Watching this show is a guilty pleasure. You know that the leads are too beautiful and perfectly matched, you know the storyline is pure fluff but nicely done and everything is just so romantic. If you want to forget your worries for a while then binge watch this.

There is a coherent story but nothing overly dramatic or deep (at least by the usual c-drama standard). The romance is sweet and wholesome. There is a good deal of skinship and when they play in bed they weren't doing crosswords! The show is so full of nice people that it must be a record. The FL's agent is a mother hen type but without any manipulative behaviour of the typical talent agent. The young assistant is not a slave but a happy, bubbly soul. The parents are all lovely people. Most of their friends are sweet and some are a bit nerdy or gossipy but likeable. The senior staff members are all father figures with wisdom to spare. Even the antagonists (and I used this word very loosely) were not trouble makers. No breakups, no forced separations, except for one patch of misunderstanding, it was plain sailing for the whole show. It is a funny thing to say but taken in totality, it actually made the show felt a bit odd.

Why? I think the answer lies in the Chinese government wanting to change the narrative around the entertainment industry and the greed culture. Consider the recent controls placed on rabid fandom, cancelling of several high profile celebs and the push for "common prosperity", I can see some subtle messages imbedded in the show. For instance, early on, the FL actually asked the question "am I worth this much?" during a discussion about a new contract (and in RL reference to how much some actors are paid for a few weeks of work). As the show progressed, Dilraba got more and more grounded and they even got married in a group wedding (to much acclaim from netizens) when most c-drama would have gone all out for a lavish wedding as the finale. Social media played a fairly neutral or even positive role here instead of a hot bed of venomous slander. Paparazzo were made fun of and "chased out of town". National security officials were helpful and understanding(?). Yang Yang is an aerospace engineer and that is topical as China has successfully landed a Mars rover just recently so there should be a lot of interests. But more importantly, he was considering joining an investment bank for the money but changed his mind. The message here is that greed is no longer good but contribution to the society is more rewarding. This is reinforced by the fact all the "loser" characters were bankers boasting about their pay checks and their excessive consumptions. The FL's ex was a stereotypical rich CEO type but in this show, he definitely did not get the girl and Dilraba made it very clear why. Ditto when the rich BF of a co-star arrived with in a convoy of fancy SUV's and truck load of fancy food for the casts and crew, it was not well received but when the ML arrive in an old jeep and fixed their internet with his own hands, it gained the approval of the upper echelon aka the Director. May be I'm over thinking this but this show certainly have a mix of PR and subtle messages to promote Chinese aerospace achievements and also amped up the positive feedbacks when you are perceived to be doing the right thing by society.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this show a lot because it was so sweet and entertaining. They knew their ace is the OTP and they dialled up their chemistry and gave us as many swoon worthy moments as we can handle. Is this a realistic portrait of modern Chinese lives? I would say it is better than one that is filled with devious plots to breakup our CP and manufactured dramas just to stir up angst but is the pairing of a movie megastar and a chief aerospace engineer likely in RL...?

There were some issue with the YouTube dialogue soundtrack but otherwise, the OST was very nice. Production value was high but some early science stuff was a bit dubious.