JuliusCaesar44
DC Metro Area
This review may contain spoilers
A story that had so much potential but was wasted due to poor writing
I stole Sun-Oh’s smile away from him.. just so I wouldn't feel any pain - Jojo
The above quote pretty much sums up my feelings and the show as a whole. The cinematography is not good at all compared to Season 1 and the plot is just a worse version of the love triangle that was developed in Season 1. We got no proper closure or anywhere near a good apology or explanation. We had the wrong ship sail. Don't even get me started on her use of the spear. So cowardly and something only Jojo would do. That one scene between Jojo and Brian in Episode 5 summed up everything about Jojo.
You used the shield to prevent Sun-Oh's Love Alarm from ringing and you used the spear to ring Hye Young's Love Alarm. You lie for your convenience. - Brian
No truer words have ever been said in this show. Well maybe that Gulmi quote, but that's neither here nor there.
Nothing went right this season. Not even the side stories. After the SunJo ship failed to sail we should've spent less time on the love triangle and spent the time to actually develop the romance between HyeJo and YukOh. The ending felt super unsatisfying just due to very minimal development in the two relationships. We didn't even get to see Jojo's full journey on her path of reconciling with the past and healing. We got to see the end result in the final half of Episode 6 but it just isn't as emotional as it could have been. The same thing goes for the very last scene showing us viewers the times when Jojo rang Hye Young's Love Alarm unconsciously. It just didn't hold that much weight due to the relationship feeling forced from lack of development. But I've got to give credit where credit is due as those scenes were beautiful. Just doesn't hold too much weight as they could've held if we had good writing.
Going back to the point on the development of the relationships. This is one reason I wished we had the normal 8 episodes. To delve more into the relationships so that scenes stated earlier could hold more weight. I mean come on, YukOh was pretty damn cute not gonna lie. That final scene between the two of them was so heartbreaking and wholesome. I just want Sun Oh to be happy and Yuk Jo as well. I've grown to love this ship more after the writers decided to completely ruin my SunJo ship. Lastly, for my final remarks on this show, we really did need more scenes dedicated to the building of HyeJo for it to have anywhere near as much meaning, weight, or satisfaction that SunJo had.
Oh yeah, one more thing I would like to add that I just came to realize. Remember how in Start-Up the writers made Do San explicitly say that he has changed instead of actually showing it on screen? Yeah, that same exact thing happened here. When you force a character to say something that you can't convince the audience through said character's actions you know you are doing something. I want to actually see Jojo fall for Hye Young through their interactions and I want to see development. I don't want to hear not only her but Love Alarm through Duk Gu to tell me that it was her own volition to choose Hye Young.
While on the argument between choosing what your heart tells you and what a program tells you, I am glad that Netflix found a way to insert it into this drama with the right answer to the argument. What I'm mad about though was the execution in which the argument was inserted. One it was done super late into the final episode and two there are a lot more nuances to the argument than Netflix lets on. Yes, it may have been her own true volition, but behind every volition, there is a motive. We may never know what her motive was behind choosing Hye Young (outside of what the writers tell us through dialogue) so can we really make the case that she followed her heart? Not really. She may have done because she truly did love Hye Young or maybe she was just continuing to run away from her feelings.
Overall just not worth my time and left a bad taste in my mouth. Still can't believe we waited 2 years for this mess. Sigh.
To end this review, let me sign off with one of the truest quotes ever said by a side character that I hated for most of the show.
Jojo doesn’t do anything, but she has two guys taking turns ringing her Love Alarm here and then - Gulmi
The above quote pretty much sums up my feelings and the show as a whole. The cinematography is not good at all compared to Season 1 and the plot is just a worse version of the love triangle that was developed in Season 1. We got no proper closure or anywhere near a good apology or explanation. We had the wrong ship sail. Don't even get me started on her use of the spear. So cowardly and something only Jojo would do. That one scene between Jojo and Brian in Episode 5 summed up everything about Jojo.
You used the shield to prevent Sun-Oh's Love Alarm from ringing and you used the spear to ring Hye Young's Love Alarm. You lie for your convenience. - Brian
No truer words have ever been said in this show. Well maybe that Gulmi quote, but that's neither here nor there.
Nothing went right this season. Not even the side stories. After the SunJo ship failed to sail we should've spent less time on the love triangle and spent the time to actually develop the romance between HyeJo and YukOh. The ending felt super unsatisfying just due to very minimal development in the two relationships. We didn't even get to see Jojo's full journey on her path of reconciling with the past and healing. We got to see the end result in the final half of Episode 6 but it just isn't as emotional as it could have been. The same thing goes for the very last scene showing us viewers the times when Jojo rang Hye Young's Love Alarm unconsciously. It just didn't hold that much weight due to the relationship feeling forced from lack of development. But I've got to give credit where credit is due as those scenes were beautiful. Just doesn't hold too much weight as they could've held if we had good writing.
Going back to the point on the development of the relationships. This is one reason I wished we had the normal 8 episodes. To delve more into the relationships so that scenes stated earlier could hold more weight. I mean come on, YukOh was pretty damn cute not gonna lie. That final scene between the two of them was so heartbreaking and wholesome. I just want Sun Oh to be happy and Yuk Jo as well. I've grown to love this ship more after the writers decided to completely ruin my SunJo ship. Lastly, for my final remarks on this show, we really did need more scenes dedicated to the building of HyeJo for it to have anywhere near as much meaning, weight, or satisfaction that SunJo had.
Oh yeah, one more thing I would like to add that I just came to realize. Remember how in Start-Up the writers made Do San explicitly say that he has changed instead of actually showing it on screen? Yeah, that same exact thing happened here. When you force a character to say something that you can't convince the audience through said character's actions you know you are doing something. I want to actually see Jojo fall for Hye Young through their interactions and I want to see development. I don't want to hear not only her but Love Alarm through Duk Gu to tell me that it was her own volition to choose Hye Young.
While on the argument between choosing what your heart tells you and what a program tells you, I am glad that Netflix found a way to insert it into this drama with the right answer to the argument. What I'm mad about though was the execution in which the argument was inserted. One it was done super late into the final episode and two there are a lot more nuances to the argument than Netflix lets on. Yes, it may have been her own true volition, but behind every volition, there is a motive. We may never know what her motive was behind choosing Hye Young (outside of what the writers tell us through dialogue) so can we really make the case that she followed her heart? Not really. She may have done because she truly did love Hye Young or maybe she was just continuing to run away from her feelings.
Overall just not worth my time and left a bad taste in my mouth. Still can't believe we waited 2 years for this mess. Sigh.
To end this review, let me sign off with one of the truest quotes ever said by a side character that I hated for most of the show.
Jojo doesn’t do anything, but she has two guys taking turns ringing her Love Alarm here and then - Gulmi
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