Pretty Man... is a disaster. I don't even know what even motivated me to watch it through to the end.

I originally found this drama after finishing My Mr Mermaid, one of Dylan Xiong's earlier projects. It was my first C-drama I had ever finished watching, so I got pretty emotionally attached to it and was depressed when it ended. I was still sifting through my feelings when the YouTube algorithm worked up and recommended this... monstrosity.

It wasn't until 3 years later that I started watching it. It is a complete waste of time.

What completely slaughtered this drama was the terrible, terrible scriptwriting. Not only are the relationships between the characters in this drama low-key toxic, but the whole plot is driven by misunderstandings after misunderstandings. It's like the characters don't even know what the word 'communication' is. So many of the problems in this drama could be easily avoided if people just talked to each other- but then misunderstandings are the laziest ways to create problems! So I'm afraid the characters will have to forfeit their brains for now.
It was blatantly obvious that the scriptwriter didn't put much thought into the characters either. They are very 2D and flat, with baseless motivations and a black-and-white overview. The good characters are good. The evil characters are villainous just because. No explanation for their behaviour, they're just evil- that's it, and that made the drama even more painful to watch.

I'm not sure what the financial situation of the drama was, but at first glance, one can guess it's budget was probably very low- which would have impacted the script as well as the overall quality of the drama. The sets were not well-made at all; the wedding between Qiao Anhao and Lu Jinnian literally took place in a car park of sorts.

It's just such a pity that the script turned out the way it did as the actors in the drama did have some sort of potential. I feel like it was a bit of a miscast to cast Dylan Xiong as someone as cold as Lu Jinnian. He is a natural when it comes to soft, fluffy moments but he simply doesn't give off the 'high-up and cold' aura that Lu Jinnian was supposed to have.
Another actress I thought did well was the actress for Song Xiangsi, Zhao Yaoke. In all of her dramatic scenes with Xu Jiamu were executed very nicely, especially her crying scenes. In general, she can portray more intense emotions beautifully- hopefully, she'd get casted as a better-written character in the future.