(Read the full review on my review blog, Re(mAAArk)able Reviews!) I can't say I was totally on board with the story immediately, but when the kids are put through their first competition where they have to rearrange Park Bom's "You and I," I found myself really rooting for these silly kids to get what they wanted. There are admittedly too many characters, which makes each of their plots hard to hold on to, but you still love them for their interactions with the handful of leads. The series starts with what appears to be a funeral and the song "Vois sur ton chemin" from Les Choristes, which gives What's Up a much darker atmosphere from the start than its idol counterpart Dream High. While most of DH's stuff is newly composed for the drama, What's Up borrows from just about everywhere, but most especially from, well, musicals. There's a lovely group singing of the Korean version of "Seasons of Love" from RENT that, whenever it comes up, makes me teary-eyed. And just about everybody gets a chance to sing in this show, even Im Joo Hwan, who I was not aware had a voice but nevertheless tries his damnedest. Park Tae Yi is a bit dim, but her earnestness and ease in being manipulated make for both cute and awful moments that really drive the story. Im Joo Hwan acts with her with this remarkable ease, and their chemistry was really lovely. There wasn't much of an overarching storyline through a lot of the episodes, which I think was another reason that I paused my watching about halfway through. When I did end up finishing it, I found that the last few episodes were a cohesive whole that matched the first episode, but that the rest were mostly vignettes in the lives of these students. Cute, heartwarming vignettes, but vignettes nevertheless. Having watched all 20 episodes I can't say what the writers were really going for, but I do believe I fell in love with all of these characters and their interrelated (and more often completely unrelated) stories. What's Up probably could have worked better as a film, cutting away some of the excess, but that excess is still fun to watch and I'd probably sit through it again anyway. Overall, What's Up has a grandeur that's kind of missing from Dream High. There's a gritty reality to it, as well as this amalgam of lives and situations that clash and bang that were just really intriguing to watch. It's hard to put into words, as you can tell, but I think it's worth more attention than it's gotten. The music alone is beautiful, the arrangements stunning, and the performances by the cast all the way around should be award-winning if they weren't already. Definitely give it a try. And don't give up on it.