First Note of Love

I absolutely loved it!

The way this story made me feel was 100/100. 🥰💯. It was probably like a 8.5/10, but because how it made me feel I can't give it less than a 10.

My 17 year old cat passed away about a month before this started. He loved to watch all the dramas with me. He would either tuck himself snug by my stomach or he would be standing up straight by the corner of my bed while watching the show. He genuinely liked to watch my dramas with me. This was one of the first dramas I started watching again after... I felt everything deeper when I watched this. I wish he could have watched it with me and listened to the songs too. ❤️

I wish the epsiodes were longer and the story was written a bit better and more full. It got kind of messy at some points. They glossed over some things. Some things they didn't let permeate fully.
At times they went in a direction that didn't make sense, but overall, at the heart of it, the story is really great.
Dealing with many traumas. Losing someone close and having to deal with the after effects ontop of actue stage fright is almost impossible.

To me the theme is love is so powerful, it can help you move forward. I relate to this alot. I've had it happen to me before. Love is so powerful and healing.

The songs were amazing. If the story was developed a little bit more and they added more songs omg... perfect. I didn't expect the chemistry between the two main leads. I had my doubts, but again, it was amazing. Those two were really something. So much so, I wish they'd do more bls together. ❤️

I have a bit of a rant about something I've been seeing a lot more now that we are getting series with 2 or more languages in the same seires...
I personally love when they have multiple languages. Again, something I've personally experience so its not strange or unreal to me. It actually makes me excited. And its not like it doesn't make sense. They literally told us Orca was an exchange student. It was super cool to see Neil befriend him and bring him into his circle. It shows Neil's charater trait of being kind and friendly.
People can't interact with each other if they don't speak the same language? They explained what it was and they even still showed the difficulties of the language barrier. To me that is very realistic from personal experience.
I'm not sure why people hate on it so much. It's translated anyways. For most of us, it's not like you're not watching a show that you can understand without subtitles anyway. Adding another language is fine. It makes it more real, like they are interacting with other people other than in their comfort zone. It helps bridge us together globally. It surprises me that people who hate on multiple languages in a series are the same ones who looks for different languages to watch than their own.
End of rant.

Overall, it was an amazing experience and kept me counting down the hours to watch it. I really hope Charles and Michael work together again ❤️.

Thank you to everyone who worked hard on this series. The actors, the behind the scenes crew, the writers, and director. 👏 👏 👏

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And the music played them off..

Rule of thumb, if you're going to be making a series called First Note of Love.. maybe have more than one note of music and love?

This seriously needed way more music and romance than it had, because even though as a series about grief and moving forward this was actually pretty good, there was definitely more they were trying to bring to the story. And unfortunately, none of that actually came through.

There was just way too much going on for it to no real impact to the story, trying to stuff in grief, romance, music and all the technical aspects that go with it in twelve episodes will give you exactly something like this, half baked for the most part. Half of the story was about finding yourself again after going through something difficult (which again, was well done) and the other half was about producing music, booking a venue, recording the music.. and the romance was just randomly there.

The romance definitely had potential (both the couples) and the premise did too, but they really messed up the execution on so many fronts. Way too much technicality, way too many flashbacks and not enough scenes focusing on the music or the romance, which should have been the main focuses!

I don't know, they missed several beats when making this and bit off more than they could chew. If this had twelve, one hour episodes, I could see how all that they tried to include would make sense, but with around twenty five minutes for each episode? It's not feasible and it showed. Which was dissapointing, the way it just slowly tapered off until you just wanted the story to end because nothing new was happening. Too bad.

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Hooked from the start

I had been looking for a series with this specific trope for a while, so I dived in without looking up any reviews or spoilers and I fell in love with it.

From the very first episode, I was captivated. The music was so catchy along with the storyline. Needless to say, I've rewatched this series multiple times. I particularly liked how the main characters provided strength and support for each other.

Also, despite the language barrier, the second couple managed to build a successful relationship. I was pleasantly surprised to see a Thai actor in a Taiwanese series, which added an interesting dynamic.

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They played with my heartstrings along with their guitars.

This was such a roller coaster of a series with how it would bring the viewer up and down and all around. There was such a tragic undertone throughout (which was beautifully done) while they still managed to make me laugh at some of their antics. And then the last two episodes had me bawling my eyes out with how bittersweet it was.

I will start off by saying if you simply want a story about a washed up singer falling in love with his new music composer, this isn't for you. While this series does have that, it does not focus on their relationship under a magnifying glass of scrutiny. The viewer isn't expected to analyze what every action means as far as their feelings for each other. Actually, there's not a lot of guesswork at all in their relationship since the show is very straightforward with that aspect. (You mean they actually communicate and there are no plot points centered around misunderstandings and assumptions?! Is it even a BL, then?)

While the main leads get equal attention, I will say it feels like the show is mostly centered around Neil and his grieving process for his brother. He has not moved on from his brother's death and only the threat of losing the last thing he had of his brother (their music) kicked his ass into gear to do something about it. That snowballed into him finally finding the encouragement to move on and live his life instead of just existing.

With Sea, we get a little glimpse into his background - absent parents, growing up alone and clinging to the idol who was likely the only person to show him any interest in his young life. His lifeline in Magnet was yanked away with the crash and affected him deeply, which is what they finally bond over.

Anyone who has ever lost a close loved one could relate to the pain and suffering and feeling of being lost without direction that Neil is going through. He was a big child who had his brother looking out for him and then he wakes up one day to find his brother is gone. Even for someone who hasn't experienced it, the way Charles portrayed it was gut-wrenching. He seriously acted his tush off for this role and I think it paid off.

The story was so well thought out and it progressed in a way that made sense. Yes, this meant it was a slow burn and yes it meant their romantic relationship was sometimes put on the back burner to simmer, but I feel like that made their coming together that much more satisfying. They each had obstacles to overcome and, while they were supportive of each other, they didn't rely on the other to fix their problems for them. They worked on themselves to improve and it was so refreshing to watch.

I like that there wasn't an abundance of side characters and that everyone who was introduced had a purpose. There was no real villain which was nice as the characters had enough inner demons to face without needing an external force to add to it.

If I had to say one thing that I wish were done differently, I wish they had more music (either as Magnet or as Neil and Sea) to play throughout the series. They kept playing the same 4 or 5 songs over and over and, while I get why they did it, it made things seem repetitive, even if they weren't. If you pay attention, you'll see there are storyline progressions with each time the play the same song, but to a casual watcher, it may be lost on them. Plus, I just really enjoyed the music so of course I wish there was more of it.

This was a very mature series without all the unnecessary NC filler. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy NC content and am a sucker for smut, but I feel like if they went any more detailed than they did, it would kill the vibe of the series and, honestly, it was perfect as it was.

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About love, music, grief, and moving on...

Okay, first, for anyone worried about the age gap of the main couple, don't be; they're not even in different decades, LOL. It's stated in the show that they're 20 and 27-- which is not only perfectly fine, but it's also the 20-year-old who makes a move first, and does think things through before letting things continue further.

As for the show's general ratings, I'm assuming a number of the lower ratings/reviews on here were from the people who had been watching this while it was airing, and I totally understand that, because if *I'd* been having to wait a whole week in between each of these episodes, I wouldn't have thought much had happened in them and wouldn't have appreciated that very much, either. 😅 *However,* if you happen to be watching this for the first time *after* it had already finished airing, like I did, and are thus able to watch the whole series all at once (well, technically in two separate sittings in my case, LOL), the pacing actually turned out just fine that way. 👍

I also rather liked the different-language use here due to the Thai friend character. I, too, can *understand* much more of my currently-being-studied secondary languages than I can easily *speak* at the moment, so how they were communicating (a mix of their own languages + what English they could + drawings, LOL) did make sense.

(Speaking of Thai characters... yes, okay, the couple of MosBank cameos were completely and utterly random and they didn't even attempt to invent an in-universe explanation for their presence, LOL, but whatever, it was amusing.)

Oh, and with music being such an integral part of the show, I can confirm that (IMO) all the music is quite excellent (despite the Thai guy's lip-syncing making it very obvious that he's not the singer of his character's solo song, LOL; but all the music itself is great! 👍).

Anyway, all that said: As I mentioned in the title of this review, this show is about love, music, grief, and moving on; nothing more. For example, you only get the smallest glimpses of the main songwriter character's family life-- there's no big traditional backstory reveals of why he never responds back to his mother and all that; that's just the way things are. It also doesn't have a typical big fairytale triumphal ending with a huge comeback show or even keeping the contract or anything like that, because that was never the point of what this story was about. It wasn't about any sort of big external success. It was about finally being able to move on from the paralyzing grief that the characters had been imprisoned in for 6 whole years. And once that was accomplished, they were finally free to let themselves do whatever they actually *wanted* to do-- so, they did. It just so happens that what they wanted was not what you usually get with the big typical ending; rather, instead, they just wanted a quiet one. And IMO that's just as beautiful.

(Speaking of the grief element: It's really interesting how grief and its aftereffects are such a huge part of the show, yet it never feels angsty at all, just... like the natural and persistent ache that it is. Despite Matt's physical absence-- all you see of him are characters' memories and home videos-- he always still has such a deep and abiding *presence* throughout the entire series for everyone involved, and it's not dramatized or overdone at all; it just feels so natural and real. And that final scene with him in Neil's mind was so heartwrenchingly beautiful that it had me tearing up like mad.)

TL;DR: This is a quieter-feeling show than you might expect, with a quieter ending, too. But IMO that's exactly what makes it special. If you're at all curious, please give this a try; I certainly didn't regret it! 😊👍

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This was just going to be a comment, but it got long...?

I thought it was cute, but I can't say I am puting this as one of my tops....

They needed tto put more into this, first off I get why Neil couldn't keep going after his brothers passing, but I don't see how he would have still been with Echo after 6 years of not doing anything. Why wait till he is willing to do a come backto say no we aren't going to keep him... Hello you already have this long way not wait a bit more now that he is willing? I just didn't get that at all... Oh another thing that was kinda out of the blue... Neil seeing Sea about to get hit but go over to help him, um why? If he is still so down and broken over his brother why bother helping some else? I'm not saying he shouldn't have, it's just weird that it happened the way they were making out how Neil was that just didn't really fit. Mayby I amm over thinking it I donno....

I also think there could of been more development in the relationships of both couples, Though I guess being only 30 mins each ep and only having 12 there wasn't all that much that could of happened, but it could of had a bit more, right? Though I don't get why Orca was even there, if you wanted a 2nd couple, you should have thought about a better way of having one, cos he was kind of point less in this series really...Not that I didn't like his character, just was weird him howing up out of the blue like that for no reason.

I did like the songs that were sung, especially the new one that Neil sang saying goodbye to this brother. I couldn't help but cry a bit. Sea was adorable and both of them togeher were just cute.

Ok I'm done now... I think.... 😂

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