272. Attention, Love 稍息立正我愛你 (2017) Taiwanese

Joanne Tseng, Prince Chiu, Kuo Shu Yao, Riley Wang

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A+

I both loved and hated this one, because it was cute and fun, and it also drove me nuts.  How many excuses can they give to make a couple clearly in love not be together?  That is basically the plot of the show, a twist on Mischievous Kiss, really.  Two kids who were basically betrothed at birth meet again in high school and fall in love, then anything that could possibly keep them apart keeps them apart.  Like he's running away from his feelings the whole time because it was hard enough for him to just accept her as his best friend and family, so taking it to the next level was too much.  Then everything getting in the way in between, it was pretty unreal.  But most of the characters were so lovable that it was fine wading through all the frustrating "you like each other, why aren't you together yet?" if you just sat back and enjoyed the ride.  Mind you, for me that was difficult to do, but it made it easier.  It also had a trolling habit of making you think things were going to be much more extreme.  Like everything will be ruined next week, or they're going to finally get together, or he's going to be even more of a psychopath, etc.  None of it ever really happened, which was part good and part frustrating.


I feel like they focused so much on them not getting together for so long, and on other people making them sad and jealous that they missed the opportunity to focus on better things, like him having emotional issues which make him a bit of a psycho and was the root cause of him not making a move.  But they just wrapped all that up in the last episode and it was over and fine so like, what the heck?  I was interested in that part.  I still think it was a way better version of a Mischievous Kiss type story.  He's super smart, she's tough and kind.  She falls instantly in love with him, we don't know how he feels.  They end up living together (only he's living at her house).  It takes until college for them to finally get together, when they started being in love in high school.  She tries to get over him and he does that famous line: "who said you could get over me?"  That might have been the weirdest moment, because she kisses him, says she's going to get over him now, wrist grab to hug while he says that line, and then nothing happens at all.  They are awkward for 2 days and then go back to being best friends and never talking about it, except it secretly is hurting both of them inside.  Doesn't make sense.  But it is way better than Mischievous Kiss because he was a much nicer guy, although he was a bit of a psycho.  Mmm, but that jawline, though.  He treated her much better, in general, although there are some obvious head shaking still.  She was also much more likable because instead of being obsessed with him and chasing after him, she became his best friend and they had a cute enough relationship like that for a while.

Anyway, I do have to say that I loved the other couples a lot.  The sweetie "bad boy" we just had to call dimples, because his were huge and cute.  Angelina, the awesome English using rich girl who could have easily been a bitca, but instead became a best friend.  The high school puppies who just had to grow up to be able to be together.  Yeah, there was a great cast of friends.  The only people I didn't like was the high school bully, who was just an idiot, and the evil manipulator who was just mean and petty.  Yeah, it could have been much more succinct, but it was still enjoyable, especially if you could keep your expectations in check, which was hard, but made it that much more enjoyable.