1
Jessica
Through the looking-glass
Meh--Don't Bother
STORY
I was really excited for this because I love Ten and the series itself seemed pretty hyped (plus the constant push back of the international release date worked to drive the interest even further). I binged over the course of two days, finishing yesterday, but there was nothing special about it to leave a lasting impression. The biggest downfalls for me were (1) the sub-par writing and (2) the weak, basic, and severely under-developed plot lines. These two weaknesses I cannot stress enough.
There were several times throughout this lakorn where I found myself laughing due to cringeyness and uttering, "This is so stupid" (and not even in the cute, charming stupid sort of way--just flat out stupid). What makes this even more frustrating is that several characters (Claudia, Simon, Keaton, and, vis a vis his connection to Claudia, JC) had the potential for GREAT story lines, including backstory and growth! But time that could have been spent developing those was sacrificed for continuous plot repetition (seriously--each plot consisted of the same one or two ideas that were recycled from beginning to end), scenes that failed to move the story along, and a rather boring love triangle that was neither new nor groundbreaking (Eve, Danny, Lin--I'm looking at you here). And though the writers tried to throw in some more serious moments, they flatlined and got lost amidst the silliness and ridiculousness that was the rest of the drama. The dramedy genre didn't really work here.
There were some cute moments and times that made me smile, but all in all the script-writing felt very lazy and half-assed. It's a shame that these otherwise great actors were given such lousy material to work with.
Oh, and if you're interested solely for the BL, don't invest your time. There was next to none, the story line was basic and under-developed, and the series itself isn't strong enough for me to recommend watching anyway.
ACTING/CAST
The actors themselves all did really well in their roles. No stiffness, no awkwardness. I lowered my score though because the characters were all pretty bland and boring. Several of them felt stereotypical, stock-like, and two dimensional, and there were missed opportunities for meaningful character development. Nearly all of the "competing" love interests felt manufactured and were obviously inserted for no other purpose than to create drama. Though most of the main characters were likable enough, I didn't really connect with any of them, nor could I feel any chemistry between any of them (though I will say Ten, as always, does do a fantastic job at emoting this, and he didn't fail me here; there just wasn't a strong reciprocation). As a result, I didn't really care about them; I didn't share in their happiness or sadness. There were happy endings, but at that point I was beyond ready to move on to my next drama.
OVERALL (TL;DR)
There were cute moments, sure, but the writing and story lines were so weak and under-developed that I was left disappointed and wanting more. Safe to skip this one. Would not recommend.
I was really excited for this because I love Ten and the series itself seemed pretty hyped (plus the constant push back of the international release date worked to drive the interest even further). I binged over the course of two days, finishing yesterday, but there was nothing special about it to leave a lasting impression. The biggest downfalls for me were (1) the sub-par writing and (2) the weak, basic, and severely under-developed plot lines. These two weaknesses I cannot stress enough.
There were several times throughout this lakorn where I found myself laughing due to cringeyness and uttering, "This is so stupid" (and not even in the cute, charming stupid sort of way--just flat out stupid). What makes this even more frustrating is that several characters (Claudia, Simon, Keaton, and, vis a vis his connection to Claudia, JC) had the potential for GREAT story lines, including backstory and growth! But time that could have been spent developing those was sacrificed for continuous plot repetition (seriously--each plot consisted of the same one or two ideas that were recycled from beginning to end), scenes that failed to move the story along, and a rather boring love triangle that was neither new nor groundbreaking (Eve, Danny, Lin--I'm looking at you here). And though the writers tried to throw in some more serious moments, they flatlined and got lost amidst the silliness and ridiculousness that was the rest of the drama. The dramedy genre didn't really work here.
There were some cute moments and times that made me smile, but all in all the script-writing felt very lazy and half-assed. It's a shame that these otherwise great actors were given such lousy material to work with.
Oh, and if you're interested solely for the BL, don't invest your time. There was next to none, the story line was basic and under-developed, and the series itself isn't strong enough for me to recommend watching anyway.
ACTING/CAST
The actors themselves all did really well in their roles. No stiffness, no awkwardness. I lowered my score though because the characters were all pretty bland and boring. Several of them felt stereotypical, stock-like, and two dimensional, and there were missed opportunities for meaningful character development. Nearly all of the "competing" love interests felt manufactured and were obviously inserted for no other purpose than to create drama. Though most of the main characters were likable enough, I didn't really connect with any of them, nor could I feel any chemistry between any of them (though I will say Ten, as always, does do a fantastic job at emoting this, and he didn't fail me here; there just wasn't a strong reciprocation). As a result, I didn't really care about them; I didn't share in their happiness or sadness. There were happy endings, but at that point I was beyond ready to move on to my next drama.
OVERALL (TL;DR)
There were cute moments, sure, but the writing and story lines were so weak and under-developed that I was left disappointed and wanting more. Safe to skip this one. Would not recommend.
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