(alt title: "ri an is the fucking prince and everybody except him knows it")
I have been waiting for this ever since it was announced (before they even decided a release date) and to say it was underwhelming would be an understatement.
The story lacks any substance and there's just too many loops that my logical af brain just cannot ignore. Like obviously it's a drama so u do expect far fetched and not so practical stuff to happen but there's a limit to it.
The plot is basically set in the background of "Elite", the ml from "Boys over flowers" and everything else is just "Crazy rich asians", and not in a good way.
It's just such a cliche story of poor kid comes to rich kid school, gets bullied, wants to take revenge and then succeeds, except there's a (supposed) murder plot here. A normal person would expect solving the murder and finding clues is the main plot but no it is discussed in the first and last 2 episodes making it a side plot. Now you may think what's the main plot then? I don't think even the writers know the answer cuz they took some ideas from different places and then jumbled them to make *drumroll* - HIERARCHY!!!
Looking at everything u can tell there was quite a bit of money put into this and u r gonna find all the chaebol stuff like mansions, expensive hobbies, cars, millions of caretakers (duh) and a wardrobe change for each hour of the day. Speaking of the wardrobe, please get a better stylist. In what universe do all high schoolers wear tailored suits and formals no matter the occasion or the time of the day. The outfit choices were honestly unaccounted for. It seems like they picked up the prettiest fit, included as many different pieces as they could and called it a day. The writers, directors and costume designers just couldn't decide if the characters are adults or kids smh.
ABOUT THE ACTING: When a person watches something, they're expecting to feel emotions they don't usually have the chance to feel, but here I literally felt zero emotions and trust me I'm pretty emotional. I didn't cry when they cried or when they told their sob story, I didn't laugh either cuz there was nothing funny, I didn't even feel frustrated or angry at hera cuz she just wasn't worth it or important to the plot. The acting wasn't as good as I had expected, mainly because there weren't a lot of emotions being shown throughout. Like legit all of them were smug, cold and aloof at least half the time! There wasn't much to act out so no point in judging the acting, really. The actors are all good tho as we have seen in their other works.
THE CHARACTERS: If u love shitty characters with no depth then this is definitely for u. First off, they couldn't decide on one main lead and then they couldn't give everyone a proper storyline. Woo jin and He ra were literal errand runners here. They had no background no personal storyline or any depth to the character. They wouldn't even qualify as second leads imo. Like just put them in supporting role rather than giving them nothing except the title. Even with the 3 other leads, there wasn't necessarily any growth or depth to them. Half the time we legit didn't know what they were thinking (like there was no "voice in their heads" kinda things) which again pulls down the plot.
THE PRODUCTION: As I said they did put in a lot of money into this with the sets and everything so no wonder it turned out pretty. I did like the camera work, cinematography and sets but I have seen better ngl.
CONCLUSION: All in all this does make an okay one time watch but just go into it with no expectations cuz you'll probably not be shocked with any 'plot twists'. Basically just go watch the rich kids be rich kids.

PS: I really hated how they made it look like those 'rich kids' have all the pressure and problems in the world, like yeah, we get it, everyone has issues in their life but there's no need to overlook their privileges.