Endearing and fun

After all the angst and misery that Young Royals season 3 gave me, I really just wanted some fun and light-heartedness, and this drama HIT THE SPOT.

The main couple is, of course, the best part of the show. The chemistry is fantastic and this is a great example of how to write a healthy relationship that isn't boring. I loved seeing their relationship develop from "enemies" (with gigantic air quotes lol) to friends, and watching how they communicated and supported each other throughout. The side romances were also great and I never once felt like I wanted to skip any scenes.

I was also pleasantly surprised at how well the humor worked. There are a lot of comparisons with this and 2gether, but I found that drama's humor too over-the-top, making the drama feel low-stakes and nonsensical. On the other hand, this show's humor was well-timed and endearing, and most importantly it never interfered with the tone of the show. It was serious when it needed to be, touching and sad when it needed to be, and funny when it could be. It struck a great balance between touching on some serious topics like homophobia and discrimination, while also making sure we got the feel-good friendships and family scenes.

Overall, this was a great watch. I admit that not all the songs were my vibe, but I loved the ending song, Once Upon A Time. Whether or not you like the songs won't really affect how fun of a watch it is. Ultimately, it's not a life-changing drama, but it will, without a doubt, make your weekend better.

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Super cute, but then falls into common web drama traps

This was SO cute. I think there's very few actors that could take on the role of Aoki — who's sort of a bumbling, clumsy character that could'e easily become annoying — but the actor managed to make him so adorable, endearing, and a fantastic lead to follow.

I also really loved the side characters; it's nice that there's not really a villain in the drama at all, which makes it a lot more light-hearted and fun, and also allowed the show to discuss discrimination and internalized homophobia without making them really depressing and hopeless.

The premise itself surprisingly gets resolved pretty early, and it's more focused on the gradual development between the leads. I liked being able to see them hanging out without being "forced to," but my favorite part was actually still the beginning, where they were getting to know each other.

I was really pleasantly surprised with this drama...all the way until the last few episodes, where they started doing the "big climax cliche" that many shorter dramas do: the dreaded break-up + big realization + romantic reunion. It was probably the first moment in the drama that felt cliche, whereas previously the show had managed to make common tropes still seem fun and refreshing. I also think it just felt a little rushed to have it all at the end, though I don't think it's that out of the ordinary for a drama with this runtime.

Overall, it's fun and I liked it — it's a show that you don't have to think that much about.

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Exhilarating

I'm still filled with adrenaline after watching this. The first thing that stood out to me were the action scenes, which have extraordinary choreography.

Ultiamtely, I think the best part of this drama is, without a doubt, the main lead. There's an abundance of "stand up against your bullies" stories out there that feature main leads with physical prowess, or leads with some sort of superpower (lol), but very rarely do you get a lead who counters physical attacks with intelligence and attitude. His archetype is just so intriguing, and Jihoon's acting perfectly encapsulates every step of his arc.

The other acting standout is of course Choi Hyunwook as Suho, who brought all the charisma and humor that the show needed. Bumseok was also really interesting as a character study. Maybe the one person who I felt was sort of random and out of place was the female character Young Yi, who throughout the show always felt more like a plot device.

There's so much to unpack here — I'm a bit torn between thinking the 8 episodes is just perfect because it made the pace lightning fast, and wanting just a few more episodes to show more of the trio and dive deeper into Bumseok's downward spiral, which ultimately still felt pretty sudden despite the backstory we got for him.

Overall, still, I think this is a fantastic watch that really did deserve all the high praise it got.

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An intense experience

At first glance this seems like your typical police thriller, but watching this gave me a much more intense experience.

First off, this drama isn't afraid to show violence and gore, which really made it all feel so immersive. Huge props to the prop department (pun intended) and to the makeup department. Every slice, every body part felt super REAL.

I'm also impressed with how this drama managed to humanize and provide depth to all its characters — main and side characters included. I have always loved Taiwanese dramas for their ability to extend stories beyond their characters, and this is no different; it's more subtle in this show, but there's social commentary and it makes every single character and case feel really heavy and important. It also shows that it's so much more than a simple detective drama; this show knows how intelligent its audience is.

I'm definitely looking forward to S2.

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Two great ships in one fantastic show

Look, I’m usually not someone who likes the one-night stand trope because I prefer the gradual development of feelings and two people getting to know each other. But omg. This was so good and we still managed to get that.

I really loved Jim and Wen and seeing how they started learning about each other’s lives and helping each other grow and make hard decisions, and that’s not even mentioning that the chemistry was off the charts both in terms of physical and emotional intimacy. They completely sold their characters, and it couldn’t have been done without the great second leads that were Alan and Gaipa.

Heart and Liming were also a fantastic second couple. As a foil to Jim/Wen, both of who were somewhat jaded about life and romance, we saw a much more innocent first love situation as two people started spending time together. The commentary on deafness and communication was really beautiful as well. They stole every scene they were in and between these two ships I found the show not having one boring moment.

It was actually so refreshing that there were no villains and no terrible misunderstandings between any of the couples. I was so impressed with how much JimWen and HeartLiming both communicated, and having the story focus on the theme of parenthood was also really powerful, between seeing Jim/Liming’s relationships, to seeing Liming’s mother return, and more.

I really do wish this was longer because the plot developments felt kind of thin sometimes when it came to Gaipa’s mother — who I didn’t really see enough of go get emotionally attached to — and also when it came to the chicken diner and the corporation that wanted to buy the land. Despite what we learned out about how the diner started, the place itself never really had “personality” after the first episode, if that makes sense, and I didn’t feel the high stakes of losing it.

Nevertheless, this is a comfort drama for sure and it just might’ve changed my mind about the “one-night stand” trope.

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Hilarious main romance, with some other blah stuff

As a rom-com, this is awesome; I love how chaotic both the characters are at the start and seeing how they went from that to gradually enjoying each other’s company.

As a more slice-of-life drama, this show hits the spot as well. The theme of motherhood is really powerful, especially seeing the “found family” aspect between the main female lead and Hae-e. I also loved seeing the different types of families and seeing how academic pressure played into familial expectations in different ways.

And then we get to the other genre: the mystery or thriller or whatever. This part of the show didn’t work for me at all. I don’t think the show was very good at switching between tones, so it was jarring to go from a rom-com scene to seeing a random murder, especially because it felt like show often forgot about its murder subplot; there would be few consequences for things that happened so the tone of the show never balanced itself out.

Other than that, I think there were almost too many threadlines sometimes, and the show sometimes dropped the ball on them, or there were smarter ways to tie storylines together that the drama didn’t think of. For example:
- When Hae-e wakes up, the entire murder plot is already over. It just makes everything feel pretty anticlimactic.
- Su-a, whose arc is about academic competition, should’ve played a much bigger role in the Sun-jae/Hae-e accidental cheating arc. Instead, she just disappeared during these episodes.
- Su-a, who started getting hallucinations about hurting Hae-e, could’ve also played a role after Hae-e’s accident, like not being sure if she’d been involved or not. Instead, her hallucinations just randomly stopped in the penultimate episode.
- Hae-e’s mom comes and causes a rift between Haeng-seon and Hae-e, which they never resolve through communication. Instead, Hae-e’s mom leaves of her own accord and the problem just goes away. I felt like this could've been a really good opportunity to highlight the motherhood theme again.

The second couple romance also feels really out-of-the-blue — it comes in halfway and by then ’d really much rather have the show focus on the familial relationship between him and Haeng-seon and Hae-e, because most of the time he seems to just be…there. There’s no chemistry or depth between him and his love interest, so I think the show should’ve either built up the plot more from the start, or not have done it at all.

Overall, I still had a fun time watching this. Even with the murder aspect, it feels generally low-stakes, and is a light-hearted watch.

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Stranger Things, but darker, grittier, and bloodier.

Ko Ja Yoon is a fascinating main character, and she makes the film intriguing despite the world-building being sort of thin and the plot being generally predictable. I think the most impressive thing is that nobody in this film is stupid. When strangers are creepy and weird, characters — both side and main ones — recognize it and act accordingly. It was refreshing.

In fact, I'm pretty impressed with the more down-to-earth elements of this film actually; the dynamic between KJY and her family and friends were really interesting, and I want to give a special shout-out to Go Minsi, who really sold her role as the spunky best friend.

On the other hand, while Kim Dami and Choi Wooshik have fantastic chemistry together — the fight scene between them is one of the best moments in the film — I feel like I didn't feel fully convinced by the main scientist or the other "powered" people. Going back to the thin world-building, I think the environment of the government facility, the motivations of the people in charge, and the backstory of other experimented people were just not altogether there.

Overall, it's still a quick, engaging watch and I can see why it got so popular.

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Mixed Feelings on Yuri

I was really excited to start this season knowing that there was a new character and an ensuing overarching plotline with them, and it was really cool to read the theories about how Nanno and Yuri each represented the different types of karma. After watching it, I still really liked the throughline, especially seeing more of Nanno's past and character development, but Yuri's character did not work well at all for me, even though I loved the episode about her backstory.

My main issue is that every single episode's arc seemed to come to a screeching halt every time Yuri stepped in. Nanno's actions actually almost always make sense, and the plot device of Yuri coming in to mess things up actually gets extremely tiring once its used for multiple episodes, one because Nanno's subplots don't seem to provide the same satisfaction, and two because Yuri honestly isn't charismatic enough for me to enjoy her random presence.

It's also so difficult to paint a clear picture of Yuri's personality and punishment method when she's only depicted as a fly in Nanno's orbit the entire time. I genuinely think we should've gotten an episode where we start seeing karma happen, then we find out the instigator is Yuri and not Nanno, and then we see the episode play out per her karmic methodology — this way we'd get a clearer idea of her worldview before she started officially clashing with Nanno, and her character would also be able to stand by herself more.

Overall, I still enjoyed this and I actually liked the topics it covered too — there's a lot less girl-on-girl hate in this one which was good to see. My favorite episodes are Pregnant, SOTUS, and maybe Yuri. When Season 3 drops, I will definitely still be tuning in, and I hope the newer characters are given more chances to shine without diminishing Nanno's impact.

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Didn't connect much to it

It was overall a pretty comforting watch overall, especially with the cooking theme. I loved that the sisterhood as well and seeing how each of them had a different dynamic with their father, but wish we saw more of it.

I'm honestly not sure if we got too much or too little of the romance subplots — I didn't see enough about it to really care about them, but I would have also preferred more family scenes. In general, I didn't connect to this film as much as I wanted — I really appreciated the father-daughter themes but felt more neutral about each of the romance plots.

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Good themes, okay ending

Suda Masaki's performance as Hiiragi Ibuki is by far the best part of this drama, and the mentor-mentee dynamic he had with every single one of his students was really great. I loved seeing how all the students went through a range of emotions as the drama progressed, from laughing at him at the start, to feeling betrayed, to finally starting to listen, trust, and look up to him.

The female lead is one of the students who definitely plays a larger role than her classmate counterparts, but still doesn't play a very active role throughout the show; with different episodes focusing on different students, sometimes she feels fully sidelined. Not a dealbreaker by any means, but it definitely feels like there's just one main character.

I think the individual themes in the show are really strong, especially when there is a main focus on a student for each lesson, but I'm personally not a huge fan of the final message, of the "killers" being internet bullies. While I understand the message of thinking before you type and not hiding behind a screen, I also feel like Mr. Hiiragi speaking to "the general public" not only doesn't have the same emotional impact, but also feels so broad that his perfect plan starts to feel a little leaky, especially when I think the same lesson of "think before you act" was already given earlier specifically to the class of students, and it worked better then.

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What is the message?

I came across a fan-made music video of the leads to Ellie Goulding's Still Falling For You and it convinced me to watch this drama for the longest time. I am sad to say that the FMV was far better than the actual drama.

The first thing I noticed was was the overall tone and style of acting. It was almost parody-like, and it felt like the acting was always dialed to 30% no matter how emotionally heavy the scene was supposed to be. I also had this issue with 2gether so I'm not sure if it's just a sign of the times, but the unconvincing acting made it so that none of the plot really felt emotional or high-stakes.

My biggest issue is probably with the social messaging, which turned out to be very self-contradictory.

So you have a main character who's only temporarily ugly because a procedure went wrong; this is actually a pretty good (and common) set-up for a previously shallow girl to realize there's more to life, but as the drama progressed the theme started getting muddled. There's a female character who's on the heavier side and the drama was filled with comments about her weight, but it was all played for laughs. Additionally, people would tell our FL that she just had to wait a year and then she would be pretty again, and as the drama went on, this did prove to be true and very quickly the drama changed from "women shouldn't let shallow judgements bring them down" to "women should appreciate men who like them when they're ugly, even when they become pretty again."

I felt a similar issue with the way the male lead's plot went — after so much character exploration around why he had to work so much and be so frugal and how it impacted his previous relationship, it would've been extremely interesting to see how his relationship with the FL would be different, considering that once again there would be a wealth gap. Instead, the drama went the easy route and made it so that he was secretly rich and there would be no family disapproval or long-term insecurity.

As a result, it felt like the drama focused instead on how they it was important for everyone to be ugly/poor (or pretend to be) at some point in their lives to test who really cared about them. The drama didn't explore the lives of anyone who actually was unattractive or unwealthy, and would never be able to change it.

I also just have a huge issue with how they destroyed the ML's character in the last few episodes. I liked his playfulness at the start; it was fun, albeit a little over-the-top sometimes, but playful MLs are my favorite archetype and I liked the he was genuinely nice. Once the female lead rejected him, however, he turned into a very typical Nice Guy™, slut-shaming her by saying her clothes were too revealing and she just wanted men's attention like all other shallow women, calling her a gold-digger who didn't like him because he was poor, and being stupid for not appreciating him for liking her when she was at her lowest. It made me not root for him at all and it really is the reason for my dropping my rating so much.

Despite all that, I still really think there is potential here and I wish the writing had taken itself more seriously to really reach that.

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Moments of silence

To nobody's surprise, my favorite scene is absolutely the reunion scene; it's also an amazing example of effective silence, because the film absolutely took its time and you could feel the characters' disbelief and nostalgia with every passing second. That was when the wave of emotions finally hit.

This is a warm movie (ironically) with a relatively simple plot. I don't know if it has to be as long as it was, especially since a lot of the screentime was given to the daughter and her boyfriend, who were cute but didn't really feel relevant compared to the mother-daughter relationship.

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A pretty little bow

Giving this a half-star higher than what I gave the original drama, simply because as a compilation of epilogue scenes, there was not nearly the same amount of frustration that the original gave me.

This was a good watch and I actually do think that it should've been included in the original, which had an ending that felt sort of abrupt. This wrapped everything up nicely. I was impressed with how the special even managed to address the side characters' stories. After this, it confirmed for me that my two favorite characters and favorite relationship was Sun Zeyi and and Shu Wen.

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