A lighthearted rom-com that plays well into their cliches

This drama started off STRONG. Even though we have seen this premise in countless of other dramas, the performance from the cast left me craving for more.

I was scared that this drama would fall into the trap of other dramas by dragging out a lot of their tropes, but to my own surprise, none of them get dragged out. The story moves very fast-paced from one conflict to another or from one trope to another, which can be a good or bad thing (some parts did feel brushed aside just for the sake of moving things along).

For such a lighthearted drama, it never failed to make me feel happy and have an overall good time. I swear I would smile for 60 minutes straight every time I watched this drama. There are so many funny moments and jokes that you won't find in most other k-dramas. In many ways, I feel as if this is a modernization of cliche poor-rich rom-coms with the fast-paced nature and a more playful story (sacrificing character development and tear-jerking moments for more playful and comical moments).

While I do say this drama started off strong, it didn't end as strong as I had hoped. The ending felt simple which I do understand with the drama only having 12 episodes, but I felt yearning for more at the end.

Overall, a great drama that plays well into their cliches without dragging any tropes for longer than it needs be. A fun and light-hearted rom-com drama for anyone looking for a drama to relax to!

Lire davantage

Solid Show, great first half -> poor second half

Honestly, the show overall was a solid show. One of my favorite aspects of the drama is that the pacing was really satisfying to watch unfold. It never felt like it was too fast nor too slow and did a great job at keeping my entertained throughout. There's not many dramas that I feel like can nail pacing as this one can. In particular, the fast-paced violence in the first half of the drama was especially satisfying, particularly when the bullies received their comeuppance.

While the plot was strong in the first half of the drama, the second half was not as well-executed.

The first half of the story was perfect. The character dynamics, the progression, the overall story was great. Then in the second half of the story the main focus turns to Beom Seok as he shifts into the main antagonist role. Unfortunately, the reasoning behind his villainous turn felt underdeveloped. His jealousy of Young Yi because Soo Ho followed her back on Instagram, while he was not, seemed like a weak catalyst for his actions. I get it, Beom Seok is written as an insecure individual who seeks validation from others. But using 2/3 scenes of Beom Seok stalking Soo Ho's following instead of showing Soo Ho getting closer to Young Yi when they hang out, would have been an example of a more believable way of showcasing jealousy imo. The catalyst for his transformation into the villain of the second half of the drama felt farfetched and unconvincing.

Furthermore, the character development in the second half of the drama was too focused on Beom Seok, which made the rest of the cast feel underdeveloped and less interesting by comparison. During the entirety of the show we get maybe 2 to 3 scenes that gave a good glimpse at Shi Eun's past and maybe 1 line from Soo Ho mentioning his family. We aren't given any reasoning as to why Shi Eun finds comfort in studying at all, nor maybe why Soo Ho got into MMA in the first place or why he stopped. No. Instead we're given so many scenes that showcase the tragic life of Beom Seok's suffering from his assemblyman father. It felt like it was repeated so many times to garnish sympathy points for Beom Seok's actions, but that left the rest of the main cast feeling underdeveloped and uninteresting by that point (in relative comparison). Consequently, the drama lost the balance it had in the first half, and the screen time was not distributed well for the plot it was trying to execute. However, in terms of character depth, this drama did deliver with internally complex characters such as Shi Eun, Beom Seok and even Seok Dae.

I think my main gripe in terms of the characters department was that both of the main characters were given no love in the second half of the show and felt like everything catered to Beom Seok. Beom Seok was always a step ahead, had connections to stronger people, and in the end even got away scot-free. It's crazy how they spent half the drama developing Beom Seok, yet at the end I couldn't care less what happened to him. Overall, just felt like the screen time went towards the wrong things (in the second half).

The acting was spot on by every single cast member. I have nothing but praise for all their efforts and their portrayal of their characters.

Overall, the Weak Hero Class 1 showed promise, but the second half's focus on Beom Seok's development at the expense of the other characters left much to be desired. It is hoped that a second season (if produced) will balance the focus on all of the main characters, allowing the audience to gain a deeper insight into the characters' backgrounds and motivations.

Lire davantage

A well written series shining light on mental health

Tomorrow was a daring series that wasn't afraid to bring up tough topics that other dramas seem to stray away from. The whole series tackles the suicide crisis and dives into the mental health issues that cause people to contemplate suicide. With such a tricky concept and topic to navigate without misconstruing the difficulties that come with suicide and mental health, the series overall does a good job. Each episode comes with a nice message that goes along the lines that life is worth living through all the dark times.

The pacing of the show is simply a plot line for each episode. Each episode focuses on different victims that are about to attempt suicide and the grim reapers essentially have to get to the root cause and prevent the ultimate suicide. Each victim covers a different area of mental health issues (e.g., eating disorders, cyberbullying, etc). However, some episodes feel rushed and fail to cover the essence of the issue. For instance, for the episode pertaining to the person with the eating disorder, a majority of the episode was leading the viewer to think that the victim was one worker when it was actually a thinner worker. This illustrated that eating disorders would affect those you wouldn't think would have one, even if they are constantly praised and idolized for their slim body. I get that. But when you spent such a large portion of airtime on simply driving that plot device, the resolution of the episode was literally the grim reapers having a talk with her saying to love her body. Then she suddenly loves her body again. The whole thing feels rushed and feels like it doesn't serve those suffering with eating disorders justice. This is just one of the problems I had with the pacing.

Another issue I had was the 2-dimensional characters. The main 3/4 grim reapers are all given around one episode worth of backstory. Some of these backstories are full of depth and keeps me wanting to learn more from (Goo Ryun & Park Joong Gil) but unfortunately due to their ambitions of stuffing literal centuries worth of lore within an episode or two felt rushed and unsettled. Im Ryung Goo's backstory was fine but I feel like when it was shown, during the episode showed an immense change of character, but after his obligatory backstory episode everything went back to normal (except he stopped picking his nose ig). Lastly, Choi Joon Woong was a fun and bright character that brought a new and sensible approach to tackle these mental health issues. But again he lacks depth, and I was hoping that the finale would have showed the last victim as his mom or sister. Not because I want to see him suffer, rather I was hoping all that character development throughout the series would shine through when push comes to shove. I would've wanted to see how he would react to difficulties that hit close to home. That in my opinion would have been heart wrenching, seeing such a lighthearted character suffer like that. Overall, I can see that there was a lot of direction put into balancing regular episode arcs as well as main character arcs, but it felt like not enough was placed in the latter.

Overall, the series took a lot of confidence to tackle such a sensitive topic in such a time where mental health affects so many of us, so to that I applaud. In terms of plot, characters, and overall cohesiveness, do I think there are problems with it? Yea for sure. Do I wish some things were done differently? 100%. But it doesn't take away from the tremendous leap of faith and confidence to attempt to shine light on pressing issues impacting the whole world and destigmatize mental health.

Lire davantage