Let's talk about the plot. For me, I like the topic about trying to achieve one's dream but having so many hurdles in front of you that a lot of times, you just want to give up. I sensed that in the first half of this drama. I felt the hardship. Being ripped off, being seen from others as a no potential, having others stepping on you like your worthless because of your status. At the same time, we see two sides of family impact as well, barely any support and too much support to where they are controlling and you don't know how to adapt to reality. Some people may find these kind of issues in a drama boring but I liked the realness of it and I could sense it. I would've been fine with this drama had the whole drama revolved around this, focusing on the family relationship issues and the relationship hurdles when becoming a celeb now.
But here's where it went wrong. The writer lost a sense of direction in the second half of this drama. Past ep 8 is pretty much worthless to me. They added conflicts that, in my opinion, weren't needed. I think they were trying to add the reality of scandals occurring in a celebrity's life but I just didn't see a purpose for this relating to the initial plot. The annoying reporter and the stupid old manager who cheated on Hye Joon's success and growth were a real pain that ruined the 2nd half of this drama. To be honest, the last few episodes weren't handled well. The last episode may solve a few things but in honesty, a lot of episodes wasted.

Character wise, they have a few strong moments but it's really forgettable due to the overall character of the leads being pretty bland.

Music wise, this drama has some great OSTs. It's just that it wasn't played much as I would've liked to hear.

Definitely not worth a rewatch after seeing the direction the writer decided to go with this. Had the potential to be a good drama for me but failed miserably.

Read More

Great Firefighter mission scenes but everything else is sloppy, rushed, & full of nonsense

Geez, with a C-drama that doesn't have the annoying drama clichés, usually I would find okay, but this one, can't say I ended up liking it to the fullest. I was disappointed of how the product of this drama turned out.

What I liked about this drama:
- The firefighter rescue missions: Watching the scenes gives just a glimpse of the everyday lives firefighters go through, sometimes the missions are simple while other times it can be a dangerous challenge to save lives.
- The characters - Even if the plot wasn't that great, I was too invested into the characters already so I couldn't just easily drop this. I love the closeness of their friendship, like they just know they could rely on each other.

What went wrong for this drama:
- The story plot: They had such good content and topics in the beginning. It should've been expanded to several episodes as I saw these events as important. The events impacted the livelihood of the main characters and yet it was rushed to like a 15 min portion of an episode. Adding a villain to this drama proved useless to me. Why include episodes about corruption when you could've solely focus on the rescue missions from the firefighters and medic, heck even show more romance between our 4 couples. Anything is better than adding drug corruption.
- Speaking of romance, it's lacking in details as every scene just feature like the couples liked each other from the start when that really wasn't the case for some couples. Though I like the chemistry between the leads, I needed more of a progression of a relationship for our couples, not just "hey I like you now, let's be together"
- Bad Transition and Editing: Because of the director & writers trying to put every idea of a scene by squeezing them together in an episode, the flow from scene to scene did not flow well. It was bad for the most part, however I will say that the flow was good at times when the setting of a location remained the same. Editing was terrible in some scenes. Sometimes you had a character talking but the camera wasn't focus on them so you didn't know who was talking and there were some audio issues as well. It's like they didn't bother watching the episode before releasing it.

Had they been police officers, I would understand the need of a villain but come on, this is a group of firefighters and a medic team. Why would they need to stop an evil illegal drug overlord? This just doesn't make sense and makes the last 7 episodes of this drama pointless. Happy ending regardless though.

But hey, that's just my opinion. If you read this and still wanna give it a try, go for it. I only stuck around because of the cast. It's not terribly bad but just a drama with better potential had this been given at least 30 episodes.

Read More

So what does this drama have to offer? Well, it does give a new perspective on face blindness as an illness which is never seen in dramas before. The main leads have a great chemistry that I really enjoy watching, as well as the second leads chemistry which rarely happens in dramas. Every osts fits very well to specific scenes shown with music and it's enjoyable to listen to. There is comedy in this drama but I would say it's mostly because of a certain secondary character was why I laughed a lot.

Here are the issues I have with this drama. The relationship between Min Ik and his adoptive mom seem fake towards the end. All of the sudden this 180 degree change? Never throughout this drama do you see a character progression in his adoptive mom so this wasn't believable. It was monkey wrench threw in by the writers to not make her look like an evil witch. As much as I like the main leads when they're together, they're pretty stupid. I don't usually mind when either the male or female lead is a bit dumb but when you have both at the same time, it can get pretty annoying and frustrating. So many hints and clues reveal in this drama to the main lead characters but yet the writer makes the leads brush over it like it was nothing or being not smart about it. The acting is just okay overall. There are some scenes where the characters shine but a lot of times, it's just cringy to watch and hear that "awesome" word. A lot of filler episodes that dragged the progression of the plot. The ending did felt rushed but at the same time, the last 2 weeks of episodes were a bit boring to me.

Overall, you will get a good share of comedy and romance since the chemistry with the main & secondary leads are on point. It's just that the plot & the progression of the plot wasn't handle well in my opinion.

Read More

I haven't seen the first season of Romantic Dr. Teacher Kim so I came in watching this with no expectations. While there are some good moments, I have a lot of issues with this drama.
1. The last episode is so messy. Why are the writers still introducing many issues, making it seem like there was going to be a few more episodes, when clearly it was the final episode. That doesn't make sense. Also, kind of a weird way to end with the villain still on screen. Usually, the battle with the villain would happen at beginning of the last episode, not the tail end. Bad placement in my opinion.
2. Dr. Park should've had character development at Ep 10 once he confessed to Dr. Kim about his past guilt trip. He should've went from a guy who wanted to see Dr. Kim lose everything to a guy who forgave himself and began to change his ways, become a doctor that he should be, and work together with Dr. Kim to defeat the evil chairman and save the hospital. But instead, the writers were lame and kept him still against Dr. Kim, until the last 2 episodes. For what good reason? Nothing. Didn't make sense at all.
3. The lacked of and forced romance. Why even bother showing romance when about 90% of the drama doesn't even focus on it? I did like Woo Jin and Eun Jae together but this drama doesn't do justice on showing their developing relationship. It seemed more like friends than a boyfriend & girlfriend relationship. I couldn't see the chemistry. The secondary couple Ah Reum and Eun Tak, I don't know, it just wasn't convincing to me that they had chemistry and the lack of scenes showing them they really like each other weren't there either. A kiss in the last episode for both couples, while I did like seeing it, doesn't make this a romantic drama at all.
4. The character of Eun Jae was shafted considering she's suppose to be main lead. Her story was pretty much ignored in detail, including gets nauseous during surgery and her family issues. But how was it solved (if it was solved?). She took pills to prevent being nauseous but was there a backstory on why she was like this? If there was, it's not very clear in the drama. Did she continue to take the pills?
5. Why even bother tell heartbreaking stories of their patients that the writers leave unsolved? I know they're not the main plot but still, it would be better if there were closure to the side stories. Example: the ill son who's mom was abused by his dad.

Good parts of this drama
* Dr. Kim is the best character in this drama. He makes this drama watchable with his smart comments
* The support of the Doldham hospital staff. Everyone has each other backs, especially my favorite Mr. Goo.
* OSTs are always on point.
* The tributes they paid to the paramedic worker and to the previous president of Doldham hospital. These scenes were so emotional for me.
* Realistic medical scenes

Overall, it's just okay drama for me. I wasn't too fond of how the writers handled a lot of situations, plot was too messy especially the end, and how they wanted to show romance but was a far cry from it. Either show a good amount of it or don't even bother with it. But, it's up to you if you want to watch it or not. It's a great cast nonetheless.

Read More

I Still Like This Drama Despite The Annoying Things

I've seen my fair share of firefighting theme dramas and while this one isn't perfect and has a lot of annoying and frustrating moments for me, this is probably the better one I've seen compared to the others. To summarize my ratings, the story was good for about 25 episodes. Then fell flat the rest of the 11 episodes. Main characters were great but it's the FL's childhood best friend, the jealous reporter, & the good to bad intern were the reason the acting/cast category lost points. Lots of pointless characters or lack of character growth/progression. The music osts were pretty good overall. A lot of rescue/firefighter theme dramas tend to have good songs. Not a guarantee rewatch but I may come back to certain episodes that I enjoyed.

What I like about this drama:
* The ML's character Jin Shi Chuan & the FL's character Xu Lai both have a story that was focus on and both had a conclusion. It was a healing process for both of them.
* Main couple relationship was adorable and cute once they got together. Girl chases guy for a while but there was also a small moment where the guy had to chase the girl.
* Secondary couple also had a story (more of the SFL than the SML and I also enjoy the screen time of them together. Guy chases girl which also heals her and for a small moment, girl chases guy to help heal him.
* Love the brotherhood of the firefighters. I like how they are so relaxing with each other and love to talk among each other when it came to Capitan Jin.
* I enjoy the episodes when they introduce the dogs to the firefighters and trained with them
* The music osts were great. I enjoyed listen to every intro and ending ost when watching an episode.

What annoyed me about this drama:
* Xu Lai seemed a bit stalkerish in the beginning and made the first several episodes hard to watch. She wasn't much different from her childhood best friend who had a crush on her.
* The love rival for Shi Chuan aka Xu Lai's childhood best friend Huo being delusional thinking he has a chance with her despite Xu Lai specifically stating she doesn't seem him as someone she could fall in love with but just as a bro. Bad writing on this character since the writers stalled his progression until around Ep 29.
* Breakup of the main couple that lasted 3 episodes. The old, I don't want to be a burden to you so that's why I'm breaking up with you cliche.
* The failure of the 3rd couple featuring Huo due to the lack of growth and progression in his character and not moving on from the crush he had on Xu Lai after being rejected.
* Stupid jealous witch reporter: A minor villain who served no purpose in this drama other than to annoy the viewers. You can easily take her out of the drama and this drama wouldn't be affected. A case of bad writing and adding nonsense to a drama that wasn't needed.
* The anger from the camera man intern: What was the point of this? He all of the sudden gets bad at Xu Lai, who he was interning under, for something that's beyond her control? This is another case of stupid writing because his character wasn't even significant enough to be shown he had a problem.
* Another case of wedding not fully being complete because of a sudden call for an emergency. Seriously? Why do Chinese writers keep putting this scenario towards the end of the drama?
* Story plot stalled. Repetitive things happening once the main issues for Shin Chuan & Xu Lai were resolved. It almost seemed like the writers ran out of ideas and started to repeat things towards the last several episodes. Examples: Stupid jealous reporter returning to cause trouble, Huo not giving up on Xu Lai, etc.

The problem I have with rescue or firefighter themes drama is there's seemed to never be enough rescue missions. The writers did a good job showing it in the beginning only to rarely show it in the middle and towards the end. I did like the episodes where the firefighter rescue squad met and train with their dogs, but even then, there wasn't much mission with the dogs as well. That's a bit disappointing considering there's a dog on the drama poster. I kind of wanted more involvement with the dogs but it is what it is.

Despite all of that, I still enjoyed it, mostly because of the main couple, secondary couple, and the firefighters. Their cute & silly moments are the reason why I manage to continue this drama despite all of the other frustrations. The ending could've been better but at least it's a good ending.

Read More

There are some things that are "BAD" but it's not this prosecutor

Let me start off with the good things I liked about this drama. It's funny. There are many action/fight scenes that I enjoyed. There's a cool group of friends that our male lead character Jin Sung can rely on 100% of the time. The acting was great. I sense the anger, annoyance, happiness, funniness, and frustration each character showed and to end off, the osts sounded great. Maybe not one I would listen to in my spare time but definitely cool to hear during the episodes.

Some things I wished would've been better
* The writing for Prosecutor Oh: I like actor Ha Joon but this character did not give this actor justice. There was no sense of direction on whether he was good or bad. He's supposed to be a main character but felt more like a side character. If the end goal was for him to be a good guy from being a lapdog to the powerful, then at least show some character progression. Show that he realizes he's been doing his job wrong. A quick 180 change doesn't make sense to me if we don't see a buildup change.
* Not much connection with the lead characters: There could've been a connection as to why Jin Jung became a prosecutor relating to his father's incident but that didn't happen, hence hard to connect and understand the actions of Jin Jung other than being crazy. No backstory at all for our FL so in a way I didn't really care much for her but she does have her moments in the 2nd half
* Plot's nothing new, doesn't stand out: Pretty much corrupted bad guys being puppets by the true villain, taken down 1 by 1 until reaching the final boss.

To summarize:
It's not a drama where it will draw you in the first half unless you're a fan of D.O. I mean his acting is great as usual. It gets a little better in the second half once the puppets and the true master mind gets revealed and the good guys have the upper hand. Besides the great actors/actresses and nice osts, there's nothing that really makes this drama stands out to me. It was just missing a lot of backstories for me for our leads & even Jin Jung's group of friends. An okay ending. Ends how it begins with Jin Jung being a crazy prosecutor.

Read More

The first C-drama for me that I'm sad it's over

My first initial reaction when I saw this drama, "oh it's just another school drama where they eventually figure out their lives and go to college". I mean it's not wrong. It does follow this format but when you watch it, there's just something special about this drama compared to other high school dramas. To think I almost skip this one but seeing the clips of this drama, I was convinced and gave a try and I don't regret it.

Now the FL's character, Ding Xian is what I like to call a weak character in the beginning. She is shy but also a pushover, as she's afraid to speak her mind. You see why once you meet her mom. Ding Xian's mom is very irritating as it seems she wants to control her daughter on all of her decisions and that she only cares about her studies. We also see some of the mom's favoritism to Ding Xian's annoying little brother. All of these will lead to many not liking Ding Xian's mom. Do they both see character growth? Yes and thankfully it occurs early enough where you can watch this drama without problems later on.

The romance is cute and sweet for our lead couple. It's a steady buildup of their relationship. Though they weren't official until later on, you can tell as you progress each episode that they slowly start to have feelings for each other. I just love the amount of support the Si Yue had for Ding Xian because this is what she needed in order to grow. Also there's great friendship in this drama as well.

The music is just amazing and on point. For me, it's another highlight for this drama.

Downsides to this drama? Well their college years seemed lacking compared to the high school scenes. Like you may not even know they were in college if they didn't specify it in their lines. Friend #3 for Si Yue's friend and Ding Xian's friend lacked screen time. They are our third couple but their chemistry is a bit lacking because of the limited screen time for them. The last maybe 3 to 4 episodes seemed just out there. It's not bad but it just didn't flow as well for me compared to the other episodes.

But overall, this will still be considered one of my favorite C-dramas that I wouldn't mind rewatching.

Read More

I will admit, the first episode I had trouble focusing even though it gives you insight on why Wol Joo is currently in her situation. It does get better the 2nd half of the 1st episode. The ending, though happy, I kinda wished it would've been handled better. It is predictable on who is who but that didn't stop me from enjoying this drama.

Character/Actor/Actress wise: Some may hesitate on watching this because of actress HJE being in another comedy. I've seen her other romantic comedy dramas and yes, I was annoyed by how she was portraying her characters in those other dramas but in this one, she hit this role perfectly. It felt natural to me her comedy side and her vulnerable side. I love every moment and scene of her character.
Choi Won Young, wow. I've seen him as a villain in Doctor Prisoner but this role, he's just adorable and funny. That's what makes him a great actor but please don't do anymore villain roles. I like this nice side of him. lol.
Sung Jae, great acting being the passive & vulnerable character but I kinda wanted more from him. It's not the actor's fault. His character lines just didn't give this actor his full acting capabilities. I mean I got to see another side of his acting when his sacred tree spirit came out. That was awesome but short. I wanted to see more of that. But overall, great actor. I expect more roles for this guy when he comes back from military duties.
The younger cast of Crown Prince and Wol Joo, they were spot on as well. I saw more of them in this drama than I expected for being a young cast. I love how they got to be reunited in the proposal of Ep 11. That just melted my heart. I hope to see them more in other dramas.

Story: I love the plot from beginning to the end. Because of Wol Joo's goal was to handle 100,000 grudges, we got to see a different story in each episode that pertain to the hardships of one's life. There's always a special meaning in each episode. I kinda wished the main plot was handled a bit better though. What I mean is that instead of revealing everything in the last 2 episodes, it would've felt less rushed if pieces of the truth were revealed in each episode say after episode 6.

A few things that bother me about this drama. There is a plot hole that was never mention in this drama: why Wol Joo and Crown Prince looks older as a spirit but everybody else looks like how they were as a spirit when they were human. When they enter the after life as spirits, they were their younger selves. There's no mention why they age but everybody remain the same, like the spirits of the crown prince mom, the evil friend, the advisor of the crown prince (aka death), the cinnabar. Also, how did nobody know what the evil friend spirit was doing? You know, he was killing and absorbing other spirits, possessed his dad, the grim reaper. I mean there subtle hints that the grim reaper wasn't the same usual guy and yet nobody took those hints, not even the higher ups. It would've been nice to have at least 1 main character being suspicious about this. Last episode felt very rushed. Given that there were only 12 episodes total from the beginning, the progression of the plot stalled for too long. Too many things still happening for the last episode.

But overall, despite those small plot holes and issues and a rushed last episode, I stilled enjoy this drama. I think this is a first for me where I see a main lead character ends up with a support character. Interesting and yet their chemistry was on point. So many cute moments of them. Even Wol Joo and Chief. While they may not have spent the time together as Wol Joo knowing Chief was the Crown Prince, her lover, they still had many adorable & funny moments together. So I say romance definitely occurs in this drama even though it's not the main focus. You won't waste your time watching this one.

Read More

This drama had a good story plot but in my opinion was handled poorly. The writers seemed to do well in the beginning but it got pretty sloppy afterwards. I get it, there are so many episodes so they need to fill those episodes with other topics but come on, the important parts of this drama that was shown in the beginning was pretty much ignored until the very end. It was very heavily focus on the female lead and her exam/school issues along with not being able to get over her one sided crush for the majority of the drama. That makes it boring because there wasn't anything significant about those scenes. Even with 30 episodes, the story progression was so slow and the ending was rushed. Chemistry was pretty weak for the main leads. The support characters were also in a relationship as well and it's pretty cute to see but I just didn't see much of a development with their characters to say their relationship was at a level that was shown in this drama. Don't even get me started on the villains of this drama. They basically were non existent for this whole drama and then decided to do something "bad" at the very last few episodes. What a joke! And for some reason, it seems like villains always get away with their evil deeds in Chinese dramas (well at least the ones I've seen). WTH? No justice! Poor writing and poor development in the relationship making department for the main leads but it is funny with a few likable characters.

Read More

"It’s a story about a man and a woman who participated in a project to be frozen for 24 hours". Sounds interesting right? But what killed it for me already is the "only to be awakened 20 years later due to a mysterious scheme." I hated this part of the plot. I felt like the cast for the main leads would had a better relation with every character, had the cast remain as their younger counterpart. It was just too awkward having an old person acting young because they're technically the lead's younger siblings or younger co-workers. That just didn't work for me. I had to skip those scenes because it's too cringing for me. Don't get me wrong. I'm not bashing the older cast for their acting. I just think that it would've flow a bit better had it only been 5 years later. Then the cast would've remained the same and at least it would've been a bit more watchable.

But even if the cast remained as their younger counterpart, the plot wasn't all that great. We had this bad guy who wanted to destroy all evidence of this “Frozen Human Project,” just so he can keep his fake identity and get rid of his twin brother. He did everything from murdering his sister in-law & a professor that Professor Gap Soo was under & attempted murder of Professor Gap Soo and his assistant. He did all of that just to easily be arrested with still 4 episodes left. That made the rest of the drama pretty boring in my opinion. But how did the writer try to not make it boring? Keep one of the villain's goon still around, trying to hunt the main leads down which leads to a stabbing towards the end. What was the point of this? The evil dude is in jail so why would this goon still want to help out someone who has no power anymore? That doesn't make sense. What's worse is that there wasn't even a scene of his capture, just verbal words and a phone call about his capture. Talk about anti-climatic for the crime the goon did to Mi Ran. Because of this, we spent the last few episodes of pretty much everybody in sadness. This was a waste for the final week of airing.

Chemistry felt forced between the leads. I didn't see the connection. Because they both were stuck in a capsule, all of the sudden they like each other? Yeah right. I felt more sorry for Ha Young because she still loved him all this time and yet Dong Chan changes love because of being part of this project. He made her suffer for no reason. The love relationship between Mi Ran and Dong Chan isn't great either. A lot more bickering between each other from start to finish.

Others problems I had:
- It was never revealed who expose Mi Ran's participation in the frozen human project. We as the viewers had a guess who it was but the rest of the characters never dig deeper into this issue. Why did that random worker girl do it? We'll never know and we'll never see her get punish for it.
- This drama tries too hard to be funny. A lot of scenes that were suppose to be funny weren't funny at all.
- The writers trying to develop a second lead between Mi Ran and a student, who's suppose to be 20 years younger than her. Ew.

Ji Chang Wook is a great actor but this drama doesn't show any of his acting attributes which is a bummer. Won Jin Ah is an actress I will keep an eye on but again, I'm not sure if I would remember her role from this drama.

Overall, it's a different story situation, being handled pretty poorly. I say look for other dramas unless you really want to watch it because of the cast.

Read More

A Gaming Disaster

Let me just share with you my opinions and you can decide if you want to watch it or not. I'm a huge fan of gaming or sports Chinese dramas because the story follows their own set paths and not have the typical Chinese dramas cliches so I was excited about this one...... until I actually watch this one.

This drama have the potential to be a great gaming drama. The signs are all there but because the writers introduced the typical Chinese cliches in this drama, this is what ruined it for me. It's a 35 episode drama but I would say the writers wasted a good 20 to 25 episodes full of nonsense, headaches, and anger that was pointless.

A bickering ML & FL with each other in the beginning I can understand and I can understand the hardship the ML faces in the beginning, but when the writers kept repeating this pattern of ML & FL suffering for about 75% of this drama, I've had it. It resulted in skipping. Evil people in this drama whose punishment is barely anything gets me furious. Don't even get me started on the brushing off that the writers did on the sexual assault that the scumbag manager did on the FL's friend and the attempted sexual assault on the FL. I really hated how this was handled like it was nothing. Then you have a few side characters who are just the root of evil. Why do they get so much power on doing certain things even though they're not important? And all of this sudden, they get caught and last minute change because they lost everything? Yeah right. Oh and there's that stalker ex of the ML who seems okay at first but they decided to ruin her character by making her obsessive with the ML, even toward the very end which ruined the last few episodes for me. They ruined the ML's character because of this ex and I'm not happy about that. Tons of misunderstandings and an evil stepmother who's so rude but all the sudden has a change a heart immediately.

Also, I'm very disappointed that the FL's dream of being a commentator wasn't presented well in this drama. They stalled on her progression too long by making bad things happen to her due to that evil jealous co-worker. Progress was needed for her to learn and improve yes but she should've been shown commentating the esport long time ago, not just for the final showdown. Yes, she got to experience her dream but it should've been for multiple events not just the last one.

So what's good then? Well I did like the developing relationship between the leads, started as friends to eventually growing to like each other. Their friends are the goofballs. The FL's friend is the overprotective mother while the ML's friend is just silly overall. Of course, these two friends do like each other and there's another sweet couple too that I wish had more screen time. The gaming is okay but it's more of just seeing them playing on the computer than actually seeing game action scenes. The SML was my favorite. Even though he seemed like a non likable guy, he was just a fanboy of the ML throughout the series which ended up making his character pretty funny and cool. But overall, it's the bond and friendships the ML makes with others I really enjoy seeing.

So in conclusion, a potential to be a great drama but adding nonsense, headaches, and frustration ruined the quality of this gaming drama for me. Very rushed last several episodes and a lot of wasted episodes. The typical Chinese drama cliché of a problem occuring even towards the end of this drama ( I hate this!). This is probably the worst gaming drama I've seen but I stuck by it and not drop because of the lead characters and their friends.

Read More

Great first half but lost its touch second half but has a great ending

Personally, I liked the first 8 episodes of this drama. It focused on what this drama was about, fulfilling the wishes of the patients who don't have that much time to live. I like the stories of the patients. It just touches your heart so much when you see their story. It's also refreshing to see how the FL's character is the strong one in a way where she wants to protect the ML's character aka her love. It makes sense since he came from a broken life.

I almost wanted to say this is a healing drama but it's not really in a way since there's not much focus on it for the hurting characters, other than the ML's character, where you do see the healing process. The characters (Seok Jun & Joon Kyung) who had a trouble life do overcome their pain and hurt, however I wished there were more scenes and storytelling for them. It seemed rushed at least for their story.

As much as I wanted to see more of the other 2 orphan characters, this is also where the drama went downhill for me. Because of their lack of explanation of the healing process for these two and the introduction of the abusive father for about 6 episodes were kind of drag for me. This drama lost its touch that it had for the first half. Although they did try to bring it back in the second to last week of episodes featuring the grandma and her 2 grandkids, the multiple bad father scenes just made me angry and frustrated, and I had to skip those scenes. It was to the point where I didn't enjoy the drama as much as I did for the first half.

The final week of episodes made it up though, mostly the final episode. I felt like the last episode flowed well. It didn't feel rushed, and it was presented in a way where I was satisfied with finishing it. I'm also glad that they brought back the guest characters from the past episodes as well. Normally, writers will just forget about them after their story is done but I'm glad the writers for this drama didn't do that and brought them back. It just shows the great impact team genie had on these characters and I for one appreciate it.

Overall, great OSTs. I mean I just love all the songs in this drama. A great first half but stumbling in the second half. In the end, it had a great conclusion & nice wrap up to the drama.

Read More

A Drama That Had Good Ideas But Writer Failed To Deliver

This is one of those dramas where I question myself, what did I just watch? While I did enjoy the moments of our leads from the moment they started to have feelings for each other, the jealously scenes the ML had, & the happy ending overall, the writer just missed out on so many things that could've made this drama a whole lot better.

The story plot focus could've been about the e-sports competition for the ML's character & the journey of being a hanfu designer for the FL's character, but instead, we just get the ML's character searching for his eternal star childhood love, which the writer didn't deliver well anyways because the FL's character didn't remember at all. She didn't get into an accident or anything so if it was that important to her, why did she forget about it? At least show some hints of the FL's character of a childhood memory throughout the drama so the ML's character could start wondering if she was the one he's looking for. Instead, we just got subtle scenes of him on the phone with who knows who, searching for his childhood love and I would say 70% of the drama revolved around the apartment life of Yu Heng & Xiao Di. Again, some great story ideas but the writers just failed to act on it. Most episodes just didn't feel significant enough to be consider as worth watching.

The characters in this drama could've been written better. SML's character was poorly written until almost towards the end with his one sided love, no matter how many times FL's character told him she only sees him as a friend. ML's character Yu Heng just didn't have any good character qualities for most of the drama. It wasn't until he realizes his feelings that he starts to be a little better and likable. FL's character Xiao Di was childish overall. Though she does have some good moments, there were a lot more scenes where she was frustrating with the way she thinks or acts to situations. Even Xiao Di's friend and Yu Heng's friend didn't really serve much of purpose to me other than just being there and being a complicated 2nd couple. Then you have this game enemy of Yu Heng, who you don't even know why he hates Yu Heng so much. This guy finds out Yu Heng's weakness but doesn't really do much with it and he's only in a few episodes throughout the drama and then the writers showed a somewhat ending for this guy. What kind of writing, for this bad guy character, is this? It just doesn't make sense to me the importance of his role. Don't even get me started on that annoying girl who was Yu Heng past teammate but also has a crush on him.

There are dramas where I could watch the intro & ending credit because of the music ost but this one I couldn't. I just didn't like the music personally. The drama does have some good ost in the drama itself but I wish those songs would've been the intro & ending osts instead of what they chosen.

Though there are a few scenes I do enjoy seeing and may come back to, definitely won't rewatch the whole thing.

Read More

Strength of the drama is the Youth Scenes & Stories

This is a lengthy review, so let me just summarize some important parts one usually would like to know in case you don't want to read the rest:
- There are no love triangles (though there is another girl who likes the ML, but she gets over her crush pretty soon and roots for the ML & FL characters). Only 2 couples officially, but you can see a 3rd couple within the deskmates even though it's never declared
- Focus more on the youth: The classmates were the interesting part of the drama for me. You may think 40 episodes is a lot (and it is in my opinion) but a good chunk focuses on the classmates.
- Typical bickering enemies to falling for each other main leads
- Misunderstandings/lack of communication
- Romance is mediocre: Though there are some sweet moments, it's not as satisfying as other dramas with the romance tag
- Unfortunately, this couldn't avoid the typical C-drama breakup.
- An unclear bad guy that doesn't become obvious until the end
- Ending is just okay, not bad but not an ending I would be completely satisfied with

Read Below For More Details

What I liked about this drama:
* The youth of this drama: Though this drama does have a set focus on a group of students, I really like how almost all of their classmates got to have a spotlight in a few episodes, so we got to see their side of their stories. I really appreciated this. Even though in my opinion this drama could've been shorten a bit, this is part of the reason that this drama has 40 episodes total.
* I like how the ML character Dong Nan has a liking to Spongebob. I feel like you see some sort of Spongebob often in this drama.
* The steady character development in Dong Nan, going from achildish celebrity to a caring music teacher
* The bonding of Dong Nan and his students
* The funny school security officers. Their scenes are always funny.
* Su Qi's parents being complete opposite of your typical C-drama parents (Examples: Trying to get rid of her to get more alone time with each other, her mom complaining that Su Qi cleans and cooks too much, LOL)
* The nerdy roommate/math teacher: I just find his interactions with the other characters funny.
* Sheng being the true MVP in this drama, taking care of everything for Dong Nan. Best overall character by far.
* Nice steady progress of our second couple relationship from start to finish
* Loved the music osts but it's pretty hard to find some to add to my playlist.

What I didn't liked about this drama:
* The writing for Su Qi isn't that great. She's a FL character so you expect more but the way she was presented was all over the place. Her character is such a roller coaster. In fact, sadly to say, she might be the make it or break it for you when it comes to continuing to watch or drop this drama. There's nothing wrong with a strong FL but what I hate about her character is her act of violence due to her short temper and when things don't go her way. The fact that they want to make it "comedic" when she beats up Dong Nan is not funny to me at all, as I stated in the comments previously, you wouldn't be laughing if the roles were reverse. She jumps to conclusions and forms misunderstandings with Dong Nan, always thinking the worst. I will say, this is the first half of the drama where she has this issue. The second half, she slowly starts to get better. Despite her moments where she does become likable a bit, her character doesn't develop as well as the ML. She pretty much remains the same with a few good changes here and there.
* Lots of misunderstandings and lack of communications
* Vice Principal Du Kai is hecka annoying. Seriously, his character serves no purpose other than to annoying the heck out of the viewers with his remarks on everything.
* No real punishment to that douchebag paparazzi or to the fake friend. They didn't get punish enough, if at all.
* Writers missed the opportunity on an actual villain in this drama. Seeing evil things happen in the last few episodes seemed very random, like there was nothing be built up to it.
* Dong Nan's initial conflict of plagiarism in the beginning never had an official conclusion
* Romance is a disappointment for the main couple: A lot of bickering for the first half of the drama, then you get some sudden flirts, and then enter drama cliches: accidental kiss, get together at Ep 28 only to break up at Ep 35 but get back together at the last episode.
* The make up from a break up is very weak. I expected an apology from Su Qi from the cruel words she said to Dong Nan from the break up but nope, nothing even close. Not even a confession to where she states she still likes him. Like there's not a bit of regret shown from Su Qi from what she did or that she really wants to be with him from the breakup (Ep 35) to the make up (Ep 40).
* Weak ending: It's not bad. How it ended kind of make sense for me but it's not satisfying for me. I felt like a lot was missing in this last episode.

Would I recommend you give it a try? Despite a lot of things I didn't like, I say yes. Like I said, the youth part is the best part of this drama and it's what kept me going. You just gotta overcome the temper of Su Qi in the beginning. Pass that part and I think you may enjoy it if you like dramas with a school setting. I think I would rewatch it but only the youth scenes.

Read More

This drama just has everything I liked. It had a beginning, a middle/climax point, and a good pace ending. Everything that was presented as a problem in this drama was answered and solved. There were no plot holes for me as everything connected to one another. Even the mini stories of the ghosts had a beginning and ending. I like this because a lot of times when dramas goes to this format, they can leave some mini stories on a cliffhanger but this drama didn't do that and I give kudos to the writers for the detailed writing and scenes. Even the last episode flowed so well that it didn't felt rushed and it was a satisfying ending.

Now there's no romance though, despite me seeing the connection and chemistry between our leads. I did wish for at least some scenes for this but at the same time I was okay with it as well because the story was the main focus for this drama.

Music wise, the osts were good but not one I would add to my playlist. I kind of wished multiple osts were played often in this drama. Instead, I think I heard more of the same song in each episode.

Overall, this drama is definitely one of my favorites for 2021 just because the plot was well written, ending was well pace and not rushed, and the scenes and visuals looked very cool. Everything was well thought out.

Read More