Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed this show very much and I binge watched it from start to finish even though I have every intention to take it slow. That got me thinking, why did I do that?

It might be serendipity when I just saw a YouTube video about fast food and how they are created by science to give us dopamine and endorphin hits as quickly as possible. The amount of salt, sugar, fat, etc are precisely controlled. It even goes as far as using highly processed ingredients that requires minimum effort to digest so you don’t feel sluggish after a meal. You just feel good and want more . . with fries.

So, if we were to engineer a drama equivalent for the massive Chinese audience what would we need?

• A lead that is long suffering, but s/he has a strong, righteous personality, and a backbone of steel so that s/he can rise above.
• A romantic counterpart who is the rock for the main protagonist to shelter against the worst. S/he will do enough to make his/her intention clear, but it will be a slow burn.
• An antagonist who is despicable but not totally evil. Just bad enough that we look forward to his/her fall from grace.
• A bunch of one-note side characters who will do the dirty work of the antagonist or trigger events and move the plot along.
• The main theme shall be growth and redemption. Angst will be under a tight rein. Hope and despair will be in fine balance. The big payoff will be at the end.
• It should not be an all consuming revenge drama as that will corrupt the leads. However, wrongs will be righted, and the wrongdoers will get their comeuppance.
• Solid actors who can breathe life into their roles.
• Above average production.

To put it simply, this is Alliance in a nutshell.

There are minor deviations. For instance, the 2FL is a little surprise package as she flipped from the classic SFL to become the BFF of the FL. I liked that and it was good to watch her grow and mature. However, some of her subplots are contrived. More suffering for the sake of suffering.

The despicable antagonist is front and centre. The array of side characters are armed and ready. There are some social commentaries, but none are particularly hard hitting nor unique.

Add solid actors, a quality production and we have all the ingredients for a binge worthy drama and that is exactly what we got.

The story of Alliance is ageless and boils down to watching the FL struggle up a greasy slope. She will slip back down and skin her knees repeatedly. We all know that the reward is at the top of that hill so we wait in anticipation.

This is where a good script helps. There is despair but it is not soul destroying. Emotional scenes are well acted but mostly at 7/8th level with rare boil-overs. There are occasional sparks of joy to keep our hopes up and swoon worthy moments to let us know romance is not dead.

It ebbs and flows but the outcome is largely preordained. Plots are designed to hit us with the feels, and they get the job done.

Is that a bad thing? Absolutely not. As consumers of dramas, we crave those type of shows. Maybe they are formulaic, and leaves only a fleeting impression but we shall be hungry for more. Peace out.