Heesu in Class 2

Kinda disappointed

What got me really angry was that I felt deceived by the writers, directors and producers or whomever gave life to this show... they used us, BL fans as bait to completely overshadow the main couple SOOOO much that it felt almost the whole series if they were the second couple and the main characters were the straight couple... It was almost 10 hours of stupid miscommunication and the straight couple trying to be together... I understand that kissing in high school is inappropriate let alone sleeping together is very uncommon in Asian series... different from western ones but the ending felt rushed, without a pace and with a bitter taste just because the main couple got to be together... I honestly didn't like it. The acting was actually pretty convincing and solid but I'm extremely disappointed...

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I had to be reminded that they were the MCs

Having seen “Light on Me” and still considering it one of the best series in terms of storytelling and character development, all I can say is, they had that reference material and somehow decided to dip this beautiful work in “straight” bleach.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the dynamic between Seung and Hee-Su. For a character who barely spoke, Seung somehow became my favorite. It’s hard to explain, but they just work.

Now, let’s talk about the so-called side characters—or rather, the ones who somehow managed to steal more screen time than the actual MCs. It’s baffling, but it seems like they were trying to fill the 45-minute runtime with just about anything.

I did adore the relationship between Hee-Su and his three sisters, but honestly, much of it felt forced or like a filler. A lot of the scenes just seemed like they were trying to pad out the story. And don’t even get me started on the tennis and audition scenes—those were just...🫩

So why the 8.5 rating, you ask? Well, it’s the cinematography, the visual imagery—I’m a sucker for that, the comedic moments didn’t feel forced, which I appreciated. Also, Seung—his character is one of the main reasons I rated it so high. The way he carries himself. He doesn’t say much, but his words—though few—were always packed with emotion and meaning. There’s a quiet intensity about him, and even in the smallest moments, you can feel the weight of his inner world. Watching him navigate uncertainty and growth felt authentic. But that whole straight-washing issue? It’s hard to ignore, especially when this could have been so much more. It’s a huge letdown, especially in 2025.

I don’t read manhwas or mangas, but I’ve heard that the straight couples didn’t even exist in the original material, which is already a major departure. So yeah, with all that in mind, it feels like a missed opportunity.

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Wholesome coming-of-age story for those who haven't read the manhwa

If you're a fan of the manhwa, you probably won't like this series as it apparently drifts away too significantly from the source material.
If you're expecting a typical BL with all its tropes (or even laser-focus on the gay romance), you probably won't like this series either.
But if you don't mind a wholesome, heart-warming coming-of-age story about different people navigating their love lives, with a strong taste of "love is love" sentiment and don't mind/can bear *a lot* of running around with a tennis racket - this series might be just for you 😉
Personally, I thought this drama was lovely, with good acting, good production quality and a believable portrayal of teenagers in high school dealing with issues like first love or dreams and hopes for their future.
Side characters had their own flavour and while often exaggerated, still provided a message resonating throughout the entire series: "there's no one correct way to love" - from a girl having a crush on another girl, to a woman who keeps getting rejected by all her crushes but never gives up 😋 to Heesu himself, who is gay and transitions from a crush on his best friend to a crush on a new boy who entered his life.
I personally do not think this drama was straight-washed, it just wasn't your typical BL production. But to be fair, I also never read the original manhwa, so I didn't have anything to compare it to.
If you're a neutral viewer, without any preconceptions about how this story should go, I think you might like it.

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Caught by surprise

Heesu did everything he could to guide everyone to love and in so doing captured mine. As simple as the formula is, it works. Meandering through the myriad of teenage relationships, it feels fresh, confusing and exciting. Heesu's expressive eyes and high smile carries every flittering emotion of a young heart opening up to love.

Heesu shares a home with his three sisters who go through their journeys and indirectly help shape his experiences. His friends paths are no different than his and add to the complexities of a teenage world. He starts determined to make his confession to only to be stopped by Seung Won who, in his awkwardness, knows Heesu doing so would make him lose the one he loves. Quietly and steadily, he loves.

In his obsession to create happiness for those around him, Heesu cluelessly continues on his mission. Misunderstandings and unspoken feelings add to an already chaotic world. Finally, bravery wins for all. Life is not a stagnant pool and whether they liked it or not, the constant changing from day to night meant that their lives changed also. With every interaction, confession, rejection and acceptance came maturity and wisdom.

Heesu's narration felt like a warm blanket, gently imparting the new found knowledge at the end of the day. This was a huge plus to the series. When the day was done, we all processed at the same time. Opening the window into Heesu's current mood through his anologies emerging from his knowledge of astronomy. Like a butterfly breaking free from his cocoon, he would hurt before receiving his joy. The boy he loves, loves him.

The six couple relationships were seen to maturity over the period of 10 episodes. It was well interwoven within their daily activities that none were rushed. Their differering stances at the end would see the growth of all. In many series the bl focus is so strong that the hetero world is either ommitted or shown to be lacklustre. Not here. In a world where we all co-exist, here the value of each group was beautifully displayed. This was a huge benefit to the actual storytelling. Seung Won's relationship with his two moms would be briefly touched on, but the bond would strengthen as they both wanted to have lives unencumbered with lies.

There are many who may not have liked it as according to mdl's feed, it veered away from the original webtoon. I was not disappointed as I've never read it nor will I. There were two versions of Love in the Big City and I liked both. The expectation that a piece should be specific to it's source material will always be disappointing. Embracing a piece as it's given should be enjoyed on it's own merit. The acting was competant and inviting. The production did a wonderful job of bringing their stories to life. The accompanying score would create the wonder of Heesu's confused environment. The darkened room needed only the soft voices revealing their truth.

This is going onto my rewatch list and I'll boldly add, should be on yours, too.

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KBL DID IT AGAIN!!

KBL did it again! ruined another adaptation, even tho it wasn't the worst -the production is to blame. This story was too good if the focus was more on our ML. Even tho i have not read the manhwa the bl felt so incomplete. even while editing for this drama for my youtube channel i found it difficult to cut out their scene it hardly even made 30 mins. it would had a even higher rating if the focus was on heesu rather than introducing a character that wasn't in the original story, loved the acting and no hate to the actors but the story had so much potential which has potentially gone into vain. really dissapointed ITS 2025 GUYSSSS!! literallly

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Hear me out

Imagine This Happened in Crash Landing on You.
Think of how much people LOVE Crash Landing on You.
The emotional tension.
The forbidden romance.
The longing between Yoon Seri and Captain Ri Jeonghyuk.
It’s the whole heart of the show.

Now picture this nightmare version:

Episode 1:
Yoon Seri crash lands in North Korea, meets Captain Ri…
and just when sparks start to fly…
The camera CUTS AWAY to:
👉 A random soldier in Captain Ri’s squad
Let’s call him Private Oh.
For the next 30 minutes, the show follows Private Oh’s dramatic relationship with his girlfriend back in Pyongyang:
* their family problems
* her career stress
* their fights
* their makeup scenes
* flashbacks to their childhood
* his sob story about failing the military exam
Meanwhile…
Seri and Captain Ri get 6 minutes total of screen time.

Episode 4:
You tune in, ready for romance.
Instead, you spend half the episode following:
* Private Oh’s girlfriend crying
* A flashback to her ex
* A subplot about her trying to open a bakery
* Private Oh stressing about a tennis match (why tennis? no one knows)
Captain Ri and Seri?
Maybe one short scene where they exchange awkward glances.

⭐ Episode 7:
The synopsis promised:
“A South Korean heiress and a North Korean soldier fall in forbidden love.”
But the actual show delivers:
“Private Oh and His Bakery Ambition Girlfriend: A Love Story (ft. Seri and Captain Ri occasionally existing).”
Seri’s emotional breakdown? Cut short.
Captain Ri risking his life for her? Off screen.
Their chemistry? Replaced by Private Oh’s extended sob story.

Episode 10:
You’ve been waiting for the confession scene.
Instead, you get:
* Private Oh’s girlfriend’s 15 minute backstory monologue
* Followed by their tearful reunion
* Followed by their slow-motion kiss
* Followed by a long montage of them riding bikes
Meanwhile, Seri and Captain Ri get one 30 second scene talking about potatoes.

Now Imagine People Saying:
“Ugh stop complaining! I LOVE Private Oh and his girlfriend even though it’s an unpopular opinion!”
It isn’t about hating the side couple.
It’s about the main character being erased.
It’s about the writers abandoning their own premise.
It’s about viewers being robbed of the story they were promised.
If Crash Landing on You had done this, it wouldn’t be a beloved classic, it would be remembered as a narrative disaster.

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a show that could've had meaning

to start i'd like to say that i do think some of the reviews for this show are hypercritical, but i agree with their sentiments. the reviews had me believing that most of the runtime would be dedicated to the straight couple, which is why i am only just now watching it, despite how excited i was for this show as a fan of the manhwa. it has been several years since i read heesu in class 2, so i can't fully speak to the accuracy. maybe i'll reread and change my mind about some things (for better or worse lol).

to give this show some credit, i think the acting was really well done! there wasn't any moment where i thought "wow that was bad," which occurs with most dramas i watch. and ahn ji ho really captured heesu's essence. i do think the cast probably looks a bit old for high school, but this is far from the worst i've seen in terms of a too-old-cast. and this show was very cute. i don't really watch shows with straight couples because honestly i find it hard to relate to their relationships, but even ji yu and chan young were cute. i really liked all the nervous moments between heesu and seungwon, but i do think that the period of heesu crushing on chan young felt a bit too long to me.

as for critique... while i was happy that the show was not entirely the straight couple, definitely not enough time was spent on heesu and seungwon's relationship after their confessions. i kept checking on how much of the episode was left while watching the final one, thinking "hello?? is it really just gonna be a confession and done????" and alas.

the part that really made me frustrated, though, was how this drama had the potential to be something that truly had meaning. when seungwon asked ji yu if she was oblivious to the fact that something like confessing was harder for him than it was for her, it gave me hope that this show would delve more into that. and when heesu snapped at his friends asking him to say who his crush was and just confess, i really thought we would be getting something that touched on the struggles of queer people in a country like korea. that was not the case.

really, both heesu and seungwon should've been far more angry with their respective friends' lack of understanding throughout this show. they both should've had the right to be mad at their friends for these things, but instead, somehow it made them the bad guy?? the fact that chan young insinuated that heesu finally telling him the truth was harder or him than it was heesu made me so so angry. and then heesu was like "sorry" and then he was fine with it???

and the ending, i mean that just kind of hurt my heart to watch. all the straight couples holding hands and walking together happily and the show decides to end with seungwon putting his arm around heesu's shoulder saying "they'll just think we're close friends." you cant be serious. after all that inner turmoil, you end a show about a gay relationship by having them happy to hide? when ji yu spent all that time moping around about hiding her relationship for like. a week. and then the gay characters are happy with that.... good god.

well anyways. i did enjoy watching this show, but it fell so completely flat in so many ways. as a fan of the original work i am most definitely disappointed.

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Oh my god I hate tennis ?

What is wrong with this show you might wonder?
It will be more easy to say what's right which is the acting of all the cast and chemistry between the two male leads
Other than that it was so annoying
Some shows sometimes redeem themselves in the last couple of episodes but sadly that didn't happen here
It really didn't bother me that much the straight relationship but all the tennis talk pissed me off
Why do you want me to care that much about his father and his brother and how he overcome all of this to play tennis
And the confission in the dark room should have been when they both told each other they love each other
Why did you have to drag it more than this
I know one of the actors were a minor so I am not going to bring up the kissing but they could have confissed and make the episode about them happy and dating with hand holding or something
Anyway I definitely won't be watching it again but I really wish the best for all of actors because they were amazing
And also I loved the song

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If you need to "Just skip" the majority of the show, it is not a good show

Let's start from the beginning. It is not a BL. Youth story, story about highschoolers, anything but BL. You know why is it disappointing? It's adapted from a pure BL. But, regardless.

Positives:
- Music. You can hardly go wrong with music, but it happened in some shows, so I'm still giving a point for that.
- Visuals. Beautiful. You can tell that they poured a lot of money into this one.
- Acting. If some of the characters are annoying to you, it means that the actor played them well. Well....if it was meant to be that way? Otherwise, oops. Still, acting is the highlight of the show.
- The astronomy methaphors. Every single one of them is beautiful, and every single one captures the summary of the each episode beautifully. I wished there were less tennis and more of Astronomy, but oh well. Some people wish that pigs could fly.
- Heesu and Seungwon. Separated, together. They gave a lot of depth to them specifically...not always knowing what to do with it though. You can remove everyone else from the story, and story becomes better. Not amazing, but good. Still, i said everything about that in the headline.
- As a youth story it's okay. If you do not take it as anything else but a youth story, if not, well....

Negatives:

- Let's start from the elephant in the room. The straight pair, that got together almost at the very beginning, and for the quite a big chunk of the show we saw them dating, while the main pair fubled around each other. You could've shown the begining of their crush. How they briefly dated, sure. But showing them in our faces every time when the mains are barely friends is straight up disrespectful, considering that it's adapted. From the bl. Where they didn't even exist. And it's not the only one straight pair, nooo. Sisters and their boyfriends, Ho Shik and his girlfriend. Everyone got to shine. Expect for, well.
- Pacing. Too fast, too slow. Some crucial and important moments happen in the blink of an eye, but the unimportant stuff drags so badly you wonder what's the show even about.
- Character development. Oh no, the mains are okay. Could be better though. But literally everyone else? I couldn't tell if I'm supposed to see them as comic reliefs or serious characters. Cause why, pray tell, did you give so much screen time to Chan Yeong and his tennis and then just....not done anything meaningful with it?
- This being an adaptation. In short....it is not. It's a completely different show, that has characters under the same names. Why would you even adapt this one, if you hated it that much? I have no idea.
- This being a supposed "slow burn". Where's the persistent tension between the main leads? Where's the lots and lots of meaningful scenes and deep conversations? Slow burning show, sure. Not slow burning relationship, though.

Overall, if you're not a fan of the original work, and not a fan of queer centric stories, but a fan of simple youth stories, this is for you. For everyone else....i am deeply sorry, really. But as a queer story, as an adaptation, this is a disappointment.

If someone wants to crop everyone from the show and just keep Heesu and Seungwon separate and together, you can get a decent show. Otherwise, well, i do not see why would you rewatch it.

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