I was curious to why The Blood of Youth had such high ratings. I knew there wouldn’t be a romance (well, it’s not heavily featured) but the cast seemed solid, so I thought to give it a go. I will have to say, I wanted to love it like everyone else, but it just simply okay for me. In fact, I would describe it as fairly boring and REALLY slow pace.

I don’t need romance to be the focal point of the story, I enjoyed Joy of Life and the simple slow pace of The Untamed. I however I wasn’t a big fan of Sword Snow Stride, but at least that drama had better “romance”.

Overall, I found The Blood of Youth a little boring and not enough romantic gestures.

I did love the loyalty between the core cast. I enjoyed watching the little story arcs and the comical theme / tone of the drama. I didn’t really care for the palace politics and really did feel like the drama could have been shorten by 10 episodes at least.

The costumes were good, but there wasn’t enough variation and the hair and make-up was decent. I thought there was A LOT of story arcs to go through and I found some hit or miss for me. I tend to like the tragic side love stories more, than the tragic friendship / family ones.

The ML was the star of the show for me. I really appreciate his acting, it’s the cold stoic acting, but not too much under acting, which made him so cool. Love the different type of friends he made, for example, the silly simple one, the beautiful child-hood friend and the quirky non-practicing monk.

I think if you started the drama and was completely drawn, then go for it, continue the series. I was holding out for the more impressive scenes, like the epic fight scenes or “romance” exchanges you kind of get (but not really). I actually put on my calendar to force myself to watch at least 2 episodes a day.

To sum up, these friendship base dramas with lack of romance are hit or miss for me. I didn’t love it but I can see why everyone else did.