I have NEVER anticipated a drama more than this one. I still remember back in 2019 being in my first year of high school seeing the first Soompi article about the production of this show and freaking out. In the nearly five years that have passed since then, I have pined for this drama in an unhealthy manner, I've had DREAMS about the show, and woken up believing a release date was finally published. Even being a BTS fan, I was more obsessed with the HYYH universe during the later part of my teens than I was with the actual members. I bought every chapter of the Webtoon so I could reread it whenever I wanted, I own both of the "The Notes" novels, and I read and watched every single thing about the BU. However, if you were like me, who knew about this show since it was announced pre-production, the countless postponements eventually made me grow numb. Now I'm in my twenties, in a completely different stage of my life, and barely a K-pop listener anymore. Still, I had so many expectations for this show. After 5 years, surely it must've been polished to perfection? Well, let me say, although I liked this show, it was not.

The first big mistake was the release method. The whole weird crypto NFT-based streaming definitely ruined much of this show's potential for growth. I know it costs a lot of money to make a show, and I agree that today's streaming services aren't always the best, but expecting people to pay $90 at the cheapest for RENTAL is insane. Wouldn't the show make more money being released on a conventional streaming platform and proper K-drama promotion? I can't help but feel so bad for the cast and crew who worked hard on this, just for the show to barely get any recognition beyond BTS fans who already knew of the drama. Most of us are going to resort to 🏴‍☠️, which I am usually adamantly against.

On to the story. Seeing the moments from the BTS music videos and all the chapters in the novels come to life on screen was beautiful. Did they change a lot from the MVs, novels, and the Webtoon respectively? Yes. The core was still there, of course. But many important plot points, especially from the novels, were completely watered down if not scrapped completely. My biggest peeve with the storytelling was that they introduced WAY too many problems and storylines, where barely any of them got resolved or even acknowledged after a couple of episodes. 7 main characters are many, of course, but not seeing any of their stories truly end is SO unsatisfying to watch. It would be different if they all got sad endings, but it just seemed like none of them had any endings at all. Cein vs the principal, Hwan vs his father, any of the boys vs their problems, literally nothing got solved. Which, spoiler, is not what happened in the books. Part of the fault lies in the screenwriting, some in the editing. I truly believe this show needed 16 episodes. The first 10 episodes were too long, diving too much into vague backstories and new conflicts, and the final two were too short, barely explaining any of them. I love the story, obviously, even to a somewhat unhealthy degree. But the execution was very messy.

All of this is somewhat saved by the acting. Holy moly, those boys can act. I laughed, I teared up, and I shrieked at what these actors could portray. The casting directors did an AMAZING job. I was also so surprised at how much some of them look like their BTS counterparts (Jeha, Haru, and Cein in particular). Their acting was so true to the HYYH characters it was insane. And a special kudos to Jung Woo-jin (Kim Jooan) and Jeon Jin-seo (Jeon Jeha), the two of them made me FEEL things. The friendships between the boys also seemed so genuine, especially Hwan and Dogeon. The extreme admiration Jeha had for Cein also felt so real, that it hurt me lol.

On a shorter note, the music in this show was not remarkable. I was surprised by how few BTS songs were used, and each time, I felt like it was in the wrong moments (except Euphoria, that song is HYYH to its core). The OSTs were all right, but I wasn't impressed.

Back on a more story-related note, I did not like the ending (which I must've already talked about, but this is more a rant than a review at this point). I was not expecting a happy one, as the Webtoon also had an open ending. The novels, however, did have a happy-ish ending, that at least explained what the hell was going on. This show somehow had neither. It felt as if they gave up on how to finish the story. This is so frustrating to me, because the BU is more or less over, now that BTS has moved onto chapter two of their careers (and are too old now to continuously portray teenagers lmao). But for this show to vaguely imply that Hwan is in a time loop, not explain why he was manipulating the boys into setting the piano studio on fire, not explain what happened between Hwan's father, Cein's mother, and the principal, not explain ANYTHING is such an unsatisfying way to end what is supposed to be the BUs biggest (and probably final) project.

Still, despite everything, the HYYH universe has such a big part of my heart, that I could never possibly dislike anything related to it. The story WAS good, it was the execution that was lacking. That's also why my rating is an 8.5, because no matter what, this show satisfied the teenager who waited five years for this show. Sadly, it did not 100% satisfy the adult I am now, LMAO, but I truly did enjoy it. If not anything, it made me listen to BTS again, feeding my nostalgia. Not to mention, the show truly was beautiful. The cinematography met my expectations, and the acting was amazing. I do recommend it, but if you're a diehard HYYH fan, you might have many of the same critiques I did.