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LilMeggs

San Jose, CA

LilMeggs

San Jose, CA
Backstreet Rookie korean drama review
Completed
Backstreet Rookie
5 people found this review helpful
by LilMeggs
Aug 26, 2020
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 9.5
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 10.0
This review may contain spoilers

Either Love It or Hate It

This drama was one of my most anticipated 2020 watches as well as around the time I started watching this, I started getting really into Ji Chang Wook, so I had some really high standards for this drama. Especially when web dramas have been doing extremely well recently. I was honestly a little skeptical because I kept hearing how different episodes and scenes kept getting into trouble where people started to petition to get it off the air. I also read different reviews of people who either loved it or hated it.

My honest thoughts (given you already saw what I gave this drama):

I thought it was extremely quirky and refreshing. I loved it. It was a cute "love" story between two people Dae Hyun and Saet Byul, and there love for one another and their cute little convenience store. It started off like a typical kdrama where Saet Byul has a hidden agenda to get Dae Hyun to like her (of course they have a past), but Dae Hyun thinking she is this irresponsible and immature child who solves everything with violence. Which was really annoying in the beginning and it made me dislike Dae Hyun, but it also made it so much better when Saet Byul proved him wrong and made him realize that you can't have prejudices of other people. But every character had their "flaws." But going off that, and the reason why I loved this drama was that in a regular drama, where Yoo Yeon Ju lived in, a flaw came with a negative connotation. Whereas Saet Byul had this quirky personality where she knew she wasn't perfect, and if anything, her flaws were what made her unique. She didn't see her imperfections as something bad, and she so desperately wanted to share that message and self-love to the people around her, especially Dae Hyun, who thought that if something didn't work out, it was because he did something wrong.

You can definitely tell that this drama was written as a webtoon vs in a drawing room with a production company wanting to come out with the next cookie-cutter drama. I felt like each character was extremely relatable and I really couldn't dislike anyone. Including Yoo Yeon Joo. She wasn't the best girlfriend in the world and to be honest, a bit selfish, but she was relatable where she was so stuck believing that she was a victim in her own life, that she did what she thought would make her happy which caused others to suffer.

I loved the quirky romance between the mains - I loved that when they were together, they embraced each other fully and built each other up. They built on one anthers' aspirations and goals they already held for themselves. And it was refreshing. Lightweight, I don't think either one of the main characters went through any character development (as in a normal drama, we have the stuck up heiress who learns to become down to earth) and it was ok. These characters knew self-love from the beginning and this 15 episode drama was about these people who loved their flaws finding their tribe.

Now for the few things that I didn't like about the drama which made me drop it .5 from a perfect score. Even after saying that this drama was about people finding their tribe, I honestly wish that we got more Saet Byul and Dae Hyun romance. Normally, I don't have an issue with this type of drama, but I wasn't super pumped and felt a bit cheated when we got a drama where you had to wait for the characters to finally kiss in the last episode. Given, we finally got a little bit of romance in the final few episodes, but it felt a little bit minimal. Shoot...we could have taken out the whole Dae Hyun parent drama plot they randomly added, that was unnecessary. But of what he got, was really good, that I wish we got more ramyeon dates with them.

Then, of course, the BIGGEST reason why I dropped it .5 was because of the age difference. I've seen a few dramas with an age difference that never bothered me before, but this one made me feel uncomfortable because of a flashback they included. In this scene when they met, even further in the past than what we see in episode one, we have a younger actress cast as Saet Byul, and Ji Chang Wook still cast as himself, but with fluffier hair to make him seem younger....and without saying what happened in this scene...it made me feel super uncomfortable knowing this was the moment that Saet Byul fell for him, and it made him look like a pedophile. Like...you couldn't cast anyone else? I know it was supposed to show the age difference between the two characters, but it lightweight made me feel uncomfortable.

But other than that, I loved the quirky fighting scenes, all the relationships grow, and Puppy (Kang Ji Wook) who honestly was also a perfect love interest. I am so sick of always getting second lead syndrome especially when actor Kim Min Kyu is always so cute and perfect. I makes me want to find and watch a drama he is in where he finally gets the girl.
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