Something was missing...but damn Zhou Yi Ran was superb
This was one of those dramas where I kept wanting to love it more than I actually did. Zhou Yi Ran is an actor that I'm very excited about because he feels like a true performer, and this is my first impression of Sabrina but she looked so nice from the promos that I really wanted to give this drama a fair shot.
However… Like I didn’t hate it. I actually think it’s decent. But by the end I was left sitting there feeling like something important was missing and I still can’t fully pinpoint what it was. The vibes were there, the actors were definitely trying, the emotional beats occasionally HIT… but the overall show felt strangely hollow. I think a huge part of that comes down to the fact that the drama never really figured out what it wanted to be.
The high school portion was genuinely my favorite part by far. The friendship dynamics, the found family aspect, the quieter emotional moments all felt warm and grounded in a way that made me really attached to the characters. There was this comforting slice of life energy to it that worked SO well. Then the university timeline starts and suddenly it feels like I accidentally clicked on a different drama.
The found family aspect gets pushed aside, the tone shifts, and Shen Juan’s storyline takes such a sharp turn into sports that the show almost starts feeling sports focused instead of coming of age. Which would’ve been fine… if it felt cohesive. When you think about it Shen Juan is a physics major, a silver goods craftsman and a genius sharpshooter all by the age of 18? Like my dude was out here collecting skill sets like Pokemon cards. And yes, there was technically some setup for the sharpshooting thing earlier on, but not enough for how heavily it later shaped his character arc. There were just too many ideas competing for attention.
That being said, Zhou Yi Ran absolutely carried a huge chunk of this show emotionally. He’s genuinely such a compelling actor to watch, especially in quieter emotional scenes. I think his performance made me connect to Shen Juan far more than I normally would have on paper.
Same goes for Sabrina Zhuang. I thought both leads did a really good job individually. Which is why it’s even more frustrating that the romance itself felt so underdeveloped.
Because here’s the thing, I did feel the chemistry early on. The tension was there in the way they looked at each other, the pauses, the emotional undercurrents… but there was almost zero payoff. They genuinely felt more like best friends or an old married couple who occasionally hold hands than two people who had just fallen in love. Their romantic scenes, if you could even call it that, had the flavour of a cardboard box.
And I cannot stress this enough: the lack of romance really hurt the show.
I’m not someone who needs constant fluff or forced romantic scenes every five minutes. In fact, I usually prefer when romance is woven naturally into the story instead of being used to distract from weak writing. But this drama desperately needed something. A little more intimacy, more vulnerability, more moments that actually established them as a romantic couple rather than occasionally holding hands and calling each other boyfriend-girlfriend. Like, if you removed exactly two kisses from this show, almost nothing about their relationship dynamic would change. That’s a problem.
I also found myself less invested in the side character storylines as the episodes went on. None of them were terrible, but they lacked impact, and the pacing started dragging because of it.
What did work for me was the family dynamics. The show actually did a pretty good job making the world feel grounded and emotionally believable. There’s a realism to the writing that I appreciated, especially in the quieter domestic moments. But overall, I really think the writers didn’t fully know what kind of drama they wanted to make. Was it a coming-of-age story? A romance? A sports drama? A healing youth drama? It keeps touching all of these things without ever fully committing to one. They actually could have written a story that dove into all of these but this show wasn't it, which is frustrating because there’s clearly a good drama somewhere in here.
I don't know, it was just very meh.
However… Like I didn’t hate it. I actually think it’s decent. But by the end I was left sitting there feeling like something important was missing and I still can’t fully pinpoint what it was. The vibes were there, the actors were definitely trying, the emotional beats occasionally HIT… but the overall show felt strangely hollow. I think a huge part of that comes down to the fact that the drama never really figured out what it wanted to be.
The high school portion was genuinely my favorite part by far. The friendship dynamics, the found family aspect, the quieter emotional moments all felt warm and grounded in a way that made me really attached to the characters. There was this comforting slice of life energy to it that worked SO well. Then the university timeline starts and suddenly it feels like I accidentally clicked on a different drama.
The found family aspect gets pushed aside, the tone shifts, and Shen Juan’s storyline takes such a sharp turn into sports that the show almost starts feeling sports focused instead of coming of age. Which would’ve been fine… if it felt cohesive. When you think about it Shen Juan is a physics major, a silver goods craftsman and a genius sharpshooter all by the age of 18? Like my dude was out here collecting skill sets like Pokemon cards. And yes, there was technically some setup for the sharpshooting thing earlier on, but not enough for how heavily it later shaped his character arc. There were just too many ideas competing for attention.
That being said, Zhou Yi Ran absolutely carried a huge chunk of this show emotionally. He’s genuinely such a compelling actor to watch, especially in quieter emotional scenes. I think his performance made me connect to Shen Juan far more than I normally would have on paper.
Same goes for Sabrina Zhuang. I thought both leads did a really good job individually. Which is why it’s even more frustrating that the romance itself felt so underdeveloped.
Because here’s the thing, I did feel the chemistry early on. The tension was there in the way they looked at each other, the pauses, the emotional undercurrents… but there was almost zero payoff. They genuinely felt more like best friends or an old married couple who occasionally hold hands than two people who had just fallen in love. Their romantic scenes, if you could even call it that, had the flavour of a cardboard box.
And I cannot stress this enough: the lack of romance really hurt the show.
I’m not someone who needs constant fluff or forced romantic scenes every five minutes. In fact, I usually prefer when romance is woven naturally into the story instead of being used to distract from weak writing. But this drama desperately needed something. A little more intimacy, more vulnerability, more moments that actually established them as a romantic couple rather than occasionally holding hands and calling each other boyfriend-girlfriend. Like, if you removed exactly two kisses from this show, almost nothing about their relationship dynamic would change. That’s a problem.
I also found myself less invested in the side character storylines as the episodes went on. None of them were terrible, but they lacked impact, and the pacing started dragging because of it.
What did work for me was the family dynamics. The show actually did a pretty good job making the world feel grounded and emotionally believable. There’s a realism to the writing that I appreciated, especially in the quieter domestic moments. But overall, I really think the writers didn’t fully know what kind of drama they wanted to make. Was it a coming-of-age story? A romance? A sports drama? A healing youth drama? It keeps touching all of these things without ever fully committing to one. They actually could have written a story that dove into all of these but this show wasn't it, which is frustrating because there’s clearly a good drama somewhere in here.
I don't know, it was just very meh.
Was this review helpful to you?
