High School Mystery Club (2021)

Unexpectedly Wonderful

I didn't really think much while going into this show.I was mainly watching for the people who I already knew and liked before which included Do-yeon,BiBi,Ye-na,JaeJae.So basically everyone I knew before except Ji-yoon,so I was unsure how they would all fit together but it was unexpectedly wonderful seeing the cast play their charcters and their chemistry and banter slowly growing throughout the show.I've seen people talking about it being too slow but it truly is slow at the start to set up the world and once it picks up,it's like you're on a rollercoaster with the cast with all the discoveries and plottwists.This show hits the perfect balance in comedy and mystery and felt almost like watching a Scooby-doo series set in a school.Obviously the world in this show is way larger and its really interesting to see the plot untangle itself.Refering back to the Scooby-doo thing,I think Ji-yoon and Ye-na play your Shaggy and Scooby as the scaredy cats of the group and their reaction to everything are hilarious,BiBi plays Daphne as the girl crush who is basically ready to beat everyone up ,while JaeJae plays Velma with her deductions leading the group through difficult puzzles and shocks you with how smart she is and that leaves Do-yeon playing Fred,although she's not the leader,her role seems to do her main job of being hilarious and the comic relief but also bringing the group together but at the same I think Ji-yoon is more so fit for this one since she leads the club and commands them really well so you could switch Do-yeon and her but when they all come together,you truly feel like your watching these high school kids getting themselves into something bigger than they could've imagined.All this is a long winded way of saying please give it a chance as it will definetly brighten up your day and is very bingeable.

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My favourite out of all the investigative K-shows

I watched this show without really knowing anything about it because JaeJae and Yena guested on Amazing Saturday to promote this show. During that episode (which received the highest ratings Amazing Saturday have had to date) I thought these two women were a somewhat random but refreshing combination of personalities. Both were hilarious and hyper, and it also seemed like both seemed to bounce off each other's energy. So I checked out Girls' High School Mystery Class purely by their names and was pleasantly surprised to see that it seemed somewhat Busted-esque, a show I had finished watching the minute the final season was released. You can guess my surprise when I found that I much preferred this, a show I had happened on by chance, over Busted, a show with multiple big names.

This isn't to say that Busted is in any way bad, of course. I really enjoyed it. But if I had to compare the two (which would be a rather natural thing to do as they have a somewhat similar format), I would choose Girls' High School Mystery Club and Busted actually pales in comparison.

Firstly, I don't understand some of the criticisms that the plot was slow. I think this aspect of some reviews needs a little more explaining - is it because there are too many episodes? If this is the case, really, it should be seen as one full episode divided into 3 mini episodes. Personally, I much preferred the pacing of this show than Busted. Busted seemed rather dragged out due to many scenes that were rather meaningless. They had an overarching mystery, yes, but ultimately many of the random findings were just that... random. Only small features of each episode were relevant to the main story. In Girls' High School Mystery Club, every clue and hint leads to the final mystery. I guess this may be why some people criticise the pacing - because they're analysing each potential hint and loose end, something I think Busted attempted to do but ended up creating random filler quests and missions for comedic or even time-wasting purposes.

I'd like to give a whole lot of credit to the writers because the plot was gripping and each prop and side character was well-utilised, but I'd also like to give a shoutout to the cast.

Admittedly, at first this cast was awkward. But that was part of the charm. You didn't have a smooth-talking MC trying to oil the team together, or a scatter-brained personality that the whole cast laughed at. And I'm saying this as a massive Yoo fan. I think the credit should be given due to the fact that these five women were... people. It didn't seem like a performance but their dynamic was extremely entertaining to watch. Jiyoon, who had the biggest age gap, surprisingly got on well with everyone. She was somewhat of a mother to Yena (it was adorable to see Yena gripping her tightly when she was scared) and patting her head when she needed it. She worked really well with Doyeon, who was the closest in age to her as well as JaeJae and Bibi.

Someone was saying that they didn't like how Yena had no role and all she did was eat and look scared. I think that was precisely the role she was happy with and the one she was best at. She was the one to relieve the frequent tense situations, as well as provide some vital hints when no one else could (though every one of these 5 leads had their shining moment). I adored the scenes where she reaches automatically for Bibi (the sweetest pair - Bibi took over the intimidating character and Yena was the comic relief) but as they were closest in age to each other, Yena grips her arm almost as a reflex when something scary happens. The scenes where JaeJae teases her lightly as well as Doyeon's coddling of her was sweet as well.

Doyeon and JaeJae were phenomenal. Both of them knew the perfect balance between humour and seriousness. I liked how they took it seriously but also relieved the tension through their words.

I also preferred the editing style of this show. Busted had a sort of... childish editing style? With various repetitions of the same face splat (which was irrelevant to the plot) from about 50 different angles or the random "boing-oing-oing" sound effects.

The cast and crew made this show extremely entertaining and I'm delighted that there will be a Season 2. There was a great synergy and the cast bounced off each other, and it also seemed (from the short scenes where they're walking to the bus) that the staff adored working with them and bounced off their energy too. It was a small (?) production with few leads and few crew, but overall that made it their strength. Highly recommend.

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A Fresh Storytelling Method

I realized while watching this show that it is not really so much about solving mysteries but about telling the story in a unique way. There is one big mystery and they have to put different clues together to finally resolve it. Some may think that it is too slow, but it's not. The pace is good since all the episodes are connected and telling the story like you would in a continuous prose. I must applaud the cast since they do a great job of bringing the story to life. I must also applaud the ingenuity of the producers. This is a story filled with humour, thrill, and good mystery that is not too hard for the viewers to solve. Great 1st season so far and I hope that there will be a Season 2.

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one word, amazing

it’s such a good investigation + thriller + comedy show , it’s kinda remind me of busted but a better version of it (in my opinion).

In the first episode, the story are kinda at a slow pace but its get better after that trust me, I really love the plot so far , i cant stop watching it, i was so eager to know what will happen on the next episode . the chemistry between the casts are good too! i love how they assigned each of their roles. Oh and Yena is such a cutie :3 .

If you’re a big fan of horror(a bit?),thriller show + comedy ,, then i really recommend this! I will surely repeat the series later! Hoping for season 2!

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this took a while to get to the real core of the mystery, I think it was around ep7 when suddenly it picked up and from that point I couldn't miss a single moment that I binged this in 2 days

since the mystery revolved around one big plot as apposed to both The Great Escape and Busted, they had too much empty time where they sat around and talked again and again about their clues and I think that was boring. they did 1 puzzle then talked about it for half an hour
but after the murder happened more and more tension and excitement happened

though to be honest, I'm way better than them xD kim ssam was obviously evil while poor dokgo ssam seemed nice (and totally forgotten! did he die?), and they took too much with some of the clues, like the sleeping gas thing, as soon as I saw the bottles even before knowing the ending I wanted to say "take that with you!", there was a scene like that in TGE and they actually planned ahead, but since most of these ladies never experimented "escape room" variety show (beside Park Ji Yoon, I've missed Crime Scene TT_TT)
and the whole flip switch as well, they just needed to tell jae jae the 8 sets and the 3 outside could've dealt with it by crossing out the ones that didn't match, visuals are easier than listening

they also need to separate them more often, there seemed to be obvious power struggle, bibi and yena felt left out (either the others wouldn't let them or they'd think they're not good enough), but both did pretty well on their own
Park Ji Yoon had more experiment so she tried to go the comedic side more, Jang Do Yeon as well is full on easy going she was ok with being smart or not

though I do wish they'd not use such hightones just to sound younger, we all know they're not teens and that's the funny part, they strained their vocals too much

otherwise Jung Jong Yeon never disappoints and it's always nice to see female centered plots

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I LOVE THE CAST!! <3 [story is good too ㅎㅎ]

I enjoyed The Great Escape and The Genius so much;; I am sooo excited that they FINALLY have an all female cast!!! I had hoped they would have female cast on Great Escape as well, but I guess this is much better in a way. I absolutely love the cast members: BIBI is my fav, Jaejae is a helluva personality and Jang Doyeon is plain genius!!! The other members are also fun and smart~
I wish the episodes were longer (or as long as the Great Escape episodes)...but here's hoping this show has many more seasons to come!! I love mystery shows and brain games like in The Genius and The Great Escape, and I can't wait to see how this show goes too! Please watch and support these wonderful, talented women~~

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not bad, pretty good

I had high expectations for this show due to them casting Park Jiyoon and the director being Jung Jong Yeon, who directed other shows that I really enjoyed like The Genius and Society Game.

At first, it felt a little awkward because it wasn't in the usual show format where there was a narrator or an mc and it was just the girls roleplaying in an high school without any script or directions. The show sometimes slacks in that sense where it feels really awkward because there's a lot of times where they're not doing anything because they weren't given instructions on what to do. It was also probably due to the editing though.

I enjoyed the show though due to the puzzles they had.

Cast was amazing, they did a really good job casting. Park Jiyoon being the leader of the group and deducing everything, Jae Jae on the side solving all the word puzzles and having great memorizing skills. Doyeon also helped a lot and provided jokes from time to time. BiBi was okay, she helped from time to time and made excellent deductions and I loved the sort of 'rebel' character they tried to portray her as. I was sort of disappointed with Yena though because throughout the episodes, all they ever did was show her eating and screaming because she was scared of everything. (Though I was happy that she finally did something in the last few episodes.) I wish she contributed more instead of hiding in the background all the time but I guess there always needs to be a slowpoke in the cast. They did a great job casting Park Jiyoon and Jae Jae, I felt like without them, the rest of the cast would've just been confused and lost the entire time.

I'm excited for Season 2! I hope they have an even better plotline in store and for more puzzles!

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SLOW PLOT

The plot and cast are quite good. I love all of them personally. But all of them are such are slowpoke and really slow in progress. Idk how they could talk loudly and do everything obviously that teachers can see them. All screaming are not equal to The Great Escape. There is no suspend at all.

I get frustrated every damn episode. I always skip it week by week and watch only in one sit because they suspend is not worth it.

The cast are okay. Plot of the writer is okay. But the cast got such a really really slow and annoying progress that they could not even see what it's in front of them.

They cannog even defend themselves.

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