Not a typical teen drama

This is not actually a romcom, it's not very lighthearted or cute. Teen dramas tend to be dismissed easily as just that just bc of expectations. This is neither too dark or too light imo. The theme is rather universal, whether to stand up to fight injustice, or to go with the crowd which is always easier. Very few people can stand strongly behind what they see as right and ethical when the rest just have an easy time not caring. School bullying and burnout due to insane pressures and competition are also rather universal I guess, not only happening in SK. Also the rich/poor divide is strongly accentuated here. The romance thread is nicely executed. In good taste. This is far from a perfect k-drama but worth watching nevertheless.

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You will not get this if you haven't watched Boys Over Flowers

I see so many reviews that assume that this is just the typical teen/school drama. It's not, it's a satire of teen dramas and more explicitly a satire of Boys Over Flowers. When I say satire it's for the lack of a better expression, should say "lovingly made satire" that respects yet is a hilarious tongue-in-cheek satire of BOF. Also, it's not being a cliched rom com, it's an homage to cliched rom coms. There are so many wickedly intelligent undercurrents that only a seasoned k-drama addict (this is the 114th k-drama for me) will get. So sorry, but if you really haven't watched BOF, you'll only get about 20 percent of the meaning. Where should I start? The violin, closing off the school rooftop, the mother paying off poor gf, I could go on and on. Yet I guess you can sill enjoy even if watched as a typical teen or school drama. Because Rowoon is just perfect in this role as the dreamy handsome prince, and the FL can rather effortlessly carry the whole thing since she's present about 90 percent of the time. She's just right and rarely overacts. The other characters have less work to do in terms of development, but the rude 2nd lead is written as pleasingly ambivalent, not knowing himself whether he is himself "in role" or outside of it. And as always, there's no limits to the philosophies and lessons you can make out of the plight of the characters having to be either monotonous robots saying pre-written lines, or struggling to become independent persons. One last thing: the set designer would have earned an Oscar for his/her work. There's so much to look at from the fairytale-like scenes to the FL's home and bedroom. This was really done with the highest level of ambition possible. Full applauds! The weak side of this drama is the same as in most k-dramas: there is not enough material for 16 episodes. It starts to get very repetitive around the 11th episode. It would be just great if the industry could agree on making 14 episodes the standard length. My last word: when you say "cliche" I say "classic ." Like in the Dramaworld series, it is clear here that showing cliches is out of love for them. Personally, I love my classics like a seasoned k-drama lover would.

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