Clockwise starting from the bottom right: An Di, Fan Sheng Mei, Qiu Ying Ying, Guan Ju Er, and Qu Xiao Xiao.
Ode To Joy (欢乐颂, Huan Le Song) is a Chinese drama based off a novel series by A Nai. Airing in 2016, it follows the stories of five women living in floor 22 of the Ode to Joy apartment complex in Shanghai.
An Di is a Wall Street businesswoman who recently moved to Shanghai to find her brother; Fan Sheng Mei is an HR executive who is currently pursuing rich men to marry; Qu Xiao Xiao is a young CEO who wishes to inherit her family business so it stays out of her brother's hands; Qiu Ying Ying is a young, impulsive worker wanting to make something of herself; and Guan Ju Er is a young, shy intern who struggles to keep up with work.
Currently there are two seasons, with a third one being planned.
Tropes:
- A Friend in Need: Pops up a lot after the girls develop.
- Blind Date:
- Sheng Mei frequently goes on blind dates with rich men.
- After Guan Guan expresses her worries with work to her parents, they set up a blind date without her knowledge, to her annoyance.
- Calling the Old Man Out:
- Fan Sheng Mei calls out her family for favoring her brother over her and constantly demanding her money without considering her needs.
- An Di calls out her father for abandoning her mother because of her mental health after she was born.
- Don't Split Us Up: An Di and her brother in a flashback sequence.
- Slut-Shaming: In the second season, Ying Ying's brief relationship with her manipulative manager in the first season comes back to haunt her when introducing her new boyfriend to her friends. Some good-natured teasing from Xiao Xiao towards Guan Ju Er over being the only virgin in the room inadvertently reveals that Ying Ying is not a virgin, which results in her boyfriend dumping her and his mother disparaging her character. However, everybody else considers this sort of attitude beyond old-fashioned and misogynistic.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Tan gives this to Wei Wei after finding out that he brought An Di's father to her workplace without telling her beforehand.
- True Companions: Floor 22 becomes this as the series goes on.
- Wham Episode:
- Season 1 Episode 38. An Di's past is fully revealed when she meets her father, she breaks up with Wei Wei afterwards, and it's the first time she is seriously shaken after TheReveal.
