Poorly-constructed narrative with no tension or conflicts that I care about as a viewer. Probably because the show doesn't adhere to its description.
Warning: Spoilers. Also I dropped this series halfway through watching it. There are seemingly-unrelated plot lines that perhaps converge later on in the seasons, but five episodes in and they are just that: seemingly unrelated.
The description describes the protagonist as "trapped in a false paradise" but there is nothing "trapped" about her situation at all. I thought perhaps the story would be something like she meets a charming guy and he turns out to be a kidnapper/serial killer/criminal etc. Very early on (I think episode 2?) we find out the guy is just having an affair. Literally everything after this point (with regard to this plot line) is entirely self-inflicted by the protagonist. There is nothing "trapped" about it. After finding out he lives in a rich community with his family, she decides to move in next door. Why? To ruin the marriage? Because she likes the sex that much? No idea, but these are all her own choices, so once the show devolves into these derivative conflicts, it's hard to care at all. A normal person would have ended the relationship after finding out it was an affair, so everything after that feels forced and irrational.
There are other plot lines but they seem to serve very little or no purpose. The protagonist has a stalker ex who shows up out of the blue sometimes or makes phone calls with vague threats and begs her to be in a relationship with him. It's all very petty and leads to no material consequences for the story, so it's unclear what the point is or why the writers waste time with it. There are also questions re: how a dancer from Vegas affords to live in a rich community, hire a fake husband, and buy a Mercedes which don't get answered satisfactorily (intentionally), but I also don't care that much. Nothing else makes much sense anyway so I just assume the writers fabricated the money for plot purposes. Lastly, the family that owns the community knows the husband is having an affair and want to "get rid of him" and apparently intend to use the protagonist to do this. This seems to hinge entirely on the protagonist making the absurd decision to uproot her entire life and live in this community. What if this had never happened? Well it had to happen for plot purposes.
Maybe these plot lines are related. Maybe the family hired the ex to intimidate the protagonist, but if so it's not evident when, how, or why. So halfway through the season, these all seem to be discrete plot lines with no relation to one another and very poor pacing if they are indeed related to one another. For example, if the family needs the protagonist to move into the community for their goals, spend some time exploring ways to get that to happen instead of the protagonist having poor decision-making. e.g. the family could hire the ex to intimidate her and make her afraid of Vegas in order to give her a reason to go overseas or feed her information about who the man having an affair really is (before she knew) to make her curious. Once overseas, they could have had the protagonist act like a sane human being who initially wanted to leave and end the relationship, but the family gets her to stay. They could have given her a role in ruining the man's life instead of just being the girl who decides to move in because she likes having sex with the neighbor's husband.
Overall, the story is "woman finds out guy she's dating is having an affair and makes the questionable decision to live next door to him" + "family owning the residential property wants the man having an affair to be out of their lives" + "also there's a stalker who shows up once every few episodes for a few seconds because the writers forgot there was supposed to be tension in this series" and none of these appear to be related.
Review by ChrysusBlockedParentSpoilers2023-06-04T03:53:44Z
Poorly-constructed narrative with no tension or conflicts that I care about as a viewer. Probably because the show doesn't adhere to its description.
Warning: Spoilers. Also I dropped this series halfway through watching it. There are seemingly-unrelated plot lines that perhaps converge later on in the seasons, but five episodes in and they are just that: seemingly unrelated.
The description describes the protagonist as "trapped in a false paradise" but there is nothing "trapped" about her situation at all. I thought perhaps the story would be something like she meets a charming guy and he turns out to be a kidnapper/serial killer/criminal etc. Very early on (I think episode 2?) we find out the guy is just having an affair. Literally everything after this point (with regard to this plot line) is entirely self-inflicted by the protagonist. There is nothing "trapped" about it. After finding out he lives in a rich community with his family, she decides to move in next door. Why? To ruin the marriage? Because she likes the sex that much? No idea, but these are all her own choices, so once the show devolves into these derivative conflicts, it's hard to care at all. A normal person would have ended the relationship after finding out it was an affair, so everything after that feels forced and irrational.
There are other plot lines but they seem to serve very little or no purpose. The protagonist has a stalker ex who shows up out of the blue sometimes or makes phone calls with vague threats and begs her to be in a relationship with him. It's all very petty and leads to no material consequences for the story, so it's unclear what the point is or why the writers waste time with it. There are also questions re: how a dancer from Vegas affords to live in a rich community, hire a fake husband, and buy a Mercedes which don't get answered satisfactorily (intentionally), but I also don't care that much. Nothing else makes much sense anyway so I just assume the writers fabricated the money for plot purposes. Lastly, the family that owns the community knows the husband is having an affair and want to "get rid of him" and apparently intend to use the protagonist to do this. This seems to hinge entirely on the protagonist making the absurd decision to uproot her entire life and live in this community. What if this had never happened? Well it had to happen for plot purposes.
Maybe these plot lines are related. Maybe the family hired the ex to intimidate the protagonist, but if so it's not evident when, how, or why. So halfway through the season, these all seem to be discrete plot lines with no relation to one another and very poor pacing if they are indeed related to one another. For example, if the family needs the protagonist to move into the community for their goals, spend some time exploring ways to get that to happen instead of the protagonist having poor decision-making. e.g. the family could hire the ex to intimidate her and make her afraid of Vegas in order to give her a reason to go overseas or feed her information about who the man having an affair really is (before she knew) to make her curious. Once overseas, they could have had the protagonist act like a sane human being who initially wanted to leave and end the relationship, but the family gets her to stay. They could have given her a role in ruining the man's life instead of just being the girl who decides to move in because she likes having sex with the neighbor's husband.
Overall, the story is "woman finds out guy she's dating is having an affair and makes the questionable decision to live next door to him" + "family owning the residential property wants the man having an affair to be out of their lives" + "also there's a stalker who shows up once every few episodes for a few seconds because the writers forgot there was supposed to be tension in this series" and none of these appear to be related.