One of the drama lessons I’ve been learning lately, is that second chances can be very rewarding, and that is absolutely the case, with this show.

I’d checked out this show’s first 4 episodes, while auditioning dramas to cover on Patreon, and had picked The Judge From Hell instead, because that show just struck me as being much more watchable and engaging.

Normally, when this kind of thing happens, I often don’t end up watching the show that I didn’t pick, despite my best intentions, and it honestly looked like this one was in danger of being left by the wayside for me too.

But then, I recently decided to go back to this one on a whim, while casting about for a new drama nightcap after finishing Perfect and Casual (review here!), and I ended up enjoying this one very well, you guys.

See what I mean about second chances potentially being rewarding? 🥲

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

Jiang Shiyan (Zhang Xin Cheng) realizes that he has romantic feelings for Tang Yang (Wang Yu Wen), his longtime buddy since high school, but he’s not sure what to do about it – or if he should do anything about it.

MANAGING EXPECTATIONS / THE VIEWING LENS

Here are some things that I think would be helpful to keep in mind, to help you maximize your enjoyment of your watch.

1. This leans slice-of-life

What this means, is that there are many mini arcs that happen in our story world, and it feels like we’re pretty much doing life with these characters, while being flies on their walls.

I find that this translates well into a regular, consistent watch, instead of say, binging many episodes at once, or having long gaps of time between episodes.

I personally watched one episode a night before bed, and that worked out very nicely.

2. The romance is a slow-burn.

Perhaps this goes without saying, since our story leans slice-of-life, but the romance between our OTP, while assured, given Show’s genre, does not move fast.

You do need to be patient with it, but in the meantime, it is gratifying to see how Show paints in the nuances, of how these two people care about each other, and what they mean to each other.

3. This show is part office drama

In fact, because our leads work in different offices, it’s almost like watching 2 office dramas in one, because we get insight into the workings and the bits of drama in both offices.

I wasn’t too hot on this at first, but I must say, the office stuff really grew on me, and I also liked that Show used these mini office arcs, to reinforce not only character development, but also, the development of our OTP relationship.

STUFF I LIKED

The concept

Maybe it was because I’d been watching Love Next Door (review here!); I found myself very much drawn to the friends-to-lovers premise of this story.

I just really liked the idea that our male lead would have all these feelings for our female lead, that he didn’t know what to do with. 😁

Also, I was rather curious to see how this show handled the evolution of the OTP relationship, from a firm friendship sort of space, into a romantic sort of space, and whether it would be different from how Love Next Door handles it.

For the record, I did end up enjoying the slow evolution of this OTP relationship. 🥰

Zhang Xin Cheng as Jiang Shiyan

I’d really liked Zhang Xin Cheng in Go Ahead (review here!), where I felt he came across as very likable and natural, so I was happy to have him on my screen again.

Additionally, I was admittedly rather curious to see him play in the romantic male lead space, particularly since I felt like I hadn’t quite seen that potential in his character in Go Ahead.

I’ll say that he was effective as our romantic male lead, even though I can’t say that I had fangirl hearts in my eyes, like I did for Miles Wei in You Are My Secret (review here!).

While it is a bit of a stretch that Jiang Shiyan would be such a successful self-made CEO, with a sizable company, at such a young age, I am happy to roll with the idea that he’d been so passionate during his food blogger start, that he became that popular online, and that just flourished into the company that he has now.

Additionally, I like that Jiang Shiyan demonstrates consistently, that he’s got a good head on his shoulders, and is able to make wise decisions, even when under pressure.

Most of all, I like that he has this enormous soft spot for Tang Yang – which I’ll talk more about, in another section where I focus on the connection between them.

Wang Yu Wen as Tang Yang

I really enjoyed Wang Yu Wen in The Love You Give Me (review here!), where I felt she was also very likable and natural, and I really welcomed the chance to watch her again.

And I have to say, I came away from this, really, really liking Tang Yang, as a character.

I think one of my favorite things is that Show lets us see what a competent, capable person Tang Yang is.

I love that she’s no pushover, and even though she faces things like a slimey supervisor who’s trying to not only passive-aggressively intimidate her, but also, low-key harass her, she’s unfazed, and has her own ways to handle the situations.

I grew to love watching her figure out smart ways to get herself out of these situations, when they came up.

[MINOR SPOILER]

Like the way she uses the low-level trainee briefing that her supervisor sends her to, despite her being a senior-level manager, when she first takes up her position.

It’s so smart of her to sign up for an evaluation by the senior executive – which is offered to all the attendees of said briefing – which then sends her direct supervisor scurrying to have her office, which had been treated like some kind of storeroom as a power move on his part, quickly cleaned up.

Heh. I got some satisfaction out of that, not gonna lie.

[END MINOR SPOILER]

And then there’s also how she manages to be so firm about keeping things professional, and yet comes across as friendly and understanding, when dealing with colleagues who want her to close one or both eyes to irregularities, as a credit audit manager.

I really enjoyed how capable she is, and how she seems to take so many of these challenges in stride. 🥲

Tang Yang and Jiang Shiyan together

I really grew to enjoy this OTP, my friends.

The good thing about this show allowing us to see a good chunk of the office goings-on in each of their lives, is that we also get to see how they make time and space for each other, despite both having busy careers.

I like the idea that they text regularly, and try to meet regularly, and even have video calls, as a matter of routine.

This makes their state of happy contentedness feel attainable, and therefore inspiring, unlike other characters in other dramas, who have job titles but don’t seem to ever do any actual work, and therefore have all the time in the world for romance. 😉

Their state of connectedness also gives me “established couple” vibes, particularly when paired with how much Shiyan does for Tang Yang, and so happily too.

I find it rather amusing that they are “sworn brothers” (not a spoiler coz it’s in the trailer), because this means that Shiyan has effectively bro-zoned himself, long before realizing that he might be developing feelings for his female “bro.” 🤭

In fact, when we start our story, it already seems to me that Tang Yang is an extremely important person to Shiyan, and that her happiness is basically the most important thing to him – even if his company is in some kind of crisis.

[EARLY MINOR SPOILERS]

I think it says a lot that he’s more interested in booking a fancy venue for Tang Yang to take her new colleagues to, for a welcome dinner – something that she never actually asked him to do – rather than pay attention to the details of the unfolding crisis that his company is in, with the two livestreamers locked at an impasse.

The way Tang Yang’s constantly on his mind, and the way he willingly plans his day around her without a second thought, and the way he cheerfully goes out of his way to anticipate her needs, as well as help her with stuff, immediately tells me that Shiyan might well have a crush on Tang Yang.

Plus, he’s legitimately protective of her.

When he realizes that she’s going to be at a department dinner at their friend’s restaurant with her slimey supervisor, he literally goes undercover as a waiter, so that he can intercept any shady moves from said slimey supervisor.

That’s going pretty darn far on her account, yes?

[END EARLY MINOR SPOILERS]

As for Tang Yang, even though her actions indicate that she firmly sees Shiyan as a platonic “bro” we do get little hints that perhaps she might not actually have purely platonic feelings towards him.

Most of the time, Tang Yang is consistent, in treating Shiyan with a platonic kind of nonchalance.

[EARLY MINOR SPOILER]

I was almost convinced, honestly, until we get that scene in episode 4, when they’re on that video call, and she inadvertently catches sight of him with his shirt half open, as he’s getting ready to leave for work.

The way she quickly averts her eyes and seems rather flustered and discombobulated, tells me that he does have an effect on her; she definitely has the capacity to see him as a man, even if she mostly chooses not to pay attention to it. 🤭

Ooh. That’s a little tantalizing to me, honestly. The possibilities!

[END EARLY MINOR SPOILER]

We get moments of hyper-awareness from time to time, which I very much enjoyed, as Shiyan struggles to hold in his feelings for Tang Yang, because naturally, one of his concerns is that he’d lose this friendship, if Tang Yang felt weirded out by his feelings for her.

It takes time, as well as some Nudging Events, for our OTP to finally get to place where they’re ready to admit their feelings for each other and act on said feelings, and overall, I did enjoy the ride very well.

Yes, it all takes a fair bit of time, but that’s also why it feels organic and believable to my eyes. 🥲

The secondary loveline [SPOILERS]

Somewhere along the way, Show starts teasing a potential loveline between Cheng Hui and Sheng Nina (Wu Jun Ting and Luo Qiu Yun), and at first, I found it quite random and obtuse, since these characters don’t appear to have much in common at all.

Sheng Nina’s a celebrity with a following, while Cheng Hui, the Chief Technology Officer at Shiyan’s company, is reticent and quite eccentric.

To Show’s credit, this loveline actually ends up working pretty well, and I’m very pleasantly surprised.

I liked getting to see how thoughtful and considerate Cheng Hui is, towards Nina, and how that slowly increases her regard for him, in return.

Additionally, I thought it was a nice touch, that they would find they both have a passion for astronomy, thus demonstrating to us that they have more in common than they might first appear.

The high school flashbacks

Every episode ends with a flashback to Shiyan’s and Tang Yang’s high school days, and I liked these very well.

I felt that these flashbacks did a very nice job of fleshing out the history and context of their relationship, such that I felt like my understanding of their bond became a little deeper, after each flashback. 🥲

Additionally, quite a few of the flashbacks also include Feng Weiran and Jiang Yanan (Guo Yun Qi and Guan Yue), and I do like the idea of this friend group having so much history together, and then staying together, through the years. 🥲

STUFF THAT WAS OK

Feng Weiran and Jiang Yanan

I had mixed feelings about Weiran and Yanan, because quite often, Show uses them as plot catalysts.

This means that their behavior can be quite frustrating or even annoying, sometimes, like [BROAD VAGUE SPOILER] when they’re written to have a big fight, so that they would each lean heavily on our leads, thus taking time away from our leads actually spending time together. [END BROAD VAGUE SPOILER]

Overall though, they’re generally harmless and likable, which is why I’ve got them in this neutral section.

STUFF I LIKED LESS

The thing with Zhou Mo [SPOILERS]

When Show first introduced Zhou Mo (Wu Hao Chen), I’d assumed that he would play a pretty minor role, most likely as a contender for Tang Yang’s heart, and thus, a potential love rival for Shiyan.

And he does play that role – to a point.

The thing is, there’s a whole backstory to Zhou Mo, and it’s much bigger than I’d first expected, with him being deep undercover, and on a mission to exact revenge on the people who’d taken advantage of his late girlfriend, who’d ended up taking her own life, from the hopelessness of it all.

Um. Yeah, that’s a lot darker than I’d imagined, for a show like this. 😅

The unfortunate effect of this, is that while all of this is coming out in Show’s final stretch, it takes away time and focus from our OTP – which is where my true interest lies.

I do appreciate that Show does still make sure to demonstrate the bond between Shiyan and Tang Yang, through the unfolding of this arc’s last stretch, but would I have preferred if we could’ve just spent the time on our OTP, without all this revenge drama?

Without a shadow of a doubt. 😑

THOUGHTS ON THE ENDING [SPOILERS]

Of course our story serves up a happy ending between Shiyan and Tang Yang, but I am a little surprised and tickled, by how that works out.

It makes complete sense to me that Shiyan and Tang Yang would continue to be busy with work, since both of them are so accomplished in their respective careers.

And, given that they haven’t been dating for all that long, it also makes sense that they would want to take things a little slower.

Honestly, I hadn’t been expecting that all that enthusiastic pressure from their parents, where big guest lists were already been drawn up, was just a ruse, to nudge them into eloping – because the parents had been worried that they’d never get married otherwise. 🤭

I thought it was a nice compromise that our OTP arrives at, with all the family and relatives being invited to Leisure House, to witness the nuptials via video, while said nuptials take place in the faraway mountains, with just the two of them present.

These two are great at their jobs for a reason, eh? They sure found a perfect way to satisfy both the families, and their own desire to keep things personal and cozy.

And how sweetly poignant, that them coming back to this mountain, is a fulfillment of the promise that they’d made to each other, at age 18, that they would come back again one day, in the winter. 🥲

Truly, that’s one of the things that I really enjoy about this couple; there is so much meaning and significance in the things that they do; it’s always rooted in something that means something to them both, and I love that.

I thought it was kinda silly that they would dance on the mountains while each wrapped in their sleeping bags, but it does communicate a sense that they are young at heart, and that’s a perfect segue to that lovely highlight reel that we get, of their high school days together, which is when it had all begun. 🥲

A lovely, sweet and nostalgic note on which to leave our newly minted Mr. and Mrs., with the knowledge and confidence that they will do great in the future, just as they have, in the past. 🥰

THE FINAL VERDICT:

Low-key, warm and wholesome.

FINAL GRADE: B+

TRAILER:

You can check out a subbed trailer on VIU here!

MV:

WHERE TO WATCH:

Show is available on VIU, Viki, WeTV, andIQIYI.

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