Un Rendez-vous avec l'Avenir (2023)

Who is Your Destiny?

Originally I thought I would give this series an 8.5 but what changed my mind to score higher was the fact that even though it had many flaws of characters and script, it was a delight to watch and made me enjoy it more then the other two series I was/am watching. This made me laugh so much and later it made me cry. I left this series to watch last or save the best for last each day. I'll be finishing the other two today and Tuesday and starting three new ones but this show has gone into my permanent watchlist for rewatching. Let's get into this, shall we? Who is your destiny?

Pros: Favorite character other than Ping'an was the ML or JSC. It was my first time watching William Chan in anything so I had been looking forward to it. I knew he would be dubbed over because of his heavy accent from the get go but it didn't take away from his acting in the slightest and those dimples; each time he smiled, it made you smile. Who knew William was the biggest goofball on set? The BTS were night and day from his character. But I still really enjoyed the evolution of his character. He had to go from an ice cube, to a man in love who didn't understand it, to going through an existential crisis, being there for his girlfriend's, losing another friend and coworker, and being in a coma for x amount of months (wish they gave us the length of each time jump), after which he proposed in an awesome way and got married. Seemed the timeline was about a year within the show but so much happened to just him it was really fascinating to watch. It took the existential crisis and the coma to make him realize he wasn't superhuman but an ordinary person that had to still be able to lead and allow himself to be led and protected by others. William did a great job with all of the evolutions and challenges. I look forward to watching more things from him.

Other favorite characters were FL or XL; granted her gorilla glue attitude for the first 6 episodes made me cringe a lot, what impressed me about her was that she never gave up until her own existential crisis which JSC helped her through. She wasn't your typical FL that's a damsel in distress. She spoke her mind and knew what she wanted from day 1 in everything. She always stood up for others and never allowed herself to be bullied. It was quite refreshing to see. I'm tired of the "woe is me" FLs in c-dramas. XL in her little body was determined to do what was right and if she was at fault, she understood it and apologized. Though she loved JSC since he rescued her 10 years ago, technically they knew each other since they were kids. People can say that she was obsessed with him and that's partially true but he also inspired her to be an international dog trainer for rescue operations as well as a journalist. He gave her a lot of strength even before they met each other again.

Others were the second leads who were just too cute in general. But ZQ when it came to others always preached the truth. Her timely and honest responses to literally everyone was also so empowering. I thought it was awesome that though LFQ was always chasing after her like a kid after candy, when it came to his own crisis--and kudos to the writers and production team for accurately portraying what PTSD looks like as well as how there are different methods to treat it--she was there for him and Ren Hao who played him (redeemed himself in my eyes for a hot mess character from two years ago lol) did a phenomenal job at portraying someone with PTSD. I have PTSD so I know what it looks like; to address something properly like that in this rom-com of sorts was pretty amazing. It also was a reason for the raised score. When health issues I have or know well are accurately portrayed in a cdrama (which isn't often), that'll get an automatic pros mention.

The rest of the fire brigade were awesome and absolutely hysterical because they were like gossipy women. Them teasing each other or other antics in episodes had me roaring with laughter and quickly rewinding to watch again. The death of LX which was foreshadowed very obviously for a while, even though the CGI wasn't great, it had a very "Backdraft final scene" vibe (a classic movie w/Kurt Russell and William Baldwin from 1991), his final video message which was supposed to be for the team when he retired had me in tears as well as JSC waking up from the multi-month coma after that incident and everyone's reactions.

Other favorites were grandpa of JSC, mom and dad of XL (mom was nuts at first but thankfully evolved), chief of the fire brigade as well as of the tv station, and Shishi. I know her voice was irritating but when she appeared and started doing to the TML what he spent 29 episodes doing to FL, I loved her! She was childish but at the same time she knew her own worth and it proved to help a lot with TML. Their open ended ending as the 3rd couple was actually appropriate. The videographer intern was a mini antagonist until he returned to his original self and I liked that about him. OSTs (except in the proposal dance scene where the first song should have stayed) costumes, sets, locations were all on point.

Cons: TML! Dear lord, why just why? For 29 out of 36 episodes, this plum fool and his obsession with FL had everyone in the comments just ready to bury him alive. I've seen the actor before in a much better role but I felt sorry for him here. This shouldn't have gone on for as long as it did. He nearly got FL killed at least once. The script had a lot of problems; this was one of the biggest. Another was the propaganda inserted in the most random of places; you just don't stick that crap into a rom-com. Yes, this series was about firefighters as the main occupation and journalists but the speeches that came out of random characters in the most ridiculous of moments or those that didn't make sense would just knock the scene out of whack.

Making FL seem like essentially gorilla glue in the beginning was just weird. The crazy woman at the tv station was very much an unneeded antagonist. You already had so much going on, she was literally extra. But since she was added, she should have been arrested way before episode 31. It was a bad call on the part of writers and producers; 36 episodes for so much, they need to understand when less really is more.

The unnecessary plot of the FL's existential crisis to get her and ML to the place he rescued her just to be able to stick another natural disaster in. There are other ways to do that. And then having TML go to the disaster area in a suit? How is that even remotely plausible? Because of yet another rejection by FL and Shishi getting hurt, he out of nowhere snapped out of his obsession. It happened too fast. Given what we had seen, there was so much incohesion in all of this. It was a very messy part of the story.

The ridiculous pre-teen kisses amongst the leads were eye roll worthy each time. Only 3 were normal; it made no sense. Even if they were inexperienced, given their ages, it shouldn't have looked so unnatural because they had great chemistry. Though there is a 9 year age difference between the actors, that shouldn't be the reason for such flat kissing in a drama where they act closer in age.

Would I recommend? Despite a varying number of voices, I absolutely would. It was a great escape into silliness and cuteness for me everyday. The pros definitely outweigh the cons. Just enjoy all of it; cringing is ok too. But I promise laughter and some tears. All well worth it.

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