OVERALL
I've wanted to watch similar stories like this one for a bit and decided to settle for Dear Missy. And trust me, we have a lot of stories that are similar to this one out there in Chinese dramaland right now. I guess I'll have to watch something else to fill what this drama lacked.

I don't mind the fact that we see so much of the side cast. I do care that we were given a synopsis that stated otherwise. I would have still watched this if this was about a group of friends who struggles in love, life, and work. I don't particularly appreciate how the characters were written to move the storyline line. Like things happen to them to make the plot continue moving. One example is people randomly showing up to plot against them. I could give more, but I won't.

This drama could be more resonant about old friendships, new friendships, different types of love, family, etc. It could have told a beautiful story. I think more than anything, I am sad that it didn't move me as much as I hope it would have. By the midway point, I knew that it wasn't going to be as I expect it to be.

STORY
The story is supposed to be about two girls who were best friends in high school and fell apart. Years later, they were brought back together because they both worked for a magazine company. They rekindled their friendship, and we see them work and grow together in their personal and work lives. However, we saw a lot of the side characters, and their story is incorporated into the drama. The actual storyline is about a group of friends who came together at different points in their lives. They grow together through love, friendship, and in the workplace.


CAST/ACTING/CHARACTERS (spoilers)
There is a pretty solid cast! I've seen plenty of Lu Yi Tong's work and am familiar with Jin Chen. So I have not complaints about the acting and cast choice. So, I'll move onto the characters and how they were written. I was not too fond of a lot of these characters and how they chose to act a certain way.

Honestly, Guan Yue was an annoying character to me. She would blame other people when it was her mistake and won't own up to it. Lu Ke fought for her, that Lu Ke jeopardized her duties and position. That was a personal matter because Guan Yue is her friend, it was not work-related, and she still called out Lu Ke for not taking her side. It's just childish to see. Guan Yue has it hard, and she never gives up, but she never sees that she's in the wrong whenever something happens. She's gone through so much that you would think her character would learn to be smarter at some point. I don't like these kinds of characters that never seem to grow. It's okay if she's stubborn, but there's a fine line with just being selfish. She's treated unfairly but, in a dog, eat dog world that she's experienced several times, she still thinks that there are justice and right. Which is okay, but her impulsiveness to say and do things doesn't make sense to me. Then the writer forces us to feel bad for her by her speeches as to why she acts a certain way. I just couldn't with her character. She was more bearable at the end because she stopped acting out. Yet she never really grew as a character, if you think about it.

Many people found Lu Ke's character boring, but I enjoyed her calm and rational side as a character. In which contrasted Shen Si Yi's spontaneous way to live life. I am assuming they were written like this to "balance" each other out as friends. I thought it'd be a bit more realistic on how people deal with issues in life. Lu Ke and Si Yi's scene in Japan where Lu Ke talked to Shen Si Yi calmly and told her it was okay to cry. That just felt more realistic and deeper as friends who have known each other their whole lives. I didn't like how Lu Ke's way to "console" Shen Si Yi was to yell at her, "freeze to death, see if I care," and then regret, turn around to goof around, and they're happy again. Sometimes a life crisis isn't just a let's be happy, smile, laugh, goof, and then it's all good again. You don't just yell at someone you're trying to console.

Then we have Shen Si Yi, who does many things for Lu Ke without her consideration. She does that every time and regrets it or knows that Lu Ke won't agree to it. And still… she does it every single time and throughout the drama. Them wanting to fight each other battles doesn't seem sweet to me at all. Lu Ke helping Guan Yue and Shen Si Yi out didn't make me go "Wow, she's such a great friend" it made me go "Why does Lu Ke always have to fight their battles for them?"

I could be the only one who feels this way. I just expected a bit more from these characters. I am assuming they are in their mid-20s to 30s. We are not watching a teen drama or coming of age; it's about adults. I feel like the writers wanted to give us these characters that were "flawed" and not pretty and perfect. Kind of like saying, "Hey, they're human too". However, I can't seem to like them at all. I think it was due to that they don't try to learn and change. They go through so much by getting in fights and having curveballs thrown at them. They figure it out, and then they fall back again. They were just contempt with what they currently have, yet not really at the same time. Like we have Cheng Nan and Lu Ke, who both aren't in a perfect relationship. They were contempt with each other, but they weren't at the same time. They both want to make it work, but they don't try to make it work. I didn't feel anything with their love story, probably because they had no chemistry as well.

Why is it that when they want to break off a relationship in a Chinese drama, it has to be someone cheating, and if it's the main girl with a side character, it has to be the side character that cheats? It was "obvious" that they have their differences that they couldn't work out as a couple. Why couldn't they focus on the fact that there are people out there that break up because of issues? Or that they fall out of love? Why does it always have to be another person that is the deciding factor?

MUSIC
There were a lot of English songs on there that were played and a lot of jazz songs. There were probably really few Chinese songs. Even though there were many English songs, they were well incorporated into the drama. Like how Yao is a musician and likes jazz songs, he introduces Shen Si Yi to the club and music. I especially like this one piano song that was incorporated with a humming that played a lot when there was a sad scene. The music and humming made the mood even more somber.

RE-WATCH VALUE
I think I am good with just one sit through. To be honest, I didn't intensely watch this drama scene for scene. I put it on while I worked and only watched when something good was going on. I was just those kinds of dramas where I feel like I wouldn't miss out on much even if I don't know the language and wasn't reading the subtitles the whole time.

Let me know your own thoughts and what you felt! :)