I kept dodging this show, despite it being recommended to me all the time. My concerns were about the toxic things that happen in this drama & that it's the usual break + 3 year timeskip formula that I've never liked made me extremely weary. Now here we are, in a sort of drama drought I steeled myself & got through this over the course of 3 days.

First and foremost this is an extremely unique cdrama, the likes of which I have not really seen before. Disability romance made for Chinese audiences & it's -at least for a while- good too. I can totally see why it has gotten so much praise. Based on just the first 12 episodes I would have rated this at a 9. Sure there are some toxic things, but those did not really faze me in the first half. The acting is really strong too, Wan Peng especially blew my mind, having seen her only in stereotypical comedienne roles before It's incredible how much more authentic she is here. Of course the first part already has some problems. The second couple is quite flavorless & they lacked chemistry, plus their plot was uninteresting during the entire drama. What is bigger for me though is that the production team just couldn't commit to Su Nian Qin's blindness. To me it seems like the script had been revised multiple times in strange ways & the end result, specifically ML's eye condition makes no sense what so ever. He can see shapes & movement, but need to use a stick and needs explained why opening the blinds is a good thing, the sun etc.. Let's just say that his condition & the dialog related to it is extremely inconsistent and this is blatantly obvious while binge watching.

Unfortunately after the first half there are a few absolutely horrible episodes involving rather bad writing, momsters and some crazy makjang-ish stuff leading to a breakup & a 3 year timeskip. This is business as usual in cdramaland, at least compared to kdramas usually they don't do this before a 5 minute long rushed happy ending.

Even more unfortunately what follows after the timeskip is just mediocrity. In fact the last 5-6 episodes can only be described as boring. In Chinese society people with inborn disabilities are barely considered human, so of course Su Nian Qin HAD TO BE cured. So basically the last third of the drama is the most generic cdrama happy ending you will ever see, but worse, because there is a lot of weird toxicity that is difficult to digest for western audiences and there is nothing much happening in general. I like slow burn cdrama romances, but this is really far more boring than usual, there is barely any comedy to be found and the way they go through the motions(pursue>get approval>ring>wedding>kid) is really super bland, especially considering that they already lived together before the timeskip.

The drama has one "big" twist. I did not see this coming in advance, but in retrospect I should've, I may have underestimated the writer a little, so I did not even consider something like this happening. Still the reveal was underwhelming & made no impact to the plot, which is a shame because I really liked the character involved..

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Triangle haters can safely watch this. The secondary love interests are fleeting..

The OST is out of this world good, but after the timeskip the best parts are not used anymore, instead they keep repeating the same track that is kind of like elevator music, but more mysterious.
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As I said this is an extremely unique drama, but the closest one I can think of, especially in terms of vibe is Forever and Ever. That drama however is consistently good, it has some makjang-ish craziness as well -perhaps even more overall than here-, but things are dealt with more sensibly & it managed to keep me interested up to the closing credits. The dialog is just very good, nose to nose interactions are not the driving force of every second scene.
People that liked this drama should check Forever and Ever out, it does not have too many viewers on MDL..