O Nó do Amor: O Primeiro Amor de Sua Excelência (2018)

The series overall was a good length – I mostly enjoyed the storyline, characters and pacing. Everything seemed to fit together well in the bigger scheme of things. Except.. The ending. I was let down. The drama built itself up so much that I was so excited, but the writing and execution failed me. (discussion of ending on bottom)

There were times the acting was very off, especially with Victoria, she seemed to only express sadness and Johnny could barely show any emotion on his face. The writing was sometimes sloppy, with too many unnecessary moments, so much time was wasted on the ex-friends when I wish they could've fleshed out Qianhua/Zhaosong a bit more and they glossed over the r*pe scene after it happened.. Felt like Wangxuan was an addition that wasn't necessary – they didn't even treat her character right! I liked the use of flashbacks, it was interesting to see how everything has changed from then to now. Except episode 24 - a flashback to the 80s/90s of Pipi's parents were extra weird, but I guess it was done to provide Johnny with much needed extra screentime.

Despite these flaws, I still liked the drama – throughout the series, I liked the interactions of the characters, especially the two boys and Xiaoju - which gave us the right amount of humour. The pacing was good, issues weren't dragged out and sorted in appropriate timing.


Now the ending. Felt like they completely ignored everything that happened and did a 180 on what viewer's wanted and expected. Bad writing and bad execution. Barely tied any loose ends. Awkward time jump. Like, there were mention of the south/north war - but now that he's a fox/human without powers or memories, what are the fox clan left to do? Meeting of Helan Xi and Pipi after six months was awkward and could have been executed much better.

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Overall, this Chinese drama was well-made and it didn't have as much cringy scenes as other Chinese dramas. The production values, dialogues, and CGIs were great quality. Now, onto the storyline, the story started out interesting, hooking us in with young leads. The young leads were so cute and honestly, I always looked forward to the flashback in the beginning of each episode because we were able to connect with the characters and how they grew over the years. I liked the first half of the series, when the leads were building relationships step by step and getting closer to one another. But for the second half of the series, the writing somehow changed direction, there were so many plot holes. Especially ep 24, it was totally unnecessary and the biggest plot hole was when Helen was able to see during day times. Then, ep 25 rolled around, the ending felt out of place and rushed. Not only the drama finished with a huge cliffhanger but the leads were pretty much strangers in the end. I don't know if the series renew for a season 2 because if not, I'm really disappointed. The ending could be nicely wrapped up if only PiPi's ex-boyfriend and her "best friend" did not take up much screentime (I always skipped whenever they popped up on the screen).
All in all, this drama would be in my top 20 favorite Chinese drama because of the plot, pacing, and chemistry but I don't think I will rewatch it anytime soon.

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