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Beta & Alpha

I think I picked the c-drama Got a Crush on You to watch because it was another romance between a female doctor and a male search and rescue first responder. Then I kept watching as the doctor resigned from her work to apply to go back to school to get her PhD, and help her best friend open a store that sells women's intimate products, which seemed a little strange but okay. I realized this wasn't going to be the typical Asian drama at all when the doc established herself as the alpha in the romance, and S&R guy began playing a pretty convincing beta.

Dr. Song Xingchen (artfully played by the stunningly beautiful Gulnezer Bextiyar) makes a lot of choices that startle and dismay people, but the one person who seems to get her is Captain Su Qingche (quite well played by Xu Kai Cheng.) They meet during a scary but also slightly ridiculous rescue of a dog, during which they both develop a crush on each other. Soon after that, Xingchen volunteers to join Qingche's search and rescue team, and then is matched with her crush on a blind date. It's a huge heap of coincidences, but okay. Their best friends begin a weird flirtation, and the inevitable young and annoying female and older and annoying male competition for the leads shows up to make things all the more difficult for our couple. The doc's parents -- in particular her hot-tempered, controlling mother -- also pitch in to add some stress.

It's a lot, and sometimes the secondary cast and the subplots start piling up and nearly suffocate the story. Either the actors who played the best friends didn't like each other, or they've never kissed anyone before this series, because despite both characters supposedly being experienced their kissing scenes were always awkward and juvenile. The doctor's mother was a lot like my mother, so I didn't mind her. I thought the romantic competition characters were both aggravating, but over the course of the series they accepted the situation and redeemed themselves quite well.

What I liked most about this series was the romance, which is slow to develop but quite convincing. I also found it refreshing to see a female alpha; that never seems to happen in Asian dramas. Although handsome enough Xu Kai Cheng can't compare to Gulnezer Bextiyar for looks, and because of that they do seem a bit of an odd couple at first. He's what one reviewer called a golden retriever boyfriend. I usually don't compare men to dogs but in this case the personalities match. I thought he did well handling his female lead, who is super strong and doesn't take any crap from anyone, and managed to keep me convinced that he was in love with her.

After I watched the series I checked the reviews, as I had a feeling they would be mostly negative, and I was right about that and then some. I think the alpha female doesn't work for Asian audiences, but I liked this series a lot because of that gender flip. Available to watch on Viki.com.

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