This review may contain spoilers
Complicated Age-Gap/Social Norms Romcom Drama
After watching this drama, I am rather conflicted on how I feel about watching the drama. The drama in general is really just about basically person A that has a relationship with person B, they break up, person A has a relationship with the person C, person A's brother has a relationship with person C's niece, turns out person C and person B's father are friends, more drama happens, and then person A is back with person B. The drama is pretty much drama. Anyhow, here are some of the positives and negative sides of the drama that I have taken note of:
~ THE STORY (NEGATIVES)~
Frustrating Couples: I am someone who values trust and open communication within every couple in dramas. Those qualities are honestly what makes a romance drama good for me, especially since too many romance c-dramas are about misunderstandings and all that 'I'm not going to tell you to protect you' that gets frustrating. I absolutely love those jealousy scenes, but it definitely is possible to have trust while being jealous. As for this drama, oh my, they just aren't into open communication or trust apparently; there are so many things that could have been resolved had they just communicated. That's for the main couple. As for the side couples, a lot of the times the relationship just feels so toxic.
Frustrating Characters: Throughout the drama, I had a love-hate relationship with the main leads. One second, I liked the way they conversed and went through with certain decisions, and another second, which is most of the time, I am quite disappointed in them. Sure, both of them aren't experienced in love, but there are some things that shouldn't require experience in it to realize. As for the side characters, one of the co-workers is extremely toxic; I personally value friendship more than crushes, and this character officially ignores her friend because her crush seemed to like her. The second male lead's sister are quite irritating. The female lead's parents were amazing for the first half of the drama, and then it went down.
Lack of Character Development: Almost 90% of the drama is about how the female lead is unable to commit to the relationship because she cares about how others think about her relationship. The drama highlights her insecurities, which is absolutely normal and expected of a romance drama. However, around the last few episodes, she suddenly has this realization that I love him more than I care about how others feel because I can't force love and all that. In general, she did not develop much as a character, if at all. Neither do the other characters. The male lead, second lead, supporting characters, and almost everyone had no changes. The only main change was the female lead's best friend who decided to get divorced, and she was a minor character who was not as involved in the plot.
Social Norms: I understand that one of the aspects of this drama is about how people think society deems age gaps in relationships to be quite negative, and in some ways, yes, this is true. However, the story is too involved in this assumption, and the characters never realize that the society is more than that. I am sure that there are still many people who deem age gaps and teacher-student relationships as something negative, but there are also many people that are supportive. In terms of the drama, the story and narrative was too narrow and unthoughtful.
Lack of Logic: I get that the focus of the drama is that romance and love is not logical, and you just feel your heart beat around that person. However, there is a big difference between love and attraction. We have the main couple that met and were like, oh I like you, for almost no reason. The second male lead suddenly changes his mind and starts liking the female lead. The female lead's brother just suddenly likes the second male lead's niece. I am definitely not a person that goes for slow romance, but there is really no reason behind any of the character's actions in terms of love. A question for the characters is: What do you like about your counterparts?
~ THE STORY (POSITIVES) ~
Certain Characters: If there weren't a few of the supporting characters that I liked and me-needing to complete the MDL 2021 challenge, I would have dropped this drama early on. The first character that I didn't have a chance to dislike throughout the drama was the female lead's brother and one of the female lead's best friend: Song Xue; they were the star characters. The second male lead is pretty decent as well, and the male lead's stepmom was pretty amazing, too. Other than Song Xue, perhaps the next best character is the character that only appears in the drama for about 2 episodes; she was the girl who was attracted to the male lead, was honest about her liking him, and helped him get the female lead.
Certain Scenes: This drama would count as a comedic drama, so I did have some good laughs over certain scenes. The conversations between the female lead and her brother; the breakup dinner for the female lead and second male lead; the revealed secret of the male lead's identity; the almost got caught in a secret relationship scenes.
~ THE STORY (NOTES) ~
I am not a big fan of the drama. There were a few issues here and there. I did find the teacher and student relationships were a bit odd; though I have nothing against teacher-student relationships, the conversations and interactions just did not really match. This drama is also quite different from other c-dramas in that its progress is pretty fast in terms of romance; for example, one-night-stands happen, which do not really occur in c-dramas as often.
~ ACTING & MUSIC ~
I have been wary starting this drama because I am not a super big fan of the male lead's acting, and this drama did not really improve my impression of him; it might have lowered it, too? As for the other actors, I personally thought the female lead did well (with the exception of the crying - maybe the script originally made the crying so fake?) and the supporting characters did pretty well too, so I gave it a 7/10 because none of the acting stood out much, which is expected for romance dramas. As for music, I do recall a few good music pieces, but they did not really leave an impression on me either.
~ OVERALL ~
That's about it! I don't believe I will be rewatching this drama anytime soon, and because I only spent about 1-2 days finishing this drama (ahh, yess, I am the type of person who stays up at night to finish watching a drama), I wouldn't say if it really is worth it or not, since it didn't take up too much of my time. Overall, I gave it a 5.5/10.
~ THE STORY (NEGATIVES)~
Frustrating Couples: I am someone who values trust and open communication within every couple in dramas. Those qualities are honestly what makes a romance drama good for me, especially since too many romance c-dramas are about misunderstandings and all that 'I'm not going to tell you to protect you' that gets frustrating. I absolutely love those jealousy scenes, but it definitely is possible to have trust while being jealous. As for this drama, oh my, they just aren't into open communication or trust apparently; there are so many things that could have been resolved had they just communicated. That's for the main couple. As for the side couples, a lot of the times the relationship just feels so toxic.
Frustrating Characters: Throughout the drama, I had a love-hate relationship with the main leads. One second, I liked the way they conversed and went through with certain decisions, and another second, which is most of the time, I am quite disappointed in them. Sure, both of them aren't experienced in love, but there are some things that shouldn't require experience in it to realize. As for the side characters, one of the co-workers is extremely toxic; I personally value friendship more than crushes, and this character officially ignores her friend because her crush seemed to like her. The second male lead's sister are quite irritating. The female lead's parents were amazing for the first half of the drama, and then it went down.
Lack of Character Development: Almost 90% of the drama is about how the female lead is unable to commit to the relationship because she cares about how others think about her relationship. The drama highlights her insecurities, which is absolutely normal and expected of a romance drama. However, around the last few episodes, she suddenly has this realization that I love him more than I care about how others feel because I can't force love and all that. In general, she did not develop much as a character, if at all. Neither do the other characters. The male lead, second lead, supporting characters, and almost everyone had no changes. The only main change was the female lead's best friend who decided to get divorced, and she was a minor character who was not as involved in the plot.
Social Norms: I understand that one of the aspects of this drama is about how people think society deems age gaps in relationships to be quite negative, and in some ways, yes, this is true. However, the story is too involved in this assumption, and the characters never realize that the society is more than that. I am sure that there are still many people who deem age gaps and teacher-student relationships as something negative, but there are also many people that are supportive. In terms of the drama, the story and narrative was too narrow and unthoughtful.
Lack of Logic: I get that the focus of the drama is that romance and love is not logical, and you just feel your heart beat around that person. However, there is a big difference between love and attraction. We have the main couple that met and were like, oh I like you, for almost no reason. The second male lead suddenly changes his mind and starts liking the female lead. The female lead's brother just suddenly likes the second male lead's niece. I am definitely not a person that goes for slow romance, but there is really no reason behind any of the character's actions in terms of love. A question for the characters is: What do you like about your counterparts?
~ THE STORY (POSITIVES) ~
Certain Characters: If there weren't a few of the supporting characters that I liked and me-needing to complete the MDL 2021 challenge, I would have dropped this drama early on. The first character that I didn't have a chance to dislike throughout the drama was the female lead's brother and one of the female lead's best friend: Song Xue; they were the star characters. The second male lead is pretty decent as well, and the male lead's stepmom was pretty amazing, too. Other than Song Xue, perhaps the next best character is the character that only appears in the drama for about 2 episodes; she was the girl who was attracted to the male lead, was honest about her liking him, and helped him get the female lead.
Certain Scenes: This drama would count as a comedic drama, so I did have some good laughs over certain scenes. The conversations between the female lead and her brother; the breakup dinner for the female lead and second male lead; the revealed secret of the male lead's identity; the almost got caught in a secret relationship scenes.
~ THE STORY (NOTES) ~
I am not a big fan of the drama. There were a few issues here and there. I did find the teacher and student relationships were a bit odd; though I have nothing against teacher-student relationships, the conversations and interactions just did not really match. This drama is also quite different from other c-dramas in that its progress is pretty fast in terms of romance; for example, one-night-stands happen, which do not really occur in c-dramas as often.
~ ACTING & MUSIC ~
I have been wary starting this drama because I am not a super big fan of the male lead's acting, and this drama did not really improve my impression of him; it might have lowered it, too? As for the other actors, I personally thought the female lead did well (with the exception of the crying - maybe the script originally made the crying so fake?) and the supporting characters did pretty well too, so I gave it a 7/10 because none of the acting stood out much, which is expected for romance dramas. As for music, I do recall a few good music pieces, but they did not really leave an impression on me either.
~ OVERALL ~
That's about it! I don't believe I will be rewatching this drama anytime soon, and because I only spent about 1-2 days finishing this drama (ahh, yess, I am the type of person who stays up at night to finish watching a drama), I wouldn't say if it really is worth it or not, since it didn't take up too much of my time. Overall, I gave it a 5.5/10.
Was this review helpful to you?