This review may contain spoilers
Straight to my favourites, but I do feel unsatisfied
This series took me by surprise, because I really did not expect anything much when I started watching it, but quickly found myself looking forward impatiently to another new episode each week.
The writing, directing, even acting (which is not always the case for me in a lot of current Japanese dramas) was good. I loved the nuanced approach to human emotions and relationships. Two main protagonists had great chemistry pretty much from the start (even during the "friendly coworkers" and "unromantic panpals" phase), so I had no problem believing they'd fall for each other. Contrary to some opinions, the topic of cheating was not romanticised, nor any of the four main characters was villainized. If anything, in some cases they were given more grace than deserved.
"When it rains in pours" is a great example of how a minimalist approach to a storytelling can bear amazing results. The pacing is rather slow, minus the final episode (more about that later), and majority of storytelling is executed by simple conversations that feel very every-day-like, quiet scenes with little to no talking and visual symbolism. Yet it manages to convey a multitude of emotions and dynamics, from supressed desire and disappointment, to avoidance of confrontation, to toxicity within relationship and psychological abuse. At some point I stopped thinking of this drama as a BL show, and just watched on as a case study in psychology (I intend to rewatch it and overanalyse the hell out of it XD)
If anything was underwhelming about "When it rains it pours", it was the final episode. I can't really say I hated it, but it left me unsatisfied. On the one hand, I felt like I was watching an epilogue, as most of the tension and momentum was gone. On the other hand, it still felt rushed, especially regarding revealing Fujisawa's background story. I felt like his character especially would've benefited from one more episode and more gradual reveal. But that's just me.
All in all, however, this was a very good drama, with surprising degree of maturity and nuance.
Also, I have a thing for stories that make use of framing in storytelling, mirror beginnings in the end and give you a feeling of a complete narration. Thus, I absolutely loved how at the end of the final episode it was Sei who brought the umbrella to Hagiwara and their little conversation about exchanging emails.
The writing, directing, even acting (which is not always the case for me in a lot of current Japanese dramas) was good. I loved the nuanced approach to human emotions and relationships. Two main protagonists had great chemistry pretty much from the start (even during the "friendly coworkers" and "unromantic panpals" phase), so I had no problem believing they'd fall for each other. Contrary to some opinions, the topic of cheating was not romanticised, nor any of the four main characters was villainized. If anything, in some cases they were given more grace than deserved.
"When it rains in pours" is a great example of how a minimalist approach to a storytelling can bear amazing results. The pacing is rather slow, minus the final episode (more about that later), and majority of storytelling is executed by simple conversations that feel very every-day-like, quiet scenes with little to no talking and visual symbolism. Yet it manages to convey a multitude of emotions and dynamics, from supressed desire and disappointment, to avoidance of confrontation, to toxicity within relationship and psychological abuse. At some point I stopped thinking of this drama as a BL show, and just watched on as a case study in psychology (I intend to rewatch it and overanalyse the hell out of it XD)
If anything was underwhelming about "When it rains it pours", it was the final episode. I can't really say I hated it, but it left me unsatisfied. On the one hand, I felt like I was watching an epilogue, as most of the tension and momentum was gone. On the other hand, it still felt rushed, especially regarding revealing Fujisawa's background story. I felt like his character especially would've benefited from one more episode and more gradual reveal. But that's just me.
All in all, however, this was a very good drama, with surprising degree of maturity and nuance.
Also, I have a thing for stories that make use of framing in storytelling, mirror beginnings in the end and give you a feeling of a complete narration. Thus, I absolutely loved how at the end of the final episode it was Sei who brought the umbrella to Hagiwara and their little conversation about exchanging emails.
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