[Drama Review] Best Get Going (The Interns) with Zhao Liying and Zheng Kai 加油吧实习生

Best Get Going 加油吧实习生:

It is a 2015 Chinese drama that stars Zhao Liying (Hua Qian Gu, Boss&Me, Legend of Luzhen) and Zheng Kai (Run Brothers). After much time, here is finally my review for this drama that I personnally sincerely love. This review is very long so I trully thanks the viewers who has the courage to read through it ^^

• Genre: Office, Modern drama
• 38 episodes
• Aired in July 2015 (2 episodes per day, everyday)
• Cast: Zhao Liying, Zheng Kai, Zheng Jia Bin, Che Xiao, Venessa Wang, Fu Jing

Me and ikitten recapped together this drama and you can feel free to read through (while waiting for the engsub to be all out on viki).

2015 Best Get Going 加油吧实习生 Ep. 1-2/ Ep. 3-4/ Ep. 5-8/ Ep. 9-10/ Ep. 11-12/Ep. 13-14/ Ep. 15-16/ Ep. 17-18/ Ep. 19-20/ Ep. 21-22/ Ep. 23-26/ Ep. 27-28/ Ep. 29-30/Ep.31-34/Ep.35-36/Ep.37 [end]

As you can see, the drama had a good run with a very reasonable high ratings considering all the highly anticipated idol dramas airing at the same time.

Zhao Li Ying as Song Nuan: My favorite actress! Ok, let me stay humble and just describe exactly why I love Song Nuan so much. You may have watched a lot of office dramas like me before or maybe you haven’t. Well, Song Nuan just feels so much more right to me than any other female characters in an office setting because she is very relatable. She keeps in mind exactly what she wants and does her best to accomplish that. There isn’t going to be love until she would be secure enough to let it in. I love how hard working she is, I love how bad things do happen to her (she doesn’t get any easy treatments because of a say male lead), but she always face them with a good positive attitude. She is also a great friend, daughter and girlfriend. Although at some point, you may get frustrated that she is a bit annoying, let’s be real: a lot of modern girls aspire to be like her. She brings a lot of hope to others. Really, you can’t hate her at all. However, I have to say one thing: this character did not change from the beginning until the end. She was positive and didn’t want to date a guy who depend on noise making to have the attention of others. She ended still just as positive with a boyfriend who learned to change himself for the better. SN sure learn a lot about being a good employee and handing situations better than before. Her spirit, her way of thinking did not change from the beginning until the end. Oh well, when you have a perfect character, why would you want to change her right? This is not a palace drama, so we don’t need SN to start scheming against others to win the favors of a guy. Hehe.

Zheng Kai as Zhang Sheng: The handsome rich guy who learns to lose everything and built from nothing again. A great character that really you learn to love very fast. At the beginning, when I was seeing him being horrible toward SN, I thought it would be impossible for me to ever like him. After all, a jerk stays a jerk, right? Well, wrong. He is actually a good heart person and the way he cares about others, the way he sees the world is actually very inspirational. I think what strike the most with him is his courage. He is not afraid to show his opinions and do what he wants to. He has visions and although he may be immature at some level, most of the things he do have a good intention behind. Even when he was trying to be mean with SN, it was because he thought she was an annoying tattler at first (she did feed him bad fish and went to his house multiple times as a stalker). Still, I do not approve what he did to SN since what is wrong stays wrong :’D However, *spoiler* the death of his mother really changed him for the best. (yes, it is sad that it took such a tragic event to make him realize that life is not all about enjoying what your parents are giving you). I like how he was able to stand back up, make new real friendships, show to the world what a real leader is and be able to redeem himself to everyone. Really, there is no hard feelings for him by the end of the show.

Cai Wen Jing (蔡文静) as Zhou Ge Ge: Zhou Gege is the kind of character you love and hate at the same time. At the beginning, Zhou Gege thinks very highly of herself. She states that she is a born Shanghanese and hence does not have to worry about a lot of things like housing/work visa. She is pretty and confident about her skills and didn’t doubt one bit that she will have a great job/career and a husband who will give her everything she will want. Even with her friends and family, she shows a very autain attitude. She thinks she is prettier than WRH, more capable than NBL, better than SN and can even be mean to her own mother from time to time. Although she does show moments of ethics and understandings toward her close ones, she kept the ideology that she is the ‘flower’ of the school and hence does not have to worry about life prospects. That’s where ZXC comes in. ZXC makes her realize that she is actually very selfish and only looks at the appearances of things. With the death of ZS’s mother, she learns that a handsome rich man will not always be handsome. With ZXC, she learns that she has to look beyond look/money and actually seek for connections and love. She understands the importance to have a lover who loves her back. By the second half of the drama, GG really became a good friend to everyone. Even if I still disapprove of the ways she treat some of her friends as if they are worse nothing (e.g. when he yelled at SN for being so ‘innocent’ or when she asked NBL to not fire her mother), I feel like she matured a lot and is still a great character to watch grow. The thing is, in society, a lot of girls are like GG. They are wishing for the handsome rich husband to arrive. I trully hope for watchers to see that, like GG, what she trully needed all along is to be able to see beyond appearances.

Zheng Jia Bin (郑家彬) as Zhao Xiao Chuan: This character is a great and boring one at the same time. Really. He is a computer maniac, a genius and a senior to the other girls. However, he still finds himself doing a sales internship for ‘love’. I don’t know if I should call him stupid or brave. He gets extra points from me because he protected Song Nuan against the bad mouth Zhang Sheng. However, he also loses a few points for always protecting Gege against everything that is happening to her just because… she is pretty. Oh, and also, because of how he was unsure about dating GG even when she wanted to because he thinks he is not good enough for her (I call that BS) :’D He did have a few memorable scenes in the drama like when he called back GG to reality by saying she is selfish and egocentric for only caring about herself.

Venessa Wang (王祉萱 ) as Gao Wen Ruo Han: A side character who also has her own charms. Her first onscreen appearance was to showcase her new after plastic surgery face. She says that, in today’s society, people only look at your face. Oh god, that scene showed a lot about her and her future endeavors. She is a character who cares a lot about the material world, about the goods she may get the easy way. Even if it was quiet obvious she didn’t like her (ugly) boyfriend, she was happy to see that he has a lot of connections Guangxi and was able to hook her up with internships and clients. However, her way of thinking turns out to be wrong: her boyfriend (aka future husband) goes into bankruptcy and here she is, pregnant and mistreated by a man she doesn’t even love in return. I liked that she knows what she wants, is not blind by innocent visions of the world and do try her best to achieve her goals. She did not get into fights voluntarily with GG and chose to chase after ZS without hiding her intentions. It is too bad she has a sad ending. Until the end, I believe her friendship with SN was true a 100%.

Fu Jing (付静) as Ning Ba La: Ning Bala is a great character too that I love a lot. She is a loyal friend and uses her two hands to make things happen for her. She moved to Shanghai for a better future, but also for her mother who is suffering from a mental illness. She hopes that with a proper job, she will be able to pay for the medical bills. As a tomboy, she obviously doesn’t get an easy pass in the corporate world. People look down at her because she comes from the countryside. She has to work part-time to be able to pay for the rent. She has to play boxing with others (as a girl, that must be terrible) and even when she comes back home, she must face her ill mother who doesn’t recognize her own daughter. For her internship, she gets into the Feng Hua company, which treated her poorly by forcing her to go fire old useless employees. She goes through social trauma (since she becomes the indirect cause of someone’s death) and sees the company she works at go into bankruptcy. You just want to hug her as you see her go through all these horrible situations. As she herself says, she cannot count on anyone else, but on herself, because she only has herself. I love her because of this. By the end of the drama, it is great to see her going back to the countryside and succeed with her own business (she is operating a small farm). She finally looks happy and her mother seems healthy again. ^^

Che Xiao as Hao Min: Aka Indifferent lady. Not my favorite of all the characters. Throughout the majority of the story, she was indifferent to the hardships of the interns. She didn’t want to help the poor students even if she should be a mentor. Even if she seems to understand that the interns are having a hard time, she doesn’t show any support. The part when she made SN buy fast food noodles for her everyday made me especially bitter (how can she not understand that interns are short on money and you are making them suffer greatly?). However, when we learn that she is actually married to Mean Sales Director, a part of me had pity of her. After all, she is also a woman victim of the corporate world. She had to go through much hardships to arrive to her position now and can’t even have a proper life outside of work. Also, seeing her nearly losing her baby made me realize that, after all, maybe she isn’t so indifferent about others. :’D Hence, she is not my favorite character, but I don’t want to hate on her anymore. After all, she did apologise to SN for all her wrong doings.

Huang Mao Ren, the Manager of the Sales department and the assistant of Chen Jian aka Mean Assistant. One of the most 2D character you will find in this drama. Really, really boring. He represents respect and discipline in the corporate world. He kiss asses all along and yells all the times at the interns. I seriously don’t like him at all. He is always bragging about his years of experiences and how much discipline he learned in Japan when he worked there. He had some cute scenes with the interns, but frankly, he is really nothing special.

Chen Jian (JM’s Sales Director aka Mean Sales Director). Ok, so I obviously don’t like this character, but I have to admit I love his scenes xD. He is really funny. For instance, the meat stealing scenes, the car of misfortune scenes or even the drinking parts. It is great also to learn that he trully loves his wife, indifferent lady. At least, it shows that he has a heart. Although he seems obsessed with work and promotions at first, I think he also had the chance to evolve and learn from his subordinates through the drama. However, he is probably the number one reason why the interns are suffering so much so I just can’t like him a 100% yet.

Wang Si Yuan aka the CEO of JM. The 2D character by excellence. Really, he is just there to smile at SN and tell her to figure everything by herself (is he suppose to represent buddha or something?) Anyway, I am really surprised at his lack of presences in the drama considering he is the CEO. He is supposed to help coordinate the internship program and bring JM to new heights financially. Instead, he is jut chilling around and smiling, saying encouraging words while taking selfies with the interns. Really not impressed. 

Now, let’s look a little bit about the relationships in this drama: doesn’t it feel great to see the characters create relationships between themselves. It doesn’t have to be a 100% concentrated on the OTP at all times. The fact that each couple/relationship had the chance to improve and become better makes the drama even more real.

Finally, here is a collage of all some of the most memorables moments:

Opinion (general):

There is a very distinct difference between the college students in Best Get Going and Tiny Times, and no, I am not only talking about the plastic surgery difference. Culturally, I feel like Best Get Going nailed the point better. Of course, it may not be fair to compare a movie with a drama since movies never have enough time to develop the character well enough. Anyway, I did watch a lot of office dramas (especially Chinese ones): Du La La Promotion, Ad Mania, Unbeatable series, In Time with You, etc. However, as good as these dramas were, they all failed at a very important point: they did not show the real struggle of the work place for a newbie. The people in the dramas I named before all got interesting jobs and chances to succeed equally right away. And although this does represent Western culture, in China, it is all about that first internship before you can actually work. Hence, I feel like Best Get Going! is doing a great job at one thing: showing the struggle for interns to keep their job. This office job drama is really focus on the realism and on the internship in itself. If you want to see them get promotions or schemes against each other, than you probably will not enjoy the drama very much. However, if you want a realistic depiction of life and an encouragement to keep working hard by yourself to achieve your goals, than it is a great feel good drama. It will make you cry and understand relationships with others even better than before. Furthermore, I like how this drama gave a deep understanding about current society. It is about parenting, about struggling to stay in Shanghai, about what you really want in life. It is about the struggles of the 90s kids in the workplace and I trully believe the producing team and the actors nailed it. ^^ Great job guys!

Bonus: The Rio drink that accompanied the interns throughout all the hardships 😉 Don’t lie, you spotted them too!