A good drama gone terribly wrong

This drama is something i had pretty good expectations for but unfortunately it failed to deliver. I don't know how i can possibly rate the show when the second lead couple was much more interesting than the main couple.

When i started this show i thought it was so cute, Academic rivals are definitely something you are likely to experience in school and the idea of meeting your academic rival after many years , as well as the fact that they were both facing struggles of different kinds were also quite amusing to me. I personally really resonated with the fl because a lot of parents tell you to work hard and "everything will work out" but that is not always the case. The ml (although not as relatable) also received very less attention and the only time his parents paid any attention to him was when he got into trouble. Now ill go in depth about the pros and the cons.

Cons:
1) the drama started out strong but i don't know exactly when but i started getting bored of the romance between the leads, I feel like it would have made much more sense if they both just remained friends because the romance was so unnecessary
2) the mystery behind the issue with the ml's medical mishap was way too complicated, i would have preferred if they just kept one suspect from the beginning and limited the mystery to max 8 episodes
3) the comedy was at most times - just cringe, I dont know if it was the acting, the writing or the directing but the comedy was extremely cringe at certain moments
4) I like park hung sik's acting but for this show it was a bit much, I feel like if the actor looks fake while doing a scene it prevents viewers from immersing themself into the show
5) The misunderstandings were drawn out, i feel like the characters did not age a day (mentally) after high school, i feel like they honestly retain the same level of maturity which shows no character development over time

Pros:
1) First and foremost my high rating for the acting goes mostly for the second leads, their acting was so much more realistic and their situations were also much more relatable, The idea of being single parents to kids of the opposite gender (single mom with son and single dad with daughter) while having hectic jobs as medical professionals and having to navigate life with teenagers was also executed well. After a certain point i was watching the show for them.
2) I feel like the mental health aspect was demonstrated pretty well, the idea of parents always pushing you to be successful and how success does not equal happiness was a strong message.
3) Park shin hye definitely improved her kissing skills, she looked like she was being assaulted in majority of the dramas but she definitely fixed it this time round

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Dramas like these should not be made anymore!!

this drama contains everything but nothing at the same time, I watched the show but i don't really know what i watched

Cons:
1) The drama was so messy and i ended up skipping alot of the scenes
2) Every storyline was so predictable and basic that i literally felt deja vu at every scene
3) the last few episodes were exhausting to watch because of how basic everything turned out

Pros:
The only thing i liked about this drama is the visuals, i honestly don't know why they make these overused teen romance plots anymore...Everything was 2 dimensional and i could not find any reason to like the characters. I will say though that i laughed a lot in the beginning because of how ridiculous the situation was but afterwards it just became exhausting to watch.

This is the type of drama you watch when you have nothing else to watch or if you don't feel like watching a plot heavy show. The show ended the moment they started dating(in fact even earlier). Nothing memorable happens and i feel like i watched falling into your smile, love scenery and love me love my voice all together. After watching so many of these type of dramas i'm honestly too scared to start a show that has sweet romance because of the disappointment that always follows. The only thing that is going to save my drama slump (hopefully if done well, fingers crossed) is Legend of shen li which is coming out tomorrow.

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Definitely deserves the title of one of the best k-dramas of 2024!!

I had pretty high hopes for this one because of the cast and the unique storyline and I am happy to say it didn't disappoint me till the end!!

Pros:
1) Little to no lagging
2) No overused cliches regarding the backgrounds of the leads
3) real life issues depicted in a comical manner
4) perfect amount of episodes
5) great osts and songs throughout
6) great casting choices
7) morally grey characters finding their place in life
8) teens finding love in a cute way

Cons:
1) the biggest con I had was the superpower with time every little change you make should have huge domino effects but here they pretty much ignore those aspect ig? but we have to understand that a 12eps drama can't cover all the semantics

Overall a great show, its a breath of fresh air as compared to your everyday rom com and it was definitely a great watch, but I have to say that if you are a huge fan of romance and not the angst then you may struggle till around ep 8-9 after that I'm sure all types of viewers will be satisfied

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Had potential but turned out - boring

I remember reading the description for this particular drama and thinking that the storyline had a lot of potential but i was truly disappointed after the first few episodes of this show.

Pros:
1) the relationship was very unproblematic with little to no drama, there were no exaggerated fights or arguments and everything got solved quickly
2) majority of it was filmed at an overseas location so it was a change of pace from your usual dramas
3) the osts were pretty good

Cons
1) the biggest issue of this show is the lack of plot besides the romance, im sure the writers wanted to take the "mature" romance with no problems route but there should have been something besides the romance to intrigue the viewers. The sports part of this show was quite boring in the sense that there was no real competition, you always know that either yin guo or lin yiyang will win the match AND even if they lose they lose to another Chinese member so at the end of the day they are all winners
2) all the scenes were forgettable - I don't know if i'm the only one that experienced this but i literally can't remember anything truly memorable from this show and that is imo a major flaw.
3) No struggle for the main leads, all though we see lin yiyang's troubled past, we dont get to see his struggle in getting better at the game nor do we see him lose when he has a comeback after more than a decade, same goes for yin guo. Also the only time ml loses is when he has an injury which made it seem like he was "undefeated".

To conclude, this is the kind of show that i purely watched to see if it could get better and unfortunately it didn't for me. The acting was pretty good but their potential was limited, after having watched the fl in reset and the ml in love like the galaxy, I feel like their talents were limited with such a lackluster script. The romance scenes were good but they weren't memorable, you could find it in literally every other drama but this one just had much more famous cast. They should have also made lin yiyang's comeback one with more setbacks because it is impossible that he still retains same level of skills after 10+ years of not competing professionally. Yin guo's skill should have been backed up with evidence of her struggle as none of the leads were shown to have truly struggled in order to get better. The rewatch value for me is close to 0 because there is no scene that i particular find unique. I definitely want to see the two leads in a more plot heavy show (myb historical?).

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Extremely good plot twists and engaging plot

When this show came out i purely watched it because the cover page looked cool but from the second episode onwards i was hooked!! the plot was so good that i was at the edge of my seat till the next day

Acting/Cast:

Jing Boran has done a great job in demonstrating the various sides to "fei-ke" he made me hate, love, pity and empathize with this fictional character that had lived a very pitiful life....The supporting cast also did well and they did their parts especially the actress who played Xuan-er, i felt enraged on her behalf and she did a very convincing job at switching personalities...The female lead was pretty good but her acting wasn't a show stealer for sure, what i mean by this is that although she does her part very well her role itself isnt that impactful in the actual show

Plot:

The plot was done so well!!! I read a comment saying that this is a special type of drama where all crimes are punished at the end regardless of the reasoning and I think that I would have liked this drama regardless of whether it had a happy/sad ending...The parallels drawn between the "victims" and "the fraud" were very well done and by the end you can't really hate anyone....I also felt like it aptly shows how even the most intelligent people can be affected by their past and how important a good upbringing is for a person.....One thing i will point out though is that you will enjoy this drama way more if you wait for the next episode rather than binging (in my case i spent a lot of time theorizing which made it a more exciting experience)

Conclusion:

If you are looking for a short drama that has a pretty conclusive ending (an extra season is not required but i read some comments on the speculation of its possibility)

there is no textbook good or evil, and every character is a person rather than a plot device for the protagonist

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT A ROMANCE SHOW, although there are meaningful gazes between leads and hinted feelings, and skinship between the supporting role with ml there is no actual romance as a plot in the story

( I tried to avoid saying anything close to a spoiler but if you want to know anymore details feel free to dm :) !)

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Not sure?

The first few episodes were really REALLY good. And then it starts going downhill, tbh i was a bit generous in my ratings purely due to the first few eps and it comes up to a 6. I remember being super excited for this show to the point of watching it without good subs.

The sci-fi aspect of the show literally made zero sense and towards the end i was so bored i wanted to get it over with.

another infuriating aspect is how we had very basic characters, i can literally describe all of them in less than 1 sentence and you would know everything there is to know about them in the show
ml and fl -> smart and solve every issue and instantly in love but they actually met as kids
the gang of three guys -> seem like bad guys but good and loyal at heart
shy girl-> jealous of fl (bestie) having a life but gets over it eventually
streamer girl -> seems like self-absorbed but has a past
bully+rich girl -> crush on ml and ofc hates fl for no apparent reason
fencer girl -> strong but has trauma
coward boy -> funny side kick who likes fencer girl
driver -> seems like a nice man but secretly the game creator ( and MAJOR spoiler : related to dad of fl)

Now something that absolutely pissed me of was how gullible the leads were, i understand all the side characters being dumb but how can the leads act that way too? They literally keep going to the HQ of a technology company and break in without knowing there are cctvs? also they sign contracts without fully reading through them and dont learn fro their mistakes after getting cheated on again and again.

The ending was honestly SOO boring idk how i got through it, especially with bad subs.I purely watched this for miles wei and saw hope in the beginning but all of it was lost unfortunately. Its almost like the writers are trying to throw us off by making the most random explainations to these sci-fi shows and they are so random that they make no sense

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A Very Realistic Contemporary Drama

This drama was everything it promised to deliver, we had the free spirited female lead, the supportive family and 4 different male leads

Pros:
1. the Story was executed very well and it was extremely realistic
2. Many opportunities to analyze psychology behind the character
3. Real life issues faced by women all over the world
4. Beauty comes with many many benefits but also just as many complications
5. great osts
6. Excellent cast - they executed everything to the best of their abilities

Cons:
there are 2 reason as to why this was not a 10 star watch for me:

1. The open ending did not make me feel content and the younger male lead was unnecessary in my opinion, his character was not done justice as he only got around 3 eps of screentime. I wish they gave the viewers closure on whether she is eventually happy ( more details on her ambitions for her future) or if they chose the romance route I wish they showed us who she chose and whether she remains single

2. THIS IS THE BIGGEST REASON WHY: The male leads (rose's exes) never fully move on from her, although she is able to leave them in the past they are always held back by the memory of her. This is very unrealistic, although ZGD being single makes sense (him being career oriented) , i don't see someone like FXW staying single for over 6 years just for her. In reality although it takes time to move on, you don't always stay in the past, whats more surprising is how only she moves on

Overall a great watch if you can deal with mature romance and love psychoanalyzing things

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THE BEST AND MOST REALISTIC LGBTQ+ SHOW I HAVE SEEN!!

I already had pretty high expectations considering the cast, budget and the fact that this is based on an acclaimed novel but this show was so perfect!

Pros:
1. love the cinematography

2. LOVE THE CAST

3. IT IS SO REALISTIC LIKE OMG

4. real people with real problems

5. even though I am neither male nor gay I felt like i could relate to their issues on a very personal level

6. I could see love: Nam yoon soo is a great actor and his co stars are just as brilliant because every person played their role....The way he looked at his co-stars made me think he was in love with every single one

7. The depiction of his character: I love how his character incorporates certain stereotypically gay characteristics in a naturally and in-excessive ways (usually you get to see them being overly "girly" or extremely "manly" as an attempt to distinguish them but I like that he is a mix of both)

8. The way they brought up "kylie" (if ykyk) it felt so REAL...kylie was unwanted and he ignored her but she is an undeniable part of his life and I love how he showed his reactions

9. Mi-ae: after seeing mi-ae and go-young's friendship I felt like I NEEDED IT...The way their relationship progressed was also
extremely natural and her future is also a less talked of circumstance

10. NAM YOON SOO'S SMILE: THIS MAN'S SMILE BE SAVING THE UNIVERSE BECAUSE HE LOOKS LIKE A LITERAL ANGEL

Cons:
I didn't have any particular cons but I do wish they had a special OST that would remind me of the show every time I heard it.

Its high time that korean media had some diversity and I think rather than judging something based on the LGBTQ+ aspect we should see it as a show with great storytelling

All in all I loved this drama and I will recommend anyone and everyone who likes realistic shows (without any biases) to watch it...

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Started out unique ended up average

When this drama had initially started airing i thought they would ruin it by making the gay character the ml (fl made him straight or something ridiculous like that) but i was pleasantly surprised when they not only openly mentioned that he was gay but also ensured that he was not the fl's love interest, regardless i was hoping he and his future lover could be the second couple which did not happen.

From the beginning i felt there was something off with the drama, i cant pinpoint exactly what it was but the line delivery felt too stiff and serious and it felt more like i was watching a melodrama like call it love rather than watching a rom-com..I could never feel the attachment between ah-jung and do-han for those who claim to have been best friends for over 15 years and they felt more like acquaintances rather than close friends (but ig you could attribute that to their seperation but even in the flashbacks they dont look close to each other)

MY BIGGEST ISSUE THOUGH IS NONE OF THIS ITS THE FACT THAT THIS SHOW CLEARLY USES THE LGBTQ+ TAG TO ATTRACT VIEWERS
lee do han is clearly a tool to bring the two leads together and the lgbtq tag is literally just to make it so that there is absolutely no reason why there would be a love triangle because lets be honest if he was straight there would be a love triangle and his younger brother having feelings for his fiancee would be plain creepy and her actions in a way, could be seen as cheating...They completely throw him away after he admits his sexuality and they dont really talk about his love life which makes me realise that his sexuality is not even an aspect of the story but rather a way to distinguish the plot from an average plot....I also could not feel the chemistry between the leads and it felt more like temporary attraction rather than 'true love'

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Revenge, Romance and Second Chances

As someone who has read (and absolutely loved) the webtoon i was so afraid that the show would ruin the story but i'm happy to say that it didn't. Although it was cliche and predictable it was just the right amount of both.

I loved the casting choice for soo-min and min-hwan, the two of them literally emulate their webtoon counterparts so well. Park-min young also lost A LOT of weight for her role in the beginning and that shows the remarkable amount of dedication she has towards the role. I found myself smirking every time ji-won got revenge on soo-min and i loved min-hwan's monologues. ( spoiler: JI WON LOOKED SOO PRETTY ( LIKE A LITERAL QUEEN ) IN THE WEDDING PHOTOS!!!)

So if i loved the show so much then why did i not give it a full 10/10 rating? Thats because personally i felt like all though the revenge arc was amazing, i felt like they dragged it out unnecessarily with yu-ra (i get that they needed to push his fate of death to someone else but i wish he had died the same way as he did in the original plot (it was so much more romantic and tragic). And i also some scenes were waay too cliche and overused in kdramas.

Also i loved that they didnt just end the show with the wedding (or before) like they normally do for kdramas, their life 10 years in the future is seriously couple goals (and body goals lmao).

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Generic

This drama started out with plenty of potential but somewhere down the line I just lost interest.

Potential:
1. I feel like if they chose something less generic regarding the FL's past and misunderstandings that ensue it would have been much more enjoyable
2. Side characters could have had much more intense and engaging backstory
3. They could have incorporated something idk, unique?

Pros:
1. Cute Happy ending drama
2. Good looking cast
3. (more skinship than the general c-drama? but I have noticed this in many of Xu ruohan's dramas) this could be a pro/con
4. FL that takes no bs from others
5. ML and FL who (atleast in the beginning) are very open and talk about all their issues

Cons:
1. The most confusing part for me was the flashbacks, both the ml and fl look quite young (and the actors are very young!) they resemble college students and it honestly took me longer than I'd like to admit to figure out if it was a flashback or not (only the uniforms were a give away)

2. This is an issue i have in general but recently I have noticed that some c-dramas have a lot of whitewashing in the dramas and for me its a huge con because some characters look fake because of it and it takes away my viewing experience since i focus on their skin instead

3. Maturity. This is the biggest issue, since highschool the 2 haven't matured or reflected on the past and they are still as clueless as before

4. the producer's daughter that is out to get the FL...What did she even do? like her character was just entitled and liked the ML because she got screamed at by the FL..pftt no way

5. No depth to any characters...other than the one person i mentioned earlier everyone (leads) are 2 dimensional, their reason for falling for one another and staying together are just as vague to me

6. Using skinship to compensate for lack of originality. Xu Ruohan's previous drama "Forbidden Flower" also had its fair share of skinship but in that genre it felt right (if ykyk) but in this drama it just felt like a cheap attempt to make a fluffy basic drama into a "mature" one

All in all I think some will like this some will not, I found myself skipping a lot of scenes but that could just be attributed to the fact that I have seen quite a lot of shows with similar plots. So, if you have a lot of time but nothing to watch, watch this..I would recommend binge watching since you might forget it exists if you don't watch it for long?

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One of the best republican Chinese shows out there

I started this show purely for wang yibo but stayed for the plot, The plot is not particularly unique but the setting and the cast definitely made a huge difference...

the good
The plot was very intricate and the cinematography was very good, i also liked how there were some morally grey characters like wei ruolai's neighbor who didn't hesitate to treat him like her son when it was beneficial for her and blame everything on him when she was in trouble. I also liked the fact that most characters are pretty normal, Wei ruolai for instance used his fiancee back home to reject women but at the same time when he started moving up the social ladder he became embarrassed of her whereas if you take lin qiaosong, he wanted jinzhen as his trophy wife when he was powerful and did not care about his "lowly" mistress but as soon as he lost everything he learned the value of the one that was by his side

the bad
The issue with this drama is that all the morally grey or bad characters are not communist, the communist are shown to be very upright and caring people. If you notice throughout the story there is not even one "bad" communist and all the non communists are shown to be morally gray or power hungry. Another issue which was purely from my point of view is the romance, If the show has no romance i'd prefer it if they didn't give unnecessary hope to viewers by showing cute short scenes, it makes it so much worse when you think they have a chance of ending up together(ToT)

conclusion:
overall great show but i wish they showed more "war" of faith by making sure that the non-communists also had valid points or good people because one side is never always right, but i get that they probably can't due to censorship and other issues but i wish that it was harder to choose sides because it makes the show more interesting (acc. to plot so far communist party is the only right choice)

the only thing getting me through the pain of a certain someone's death is this edit:
https://youtu.be/5ph57bSYMpg?si=hODy7zjm6ZOlpZ5H

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Pretty Good

While starting this show i did not have high expectations since the cast was quite unfamiliar for me (i have only seen one of shin se-kyung's drama's "Run On") but i was utterly mesmerized in the first few episodes.

Pros:
1) The biggest pro for me is the ml's acting skills, his eyes are so expressive and his line delivery is impressive, i found myself rewatching his dialogues because they were so powerful
2) The struggles of being the king was described really well and the king's predicament was also well written
3) Wave by Taeil which is one of the main osts of this show was soo good, its very melancholic and the tune was stuck in my head for days
4) I also really liked the fact that court lady dong was not a one dimensional villainess who always conspired to do evil but rather had feelings of her own
5) The queen's story was quite tragic and im glad that they didnt portray her as an obstacle to the main couples relationship but rather as a noble girl that got unlucky and her relationship with the grand prince was also really cute

Cons:
1) The ending didnt really feel like a proper ending, after seeing it i felt like i was seeing the second last episode rather than the last episode, i had certain hopes for what their relationship would end up as and i was sad that none of it came true
2) It got very fast paced towards the end and very draggy in certain parts as well
3) I remember being so annoyed when the fl kept having the deer in front of headlights look for every scene and the fact that she kept going back to revenge when the ml was baring his his heart out to her
4) I still dont see why myung-ha's character was necessary to the plot
5) I dont know if its the bad/biased writing but the fl's scenes were so unmemorable, on one hand you had the ml's POWERFUL line delivery and emotions and the fl consistently had the deer in headlights look and her lines were just not IMPACTFUL enough

Overall i would say that its a pretty good show, the first few episode were easily a 10/10 but the later episodes changed my mind. All in all if you like angsty romances with very less skinship but a lot of meaningful looks then this show is definitely for you. I do think that i liked this show more due to the fact that i waited every week rather than binge watching the whole thing since the wait at the end of every cliffhanger and the numerous predictions i cooked up were definitley a huge part of the experience

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UNDERRATED DEFINITELY DESERVES A HIGHER RATING!!

When i started this show i literally had no expectations, for one it was a female centric chinese family drama(most of which are generic), there was an ex-bf and his annoying family, the fl's annoying mother and worst of all the pathetic ratings on mdl..But dont let any of these stop you from watching this show


pros:

1) All the characters are realistic and their reactions to situations also seem human, no one is excessively kind and they react the way a normal person would in most situations

2) parallels between characters: i think that there are a lot of clever parallels drawn by making certain similar characters in order to prove that the environment you were raised in matters more than money, xie jialiang's father's mistress grew up in poverty just like MCH but she turned out to be greedy and cunning whereas MCH is caring and diligent, we also see some comparisons between MCH's ex and Zhiming, although both of them are rich, zhiming was forced to be independent and opportunistic and he learned to cherish his loved ones due to all the loss he faced whereas xie jialiang turned out to be timid because he was used to always getting what he wanted and not having to fight for anything(hence not being able to protect MCH)

3) The pacing: I have to say the pacing was absolutely perfect for most of the show and i think that the breakup/resolving of issues with mom all took the perfect amount of time

4) One of the biggest issues i have with certain female centric shows is that they force the fl to choose between love and career (although this may be realistic) but im glad that the fl didnt have to give up on either and got the best of both worlds

5) The ML....YAO ZHIMING OMLL...He is the epitome of husband material, there are so many shows where the ml ends up "helping" the fl and basically the intelligent fl is dumb in comparison but this man was so respectful, he never made decisions for her, he always stood by her side when she needed him, he tolerated her mother even when they were not together and he was RESPECTFUL. after hearing his grandmas will he did not throw a tantrum or make some plot to steal the hotel(this may be the bare minimum but its still so gentleman like) and he always lets her know when hes jealous or uncomfy with a situations (hes literally such a green flag)


(may contain spoilers below)
cons:
I only really have one con and thats a pro in itself in a way? SO the fl's mother never really got the retribution but on the flip side i think that its very realistic she didnt(so technically not a con)

she lived in the country side and was very uneducated and she got married at a young age for a better life but was still stuck in the circle of poverty and she lived most of her life as a mother, she had no other identity besides a mother/wife and so her only job was to worry about her husband and children and make decisions for them....I wish they hadnt given a her mom a terminal illness at the end because that literally felt like they gave her physical pain in return for the emotional trauma she put her kids through, it feels really weird hating on a sick character and i felt like she should have changed more.....BUT I personally also feel that the chances of an asian mother changing her personality and habit of nagging is one in a million (lmfao) and most people cant change the way they behave so yeah i think it wasnt that bad

one other thing that was weird was how many rich people were around her, shes like a real life rich person magnet(I'm still waiting for my grandma to tell me she is secretly a millionaire T-T)

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