Love is All (2020)

Healthy and Strong Romance, Weak Criminal Cases

If you're looking for a light, easy watch that's relatively drama-free and focused on romance, Love is All is an adorable historical romcom. The series shows how Tan Lingyin and Tang Tianyuan solve different criminal cases together, and come to love and rely on each other along the way. This relationship is extra sweet, especially when Tan Lingyin discovers that Tang Tianyuan is actually her childhood idol. While the drama has its strengths in terms of the main romance, however, it also has some of its issues in relation to its stagnant plot and storyline.

I'd therefore highly recommend having a watch if you like these tropes:

♡ Healthy Romance Between a Magistrate and His Subordinate: There will be many comparisons to the relationship between Lu Yi and Jian Xia in the 2019 drama Under the Power, which I believe is accurate, as our main love line is also very natural and adorable. Both Zhang Ruonan and Zhang Haowei have incredible chemistry together, and showed how Tan Lingyin and Tang Tianyuan are not only very innocent in love, but also eventually grow to deeply care for each other. Tang Tianyuan also never uses his powers to overpower or control Tan Lingyin, but instead to help her and to encourage her to become a better advisor. Both characters thus begin with a bickering relationship, where Tang Tianyuan is more careful and strategic, while Tan Lingyin is mischievous and reckless. However, they also always consider each other’s well being and put their partner first, and have many heart-melting scenes that will make you feel “squishy.”

♡ A Focus on Women in History: The drama uses many instances to show some of the struggles that women face, especially to be respected and recognized for their work. While the historical aspects of such scenes may not be completely accurate, I did like how the show explored how Tan Lingyin’s abilities are questioned because of her gender. These conflicts are not only shown in the way the men in the drama speak about women and their roles, but also through side characters such as Zhou Zhengdao, who disguises herself as a man to work undercover in the Magistrate’s office. This is by no means a drama that deeply delves into these problems; but its attempts to highlight and incorporate some of them should be recognized.

♡ A Funny and Lovely Side Cast: I was surprised by how much I liked some of the supporting characters, and how much life they added to the drama. I absolutely loved Tang Tianyuan’s brotherly relationship with Zheng Shaofeng, and how both of them worked together to pursue the women they loved. I even loved Zhu Dacong — the silly fiance who Tan Lingyin attempts to run away from, because despite the fact that he was often the “fool” in the series, he was absolutely loyal and respectful to her even when she continuously tried to get rid of him. Most of all, while our second male lead Duan Feng does not get much screen time, he was incredibly handsome as a roguish bandit and was fun to watch as well.

♡ Cute Edits and Comedic Humour: This drama uses a lot of slapstick comedy, and uses cute extra-diegetic edits (i.e. whiskers, blush, funny cutscenes, etc.) as well as techniques such as breaking the fourth wall, that add to the lighthearted tone of the series. Overall, it’s meant to be a very fluffy and humorous series, and while the comedy may not work for all watchers, it’s nice to see as a break if you are watching more plot-heavy or emotionally investing dramas at the same time.

However, there are also some things you might not like about the drama:

♥ Major Logical Inconsistencies: There is a need to watch this show with quite a healthy amount of suspension of disbelief, and to not take the drama or its events seriously. There are a lot of issues from the outset, including characters that are supposed to be incredibly smart, yet unable to see the obvious (i.e. how the drama ridiculously implies that Zhao Zhengdao is completely unrecognizable when she dresses as a man, with her disguise being apparently so effective it can fool Zheng Shaofeng — who supposedly is great at gathering intelligence — for a solid ¾ of the drama).

♥ Somewhat Ineffective Genre-Mixing: Unfortunately, I don’t think the combination of crime and comedy in this series, especially when Love is All veers more on the comedy side, worked very well together in this drama. I think the main problem is that the cases themselves seemed very inconsequential, in that nobody seemed to be at serious risk or danger at any moment. Most of all, sometimes it also seemed as if characters, while demonstrating adherence to their moral beliefs, acted in unprofessional ways or sidelined their cases for their personal life. I admit I also did find myself sometimes fast-forwarding scenes where they were discussing cases, since I found them rather uninteresting. Thus, if you’re looking for a drama that depicts the solving of intricate crime scenes with interesting and gripping stories, this is not a show for you. However, if you really want something with a focus on romance, where the crime solving is just part of the background plot and helps to minimize filler scenes, then you may appreciate these aspects more.

♥ For A “Crime-Solving” Drama, Can Be Boring To Watch: Unlike other crime dramas, where villains may be more compelling and give the impression of being “evil” or “dangerous,” this drama didn’t really ever venture into this territory. Moreover, the length of the drama seemed to be too long, considering how little time was spent on cases, and cases often felt anti-climatic rather than exciting or mysterious. I emphasize that this is a light drama that really focuses on the romance between the different characters, and it has a very fluffy tone and colour palette. Consequently, while this drama never satisfactorily builds up any moments that can be considered high-stakes or life or death for the main characters, the lack of angst may be something that you appreciate if you want something that’s less heavy to watch.

I'd highly recommend you watch this if you liked dramas with a precious romance between the main characters, and you want something that’s light and binge-able. This is a great watch if you want something to take your mind off for the day, or to unwind and smile over at how comedic and meta the series is. While the comedy certainly will not work for all viewers, and some may find aspects of the plot boring and draggy to watch, the adorable romance between the characters is sure to make your heart warm if you want to see a couple with incredible chemistry.

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