Beautiful from beginning to end

One of the most beautiful dramas that I've ever watched, both literally and figuratively.

The characters are all so lovable and realistic — and your heart hurts for every single one of them, even the side characters that get featured for a few episodes. The thing about their character development is that it's just all so NATURAL, and it comes from the small, everyday interactions that we see between them. And to add to that, the drama did an amazing job giving everyone growth and yet maintaining their personalities throughout it.

The plot was amazing and not a single episode was unnecessary. For a drama that handles such heavy topics, IOTNBO made me shed ugly tears or laugh out loud in all the right places. It's also super refreshing to just have a plot that flows naturally, uninterrupted by dumb drama tropes like noble idiocy and miscommunications.

There's a main plot point in the backstory about MY's mother that have left some people questioning and saying that the writers left out a decent explanation — while I understand that, it's really not a problem with me for this one big reason: it's really not the point. What matters is that the characters WERE scarred and used by people in their past, and regardless of what exact form their past comes to haunt them, they're finding ways to heal together.

With that being said, I still enjoyed the first half of the drama better — before the mom sub-plot, because it felt much more emotional when their pasts felt like a dark cloud hanging over all of them. The latter half didn't quite have the same gut punch.

Still, the entire vibe of the drama is just beautiful, especially the transitions in the earlier episodes. Throughout all sixteen episodes though, the aesthetic remained consistent and everything, from the OST to Seo Yi-Ji's wardrobe (!!!) was top-notch.

This drama and its actors deserve all the Baeksang awards — ESPECIALLY Oh Jung-Se.

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Action over substance

In theory, this was a really good story about a righteous detective going up against a corrupt chaebol, but the execution of the movie turned out kind of rambling and messy.

I spend a lot of time at the start trying to figure out who was who, and it definitely took a while for the story to get started.

All in all, this felt like a lot of action and not a lot of substance, and the actual detective work seemed to take up less time than hand-to-hand combat and physically running around after people, rather than using brains (which is usually what I prefer to see). The story turned out to be a lot more simple than I expected, which was a little disappointing, even though the action itself was really good and it held up.

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This is the first drama I'd ever had second female lead syndrome, and the first time I found an antagonist so powerful. CYJ's relationship with K2 was utterly intriguing, and honestly it would've made for such an interesting romance line, even if it started out so messed up. The two had so much chemistry.

With that being said, Anna felt like an afterthought. She barely showed up in the first few episodes and never really had an active role in the plot (No, K2 watching her cook ramen badly through the CCTV doesn't count). All that fashion show stuff and the Barcelona Angel stuff...it felt unnecessary.

A lot of the political terminology went over my head (STONKS?) and I honestly felt like the reason for "revenge" really wasn't strong enough. I never felt connected or cared about the girlfriend that was killed, and I think all the Kumar-gate talk was confusing. It probably could've been stronger it had been connected with CYJ/Anna's backstory.

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This is seriously close to one of my favorites, and it could have been, with a few tweaks. Other than that, the premise is seriously intriguing, the cinematography is gorgeous, the romance was natural, and the plot twists were gut-wrenching.

I think I just wanted a bit more mystery with the criminals. There were some, but the show used a lot of dramatic irony — telling the audience who was at fault before the characters knew. It's a powerful tool for sure and I loved the frustration it caused me, but at the same time it got very formulaic, especially when it came down to The Big One at the end. I think my favorite subplots were the earliest ones — the car accident which was one of the best first episodes I've ever scene, and the domestic abuse one when cop and reporter's dreams clashed.

Going off of that, I think the show did a really good job with the mini-mysteries style. I'm usually not a fan of these because it reminds me of kids' shows where trouble pops up and is resolved in an episode. But WYWS tied them into the lives of our main characters really well and that's why I felt so emotionally involved in every case. Still, I kind of wish that the characters hadn't won pretty much every case they had, because I felt like a loss at some point would've made the antagonist (already a very powerful character) seem more competent.

With that being said, I thought the antagonist lawyer was a really good character but could've used more backstory that was unrelated to the main characters. He did a lot of evil things but at the same time seemed to have a conscience and some disgust towards his clients. He seemed to be really powerful and good at being bad, but because the main characters always seemed to defeat him, I never felt like he was on the same playing field.

I also wish the dreams were utilized more in different ways; I loved it when the question of knowing and changing the future became unclear, and the drama discussed how changing the future doesn't always mean "better." There's a lot of potential in what "the future" entails but the future mostly used it only as a tool for the main characters to get ahead in their reporter/prosecutor adventures.

With all those things being said, however, I still really loved a lot of things about this drama, especially the Investigator plot twist that totally BLEW MY MIND.

The ending mostly wrapped things up with a nice bow, though I have to say I have an aversion to the Vehicle-of-Doom trope despite how they reasoned it. The main characters were really good together and I loved both their personalities (humor was an added bonus), and I think the OST and the aesthetic of this entire drama really completed it.

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I'm surprised that this is getting so much hate because I actually really enjoyed the fact that there was a "villain" and that they were so good at what they did. The other two additional characters were also really lovable, especially A-hoon, who was adorable.

My favorite part of this was Seol, who went from the antagonist in S1 to my favorite character in this season. She was straightforward about her feelings, good at thinking through the situation, and knew when to stand up for herself and her friends. Loved her in this one.

What I didn't enjoy was that there was a serious lack of communication between the characters, especially the two main leads, who I lost a lot of love for. They never talked to each other about anything, and conversations were either unnaturally bubbly or just awkward and not there at all. They really didn't seem like the same people they were in S1 and I felt like some of the issues (like that goddamn TEACHER) were never really resolved. Between the main girl and her best friend, there was also a sudden lack of communication that annoyed me.

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There was something here. It was full of cliches, but it also had a few things that were really unique. We had the rich airhead female lead, the less well-off male lead, while the side characters were the poor, working, clumsy girl, and the other rich chaebol male lead...and yet nobody was a cliche character, and what this drama did was essentially mess with the Meteor Garden/BoF rich vs. poor formula. I respect that a lot.

Even so, however, the drama was a little too goofy and ridiculous for my liking; I don't have an issue with that itself and I actually appreciate that the drama didn't take itself too seriously, but overall, it was hard to get emotionally invested because of it.

I also felt like it trailed off at the end a little with very repetitive reasoning.

Other than that, the character development of the rich characters were actually very well done, and I especially grew to love the second lead. The male lead was a great character as well but he didn't change much. The second female lead was probably the weakest of all. Even though her character was initially interesting, ultimately her character development didn't really go anywhere and it was hard to pinpoint exactly what her personality was. The main character grew a lot too, but the acting left a lot to be desired.

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So much potential

I feel like with better execution this could've been along the lines of LOTBS or MLFTS, or even Extraordinary You. But the thing about these dramas were firstly that the sageuk and the present-day moments were evenly spread out throughout the drama so that we understood there was a reincarnation aspect to this. In the drama, it was all present-day for the first few episodes, all sageuk for 5 more, and then present-day again for the rest. It just made for very messy and weak parallelism.

With that being said, I was honestly more interested in the historical story, which is a rarity for me. But it had a really good action aspect to it, and the nobility/commoner difference also made the tension much more interesting. Still, it ended sort of weirdly and anti-climactically.

On the other hand, though I love school dramas, the school part of this had so many cliches, including my least favorite: AMNESIA. There also really needed to be an enemy, like there was in the sageuk portion, which could've made it so much more interesting. Essentially, I felt like the "bubbliness" of the drama — the fact that it was just about bullying and being nice to vampires — made the present-day portion super weak compared to the sageuk.

Honestly, I also got pretty bad SLS during this, especially during the present-day scenes, and the way he was haphazardly slapped into a relationship with the bad girl was super fast and made no sense to me. I felt like his character could've used a lot more development NOT centered around the main girl — his backstory with his parents was much more interesting.

Overall, I laughed a lot during this, not because it was meant to be funny, but because it took itself so seriously when things were actually really ridiculous.

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I'm surprised the rating for this is so low because it's actually a bit better than other web dramas I've seen. Obviously there's a very simple plotline and a common message at the end — but ultimately the pacing was pretty good and things made sense.

It definitely took a while to get into, and honestly I was annoyed by the main character who was just overly boy-crazy right off the bat and talking about how she only attended college to find a boyfriend. It's also pretty obvious that it's Young-ji's acting debut — it wasn't the worst, but there was definitely a lot of bad overacting and it made the character seem super pouty and whiny all of the time.

I also don't know how I happened to get second lead syndrome in such a short amount of time but it happened.

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Heartbreaking but a tad too repetitive

Seriously, I basically cried every other episode. Honestly, this drama could'dve used less crying and faster plot, but some of the scenes worked super well, and it made me miss my mom like crazy.

The moral of the drama is honestly really powerful and really moving. You can expect that it would be about grief and moving on and living life to the fullest — and the entire time I felt like it was impossible to see a happy ending for everyone, and that was sort of how it went.

I was honestly a huge fan of the sideplots too. Even some of the ghosts that I thought were annoying at the start quickly grew on me when they were tied into the main story.

Ultimately, there were some things that could have been stronger. The reasoning behind why Yuri had to go back up was weak, and there was an exorcist character that basically had a role for two episodes and then disappeared again. The same could be said for Pilseung, who I really thought could have a bigger role as well.

Still though, I was really worried they would turn this into a full blown melodrama romance, and I am so glad they didn't. It was a lot more about family and friendship, which I loved. The sismance was something I loved to see, and the way everyone acted was honestly super mature and respectful of boundaries and of each other — it's something you don't see a lot in any drama, and how realistic this was only made it all that much more heartbreaking.

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I first gotta say I am a HUGE fan of school dramas and had heard rave reviews about this one being one of the classics. And I can see why, if I had watched this years earlier when it came out, before all the other school dramas I've watched already.

With that being said, I don’t think anything in this drama really made it stand out from all the other school ones I’ve watched — it had pretty similar plot points and characters, most of which were the stereotypical bullies.

I also havesuch MIXED emotions about the ending! There was an extra special episode on Viki so I thought there were 17 episodes and by the end of 16 I was still thinking, yep, one more episode and everything can get wrapped up. Maybe I’m a fan of neat endings and wasn't emotionally ready for the bittersweet open-ended type. The more I think about it, the more I like it, but it still threw me off.

I also honestly really liked the pacing of the entire drama. There’s no single overarching plot with a climax and a resolution, it’s really all just about students trying to get through life (with a wee bit of baggage).

I'm not one to rewatch dramas, but this one might be a future one. And ultimately, I gotta say I’m surprised that all the guys really grew on me ( even if it took a while to get there) and Namsoon/Woobin friendship was so worth it.

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As an artist, I loved looking at all the illustrations and how they tied into the story, but I felt like they had so much to work with and ended up focusing so much on the romance storyline. Things like the history between the two guys, the girl's character/schooling, the sismance, their relationships with their parents...were all little things that we got nuggets for and then never really explored again.

The romance storyline was there but it seemed blown a little out of proportion near the end — I felt like they had both used each other. And it just got very repetitive to see the main female lead looking at her ex-boyfriend with hurtful, teary eyes in EVERY episode — I wish they had talked it out in a more mature conversation.

I also really didn't like or care for the second pairing at all — and honestly I was annoyed by the sheer boy-craziness of the friend. I kind of wanted her to not end up with anyone and just realize she should be happy with herself first.

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Short but well-paced

This drama is only two one-hour episodes, but the pacing was done really well and I didn't think there was too much or too little conflict, though it was a little predictable. I also was not a fan of the female lead, whose personality was very boring and sparse, despite having such a rich backstory.

I did like how there weren't any needless misunderstandings and miscommunications.

I also appreciated the little tidbits of humor, but I honestly don't think they were altogether necessary, and I would've preferred it if they spent a little more time with the dad, who was just wholesome and lovable.

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This is the type of drama that reminds me why I'm the type of person that doesn't drop shows. The first half was really slow and dragged out — I was starting to become increasingly impatient with ZZ's apathy and mood swings, and the lack of communication was making me frustrated. In the second half, however, once the leads started to get closer, I really loved their relationship and the little throwbacks to their childhood. The friendships also felt much stronger towards the end, but overall I felt like it was missing a lot from the previous episodes.

Although I'm typically not one who likes epilogues and I was terrified of the track record of typical Chinese dramas (unnecessary angst), the way they handled the time skip INCREDIBLY, and overall there was no character whose ending was left open-ended. Everyone had their own stories and character development, and I felt so much nostalgia and hope watching it.

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