I was initially attracted to Yong'an Dream because at that time, I was craving something fluffy but it also appealed to my darkness-loving soul because had a mysterious and near-tragic edge. However, while I was mostly positive about Yong'an Dream in the beginning, I ended up fast-forwarding most of it by episode 12. So, what happened?
First, the positives.

What I liked
- Jeremy Tsui was appropriately menacing as Liu Shi Yan. He had the bearing and gravitas to be the arrogant court official who is thinks he knows everything.
- The second and third lead couples were actually fascinating. Shen Ran is a married woman, but how is she and the Zhou Su An supposed to act on their attraction? Su Heng is besotted with Shen Ran, but at least he thinks he is until he meets the beautiful but tom boyish woman who is supposed to be matched with Shi Yan. I legit want a CDrama centred around these two couples!
What I didn't like
- Zilch chemistry between our lead couple. I kept waiting for it to happen, and found it ironic that I was far more interested in the second and third lead couples!
- Jeremy Tsui was good as usual, but sadly Ouyang Nana, while not awful, was not good enough to elevate her very stereotypical, bright and perky, blandly-written character to something special.
- The unnecessary roadblocks to our main couple's happiness mid point. It was an eyerolling, lazy way to create drama and tension in the story. This was when I began to check out.
- The dreams that Shi Yan gets about an alternate life with Shen Zhen was never coherently explained. If I hadn't known about the novel's plot, I wouldn't have any idea what to make of it. Is it prophetic? Hallucinations from too much mushrooms? No idea.
- The whole "she cries and he ends up in pain" schtick got old really quick. I highly suspect it's because Jeremy Tsui's comedic timing is less than stellar, and Ouyang Nana's performance wasn't great. These were cringey more than funny.

Final thoughts

All in all, watching Yong'an Dream is like eating a cake, expecting it to be as delicious at it looks, only to end up finding out that beneath the frosting, the cake was made of cardboard.
I really felt sad for Jeremy, especially after hearing that he's retiring from acting. (He made this announcement while this drama was airing.)
Jeremy is an actor I felt has lots of potential but is quickly aging out from the idol dramas he's always starring in. There are rumors that his agency was pressurising him to act in these dramas and blocking his efforts to branch out, so I don't blame him for quitting if this is true. But as these are rumours, I guess we'll never fully know the truth.
Yong'an Dream was not a drama I want him to end his career with. Fortunately, he has more dramas coming out. So, I hope they will be much better than this one and that he ends his acting career memorably rather than with a whimper.

As usual, this is an excerpt from my blog post review of the drama: https://dramatea88.wordpress.com/2024/03/22/yongan-dream-review/