catherine
Best kdrama of 2023
This is probably my favorite 2023 kdrama. It really just had me by the first episode, where we saw the childhood backstory of our two leads. It was heart-breaking but also beautiful seeing how they went from simple classmates who judged each other to two people who stood with each other against the world.I was a little nervous going into this, since the premise of “a girl gets stranded on and island and wants to become a pop star when she returns to civilization” seems sort of like a goofy premise…but the first episode completely dispelled all my worries. There are stakes in this, for sure. There’s the familial abuse plot, which was what I was most invested in, and I really loved how we got a “found family” aspect amidst all of it.
I also just loved the dynamic between our characters after the time jump. You had our leads, who had amazing chemistry despite one of their identities being hidden. It’s really a testament to great acting and directing that most people started shipping them so early on. And despite a bumpy road at the start, they grew into a communicative, trusting relationship where you could see how much they wanted to protect each other. It’s really refreshing that how real and human all the characters seemed: they tried to stay kind but sometimes wavered out of fear and made selfish decisions, or it could be something as simple as they tried to lie but weren’t very good at it.
The side characters were all well-rounded as well. The second male lead had his own backstory and emotional growth — although I do think his part in the love triangle was unnecessary, but it was good that it wasn't blown out of proportion — and the family members also played their part in the story, with their own heart-warming backstory. It was beautiful. Even Ranjoo had her journey of becoming a singer and her fall from fame, which tied together with Mokha.
I admit I cared a little less about this plot; don’t get me wrong, I LOVED all the songs — both actresses are so immensely talented and the songs are definitely new additions to my playlist — but the ickiness of the entertainment industry’s power struggles, rude fans, pushy reporters and press conferences…I think I would’ve been happier with less of it.
Overall, I still really loved this one. In addition to great characters and story, you can tell a lot of thought went into the cinematography and set design (I looked into an art print in one of the shots and it totally had symbolic meaning) and it really just added that much more to the atmosphere. Definitely recommend this one.
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Messy
In theory this had a lot going for it — but execution was super messy. It felt like characters were introduced haphazardly and it was hard to link all the subplots and backstories together. A lot of things just made no sense and I hated that the rules of the Abyss kept changing. It just felt too convenient and really made for a lot of plotholes. The same really goes for the ending, which is my biggest issue because a lot of the resolution just makes no sense.A plus is that the main leads are really cute together, even though there's some parts of their relationship that is just really confusing.
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Strong start, but...
I think this drama started out super strong — the show wasn't afraid to be violent and gory, you could clearly differentiate between the classmates and what archetypes they represented, and there was so much intrigue around both who the mafias were and why the gamemaker decided to choose them.As the drama went on I definitely think it lost a bit of steam — Mafia reveals were interesting but you can only do that a few times before the audience wants to dig deeper and actually find out how and why the game started. Instead, the disorganization of the students lasts for a little too long.
So I think the backstory reveal started a little too late, and it introduced a new character that I couldn't really bring myself to care about so late in the story. The backstory itself wasn't fleshed out very well, never going in depth with some of the things they had hinted earlier about how each student was involved. I still don't understand why students were chosen to be Mafias, Citizens, the Doctor, or the Police, and if it was random it really lessens the importance of every one of them.
Without these specifics, the gamemakers didn't feel much like "masterminds" with a thought out plan, but just some people with a thirst for revenge and instilling suffering in whatever form. I would've much preferred it if the game had been a more direct reflection of what happened in the past, and if it was repeated until each student learned a specific lesson (with Yoonseo being the first to learn that she should've been there for her friend), as opposed to the ultimate purpose simply being "I want them all to suffer as much as possible."
I'm also part of the camp that feels mixed about the ending. While I've seen open endings that are done well, the one here feels too "unsustainable," meaning that I know it definitely can't last forever — there has to be more than the story and whatever it is should have been shown.
Overall, I still had a lot of fun with this. I don't know if there will be another season but I hope there is — there's a perfect set up for one and it would give the show a chance to delve deeper into its backstory and each kid.
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Potential lost in a jumbled mess
When I was a pre-teen, I LOVED writing fanfiction. And I especially loved the enemies-to-lovers trope because the angst that it delivered was impeccable. I wanted the arguing and the tears. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to actually get there. And so what resulted was a string of incoherent moments, the most random and petty arguments just to get to the angst that I wanted, and my ships jumped from “I hate you” to “I love you” but skipped the most important part in between.That was what watching this drama felt like.
I really think this drama would’ve worked much better as a character-driven drama instead of a plot-driven one. You have all the great archetypes in this cast, but instead of diving deeper into their motivations (Phukao’s loneliness, Plu’s desperation to help his grandmother, Kongkwan being associated with a murderer, Zo’s habit of hiding everything behind a smile) and showing growth, it was like the drama kept throwing conflicts (kidnapping, affair secrets, family death, a big scary mob boss, etc.) at the characters just to watch them react to it and be upset.
Speaking of which, a sidenote: nothing about the mob boss was scary. Random punches and gun-wielding minions are not enough to convince me of someone’s power and it felt more “cartoonish.”
Anyways, as the plot gradually unraveled it became clear that character motivations weren’t thought out and there was no hierarchy of conflict; the romance, which had been what I was looking forwards to most, had no logical progression beyond their childhood connection. And the murder and Lak’s “sacrifice,” which was supposed to be the big hurdle, faded into irrelevance both because its reasoning was nonsense and because everything else was treated equally dramatically.
With the situations so overblown, it felt like the acting didn’t live up to it and this is where I blame both the writing and skill/chemistry. Most of the acting (even the side characters) just felt like they were going through the motions, which is really unfortunate because this was a drama that really tried to sell every character’s pain.
Part of that is, once again, the lack of character motivations. But the other part is simple chemistry. Lak/Mai and Zo/Nink were one of the few duos with good chemistry — it was lacking with all of the parents and there was NONE between Phukao and Kongkwan.
Which brings me to my biggest character problem: Kongkwan. Her character was quite simply, pathetic. When she wasn’t crying she was looking depressed. She had no personality beyond that and honestly, Tu’s acting didn’t help — I can see her doing all the right facial expressions but I just never FELT it. Without any sort of character trait other than “I'm sad my life sucks so I need this doll” there was nothing to connect with.
My favorite character is honestly Lookzo, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that she’s probably the only character without some sort of tragic backstory, which even most of the side characters were saddled with. Despite that, Zo had best writing out of the four mains; her happy-go-lucky, spunky personality contradicting the secret difficulty of how hard it was to be happy was very relatable and emotional, and I think View killed it with her acting. Her relationship with her father was lovely to watch. June was fantastic as well, and the chemistry between Zo and Nink was also good.
I also want to give a shoutout to the child actors for the main leads, especially Little Phukao, who got some of the most heart-wrenching scenes and actually made me feel every bit of it.
Overall, the OST is good and I still think the premise has a LOT of potential, but in the end it just felt messy. The love triangle was unnecessary and they should’ve just focused on the characters healing and digging up the past instead of focusing on new spectacles. It’s unfortunate because there are really great lines of dialogue and questions about family and forgiveness, but that’s all they are — separate moments that are few and far in between.
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Does the journey matter or does the ending?
Okay, if you're one of those people that think "how it ends doesn't matter, it's the journey that counts" then you'll probably rate this really highly and love it from start to finish. If you're the type of person who needs things to be wrapped up cleanly with closure — me — then the show will leave you with a lot of mixed feelings.To start with, the vibe of the show is pretty much perfect. I really loved Heedo's character and how the themes were incorporated into the show — dreams, efforts, happiness, friendships, different types of love, supporting each other from afar...it was all just really beautiful. I still love all the friendships in this, and for the most part the time jumps were done really well with us seeing how the characters grew into adulthood and went about their lives after growing and learning from each other.
It's the last few episodes (15 & 16) that really take a different turn. There were really multiple ways to write a "realistic" story and the writers picked the one that, to me, felt as though it went against a lot of the inspiring hope that we had gotten in the rest of the show. There were crazy time jumps in the last episode and the past and present timelines never felt like they converged with closure. The last episode was just kind of miserable, except for a few side characters that really saved it.
Speaking of which, I felt like present timeline was just really unnecessary from start to finish. The characters never felt like themselves (even if they were the same actors) and it really felt like it was included either to (1) show how time passed and Heedo's daughter Minchae was dealing with the same thing (to which I would say nobody really cared about her story and everyone only cared about the 90s timeline) or (2) to purposefully throw off the audience. Either way, it felt disjointed and unnecessary. It didn't provide closure either — the questions we started with still persisted, and we never saw the other main characters again.
Overall, this was still such a comfort show for me for so many weeks. There are some iffy parts that I wish it touched more on but overall I thought all the character arcs were thought out thoroughly. It just kind of sucks that the writers picked the route they did.
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Messy, but addictive
The premise for this honestly caught my eye, and I've been super excited for it for ages. It turned out to be nothing like what I'd expected, and to be honest it was kind of a hot mess. AND YET, it was addictive and I felt anxious watching it.It's messy because it basically threw all the cliches into a pot and used all of them—rich man/poor girl, best friend love triangle, characters screaming their emotions into the void, backstabbing best friend, Cinderella's step-family...but the way they did it was completely unexpected and not in the order you'd expect.
I was really annoyed with all the characters' actions right off the bat: Jo-Jo for being a cheater, Sun-Oh for stabbing his friend in the back, and Hye-Young for being a creepy stalker. I felt like people were only rooting for him because they saw his perspective, but from Jo-Jo's point of view, he barely even talked to her and just creepily followed her everywhere.
Because of all the characters' immature personalities, for once I felt like the time skip was in the right place. And as someone who usually DETESTS all time jumps, I really liked how it was inserted, and how the characters changed during that time. I do hate that noble idiocy is such a huge plot point, but the fact that it took place in the time skip made it a bit better, even though I still found myself frustrated with the flashback scenes.
The time skip was also helpful in getting me to not hate Hye-Young, because I liked his character development and how he finally took action, instead of always looking from afar. Even though his character is growing on me though, I still definitely have second lead syndrome and am rooting for Sun-Oh.
The cinematography and visual effects were the best part of this entire thing. I loved the sound effects. how the app looks, how everything was filmed, and how the 10m radius is edited. EVERYTHING.
I really wish there was more sismance and bromance. The bromance was nice, even though it crashed and burned near the end. On the other hand, there was ZERO sismance, and I hated how all the female characters (other than Kim Jo-Jo) were portrayed as boy-obsessed, shallow, gossipy, etc. Honestly, Jo-Jo's minor scenes with her wedding work friend were so refreshing—and more friendship is needed in this entire drama, which would work out to balance all the romance drama.
Because it was so romance heavy, I also found myself loving the scenes that delved into more Black Mirror territory and talked about heavier topics, like the protests, exploitation, suicides, etc. I really wished that that was a bigger part of the story, because there's a lot of potential for the characters to get involved in more than the melodrama cliches.
I also appreciate the lowkey LGBT mentions and how it's addressed with "It's not like you can control your feelings." MORE, please!
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Cute at first...but falls off
I had pretty much completely bought into this drama in the first two episodes — the main female lead was timid but not a pushover, bright but not stupid, and the main male lead was stoic but not rude, smart but not condescending. It was really quite a cliche dynamic but it was still enjoyable to watch especially because there were moments where they were equally hilarious and chaotic despite seemingly having such opposite personalities.As the drama went on it it did start to drag a little with the very typical "does he like me or not" and the "I'm going to step aside for my 'friend'" — but that wasn't my main gripe with it. In fact, I like a good slow burn and I never thought these misunderstandings got too extreme and frustrating.
One thing that did get increasingly annoying, however, was how the main male lead's "social awkwardness" manifested when he got jealous; the number of times he consciously CHOSE to sabotage the female lead's work...it got very frustrating and was neither cute nor amusing especially when it was played off as an inability to express himself.
I also found both of the side ships either boring or over-the-top annoying; one of them didn't have any stupid miscommunications but the side characters also didn't have any sort of backstory or personality. The other one had a female character who was very clingy, a male character who was essentially the same as the male lead, and just no sensible development between the two of them.
Overall it was kind of a light-hearted watch and there were elements of a healthy relationship and great communication, but it was also a drama that just felt very trope-y and average.
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Short and fun, but...
This was overall a fun watch! I really love these type of AU shows and the premise of this one is super interesting.Considering the premise though, I wish they had been brave enough to be a little more unconventional than just making it a mistaken-gender drama. The main leads could have gone through the entire falling-in-love and questioning-my-sexuality process without the soulmate AU. And that's why I sort of had second lead syndrome too, because I just felt like it would've been a much cooler plot and it would've made use of the soulmate AU if the character had to "go against their destiny" for real. Also, just as a person I pick longtime friends-to-lovers over everything else 99% of the time.
For this reason I also felt myself more invested in the second ship: two people who were unnamed in a world full of named people. Two people who had to find their own love while everyone else's was written out for them. They honestly had a more bantery relationship and I liked how outspoken Sae Rom was.
Overall though I did like the little life lessons — like Reply 1988 anything about getting off your butt and taking action to not miss your timing really hits home for me.
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Needed to be longer
I haven't read the original source material but I can feel that it's so rich and really needed more than seven 30-minute episodes. So many things happen that we needed a lot more scenes where the main characters could just simmer and go about their daily life, rather than jumping from one plot event to the next without really showing the development of emotions in between. The non-romantic angst is one of the most intriguing parts of the story and I feel like it didn't nearly get enough screentime. Towards the end, there were a few time jumps that felt very sudden and overall it made the pacing uneven. The final few episodes solely focus on the romance but I feel like it was also scattered and there were a lot of loose ends I wish were revisited.The acting of the main leads was just okay — it was very obvious that they were rookie actors, and so the more light-hearted and fun scenes were great but I don't think they were able to carry scenes with more emotional weight, especially because the scenes felt disjointed already.
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Messy but pretty to look at
Aesthetically this was different from the first season for sure, but it was still pretty to look at despite the different style, and the sketches were reminiscent of It's Okay to Not Be Okay.The story was a real mess though, in terms of romance, the traumatic backstory, and the social commentary. It just felt like there was zero continuity with the first season. They completely dropped the ball on Jojo's backstory when it was such a big part of her trauma and decision-making.
Big questions around Love Alarm were about the role of technology in modern romance, privacy, the pressure of being perfect on social media, imposter syndrome, etc. and I had been really excited for it to delve deeper into a society so reliant on it, but they never really did. A lot of characters and plots weren't explained well and everything just felt all over the place.
Instead, the drama focused so much on a love triangle that wasn't really there to begin with, starting this season. The characters had little to no character development and were kind of brushed to the side, with a sprinkle of backstory here or there.
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Amazing first half, okay second half
I came across some clips on YouTube and just fell head over heels for the main characters, for the subject matter, for the aesthetic...for everything.And for about 10 episodes I continued loving it and I continued getting those butterflies in my stomach.
Then the story started to drag a little and it seemed like all the great communication the characters had before went out the window. I understand that it's a melo and they definitely were going for realism; the issue is that they made it so repetitive. The second FL getting in the way followed by the main FL getting insecure, etc. and it seemed like they never got anywhere.
Another issue I had with this drama was just the conflation of the career plotline and the romance plotline — it's understandable that things would get a little messy, but I'm always a bit annoyed at characters like that and I'm not sure if it was an issue with the character or with the writing.
With that being said, the most disappointing part for me was the epilogue ending for our main FL — after everything she had gone through about following your dreams, self-confidence, independence, etc. It just felt like all those mini-lessons and references went out the window. I really thought her career plotline would have a lot more oomph, and it felt almost like SA was turned into nothing but JY's love interest at the end.
Some of the characters were also just annoying and said things that made no logical sense — again, I know it's a melo and the aesthetic kind of made it not as annoying as it would've been in a low-budget 2010 drama, but I still found it annoying. There were pretty underutilized side characters.
Ultimately though, I still enjoyed this one quite a bit, mainly due to the aesthetic, the classical music references, and just the amazing OST. The acting was great and our main leads actually had a lot going for them, but just not much to work with. I love myself a good melo but I'm still a bigger fan of episodes 1-8, before they got together and actually had better communication.
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The cinematography also got better, but the first few episodes had so many internal monologues, even by characters that I didn't care about, and not only did it make the plot move super slowly, but it just felt like they were trying to cram in all the tragic backstories at the start so that we didn't hate the characters.
I was super excited about the plot at first, but the way dramatic irony was implemented meant that I was just constantly frustrated because I knew about secrets maybe even TEN episodes before the characters would figure them out. I was also super annoyed by the "problems" that the characters were facing—most of them were caused by the characters not trusting each other and miscommunicating.
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Binge it if you can
I’ve never read the webtoon so this is based off this show as a standalone drama and not as an adaptation. I started watching this 4 episodes were out because I saw that hair-tying scene on my Twitter/X timeline and it completely convinced me. And the show proved me right — I binged all the released and couldn’t wait for next week. The main leads had amazing chemistry, the antagonists felt like actual threats, and I couldn’t wait to see how the revenge would play out.As the weeks came around, I still enjoyed the episodes, but I did feel like the show started losing steam.
First, the main leads’ screentime dwindled and we got more and more scenes of our antagonists (of which there were many). It added good tension to see things from their perspective, but it also added frustration. The leads had so much chemistry and tension and we only got to see a few minutes of that every week.
And as more episodes went on, we ran into a different issue: we did get screentime for our leads, but it didn’t necessarily feel like they were progressing. We’d get the same hugs and conversations where they talked about being there for each other and fighting together against the bad guys. These scenes were cute but it felt got sort of repetitive, especially now that we’d gotten all the tension-filled conversations out of the way earlier and it seemed like the next plot development wasn’t happening anytime soon. I still really enjoyed scenes where they cared for each other, but all the stakes felt a little lower by this point, and I started to feel like the revenge was almost too easy. Sides had been chosen, secrets were already revealed, and most importantly, the main antagonists had stayed quiet or had lost too many battles in a row.
Honestly, I was pretty lukewarm on the entire plot by then. Looking back, I don’t remember a singular satisfying moment where our main female lead got to face off against her mother in a moment where I felt like they were on equal footing, where the stakes were high and I truly didn’t know who was going to win. The revenge plot seemed to delve into smaller moments where they would address this one thing first and then that other thing, and I wasn’t sure there was a climax. Even the build-up to some other reveals and to the ML’s perspective felt overdue and a little underwhelming.
Episode 11 was a turning point. Things that needed to be revealed had been revealed, it felt like the revenge had been finished, and the antagonists had been out of the picture — most of which was off-screen, I might add, which made the story feel somewhat incomplete — long enough for The Time Jump to happen. Yes, the dreaded time jump. I’ve never been a fan of the time jump. It’s fine as an epilogue but I’ve never once enjoyed it done in the middle of the story and this was no different. It just felt kind of…weird. Like they didn’t know what to do after all the villains were put away, so they had to bring them back, but had to wait some time for them to be able to. Story-wise, it was a bit confusing to have it happen after everything was seemingly over, but ultimately I don’t think it was blown out of proportion, which was good.
I think part of the plot simmering down also had to do with the female lead, who was really proactive in the first half and then started being more aimless in the second half. Still, I liked the message the drama left us with — that the best revenge for her was having a happy marriage, a healthy family, and a good life. Despite the slowdown, I think this drama had a really good finale episode.
Overall, it was still a pretty good watch — this was my second favorite watch behind Castaway Diva during its runtime, but if I were to recommend it to someone I would suggest binging it rather than watching it slowly. You might be able to retain more momentum that way.
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Namhyeok supremacy
I have to start this off with my favorite part of — Suhyeok and Namra, who totally stole the show, both individually and together. I just loved Namra's character arc in particular, and though romance is by no means a main focus of this show, their scenes are the ones I keep going back to rewatch.With that being said, I think it was really good that romance wasn't a main focus, and yet it was there in certain light-hearted moments, reminding us that these characters are still kids who deal with crushes and first kisses and butterflies. I think both of the main relationships were done absolutely beautiful and we got just the right amount for them.
I think my main criticism with this is just the massive amount of unnecessary characters there are. I liked the two main groups for sure (although I admit some of those characters felt extra — it was as if they were to die in case someone needed to be killed off) and some of the peripheral characters like parents, and I anxiously awaited moments where their paths would cross. But other than that, there were a lot of other character groups and arcs that took up time and got incomplete arcs like the politician, the livestreamer, or the pregnant girl; I either didn't care for those or were downright annoyed with them. Even some of the characters that were more relevant kind of had their character development swerving off-kilter in a non-sensical way.
I also felt like the last episode was really rushed; I felt like taking out some of those unnecessary characters and spending more time with the main group could have given the changes in the last episode more screentime — I also wouldn't have been opposed to having this be a full 16-episodes so we could see more about the aftermath and maybe get an ending that was more satisfying. It currently stands a bit bittersweet and I have mixed feelings on that.
In conclusion - watch for Suhyeok and Namra.
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