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Backstreet Rookie korean drama review
Completed
Backstreet Rookie
8 people found this review helpful
by Nimueth666
Jan 9, 2021
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 7.5
This review may contain spoilers

Cute drama with a bad timing

I just finished this cute little drama and I definitely think 7.7 rating doesn't do it justice. While it's by no means a master piece and the story is quite simple, it is a good piece to watch if you need a break from all the overly dramatic stuff. I especially enjoyed the acting and I didn't have a need to skip over any scenes, which is always a good sign for any drama. I even cried a couple of times and that doesn't happen to me often unless animals are involved :-D SO yeah I do recommend this one if you are looking for something that is fun and not overly complicated.

Now I'm going for a rant here and if you did find the drama truly problematic, perhaps don't read this. I'm not writing this to argue with anyone and there is no reason for ou to ruin your day. This is just my opinion :-)

I'm truly glad I've seen someone advice to skip on all the controversy around the drama because I got to enjoy it for what it was. I only read the news afterwards out of sheer curiosity because I wasn't sure what it did so wrong to get such backlash. I mean obviously I was guessing Dal Shik's was one part of it but that couldn't have been all, right? Well turns out it wasn't but the rest didn't feel justified to me. I honestly feel sorry for this drama. I think this is the worst possible time to come out because people are so easily offended by these days. Don't get me wrong if any Jamaican people were indeed offended by Dal Shik's character then I suppose it's a valid point but I bet most of the outrage came from the white people as usual. I for once didn't think of his character racist, I saw him as a person that truly appreciated the culture and was having a blast. It saddens me that you can't do that anymore these days because it will be immediately labelled as culture appropriation. The flies were a bit too much but it never translated to me as portraying people of colour as dirty. I mostly thought it was more of a implication about nerds and artists that are often portrayed as asocial and lacking when it comes to personal hygiene BUT I can see why people with dreadlocks found it offensive and it did feel rather unnecessary.

The rest of the arguing points was a bit ridiculous to me to be honest (and I'll probably receive a lot of backlash for it). The oversexualization seems like a stretch or at least not something that can't be found in most of the dramas or k-pop groups. There were two very frowned upon scenes, one of it was drawing of legs from a painter that was drawing erotica and one of it was literal imagination sequence using a stereotypical movie gangster lair. I get that it is a family drama but don't try to tell me children never seen such thing on TV before. Sexy scenes are everywhere and this was at least done in a comedic way. Same with the underage kiss. Been there done that. If the male lead initiated it then yes, not good. However that was not the case, he didn't expect it and she was a young rebellious girl with a crush. How many romance TV series about high school student and her teacher romance are there? Never seen people boycotting those as they did this drama because of this one scene. And don't even get me started on anime. -_-

If you ask me, not knowing the controversy while watching I genuinely thought people had a problem with how Boon Hee was beating her husband. Sure, he deserved to be yelled at a lot of the times and maybe a kick in the shin would do him good but even with the comedic way it was done it sometimes felt too much. I could see how this could be a problem since domestic violence is a thing and men don't come forward and ask for help more often than women since they are taught to be strong and being beaten by a woman is not something they want to talk about, which is truly sad. Yet unlike the other points no one seemed to be bothered by this because it was comedy. Thankfully, the drama somewhat saved their relationship in the last episodes and I was able to tell myself that it is done for fun and I shouldn't overanalyze it. I feel truly sad now, remembering the how the actors and the crew celebrated their work in the final episode, clearly having fun with it and hoping people would enjoy it. Well I did, so good job guys! :-)

END OF THE RANT...SORRY EVERYONE :-D
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