Go, Single Lady (starring Mike He and Ady An, AKA My Pig Lady) is a solid 7/10 stars. A hot mess: cute and light with some beautiful people and adorable pigs, but lost steam in the end.
I’ve been feeling a bit stressed and down lately, and emotionally drained TV-wise after watching Jessica Jones (which was FANTASTIC by the way). I needed something light-hearted and fun, but k-dramas tend to veer toward too much melodrama, so I decided to head the Taiwanese/Chinese drama route. When I was younger, the light-hearted, comedic antics seemed immature, childish, and quite frankly, annoyed me. This is somewhat ironic because now that I’m older, I’m starting to tolerate and even appreciate these lighter, embarrassing, awkward moments (I liken them to dad jokes.) But sometimes when the real world just gets you down, you need something light and silly to help you escape.
I’ve been lucky to have watched a string of stellar Taiwanese dramas lately (In a Good Way and In Time With You), so I was pretty wary and afraid that I’d find a bad one. I ended up settling for Go, Single Lady, since it promised to be light, romantic, and fun. It was all of that, but also a bit of a mess narrative-wise.
The drama started off solidly, introducing us to our four main characters, who all have interconnected lives and some solid chemistry with each other. There are some interesting narrative choices, with a lot of things hidden from the viewer and revealed later, and very obvious hints to big things like birth secrets (that I could’ve predicted 20 episodes in advance) that are completely forgotten (or set aside?) until the end of the show. I’m sure these narrative elements were intentional, but it makes for a very bizarre storytelling arc. Around episode 20, our main couple finally gets together, everything seems great, and it seems like the show should end. But it doesn’t. The last 4 episodes feel like a lot of unnecessary melodrama that I really could’ve done without.
On the bright side, we don’t get any long, drawn out conflict or drama. All our problems are easily solved and resolved–often within the episode. The cast is full of beautiful people who have great chemistry together. I love Man Ling’s character with all her flaws and confidence and insecurity.
On the down side, especially toward the end, a lot of the characters’ actions and reactions don’t make sense. Fan Jiang Yu is a 29 year old man, but sometimes he just acts like a child. Which I guess is part of his character, but he behaves so irrationally, and then all the conflict at the end is so strangely resolved as well. None of the reactions make sense.
But it is what it is, and it is pretty cute. Nothing too heavy, but light, fluffy, and mindless enough to put me in a good mood.
The Drama Llama 