What a mess!

This started off good. The cgi , set and costume design were visually impressive. The introduction of the characters was good and the initial plot/conspiracy was very intriguing.

However, by the sixth episode I had grown tired of the repetitive plot points. The same problems keep cropping up. Characters take one step forward in an episode and then a step back in another with little to no reason given.

Characters' motivation in this drama: virtually non existent. When they are given one, it's often too shallow to be taken seriously.

Oh god I almost forgot about the editing which is absolutely atrocious. The worst I've ever seen. Whoever cut this drama deserves jail ?. It is that bad!

These are all big recurring problems throughout the drama up until episode 30 which was when I threw in the towel.

The acting was meh. The chemistry between the male and female lead is dead.

Judging by the lack of continuity, and forgotten plot lines and characters it is clear that they really struggled to adapt what is evidently a long novel to a 36 episode drama. Stories like this should either be streamlined, which means cutting out many characters and plot lines, or told over multiple series.

What a shame.

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MALE LEAD IS A CONDESCENDING ASSHOLE THAT NO DECENT PERSON COULD POSSIBLY ROOT FOR

Male lead is an arrogant condescending piece of sh*t. He is unnecessarily antagonistic towards everyone he meet. The only person he has treated with a modicum of respect is their old teacher and the rocker chick. He publicly abuse and humiliates his friends and classmates and somehow everyone just accepts it because he's an all knowing genius. He does not apologise, the people he mistreats just accepts it and move on. The drama in no ways attempt to explore the fact that this is not an appropriate way to treat colleagues. The message seems to be, he's a genius that's right and taught them a valuable lesson by being a cunt, so they should just suck it up and continue to learn from such a master.

I have never taken an intense dislike to a main character this early in a drama and I'm someone that's very partial to flawed main characters in dramas. However, only when dramas are intelligent enough not to brush their character's flaw aside, excusing it as the unconventional behaviour of a genius.

Here's how it goes:

- Genius male lead notice an error by another character, instead of highlighting it and speaking to them respectfully, he publicly berates and humiliates that person.
- Female lead calls him out and he doubles down.
- The other person, unhappy with how they've been treated, storms out.
- Female follows and talk to the person.
- Person says that genius male lead was right about the error and they'll continue to learn and grow under tutelage of genius male lead.
- Conflict resolved.

In the 7 episodes I've watched, this circle repeats itself about 2-3 times and its very likely to continue to do so throughout most of the drama because the source of the conflict (his mistreatment of others) is actually never dealt with. Therefore the male lead does not face any consequence for his actions, never has to reflect and learn from his shortcomings to be a better person. The drama instead seems to be banking on the female lead love softening him up and making him a better person as the drama progress. And judging by his condescending attitude in episode 1, her love does not seem to have succeed in changing him for the better.

Even the female lead was starting to disgust me because by episode 6 and 7, she becomes an enabler of his abhorrent behaviour. She cannot convince him to apologise or acknowledge his mistreatment of others, so she places the emotional burden of making things right on those he's mistreated. That she is falling for someone she saw publicly humiliate not just his friend but also her friend, is just mind-boggling. Every-time he invades her personal space, backed her to a wall/gets in her face (which is this drama's attempt at creating an intense moment of chemistry between the leads ), I just roll my eyes at the absurdity. Like, "gurrrrrl, is this really doing it for you?"

These are not characters you're rooting for to end up together and you may find yourself at some point, like I did, rooting for the male lead to fail just to see him knocked down a peg. That honestly, for me, is the only acceptable reason to continue watching this drama.

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