Destino Maravilhoso (2021)

Makes for a pleasant watch, but could have been better

OK, first things first, what I liked:

- the cast did a pretty decent job, imho;
- I liked both leads, which is something that doesn't happen all the time;
- it had one of the funniest characters *ever*, imho (the crazily hilarious Chef Xue!)
- the music was also nice, particularly the opening credits song;
- the very last message about reading the Classics was a very nice touch.

As a matter of fact, after the first half or so I thought I was gonna give this a much higher grade, but then the second half unfortunately had several things that weren't my cup of tea, namely:

- in what had been, until then, a light, silly comedy, the sudden bouts of violence and tragedy felt totally misplaced; not poorly written nor acted, mind it...they worked very well *per se*, but they just felt horribly out of place (I don't want to spoil too much, but try to imagine going to the movies and, to your utter surprise, being shown something whose 1st half reminds a John Belushi comedy - what with all those toilet jokes, LOL - while the 2nd half has much more in common, say, with Hamlet's 5th Act...weird, huh? >__<);
- when you build up such despicable villains that kill, lie, bully and generally make everybody elses's lives hell all the time, then as a writer you just *have to* give them what they deserve at the end (one of the many things I like about Chinese culture: in their traditional crime stories, at the end there's an entire chapter depicting the culprits' punishment - sometimes including very gruesome details!); letting the afore-mentioned villains get away with some jail time or even a quick, painless death isn't sufficient to appease the viewers' natural need to see them crushed!
- being the history buff I am, seeing the writers sending out the message that the past was hell and the present times basically heaven on earth, well, as unsurprising as that was, still deeply annoyed me.

So, all in all, kind of a missed opportunity.

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Good for binge-watching only?

I understood why many people in the comments would hate on the FL because of her acting. I would say her acting in the first half of the show is really quite lacklustre, but if you can watch pass like ep 5 or so I think you should be able to finish the whole show.

For me personally, I didn't really care too much about their acting. The male acting is not bad. The trailer for this show did hype me up but to bring me down somehow because I was expecting more from the plot but it was stagnant and remain the way I would say most of you envision. Splash splash love was way better IMO but we cannot compare these 2 dramas.

Throughout the whole drama, I was expecting more from the plot, like I wish that a certain plot will happen over here but it didn't. This show is great for binge-watching only if you have time. I do honestly had quite an enjoyable time with this show because I'm lacking the vibes of happy cheerful girls in shows that are ongoing nowadays. It is a good like getaway from all the shows but I think more of these shows will be coming up soon in the Chinese industry during this period.

Overall, not the worst drama. I really enjoyed it, enough to finish it in one sitting even though I do skip it. It is like each ep is one problem solved so I think it is quite enjoyable.

I watched it without subs. So if you guys are looking for subs, you might need to wait. The chinese isn't too difficult in this drama so I think fans who are learning chinese are able to understand.

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