Cheer Up

A Solid Coming of Age Story

I thought this was a solid coming of age drama. You get a mix of multiple genres, such as romance, friendship, suspense, and some thrill.

in my opinion, it did take some time for the cast to have a solid chemistry. There were moments where I felt some characters were a little bit more plain than others. By the end of it, I was satisfied with the chemistry and how it ended.

my biggest issue was the suspense and thrill part of it. I felt like this “mystery/killer” was unnecessary at some times. It felt like it was only there too give the audience a little break of between the romance, friendship building and character growth.

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Heat Death of The Universe

Well, the drama certainly failed to cheer me up. The entire show was manufactured to be a spectacular disaster. There was no one major issue that held it back but rather a complete systematic failure. Starting from the top of the pyramid, about 80% of the cast members were barely surviving to remain functional. In equal terms, about 80% of the characters were generic youth NPCs from a modern lens. Speaking of characters, how did the writer think that writing the female lead this way was appealing in the slightest? It's baffling! That's also applicable to her cheap copy-cat, Joo Sun Ja, sharing the same revolting DNA. Moving on to relationships, pairs, ex-lovers, triangles, and squares, all of which can be tagged as insufferable spectacles. The reason why the drama added the mystery side plot is because it was unbelievably dry and was in desperate need for something supplementary to help creating the illusion that something is actually happening. It wouldn't have been bad if it served a functional purpose with the overarching narrative. Now, this is a drama about cheering and dancing but this had the worst moves I've ever seen in this context. It was nothing more than choreographed performances by PE teacher for elementary kids. It's seriously bad and embarrassing! Especially when it's coming from Kpop-land. Obviously, there were a lot more to be said but these were some of the highlights. The writer worked on both V.I.P (2019) and this drama, a solid bad track record so far, should be very cautious with future projects.

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Cherish Your Youth

I held off on watching this drama for quite awhile due to the simple fact that I’m not a fan of love triangles, which this show very much has. I kept seeing snippets of it via social media, though, so I finally caved & pushed play. And while the triangle definitely lowered my rating some, I’m still glad I watched it because I ended up enjoying it more than I expected to.

It tells the story of a quirky college freshman who has no time for extracurricular activities/clubs because she’s solely focused on making money to support herself + her mother & younger brother. So she initially turns down her bestie’s request to join the university cheerleading squad, but when she’s bribed with money if she joins, she quickly signs up. The catch? She must keep it a secret that she’s being paid. She thinks it’ll be easy money… then she officially meets the captain (whom she’s already had some not-so-good encounters with). He’s more serious & mature than her, so their personalities constantly clash. Not to mention that he’s very passionate about the squad, while she’s only in it for as long as it takes to get paid. So the viewers are left with an all too familiar question of: will this duo resolve their issues & misunderstandings so they can have a happy ending or are they destined to be each other’s college-love regret?

As the story plays out it presents the viewers with lots of different things. It has some truly hilarious parts that left me giggling at the chaotic cast. It also had heartwarming moments that remind you how beautiful & precious life is. There are realistically sad moments too that caused my heart to hurt a bit for the characters’ pain. They experience both losses & wins throughout. The plot has enough secrets & mysteries to keep you invested in seeing how it all finally plays out. There are villains & there are heroes, each with a story to tell. We witness the characters’ trauma & how they grow. There’s life-long friends & the birth of new friendships. There’s the angst & excitement of many new loves.

And there’s the underlying message about choosing to chase your dreams no matter the obstacles & not wasting your youth since you only get to live it for a short time.

Now, for the main trio.
- The FL: I found her to be quite unique. I feel like generally girls with her personality & brand of crazy are relegated to side-character status, so it was refreshing to see such a quirky girl as the lead female. I quite enjoyed her as she was a strong young woman who didn’t let others push her around. How she handled her ex? Ha - you go, girl! She was determined to provide a better life for her family so she willingly sacrificed her own happiness to help them, which is both admirable & heartbreaking to watch. She did take this to the extreme & was quite controlling/bossy to both her mother & brother, but her reasoning is later explained & then you just want to give the poor girl a hug. She wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself, nor to work hard for what she wanted. And while she didn’t enjoy hurting people, she didn’t allow their feelings to manipulate her into doing things she was truly against. Yeah, she frustrated me at times with the triangle drama, but overall I found her to be relatable in her flaws & commendable in her strengths.. 🫶🏻

- The ML: I know some may think differently, but he’s totally green, IMHO. Yes, his hesitation in confessing is frustrating & makes him seem a bit flaky, but when you take into account why he was hesitant, it’s kinda admirable (even while still annoying). He truly wished to protect the FL so he wanted to keep his distance until the danger surrounding the squad could be resolved. I was so happy when he finally allowed himself to follow his heart despite the risks, because he was so good for her. I know he screwed up & reacted poorly towards her a couple times, but again, take into account the why behind his reactions & it all makes sense. PLUS he took responsibility & apologized for messing up, which takes a lot of maturity to do. He was also super cool in his refusal to let her “take the heat” for dating him, her captain, when that camera crew was around. And one of parts that made me absolutely love him is how he handled their “break up”. Honestly, he’s total aces in my book for that (iykyk). 🫠

- The SML: look, I’m just going to be straight up honest here & say that I don’t at all understand the obsession with this character. To me, he’s a total red flag. He’s a very selfish & self-centered guy. (FL’s brother says it best with his response when the SML tries using him to get closer to her. I was totally cheering for the brother in that scene!) For the majority of the drama he’s very obsessive & manipulative, one of the love-rival types who’s just seriously annoying to me. He doesn’t care about the FL’s lack of interest in him or how his actions affect her. After the FL again rejected him, he started dating out of spite which is super unfair to his new gf. That does not say “good guy” to me. Yes, he had his moments where you could see his potential to be better, but he almost always ruined it with his usual immaturity. Until the last episodes, everything he did was selfishly motivated so sorry, not sorry, I just didn’t like him. 🚩

As for the rest of the squad, I’m glad we got to delve into each of their stories a bit. It helped them seem more like real people, rather than just filler side-characters. It also is a great reminder that every single person has a story of their own to tell. While we’re the MC’s of our own life stories, we’re just the side-characters in someone else’s, while they get the MC role. It’s important to remember that the world does not, in fact, revolve around us & our individual lives. 😉

Also, the moms were a total bonus. It was fun to watch them reconnect & navigate through their rivalry, history, & all it brought with it. They were such opposites as parents, but they both unashamedly & completely loved their children. They had their good points & their bad points which just shows that mothers are human too.

One last thing I’ll mention - I have no idea why they’re called a Cheerleading Squad. Maybe it’s just lost in translation? In my country, they’d be labeled a dance team. Which honestly is no big deal & doesn’t take away from the plot at all, I simply mention it because I was really confused in the first several episodes while I waited for them to do some actual cheering. Or at least some stunts in their routines like I expect cheerleaders to do. But there’s absolutely none of that so I’m just throwing that out there so you don’t go in with those same expectations as I did, haha.


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-⬇️ S P O I L E R S 🚫 B E L O W ⬇️-


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The things I always want to know 😏😉…
- First(real)Kiss : ep.11💋
- Together : ep.12 👩🏻‍❤️‍👨🏻
- BreakUp : ep.14 💔
- BackTogether : ep.15❤️‍🩹

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this is like, what i thought life was going to be like after high school.

is it a bad kdrama? absolutely not!!

they had me singing along to cheesy cheer songs, & i even allowed the intro to play every. single. time. i've never done that before in my life. the characters are totally likeable, and the script is quite fine. the only thing that's really struck me after this experience is,, how come we have five endgame couples in the final episode yet not a single one of them had chemistry?

don't get me wrong, if you have an ounce of critical thinking, you'll prefer jeongwoo over seunho. the show's nicely set up, it gets lost in a very unnecessary love triangle that draaaaaags and draaaaaags & ultimately isn't utilized well, but okay. we get over that, the main couple gets together. so why does it feel like they were never a couple at all?

the LACK of chemistry. that's why. i just failed to feel it, that's maybe on me.

sunja is definitely the main event of this kdrama. idk. i could yap for days & not really say anything important, so i'll just cut it short.

it made me laugh, it made me curiously binge, it made me sing, and it made me happy. i had fun. just watch it.

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if you want to give comfort to yourself, watch this drama. expect to skip/fast forward some scenes

This drama would be perfect above all when it does not take so much longer to drag the plot of the story. So i'll make this note short, since what I like is just the beginning and the ending, not the whole plot of the drama. Now I understand why this drama was rated below 7.8 out of 10. I guess a 12-14 episode would be enough for the story to be told.
But the drama was quite a good vibe to watch since it's giving the viewers a positive energy and vibes while watching, with a little heart touching a bit. For me, the plot seems to be so much dragging, like its out of the place. The love triangle must be fixed even better than what the drama shown to us. What I just liked is the jolly vibes, with moral lessons of teamwork, hardships, relationships or specifically, the youth. The casts seems, eh okay but I don't think for me especially Hae yi's attitude seems to be pretty annoying but pretty makes sense to all of the team cheerleading. In a college setup? with her personality? I don't think that's common to see, its rare. Specifically, too much fantasy and does not focus more of reality. Some areas from the drama were not that clear as well, especially when the cheer captain was stabbed, then I never seen such thing that it was rushed and no justice being served, just a response from the university saying that they would focus more to the safety of everyone, like what the???

To make this drama give a chance, I think its really beneficial to some kdrama fans who were beginners. Honestly, I felt that I had this feeling of mine that there is something missing. But the vibe from the story makes me get interested. I appreciate the cast as well in this drama since they worked so hard for this drama to be successful. Not to be biased, but for me this drama deserve high or low rating, I think an 7.5 or 8 out of 10 would be enough.

~ The Cast, hmmm characters well portrayed
~ OST makes you feel the energy the story has
~ the prophecy seems very interesting from the beginning to the end
~ acting was pretty clear, especially Han Ji Hyun gave so much spotlight to her acting skills from crying, acting crazy, and such.

So I would say, good for beginners and recommended if ever you need to freshen up or lighten up your mind and enjoy watching this drama since again it's mostly full of happiness as well.

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its not bad just make sure you don't take things too seriously :)

For me, finishing kdramas is actually pretty rare so I was shocked that I was able to actually finish this without forcing myself to

Cons:
I think the writers were aiming to create a combination drama where there are many different genres in one drama, sort of like Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. However, it was no where near as well executed but it did have potential. The writers tried to mix comedy, thriller, romance, slice of life and action all in one and frankly it was a poor choice and could have been presented so much better. The plot can be quite unrealistic at times which makes you end up disliking a lot of the characters because of their unrealistic and stupid decisions. I know a lot of people disliked the SML and so did I, but honestly his character was kinda irrelevant to me since he is the SML after all. I honestly don't mind an unlikeable SML because than i wont get second lead syndrome.

Pros:
I really enjoyed the friendships and other relationships in the drama, i think that is my most favourite part overall. I also liked Hae Yi's character although she could be a bit annoying at times, i think her character was unique compared to your typical poor FL character. I also really liked Hae Yi's family and her relationship with her Mother, I'm so used to harsh and mean kdrama mothers so it was nice to see a kind and funny mom for a change. I especially enjoyed our ML and FL relationship, they are honestly so cute together and since it is a friends to lovers trope i think it made it even cuter.

Overall, if you are looking for a cute college romance i would recommend this, just make sure you don't take things too seriously and don't have extremely high expectations.

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It has its monments

This show in the beginning was very good, but in the middle of it, it was really mid okay, al ittle confused. The ending was good I think it wrap up everything very nicely. Im kinda mad about Jin Sun Ho not ending up with anyone, while everyone had someome. But it fits for the endding i guess. Also the airring of the episode were so bad that a big thing I hated. The FL was very annyoing in the middle part of the show. Also the mom having cancer :0 like dude didnt see that coming so I thought that was really werid and out of no where. The brother joinning the rival cheer squad too. Also when the brother interupts Hae Yi and Jung woo was really cute. Overall its a okay show, if you are looking for a back and forth, bombs being drop, cliffhangers , and odd romance this may be the show for you. :)

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I didn't expect this, I guess we all cheer differently or the screenwriter didn't have a clue about being a cheerleader. I was one, and we surely didn't cheer like that. Honestly, I'm not putting this drama down... different cultures do different things. I'm not going to name the actors and actresses in this drama but I will give them their due respect. All did very well. I don't know why the writers had to have someone evil in their plot. I do have a favorite actor in this but he got cheated out of it all in the storyline. I knew he was going to catch the girl because was 3rd in line. The younger generation might enjoy this but that evil plot should have stayed out.

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loved it

a lot of people call cheer up mediocre but i actually loved it so much! i was team sunho until he kept pursuing haeyi after she rejected him and it got annoying but then i actually started to love jungwoo even though he was not my favorite at first. ep15 made me really emotional and i don't know if it's just me but i cried like half the episode because i really understood haeyi. her character is soo cute and authentic, i think it's so fun to watch a fl this bubbly! i love how open she is about her love for money lol

i really enjoyed watching this series and i love han jihyun even more now, i hope she gets many more lead roles in the future. she has been my favorite actress since 'penthouse' and this solidified it! i loved seeing everything with the cheering squad and i grew really attached to them and was genuinely really sad when i finished the drama.

also i want to add i am someone who can get really bored when watching dramas (and drop the whole series if i don't like it), but each episode had me hooked! i usually don't really like romcoms so the mystery genre made it a lot more interesting. also the cast is amazing?? bae inhyuk, han jihyun, and jang gyuri in one drama? a must watch imo. if you are seeing bad reviews and debating whether or not to watch it, don't listen and give it a shot!! i promise it's worth it. this kdrama is probably in my top 20 now and i have seen over 100.. i really loved the cheering squad and the ending was satisfying!

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