catherine
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So much potential
I feel like with better execution this could've been along the lines of LOTBS or MLFTS, or even Extraordinary You. But the thing about these dramas were firstly that the sageuk and the present-day moments were evenly spread out throughout the drama so that we understood there was a reincarnation aspect to this. In the drama, it was all present-day for the first few episodes, all sageuk for 5 more, and then present-day again for the rest. It just made for very messy and weak parallelism.With that being said, I was honestly more interested in the historical story, which is a rarity for me. But it had a really good action aspect to it, and the nobility/commoner difference also made the tension much more interesting. Still, it ended sort of weirdly and anti-climactically.
On the other hand, though I love school dramas, the school part of this had so many cliches, including my least favorite: AMNESIA. There also really needed to be an enemy, like there was in the sageuk portion, which could've made it so much more interesting. Essentially, I felt like the "bubbliness" of the drama — the fact that it was just about bullying and being nice to vampires — made the present-day portion super weak compared to the sageuk.
Honestly, I also got pretty bad SLS during this, especially during the present-day scenes, and the way he was haphazardly slapped into a relationship with the bad girl was super fast and made no sense to me. I felt like his character could've used a lot more development NOT centered around the main girl — his backstory with his parents was much more interesting.
Overall, I laughed a lot during this, not because it was meant to be funny, but because it took itself so seriously when things were actually really ridiculous.
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It definitely took a while to get into, and honestly I was annoyed by the main character who was just overly boy-crazy right off the bat and talking about how she only attended college to find a boyfriend. It's also pretty obvious that it's Young-ji's acting debut — it wasn't the worst, but there was definitely a lot of bad overacting and it made the character seem super pouty and whiny all of the time.
I also don't know how I happened to get second lead syndrome in such a short amount of time but it happened.
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Heartbreaking but a tad too repetitive
Seriously, I basically cried every other episode. Honestly, this drama could'dve used less crying and faster plot, but some of the scenes worked super well, and it made me miss my mom like crazy.The moral of the drama is honestly really powerful and really moving. You can expect that it would be about grief and moving on and living life to the fullest — and the entire time I felt like it was impossible to see a happy ending for everyone, and that was sort of how it went.
I was honestly a huge fan of the sideplots too. Even some of the ghosts that I thought were annoying at the start quickly grew on me when they were tied into the main story.
Ultimately, there were some things that could have been stronger. The reasoning behind why Yuri had to go back up was weak, and there was an exorcist character that basically had a role for two episodes and then disappeared again. The same could be said for Pilseung, who I really thought could have a bigger role as well.
Still though, I was really worried they would turn this into a full blown melodrama romance, and I am so glad they didn't. It was a lot more about family and friendship, which I loved. The sismance was something I loved to see, and the way everyone acted was honestly super mature and respectful of boundaries and of each other — it's something you don't see a lot in any drama, and how realistic this was only made it all that much more heartbreaking.
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With that being said, I don’t think anything in this drama really made it stand out from all the other school ones I’ve watched — it had pretty similar plot points and characters, most of which were the stereotypical bullies.
I also havesuch MIXED emotions about the ending! There was an extra special episode on Viki so I thought there were 17 episodes and by the end of 16 I was still thinking, yep, one more episode and everything can get wrapped up. Maybe I’m a fan of neat endings and wasn't emotionally ready for the bittersweet open-ended type. The more I think about it, the more I like it, but it still threw me off.
I also honestly really liked the pacing of the entire drama. There’s no single overarching plot with a climax and a resolution, it’s really all just about students trying to get through life (with a wee bit of baggage).
I'm not one to rewatch dramas, but this one might be a future one. And ultimately, I gotta say I’m surprised that all the guys really grew on me ( even if it took a while to get there) and Namsoon/Woobin friendship was so worth it.
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The romance storyline was there but it seemed blown a little out of proportion near the end — I felt like they had both used each other. And it just got very repetitive to see the main female lead looking at her ex-boyfriend with hurtful, teary eyes in EVERY episode — I wish they had talked it out in a more mature conversation.
I also really didn't like or care for the second pairing at all — and honestly I was annoyed by the sheer boy-craziness of the friend. I kind of wanted her to not end up with anyone and just realize she should be happy with herself first.
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Short but well-paced
This drama is only two one-hour episodes, but the pacing was done really well and I didn't think there was too much or too little conflict, though it was a little predictable. I also was not a fan of the female lead, whose personality was very boring and sparse, despite having such a rich backstory.I did like how there weren't any needless misunderstandings and miscommunications.
I also appreciated the little tidbits of humor, but I honestly don't think they were altogether necessary, and I would've preferred it if they spent a little more time with the dad, who was just wholesome and lovable.
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It's heavy for sure, and honestly I didn't expect that it would cover such a long period of time. Thinking about it now, it's the only style that makes sense to put the entire movie within its changing historical and political context.
There were several moments throughout the movie where I definitely teared up, and for someone who didn't grow up so close to the subject, that means a lot.
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Although I'm typically not one who likes epilogues and I was terrified of the track record of typical Chinese dramas (unnecessary angst), the way they handled the time skip INCREDIBLY, and overall there was no character whose ending was left open-ended. Everyone had their own stories and character development, and I felt so much nostalgia and hope watching it.
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The main female lead also had to grow on me, because for a lot of the drama she really just felt like the typically quiet wide-eyed girl in kdramas. I really liked the scenes that she had with her mom and honestly wish it was explored more. The mom was an annoying character that was dumped in halfway and then left unaddressed.
I will admit that the last episode had some surprising twists which short web dramas are often unable to pull off. I'm left feeling a little bittersweet but hopeful, which was nice.
I also have mixed feelings about the "second ship." I appreciate the attempt to focus on characters aside from the main two, but at the same time I felt like they didn't add much to the story as characters and took time away from other things I would've liked seeing (ex: FL's mom).
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Slice-of-life is my favorite genre, and this drama reminded me a bit of Age of Youth where it had a large focus on the friendships over romance. Going off of this though, there were some small sub-plots that I felt like could have been fleshed out more and some side characters that I wanted to know more about — but with this being a short web drama, I'm not surprised that there wasn't time to cover all the bases, and if there are future seasons I'm sure each character will get their turn (kind of like A-Teen!).
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There are some plot holes that are still left unanswered and I wish they were explored more (like the ex-boyfriend subplot), but there seems to be a Season 2 so I'll let that slide for now.
The OST is also surprisingly catchy.
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Then, I have no idea what happened. I felt like I must've missed an episode where something terrible happened, because it felt like there was so much random angst, and I didn't know why the characters were making bad decisions.
Sung-Yeol started out as one of my favorites, and I even felt a tickle of second lead syndrome. But his character regression was one of the worst I'd ever seen, and his temper tantrum lasted way longer than it had to. A lot of the side characters, like both Sung-Yeol's parents also started not being able to communicate and lacking common sense. The mom was especially frustrating, and I don't think I ever got a good enough reason why she did what she did. Overall, everybody being stupid made the drama have eight more episodes than it needed.
I had read reviews saying that the beginning and end were good, but the middle dropped off. For me, the middle dropped off and the end never got better. It utilized a cliche and didn't explain it well, and there was a dreaded time skip. Overall, I really wished that the angel thing was explained more, because I wanted to learn more about how everything worked, and if the world-building had been stronger, I'm sure the plot would have had more, instead of dragging out the same thing for eight episodes.
One side ship that I really rooted for was Tae-Ho and Joo-Ah, both characters who I had a soft spot for from the first second they appeared on screen. I liked how the ensemble grew in size as the drama went on and that friendship started to play a bigger role than romance.
I also really liked how witty and meta this drama could be at times, talking about dramas and love triangles. Those little comments always made me laugh.
The OST is also surprisingly good—every song was a bop and I'll be downloading them all!
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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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I was mostly in it for the plot and the vibe of the videos, versus the actual ship. I lowkey felt a little second lead syndrome, but overall I still really enjoyed watching this.
Part of me also wishes there was more to this. For example, A-Teen had a lot of friendship, family, and identity, but this one was very centered on the puppy love.
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I have very mixed feelings after finishing this. I definitely didn't enjoy this as much as Reply 1997—it wasn't until the cameos did I realize how much I missed Shi-Won and Yoon-Jae. Yet, the series still had the similar Reply vibe, which made me enjoy watching it still.I didn't really have a preference for the love triangle, mainly because the writers seem to very visibly alternate which character (Trash or Chil-Bong) had more screentime. I found myself rooting for whoever was on screen. Except, when they were both on screen and were insulting each other, I found myself not really a fan of either one of them. The way the love triangle went, though, it definitely went on for longer than it had to because it felt like Na-Jung was indifferent to Chil-Bong from the start and never wavered. There were some scenes where I really liked Na-Jung's chemistry with Trash, but other times they acted just like brother and sister and I thought Chil-Bong would've been better as the husband. Trash also really hurt himself when there was this ten-episode build-up around why he wouldn't accept Na-Jung's feelings and all we got was the most cliche "we're like family" explanation. Just a note though that I did get spoiled for the ending and I already knew who was going to be the husband.
Now here is one HUGE thing that bothered me: the fact that they used Yoon-Jin's drunk secret-spilling habit to advance the plot not once, not twice, but THREE times. If it was just once, I would've been okay with it. The second time, it got repetitive. And the third time was really just annoying, especially since nobody bothered to stop her (even knowing her habit) and just let her go on and on.
The series definitely dragged on for longer than it had to by including scenes and dialogue that would be in everyday conversation, and some episodes that were one and a half hours long killed me. But the vibe I still enjoyed because it felt very slice-of-life. At the same time, however, the scenes were longer but I felt like they jumped around so much and there were some scenes I wanted that were never shown. What was Na-Jung's initial reaction to Chil-Bong's first confession?
I'm honestly a little disappointed with how Hai-Tai and Bingguere's stories went. I LOVED Hai-Tai's banter with Yoo-Jin and his friendship with Na-Jung and it lowkey hurt me that he didn't end up with any girls in the main squad. For Binggeure, even though I get that sexual confusion is a thing, after Joon-Hee's intense presence in Reply 1997 and all the similar hinting for Binggeure being gay/bi as well, then suddenly giving him a female love interest in one episode and having them end up married...it just felt a lot like queer-baiting to me.
SCP and Yoon-Jin's relationship also had to take a lot of time to grow on me, because I was shipping her with Hai-Tai, and SCP just looked like an old man. I'm glad that that was a running joke though, which made it better.
I was honestly not a fan of Na-Jung at the beginning, because I was really annoyed by her fangirling. And I don't inherently have something against a main lead in an unrequited love, but the fact that she made it so damn obvious and overreacted with so much angst...that pissed me off.
Also, since the characters in Reply 1997 were friends before the drama started whereas the characters in 1994 had to meet each other, the friendship aspect felt very lacking at the start.
I definitely think this one incorporated more nostalgia and references, and my favorite was that of the Sampoong department store collapse, because it was the first time you really saw the huge impact of an event on the characters.
There are a lot of plotholes in this, it seems. What was the purpose of Na-Jung's younger brother? He was never at the dinner table or in the living room with the others except for when it was beneficial for the plot, and it just makes me wonder if the parents just left him in the room by himself. And where did Na-Jung's basketball fangirling go? It went from being the central point of her personality and the plot to basically being non-existent, except for a little mention here and there.
Note: Although this show was truly laugh-out-loud funny at times, I felt like the goat noise was also overrused.
7/10 is still quite a high rating in my eyes, but the high rating is for the Reply nostalgia and the brilliant metaphors and voiceovers and life lessons. If I used my logic, I'd give this show a much lower rating, but because it managed to tug on my heartstrings, 7/10 it is.
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