Cdrama: The Prisoner of Beauty

[autodach]

Mydramalist summary:
Xiao Qiao, a clever girl from the Qiao family, marries Wei Shao, the sharp and kind master of the Wei family, as part of a family alliance. With bad blood between their clans, the two start off wary of each other, constantly testing boundaries in both funny and tense ways. Over time, they begin to appreciate each other's quirks and talents. Through ups and downs, they learn to work as a team, tackling family drama and bigger issues to bring some peace to their world. It’s a story of partnership built through trial, error, and a bit of chaos.


I severely disliked this drama, unfortunately.
No real spoilers, but a fair warning that I’m not holding back in this review😅

Oh boy here we go

The first 10 or so episodes are miserable. The female lead was actually promising at this point: Smart, kind, and savvy. And everyone else just hates her and mistreats her and holds her personally responsible for things she had zero to do with (I know this is normal in this setting; I despise it all the same).
Her maids are normal people, his advisor is reasonable, and the Grandmother of the Wei clan is a nuanced character - every other character in the early episodes is a hateful homunculus intent on making the FM's life hell. The ML is no exception. And it just drags on way too long like this, even for an enemies-to-lovers trope.

Then it flips, or it was supposed to at least. The ML develops a crush on the FL (and she on him I guess, but I just didn't buy that at all). He doesn't treat her much better though, and obviously would never regret his past behaviour.
This is supposed to be the cute part, the couple getting together, but I only hated them more every episode. He's jealous, possessive, aggressive, incredibly dumb, and childish. His tantrums are pathetic, and she is also pathetic for entertaining them. He never improves, he never (really) apologizes, while she just swallows slight after slight.

The FL is massively intellectually superior to her husband (though the bar is on the floor), but she gets less and less opportunity to shine as the show devolves into a bad romcom.
There is no overarching story, just a series of villains trying to drive a wedge between the FL and ML. To what end exactly wasn't always clear to me. None of the villains are in any way competent, it's very boring.

It was ridiculous to see these grown people dance around each other, wondering if it's okay to hold hands, when they're already married.
And to watch him flail around, not understanding the simplest things and not catching on to anything ever. This man has the intelligence and maturity of a 5 year old, and somehow that was supposed to be attractive?? His aggression and frequent violence towards allies and bystanders isn’t helping either. Meanwhile she’s busy coddling his inflated ego.

I was also deeply annoyed by the FL's voice. She is whispering the entire time, and speaks in a bored, flat tone. She sounds like a toddler who's about to fall asleep. All the time! It drove me up the wall. The ML's actor did a good job, and in contrast to his co-lead, he had facial expressions. Didn't save the show though.

Overall this drama doesn’t seem to know what it’s even trying to do, its tone fluctuating wildly between serious, tongue-in-cheek, and slapstick. It wants to be sombre and tragic but also cute and funny (achieving neither). It drags on, then suddenly rushes.

The side characters do get character development, and I ended up shipping the side couple. A ray of light!
Let’s end this on that positive note. Xiao-Tao was the best❤