Interesting that the MDL rating is so much lower than Viki’s, which I actually believe MDL is sitting about right for this show. 9.3 on Viki is extremely generous and I suspect driven by folks fangirling of the ML.
Yes Moon Sang Min is a fine piece of work and an excellent actor, and I believe most stuck through those awful early episodes due to him. However, the writing and in turn directing of this show was a massive disservice and the reason I just can’t rate it above 8. Great ifea, and having Mom do what she did right at the beginning, but it didn’t work. Not once was the FL convincing to me that she genuinely wanted a break. She was deeply in love and it showed. So that plot point was weak, further damaged by the repetitive nature of the script. It was realistic-most folks fight for their relationship especially if they don’t believe the other person. However to spemd 6-7 episodes of a 10 episode aeries on this same stuck record was exhausting. The show felt monotonous and weak. I was disappointed, there should have been additional issues added to add some depth. The work collegues were funny for all of a couple episodes and then they turned fully obnoxious and irritating. Ugh. Finally the show gets a break, when FL does what we all know she has wanted to do the second she got that cash from the Mom. And the rest of the drama rolls out in an over abundance of storylines that it felt odd.
What are the wins for this show? ML and FL are aesthetically well matched, and have chemistry. To pull that off with the massive age difference was awesome and there were times ot clearly didn’t look like 14 yrs. The second couple were magic, and so refreshing to not have evil power playing older siblings in a chaebol family. Its the usual line with kdramas and so so wonderful we got the best older brother for Ju Won. Honestly, I would have loved to have much more screen time for their story during that initial chunk of the show and balanced the stuck record part.
The final episode had some lovely scenes and for me helped yank this series out of the mud, because I genuinely was headedin that 5-6 stars range earlier on.
Would love more awesome dramas from all 4 of the main cast, even the flat attempt at a 2ML needs more dramas. Love him!
Ending is wasted and rushed after 23 exhausting stuck record dialogue. They’d have a convo or a scene that looked that progression and then be straight back to square one one. Yul repeated the same 5 lines on repeat. We could have had a really good show why do the writers tank themselves?!?! Are they even writers?!?!!
Do not waste your time, I repeat do not waste your time. Such a potential for an amazing show. Writing is horrendous. The mains are horrendous. The ending the most stupidest annoying ending ever in all asian shows. Which is saying something cos there are so bad ones out there.
Started out well, with so much promise but what on earth happened? I was hoping for a tension filled confession. It was not. Random marriage, why? Seconds - held potential but fell flat. They just drop off. The second couple were just annoying and immature. The last 2 episodes were so disappointing. Everything and I mean everything was delivered monotonously with zero emotion in their expressions. Who on earth wrote this AND more importantly directed this? A potentially cute short drama ruined by writing and directing.
What a ridiculous drama. I started this desperately hoping the negative reviews were just picky viewers, however it became quickly obvious the writers were going to totally tank any potential for anyone here.
Main leads - may as well have been FL and 2 show because Luming had way more screen time than our ML, and FL acted like she was happier with him than the ML the whole time she was in a relationship with both the guys. To the point where you will wonder why we even had the pathetic attempt at one in the first place. FL treats ML like some little kid that has no idea about anything. She never takes him that seriously and keeps him at a distance while dropping everything for the stalker Luming the second he calls. Shes weak for the ML, tough cookie for the SML. I’m like cool ok I guess theres nothing wrong here, then voila because the writers need to end all that happy relationship with 2ML in order to wrap said draggy plot line- FL suddenly remembers who she really loves… Find yourself? Get Manipulated and at the end suddenly remember your one true love more like. She learned absolutely squat all about herself… find yourself… she was on her own for all of 10 seconds before she was officially a new guys gf. Where did she go on a journey of self discovery as a single person?!?!
Everyone else - theres far too much screen time given to the side characters. Of course where Miles is concerned- we can let that one go, happily stare at him all day lol, but that dragged on too long like everyones issues. They notoriously miss the tension moments on shows, the ones that give you all the feels.. big miss over and over. Even the twin brother and Esther had a potential but they got together in the oddest way and even tho it was clear they would unite, from the longing glance he has for her early on, he somehow turns into a utter weirdo, and then I guess eventually he is in love, but you’re not quite sure how he got there. Still they act like friends more than lovers. The besties were sn odd bunch to and did a pathetic job of helping FL see the light. The friends scumbag husband was a pointless side plot. Skipped all that. Incl the other friends weird 10 yr relationship. Was anyone normal in this show maybe the kids. The parents were ok but even then they didn’t behave consistently. The writing is a complete mess. FL has a complete personality shift with luming.
Do yourself a favor and after the first breakup (because yes there is a second one even tho they had nothing to break up from we get another overly dramatic break up scene) just skip to the last episode where everything is rushed to fix the complete train wreck of a drama with happy endings for all (except the friend with kids sadly).
I love swim dramas and this started out so so good. Sadly, like many cdramas its badly written and a dragged out 36 ep show misses all the opportunities to ramp up the action, angst and romance and spoils everything. There are so many awful tropes, and disappointing scenes- that by about ep 23 you just skip far more than you watch. I skipped all the high school flashbacks. It got tiresome. Guess what, you miss nothing. Oh well the swimming saved it for me.
Curious, this show has some pretty high ratings for a very low budget mid drama. There was nothing spectacular about this. The plot doesn’t even know what identity it has, the story is all over the place. Is it a spoof? Is it a typical infighting between royal off springs and the jealous mothers? Are there multiple near death moments for the FL that ML just so happens to arrive just in time for? Love triangle? Not really but you’re guessing there might be but the writers don’t really flesh that out. There is zero chemistry between the leads, and the Prince brothers woman (senior) looks way too old for him. FL still manages to cry and show emotion and feelings even tho they swapped thru the tears. The plot holes are many. I got so bored too it got draggy, I skipped the last 8 episodes and missed nothing. I suspect these high ratings are coming from fickle WXY fans, who hopped over here after the Double to watch him some more in their Su hangover!!! 🤣🤣🤣 The Double was well written tho annoyingly lacking in romance. This is badly written and apparently is packed full of sexual content according to the warnings. 🤣There not even a zip of chemistry- very innocent kisses, and plenty of hand holding. If thats sexual content in China then 🤷🏼♀️….. I’m not even sure if this is just worth watching to pass the time, I wouldn’t even consider it a filler. There’s far better historical cdramas than this.
Cute short series, heavy at times but nicely balanced. I did feel like the USA stuff was filler, and wouldn’t have needed to rush the ending. But a good watch.
Confused by the high rating and disappointed because of it. This show is mid at best. Started out strong, and suddenly tanked with the change of plot, FL too childish too often and though she had some heavier scenes, she didn’t change much. Chemistry was extremely lacking, I just think this script was a disappointment. Miles can do better than this.
This show is completely saved by the amazing seconds. Perhaps they are the reason for the high rating. It always felt boring to go back to the leads. Nice job Zhao x Rao you stole the show ❤️
Typical Jdrama. Mono plot, weak FL - odd as heck best friend of ML who pushes brocode and acts super suss. Wacky OSTs. I mean we know the deal with these shows. I don’t mind, they are great for a slump between Chinese and Korean, you know it’ll never take itself too seriously so its a safe bet. I wish though more Japanese Directors would take a leaf out of Eye Love You - which was the first time I saw a jdrama come even close to the production value and quality of its Asian neighbors. You can do it folks!! Budget was screamingly low and they did not convincingly pull off the kind of wealth they were telling us was there.
Also considering ML is after intimacy from day 1, its obvious there was feelings. The miscommunication is really the driver of the whole plot. If these 2 could talk like normal folk there would have been no show. That’s how monotone it was.
The only redeeming part of this story is the absolutely hilarious interactions of ML and his man servant. They cracked me up. So many plot holes, and odd things that happened - and can anyone tell me what happened to the pregnancy? Like did she loose it? Why didn’t she falling at that height? She should be dead lol. I could quite easily have missed something because I skipped so much of the last 15 episodes it got so tiresome. The political nonsense dominated way too much. I haven’t read the novel nor could care less about who everyone is in real life, but the story was so monotonous and boring. Princess Royal character was so cringe the entire time, its not about power she says almost the whole way through, yet at the end her being the Regent is because she wanted the power? OK. Without the humourous antics that take place I might have given up on this earlier. Very disappointing show.
I’m gonna miss this. Major bingefest, I don’t know how folks wait to watch as its releasing week by week. It would have driven me nuts. I need a whole show dropped before I even start. So funny. Jaesoo was one of my faves. A little disappointed the mains didn’t step it up a bit romantically that felt a bit flat as it progressed- but the comedy was on point. It did loose its way around ep 13-14 and it began to feel like plot rewind, so I took off one star, the momentum was rolling the entire time so when it suddenly changes dynamics it was really obvious. 9/10 for a solid UNIQUE kdrama that had feels of a 2000’s classic yet modern in every way.
I wanted this to be a 10, but I can only give it a 7.5:- An overwhelming amount of slow or irrelevant content…
I wanted them to resolve Lilis relationship with the single Dad. to give him the growth arc- amd happiness as a new family. That was a major lost opportunity for the script and the show. Everyone loves a HEA for a family dealing with grief. And redemption for the guy as he faced his fears would have been inspiring. They had chemistry that we as viewers felt organically not forced on us like the man child from the office. That was flatter than a pancake. No excitement when she showed up at the airport and utter frustration when the single dad gave his stupid advice at the end. That little girl must have been so confused. horrid decision writers and director.
I wanted this to be a 10, but I can only give it a 7.5:
- An overwhelming amount of slow or irrelevant content in parts. Some of it moves along perfectly. Until it doesn’t. When you find yourself skipping, because you feel like your time is being wasted it adds to my overall view. - Multiple plot holes. Bad guys always know the instant a main character decides something. Like why?!? - The exhausting breakup we all know just HAS to be included in every cdrama romance. So many can’t seem to grasp that despite ML ability to better communicate- the entire previous part of the drama he was a total green flag doing nothing but helping to start, grow and keep Star Tech progressing. They are absolutely nothing without his money. They’d have tanked as soon as FL money was gone. Which was early on. He patiently observed, advised and guided. His intentions were not nefarious and thecway the writers progressed a pointless breakup and the way they wrote it made the FL look pathetic and selfish. I realize this is very typical in cdramas. Over reactive FL who run off at the first sight of trouble, blaming it all on the ML their perfect standards for life destroyed.
I want to say its terrible to portray women as so stupid and immature. We are better than that, but the message being relayed to young women is not healthy. As always the ML has to grovel and beg, and this time based off of the way it was written it was so repulsive I skippes most of ep 32-34 due to my huge irritation for the FL behavior. Please stop it. You disengage empathy for a main character with the viewers. A show that was doing well now takes a nose dive. There are better alternative ways to cause conflict to resolve.
What I did love about this show: - Romance is perfect for the leads. They did a great job. Plenty of zing and lovely scenes. - Friendship between 3 of the friends was wonderful - Despite the regurgitation of the tropes amd plots - they were all there, it was refreshing to have a bold no nonsense ML who wasn’t taking any hidden agendas, and stood his ground.
biggest gripe after the dumb breakup episodes- the way they handled LiLis romance subplot. It shows that writers can write whatever they want, you can’t convince the audience if its just not there. I was mega disappointed at how all of that was written. It deserved a much better development.
Overall tho I was loving it until I didn’t but it ends well. The lost stars are reflected in the huge dissatisfaction mentioned above.
Yes Moon Sang Min is a fine piece of work and an excellent actor, and I believe most stuck through those awful early episodes due to him. However, the writing and in turn directing of this show was a massive disservice and the reason I just can’t rate it above 8. Great ifea, and having Mom do what she did right at the beginning, but it didn’t work. Not once was the FL convincing to me that she genuinely wanted a break. She was deeply in love and it showed. So that plot point was weak, further damaged by the repetitive nature of the script. It was realistic-most folks fight for their relationship especially if they don’t believe the other person. However to spemd 6-7 episodes of a 10 episode aeries on this same stuck record was exhausting. The show felt monotonous and weak. I was disappointed, there should have been additional issues added to add some depth. The work collegues were funny for all of a couple episodes and then they turned fully obnoxious and irritating. Ugh.
Finally the show gets a break, when FL does what we all know she has wanted to do the second she got that cash from the Mom. And the rest of the drama rolls out in an over abundance of storylines that it felt odd.
What are the wins for this show? ML and FL are aesthetically well matched, and have chemistry. To pull that off with the massive age difference was awesome and there were times ot clearly didn’t look like 14 yrs. The second couple were magic, and so refreshing to not have evil power playing older siblings in a chaebol family. Its the usual line with kdramas and so so wonderful we got the best older brother for Ju Won. Honestly, I would have loved to have much more screen time for their story during that initial chunk of the show and balanced the stuck record part.
The final episode had some lovely scenes and for me helped yank this series out of the mud, because I genuinely was headedin that 5-6 stars range earlier on.
Would love more awesome dramas from all 4 of the main cast, even the flat attempt at a 2ML needs more dramas. Love him!
The end.
Main leads - may as well have been FL and 2 show because Luming had way more screen time than our ML, and FL acted like she was happier with him than the ML the whole time she was in a relationship with both the guys. To the point where you will wonder why we even had the pathetic attempt at one in the first place. FL treats ML like some little kid that has no idea about anything. She never takes him that seriously and keeps him at a distance while dropping everything for the stalker Luming the second he calls. Shes weak for the ML, tough cookie for the SML. I’m like cool ok I guess theres nothing wrong here, then voila because the writers need to end all that happy relationship with 2ML in order to wrap said draggy plot line- FL suddenly remembers who she really loves… Find yourself? Get Manipulated and at the end suddenly remember your one true love more like. She learned absolutely squat all about herself… find yourself… she was on her own for all of 10 seconds before she was officially a new guys gf. Where did she go on a journey of self discovery as a single person?!?!
Everyone else - theres far too much screen time given to the side characters. Of course where Miles is concerned- we can let that one go, happily stare at him all day lol, but that dragged on too long like everyones issues. They notoriously miss the tension moments on shows, the ones that give you all the feels.. big miss over and over. Even the twin brother and Esther had a potential but they got together in the oddest way and even tho it was clear they would unite, from the longing glance he has for her early on, he somehow turns into a utter weirdo, and then I guess eventually he is in love, but you’re not quite sure how he got there. Still they act like friends more than lovers. The besties were sn odd bunch to and did a pathetic job of helping FL see the light. The friends scumbag husband was a pointless side plot. Skipped all that. Incl the other friends weird 10 yr relationship. Was anyone normal in this show maybe the kids. The parents were ok but even then they didn’t behave consistently. The writing is a complete mess. FL has a complete personality shift with luming.
Do yourself a favor and after the first breakup (because yes there is a second one even tho they had nothing to break up from we get another overly dramatic break up scene) just skip to the last episode where everything is rushed to fix the complete train wreck of a drama with happy endings for all (except the friend with kids sadly).
You could skip this.
This show is completely saved by the amazing seconds. Perhaps they are the reason for the high rating. It always felt boring to go back to the leads. Nice job Zhao x Rao you stole the show ❤️
Also considering ML is after intimacy from day 1, its obvious there was feelings. The miscommunication is really the driver of the whole plot. If these 2 could talk like normal folk there would have been no show. That’s how monotone it was.
A bit of fast fluff. Forgetable.
- An overwhelming amount of slow or irrelevant content in parts. Some of it moves along perfectly. Until it doesn’t. When you find yourself skipping, because you feel like your time is being wasted it adds to my overall view.
- Multiple plot holes. Bad guys always know the instant a main character decides something. Like why?!?
- The exhausting breakup we all know just HAS to be included in every cdrama romance. So many can’t seem to grasp that despite ML ability to better communicate- the entire previous part of the drama he was a total green flag doing nothing but helping to start, grow and keep Star Tech progressing. They are absolutely nothing without his money. They’d have tanked as soon as FL money was gone. Which was early on. He patiently observed, advised and guided. His intentions were not nefarious and thecway the writers progressed a pointless breakup and the way they wrote it made the FL look pathetic and selfish. I realize this is very typical in cdramas. Over reactive FL who run off at the first sight of trouble, blaming it all on the ML their perfect standards for life destroyed.
I want to say its terrible to portray women as so stupid and immature. We are better than that, but the message being relayed to young women is not healthy. As always the ML has to grovel and beg, and this time based off of the way it was written it was so repulsive I skippes most of ep 32-34 due to my huge irritation for the FL behavior. Please stop it. You disengage empathy for a main character with the viewers. A show that was doing well now takes a nose dive. There are better alternative ways to cause conflict to resolve.
What I did love about this show:
- Romance is perfect for the leads. They did a great job. Plenty of zing and lovely scenes.
- Friendship between 3 of the friends was wonderful
- Despite the regurgitation of the tropes amd plots - they were all there, it was refreshing to have a bold no nonsense ML who wasn’t taking any hidden agendas, and stood his ground.
biggest gripe after the dumb breakup episodes- the way they handled LiLis romance subplot. It shows that writers can write whatever they want, you can’t convince the audience if its just not there. I was mega disappointed at how all of that was written. It deserved a much better development.
Overall tho I was loving it until I didn’t but it ends well. The lost stars are reflected in the huge dissatisfaction mentioned above.