It’s certainly not the worst offender out there in this regard. You will find much, much worse. And people who enjoy stories that involve lots of pining and characters’ inability to move on will most likely enjoy this one. For my part, I found the enemies to friends’ relationship between the leads in high school fairly sweet and enjoyable. I think that was the strongest portion of the drama, as while their path to friendship is sometimes dramatic (like things often are when you are a teen), it’s not utterly ridiculous, and the characters are pleasant to watch together on screen.

The premise of essentially a future arranged marriage between the leads is really not necessary to the plot as it’s only discussed earlier on in the story and barely ever mentioned as the drama goes on. It also doesn’t have any real impact on the characters apart from the female leads initial dislike of the plan. But then she sees our male lead and has a change of heart, lol. I mostly ignored this part of the plot because its lack of importance in the story makes it very easy to do.

Where the drama starts to wheel-spin is once the leads head off to University. This portion of the drama (which makes up the majority of the rest of the story) is a very long stretch of the female lead pining for something she can’t have and the male lead sending mixed signals over how havable or not havable he is. The frustration this creates for the viewer could have been lessened with some smart usage of the drama’s chosen clichés and tropes. In my personal view, most clichés and tropes you see in dramas are usually fine within themselves. The issue is with how they are used by a story. Here, the trifecta of the female leads pining, the male leads refusal to admit his feelings, and the forced proximity between the two does very little to serve the story. They certainly create tension and jealousy between the leads as they watch each other interacting with other love interests and try to convince themselves that they don’t care, but it does nothing to help our leads grow closer together in any way, particularly the forced proximity.

If you’re going to have your female lead stuck in a loop of pining for a guy who isn’t making himself available, and you are going to force her to live in the same building and on the same floor as him, you’ve got to provide some level of growing openness between them to fuel said pining. The leads should have begun spending more time together at this point, not less. The male lead should have begun to blur the lines between friend and more than a friend. There should have been moments where things almost crossed over into romance. But there’s very little of this. It’s mostly the male lead manipulating things in the background to keep her from moving on but being openly hostile towards his own feelings for the female lead, and at a certain point, you have to ask why he won’t just let her go if the writers don’t intend for him to be a selfish jerk.

It’s this dynamic, the male lead refusing to let the female lead move on and the female lead endlessly pining, that ends up being the most frustrating part of this drama. Otherwise, this drama is very easily watchable. The female leads best friends from high school have a super cute romance that in some ways is far better than the romance between the OTP. The pretty, prissy new friend she makes in University is a super fun character who turns out to be fiercely loyal and protective of those she loves. And the female lead herself is a very determined and go-getter character (outside of her blind spot that is her crush on the male lead). Something I particularly liked about this drama, which I've seen no one talk about, is Shao Xi's natural trajectory from a tomboy who doesn't spend much time on clothes or makeup, to a young woman still every bit as fierce and determined and pretty tomboyish but who also develops a more active and realistic interest in said clothes and makeup. She never felt like a different person to me, just like a young woman growing up and into herself, and I thought it was really well-done.

I wouldn’t say to anyone don’t watch Attention, Love! because this drama might be your thing. Definitely give it a shot if you enjoy pining and male leads who can’t admit their feelings. You might like it. But personally, I think there are better dramas out there. And now that I’ve written my review, I realize I had more to say about this drama than I thought, lol.

(I have to add here that while I didn't love this drama, I did love the remake of "Close to You" that played repeatedly throughout to the point that I eventually bought it. That song is beautiful.)