Gen Z Review

**This is my first time writing a review, usually I just make a comment on my overall thoughts**
(per recommendation, I am posting my comment/synopsis in a review...so if you have read my comment, it is basically the same, with a bit edited)

I ended up giving this an overall 9 and the reason being is the acting. The acting alone is what sold the whole story.

To begin with Zhao Lu Si's was basically born to play this part and she did it so well, as she does with almost every single character she acts. She knows how to embrace her characters and basically becomes them and you root right along with her or cry with her or laugh with her. Overall, she was exceptional.

Luo Yi Zhou, this kid was amazing. For being an idol turned actor, he has such a bright future. I can only see great things and wish him many huge roles in his career. What a talent and I am looking so forward to what he will do.

The rest of the cast all amazing, although there were one or two I didn't particularly care for, but they grew on me as the story progressed. Rebecca character being one. I really did not like her character at the beginning, but with every character I think she had some amazing growth in this story. So kudos to Alina Zhang for creating a wonderful hate to love character.

Another character, I want to point, whom I thought would have so much more protentional, but was so disappointed in how the writer took their story, but he played the character so well that we all ended up hating him toward the end, was Li Quan. Zhu Jun Lin, is another great talent and I was quite impressed with his acting, even though he was dealt a horrible story in my opinion. He excelled at his character.

And finally, all the veteran actors, amazing as always. I do want to point out, Wu Gang's character, Ren Xin Zheng was a very complicated character. A lot of people will look at him and see a mysoginist, a person who didn't care about his family, only medicine and helping the less fortunate, etc. I see a dedicated, caring TCM doctor. Yes he didn't always convey his feelings toward his family, yes he would do things without consulting his wife and yes he took in an abandoned girl and spent more time on making her his apprentice and with her than his own son, but as the story progresses you understand why he did a lot of that. If you really watch and listen to him, with his conversation in episode 39, you will understand why he did all that he did. I liked his character and he had the best relationship with ZLS's character in this drama. They were really great together. Looking forward to seeing Wu Gang in JOL 2.

Now for my thoughts on the story in general:

I will start off by saying, I think this could have easily been only 24 episodes. I will go on further to explain why below. The focus on TCM was great (could have been a bit better) and that is what the drama was suppose to be about. I loved all the lessons and the use on patients. Actually I even learned a few tidbits. It was really refreshing. I came to watch because of that and of course ZLS. The Covid arc did not bother me, because I liked seeing how they integrated TCM along with Western Medicine. I wish actually there was more of that and less of say the Meng Meng storyline and the LQ storyline. It was okay to have some side situations, but there was to much focus on some of these.

There were definitely some episodes/arcs that could have completely been left out and/or more added and it still would have been an amazing story. The relationship between master/apprentice and TCM as the just the main focus of the drama and it would still have been an amazing story. It was okay for a side story maybe half an episode or not at all, because a lot of those side stories made the drama look bad. No doctor in their right mind would have treated Meng Meng the way that RTZ did, she would probably have lived, if she had gotten the right treatment; LQ's story was just way to extreme for this slice of life drama; TT spending that many episodes looking after WSD; the lie about TT's parentage; all these are examples of wasted time that could have been used for more TCM or even more of master/student bonding and learning.

The last episode was also a bit of a disappointment. There were a few cute scenes, but the dancing (not that it was bad, was a bit out of place, imo, I mean it came out of no where). I really enjoyed how they interated all the Solar Terms, but I preferred them in each episode vs spending what 5-10 mins in one segment in the final episode. I wish they had given TT and RTZ a bit more bonding/screen/reconciliation time. Rebecca and PSY's proposal was a bit cute, perfect for them. The final scene was perfect, the master passing the baton so to speak to his designated successor.

Overall, there was way to much drag, the writing was lacking and needed less unnecessary stories and more stories dedicated to the main focus of the story, it definitely would have shortened the series and still made it good. The acting was the best part of the drama, the casting was on point. The OSTs were absolutely wonderful too. I don't usually pay much attention to that, but the ones in this dramas were amazing and very memorable. So thank the actors for the score, because otherwise, I probably would have dropped this a long time ago.

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