REVIEW: Love O2O [C-drama]
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Re-watch value: 2 out of 5 stars
Synopsis
*From DramaList*
Xiao Nai is a gaming expert who, courtesy of his basketball skills, academic excellence, swimming talent and game company presidency, also happens to be the most popular student on campus. When he first comes across the gorgeous computer science major Bei Wei Wei, the infinitely talented wunderkind immediately falls in love. But it’s not Bei’s looks that he notices; it’s the ridiculous mastery with which she is commanding her guild and owning everyone in an online multiplayer game that makes her impossible to forget. Now, Xiao Nai must use his skills both in real life and online to capture the adorable but dorky Bei’s heart. But does their love have the XP to succeed, or will this relationship never level up?
Rambling
*beware of spoilers*
Maybe 5 minutes removed from the finale episode on this one, and I’m feeling pretty good, except it feels like I ate a pound of sweet chocolate—this show was too perfect, and I feel a little sick, in a bad way. There was so little conflict, so little of the bittersweet you come to expect from some dramas, it made it a little boring?
Xiao Nai is a beautiful man, an attentive lover, willing to wait two years until his girlfriend graduated college to get married—and have sex, which could be construed as “long-suffering.” Wei Wei is a beautiful girl, an innocent flower, talented and smart, blessedly domestic and kind. Do you see where I’m going here? The worst thing about Xiao Nai is that he, and I’m being totally serious, can’t cook. The worst thing about Wei Wei is that she’s girlishly, stereotypically shy toward Xiao Nai and, because she’s so beautiful, everyone hates her.
Give me a freaking break.
Example of said tight lips.
Sure, the two leads were sweet to each other. Did I particularly think their chemistry was out of this world? Nope. It was just fine, nothing to write home about. Was there a lot of “skinship” or kissing between them? As a matter of fact, yeah! Did I wish that Xiao Nai didn’t seem to be doing all the work when it came to lip-locking a tight-lipped Wei Wei? Absolutely. After their first make-out sesh, I fully expected our girl to loosen up, but it never seemed to happen. So points given, and points taken.
Large swathes of the show were spent in the game where our characters interact. I found it so cool and clever that they seemed to utilize the terrible CGI typical in C-drama to great effect—our real-world characters were cosplaying as their in-game avatars in this magical, virtual world, and it looked just as fake as I’d expect a glossy online video game to look. I thought this worked very well! The gameplay eased up once the majority of the characters entered the real world after college.
I related to one character more than any other, though, and it wasn’t our angelic Wei Wei. It was her best friend Erxi. I thought she looked so pretty and cute with her pixie cut, so it was quite frustrating to see the show trying to paint her as this unfortunately hideous girl. What? But the subplot of her getting mistaken for Wei Wei and the mistaken identity turns into professional and romantic disaster for her? Brilliant.
When Erxi gets “killed” in the game by the vindictive Cao Guang and decides to move out of the apartment she shares with Wei Wei, I was fully on board with it. She basically told Wei Wei that her life is defined by her, that her identity had become wrapped up in being Wei Wei’s best friend. She lost who she was, and what’s worse, she got burned by being so close to Wei Wei. There was no way she could compete with Wei Wei for anything, and the best thing for her to gain a semblance of confidence and individuality was to take a break from being around Wei Wei. I’ve been there. I get it.
The show lost points for me when they didn’t let Erxi move out of the damn apartment. Instead they had the virtuous Wei Wei play the victim and move out for a few days to live with her perfect boyfriend. They decided to make it about Wei Wei (again) instead of letting Wei Wei give her friend what she needed. Sure, you can’t blame Wei Wei for being beautiful, but why should Erxi suffer because of it?
To make matters even worse, once Wei Wei is having a pity party at Xiao Nai’s place, she reflects on how relationships can drastically change over time. She asks him, “Will we ever fight? Will we always be happy?” He replies that no, they will never fight, and yes, they will always be happy. Come again? He goes on to say, “She’s [Erxi] only a small part in your life. I’m your everything.” What the actual fuck? He’s so confidently naïve about life and love.
I just think their relationship was too traditional. It was too close to the gender norms we spend so much time rebelling against nowadays. Even at the end of the show, when Xiao Nai convinces Wei Wei’s dad to consent to their quick marriage by dangling potential grandchildren in front of him. Why is he forcing children on Wei Wei? Yes, every parent wants to be a grandparent, but why the rush?
Wei Wei didn’t seem to have a personality outside of being totally agreeable and feminine. When Xiao Nai’s parents show up at his apartment catching the two of them off-guard, the first thing Xiao Nai says to Wei Wei is to “go make some tea.” This show seemed hellbent on eschewing traditional family values.
Speaking of which, the show was slightly homophobic surrounding the effeminate character Hao Mei. And then the Vin Zhang playing the mostly mute hacker K.O.—who most definitely had a crush on Hao Mei. (If you want to see Vin Zhang in a super juicy role, watch The King’s Woman or Eternal Love!)
On top of all this, the ladies outside of Wei Wei’s circle were utterly jealous and devious. The blind hatred was just too unbelievable as the show went on.
Lastly, I thought the product placement in this was silly. They had Wei Wei’s family sitting together to have breakfast and spouting the benefits of drinking a certain type of juice that’s front and center in the frame. Every character drank only one specific kind of alcohol, even wine! And how can I leave out the freaking Jeep. Wei Wei’s friends are sitting in the back seat of Xiao Nai’s Jeep and comment on a feature of the vehicle and one girl goes into an out-of-place marketing spiel on the car. Shameless.
All in all, this one had a lot of problems but not enough conflict. The subplot that I liked fizzled out in favor of making a main character look good. At least most of these folks are pretty to look at!
Did you see Love O2O? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below!
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