440. Forever Love 百岁之好，一言为定 (2020) Chinese

Wang An Yu, Xiang Han Zhi, Pan Mei Ye, Chen Ze

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A

I started this drama because the male lead looked normal guy hot instead of pretty boy, with his buzzed head and all. I hadn't paid any attention to be before seeing in while browsing. It definitely lived up to that expectation. He was way normal guy hot, with lots of charisma too. The main couple in general was way cute and I loved them. However, there was also too much to hate in the drama because of that. Because the main couple were such cute and nice people, it made the offending people all the more despicable and I spent the entire drama filled with anger for the people manipulating and trying to manipulate them. To the point that while the main couple deserve a 10/10, the "antagonists" of the drama deserve a 1/10. I thought I would be fair and keep it at a 7, but I am still feeling anger and the desire to punch senior brother's face because I just imagined his face, so maybe it really deserves a 6. I don't know, it just makes me so angry.

So, Xia Lin Xi is the perfect student. Super smart, class president, and overly hardworking. Her stubborn obedience to school rules leads her to get tangled up with Jiang Zheng Han, who is the lowest ranking student in class and rarely shows up. Because she is asked to make sure he starts coming, she pretty much forces her way into his life and being friends with him. He is not the lowest ranking because of lack of talent and skills but more in the fact that he's poor, working too many jobs, and prioritizing the wrong things in life. Then they become the cutest friends who obviously like each other, etc. Like, seriously become cute right away, once they understand each other. Which doesn't take that long at all to get past the misunderstandings. That's the best part of the show. This couple communicates.

However, the teachers at the high school suck. Her mom is a freaking tiger mom and while understandable, she drives me nuts. Then everything always gets worse once they get to college. I got annoyed with how long it took her to forgive him for ghosting her at graduation/college exam time. She deserved to be mad, but not how long that dragged on (It probably wasn't that long, but with everything else it felt long).  And then we have the worst love rivals. They were petty, entitled, and didn't listen to other's opinions. The senior brother, her neighbor growing up, was the very worst. Not taking her thoughts and feelings into consideration, being weak willed and stupid, and most of all not listening and thinking he knew best. I hated him so much. The main couple was so straight forward and honest, even when she was mad at him, but everyone else had to be very petty and backbiting. The senior sister was a freaking passive aggressive monster. RAGE!!!!!

So... I don't know. I loved the couple, but was too angry to appreciate the drama as a whole. I don't want to be angry the entire time watching it, but I basically was, and then when they tried to redeem absolutely everyone at the end, I wasn't having it all. I secretly liked the most villainous dude, the roommate's boyfriend, because he at least was honest about his playing dirty. But his redemption was absolutely awkward, and they overdid his pettiness too, it got old. I was more lenient with the senior sister and other roommate, because they figured out way sooner and on their own that they were being unfair and dumb. But they dragged out senior brother's badness way too long. He fell way too low, and I despise him with all the room in my heart that I can bother to spare him (which is nothing. I hate him, but whatever, moving on). So I don't know that I would recommend it, because I don't recommend things that fill me with rage. I had to rage tweet to even make it through. The main couple is adorable though, so there is that.