This review may contain spoilers
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! 😊👍
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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