I got to the start of episode 22 and was thinking a lot about how I was really bored by this point in the series. I ruminated on why I got so bored, when the series had, to me, a strong premise, and I have a few thoughts.

First, though the premise itself was strong, the opening of the series was difficult. Mainly because Lucky Tang's character was introduced to us in such a bizarre and off-putting way. If you started this series and were totally put off by her actions, I can guarantee you that this weird entitled behavior of hers gets dropped pretty much after the first episode. I have no idea what the writers were thinking by introducing her character to the viewers in this way, especially considering what you learn about her in the following episodes.

Which leads me to the main thought I had regarding this character and this series. What we learn about Lucky is that she used to be a highly skilled programmer at a top software company, but this career ended because a couple of factors: her best friend died of cancer; her mentor unexpectedly died as well (I can't remember why); and her boyfriend, who also worked with her, cheated on her with a woman whose father owns this software company (this was actually fuzzy, but it's what I remember). As a result, a demoralized and grieving Lucky decides to quit her job and move back to China to start a new life. She takes a job as a receptionist in another software company, not giving her real resume, because she says she doesn't want a 'career' anymore; she just wants a normal job that will pay her bills and not make her life difficult. This company turns out to be run by an old childhood friend, whom she doesn't recognize yet, Lu Zhiyi. This is her main love interest.

To me, this is all super interesting and intriguing as a set up. But there are a couple of issues and some missed opportunities here. For one, if Lucky wants to really get away from her old career, why would she take a job at another software company? I really think this was a too obvious way to create drama for Lucky. By doing so, she ends up still in her ex's orbit (though on the periphery), which seems like a strange move when she wants to hide the fact that she's a programmer and get away from him. And when more drama unfolds at her new job, I just kept feeling like she should quit. If she really didn't want to end up in the same place she was before, why would she put herself in a position where that could happen?

Second, in regards to career vs jobs. I really thought there was something interesting being said here about the way we perceive success and hard work. Lucky's personal losses really seemed to put into perspective for her the preciousness of life. There was an implication here that real fulfillment doesn't necessarily come from career achievement, but rather by spending as much time with your loved ones as you can and having fun. Her personal goal of reliving her childhood and finding childlike joy in life, seemed like it could have been more poignant if it was more developed as the main drive of the series. Later, it comes up that she want to build an app that would help adults relive their childhood, which ends up being a project at Lu Zhiyi's company. I was kind of disappointed by this. I kept thinking that she could just build this app by herself (plenty of people build apps independently), which would have made more thematic sense than relying on her boyfriend's money and resources. Why did it end up seeming like Lucky couldn't actually achieve anything without, you know, a man? (eyeroll).

Then there's the question of the ex and the woman who is now his wife. Again, this was all kind of fuzzy to me, but I felt like it was implied that a) he cheated on her with this woman to get ahead and b) this woman used her wealth and position of power to make Lucky's life miserable. I really felt like if they made these two implications stronger and then made that a central theme to the romantic drama, this series would have been so much more compelling. Especially when her new love interest's ex girlfriend, Gu Ling shows up. I'll preface this by saying that the actress who play Gu Ling really did an amazing job at making her the most unpleasant person on the planet. Gu Ling is a wealthy heiress who is a big shareholder of Lu Zhiyi's company, and she comes in basically on a mission to get Lu Zhiyi back and crush anyone who stands in her way. I mean, I could talk about the Ex Who Won't Let Go trope, but I won't because what's the point. What I will say was this was a perfectly missed opportunity to create a dramatic parallel between this situation and Lucky's previous situation. In both instances, a more powerful person uses their wealth and privilege to make her life a living hell. The emotional difficulty for Lucky would be to reconcile these situations and see that they aren't the same, but also to have a moment of relief at being able to take back her own power, therefore overcoming the emotional trauma of what happened before.

The fact that this was so obvious to me, but was completely missed in the story, seems to me a case of just reductive laziness. Instead, we get trope after trope after trope and not enough compelling character drama that feels like it's actually saying something. So by the time Lu Zhiyi and Lucky get together, I feel bored. From the way the series developed, you'd think the only point of conflict was whether or not these two crazy kids would work it out, so when that happens if feels like there's really nothing left to watch. In that respect, the series took an interesting premise and characters and flattened them out until they were nothing but stock characters playing out trope-filled plot points. And while there were some fun moments, I'm disappointed by its unfulfilled potential. So, unfortunately, I'm not going to continue watching. :/