A pretty little bow

Giving this a half-star higher than what I gave the original drama, simply because as a compilation of epilogue scenes, there was not nearly the same amount of frustration that the original gave me.

This was a good watch and I actually do think that it should've been included in the original, which had an ending that felt sort of abrupt. This wrapped everything up nicely. I was impressed with how the special even managed to address the side characters' stories. After this, it confirmed for me that my two favorite characters and favorite relationship was Sun Zeyi and and Shu Wen.

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Frustrating with a capital F

This was one of the most frustrating dramas that I've ever seen, for a multitude of reasons.

First of all, the pacing and plot distribution was just all wrong. The main male lead's own e-sports team was not fully established until episode 30 (yes, episode 30 out of 35), and that meant that we got barely any time to see how the members would actually grow together. The team felt like a hodgepodge of different characters, randomly pulled from here and there, and until the very end I still felt like only understood them in their previous contexts, not how they would grow in this new environment. We were only given about five episodes of gaming montage, and it was not nearly enough to convince me that this team would win, and that they deserved it.

Before the team was established, was show was just super frustrating and it never gave you a breather. Both the main characters basically just kept getting yanked left and right by evil antagonists — different characters, I might add — and that's the main source of plot development. It made both the characters feel really passive, and it was irritating how both of them seemed to recognize who was mean to them, but then became completely clueless when they were sabotaged and things went wrong.

There were simply just too many antagonists. Everyone aside from the two leads and about five side characters were either evil, easily manipulated by evil characters, or were just judgmental and obnoxious. While most e-sport dramas are inspiring and about people coming together, this one, for 30 episodes, felt like it was more about how people could be pulled apart. And the way many of these antagonists were handled were extremely weird — either they were given a redemption arc that felt out of the blue and unearned, or they were just unpunished and it felt like we just moved past big events.

I was not a fan of the romance either. The first ten episodes were a constant cycle of the FL making decisions to be nosy and annoying, followed by the ML being extremely rude, and then the FL randomly crying over her dead mother. I was not emotionally invested enough in her backstory to care about these sobfests, and when the leads suddenly started flirting and going on dates one episode later as if they had never argued, I had to backtrack and make sure I hadn't accidentally skipped an episode. It didn't help that the ML kept getting flashbacks to his first love throughout his initial interactions with the FL. Regardless, throughout the course of their flirtationship and relationship, the communication was just not there. The female lead constantly saw things and jumped to conclusions, and she never heard out the male lead, and all I kept thinking was that it never felt like their relationship could withstand outside forces.

The second couple was alright; they had some cute moments but were overall quite cliche with the typical more outgoing female character. Still, Lu Yiyi often came across as more abrasive.

I think the best part of this show was Pei Xi (and I am eternally grateful he wasn't dragged into a love triangle) who I think we desperately needed more backstory for as he had a really intriguing relationship with the ML, and Lin Yixuan (the sidekick, if you will), who wasn't that exciting of a character but provided the loyalty and friendship that was missing from a lot of the show.

Overall, I've watched a few gaming dramas and this is definitely not one of my favorites — the title for that still goes to Falling Into Your Smile, a drama where its strongest point was a female lead who was actually in the e-sports industry and who was capable and career-focused. At this point I'm a little over these gaming dramas where the FL has to be an outsider; there are moments where it's done decently but even when the FL in this drama was getting into e-sports commentary and joining the Phenix team, it felt like she was always asking questions and never knew what was going on.

The one thing I will give this drama is that the OST is quite good. But everything else...if you want to watch a gaming drama, I recommend you look instead to Falling Into Your Smile or Out With A Bang.

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Comforting and fun, but has pacing issues

So I still enjoyed this quite a bit but definitely not as much as everyone else.

To start with the good things, it's definitely a really heart-warming and inspiring show about following your dreams, connecting with loved ones, and finding what sparks your happiness in life. Every single character ends up in a better place than where they started and for that reason alone I think this drama is worth the watch.

To nobody's surprise, my favorite plot in this story was the story of Cheong-ah and Yi-chan. It's so much more than a romance; it was also about the importance of communication and how people with hearing disabilities can stay connected to the rest of the world, and about how Yi-chan would learn to face the world again after losing his hearing, this time with more people who cared about him in his life. Or rather, it should've been more about the latter.

It seems like most criticism of the plot surrounds the last episode being rushed (which I do agree with) — we get the big accident, some hugging and deep talks, and then jump back to the present day, all without any interaction between Yi-chan and Cheong-ah, who should've been the most important person in his life and the one who would've most understood what he was going through.

Which brings me to the biggest issue I had with this: pacing. Eun-gyeol's main goal to prevent his father's accident and stop him from losing his hearing goes all the way up to ~episode 15, while he also tries to get his parents together and Yi-chan still chases after Se-kyung until about episode 11. I was definitely getting really tired of the same plot points by this point and could start to see the ending coming.

By these episodes I felt like it was pretty obvious that the accident was not going to be prevented because one, it would've gone against the ethos of the show — Yichan does not have to hear for his life to be good, and to let his son follow his dream of playing music — and two, there was just not enough time to explore a brand new timeline by that point.

I really think they should've had the accident happen earlier and shown just a little bit more of the aftermath and interaction between Yi-chan and Cheong-ah and everyone else; I understand the counterpoint of not needing to show it because we've already seen Yi-chan's development and can infer how the future would change, but for me it would have been preferable to see this over a faux love triangle plot that started to get really repetitive, and then wait for Eun-gyeol's perspective shift to happen as late as the 15th episode.

The side characters were fine — I liked them as a whole but only a few of them had interesting subplots. And antagonistic side characters like Cheong-ah's brother seem to come in and out of the show when it was convenient. Eun-ho was a side character I expected to be a main character and I still wish he had gotten more screentime, whether it was with Eun-gyeol or with the parents.

Overall, none of this is a deal breaker by any means, and I still really enjoyed this drama throughout and would say it's worth watching. It's light-hearted and cozy, but I would be lying if I didn't say it stopped being plot-driven and started fizzling out for me.

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Fun little extra but not a lot of Totono

The first half was a rehash of the first episode so it was nothing new, and the second half was a new case which was a pretty cute watch and a fun addition, especially since I absolutely loved the original drama. But there actually wasn't a lot of Totono in it.

The case introduces a new character — Sagara Ren, who was bubbly and fun and had a really adorable relationship with Totono. I loved the two of them together and I hope we get to see Sagara again.

The case itself was fine, but the detective work was actually done mostly by Sagara and the other characters, and it just didn't have the same endearing awkwardness that situations usually have when Totono is front and center.

Overall, this is definitely not a necessary watch, but it's light-hearted and low stakes. I can see why it was split off into a special and if anyone wants to see Totono again it's still worth tuning in for.

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Confusing but interesting mythology

Pretty early on, I realized that I felt the same way about this drama the way I felt about Goblin. While I thought the lore was well thought-out and it was really cool to see Amis mythology translated into a Taiwanese drama, I felt it very difficult to emotionally connect to the characters.

The pacing is quite slow at the start — it feels like you're dropped into the middle of a situation that doesn't change or explain itself for a few episodes, and even when it did start to develop, it was difficult to understand where the story was headed and why. The dialogue feels kind of vague and abstract sometimes.

The side characters are also okay. There are some that have interesting stories that do tie into the main plot but I felt pretty apathetic about most of the characters as a whole. In a sense the female lead felt very isolated from the more down-to-earth characters who I wish were taught the myths; it might've helped explain the story in a more understandable way while also bringing the mundane and the fantasy worlds closer together.

I did like the environmental themes here but I don't think it was as prominent as I expected; the romance definitely took center stage and once again, I cared about the romance more as a concept and not really because I was genuinely emotionally invested in it.

The ending...is actually fine to me, but I think it would've been better if they'd dedicated more time to it because it felt very sudden. The ending is probably the biggest place where I could recognize that the writer of this drama is the same as that of Someday or One Day.

Overall, not really for me (hence the lower than average rating) because I found it difficult to emotionally connect with it, but I still think it was worth a watch for the mythology.

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For CQL Fans

Between Fatal Journey and The Living Dead, this is definitely the better spin-off movie, but it's still missing some cohesion. I watched this mostly because I wanted to see Nie Huaisang's perspective as he started his grand plan, but the story really focuses instead on the actual ancestral tomb incident and the jump to the mastermind prequel is really sudden and feels tacked on at the end.

I think Nie Mingjue is the most true to his character in this movie, and it was wonderful seeing the relationship between the brothers, but on the other hand...Nie Huaisang actually feels kind of out of character. He was always characterized as someone who didn't want to take on responsibility and just wanted to enjoy life — until he was forced to act. There were several moments here where he became really courageous and outspoken about justice and it just didn't really feel like him.

I do think this was good fanservice and as a huge fan of CQL it made me happy to see everyone again (even (especially) the villains).

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I pretend I do not see it

Unfortunately it seems like this is one of those sequels I would prefer to forget about and likely will never watch again, except for maybe parts of that first episode and some scenes where the leads are just spending domestic time together.

The chemistry between the leads is absolutely still there, and all the intimate moments are still beautifully shot and make you feel like you're intruding on something very private and meaningful.

As someone who absolutely despises infidelity plots, it was really difficult to even give this drama a chance, and the end result was exactly as I expected — infuriating. It's not only that I feel like we went through so many learning moments about communication in part 1 just to feel like the characters regressed to a worse place, but also that the side characters involved in the infidelity plot weren't enjoyable to watch at all. There was none of the chemistry the show tried to convince us of, and all of the deep moments or life lessons felt icky considering the circumstances.

There are far too many time jumps, which felt lazy and meant that emotions seemed to appear out of nowhere without proper build-up and forgiveness happened without feeling earned. The subtle visual symbolism and showing-not-telling was also absent, despite the cinematography still overall being great.

I feel like the only reason I still don't absolutely hate this to the point of a 1/10 is because there's just so much magic between the leads when they're on screen together and because the scenery is still gorgeous.

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The TENSION

This is by far the most mature BL I've ever watched and it was absolutely beautiful. The skinship simultaneously feels the most natural and the most tension-filled, and the angst is just immaculate. The kiss scenes are few and far between but when they happened it truly felt like the entire world stood still.

I know Teh got a lot of flak for the way he acted but I forgive him for all of it; instead, this drama really depicted the fear and pressure of a teenager trying to find himself and coming to terms with his sexuality — it made the story all the more heart-wrenching. And Oh-aew is just perfection.

The friend group and side characters get just enough screentime; they're obviously not the main focus but they add so much to the drama's feeling of youth and nostalgia.

There's still some parts of this that feel really dramatic, or some developments where I wish we could've spent more time on to explain why the leads or fighting, but I understand that it's just a side effect of only having five episodes. Overall, I don't mind the pacing at all because I think this drama did everything else right, including just having absolute gorgeous cinematography.

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Satisfying but has some hiccups

There are some pacing and story issues, but overall this was a pretty satisfying watch — as expected, the Flipped trope is great.

I might be one of the few people who didn't get too annoyed with the first six episodes. Sure, Khai was kinda terrible and it was a lot of repetitive crying from Third, but you could feel the story building towards Third's breaking point and the reversal of roles, and that was good enough. In fact, I think the two-part style works really well, with the first half being from Third's perspective and the second half being from Khai's.

With that being said, I still think there were some weird pacing issues. While I liked the two-part style itself, the transition between them was a little fast, and I also do think the back-end of both sections were a little dragged out, before just jumping to the next plot too fast. There's not really a strong main plot going on behind the romance either, so I don't get a really good sense of how much time is passing.

I also didn't care about some of the side plots, particularly Bone's. Two's story got better over time and it definitely paid off at the end, especially because he was such a good character even on his own.

The bromance throughout the show was actually one of its strengths. Some of the best moments came when characters were talking to each other about their struggles and heartbreaks and I wish we'd seen more of it, because I often felt like characters were dealing with issues in silos.

As someone who rates with my brain, 6.5 is what I would consider average, but I do have a soft spot for this show and for what it might bring to any viewers who've ever been trapped in unrequited love. And all the film references also made my movie buff heart very happy.

And finally, as a little heads up I also do want to mention that there are some nonconsensual kisses in here, in case anyone reading doesn't want to see that.

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Adorable and Intriguing

I went into this drama with zero expectations and WOW I was just blown away by all of it.

The first thing to talk about is of course, the main lead. He's eccentric and intelligent and just so lovable. Following the ML and seeing him randomly roped into mysteries was super fun and it never felt convenient. I loved his interactions with every single side character. The way the ML perceives the world is so interesting too; there are a lot of memorable quotes in this show.

Speaking of side characters, the drama also did a really good job of giving every single side character, even if they only appeared in a two-episode case, backstory that actually makes you feel for them. The acting is fantastic for every single one of them. I was really impressed with how fleshed out the subplots were and how they ended up tying together.

The plot is just super smart. This is one of those dramas that gives you pieces of the puzzle out of order, and everything becomes clear once you keep watching and start piecing it all together.

Such a great watch and I can't wait to watch the movie and see a season 2.

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Well-paced, but just okay

Objectively I think this was a well-written drama. The mystery subplots were interwoven well with the main story, and I liked how they gradually added more characters to their party.

However, I did find it difficult to connect with the main characters and was very confused about the story until many episodes in; I do want to say that a caveat is that I haven't really watched historical/costume/wuxia/xianxia dramas so the language was something I wasn't that used to.

In terms of romance, the main one was decent, particularly because I enjoyed the FL's strong, no-nonsense personality. The secondary romance was less enjoyable though — the SFL's motivations and emotions were kind of unclear throughout, and overall the dynamic just felt uneven. I didn't really want them together and didn't really understand when development took place.

It's really the bromance that stands out in this show. The relationship between Jian Buzhi and Zhao Wohuan has its ups and downs but it's clear how much they grow to care for each other and it's really great to see that the unconditional trust they have in each other.

Another thing was I wish there were higher stakes. Sometimes it felt like the deaths didn't hit hard enough, or there wasn't a feeling of real danger for the leads.

Nevertheless, ultimately, I do think this was a decent drama — but someone who enjoys wuxia might enjoy this better than me.

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A very good plot with decent social commentary

Okay, before I get crucified for the 6.5, I still did enjoy this. The three leads were fantastic, the social commentary was good, and as a lover of all time-related media, it was really exciting to see how everything was tied together.

But I think my expectations may have been a little too high.

While the first episode did grab my attention with the mystery and tension it instilled, the pacing slowed down afterwards. I was most interested in the points where the stories were personal — the first case, the kidnapping reveal, and the overarching disappearance of Lee Jae-Han. While the social commentary was decent and well-written, it really does just scratch the surface and kind of just iterates the same commentary about corruption and power. As a result, I enjoyed the other cases but think they could've been shortened, which would have given us more screentime for the main plot about Lee Jae-Han and more importantly, more time to wrap up the story.

With that being said, I think my favorite part of time travel and time manipulation stories are moments where you get to see alternate timelines, and I don't think the show ever explored the possibilities to its fullest potential, opting instead for small changes. Instead, they did that common kdrama thing where they have the big plot point happen in the penultimate episode. It was only until the 15th episode where I finally saw what I wanted to see, and I didn't get nearly enough time with it.

Now, with THAT being said, the ending. I found myself, unfortunately, watching the clock the entire last episode, wondering how they would be able to wrap it up in the little amount of time left. As the minutes ticked by I started dreading that they wouldn't be able to. And yep — the ending unfortunately left a lot to be desired.

Ultimately, I didn't really emotionally connect to this story as much as I wanted, though I still definitely give the actors and writers all their flowers. Like I said, the three leads were great, but I didn't really feel the sense of camaraderie between the entire team (which I loved in other dramas like Tunnel and Life on Mars), and as someone who cares a lot about endings, it feels less like an "open ending that lets viewers use their imagination" and more like the show was missing an episode.

Overall, still a good watch, and if they do a second season, I'd be completely down for it.

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