drama-watcher
This review may contain spoilers
I Still Like This Drama Despite The Annoying Things
I've seen my fair share of firefighting theme dramas and while this one isn't perfect and has a lot of annoying and frustrating moments for me, this is probably the better one I've seen compared to the others. To summarize my ratings, the story was good for about 25 episodes. Then fell flat the rest of the 11 episodes. Main characters were great but it's the FL's childhood best friend, the jealous reporter, & the good to bad intern were the reason the acting/cast category lost points. Lots of pointless characters or lack of character growth/progression. The music osts were pretty good overall. A lot of rescue/firefighter theme dramas tend to have good songs. Not a guarantee rewatch but I may come back to certain episodes that I enjoyed.
What I like about this drama:
* The ML's character Jin Shi Chuan & the FL's character Xu Lai both have a story that was focus on and both had a conclusion. It was a healing process for both of them.
* Main couple relationship was adorable and cute once they got together. Girl chases guy for a while but there was also a small moment where the guy had to chase the girl.
* Secondary couple also had a story (more of the SFL than the SML and I also enjoy the screen time of them together. Guy chases girl which also heals her and for a small moment, girl chases guy to help heal him.
* Love the brotherhood of the firefighters. I like how they are so relaxing with each other and love to talk among each other when it came to Capitan Jin.
* I enjoy the episodes when they introduce the dogs to the firefighters and trained with them
* The music osts were great. I enjoyed listen to every intro and ending ost when watching an episode.
What annoyed me about this drama:
* Xu Lai seemed a bit stalkerish in the beginning and made the first several episodes hard to watch. She wasn't much different from her childhood best friend who had a crush on her.
* The love rival for Shi Chuan aka Xu Lai's childhood best friend Huo being delusional thinking he has a chance with her despite Xu Lai specifically stating she doesn't seem him as someone she could fall in love with but just as a bro. Bad writing on this character since the writers stalled his progression until around Ep 29.
* Breakup of the main couple that lasted 3 episodes. The old, I don't want to be a burden to you so that's why I'm breaking up with you cliche.
* The failure of the 3rd couple featuring Huo due to the lack of growth and progression in his character and not moving on from the crush he had on Xu Lai after being rejected.
* Stupid jealous witch reporter: A minor villain who served no purpose in this drama other than to annoy the viewers. You can easily take her out of the drama and this drama wouldn't be affected. A case of bad writing and adding nonsense to a drama that wasn't needed.
* The anger from the camera man intern: What was the point of this? He all of the sudden gets bad at Xu Lai, who he was interning under, for something that's beyond her control? This is another case of stupid writing because his character wasn't even significant enough to be shown he had a problem.
* Another case of wedding not fully being complete because of a sudden call for an emergency. Seriously? Why do Chinese writers keep putting this scenario towards the end of the drama?
* Story plot stalled. Repetitive things happening once the main issues for Shin Chuan & Xu Lai were resolved. It almost seemed like the writers ran out of ideas and started to repeat things towards the last several episodes. Examples: Stupid jealous reporter returning to cause trouble, Huo not giving up on Xu Lai, etc.
The problem I have with rescue or firefighter themes drama is there's seemed to never be enough rescue missions. The writers did a good job showing it in the beginning only to rarely show it in the middle and towards the end. I did like the episodes where the firefighter rescue squad met and train with their dogs, but even then, there wasn't much mission with the dogs as well. That's a bit disappointing considering there's a dog on the drama poster. I kind of wanted more involvement with the dogs but it is what it is.
Despite all of that, I still enjoyed it, mostly because of the main couple, secondary couple, and the firefighters. Their cute & silly moments are the reason why I manage to continue this drama despite all of the other frustrations. The ending could've been better but at least it's a good ending.
What I like about this drama:
* The ML's character Jin Shi Chuan & the FL's character Xu Lai both have a story that was focus on and both had a conclusion. It was a healing process for both of them.
* Main couple relationship was adorable and cute once they got together. Girl chases guy for a while but there was also a small moment where the guy had to chase the girl.
* Secondary couple also had a story (more of the SFL than the SML and I also enjoy the screen time of them together. Guy chases girl which also heals her and for a small moment, girl chases guy to help heal him.
* Love the brotherhood of the firefighters. I like how they are so relaxing with each other and love to talk among each other when it came to Capitan Jin.
* I enjoy the episodes when they introduce the dogs to the firefighters and trained with them
* The music osts were great. I enjoyed listen to every intro and ending ost when watching an episode.
What annoyed me about this drama:
* Xu Lai seemed a bit stalkerish in the beginning and made the first several episodes hard to watch. She wasn't much different from her childhood best friend who had a crush on her.
* The love rival for Shi Chuan aka Xu Lai's childhood best friend Huo being delusional thinking he has a chance with her despite Xu Lai specifically stating she doesn't seem him as someone she could fall in love with but just as a bro. Bad writing on this character since the writers stalled his progression until around Ep 29.
* Breakup of the main couple that lasted 3 episodes. The old, I don't want to be a burden to you so that's why I'm breaking up with you cliche.
* The failure of the 3rd couple featuring Huo due to the lack of growth and progression in his character and not moving on from the crush he had on Xu Lai after being rejected.
* Stupid jealous witch reporter: A minor villain who served no purpose in this drama other than to annoy the viewers. You can easily take her out of the drama and this drama wouldn't be affected. A case of bad writing and adding nonsense to a drama that wasn't needed.
* The anger from the camera man intern: What was the point of this? He all of the sudden gets bad at Xu Lai, who he was interning under, for something that's beyond her control? This is another case of stupid writing because his character wasn't even significant enough to be shown he had a problem.
* Another case of wedding not fully being complete because of a sudden call for an emergency. Seriously? Why do Chinese writers keep putting this scenario towards the end of the drama?
* Story plot stalled. Repetitive things happening once the main issues for Shin Chuan & Xu Lai were resolved. It almost seemed like the writers ran out of ideas and started to repeat things towards the last several episodes. Examples: Stupid jealous reporter returning to cause trouble, Huo not giving up on Xu Lai, etc.
The problem I have with rescue or firefighter themes drama is there's seemed to never be enough rescue missions. The writers did a good job showing it in the beginning only to rarely show it in the middle and towards the end. I did like the episodes where the firefighter rescue squad met and train with their dogs, but even then, there wasn't much mission with the dogs as well. That's a bit disappointing considering there's a dog on the drama poster. I kind of wanted more involvement with the dogs but it is what it is.
Despite all of that, I still enjoyed it, mostly because of the main couple, secondary couple, and the firefighters. Their cute & silly moments are the reason why I manage to continue this drama despite all of the other frustrations. The ending could've been better but at least it's a good ending.
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