There is one reason and one reason only these two episodes are getting as high a rating as they are and that is solely because of the cast. I had serious concerns after seeing the trailer for MSP and those concerns were absolutely valid. MSP was one of the dramas that had a lot of places it could be taken, so to have them choose to do an alternate universe with essentially the same story, just some roles switched, felt indescribably lazy, not to mention boring. This special could have been so much more than it was and I'm truly sad at the lost opportunity.

I cannot even begin to explain how lazy the premise of this felt. I know I've already said it once, but seriously. They could have jumped to them in college or after college though age wise that would have been a stretch or, heck, the summer after they graduate. Just about anything else they could have come up with would have been more interesting and creative than what we got. It's not a word for word or scene for scene copy, but it's close enough that I struggled to stay invested because it's already been done.

Everything felt rushed, probably because they were trying to fit a 12 episode drama into two episodes. It also felt choppy for that same reason. The lack of continuity made it feel like we were jumping from one scene to the next. There needed to be a bit more filler to join everything together. I also felt like the quality was just lower. The music was great as always, but there were multiple times where the instrumental parts overwhelmed the vocals to the point they were very hard to hear. And while in MSP it at least looked like they were actually performing live, I didn't get that same impression here. It really just seemed like they were lip syncing and quite obviously too. There was also the ballroom dance exam scene which dragged on far too long and it was painfully clear they hadn't had nearly enough time to practice because their movements were so stiff and clunky. There just wasn't any smoothness or grace in the moves and transitions.

I haven't felt the product placement thus far was super obvious or annoying in Our Skyy 2, but I felt it in these episodes and it was annoying. The commercials are more than enough, blatant camera shots of products are not necessary and they just detract from the quality.

Now when I say the cast was the one saving grace, I am not even kidding. They were literally the only reason I persisted through both episodes. They are all so charismatic and engaging , but even they seemed to be lacking the energy that was present in the drama. Everything felt a bit subdued. Don't get me wrong, they still did a good job with their various roles, it just wasn't as strong as MSP where they pretty much all rocked their characters.

I think I really noticed the off energy with Sound and Win. They were such firecracker characters in MSP and here it seemed like the fire had gone out of them and they were shadows of their alter universe egos. Same with Tinn and Gun to an extent. They just didn't have that same spark. Part of it with them, I think, is that Fourth and Gemini didn't seem at home in their alternate characters. That could just be my perception, though. Fourth just has that mischievous, chaotic energy that really lent itself to the character of Gun in MSP. And while Gemini certainly has his own mischievous moments, he lacks the same chaotic energy and appearance wise, he comes across as more mature. I'm sure they had a lot of fun swapping roles, but I didn't find it fully believable. I did like that Tiwson and Por got to be realized as a fully fledged couple. Their interactions were adorable and I'm happy they got more screen time. I do think trying to throw in Khajorn and Phat as another couple, albeit more of just a suggested one, was unnecessary. Honestly, and absolutely no offense to Aun as an actor, but they could have just removed Khajorn completely and nothing would have been missed. He just didn't add that much other than showing how his alternate universe character is a complete 180 from his MSP character.

The one other aspect that I actually quite enjoyed was the inclusion of other BLs in their MV there at the end. I thought that was cute and clever. He's Coming To Me is on my list of dramas to watch so I didn't catch that reference, but Bad Buddy and Tale of Thousand Stars were obvious and fun to see.

These episodes have some cute and funny/cheesy moments. They do change some things up so it's not a carbon copy of MSP, but if they wanted to go with an alternate universe story, there were so many more creative ways they could have gone about it. And that really is the biggest thing for me. It lacked the originality, the fun, the creativity, the very vibrancy of MSP and instead what we got was a shallow facsimile of the original. I didn't hate it, but neither did I love it and I think I'll always be left thinking of what could have been.