OceanBlue132

I'm being really honest,I didn’t expect much. Storywise,it didn’t bring anything new to the table. We've already seen plenty of these type of stories, rich mentally struggling boy with poor but strong girl, both falling in love,then starts all the drama,separation and then the time jump and reunion. Yeah,very known formula for an young love story.

Then what makes Never Ending Summer so special that made me binge the whole drama? I think its the main couple. Daniel Zhou and Bao Shangen. The creators of the magic in the show. These two young actors took the huge responsibility of making a simple story so memorable and they did it. They made something special. Never ending summer was indeed full with warmth,love and comfort. Hats off to these two, and whoever casted them together.

I must say about Daniel. I've seen him before,yes. But he never caught my eyes this way before. This boy portrayed every emotion of Lu Xixiao so good. His love was completely evident, you could feel it through screen.Even in his rebellious teen era,his presence was really comandable. His yearning,his sadness,his depression, his rage.... everything was heartfelt. Specially in that breakup scene where he starts to panic when he couldn’t find Zhou Wan... Thats one of the most memorable scenes in the whole drama. Is Lu Xixiao a green flag character? No. Not every male lead has to be greenflag. Lu Xixiao is grey and its okay. He is human. He has humanly emotions and he expresses it. But when he loved, he loved with his everything and nothing compares with that. He decided to be there for Wan and he was there. He fulfilled his promise. He never left,not for once.

And his best companion was the female lead without whom this journey is incomplete. Zhou Wan, a girl always struggling, suppressing her feelings,never letting anyone enter into her storm....did everything she could only to survive. In the midway she found love and even after lossing him she never lost herself. She also yearned for him,maybe not as expressly as him,but her actions always screams her love for him. She was a teenager when she had to take the most cruel decision of her life to leave him. And I think we can forgive her for that cause as teenagers,they struggled A LOT. And even adults couldn’t take any rational decisions in the whole story,why would we expect that from some teens to be always brave and do everything right? After everything she went through, she could only hope for the best for Lu Xixiao and she did what she thought would be best. Maybe it wasn’t the wisest decision,but again thats a devastated, struggling teen we're talking about. And she always proved before and after she actually loved him. She was'nt only talk and no action. She was always present in his story. And her struggles weren’t something you can brush off,as a teen she really pushed mountain. That's why when she screamed "I'm only 18, I can't pretend to be strong anymore", your heart breaks.

And they both together brought comfort to the show.Both as teens and adults,their presence together makes you smile. Lu Xixiao brought safety to her world and Zhou Wan brought calmness in his storm. And they togther built their world as a cozy,comfy,warm one with lots of sunshines and rainbows.

But yeah,the story of course had its lackings. I wasn’t satisfied the way they showed the reunion phase,it was extremely easy after all the emotional turmoil they went through,especially him. Maybe a little bit more push and pull would bring out more raw emotions. And that home eloping phase was too easy. Idk if its thats easy for teens in China to elope and stay in such comforting way for months without any money or suitable jobs. And they really should've added the wedding scenes. I mean...after two proposals,atleast a glimpse of wedding is the most expected thing and we were robbed.

Also,side characters werent that much memorable... I mean i was'nt even paying attention to them that much. The second couple was just meh,they could be completely avoided and I couldn’t care less. Evil people were evil throughout the whole show doing evil things,some changed,some didn’t. They weren’t anything special to remember.

The OST's were another plus point. I enjoyed every ost in this show. The dance scene was extremely adorable, I really hoped they would add another one in their wedding. Yeah,we were really robbed so badly.

This show,maybe not the best one,but a memorable one. Best of luck to them,would look forward to their future works.