Dear Mr Hermitage (2023)

Fun, warm, enjoyable drama with lovely characters and scenery

This is my first time writing a review on MDL but this drama deserves that I make this effort (I say that because english is not my first language, so please excuse the mistakes I’ll make writing this review).

You might see the ratings and think : « Hmm, I’ll pass ». And you’ll miss an opportunity to watch a great drama.

Why ? It’s a charming, enjoyable and fun light rom-com. It was shot somewhere in a place located near the Laos and Thailand’s border, where the Dai people live (from what someone told me). So visually, the drama is stunning : the scenery is very green, luxuriant, the landscapes are beautiful, and so are the houses, streets, buildings. It’s really a beautiful architecture.

The characters, after a rough (and in my opinion, funny) beginning, shine. We have less than ordinary main leads for a rom-com : instead of having a cold CEO and an innocent young FL who freeze every time they touch each other’s hands, we have an ex-CEO who was a playboy who decides to go back to his mother’s village to plant tea and to live a more monk like life.

We have a FL who is a young entrepreneur struggling to get her company off the ground. She ends up being brave, adorable and kind. The kind of lovely FL who is joyful without ending up being a childish Pollyanna. She will end up living the village life to the fullest.

Both ML and FL are affectionate and tactile with each other, which I loved seeing. There are misunderstandings and problems standing in their way but they manage to do something rare : they talk about their problems and solve them quickly.

There are antagonists, down to earth twists (without being a slice of life, too realistic and dreary drama to watch) SML and SFL on the way (but they are more on the funny side, although sometimes annoying) a bit of mystery and most of all, the villagers who are definitely an important part of the drama.

So in the end, it might be on the cheap side, and with less dramatic twists than people are used to but the end result is a charming, warm, lovely drama that certainly doesn’t deserve the 7.8 ratings it has as I’m writing this review.

But then, I started watching this drama before the ratings came in and I’m sad thinking that had I waited a few weeks to watch it, the ratings would have definitely prevented me from watching it. And now I’m wondering how many great dramas I skipped because I trusted the below 8 ratings on MDL.

So if you’re in for a fun, charming, light rom-com with main leads who act their age and solve their problems by talking, then this is the drama for you.

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