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The side characters stole the show
Well, the side characters definitely stole the show for me. Even with limited screentime, Jin Bai Hui and Lin Ze Qiu were really cute and really heart-warming character development; they ended up as pretty much the only couple I cared about. I think the acting was the most convincing as well for both of them.
The second ship (Tang Ting Ting and Duan Qi Yan) weren’t horrible, but they really stagnated and it was frustrating that they were both still acting like kids in their 20s; I can’t really pinpoint where the progression from friends to lovers happened, particularly after the time jump.
The main romance unfortunately didn’t work for me at all. I know there was a lot of chatter about the ML being miscasted because he looked too old, but I feel like this wasn’t an issue of appearance but rather an acting problem — he didn’t play the part of a teenager convincingly. The acting was just really flat. The dialogue was delivered like he was reading off a teleprompter. And there were little to no expressions on his face regardless of what range of emotions the character was supposed to feel, which is unfortunate because his character supposedly goes through the angstiest arc out of everyone. In those very emotionally charged scenes it was the FL doing the heavy lifting. The second lead was also kind of a boring character, so I didn’t really care about the main romance at all.
Plot-wise, I feel like it wasn’t the strongest either. Some subplots were your typical school subplots, but after the time-jump we got a lot of mini arcs that had to do with new side characters that I didn’t really care for: the celebrity Tang Ting Ting was managing, or Lin Zhi Xia’s work rival. I understand that the characters are out of school but I think the plot became a lot more scattered once they were adults and the friend group feeling didn’t really come through during these conflicts.
The main separation also didn’t work for me. Separation is such a common drama trope but it’s one I REALLY need to be written well, otherwise I’ll just find it frustrating. Something like The First Frost and Lighter and Princess both had really intense reasons for the characters to split up, and it had the right amount of angst once they reconnected. I feel like this one sort of skimmed over it when it happened and then skimmed over it again when they reconnected — I’m just not that sure it was necessary at all.
Overall, I didn't really like this and I feel like it could’ve been much more if the ML was somebody else, but I suppose it was low-stakes and light-hearted for anyone looking for that. 4.5 feels a little too low of a rating honestly, but I think I liked it more when it was over than when I was watching it.
The second ship (Tang Ting Ting and Duan Qi Yan) weren’t horrible, but they really stagnated and it was frustrating that they were both still acting like kids in their 20s; I can’t really pinpoint where the progression from friends to lovers happened, particularly after the time jump.
The main romance unfortunately didn’t work for me at all. I know there was a lot of chatter about the ML being miscasted because he looked too old, but I feel like this wasn’t an issue of appearance but rather an acting problem — he didn’t play the part of a teenager convincingly. The acting was just really flat. The dialogue was delivered like he was reading off a teleprompter. And there were little to no expressions on his face regardless of what range of emotions the character was supposed to feel, which is unfortunate because his character supposedly goes through the angstiest arc out of everyone. In those very emotionally charged scenes it was the FL doing the heavy lifting. The second lead was also kind of a boring character, so I didn’t really care about the main romance at all.
Plot-wise, I feel like it wasn’t the strongest either. Some subplots were your typical school subplots, but after the time-jump we got a lot of mini arcs that had to do with new side characters that I didn’t really care for: the celebrity Tang Ting Ting was managing, or Lin Zhi Xia’s work rival. I understand that the characters are out of school but I think the plot became a lot more scattered once they were adults and the friend group feeling didn’t really come through during these conflicts.
The main separation also didn’t work for me. Separation is such a common drama trope but it’s one I REALLY need to be written well, otherwise I’ll just find it frustrating. Something like The First Frost and Lighter and Princess both had really intense reasons for the characters to split up, and it had the right amount of angst once they reconnected. I feel like this one sort of skimmed over it when it happened and then skimmed over it again when they reconnected — I’m just not that sure it was necessary at all.
Overall, I didn't really like this and I feel like it could’ve been much more if the ML was somebody else, but I suppose it was low-stakes and light-hearted for anyone looking for that. 4.5 feels a little too low of a rating honestly, but I think I liked it more when it was over than when I was watching it.
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