It was fun but

Basically, I liked the characters and the plot, overall. I liked the messages of healing and also of forgiveness you can find in it.
But there were some things here and there that I disliked, like the humour. And the truth is I also simply hated how they dealt with alexithymia. Well, not hate, ok, but let's be clear : this is NOT alexithymia they are showing here. And it kinda makes me angry a bit.

Alexithymia does NOT make you lack empathy, guilt, remorse, whatever. THIS is what ASPD does. Alexithymia has nothing to do with ASPD.
Alexithymia is a disorder where you are unable to identify and express your emotions, with words but also with the right facial expressions. It's nearly impossible to say "I feel THIS", because your feelings are hazy and mixed up and you don't know how to express yourself nor feel comfortable enough to do so. You will more likely say "I think" rather than "I feel", for exemple. You won't express big emotions, yet this does not mean that you are not impacted by them even though you don't actively "feel" them, and this will translate as suffering from some psychosomatic illnesses. People suffering from this disorder usually are not risk takers or impulsive like a person with ASPD would, because with alexithymia you'd rather not be stimulated by anything or anyone and you'd rather not attract attention and be outside of the law like an ASPD person would. You're not going to kill someone impulsively because of alexithymia. You're just not. It does not affect your moral compass and ability to have empathy for other living beings, although you might have trouble understanding other people's emotions just as much as your own.

Wow ok so now that this rant is over, what's left :
Good premise
Some good characters
Good story overall
Good acting
Good pacing (imo)
Interesting relationships and an ok romance (yeah, am not a romance fan so I won't elaborate on that, but it was fine, they were pretty cute)
Pretty dark themes (abuse, trauma)
Important lessons

So yes, this is a good drama. It's entertaining, has lot of emotions, and the ending's pretty good. But this nonsense about alexithymia is just a bit much for me and is why I felt the need to write this review.

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It's ok

Not the most awesome drama in history but it's entertaining and very well acted. I have already read the webtoon it's based on but I am not comparing them. I see it as its own story.

So my main issues with this drama are :

- I could barely stand Si Eun and found him very dislikeable. Personal preference. No hate.

- I wish the trio relationship and characters would have been way more developed. We barely see them actually interacting with each other before it got dismantled. What do they actually love in each others ? What do they each bring to each others ? What do they see in each other ? I wished we could have actually learned more about them through one another and see them change positively thanks to their bond, before it started to break down and regress because of the inherent character flaws they had (well, especially Beom Seok's character flaws). It was brushed too quickly, so it didn't impact me that much. I didn't have enough material to actually feel involved and really care about their relationship, and the characters on their own even.

- The reason their relationships broke wasn't developed enough either. Because of Young Yi? Beom Seok was insecure and got jealous + the return of those bullies that traumatised him (as if he wasn't enough with his dumbass father), I got that, but it happened very quickly, and because their friendship wasn't very interesting in the first place (imo) it just happened like that and didn't really make me feel like it mattered much.

- I didn't like the OST. Too cheesy. Just isn't fitting imo.

Other than that, the pacing is ok, acting is definitely good, characters are interesting. Beam Seok is a very good, very flawed and very tragic character. Fights ARE awesome. I loved watching them. Ending is good, heart wrenching but appropriately done, I think.

So yeah. I liked it but I didn't love it.

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