Twenty-Five Twenty-One (2022)

An unforgettable show made by a stellar set of characters

I've just finished watching this show and there's a lot to unpack so bear with me.

I think what I love about this show is it's not written with any grand plot or story conflict. It's a show about life. There's no overriding antagonist in this show, no villain. The enemy is simply life, and the circumstance with which you might find yourself in. Bad things happen to our characters because of life's unpredictability and they adapt reluctantly because that's the reality of growing up. This is a show about teenagers stepping into adulthood and facing some harsh choices in life.

I like that the story is set in the nineties because the world was full of excitement and uncertainty as to what the future would look like. Internet had not made communication as frictionless as it is today and so relationships were more face-to-face rather than online. All of that, combined with a very interesting sport to use, made for the perfect settings for this story to grow.

A show can have an amazing plot and fail because the characters are boring. Or you can have a show with a technically mundane plot thrive through its characters. This is what Twenty Five Twenty One does. It creates an amazing story not through the plot but the characters. They are all, each, lovely people with their flaws and quirks that make them worth spending time with. The support cast are fleshed out enough that you don't need to constantly see Na Hee-Do because you enjoy their stories too. These are real, human beings.

And because of that, the strength of the show was during the first act. Her rivalry with Ko Yu-Rim was intense and beautiful - and it worked because we were allowed to empathise with Yu-Rim. She is a working-class girl barely able to afford anything compared to Hee-Do, with the weight of a nation's expectations on her. She watches her family struggle and sacrifice and knows she needs to win. Even though we are introduced to the show through Na Hee-Do and see Yu-Rim as her opponent, we never see her as an enemy because we are allowed to see the real humanity in her, and that ultimately she's a young woman besieged with so many problems.

Their rivalry drove the show, culminating in that match and then events bringing them together. Once they formed a friendship, the show did really well in making their bond plausible. But its retreat into the backdrop was detectable as sometimes the show lacked an overarching conflict driving anything forward. The show instead became about the five of them as a friendship group and it worked in that the episodes remained enjoyable and we were treated to moving scenes, but it didn't carry the punch that Yu-Rim brought when she was more focused on. That's the other thing; fencing as a theme in the sport didn't really matter as much once Hee-Do and Yu-Rim had that epic match. And when they rematched in Madrid, I thought narratively it would have made more sense for Hee-Do to lose finally to her friend. When it came to fencing, Hee-Do's character was a little too polished. It would have been more interesting seeing her lose yet happy for her friend who had suffered so, so much.

I will also say, episode 14 centring on Yu-Rim was possibly the show's best episode, it was marvellous.

Na Hee-Do was a tremendous character. I loved her energy, resilience, humour and ferocity. She was the highlight of the show, of course she was right? Everything about this character was so good and what I really liked was the show addressed her naivety as simply her still being young. Sometimes when characters do silly things we berate them for it. But with Hee-Do, there is an acknowledgement it's because she's still young and is growing up. I found her relationship with her mother to be a really beautifully crafted one. Again, the show knew how to handle characters and relationships.

Back Yi-Jin was an interesting character. He promised to never be happy yet even when freed from that oath and he had gotten the dream he wanted and the girl he wanted, he was never truly at peace. The nature of his job wore him down and there was a really sincere and realistic portrayal of the slow withering of his spirited nature, until he became quietly depressed and beyond being consoled. We knew his relationship with Hee-Do was never going to last but it still hurt once you could see the writing on the wall, and more so that he wasn't even trying to save the relationship, perhaps aware it was finished.

Regarding the final episode, I've seen a lot of people with mixed opinions. I did enjoy it and thought it was well done but I think that final scene of Hee-Do reading his message in her diary and emotionally reconciling with how they broke up in the tunnel would have been better had they not cried in each other's arms at the bus stop. It would have made their meeting on TV and the final scene far more emotionally satisfying because it would have been the first and final closure they had ever gotten from how they had broken up with each other. That was where the show sort of fumbled its landing but I did still enjoy it. No tears though. Again, maybe that's because I think the emotional punch was sort of tamed by Hee-Do and Yi-Jin finding each other at the bus stop before he left for New York.

Lees verder