This review may contain spoilers
A pleasant surprise
I got to know this drama through TikTok and was pleasantly surprised. Initially, I expected the drama to be this melodramatic romance between a rich girl and a poor man who got tough in life and ended up a firefighter. But the story ran so much deeper.
We get to know our main characters through scenes in the present and flashbacks to what happened 10 uears earlier. Our female lead is back from studies abroad and has started her career as a doctor in one of the city's bigger hospitals. She's stationed at the hospital's emergency room when she comes into contact with our male lead, a captain of the Shili Tai firefighter squad and her ex-boyfriend. 10 years ago she broke up with him because her parents didn't approve of his background. We don't get all of the details right away but there's a subtle hint of a horrible break-up and a depressing past.
I thought that would be it. 40 episodes of melodramatic back and forth between the main characters but I was proven wrong. It was everything but what I expected. It became the story of the Shili Tai firefighter squad and their bromance. I was moved deeply by their day-to-day struggle to keep the city safe from fire and other kinds of hazards, but also each other. I wished the squad had even more screentime than it did. The dynamic of the boys is what kept me going because, to be honest, the main characters didn't do much for me. Our male main, Song Yan, only pulled me in when he was part of the squad. I loved watching those scenes. They were action-packed and intense.
Which can't be said for the storyline involving the Meng family. I tried to keep up with them but mostly found them to be boring, even our female lead. She was so depressing in the beginning. Thankfully she became more interesting as she grew and learned. Her brother on the other hand... In the last couple of episodes I did skip most of his story. He was even more depressing and I didn't feel like connecting with him or his maybe-girlfriend. I wanted to know more about the firefighters. Too bad they cut out most of the squad to give more screentime to the Meng's in the last half of the series.
Positives:
- I feel like they took the time and care to represent actual firefighters and how their day-to-day life is. Ofcourse it's dramatised because of the show, but it felt very authentic.
- Initially, I truly disliked the female lead but she grew on me. She came across as this self-centered, emotionless weirdo but she IS a self-centered, emotionless weirdo and doesn't argue otherwise but she's willing to learn and becomes alive around Song Yan.
- The firefighter squad. I LOVED the bromance and the brother-in-arms vibe they had going on.
- They showed a stark contrasts between rich and middle-class within a city and showed us an 'abusive' home without violence. Just pure suppression and the way it can drive someone insane.
- The way they used the flashbacks to fill in certain blanks in the present storyline. We get to see how Song Yan and Xu Qin (female lead) first meet, how they get together, their relationship before the break-up and the actual break-up. But they show us when we need that bit of information or when it's important for the viewers to know. I kept wanting to know what happened with Song Yan and why he was being so secretive. I liked how they kept up the tension like that. I didn't expect to finish the drama at first but I found myself binge watching it throughout the weekend.
Negatives:
- Some plotlines became a little too much. Like how the firefighter squad got blown up almost three times in a row. Some might say they would have learned from the first explosion but nope. Just dash into it, head-on and hope for the best again.
- The whole brother storyline... The series could've done it without him. I wished they had focused on the firefighters more. Used one of them for a second lead couple but they quickly became third-fourth and fifth lead couples, never getting any real screentime.
- I still don't understand why our main lead had one goal throughout his entire life and worked his butt off to achieve that goal only to be very hostile to someone who was part of that goal. Why the attitude, sir?
- The use of 'convenient plot is convenient' trope a couple of times where Song Yan rushed to the hospital with the people he pulled from the hospital only to come eye-to-eye with Xu Qin (convenient plotting). Or having Xu Qin, a emergency room doctor, sit in an ambulance, which is conveniently going to the place where the firefighter squad is conveniently saving lives. The script forced the two of them together in such ridiculous convenient situations it became a little unreal.
- At times it felt like Xu Qin was the only doctor alive. Especially during the earthquake scenes. She was called in for a fallen firefighter and had to apply emergency care in the danger zone but during her caregiving, which was very emotional I must add, she was called away for something else. I mean... DUDE, SHE WAS BUSY WORKING ON SOMEONE and she ups and leaves too.
- Dare I say it? I found Yang Yang's acting a little stiff. I had only seen him once before in Who Rules the World and found him lacking there too. I was kind of hoping it was the way he portrayed his character in WRTW but he acted the same in this one. I don't think he's a bad actor but I don't see any emotional depth to his characters. Not yet, anyway.
Would I recommend? Yes. I truly came to love this drama more and more. It is an action-packed romance with a little bit of melodrama.
We get to know our main characters through scenes in the present and flashbacks to what happened 10 uears earlier. Our female lead is back from studies abroad and has started her career as a doctor in one of the city's bigger hospitals. She's stationed at the hospital's emergency room when she comes into contact with our male lead, a captain of the Shili Tai firefighter squad and her ex-boyfriend. 10 years ago she broke up with him because her parents didn't approve of his background. We don't get all of the details right away but there's a subtle hint of a horrible break-up and a depressing past.
I thought that would be it. 40 episodes of melodramatic back and forth between the main characters but I was proven wrong. It was everything but what I expected. It became the story of the Shili Tai firefighter squad and their bromance. I was moved deeply by their day-to-day struggle to keep the city safe from fire and other kinds of hazards, but also each other. I wished the squad had even more screentime than it did. The dynamic of the boys is what kept me going because, to be honest, the main characters didn't do much for me. Our male main, Song Yan, only pulled me in when he was part of the squad. I loved watching those scenes. They were action-packed and intense.
Which can't be said for the storyline involving the Meng family. I tried to keep up with them but mostly found them to be boring, even our female lead. She was so depressing in the beginning. Thankfully she became more interesting as she grew and learned. Her brother on the other hand... In the last couple of episodes I did skip most of his story. He was even more depressing and I didn't feel like connecting with him or his maybe-girlfriend. I wanted to know more about the firefighters. Too bad they cut out most of the squad to give more screentime to the Meng's in the last half of the series.
Positives:
- I feel like they took the time and care to represent actual firefighters and how their day-to-day life is. Ofcourse it's dramatised because of the show, but it felt very authentic.
- Initially, I truly disliked the female lead but she grew on me. She came across as this self-centered, emotionless weirdo but she IS a self-centered, emotionless weirdo and doesn't argue otherwise but she's willing to learn and becomes alive around Song Yan.
- The firefighter squad. I LOVED the bromance and the brother-in-arms vibe they had going on.
- They showed a stark contrasts between rich and middle-class within a city and showed us an 'abusive' home without violence. Just pure suppression and the way it can drive someone insane.
- The way they used the flashbacks to fill in certain blanks in the present storyline. We get to see how Song Yan and Xu Qin (female lead) first meet, how they get together, their relationship before the break-up and the actual break-up. But they show us when we need that bit of information or when it's important for the viewers to know. I kept wanting to know what happened with Song Yan and why he was being so secretive. I liked how they kept up the tension like that. I didn't expect to finish the drama at first but I found myself binge watching it throughout the weekend.
Negatives:
- Some plotlines became a little too much. Like how the firefighter squad got blown up almost three times in a row. Some might say they would have learned from the first explosion but nope. Just dash into it, head-on and hope for the best again.
- The whole brother storyline... The series could've done it without him. I wished they had focused on the firefighters more. Used one of them for a second lead couple but they quickly became third-fourth and fifth lead couples, never getting any real screentime.
- I still don't understand why our main lead had one goal throughout his entire life and worked his butt off to achieve that goal only to be very hostile to someone who was part of that goal. Why the attitude, sir?
- The use of 'convenient plot is convenient' trope a couple of times where Song Yan rushed to the hospital with the people he pulled from the hospital only to come eye-to-eye with Xu Qin (convenient plotting). Or having Xu Qin, a emergency room doctor, sit in an ambulance, which is conveniently going to the place where the firefighter squad is conveniently saving lives. The script forced the two of them together in such ridiculous convenient situations it became a little unreal.
- At times it felt like Xu Qin was the only doctor alive. Especially during the earthquake scenes. She was called in for a fallen firefighter and had to apply emergency care in the danger zone but during her caregiving, which was very emotional I must add, she was called away for something else. I mean... DUDE, SHE WAS BUSY WORKING ON SOMEONE and she ups and leaves too.
- Dare I say it? I found Yang Yang's acting a little stiff. I had only seen him once before in Who Rules the World and found him lacking there too. I was kind of hoping it was the way he portrayed his character in WRTW but he acted the same in this one. I don't think he's a bad actor but I don't see any emotional depth to his characters. Not yet, anyway.
Would I recommend? Yes. I truly came to love this drama more and more. It is an action-packed romance with a little bit of melodrama.
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