7 Days Before Valentine (2023)

Deserves More Love!

Week after week, I would check the rating here on MDL to see if other people were seeing what I was seeing, yet the rating remains consistently poor. If you've come down to the review section out of curiosity, please don't let the low average rating scare you away! This is a beautiful show that gets better the more you engage with it as a viewer.

I think the thing that might be throwing many people is actually the thing I also like most: namely, that this series is more like a stage play than a TV show. There are a limited number of sets, a relatively small cast of characters, and high dialogue to action ratio. This ties in with the main character's profession as a play actor and also serves in a metacontextual way of engaging with the act of storytelling in a rather novel way. Not only does this show have a main plot and a few subplots, but everything about it is also a love letter to the very notion of storytelling itself. Characters serve as stand-ins for the audience, the chorus, and even the storyteller in turns. It's a fun device that really adds to the depth of each and every shot, line of dialogue, and character choice made along the way.

I also have to applaud the way that this show handles religion and spirituality and the supernatural. It's also a deep dive into grief and loss. Honestly, there's so much to this show! Also, Jared is adorable and it's worth watching for each of his appearances onscreen alone.

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theatrical series that needed tighter pacing especially in the beginning-middle

Overall: although I liked the unique premise, it felt like the director or writer was also the editor and couldn't bear to remove/edit down any of the scenes that they filmed. 12 episodes about 45 minutes each. Aired on WeTV.

Content Warnings: deaths off screen, suicide, self-harm, manipulation, mental health struggles, grief

What I Liked
- unique premise
- production value (lighting, felt very theatrical)
- styling choices (especially that first scene)
- incorporating symbolism/metaphors
- discussion social justice issues such as same sex marriage
- in episode 4 they argued realistically by talking over one another
- bathtub scenes
- they ended the series 7 days before Valentine's Day

Room For Improvement
- a ton narration i.e. telling vs showing, the pacing felt very slow even watching at a faster speed, this story would have done much better as 6-8 episodes, this slow pacing (and it airing over 12 weeks) actually made my point below worse
- Sunshine started as unlikable which is okay, but the audience needed to see character growth before the last minute, finally in episode 8 he seemed to have a little character growth but then his wish undid it, then we saw a little more but by then it felt too little too late
- the mystery/world building wasn't engaging, it was confusing (I think there was a lot of symbolism/metaphors that I didn't grasp), they needed to explain things just a little bit more/more clearly

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