Yay for reading, and great to hear it grabbed you right away! I'm 100% with you relying on the readalong to keep me on track. :)

At the start of the drama, Guo Changcheng is also portrayed pretty much as a joke - but that changes as the story develops and we see more of him, and he grows. I can't compare very well because I remember so little of the novel, but in the drama, he already has moments in the second episode where he started winning me over.

And no need to do any kind of literary critique, you can just talk about what you enjoyed (or didn't enjoy)!