Probably Should Have Seen This Coming

I'm a big fan of Yulin Kuang - been in awe for some time of how she blends the cute and funny to be short films that work. It took me a while to get to see this show, but I kept looking as I wanted to see what she did with a full season. Interesting to see that actually this has a lot in common with a previous (lower-budget) webseries she did called 'Kissing in the Rain'. That series was about romance against the backdrop of a creative process, but it didn't totally thread the needle of making things flow and build across the episodes, even if it was enjoyable and quite cute in any individual episode or moment. So too it was with this season of episodes based around the very good short film of the same name.

This show, on CW Seed, offered a bit of potential to expand, but I'm not entirely sure it showed Kuang doing that. It seemed to stick closely to what she does well, and on that front it worked and was enjoyable. It features good pop culture humour, a cute version of reality, cute characters, good direction, and strong songs. All of these worked well and enjoyed most episodes as they delivered their core and had other stuff around it that was decent. I'm not sure it felt like a development across the season though, and it remained on the superficial level (albeit one that worked well). I didn't feel closer to the characters by the end, but I did still enjoy their cute inoffensive company and their cool songs.

A second season followed, which I'm glad of, and will be interested to watch - but I do hope it can make the transition from the strengths of this season, into something that develops and grows as it plays.