Cortanaherondale

I enjoyed it, it’s entertaining, it’s easy to watch, and I do think it’s worth watching — but I also think it’s slightly overhyped. It doesn’t necessarily bring anything new to the table. There are a lot of classic office-romance tropes we’ve seen before. What makes it stand out, though, is the relationship itself and just how painfully realistic it is.

This is NOT a green-flag romance where two perfect people meet, fall in love, communicate beautifully and live happily ever after. Absolutely not. These two are stubborn, complicated, insecure, selfish at times, terrible at communicating, and honestly just screwed up. And I actually praise the drama for that because their relationship felt like one of the more realistic relationships I’ve seen in a drama. Relationships like this exist. They’re messy, unhealthy in certain ways, but also filled with genuine feelings.

I kept seeing people trying to decide who was at fault and especially putting everything on the male lead and calling him the red flag, but I really don’t agree. Both of them were at fault. If anything, I sometimes found her to be the bigger grey flag.

Yes, he had his issues, but he genuinely loved her. He wasn’t ashamed of her. He was willing to introduce her to his friends, include her in his life, take her out, and be seen with her. She was the one constantly hiding him. Even her best friend didn’t know about him. After SIX YEARS, he basically still felt like her secret hookup.

And that’s another thing — sometimes they really didn’t give me the vibes of two people who had been together for six years.

Their biggest enemy wasn’t even another person. It was COMMUNICATION.

The amount of problems that could’ve been solved if these two had just sat down and TALKED was insane. They kept lying, hiding things, suppressing their feelings, assuming things about each other and not trusting each other. It became exhausting. Literally one episode suffering, one episode happy, then back to suffering again. The chemistry was absolutely there, but the constant push-and-pull eventually started draining me.

At the same time, that’s exactly why I can’t completely criticize the relationship. It was frustrating because it was realistic. The drama didn’t whitewash either character or try to pretend that love magically makes people emotionally healthy.

Now… Jing Boran.

Let’s be serious. He is largely one of the reasons this drama became as popular as it did. His presence, styling, hair, charisma — the man was RADIATING aura. Some of those outfits were absolutely ridiculous for an office, but he looked fantastic. He ATE this role.

I already loved him before this drama, so I wasn’t necessarily shocked by his charm because I expected him to be good in this kind of romance. I actually think people discovering him through this drama probably had a much bigger WOW reaction than I did. At times, I even felt like I was watching Jing Boran rather than Luke because so much of his own charm came through.

But chapeau bas to that breakup yearning scene. My God. When he cried over their breakup??? GOLD. The heartbreak, the yearning, the acting — absolutely beautiful. Our yearning man DELIVERED.

Song Chan also did a really good job, especially during the earlier part of the drama. She suited that shy, obedient, somewhat broken version of the character incredibly well. Once her character became stronger and started standing on her own feet, I personally didn’t think her performance was quite on par with his anymore, but I still really enjoyed watching her character grow.

Outside of the romance, the storyline itself is nice. The cinematography is beautiful, the OST is amazing, there are some genuinely beautiful quotes throughout, and their scenes together are very well made. It wasn’t addictive for me, but I was never really bored either.

One thing I REALLY didn’t expect to affect me was the flatmate’s death.

I wasn’t even particularly attached to his character, yet his story absolutely broke me. The more I thought about it, the more emotional I became. It carried such a painful message about life, and I really wish the drama had used his death more strongly as a turning point for her. I don’t think they invested enough in the aftermath considering how meaningful that moment could’ve been. Still, it was one of the most unexpectedly heartbreaking parts of the drama for me.

My biggest disappointment, however, is definitely the ending.

The last four episodes were way too rushed. You can really feel that things were cut because so many scenes end before they have room to breathe. After spending SO much time watching these two suffer, misunderstand each other, break apart, push and pull and go around in circles, I desperately wanted more time with them finally getting together and learning how to have an actual healthy relationship.

We barely got that payoff.

I wanted to see them TALK. I wanted to see how they function once they’re finally honest with each other. I wanted to actually enjoy them being together after spending an entire drama being exhausted by them. Instead, everything happened so quickly that the ending left me feeling strangely empty.

Overall, The Early Spring is enjoyable and worth watching, but I wouldn’t personally call it something groundbreaking. Its strength isn’t that it gives us a new story; it’s that it gives us an unusually messy and realistic relationship without trying to make either person perfect.

It’s frustrating. It’s entertaining. It’s romantic. It’s exhausting. Sometimes you want to lock these two in a room and force them to communicate.

But maybe that’s exactly why it worked.