The Love You Give Me (2023)

Mixed Bag of Romances

I truly enjoyed the main romance of this show. The leads had excellent chemistry together and their romantic relationship progressed naturally as they learned to co-parent together. The child actor playing their son was absolutely adorable and precocious! He should have had way more screen time in later episodes, but he is often not present as the story focused on the workplace drama. Speaking of the workplace drama, the overall story arc and message was positive. It can be challenging watching a story about sexual harassment and misconduct in the workplace, particularly if you have experienced it. Min Hui was inspirational, and her teaching other women to stand up to workplace abusers was beautifully executed. It did drag on too long, but I blame the episode count.

My biggest complaint are the side romances - neither were interesting or integral to the story. Which is not to say I didn't enjoy their characters. The addition of Min Hui's found family in Zhou Ruji and Cao Mu brought a certain amount of credibility to the story of a young career woman raising a child, particularly one with heart issues. Their friendship and love for Min Hui and Min Quanquan was enough for me. Rather than padding out so many episodes with their individual love stories, I wish we had spent more time with the core family.

Lire davantage

....meh.....

For a romance, this was very... lackluster.
I'd have loved to give everything a solid five; nothing too good, nothing too bad, nothing to stand out in any way.
But the actors did do a good job, so I decided to be fair and give them their due rating.

The main plot is nothing new:
Girl and boy meet, fall in love, have a misunderstanding, break up.
Meet again, still mad, revenge, blah-blah-blah, reconcile, live happily ever after.
This one added a cute son into the mix, but, again, that's not entirely new either.

I think they didn't do enough with the story.
For me, I love romances, and I'll rewatch the same tired plot again and again, as long as the story is well-written and the characters are engaging. This show flopped on both counts. Story was weak, as were the characters.

You have adults acting like kids, the so-called 'Warren Buffet of China" (the show's words, not mine) behaving like a five-year-old throwing a tantrum, and a strong, smart woman who can't find the words to communicate properly when it matters the most.
A whole entire mess.

I loved the son; he was adorable.
My second favorite character of the show was Cindy, the sister. A total scene stealer IMO.

The chemistry of the main couple was, like everything else, meh. I'd give it a five. No spark, no sizzle. Close friends or a twenty-year married couple. Those were the vibes I was getting.

One good thing was that the "great reveal" happened pretty early in the show, getting us into the meaty part of the story.
But!! In exchange, the first few episodes seemed to repeat the same scenarios over and over again using different dialogue. Just repetitive as hell, taking us nowhere. And the last few episodes? Threw in unnecessary drama just for the heck of it. Maybe to draw out the show a bit longer? Anyway. I had to push myself to finish this. I watched the last eight episodes on fast speed.

Music was okay.

I guess if you have nothing better to do and want something light to take up your time then try it? But I wouldn't recommend this if you have something better on hand, and I won't be rewatching this.

Ending: HEA, for those who want to know. <3

Lire davantage

Really enjoyed this rom com

I've watched several cdramas now and this by far is one my favorite
It has all the sweetness and emotions played well by all the different couples.
It has real life issues, complications and playfulness: Harassment, power plays, marriage, sacrifice, motherhood/fatherhood, meaning of family, custody

The female characters are portrayed well with strong character.
The FL character is so strong and able to sacrifice so much for her son and the one she loves
The ML is playful and plays his character well coming from an abandoned background to a wealthy adoptive family overseas.

REally like the BFF of the FL lead and the sister! They were both portrayed well! Strong yet loving!
The son has great lines and says them well! He really steals the show!

And the ending is a good wrap up, not like some of them where the ending leaves feeling jilted or not complete.

Lastly, the scene where they show the other cdrama our FL & ML were in is so comical! Writer has good sense of humor

Lire davantage

Maybe my expectation was too high

I was waiting for this drama since the first rumor it came out after watching Once We Got Married. I really love ther chemistry between Wang Wang Couple that's why I expected a lot in this drama. First couple of episodes started decent, but the graph soon gets lower and lower through the new episodes. At first I could watch it without fast forwarding, then I fast foward a little, then I only skimmed the episodes. I skipped the other CPs since I didn't really care about them. To be honest, QuanQuan really carried the show. The plot was cliche but I really hoped they could execute it better. The drama didn't really make the viewers get invested. It was flat and boring and I just don't feel it even though I am trying to like it. Really wish it could be better.

Lire davantage

Skip!

I just cannot believe that this drama has received 10/10 reviews praising the writer for the plot, incredulous. Having a silly, unrealistic setting in romantic comedies is perfectly normal, but to at least some extent the writer should respect the audience. Here not only are there at least 2 completely intolerable plot points, but also in the second half the plot is very jittery with no respect for logic.
In my review of 'Love is Sweet' I wrote that the OTP romance is good and everything else is trash. In 'The Love You Give Me' that statement not only holds up, but also even the romance is not nearly as good, but the annoying things are perhaps even more annoying. The two side couple's stories are also not great..

To say something good about the show, at least the acting is on a high level across the board & the leads were very cute together, with very good chemistry. (and there were many times when I found that both leads had red ears during some of their scenes, I found that to be very cute) However this is not enough to save this drama. There are many fluffy scenes that I have enjoyed, with a decent amount of comedy, however this is not enough to save the drama, not even close. There is just too much push-pulling here, with the progress always stalling due to very arbitrary reasons. Even the final episodes hold some "fantastic" surprises to sour the cake for us.

Ah almost forgot, the child actor playing their kid was amazing..

Lire davantage

ML is the worst kind of romanticized character

I had to drop it, they keep masking super red flag behavior on the part of the ML and try to play it up with cute scenes with the kid to make up for it.

Yes there are some cute moments, but I will never forgive a character who told a mother her child was DYING just so he could get some confirmation, there are a million other ways he could have gotten that information. This is a DROP and earns a solid F minus grade for the writer from me.

I think the worst part is that his behavior is constantly presented clearly to the audience in the worst possible light and then immediately shown as he's "justified" because of X Y Z happened in the past. You have the right to be angry about things that happened, but you do not have the right to use your power to make an emotionally charged decision that will affect thousands of people because you're mad at your ex.

Lire davantage

A Repeat of Once We Get Married this Was Not

The leads in this have wonderful chemistry. They played opposite each other in Once We Get Married and did a phenomenal job. So this series already had extra points for casting them together again. The premise of the series was strong with a lot of potential but unfortunately the story quickly lost steam early on. I don't know if it was too much focus on the kid, which can sometimes happen when dramas are centered around children or if it was the conflict in the story shifting to business which wasn't well written, but this just started not to work in part due to these issues. As a result, I did not continue this show and dropped it about 1/4 of the way through.

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