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Sassy Go Go korean drama review
Completed
Sassy Go Go
3 people found this review helpful
by novalinnhe
Jan 7, 2016
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 2
Overall 9.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 10.0
Music 10.0
Rewatch Value 10.0
I actually stumbled across this drama by accident when I was searching for another series altogether, but I'm very glad that curiosity got the better of me as Sassy Go Go is one hell of a ride! From the premise of the first episode I assumed that it would be a pretty stereotypical, fluffy school drama with the camping trip in the middle where everybody works out how they're feeling, the love triangle which ends with first lead winning out over second, and the snobby elite character(s) who look down on the protagonist for lack of grades, money, social class or all three, and... ... uh, okay. I haven't quite helped myself here - all of these things DO actually happen - but it's the WAY the writers play with these tropes which left me incredibly impressed. We are given stereotypes, sure, but we are also given fleshed out and realistic reasons for these stereotypes. For example, we aren't just given a rich girl who looks down on poorer students because "rich"; we learn the complex and dark reasons behind her behaviour, we see the effects of her behaviour from multiple perspectives, and parallels are drawn between what you are seeing in the drama and very real problems which teenagers in the real world are facing and struggle with. (One issue which really stood out to me is the very real and serious problem of high suicide rates amongst students who are pushed academically in the same way that a number of characters in this series are pushed - and they don't shy away from pointing this out to the viewer.) It's a little difficult to try and get at the point I'm trying to make, but the best way I can put it is this. What the writers of Sassy Go Go have done is take the general "get up" of a school drama, analysed the stereotypes, tropes and over-used plot devices so many of them contain, and asked WHY. Why would this stereotype act this way? What could be happening to them to cause that sort of behaviour? Could a school-age teen really perform that kind of role, and if they could, how would it affect them mentally? Would the teacher of a school really react like that within this scenario, and if they actually did what would be the real-life consequences? What we end up with is something which resembles a school drama on the surface, but actually becomes a very passionate and moving story about teenagers - and the people who look after teenagers - dealing with realistic, human problems that can be fully related to by the audience. Not only that, but instead of being given a clichéd "underdog hero defeating the popular villain" solution to everything, we get far more interesting storylines. Things which happen that are so unfair it makes your skin crawl, but with no hero to swoop to the rescue; teenagers with real flaws and serious problems making really serious mistakes; adults tiptoeing between doing what is right and what puts bread on the table; and all manner of plot points which I never expected to find in something as fluffy as a school drama. The 9 is because although I do absolutely love what they've done with this, the fact that the drama needs to be based of stereotypes in order to "make its point" means that despite everything that goes on, if you've watched enough of these dramas it's therefore possible to sometimes predict the outline of entire episodes within a few minutes. However, it is the journey you take to get there which contains the real meat of the show, so it was barely an issue and I'd still recommend Sassy Go Go to anybody. :)
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