A Perfect Match: The Perfect Combo of Tropes and Twists... I love Taiwanese Dramas

It's been a while since I've watched a Taiwanese Drama.  I've been focusing more on the Korean and Chinese lately, not by design, that's just how it happened.  But I was wanting to watch something fluffy and romantic, and I saw this one with Chris Wu.  I hadn't seen his as the lead yet (again, that's just how it worked out), so I thought I'd give it a try.

I stopped in the middle of the first episode.  I forgot how campy Taiwanese Dramas are.  But then, for some reason, I felt I needed to give it another try.  Five minutes later I was hooked.  I had forgotten how quickly Taiwanese Dramas give you the good stuff.  They don't mess around with romantic comedies.  They start with a bang.

Refresh Man: Falling In Love With Aaron Again

I have to say that I had my reservations about starting Refresh Man, because FILWM Syndrome.  But then I really like Joanne Tseng.  But I guess that even with the whole FILWM thing and the Instagram thing, deep down I still love Aaron, so I thought I would give it a try and see if it would make me fall in love with Aaron again.

And it has.  It is just different and fun enough to make it awesome.  It defies some of the typical stereotypes and is about more than just the romance, although that is obviously a large part of it.  It is about self-improvement and getting out of stagnation, etc.  It's also about revenge or rather making her fall in love with him.  You know, good stuff.

So, here are some things that make this show pretty great so far:

Murphy's Law of Love: Sexy Stares and Skinship From Episode One

Taiwanese dramas are great.  But they are also even more tropey and formulaic than Korean dramas.  They tend to lean towards the fatey things way more.  They are super fluffy too, mostly.  But that is exactly their charm.  They are quick to the chemistry stuffs, giving us feels and awkward humor from episode one.

When discussing this, Lizabreff and I summarized that while Kdramas withhold to build the tension for the moment they get together (only to be broken up only moments later), Tdramas give you lots of moments with chemistry, sexual tension, and romantic humor, they drag the drama out with lots of ups and down.  They also have the one trick I absolutely hate.  The mid-series bitca.  I hate having the bitca show up right as things are going great.  Either have her there the whole time, or never there.