Geeks (2024)

"Lukewarm" is just how they like it

Never had I ever waited for thursdays more eagerly. Geeks centers on 3 eccentric women, who are smart, efficient and just utterly entertaining. If you haven't watched this, you should. I'm biased here, but I'm sure everyone will be in this case. Because:

Story: 8/10
In a year and season full of great Jdramas, this might actually take the cake. Our leading ladies work at Takanashi police station, each having a different role. Saijo is a forensic investigator, Kira, a psychologist/doctor (I'm not quite sure about her, it's confusing a lot of times) and Motoyama, a worker in the traffic department. These 3 are drinking buddies, who at all times prefer not to work even a minute overtime. Despite their unique jobs, personalities and backgrounds, they get along and work together really well and help out our resident Showa era style detective, Serizawa, to solve different cases. We see not only their work lives, but also a bit of their personal lives, as they deal with their families, coworkers and a particular neighbor.

I'd like to point out, that while all 3 are main characters, the show's story focuses significantly more on Saijo than the other two. But, Saijo being my favorite character, I found that to be an upside instead of a downside. And overall, the story is very well-done. One of the best written Jdramas this year. The amazing comedy mixed with a bit of mystery and drama was the perfect kind of "lukewarm". Just kidding, it was wonderful.

Why is the story not a perfect score, then? Well, 2 things. One, I want a second season, and I know I'm not the only one. And two, I want the *sort of* romantic cliffhanger to be resolved. Yes, the romance is also SUPPOSED to be 100% lukewarm, and no more than that, since that's Saijo's motto. But it's really disappointing to see it left hanging at the end. Because to me, it seemed to me like they wanted to make a big deal out of the love triangle plot, with kind of pinning the guys against each other (they really called it a "battle between men" in the mid episode segments where they show the previews), promoting it on the socials (one of the off shots of Saijo and Serizawa was so cute) and (especially) the previews and having the other 2 girls and side characters commenting about it regularly. But that could just be the show's way of poking fun at the whole thing... who knows?

Kira's story also had a decent execution. Can't say te same for Motoyama. Her story felt like it was executed rather half-heartedly. It could've been very interesting. She and her siblings are all half Japanese. They could've actually done something interesting with it, but chose not to. All she does is chase after her no-good dad to get him to take some responsibilities, and sometimes worry about her siblings becoming just like him. They also didn't explore the different sides of her character like they did for the other two. So DEFINITELY, not as satisfactory as the other two.

Characters/cast: 9/10
AmAAAAAZIIIING~! Immensely talented and adorable actors playing quirky and fun but also relatable characters. I'd love to talk about Saijo, but that character would probably need an entire review of its own if I start talking. I'll only say that she was very fun and cute till the end. I love Matsuoka Mayu all the more now. My first time seeing Tanaka Minami and Takizawa Karen in a drama and they both killed it, as expected.

After the girls, Serizawa is my favorite character. And I'm not only saying this because of my Nakamura Aoi bias. Serizaw is old-fashioned and a simpleton which is not necessarily bad. It doesn't earn him many points with Saijo, though. Nonetheless, it doesn't make him any less cute or deserving of (the audience's and Saijo's 😆) love. And yes, I definitely had second lead syndrome for Nakamura Aoi's character, for the second year in a row in a Fuji TV drama. I hate to say this because I'll forever be team Serizawa, but Adachi got all the cute moments with Saijo. I found this very sad and frustrating. Serizawa is amazing, and he deserved to get some more cute moments with Saijo (besides the scene in episode 6). And man, the sad face he makes when he's disappointed to hear what Saijo thinks about him- broke my heart.

Adachi's story and character felt so inconsistent at some points. After that twist in episode 5, I was expecting his cold side to show up every now and then. Yes, it's believable that a person can be very different in their professional and personal lives, but the switch just didn't feel well-executed to me. Like it was a one-off thing just to force some drama between Saijo and Adachi, and then Adachi's character and relationship with Saijo was reverted like nothing had ever happened.

The side characters were fun too. The standout for me was Sugita. The overly enthusiastic, but resourceful junior of Saijo. He was fun. Oh, and Ano's character didn't serve much of a purpose. I'm mentioning her because I know a lot of people like her. The character just shows up once every episode to threaten someone. I haven't watched Ano in many things, so I didn't think much of her character here either.

And while these people were very entertaining to watch, the way these characters were handled was unbalanced. Like I said, Saijo got way more focus than the others, with Motoyama's character's potential being wasted. And Adachi kept getting all the cute romantic moments with Saijo, with Serizawa not getting enough attention on the romantic end.

Music: 7/10
The BGM of Geeks was excellent. Just the right amount of quirky and funny music that keeps your attention and reminds you how serious a scene is. And while it could be argued that the ending song goes with the theme of the series, I wasn't a fan of it till the end. "Jibun Jishin" sounds very retro, and that's not my kind of song. That doesn't mean it didn't grow on me even a little, which resulted in a score of 7, and not a 5.

Rewatch value: 9/10
I feel like rewatching it already! It was so memorable and cute that writing the review makes me want to rewatch the series, even though I just finished watching it. Not the finale, though. That one is just frustrating to me. But I'll definitely rewatch the other episodes soon.

Overall: 8.5/10
I simply loved it. The criticisms I made were because I cared too much, and not because the drama itself wasn't good. No such thing as perfect, but perfection is overrated. I'm sure we wouldn't have liked something as much if it really was perfect. On behalf of all otakus and geeks, I believe I can say that this drama was a lovely treat.

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