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!! literalllyWas this review helpful to you?
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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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It’s not a BL
Very sad about the path they decided to take. They changed the story of the Manhwa a lot, the development and personalities of the forgivens are not the same. Finally, the development of a straight relationship being the focus more than the main couple was a choice. They emphasized the guitar scene, but not the chicken date.Was this review helpful to you?
Why does it have a 7 something rating?!
Disappointing is such an understatement for this series. This should be a 20-minutes typical KBL series. Without the acting, I don't think you get anything from this. I should've read the reviews before watching. So please, go find a different series you can watch and don't waste your time on this.Good: acting is definitely not bad. As expected to a Korean actors / songs is catchy / astrology
Bad: main lead actors doesn't even have character development
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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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So much potential but...
As someone who adores the original work this drama is based on, this adaptation felt disrespectful to the warm and loving atmosphere in the universe created by the author of the Heesu in Class 2 manhwa.I think the actors played their assigned roles very well. The problem, according to me, all falls on the heads of whoever decided how the drama would play out.
The presence of a straight couple that did not even exist in the original work, the defiling of what makes the characters so likeable in the manhwa...it's too much. It almost feels like an attack.
In what alleged BL would you find TWO (as far as I remember) slow-motion scenes of the "side" heterosexual couple? Jiyu and Chanyoung weren't the side couple at all – Heesu and Seungwon were.
There were some scenes I liked, sure. The scene where Heesu comes out to his sister, the scene when he realises he likes Seungwon, their confession in the last 10 minutes of the show...this drama could have been incredible. But it just feels terribly executed on the whole. It's such a pity they completely ruined the essence of the source material.
The whole thing with Chanyoung and tennis? I mean, did it even reach any sort of conclusion? I'm pretty sure it didn't (if it did I must have zoned out) and it felt like so much wasted screen time.
Don't get me started on how they messed up everyone's personalities - particularly Chanyoung. A supportive best friend turned into...whatever he's supposed to be, I guess.
Anyway, if any of you haven't read the Heesu in Class 2 manhwa I'd highly recommend you do and get your soul healed from this unpleasant experience.
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Don't watch this if u expect bl(its kinda just bromance)
Ok so just finished watching ep 10,what a disappointment..., i can't see any chemistry between seung won and heesu. There should've been more love moments, but noo we get jiyu and chan yeoung 😃(i can't even remember the time heesu and seung were together). Love the straight washing and the confession felt so meh, seung could've told heesu about the truth of carrot juice situation but didn't for some reason, this storyline felt so dry(the story had potential tbh😕). i had to skip some parts that were unnecessary like(heesu’s sisters, chan yeoung, seung won’s mother) these would be fine if there were more episodes but just 10,which felt rushed. the only thing that came close to touch is them holding hands(lasted mere seconds). My love mix up is better, it had no kiss but delivered the story betterthan this...
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Heesu is a brilliant art piece contrasting the differences in queer vs het experiences
Heesu in Class 2 is not a “light romance,” and does not tell the story of a queer boy in a BL bubble- where he is safely surrounded by queer peers and other queer couples.Instead, this is a story of two queer boys navigating the pain of holding secrets, the complex layers of fear that keeps them silent, navigating coming out, and the reality of being queer in a world that operates in heteronormative default and in a culture still very much divided on LGBTQ acceptance.
This series is both beautiful, and painful. This series deviates from the source material, with mixed reception. I think rather than any sort of het-washing, the expansion of the het side couple and background couples, the het content was an important tool in demonstrating the contrast between the ease of het relationships, and by comparison illustrating just how much more difficult it is for Heesu and Seung Won being queer and having a crush.
There is so much that can be said about this series. All of the side characters offer an important piece to the bigger picture of the overall story. The side characters and their stories and relationship experience is like a thread in the tapestry of Heesu and Seung Won’s experiences and their stories. I cried for Heesu and Seung Won. I ached for them. I wanted to comfort them as a parent, but also as a queer adult.
Bringing a very real feeling queer story into a more typical Kdrama production (rather than a very short BL) also gave me a lot of feels for queer representation. For me this felt like another very notable step forward and offering insight into what the pain that being queer in a heteronormative world means for many people.
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