Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Spring Fever’ On Prime Video, A K-Drama About A Teacher And A Student’s Intimidating Guardian Hitting It Off

Most Korean romcoms tend to have convoluted plots. But Spring Fever, a new K-drama on Prime Video, seems to make things more complicated than they need to be. Let’s just say that it tends to be a little too cute about its meet-cute. Read on to see what we mean.

SPRING FEVER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: In a dreamy vision, a woman writes on a chalkboard in a classroom, until another woman comes in and slaps her in the face.

The Gist: Yoon Bom (Lee Joo-bin) has been waking up from that dream for months. She used to teach in Seoul and was the life of the party, until something drove her from the city and her job. Now, in the small town of Sinsu, she’s taken a new job teaching ethics, and she’s decided to stay quiet and dress all in black. It’s to the point where her colleagues talk about her without even realizing she’s around.

Right before exams and parent-teacher conferences, the staff panics when they see Seon Jae-gyu (Ahn Bo-hyun), a large and intimidating figure with a massive dragon tattoo on his right arm, come in to school. He’s looking to find out why his nephew, Seon Han-gyeol (Cho Jun-young), got passed over for an award despite being a top student. He was told it was because Han-gyeol doesn’t have parents, but he proves that as the teen’s guardian, he’s been as much a parent as anyone else.

Bom wonders why people are so intimidated by Jae-gyu, and she gets tall tales about him leading a gang of thugs, digging possible graves, and lifting cars over his head. But after an encounter outside her rental one night, she gets some evidence that Jae-gyu isn’t exactly what he seems to be.

Still, when she plans a parent-teacher conference with him, she’s a bit intimidated by him. He seems to be fascinated by her, and he tells one of the people who works for him that she doesn’t seem to recognize him. Meanwhile, back in Seoul, a lawyer named Choi Yi-joon (Cha Seo-won) sues Jae-gyu, hoping to get the address of the guy who used to torment him when they were in high school together.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Spring Fever, based on a web novel of the same name, is pretty interchangeable with other Korean romcoms, like Surely Tomorrow.

Our Take: Most of the first episode of Spring Fever sets up the romance between Bom and Jae-gyu, but it holds a lot of information back. We have no real idea of why Bom not only decided to leave the city, but why she started her new job looking to blend into the woodwork. We also have no idea exactly what Jae-gyu does and why everyone finds him so intimidating.

What we do know about him is that he’s not a gangster, as we see when he brings his supposed gang to a lunch spot at the local market. He doesn’t even really have a tattooed right arm. We’re sure the other observations by Bom’s intimidated colleagues can be explained, as they seem to be exaggerated in the first place.

So the plot of this K-drama feels a bit convoluted. But the idea is that Jae-gyu is going to fall for Bom and help her come back to the outgoing woman she used to be. What Choi Yi-joon, the lawyer who used tio be bullied by Jae-gyu, has to do with this part of the story is anyone’s guess, as is the idea that Jae-gyu and Bom have met before. It sometimes seems to be a bit much, but perhaps things will get moving when their romance starts to blossom.

Performance Worth Watching: Lee Joo-bin does a good job of playing both sides of Yoon Bom, the “Story Slayer” from Seoul and the more-depressed version in Sinsu.

Sex And Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Jae-gyu and Bom stare at each other when Jae-gyu gets a little close while reviewing his nephew’s grades.

Sleeper Star: We are definitely interested in seeing where the story of Cha Seo-won’s character Choi Yi-joon, the lawyer suing Jae-gyu, goes.

Most Pilot-y Line: When Jae-gyu pounds on a wooden table in the teachers’ office, where one of his nephew’s teachers is cowardly hiding under, the table top splits down the middle. Is this man Hercules?

Our Call: SKIP IT. Spring Fever is just a bit too convoluted to hold our interest. Yes, almost all Korean romcoms are convoluted to some degree. That just tells you how complicated this show is.

How To Watch Spring Fever

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All 18- to 24-year-olds, regardless of student status, are eligible for a discounted Prime for Young Adults membership as well, with age verification. After a six-month free trial, you’ll pay 50% off the standard Prime monthly price of $14.99/month — just $7.49/month — for up to six years and get all the perks.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.