Reviews

Oh my gosh, the chemistry!

A lot of people complained that this show was slow, which worried me. C-dramas aren't my favorite, because they tend to be bloated with filler, drama, unnecessary breakups, not to mention the helium-voices of the female characters. What made me decide to watch this, I have NO idea, but I'm so glad I did!

There are certainly things missing from this show. Disapproving parents, irritating second leads, stupid misunderstandings that cause a long break up (there was one brief argument, but that's it), irritating-voice dubbing (though, to be fair, the dubbing of the voices of the announcers during the competitions, and when Yi Yang was singing to Yin Guo were pretty bad), evil exes coming back after years and wanting to get back together, delusional potential girlfriend/boyfriend doing anything they can possibly do to win the leads over - all of that was thankfully left out.

True, it is slow, but in this case, I loved it. It wasn't story or character driven; it was relationship driven. Leo Wu as Yi Yang and Zhao Jin Mai as Yin Guo were a couple made in heaven. He sees her from afar and determines that he has to meet her. Theirs is a tentative relationship, not really knowing how to talk to one another. His stares - oh my goodness. The word "smolder" in the dictionary should have his picture next to it! Whenever he looked at her, he forgot everything around him, and I forgot to breathe. More often than not, I felt like a voyeur because of their intimate glances and comfortable skinship, They really played that up as well, with their friends always averting their eyes, leaving the room quickly, clearing their throats, etc. Their kisses weren't the best I've seen, but they weren't bad. I loved how he always wanted to be near her, or he'd hold onto her sleeve briefly. I loved how she wasn't skittish or missish. Neither had been in a relationship before, but they were learning as they went. They were respectful of each other and of the time demands required of their careers. I felt that the ending was a little rushed, but since we got so much togetherness throughout the episodes, I can't complain too much.

There was "sort of" a second couple in Yin Guo's half-brother, Xiao Dong (excellent job by Wang Xing Yue) and one of the other billiard managers. I wish they had resolved their relationship better. At the beginning it was like he had a stick up his butt and he didn't appear to like anyone or anything, but he really went to bat for Yi Yang and Yin Guo's relationship.

Filmed mostly in Finland, the scenery was beautiful, though how they managed to have so many different winter jackets is a mystery to me.

There was a LOT of talking about and showing billiards and snooker. That got to be pretty repetitive. Then there was the obligatory section toward the end that was cheerleading for China. I will just fast forward through all of that, since I will DEFINITELY be watching this again!

There was one episode that had me grabbing my tissues. Leo Wu brokenhearted about his teacher really got to me.

This, for me, was a total feel-good watch. I vacillated between secondhand embarrassment of their skinship, and just wanting to watch their relationship develop. This show made me happy, and I smiled a lot while watching it.

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I was so excided to watch this and so disappointed by the end of it.

With Strong Woman Do Bong Soon (Swdbs) being one of my favorite dramas and this one being a sequel written by the same person I thought this would be a great show but I couldn't be more wrong. WTF was this show?
P.S. For those of you who are going to tell me to look at it as a different show and not compare it to Swdbs, No, just no it's a sequel taking place in the same world, and Bong Soon literally has a cameo. So I'm going to compare.

This drama is supposed to be an action rom-com but there are no enjoyable action scenes and it doesn't help that there is basically never any suspense as the "heroes" in the story at all times have the upper hand. There is never a moment where it feels like Shi Oh is going to succeed in his plan. Then for the fighting scenes, I guess they are somewhat okay however this story is supposed to take place not long after Swdbs yet so much of this part of the family's strength is different and what's with their ability to know when the others are in trouble when that's not something that existed in Swdbs. As for the romance part of things literally, none of the characters who are supposedly in love with each other have any chemistry. As for the comedy, nothing was funny, there wasn't a single humorous moment.

On top of that, about half of this show feels like filler scenes. What even is the importance of any of the scenes with that homeless couple past the first few episodes? Anyway, this is overall a very disappointing show and while I would like to watch a better sequel, I think it's best if we stop here. This drama just shows why it's better to only have 1 season shows.

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viva la vida

ah damn, i've watched this kdrama more than once, ah yeeahh... i've just finished watching this kdrama for the second time, u know this kdrama makes me nostalgic and idk how its feel btw... actually i don't really like kdramas with a "time traveler" theme but for this i can talking about it, i've been wanting to watch it again for a long time, i like all the acting actors here, there are Ryeoun, Choi Hyunwook, Seo Rina, and another one i forgot, this one her also played in the kdrama "Summerstrike" unfortunately i forgot her name, i just remembered her name is Shin Eunsoo, that's her name, what else do u have to explain here, i like their struggle in this story, it impressed me

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Personally, I found Season 1 so much better

And this is why. Multiple corrupt police and government officials got promoted following season 1 and continued their corrupt ways. We, as the audience, already knew they were corrupt. Then, they added more corrupt people. As I mentioned in my review for Season 1, the same people tend to play the same type of characters from drama to drama. You see an actor come up on screen and you already know he's corrupt. There is such a thing as overkill on the corruption story, and I think this season surpassed their quota.

There wasn't as much police procedure in this season, just a lot of time spent on the bad guys, showing how they are always a step ahead of the police.

ML was excellent. He'd lost weight since Season 1, but he still had that "worn out" look about him. I missed him having so much interaction with the two police that he worked with in season 1. He was more of a lone wolf in this season.

I loved Go Gyu Pil and Hyun Bong Sik in their roles again this season. They are always good for comic relief.

Perhaps, if I hadn't watched this right on the heels of Season 1, I might have enjoyed it more.

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A Glamorous Facade: A Review of Style Over Substance

An outdated storyline wrapped in dazzling costumes, stellar casts, and expensive product placements. Yet, these elements fail to hide the writer's lethargy, evident in antiquated tropes, an unengaging plot, and foolish characters. The villains, with their absurd and unconvincing motivations, were particularly disappointing. I wouldn't have made it to the end without fast-forwarding through most of the last five or six episodes.

However, I must commend actor Kim Soo Hyun, Jeon Bae Soo, and actress Kim Jung Nan. Their performances were outstanding, living up to their reputation for delivering great work.

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They WILL NOT BREAK UP ?.

You know when they say the first chapter of the novel should be eye capturing to keep the reader attention. The first episode was like that for me. The Ten's part where he doesn't eat anything and the stuff happens to him was so much fun ? ? ?.
I like this story and how they maintain it. I was thinking on every bad situation that now they're gonna breakup and but they didn't was total a thumbs up. But I totally don't get today's people love life. Like yeah I like you and I can KISS you but still I need to make it OFFICIAL to call you my girl/boyfriend ?.
But still some things really bothered me also. I hate these kind of stuff where everyone's telling the main character that what he's doing is right when he actually DID wrong. Like how Prem's sister asked him to take money from doc and THEN she ACTUALLY wrote "money scammed from doc" as fun just for everyone to see and blamed him.
Like how the Chef Chang Ma were actually helping the group when he was actually the judge of show. He didn't consider that. I know he has feelings for Prem and still he should've known better.
But thank God Prem is matured and didn't do any stupid stuff.
If they won the competition when they show us from the very start how clumsy they were, I would have disappointed but they did the right thing.
All in all I liked it. I was kinda got bored on the 8th episode but they still somehow got my attention. ?.

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