Perfect Match (2025) In the final analysis... and Special Edition Podcast

Included in this post, is a special podcast episode between absoluteM and yours truly. We opine about the show — the good and the unlikeable. At one point I use the word “mistrust” when I should have said “distrust” — the more apt characterization of that kind of scenario.

It’s easy to attribute the problems of C dramas on censorship. It’s made sense for a number of projects in the past (The Mystic Nine most notably) but I don’t think the same could be said for Perfect Match. By now the production companies should know what to avoid and a drama of this kind can be written to avoid the censor’s scalpel. Few would debate the merits of conflict in the plotting to keep the audience on their toes but in many instances there can also be such a thing as over-reliance on conflict as a major device to drive the story forward. Or in this case, creating storms in teacups. Overall, it should be said, Perfect Match is a raucous and charming family drama. It does a lot right and the casting is generally right on the money. But there are enough eye-rolling moments throughout that prevent me from giving it unqualified praise. Apart from what other flaws I’ve already noted in previous posts, the last few episodes suffer from having too much and too little at the same time.

Despite my initial quite strong dislike for the Yang Xian character — the husband of the fifth birth daughter — he won me over by the end. Suffice to say, he had the best growth arc of any. I think the initial thrashing he received was justified — the bride swap and snatch was stupid/reprehensible in the extreme, not to mention disrespectful to the lady in question. As we dig deeper it turns out he’s not really a bad kid at heart but a self-styled rebel in search of a cause so he acts up like a surly teenager crying out for attention. He’s not wrong about his conniving family though. They hide behind a veneer of respectability while hatching schemes or backstabbing each other. Surprisingly it’s Mama Li who gets him and her ministrations work wonders. And honestly I like their relationship more than his relationship with his shrewish bride. She has raised six plus one children almost single-handedly so despite all the early hysteria, she’s actually the resident parenting expert.

Leshan, the fifth and youngest of the birth sisters, is positioned as the agent provocateur in that hypocritical society that’s hiding behind a veneer of respectability. She’s handpicked by the rebellious Yang Xian to be his blunt instrument of vengeance as she wreaks havoc in the circles he frequents. Home is the primary target of his spite. The Yangs are a mercantile family and their youngest daughter is a beloved consort to Emperor Renzong. Their wealth and privilege seem to be a curse. Therefore Leshan’s antics are the equivalent of stable flushing. A divided house cannot stand and there is something rotten putrefying in that household that threatens its seeming equanimity.

Nevertheless, the joke it seems to me goes too far. I realise that it is the purpose of comedy to transgress conventions but this one got a bit stale after the third or fourth act of terror by Leshan. In fact she’s little more than a caricature… of a harridan. Many are deserving of her slights but the line between retaliation and just bullying becomes blurred. The show on the other hand is at pains to point out that Leshan and Mrs Li’s influence on this husband is a positive one alternating between stick and carrot. Although on balance it’s more stick than carrot.

As a whole the lion’s share of character development goes to the main male characters. This more or less proves my original thesis that this is about how marriage is a vehicle for the maturation of men. Women need security and men need responsibility for marriage to work. In complementary fashion they bring new life into the world to propagate the values of society in order that their civilization can soar to greater heights.

Leshan’s over-the-top antics are a double-edged sword. Because it is highly unladylike, the show loses its credibility in the “historical” drama stakes. The Song dynasty vestments give the appearance of simpler times. In reality, the show is a modern drama with very modern sensibilities. The men adore their their wives and these women have far more freedom than what is believable. Even if they are portrayed to resemble 21st century “empowered” women, some of their antics go above and beyond the realm of believability.

I don’t conclude, however, that the show is saying that the gallery of women are paragons of perfection. Or that wives are always right. But often it seems dangerously close to implying that manipulating and threatening husbands have to be part of one’s bag of tricks. The messaging seems all over the shop. Being a clever spouse is one thing but manipulation and threats can’t be a long-term substitute for honest communication. In fact, it tends to erode trust and good will in the long run. Moreover the constant use of divorce as a threat to keep everyone including the audience on their toes reminds me too much of the frenetic douyin dramas. It is a ridiculously common feature and overused to the point of exhaustion.

Although I love Wang Xingyue as an actor, I think I lost my enthusiasm for Cai An’s push and pull with Kang Ning after the sixth or seventh episode. While the spotlight was on everybody else’s post-wedding blues, theirs was about whether they would ever don the red robes for each other. When they finally got together, and did things together in other people’s romances, I enjoyed their brief interactions as they shot each other loving looks or held hands. Yuanming/ Du Yangxi caught a lot of flack for the idiotic things he did in his arc with Shouhua but I ended up really liking him and that pairing. There was something likeable about the earnest outrage. And I am a sucker for men of letters. There’s no doubt that his rigid idealism got him into all kinds of trouble but I think he was good for Shouhua precisely because he has that whole forlorn puppy vibe going for him — a needy disposition that forces her out of her shell is just what the doctor ordered. The irony of him being the “first” brother-in-law is never lost on me.

Overall my favourite part of this show is the brothers-in-law alliance. I would pay good money to watch a spin-off where these men investigate crimes together, threaten suspects and beat up bad guys. Just them getting into good o’l fashion mischief would suffice. Episode 30 where the 4 brothers-in-law mete out punishment/initiate the wayward Yang Xian into the fold was a laugh and a half. How that was staged and executed was almost perfect.

I don’t doubt there’s plenty done for comedic effect which plays into perceptions about the messaging. It’s a show about marriage success but how that’s achieved, that’s where all my doubts come to the fore. At times I’m unsure if it’s farce I’m looking at or something package as wisdom for those who have tied the knot.

Despite all the problems of the final four episodes, I didn’t mind how it wrapped. Perhaps I was part of a big extended family once that it gave me the fuzzies. To see the entire clan gathered together in a rare moment of harmony was undoubtedly heartwarming. Frankly this should have been the default rather than the exception as it would have given the show the connective tissue it really needed in far too many places.