Cry Me a River of Stars starts as a sweet and easy-on-the-eyes romantic comedy, but then tries to become an epic tale of start-crossed lovers to middling results.

Characters: The two leads look great together and have good on-screen chemistry, but their characters feel like they come from two different dramas. Tao Junran is a strong and capable magistrate who has to make tough choices, face the darkness of humanity, and risk losing himself in the process, while A Fan is a ditzy and careless fisher girl. She would sell her soul for a few coins and couldn’t hold a serious conversation if her life depended on it. This sometimes leads to jarring moments where one scene is of deep tragedy and loss, while the next has slapstick comedy. The rest of the cast is more in line with Tao Junran, though there are some whose whole personality is obsession with one person or another, and it gets old really quickly.

Story: At first, it seems down to earth and pretty simple, but it quickly becomes obvious that it’s better to not examine it too closely. Some scenes don’t follow the internal logic of the drama just to serve a cool or dramatic scene, some challenge one’s suspension of disbelief to a high degree, like when people start going in and out of a highly secured place like it’s their own backyard, and at other times things are kicked into motion solely by A Fan doing something extremely stupid. Yet somehow, despite all of these problems, the underlying story is not unwatchable. It moves quickly, and there’s always something happening. There’s also quite a few twists and turns that aren’t obvious from a mile away.

Overall, I enjoyed this drama. I have some gripes with it, especially with A Fan who couldn’t stop repeating the same mistakes again and again, but her actress did a good job making her likable, so it didn’t detract too much from the viewing experience. I don’t think I’ll ever be rewatching this drama, but it was fun while it lasted.