Rhea
Malaysia
Cliches Overload!
My impression on Please Feel At Ease Mr. Ling after watching the whole drama is that it tries to do too much with a 24-episode series. As a result, the story is all over the place. Just consider this – sibling rivalry, adoption angle, amnesia, co-habitation, jealous love rivals, childhood link, minor breakup, rich man and poor girl are all part and parcel of this drama. It is fine for a romance drama to have cliches. Moonlight and Miss Crow With Mr. Lizard also has a co-habitation and jealous love rival storyline respectively. But there is no necessity to include every imaginable cliche to make it into a story. Moreover, there are also those accidental hugs and stares in Please Feel At Ease Mr. Ling which you can already predict the moment a certain scene appears.
What is pitiful is that the drama actually starts off pretty good in the first episode notwithstanding the plot holes which are aplenty throughout the 24 episodes. But after that, everything is just too basic and draggy until the last few episodes when there is a sudden twist. It is basic because they try to do too much that events are introduced and then glossed over. There are no details provided as everything moves very fast especially on the business front. So, don’t expect to know how outcomes are achieved. Orders are given and they just happened. If you like this kind of simplicity, then it might work for you. But if you prefer more well-written stories, this should be avoided completely.
Plot Weaknesses
I’m not one who likes to look for plot holes whenever I watch a drama. But the plot weaknesses in Please Feel At Ease Mr. Ling are just too obvious. Ling Yue has a phobia against a large amount of water as he was pushed into a pool by his brother when he was a kid. But somehow, he managed to get himself out of the sea when his car crashed into it at the beginning of the drama. Then, in a later episode, he fainted while at the beach because he was afraid of the water. The inconsistency is just too glaring. Apart from water, Ling Yue is also afraid of cockroaches, dogs, and height!
Furthermore, I just find the obsession that some of these characters have for another is just overdone because they are all related in some way. An Xin’s foster brother loves her but she loves Ling Yue. Her foster sister, Xin Er, also loves Ling Yue. If that is not enough, Ling Yue’s brother is obsessed over Xin Er as well in a merry-go-round sort of romantic entanglement!
While it may sound complicated, it is actually quite straightforward in the drama because their feelings are clearly laid out. But the coincidences are just too much. A brother loving his sister (it reminds me of Go Ahead), 2 sisters loving the same man, and a man loving one of the sisters who loves his brother basically sum up the romance part of the story. I don’t know but it just seems such a weird situation to me. There is really no necessity to elevate the entanglement to this level as time could be better spent on a more in-depth plot.
Little Chemistry Between The Leads
A top notch chemistry between the leads can actually save a romance drama from mediocrity even if it has nothing more than a thin plot. My Little Happiness is one such example. The right chemistry could also make a drama sweeter to charm viewers such as Forever Love and Perfect And Casual. But Rosy Zhao and Terry Liu just don’t have enough sparks between them to make it happen in Please Feel At Ease Mr. Ling. The natural feel for the kind of deep love for each other is simply missing. Even her partnership with the much older Lin Yu Shen in Dating In The Kitchen has better chemistry and is more pleasurable to watch.
Perhaps Terry Liu’s inexperience is a drawback and it shows. His acting is still too stiff that he can’t really keep up with the more adept Rosy Zhao. After all, she has played this kind of roles before and portraying An Xin shouldn’t be difficult for her. I just wonder if another male lead could have saved this drama if the pairing has better chemistry overall.
My Verdict – Don’t Waste Your Time!
It is hard for me to recommend giving Please Feel At Ease Mr. Ling a try given the poorly written storyline. Unless you are a Rosy Zhao fan, there is really little reason to watch this when there are plenty of other rom-coms and romance dramas out there. Perhaps the basic plot which doesn’t delve too much into the business aspect may resonate with those who prefer simplicity. But then again, even the ending for some of the characters doesn’t give you the required satisfaction as a viewer.
I suppose if you really want to give it a go, you can do so by skipping some boring parts. The middle of the drama is a little draggy and you can probably skip it to go straight to the last few episodes for the ending. This is really not a drama that will remain in your mind after it is over unlike Love Is Sweet or Begin Again whereby there are parts that are worth a rewatch. Of course, if you can feel the chemistry between the leads, it will be a different story. Then, this drama will be more watchable to you despite the weak plot.
Overall, for this Please Feel At Ease Mr. Ling review, I would give it a score of 6/10. It is not my cup of tea mainly because of the plot which is not properly planned with too many unnecessary cliches. 24 episodes also isn’t really the type of drama that you would want to have too many things going on and 4 couples to share the screen time with. The end result is a bland production that fails to evoke viewers’ emotions towards any of the characters.
What is pitiful is that the drama actually starts off pretty good in the first episode notwithstanding the plot holes which are aplenty throughout the 24 episodes. But after that, everything is just too basic and draggy until the last few episodes when there is a sudden twist. It is basic because they try to do too much that events are introduced and then glossed over. There are no details provided as everything moves very fast especially on the business front. So, don’t expect to know how outcomes are achieved. Orders are given and they just happened. If you like this kind of simplicity, then it might work for you. But if you prefer more well-written stories, this should be avoided completely.
Plot Weaknesses
I’m not one who likes to look for plot holes whenever I watch a drama. But the plot weaknesses in Please Feel At Ease Mr. Ling are just too obvious. Ling Yue has a phobia against a large amount of water as he was pushed into a pool by his brother when he was a kid. But somehow, he managed to get himself out of the sea when his car crashed into it at the beginning of the drama. Then, in a later episode, he fainted while at the beach because he was afraid of the water. The inconsistency is just too glaring. Apart from water, Ling Yue is also afraid of cockroaches, dogs, and height!
Furthermore, I just find the obsession that some of these characters have for another is just overdone because they are all related in some way. An Xin’s foster brother loves her but she loves Ling Yue. Her foster sister, Xin Er, also loves Ling Yue. If that is not enough, Ling Yue’s brother is obsessed over Xin Er as well in a merry-go-round sort of romantic entanglement!
While it may sound complicated, it is actually quite straightforward in the drama because their feelings are clearly laid out. But the coincidences are just too much. A brother loving his sister (it reminds me of Go Ahead), 2 sisters loving the same man, and a man loving one of the sisters who loves his brother basically sum up the romance part of the story. I don’t know but it just seems such a weird situation to me. There is really no necessity to elevate the entanglement to this level as time could be better spent on a more in-depth plot.
Little Chemistry Between The Leads
A top notch chemistry between the leads can actually save a romance drama from mediocrity even if it has nothing more than a thin plot. My Little Happiness is one such example. The right chemistry could also make a drama sweeter to charm viewers such as Forever Love and Perfect And Casual. But Rosy Zhao and Terry Liu just don’t have enough sparks between them to make it happen in Please Feel At Ease Mr. Ling. The natural feel for the kind of deep love for each other is simply missing. Even her partnership with the much older Lin Yu Shen in Dating In The Kitchen has better chemistry and is more pleasurable to watch.
Perhaps Terry Liu’s inexperience is a drawback and it shows. His acting is still too stiff that he can’t really keep up with the more adept Rosy Zhao. After all, she has played this kind of roles before and portraying An Xin shouldn’t be difficult for her. I just wonder if another male lead could have saved this drama if the pairing has better chemistry overall.
My Verdict – Don’t Waste Your Time!
It is hard for me to recommend giving Please Feel At Ease Mr. Ling a try given the poorly written storyline. Unless you are a Rosy Zhao fan, there is really little reason to watch this when there are plenty of other rom-coms and romance dramas out there. Perhaps the basic plot which doesn’t delve too much into the business aspect may resonate with those who prefer simplicity. But then again, even the ending for some of the characters doesn’t give you the required satisfaction as a viewer.
I suppose if you really want to give it a go, you can do so by skipping some boring parts. The middle of the drama is a little draggy and you can probably skip it to go straight to the last few episodes for the ending. This is really not a drama that will remain in your mind after it is over unlike Love Is Sweet or Begin Again whereby there are parts that are worth a rewatch. Of course, if you can feel the chemistry between the leads, it will be a different story. Then, this drama will be more watchable to you despite the weak plot.
Overall, for this Please Feel At Ease Mr. Ling review, I would give it a score of 6/10. It is not my cup of tea mainly because of the plot which is not properly planned with too many unnecessary cliches. 24 episodes also isn’t really the type of drama that you would want to have too many things going on and 4 couples to share the screen time with. The end result is a bland production that fails to evoke viewers’ emotions towards any of the characters.
Was this review helpful to you?
