When I first watched modern dramas, I never thought I’d end up being addicted to them. If you followed this blog from the beginning, you’d know that I’m originally not a fan of modern dramas, I prefer costume/fantasy dramas most of the times. With that being said, I sometimes have difficulties writing reviews on modern dramas but I see an improvement, so if I skipped something important please do advise me in the comments.
After watching falling into your smile, I needed another modern drama to balance the equation because I have this habit of watching two historical dramas with one modern drama and luckily I found “Cute programmer” starring Xing Zhaolin and Zhu Xudan(Bambi Zhu).
First Impressions.
First episode left a good impression on someone like me, who is usually negative. I loved the introduction of characters, the location was perfect and not to forget about the quality of the drama. I got a bit disappointed when I realized that the drama looked as if it was taking the ” boss with an illness” storyline and if it wasn’t for the whole cross-dressing part with the crazy stuff Zhu Xudan did, I would have dropped it. but anyways that was my thoughts on the first episode, let’s go to the full review.
The Good.
1. Great casting.
Besides the main leads, other characters in the drama were impressive and they deserve some appreciation for their work. I’d say “Old Ape” is my favorite character in the drama, his obsession with being bald really made me enjoy watching the drama.
2. Great Chemistry.
As a character, you have to make sure that the viewers get to feel what you’re portraying and that’s what the couples in the drama did. Lu Li and Jian Yicheng obviously had better chemistry but then there’s Zitong and Yuming, Gu Mo and Xiaoqi who were also improve, not to forget Da Huang who finally found love in the end.
3. Good Storylines.
Let’s forget the “cross dressing” plot and focus on the whole drama, it had wonderful storyline, the love triangle saga, the contract marriage, the divorce and also the flash backs from varsity days. The supporting characters also had their spotlight in the drama with their own personal problems but the writers never shifted their focus away from the main storyline.
4. Good Music.
I may not be a fan of other genres of music except for hip hop but good music deserves to be appreciated. I loved the opening song, and other songs in the drama and the sound engineer managed to match each song to the correct segment.
5. Super fantastic villain.
Li Man is technically the main villain in the drama and she really sold the character to me. She annoyed me so much, I was even hating her voice. A great villain should make you hate them and she did that, but I’m talking about hating her character in the drama not hating her in real life.
The Bad.
1. An unrealistic segment in episode 4.
The segment where they made guys wear women’s clothing as their punishment was expected to sell the story to us but it was unrealistic. Lui Li is a girl pretending to be a man and they literally made her wear full attire of a female and they made things worse by taking off her wig. Although the workers weren’t suspicious of her, the scene was a turn off because she was herself in that scene and she even took her veil off, making it impossible for a normal human not to recognise her as a woman. I get the fact that the crew were trying to build up something but did they really have to make her show up at work as a woman?
2. Unrealistic plot.
I didn’t think much of this until I saw some comments online about the drama and I support them. The plot of Liu Li hiding her ID card, is nearly impossible in real life. Yes, in arsenal military academy Bai Lu managed to go through the registration process and no one complained because of the timeline, they were in the 90s not the 2000s. Cute Programmer is based in the modern day of technology where anyone can find information about someone online. Businesses don’t have a hard time checking their employee’s backgrounds, so how did Liu Li get employed without an ID? Don’t the HR department do a follow up on her university qualifications?
Conclusion.
I didn’t really enjoy the drama that much in the beginning but I found myself being addicted to it as it approached the end. I’d definitely recommend this drama to anyone, especially those who just started watching modern dramas or they are planning to watch them. The ending was clear and very satisfying, of course it is a happy ending…90% of modern dramas have a happy ending.
Ratings.
7/10
