This series was your typical contract marriage storyline with the reason for the marriage being ridiculous to start and the leads being completely at odds with each other. You also have the annoying and creepy interlopers who try and win the leads for themselves and thus don’t know when to cut their losses and move on. But outside of the typical cliches this was actually very good.

First off, the leads had amazing chemistry. They did a great job making me believe everything they were going through, whether they were at odds with each other, playing jokes on each other or being completely in love, I bought it. They felt like a real couple.

Secondly, I like that both leads had their own lives and careers before and after they fell in love. Though they loved each other deeply, neither only lived for a relationship with the other, which is rare in a lot of these romance dramas. They both had their own career aspirations and goals, in addition to their desire to have a life together.

Third, the business story which was the foundation of the series was actually pretty good, which again is rare in these dramas. Yes, it was ridiculous that Alex would require XiXi and Yi Chen marry before the contract with Marry Me went into affect, but all the other storylines surrounding the business made sense and worked well.

Fourth, the secondary romance was cute and believable, which again is rare in these dramas. It didn’t feel forced and I actually enjoyed it immensely.

Lastly, the romance was cliche but was very well done. I liked that they did things to help each other from a genuine place, before and after they fell in love. I liked that despite all the struggles they went through they never broke up, but ended up working through the issues together. I liked Mo Zixin in the beginning, but he started to become creepy about halfway through the series. Never understood why he just didn’t ask XiXi out after he gave her a ride to the party in the first episode. His subsequent behavior bordered on being stalkerish and was very creepy, especially when he always seemed to pop up everywhere XiXi showed up. His whole purpose was ridiculous being that he’d come looking for her, deeming her the love of his life, due to her being kind to him when they were kids, which is a cliche I detest in these shows. And then there was XiWei who was the very cliche female who feels like the male lead was hers for the taking and that they belonged together even though he’d shown zero romantic interest in her in the 20 years they’d known each other. She was simply there to cause trouble. Though I must say, the trouble she caused was interesting and worked to push the story forward.

The show was not perfect, there were a few scenes and character decisions that didn’t make sense, but overall it was a really good series.