This review may contain spoilers
A Seemingly Unfinished Story
I was hoping my first review was going to be positive, but unfortunately, that won't be the case. Nobody loves love more than I do. I spend half of my time thinking about which drama to watch next on my list, and I spend the other half of my time watching it. I'm not well versed in C-Dramas, but with The First Frost being the most recent C-Drama I had the pleasure of watching, I fear my expectations were set significantly too high.As episode 23 began to wrap up and the outro begins to play. I grabbed my remote looking for a "Next Episode" button that never came. This feeling of disappointment began to wash over me like water being thrown on a cozy campfire. Even if we disregard that weak proposal (The speech was great, everything else was not) preceded by a time jump with no context, all of the subplot's felt like there was absolutely zero payoff. You're going to try to convince me that the Qualifier was the big payoff when the Olympics are being dangled in front of us like a carrot tied to a stick?
Lao Yan and Jiang Nan Feng? Dai Duo and Shan Shan? Wei Zhi's Parents? None of the "endings" to any of these plots we were given felt anywhere near satisfactory. I haven't needed closure this badly since my last relationship ended.
I don't have much to say about the acting, because it didn't feel like there was much of it. Esther Yu carried this project on her back and did an absolutely wonderful job with her role. Was Wei Zhi sometimes cringy and mildy annoying? Sure, but that was her character. She managed to give us a powerful performance and she felt like one of the only two bright spots in an otherwise mediocre project.
The other bright spot that left me longing for more and deserved recognition was Zeng You Zhen's performance with Shan Shan. She was able to hit those emotional High's and Low's wonderfully, leaving me with tears of sympathy in my eyes more than once.
Random Disconnected thoughts:
This was a freshly baked, still warm chocolate chip cookie that ended up being oatmeal raisin.
Watch it, but discard any expectations you might have before going into it. There are plenty of VERY cute moments.
This was reminiscent of the Kdrama Eve for me, in that I really enjoyed myself until the last episode.
Final Score: A reluctant 6/10.
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