Drama: Mr. Bad

[autodach]

I ventured into the realm of m/f romantic comedy and watched the cdrama My Villain Boyfriend aka Mr. Bad.

·       The main character is Nan Xing who is considerate, selfless and kind. The premise is that she accidentally summons Xiao Wudi, the villain from a novel she’s writing, to the real world. Despite being some kind of ancient wuxia warrior Xiao Wudi has no issues assimilating to the modern world, almost immediately cuts his hair and wears modern clothes. It’s a bit of a wasted opportunity; he might as well just be a normal contemporary person for most of the episodes.

·       Xiao Wudi is an arrogant and spoiled asshole who expects to be catered to at all times. He remains an asshole even when he’s first trying to woo Nan Xing, which fails rather entertainingly. Then he gets the usual “becomes a better person because he fell in love” treatment.

It’s all rather run-of-the-mill, but there’s nothing outright wrong with it either. Could have been more unique if the story had actually made more use of its premise. Otherwise, the romance is ok. Pretty standard, but I’m cool with that.

There was a line by Xiao Wudi I quite liked during The Confession: “I can be selfish to anyone in the world, except for you”. This sums up nicely why I enjoy shipping villains.

·       The drama has a side couple: Nan Xing’s Boss, the famous author Lu Zichen, and his business partner & longterm friend Ye Qing. He is a typical socially incompetent creative genius who can never seem to have a normal interaction with anybody. I wasn’t really invested in the romance and actually found his scenes with Nan Xing much funnier than anything going on in his love life.
Her personality is that she is a workaholic. So essentially he invites her on a date which she misunderstands to be work-related; rinse and repeat.

Both of these characters were actually at their best during their brief separation arc.

·       I liked the characters and the story was fine. Overall a decent show.
Could have been more unique by making more use of the premise.