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Age of Youth Season 2 korean drama review
Completed
Age of Youth Season 2
1 people found this review helpful
by catherine
Aug 19, 2019
14 of 14 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 7.5
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 8.0
This review may contain spoilers

Carried by Ji-Won + Sung-Min

Plotwise and sismance-wise, I liked the first season a lot better. But my overall rating for Season 2 is higher than Season 1 for one big reason: this season focused on Ji-Won, my favorite character.

First of all: the actress change for Eun-Jae. I didn't like Eun-Jae much in Season 1 either, and I knew that the change would have thrown me off a little, but I ended up completely hating Eun-Jae, both because of character and acting. If I thought the acting was awkward in Season 1, it was even worse in Season 2. Her facial expression just always looked like she saw a ghost or was stumped about a math question. It was like the actress was trying to act like another actress acting like Eun-Jae. And Eun-Jae's entire character arc really didn't help, because she became clingy and annoying. It was as if the writers also realized how boring her personality was, couldn't think of a story for her, and just thought "hey, let's try that romance thing all over again."

I also really missed Yi-Na and her fiery personality, but the moments she did appear were really refreshing. Jo-Eun was an okay addition, but it took me a long time to warm up to her, because her purpose felt like Eun-Jae's in Season 1—the "let's get to know everyone" character. She got better and I liked her with Jang Hoon, but I something about how her friendship with Ye-Ji left much to be desired, because the way they just fell out felt very sudden, though they explained it by calling it "drifting apart."

Overall, I thought the plot was a little predictable, even Ji-Won's. But I didn't have a problem with that at all, because I LIVED for Ji-Won + Sung-Min screentime. Even their friendship is goals, and every moment they had together was *a moment*, if you get me. The end scene killed me, and I'm praying for a Season 3. Ji-Won has been one of my top characters from the very beginning, and one of my notes for Season 1 was that she didn't have much depth. This season completely remedied that, and I loved how Ji-Won centric it was, even though each character had their own stories as well.

Ye-Eun was my second-to-last favorite in Season 1, but my second favorite in this one. I loved that she was a little more mellow, a little more strong, and I really appreciate the emphasis on dating violence and trauma. Jin-Myung's story wasn't that interesting to me this time around, but part of that is that I'm not a huge fan of the office/workplace setting. The one episode where I really liked Jin-Myung was the one where they were on the apple-picking trip, and the audience saw how Jin-Myung was, in a way, the glue holding the entire group together.

A lot of people said that the ending felt like a cliffhanger, maybe in regards to the sexual assault case, but I thought it was the perfect half-open ending. I'm satisfied with not seeing EXACTLY how the case played out, and since we saw that another victim stepped up, I'm under the assumption that all went well.
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