Good production trying to re-spin a tired trope of glamourising toxic relationships

I give this an 8 out of 10 which is highly generous considering the subject matter - being made into some unique love story. This is mainly for the overall production quality. But overall, a very problematic drama which in essence glamourizes toxic behaviour and puts narcissistic behaviour firmly on the map. For watchers like myself, it's not an issue, as it's just a drama, but for younger impressionable audiences, quite damaging to see and think normal and even made acceptable.

Yet again, we are treated to "band-aid" relationships, where usually the woman is lowering herself to accommodate the man under the guise of being gallant and changing him for the good. Reality is, these types of relationships usually end in disaster and this story tries to paint over that fact. Even to the very end, the ML "buys" a property (a big life decision) without even consulting her. These are classic controlling narcissistic behaviours, with very little in way of seeing him change in in the final episode. The only change is the fact, he finally accepts the FL and end up in a relationship, again...scary stuff.

The acting is good, although I feel CFY is more or less acting like his real life character and not a far stretch to play a part like this, so it suits him down to the ground. JJY is the work-horse of the drama. Even how annoying she is to still hang in such a toxic relationship, she told the story well through countless scenes of humiliation and curiosity.

There were parts that dragged on. To get to the point, some episodes really did not need to be. The so-called baddie character played by ZZW was a bit weak, especially towards the latter stages when he was going off the rails were some of the most awful gurning and over-the-top nodding going on. You know something is wrong when you're giggling instead of concentrating on the actor's emotions.

Nonetheless, it's a decent drama, but the subject is not new and re-hashes that same old "only I can change this man's behaviour" trope to make female audiences feel more personal and special. I think that's more imaginary rather than reality.

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