The adage ‘home is where the heart is’ isn’t just a proverb to turn to when emotionally lost, it’s about finding hope in something the heart understands when nothing else makes sense.

The Taiwanese drama Oh No, Here Comes Trouble embodies the need for hope and heart, from the main characters to the mysterious supporting storylines. Starring Tseng Jing Hua (Pu Yi Yong), Vivian Sung (Chen Chu Ying), and Peng Cian You (Cao Guang Yan), Oh No Here Comes Trouble is a supernatural mystery that takes calligraphy and brings it to life in a truly spectacular way.

There is a lot of power in words. Not only in the stories words build but in the direction words can take us. The world is as much about the words we speak and write as the steps we take. Oh No Here Comes Trouble takes that power and weaves it into a tapestry of tales while also dealing with grief and the forgotten.

While the drama mainly focuses on Pu Yi Yong, his sixth sense, and the power his hereditary calligraphy gives him, it also ties the grief and guilt he feels over losing his father and seeing his grandfather on the brink of death into a myriad of other stories about loss, fear, jealousy, and heartache.

Which brings me to the main reason for writing this review: the bromance.

While Oh No Here Comes Trouble delves into Pu Yi Yong’s relationship with both Chen Chu Ying and Cao Guang Yan, his evolving friendship with Cai Guang Yan takes center stage in an incredibly enriching way.

What starts as an enemy at a distance classmate’s story transforms into an intimate understanding. While there is no romance between Pu Yi Yong and Cao Guang Yan, there is a heart-fluttering faith in each other despite their bickering, a faith that teeters dangerously close to being something more. Pu Yi Yong helps Cao Guang Yan bend, to live life without the constant need to plan it. Cao Guang Yan offers Pu Yi Yong a safe place to be himself. They balance each other, and that makes it hard to imagine them apart.

Viewers are initially offered a glimpse into who Pu Yi Yong and Cao Guang Yan are apart, from Guang Yan’s quiet scholastic nature to Yi Yong’s extroverted devil-may-care attitude, before being thrown into how great they are together. Although Pu Yi Yong has two close friends from high school, his relationship with Cao Guang Yan feels fundamentally more profound. There’s a tacit understanding of each other that goes beyond the relationships they have with others, including an astute awareness, especially on Guang Yan’s part. This is humorously pointed out in several misunderstood love confession scenes.

Although the series also hints at a possible romance between Pu Yi Yong and police officer Chen Chu Ying, their relationship is more of a bolstering mentorship where two people, often seen as failures, help each other understand their importance. While this can be an important foundation for a growing romance, I found myself more drawn to the romantic possibility of Chen Chu Ying and violent crimes officer Cui Zhao Wan (Hou Yan Xi). There is an inexplicable chemistry between the two officers that begs to be explored.

Overall, Oh No Here Comes Trouble isn’t a romance, it’s a healing journey through a fantastical series of mystery stories made possible by a hereditary ability that defies logic. It takes a look at society and society’s inner struggle with emotions we can’t let go of. Loss. Loneliness. Envy. Fear. Emotions that become so big, so all-encompassing, that they take on a life of their own. And Pu Yi Yong’s calligraphy becomes the defining moment when those emotions face us, when their life-like presence in our lives becomes something we have to put a face and name to before we can let it go.

That’s the true power of Oh No Here Comes Trouble.

And yet, beneath the turmoil and healing, there simmers the potential for relationships, for burgeoning romances that could captivate viewers if explored, romances with as many possible pairings as mysteries, from Pu Yi Yong and Cao Guang Yan to Pu Yi Yong and Chen Chu Ying to Chen Chu Ying and Cui Zhao Wan.

While I have a soft spot for the idea of Yi Yong with Guang Yan and Chu Ying with Zhao Wan, I am invested in this series (and a much-needed season 2) not for romance but for the relationships that have been so masterfully woven together. In only twelve episodes, the writers of this series took a needle, threaded it, and linked the world.

And it still reverberates long after the injured Pu Yi Yong opens his eyes to the haunting “Help me.”

For a series that will leave you as thoughtful as it does hopeful, check out Oh No Here Comes Trouble now on iQiyi.

Rating- 4.5 out of 5

Krishna’s Sidenote-

☆ Oh No Here Comes Trouble stars Tseng Jing Hua and Peng Cian You were featured on the cover of Marie Claire (Taiwan)