12 Episodes In, Still Waiting for a Reason to Care
Dream to You is like a salad served with soup. It looks pretty, feels like it might be a fine meal, but eat only that and you go home hungry. It's not substantial enough.
Same old concept
It's the same old “first love” story, so well worn in k and c dramas it feels like a set of threadbare tires with no traction. As it is, it doesn't add anything new. Honestly, it reads more like love from his side and companionship from hers. I'm fine with that. Who knows what love is at 18?
My problem is the same imbalance continues into adulthood. Their relationship still feels lopsided, and their love doesn't feel deep enough to survive a decade apart, let alone the reconnection, which feels even shallower. He seems driven by guilt, she by gratitude for a second chance.
And I still don't get k-dramas' obsession with forced separations. Why does Yi Jae need to break up with Soo Bin at all? Canada isn't Mars; long distance isn't impossible if you're inclined to try. Why do these characters get to waltz out of a relationship to "find themselves" and waltz right back in once they've hit whatever goal they needed to hit? That's not maturity, that's just decisions handed down with zero discussion.
I know I'm rambling, but that's how I felt after 12 episodes back to back. I almost gave up more than once. My completionist tendencies are to blame.
What didn't work:
1. Yi Jae. In trying to show perseverance, they make her a rolling pin, oscillating between selfish and spineless. She's spent a decade angry at him for "ruining her life," but she's the one who chose to chase him. That's on her, not him. Yet she's furious with him one minute and sliding right back into romance the next. Some self respect, girl? She reads as weak or selfish more often than resilient.
2. Soo Bin. Wasted potential. Lovesick puppy energy aside, there's no growth here, not even in confronting his father: he cowers in one scene, throws a punch in the next, then takes a slap in the one after. Pick a lane, dude. He starts the same and ends the same, with no aspirations beyond winning her back. Maybe I'm too old for that Bella Swan style lack of personality. I don't find it charming.
3. Secondary and tertiary romances. The secondary one is okayish. The tertiary one.. just why? Didn't care a thimbleful.
4. Too much drama. The whole subplot around Soo Bin's illegitimate birth, his birth mother, and his abusive father feels bolted on. The show reaches for a bigger, messier story than it can actually resolve. Most of these threads get raised with weight and then dropped or rushed in the finale stretch, so the "drama" ends up feeling unearned rather than devastating.
5. No comeuppance. There's exactly one clear villain, and absolutely nothing happens to him. Ugh.
6. Whiplash character arcs. Su Hui and Ha Na go from exploitation to loving mother/daughter in the blink of an eye.
Performances
Nobody here plays it with real conviction. Hwang In Youp does the same emo-lover-boy routine, cute smile and all, which, to be fair, was one of the few things I actually liked. Lee Hye Ri, surprisingly, gives a flat performance. You neither sympathize with nor root for Yi Jae, because there's just not much being put across. I'd have taken overacting over this. Everyone else lands somewhere in the "also ran" category; nothing stands out.
Overall
I feel a little bad being this harsh about a drama, but I gave it three evenings I'm not getting back. Take a walk or catch up on sleep instead. You don't need to watch this one.
Same old concept
It's the same old “first love” story, so well worn in k and c dramas it feels like a set of threadbare tires with no traction. As it is, it doesn't add anything new. Honestly, it reads more like love from his side and companionship from hers. I'm fine with that. Who knows what love is at 18?
My problem is the same imbalance continues into adulthood. Their relationship still feels lopsided, and their love doesn't feel deep enough to survive a decade apart, let alone the reconnection, which feels even shallower. He seems driven by guilt, she by gratitude for a second chance.
And I still don't get k-dramas' obsession with forced separations. Why does Yi Jae need to break up with Soo Bin at all? Canada isn't Mars; long distance isn't impossible if you're inclined to try. Why do these characters get to waltz out of a relationship to "find themselves" and waltz right back in once they've hit whatever goal they needed to hit? That's not maturity, that's just decisions handed down with zero discussion.
I know I'm rambling, but that's how I felt after 12 episodes back to back. I almost gave up more than once. My completionist tendencies are to blame.
What didn't work:
1. Yi Jae. In trying to show perseverance, they make her a rolling pin, oscillating between selfish and spineless. She's spent a decade angry at him for "ruining her life," but she's the one who chose to chase him. That's on her, not him. Yet she's furious with him one minute and sliding right back into romance the next. Some self respect, girl? She reads as weak or selfish more often than resilient.
2. Soo Bin. Wasted potential. Lovesick puppy energy aside, there's no growth here, not even in confronting his father: he cowers in one scene, throws a punch in the next, then takes a slap in the one after. Pick a lane, dude. He starts the same and ends the same, with no aspirations beyond winning her back. Maybe I'm too old for that Bella Swan style lack of personality. I don't find it charming.
3. Secondary and tertiary romances. The secondary one is okayish. The tertiary one.. just why? Didn't care a thimbleful.
4. Too much drama. The whole subplot around Soo Bin's illegitimate birth, his birth mother, and his abusive father feels bolted on. The show reaches for a bigger, messier story than it can actually resolve. Most of these threads get raised with weight and then dropped or rushed in the finale stretch, so the "drama" ends up feeling unearned rather than devastating.
5. No comeuppance. There's exactly one clear villain, and absolutely nothing happens to him. Ugh.
6. Whiplash character arcs. Su Hui and Ha Na go from exploitation to loving mother/daughter in the blink of an eye.
Performances
Nobody here plays it with real conviction. Hwang In Youp does the same emo-lover-boy routine, cute smile and all, which, to be fair, was one of the few things I actually liked. Lee Hye Ri, surprisingly, gives a flat performance. You neither sympathize with nor root for Yi Jae, because there's just not much being put across. I'd have taken overacting over this. Everyone else lands somewhere in the "also ran" category; nothing stands out.
Overall
I feel a little bad being this harsh about a drama, but I gave it three evenings I'm not getting back. Take a walk or catch up on sleep instead. You don't need to watch this one.
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