You and Everything Else

sangyeon wasn’t evil, she was empty. and emptiness hurts everyone around it.

sangyeon broke me. at first she seemed cruel and a bitch, but then i saw her loneliness. she never got love, always felt useless, and hurt her bestfriend bc it was the only way to release her pain. when she said “he told her goodbye and smiled at her but not at me, it must’ve been me, i was the reason for his death” 💔 you feel her emptiness. park ji hyun made her human, layered, tragic, she just needed someone to stay by her side, every girl needs her mother’s presence, or else she learns to live unloved“sometimes we feel like we’re ruining our own lives, but what can we do when we don’t even know the right move? all we need is a hug, some love… not revenge. she was truly one of the best written female character or chaarcter generally I’ve ever seen. I love how complex they made her and explained everything she did :((( this drama rlly ruined me

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I enjoyed this intense, moving drama that deals with friendship, rivalry, and love. The main character, Ryu Eun-jang, may be one of my favorite characters in dramaland and the actor Kim Go-eun does an amazing job bringing to life all of her character's charm, ambivalence, and insecurities. Park Ji-hyun, who plays her prickly frenemy, by and large succeeds in portraying a complex, selfish, and aggravating, but understandable, character. And the love interest acted by Kim Gun-woo is immensely likeable.

(Mild Spoiler: Some people may be disappointed with the redemption arc of the rival but I have no problems with it because this story is ultimately about Ryu Eun-jang, not Cheon Sang-yeon, and Ryu Eun-jang’s compassion and love are what make this drama special.)

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Best drama of the year!!! (with wlgyt)

I was sceptical at first, cause i thought we would see the two girls going on trip while one was sick. Thankfully that’s not what happened!!! We got to see their life story, two childhood bestfriend who ended up as completely strangers left with a heavy heart. I LOVE to watch these kind of dramas. Getting to know their own story and reflecting on it.. It’s so me. I’m constantly thinking about the characters and the choices they made. It’s been weeks but I cannot seem to get ovet it. Seeing how relationship can be super difficult and toxic, but somehow still can’t go without each other it so.. human. This counts for both romantic and friendship relationships. Seeing how this drama stumbled my firm opinions blew my mind away. I love it when a story can make a impact on me. This one did it for sure.

I love photography, cameras and stuff. The emotional aspect to it made it even more special for me! Adding personal touches and including emotions is everything I look forward in dramas!!!!!!

I also want to point out how beautifully they portrayed the brother,,,

!!!SPOILER!!!

Grief is such a difficult emotion. I always feel they cannot express it in dramas but this drama did this sooo well. How they never left his presence throughout the whole show.. It felt super realistic and emotional. I always teared up, like if he was also someone I knew and lost too. This made the whole show so much more special.

This drama was overall one of the best i’ve watched (and i have watched MANNYYY) You should definitely watch this too. I hope to see more dramas like this. It is my favorite type of show to watch and I would love some recommendations!

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Masterpiece

I don’t have many things to say about this drama other than it broke me every time

this drama is told with a creepy tone and high tension level that you can feel it every single moment

I loved everything about this except the brother story.., they could have handled it better than that but still wouldn’t make it a big difference

“Too real that it hurts you”

best Netflix drama until this moment
maybe Netflix damaged the korean drama industry but at least brought us some great stories if you think about it

the only thing I don’t like is that Netflix dramas don’t have the classic endings songs at the end of each episode

you don’t change that,, it should be a blueprints for all k dramas regardless of who the original producer is

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it could be a great drama until it lost me towards the end

What an emotional rollercoaster. From the very first episode, I was completely drawn in. The first four or five episodes hit me so hard—I was crying like a baby. I especially loved the childhood and high school era. Back then, Eun Jung and Sang Yeon's relationship felt so pure. I also loved her time with her boyfriend—it was such a joy to watch because they were perfect together.

But as the story unfolded, I couldn't ignore how terrible of a friend Sang Yeon really was. Because of her, Eun Jung lost everything she ever loved. Eun Jung herself is such a kind soul—poor, gentle, always giving everyone the benefit of the doubt. That's what made it so frustrating to watch her constantly let Sang Yeon back into her life, while someone like Sang Hak never got a second chance. Honestly, if that last encounter with Sang Yeon hadn't happened right before she was supposed to meet him, I think Eun Jung would have said yes.

Their relationship was undeniably toxic. Sang Yeon consistently took advantage of Eun Jung's kindness and manipulated her emotionally. I could go on and on about it.

Performance-wise, this drama shines. Go Eun, as always, was absolutely incredible. The acting across the board elevated the material.

Unfortunately, the story lost its way toward the end. What started as deeply emotional became more frustrating than enjoyable. I was especially upset with Eun Jung's decision in the final episode. Sang Yeon finally got her karma—or did she? In some ways, I feel like she still ended up getting what she wanted. Again. The last episode dragged so much that I ended up skipping scenes.

It's such a shame. This drama had the potential to be a perfect 10/10. If only the final episodes hadn't missed the mark.

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When love and jealousy collide

You and Everything Else captured the messy beauty of love from warmth to hurt and betrayal. It also shows how relationships are not as perfect or effortless. It dives into the push and pull of emotions, showing how love can transform into resentment and how jealousy and insecurities has the power to break even the strongest bonds.

The acting was raw, the chemistry was intense and the story might seem exaggerated but yet it could happen in real life. I found myself thinking… If it was me, I don’t think I could ever forgive a friend for that kind of betrayal. Yet, Ryu Eun Jung’s decision to stay by her side showed a kind of bravery I admired and struggled to understand.

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A drama that challenges your morals

This drama has destroyed me! There are so many dark themes that will leave you devastated.
This drama is a story about the love-hate relationship between two best friends who practically grew up together. It’s also about being human, making mistakes, forgiving, and the importance of self-love or self-hatred.

What really impressed me about this drama was how we as an audience felt the exact same things as one of the main leads Ryu Eun-jung. We see the story of the two girls becoming friends and growing up together in 4 parts of the drama:

1. Their childhood in elementary / junior high school. She loves her friend Cheon Sang-yeon first, then at school she wants to hurt her, then they become friends, E.J. also loves S.Y.’s family members (mom and brother). S.Y. becomes like a second family to her. S.Y. however develops jealousy and hatred towards E.J. during these years because she gets all the attention from her family members that she rarely gets but craves. They fight over sth again but rekindle when S.Y. runs away from home and hides in E.J.’s house. She starts feeling warm motherly love from E.J.’s mom. The scene in which she eats her noodles and cries into her bowl broke my heart. These childhood scenes were so important to further try to understand S.Y.’s behaviour.
Then, her brother dies and the only person who is really there for her is E.J. The latter starts feeling pity for S.Y. which adds to their already complicated relationship of seeing each other as rivals (in E.J. eyes S.Y. has everything she wants aka money, wealth and a big house, and in S.Y.’s eyes E.J. has everything she wants aka a loving mother amd people in general loving her).

2. part is a fast forward to uni life, E.J. is at uni, happily studying and dating a guy with the same name as her first love aka S.Y.’s brother who died. Soon S.Y. also joins the uni, as we later find out not because of E.J. but because of her secret crush on E.J.’s boyfriend that she has had for many years when they met in a chatroom. Seeing how again E.J. has the person that S.Y. is so desperately craving for, leads to her eventually trying to manipulate Kim Sanghak (the boyfriend) into helping her while keeping it secret from E.J. As viewers, we see whats happening and although we feel sad and pity for S.Y. because she does want to find out about her brother by using S.H. we also do notice that she is using her brother as an excuse to get closer to S.H. and create a drift between E.J. and S.H. sth that a best friend should not be doing.
In the end, it comes to a huge showdown of E.J. breaking up with S.H. because of S.Y. and a huge fight between the girls when S.Y. refuses to accept the apartment money from E.J. because of her pride. A pride that eventually might be the reason for her loneliness and for pushing people away. In that scene I felt really mad at S.Y. because her mother was dying too and she could have used the help from E.J. since she was also like someone from the family. But probably S.Y. did it on purpose because she really did NOT want E.J. to be part of her family under any means. She didn’t even tell E.J. that her mom was gonna die which made me even madder.

Then the 3rd part of the show is them as adults, now working in the film industry. The scenes here really made me the angriest about S.Y. She has become totally spiteful and emotionless after her mother’s death. She shows up at E.J.’s office as a co-producer and we also see Kim Sanghak joining. He still has feelings for E.J. and S.Y. still has feelings for S.H. or she is more like obsessed with him in an unhealthy way. We see her confessing her love to him but he of course denies her. She breaks down and ends up getting drunk at some point, when she pleads E.J. to not date S.H. because she loves him but can’t have him so she doesn’t want her to have him either. That scene just blew my mind!!!! And E.J. did tell him that she can’t date him again, just for S.Y. because I do feel that she was actually thinking about rekindling that love. But her pity for S.Y. was so inherently deep, a feeling she had to live with all her life since her childhood. But then, what does S.Y. do??? She steals E.J.’s project and her director and founds her own company because she wants to see E.J. destroyed just like she is 🤯🤯🤯 She can’t live with the fact that she is fine… I was so shocked and hated her as much as E.J. did.

The last part of the show is the current situation of S.Y. coming back into E.J.’s life. She has terminal cancer and wants to end her own life in switzerland and asks E.J. to help her and accompany her to the facility in Switzerland.

This last part of the drama was the hardest to watch. Again, as viewers we do feel pity for S.Y. but we also remember what she did to E.J. so we can understand why she acts so dismissive towards her. This drama challenged my way of thinking in many ways: Is pity enough to love someone? No, it isn’t. The love between the two girls goes deeper than pity. It’s them seeing themselves reflected in each other. It is also envy, and striving to love oneself that they see in each other.
Can you really love someone again and again despite them hurting you? Yes, you can. Forgiving doesn’t mean forgetting. It means remembering especially well what they did to you and why they did it. Especially childhood friends have a huge significance on us, almost as if they are our family. They shape us in our formative years so loving them is almost unconditional.
The way that E.J. forgave S.Y. is almost like empathizing with a villain who had a very tough life and is now trying to become a better human being, but eventually will have to die. So this is your last chance to say goodbye.

Now for the other characters, apart from Eun-Jung, Sangyeon and Sanghak, E.J.’s mother was one of the most important characters. She was the epitome of unconditional love. She saw right into S.Y.’s heart and how much she was in pain and how much she strived for love and affection. She didn’t see SY for her actions but for her pain and struggles. EJ later says “My mom thinks that not everything bad is all bad.” I think this quote says it all.

And then ofc we have SY’s mother and her importance in EJ’s life and how she showed EJ what she herself couldn’t see in her: That she is talented as well. She also helped her replace her pain over her deceased father br creating something beautiful. It seemed that SY’s mother was showing more affection to EJ than to her own daughter which added to the viewers feeling sadness and pity for SY (because EJ’s mother treated SY nicely but she also treats her daughter well). I think the relationship between SY and her mother was one of the most complicated ones. It made me really sad: How she didnt show to her daughter at first, and then how SY pushed her suffering mother away after her brother’s death and even blamed her mother for his death, how then her mother got sick and also died and SY felt regret over wasting her time with her mother on blame, pain and resentment… Her mother has always loved SY but she just wanted her to become a kind human and that’s why she was so strict with her as a child.

One of the messages of this drama might be: We are not perfect, we are human. Humans have faults and humans make mistakes even if they’re aware of those mistakes, even if they keep doing the same mistakes again and again without any effort of improving, even if they hurt others with it; we are all just humans who will have to live through a cycle of suffering endlessly…

I am sure I could write more about this drama and its characters as it was so challenging to read all the emotional struggles they were all going through. Definitely worth a watch but I could never rewatch this!

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Imbalanced resolution

One of the drama’s strengths is its ability to give depth to its characters. However, the finale leaves several arcs incomplete. Cheon Sanghak’s struggles were never fully addressed, and the reasoning behind Sang Cheon’s fault in it felt unclear. Kim Sanghak’s story was almost entirely sidelined despite his significance earlier on, as if he was abruptly erased from the narrative. This creates a sense of imbalance in the storytelling.

The focus on Cheon’s illness overshadowed other character journeys. While Cheon’s ending felt emotionally complete, others, especially Ryu, Cheon Sanghak, and Kim Sanghak , were left without resolution. This makes the finale feel rushed and incomplete, as though important arcs were sacrificed for emotional weight rather than balanced closure.

Ultimately, the drama succeeds in emotional impact but falls short in delivering satisfying conclusions for all its main characters.

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When Narrative Disorder Masquerades as Depth

The idea is great, but not new.
We’ve already seen it to exhaustion.

Whenever a drama wants to explore “deep female friendship,”
they almost always throw in terminal illness
as the narrative glue.

The only truly remarkable part here
are the performances of Kim Bo Min and Park Seo Kyung
as the younger versions of the leads.
They deliver the real emotion, much more than the adults.

The real problem is the narrative structure.
That tendency in K-dramas to tell the story all over the place:
they start in one year,
jump back 40 years,
then 10 years forward…
and on top of that, insert another story inside a story.

If it had been told in a linear way —
childhood, youth, adulthood, and finally the blow of cancer —
the impact could have been brutal.
But they chose to fragment it.

There’s no accumulation of tension,
because they show you the consequences
before you even understand the causes.

The difference between narrative complexity and narrative disorder is clear:
this drama seems to believe that fragmenting the timeline is art,
when in reality it’s sacrificing emotion.

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Underrated Gem With Powerful Emotions and Storytelling

I’m genuinely surprised I missed this K-drama. It didn’t seem to get much attention or strong word-of-mouth, so it probably flew under my radar. But what an incredible experience it has turned out to be. The storyline is intense, the acting is powerful, and the cast delivers with such authenticity. The show starts off with a seemingly simple plot, but the direction is excellent and the storytelling flows so smoothly that it quickly becomes captivating. It carries a perfect blend of warmth, sadness, jealousy, and emotion that feels incredibly real and relatable. I would definitely recommend this to others. I’m excited to continue watching and see how the story unfolds

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i can't see myself re-watching this

Before I start my rant, I want to say the acting was phenomenal. Everyone was acting like their bills depended on it. It is another drama that worked only because of the leads. If anyone else had been cast in these roles, I probably would’ve dropped it. Kim Go Eun gives one of her best performances here, while Park Ji Hyun, though getting slightly typecast, still pulls it off well. The real issue is the writing. It feels like the script was originally meant for cable, but no network wanted to pick it up, so it ended up on Netflix . This series simply isn't meant for bing-watching. The theme throughout the series is pretty gloomy and dragged out, so viewer can hardly relax. The most frustrating part for me was Cheon Sang Yeon: simply a terrible friend, yet writers somehow expected viewers to sympathize with her, despite her guilt-tripping behavior. Until her last breath, she had no character development, so I ended up feeling guilty for not feeling anything when she was dying.

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