I’ve never necessarily loved Chinese romance dramas for a variety of reasons but I’ve had a rough start into the year which is why I was looking for something wholesome to soothe my troubled mind.
Well I am glad to report that Put Your Head On My Shoulder served its purpose!

This is so sickishly sickishly sweet, if this show was any longer it would be health concern. But there are actually a bunch of things that I genuinely appreciated about it.
For starters, I really really liked the female lead. I found the performance of the actress a bit cringe-worthy at times (does this woman ever stop smiling??) but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy her character. Often, I find myself annoyed by the female protagonists in Chinese romances, often they’re painfully naïve, incompetent, endlessly forgiving and chase after the male lead (who usually doesn’t even deserve it) to an embarrassing degree. Well, none of these tropes were present in this drama. I had a really easy time rooting for Situ Mo, she was confident, witty and funny and also good at her job. She wasn’t a genius but she wasn’t a complete idiot either. Situ Mo was driven by her emotions but never irrational or irritating to watch. She had an actual personality outside of her love life, had hobbies, interests and friends. She got along with other women, was never threatened by them or petty and treated even her romantic rivals with respect. And I also really like that she wasn’t afraid of taking the lead when it came to progressing her relationship with her housemate. Long story short, she was a complete person before falling in love. Never was she reliant on the male leads help, she was doing her own thing and chasing after her dreams, it was truly refreshing to see actually.
Another problem I often have with Asian dramas in general but Chinese romance dramas especially, is that I simply don’t see the appeal in a hypercompetent, arrogant male protagonist. I might be in the minority here but I find the idea of a perfect man whose only flaw is his ego so so incredibly uninteresting. When I read the premise of this drama, I thought that was what I was getting into with Gu Wei-Yi. But he turned out to be one of the most charming male leads I have seen in a long time. What can I say, I just enjoy watching a guy who is a little bit pathetic. And this is exactly what Put Your Head On My Shoulder delivered. Gu Wei-Yi was such an embarrassing loser, an academically smart idiot, a simp, as the teens would say. And I couldn’t be any happier about that. The first few episodes, when this show tried super hard to convince me that this character was supposed to be the coolest most intelligent dude ever, I found myself a bit bored by him. Only a bit further into the drama, when it got more and more clear that this man 1.) was down bad and 2.) had no clue what he was doing, I was truly charmed.
A lot of the comedy of this show came from Gu Wei-Yi embarrassing himself, which I really enjoyed. I am so used to the female protagonist being the butt of the joke, but this was rarely the case here. I think this was very needed to make the power dynamic of the lead couple more balanced, as the male protagonist was supposed to be a handsome genius that every girl desires and Mo Situ just a regular woman. He was also responsible for her living situation so all of this could have turned really toxic very quickly. But making Gu Wei-Yi incredibly socially awkward put the odds back into the female leads favor and I had a fun time watching this guy try super-hard for our protagonist even though this show initially tried to convince me that he was way out of her league.

The biggest weakness of this show has a name and it’s Fu Pei. I am usually soft for the childhood friend second lead, nope, not the case here! Man does this guy suck. Not only was he super unlikable and a borderline creep, he was also oh so boring, His prior relationship and dynamic with Mo Situ was poorly established and so was his further character development. Luckily you can just skip all of his scenes and miss exactly nothing, that is how irrelevant he was.
I also found this drama a bit redundant the second our lead couple got together, because, as mentioned, I think most of this drama’s comedy and charm lies in Gu Wei-Yi chasing after Mo Situ, but I also understand that you can’t stretch this plot line for longer than like 15 episodes so maybe this show could have done with like 16 episodes instead of 24. But the later episodes were still somewhat enjoyable to watch and I found them charming enough so I am nitpicking here.
Also: this is definiteley a drama that will make you cringe a lot, I don't think that that has to be a bad thing, often enough the show was self-aware about it and making the viewer feel embarassed was part of its charm/humor but it's something to watch out for if you're especially prone to second hand embarassment. I dare you to watch any of the "spicier" scenes with a straight face. Or any scene where any character soeaks English, it's a tough ask, believe me.

Put Your Head On My Shoulder is like cotton candy. There really is nothing to it except for its sweetness. This drama offers nothing of value, no themes , deeper ideas, barely any plot to be honest, but that was never what I wanted from it. I thoroughly enjoyed this show for its simplicity. Through the entirety of its runtime, I found myself expecting some kind of major conflict, that one of the characters would have a depressing past, that there would be a major love triangle, a big fallout, anything that would disrupt the peace I found within this, but to my surprise that moment never came. And you know what, I am glad it didn’t. There are times where I am looking for maturity and realism in my love stories, this wasn’t one of them. There is nothing wrong with silly wish-fulfillment and media that makes you feel nothing but good. Life is depressing enough, sometimes after a long day, you need shows like this.