A Shoulder to Cry On (2023)

Personal, emotionally intimate and SO RELATABE (+controversial ending talk)

At times humorous, but also diving into serious topics such as: emotional abandonment, parental absence, self-harm, depression, suicide, bullying, burnout (I also believe one of the characters has BPD). A story about growing up, teenagers finding themselves and each other, healing and slowly learning to love, express themselves and expose their vulnerabilities.

I started watching it after seeing tik tok edits, but first episode made me feel a bit sick and I didn't want to continue. Gladly, i did.

Episodes 2-5 are amazing and this is probably one of the most realistic storyline I have seen in a kbl. Or maybe it speaks to me because main characters deal with a lot of trauma/mental illness and are neurodivergent-coded and it feels a bit personal.

I had some stigma regarding the 2 final episodes due to reviews filled with disappointment (apparently pacing issues/time-skip), but tbh it absolutely didn't bother me. It was handled pretty well while keeping the mains in character (but the reason it didn't bother me might be also the fact that i knew about the time-skip before the watch XD). Tbh i don't think there were pacing issues, just the time-skip was unnecessary, though i think it gave them both time to grow emotionally into this relationship and WE GOT THEM IN ACTUAL OUTFITS!! THAT MATCH THEIR AGE!! AND NOT THE UNIFORMS!!

The last episode was ultimately touching (ocean sequence), romantic and hilarious! something these boys definitely deserved and definitely weren't ready for in high school. I saw people complaining about lack of kissing scene and... seriously? We're being served such amazing piece of queer romance and some people are upset because it didn't live up to their fantasies? Obviously, I understand it would've been much more meaningful if we'd seen main characters become so intimate, but the point is; did we really need to? Personally, this show was remarkably meaningful and the characters have become emotionally intimate to the point where it just felt SO right for it to end the way it did.

Final verdict:
soundtrack - 10/10
acting - 9/10 i particularly liked Yechan in his role, he was very good
cinematography and scenography - 10/10
story - 9/10 (-1 for that time skip i think they could have managed without it)

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this show started off nicely only to have not a very good ending

the first two eps of this show.. I loved them a lott.. it had a really good start
altho in the first eps i was kinda annoyed with how taehyun literally accused da yeol kf a rape attempt because taehyun said to the teacher "j said no but he still attacked me".. and j also hated how the adults dealt with this.. like da yeol was literally accused of a rape attempt and he was let off with just a few scolds???.. like wtf imagine if the accusatiin was real??

and the second episode.. j lived how da yeol went to check upon taehyun at his place 😍😍

in the third eps as well the emotions were so nice and u derstandable(altho it took me a while I could u derstand what da yeol was feeling).. like he has always been focused on archery but then taehyun sways him and now he can't focus (prob no 1)..da yeol stilll thinks taehyuns a murderer(prob no 2) and da yeol can't understand the true intentikns of taehyun coz one time hed bully him but the next sec hell act friendly so yeah I loved that too

in ep 4 tbh I didn't understand why taehyun hit himself like that.. but apart from. that we see quite a lotta development between these characters and i loved that

now j didn't understand why taehyun pushed away dayeol like that.. like he said he couldn't accep dayeols lkbe for him coz he was afraid of losing him but then taehyun pushed away dayeol.. like didn't he lose hi. after all sk what's the point??

okay upto this point, (ep 6) everything was greatttttt but then they just had to fuckkk it up with that 2 years gapp whatt the fuckkk!??????? whyyyyyy j mean considering how they two parted ways.. it was impossible for them to reunite and reconcile so quickly but stilll!!!! why the two year gapp?? I hate gaps I don't support em at all... and ep 7 wth?? it felt truly like mehh..and j couldn't connect with it at all.. why?? well because they never showed us how the two characters patched up w eo.. like dayeol said I'll wait for you taehyun and that's it.. what truly happened and how taehyun made up for his bad behavioie was not shown.. directly we were shown that they are sating eo now and are al loveg dovey.. wth!? and i think there was a total 4 year gap...

first when they parted in high school the 2yrs later they met in university then after that 2yrs later they were dating I'm not sure tho...

so yah this is def good (except for the yrs gap)
I wd have rated this a 10 possibly if not for the 2 years gap... n i wd def recommend this

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Another bad korean BL...

I wanted to make this review because I am tired of seeing people say “people give low reviews because there’s no kiss/sex scene”. Maybe some did, but did you consider this : the drama isn’t good. I first want to clarify : while I do agree that it is annoying to have no kiss in a queer romance in 2023 (smells a little bit… homophobic), I can understand the decision to not include a kiss scene due to the actors being in the same kpop group. Which has an easy solution : do not cast idols/ group members in a TV show were they fall in love, maybe. Just a suggestion. I find it kinda icky. Mad respect to them though, still.

Now, the acting first : it was fine. They definitely had some chemistry, and the boys tried their best, I give them that. It’s an idol drama, so don’t expect groundbreaking acting, but don’t expect super bad acting either.

The editing : whoever edited that…. Fire them. Putting little music on dramatic scenes? Dramatic zoom out? Little drawing that you somehow only add once in the drama (= inconsistency)? No joke, it was almost impossible to take this drama seriously because of the goofy editing. I could’ve done a better job, and I don’t know shit about editing. Never has editing annoyed me THIS much in a drama, before. If you wanna be dramatic, commit to it. Funny? Commit to it. Otherwise it’s just goofy.

Okay, now the plot, or the worst thing that came out of this drama : the first 4 episodes are GOOD. Too good, because they gave me hope for the rest of the drama, as I am used to either drop/ or dislike KBLS. I don’t like the manhwa this is based on because I hated Taehyun’s character. My man bullies a schoolmate, accuses him falsely of SA, and he never has to say sorry? Is it okay because he has trauma? Then WTF is up with the three last episodes? This drama has one of the major problems MOST KBLS have : not enough length for the story they are trying to put out. Don’t add conflict you don’t know how to resolve in the remaining time. The last 3 episodes felt like I wasted my time. They could’ve used the epilogue to, idk, actually give us some closure. But no, instead we are left unsatisfied. Moral of the story : Dayeol deserved better. Another bad KBL to add to the never ending list.

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Bromance not romance

Having read this short webcomic twice, I was looking forward to the live action adaptation.

An unfortunate accident brings Tae Hyun and Da Yeol closer together. The first one is bullying the other one who tries to get the upper hand until he realizes there is a lot of darkness and sadness behind the cocky smile and harsh words of the first one. This is a classical enemies to lovers(?) story.

Tae Hyun suffers from survivor's guilt which he hides from others. Da Yeol is being forced by his father to train archery intensively, something he eventually realizes he hates. Their meeting is going to bring out in the open the frustrations and unhappiness they're feeling and therefore they are finally be able to move on.

What did not convince me is the love story both in manhua and here. They went the same way: Da Yeol falls for Tea Hyun and confesses but TH is not really sure of his feelings. Whatever he is feeling is more akin to gratitude and friendship than love. He had a change of heart when DY become the first person to tell him that the accident was just that, an accident and that it was not his fault. I am not convinced he fell in love but actually developed another form of dependancy in which he mistok gratitude for something more he was not really feeling!
There are a couple of time skips that only confirms even more the strong friendship between them. TH seems to be trying to convince himself that he is in love with DY when he is obviously just missing his best friend who once crossed the friendship line making TH uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable but not enough to convince himself he was in love.

That's where the real problem of this BL lies: the guys are cute together but there is a strong invisible though obvious barrier between them. It that was never more certain than in the fluffy last episode. This is more of a bromance than a romance!

The acting is pretty good for idols but did they really need to put so much lipstick on actor playing Tae Hyun: seeing those scarlet lips was really disconcerting.. Plotwise, they left us with some questions: TH's friend group, in particular Ye Beom, have not been used or even fleshed out properly. Why is Ye Beom so possessive of Tae Hyun? The girl was supposed to have a crush on Da Yeon: when? why? how come? What was the point of those time skips? Their relationship does not seem to have changed an iota during those years....

I was not bothered by the lack of skinship: it is not alway necessary! Sometimes the deepest feelings are expressed through glaces, attitudes etc. nothing such here. It turns out this is a bit of a wasted opportunity!

All in all this was a cute short watch. You'd be better off just reading the webcomic!

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Not bad, but not good either…

I don’t know why this was advertised as a BL, it’s more like a bromance. The ending seemed rushed, these two had no physical contact at all, and parts were confusing. Any kind of love story, straight or gay, has SOME physical contact. The acting was good, everything else could have been better. This had so much potential because the actual plot/story/idea was good, but not carried out good. Was it the writing, producing, directing, or all of the above, but it was just OK. I really don’t understand some of the good reviews. The only thing I can think of is maybe they have nothing else to compare it to?? To me, if you watch a lot of BL’S, this is very mediocre.

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Interesting Enemies To Lovers With Some Character Complexity.

Seven 30min episodes. My rating ignores Ep 7! Fantastic Ep 1-6; engaging and evoked a wide range of emotions. Ep 7 was an epilogue of awkward fluff that had a different feel from the rest, wasn't satisfying, and wasn't needed. I recommend treating Ep 6 as the end and avoiding the let down of Ep 7 (it detracts instead of adds to the story).

For Ep 1-6: Story 9 (was tightly woven & at a good pace, interesting, and had me mentally & emotionally invested in the characters quickly), Acting 9, Chemistry/Magnetism between leads 8. Moderate amount of skinship but no sexual intimacy beyond a couple of almost-kisses. High angst (mostly resolved or at least making positive progress).

The characters are more complex than many BLs of this length, as are the issues raised. I liked that both lead characters had things to work through individually as well as together. There isn't time to explore everything in-depth, or fully address past traumas, but the story is thoughtful and I didn't feel like anything was left hanging (except in Ep 7). The characters feel like actual high-schoolers and there were no weak links in acting. The effects of trauma were realistically portrayed.

GENERAL SPOILERS below.
Ep 7:
The words at the end of Ep 6 set up my hope and expectation to see that scenario play out in Ep 7. But it didn't really happen, and there was a weird push & pull dynamic around physical intimacy, which also didn't happen. I don’t always need sexual intimacy in a romance (queer or otherwise), but the script made such an awkward dance around it that it turned things UN-romantic; they regressed to bromance instead of continuing the romantic progression set up in the previous episodes. The epilogue has some aimless cute fluff and shows that they ultimately remain together over time, but it felt lackluster and wasn't a fulfilling resolution.

SPECIFIC SPOILERS for Trigger Warnings:

Most prevalent: depression, PTSD, and a mentally abusive family member.
Less prominent (are briefly shown only once or twice): self-harm, miscarriage, and suicide.

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A lot of things don't make sense

It had a lot of potential that ended being wasteful. Going into this, I knew that the main actors are both members of a k-pop group, so I didn’t expect any intimate scenes and that is something that I am perfectly fine with.

Jo Tae Hyun & Lee Da Yeol: Jo Tae Hyun is an archer; he always had his focus on training and that was it. He was not interested in making new friends or getting involved with any drama. Jo Tae Hyun is a troublemaker, he’s popular and gets along with people, but he also has a different side. He is not really close to his “friends” and has past trauma that still haunts him. The two are similar in some sense but also incredibly different. I really liked their initial dynamics, they were fun, but I felt like them being enemies was not taken too far. Both actors did great in their roles. It showed that the two are close in real life as they appeared to be very comfortable with each other on screen. The chemistry was there, it wasn’t the best I have seen, but I am guessing this has more to do with the actors’ k-pop idol statuses than anything else.

I feel like there were so many plot holes though or things just being left unfinished, unsolved. First, Jang Won Kyung. He friends with Jo Tae Hyun, but it also appeared at times like he has a crush on him. His actions and dislike towards Lee Da Yeol make much more sense if he has an unrequited crush on his friend. Next is the whole family situation with Jo Tae Hyun – was it solved? Did things improve? What happened after the confortation (if it can be called that)? I wish Jo Tae Hyun’s trauma and actions would have been addressed more or at least in a better manner.

The time jumps in the last episode were just absurd. The pacing of the story was good until then, it made sense, there was progress. But then the last episode completely threw the pacing off with the time skips. The biggest problem is that we don’t really get to know anything that happened during the time that passed in those time skips. Some things are slightly hinted at, but we never really find out if that is something that actually happened or not. It would be better if the time skips would either be shorter or even avoided completely. Or if time skip is something that was a must, maybe a second season would be a better choice. Either that or a different pacing of the storyline in earlier episodes.

The OST is beautiful, not that I expected anything else. Their visuals are absolutely stunning, I really liked the styling as well. The locations and cinematography were beautiful too.

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Was great at the beginning but a few unnecessary add ons.

This was a great start, I’m very happy with the casting, they both did a great job especially Yechan, he just blew me way with his performance of the cruel but hurt Taehyun. They both had great chemistry as well and it followed the manhwa perfectly until ep 7 :/ i think that episode was unnecessary, it would’ve been just fine with ending it at ep 6 with that absolutely adorable final scene of them hugging and Da Yeol promising to wait for him, but ep 7 kind of ruined the characters for me who read the manhwa first long back. But I truly loved the cast and the addition of the girl character as well. She’s really sweet. ❤️

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starts with a bang, ends with a whimper

The first few episodes of this show are wonderful. I do consider them my "comfort episodes". The chemistry was believeable and the acting was fine (nothing truly outstanding or oscar-worthy especially during the more emotional and tough scenes). It's another enemies to lovers BL set in high school, though the dynamic between the two lead characters was super interesting.

It's like the first few episodes are a balloon slowly filling with air and you expect it to burst any moment, but instead someone pokes a tiny hole in it and the balloon is deflating very very slowly. I can't really say what I expected either, just that this show felt a little lost at the end. I don't remember watching episode 7, what does that say about my memory and this show? Probably that both is pretty weak. I only remember that for the past few days I thought to myself "I can't wait for the last episode to come out, hopefully it will be better than the last one", and then I opened up Viki today and I saw that I had already watched it. Whoops.

I gotta say though, that there are many cute scenes to make up for it. So that's why I gave it such a high rating. I do love me some fluff. I haven't seen the manhwa yet, so I can't really say if it did it justice (judging by the other reviews I'd assume the answer is no).

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A worthwhile watch to pass some time

I am glad I took my time to watch this series , hence it already accomplished what it was meant for. Considering it was their debut I think the actors did a decent job. The chemistry betweem them both was definitely there and it was addictingly satisfying to watch their relationship grow in the course of this series.

The end did seem rushed, but, honestly, even series of 20 or more episodes manage to rush their end similarly, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt and blame it on the limited time they had to deal with. I really think the plot would have benefited from more episodes.

Lack of time also muddled up a lot of the story. The characters had depth to them due to their background stories being shown, the development was there, but there was just no time to mend all the lose ends, display the characters motives, thoughts, emotions and growth.

Contrary to other reviews, I did not mind the characters not being more physical with each other - I actually appreciated that. But even with the actors not feeling comfortable with physical intimacy on screen, there could have been solutions other than hinting at doing it without ever following through. For them to grow so close with nothing actually happening, it would have needed to further get into why they decided to keep it low like that.

As for my recommendations: If you hate the "developing a liking for your bully" trope, you might want to reconsider whether you really want to watch. I dislike it a lot, but can deal with it if the turning point is made well and the bullying stops as soon as there is a first hint of sympathy. I percieved that to be the case, so I was able to overlook it.
If you consider watching, adjust your expectations to the limited time available to tell a rather complex story and you'll probably be satisfied. If you expect a drama where every detail fits, the setting would have to be entirely different to enable that with so few episodes.

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GOOD start but the ending was BAD

I really liked the first few episodes the bullying wasn't as bad as some comments made it seem.
We've seen much harsher bullying depicted, which wasn't criticized. However, the ending was disappointing.
SPOILER!!!!!!!

It was a happy ending, but what was that time jump? It felt unnecessary. They could have just shown them talking and being happy together in high school. That would have been a great ending for a good show. Instead, they gave us a prologue where they are together for like 2 years, but still uncomfortable with physical intimacy? What was that? It felt so unrealistic. Yeah, I hated the ending. Korea do better next time.

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Cute one-time watch

Characters
The two male leads are the main focus of the drama and they are seriously the star of the show. The chemistry they shared on screen was cute. The side characters didn't stick out much. I really liked the coach tho. No reason why but she was cool.

Story
I really liked the development from the first few episodes. Up until episode 5, the drama really shined. even after that the story went well but still kind of rushed. I saw people complaining about not even having a kiss, I honestly think that's fine. The characters are cute but they are teenagers and still exploring. The last two episodes seem different from the previous ones. Like I loved all the fluffy moments in the last episode but still felt like we rushed to that ending. and other than the romance standpoint, the psychological aspect was decently done. I have seen those tropes multiple times but still it was fine.

Music
Didn't stand out much

Overall
Very fun drama. For me, this is honestly a one time watch. I probably wouldn't try to watch this again. But it does have it's moments.

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