Study Group

"The moment a person stops learning, their life stops, too"

This series turned into such a fantastic drama, comedy & suspense blended brilliantly. It was difficult not to binge watch these episodes. Each one left you wanting more & more.
There were so many great moments throughout, Se Hyeon winning his first fight & Ga Min knocking out all three body guards on the rooftop. Ga Min's mom getting into the cafe brawl, that was awesome.
The entire cast was brilliant, as well. Every one of them fit perfectly together, each carrying their own distinctive personality like superheroes, all with their own talent. Min Hyun & Jong Hyun were especially great together, showing the close on screen friendship they created between them.
Woo Min & Seo Hoo really made you hate their characters, counting the minutes in that final episode until they each got the beatings they deserved. The sign of good actors doing their job as villains.
I'm not sure if there will be a season two, I know it's kind of rare, but they did leave the door open a bit at the end as a possibility. I hope it happens!!!

Read More

Overhyped

Why are teenagers flying and busting through concrete?

I enjoyed the show, but imo the ratings are way too high. It’s a typical school/bullying/battle/shounen-esque story nothing really special. This comes down to personal preference, but I prefer something grounded in a little more realism with darker undertones (i.e. King of Pigs, The Glory). I had to suspend my belief too much for this show. Fun watch but nothing special.

The best part of the show was definitely the cast and characters. The friendship and funny moments were great and every character in the study group brings something to the group/story. They’re easily lovable and the villains are fun if a little bit cookie cutter in this season. The story and acting; however, weren’t anything crazy. The easy comparison is weak class hero 1. While I wouldn’t say the story for WCH1 was anything terribly special, the acting was 100/10. Can’t say the same here. Looking forward to S2 but def overhyped.

The soundtrack was 100/10 as well. Had Hood and Backpackers on replay for a week straight.

Read More

Fun characters and fights, but missing something

Study Group takes a much more fun twist on the classic kdrama plot of high school gangsters. I was pleasantly surprised by how light they managed to make the show feel considering how heavy the themes are. While I wouldn't consider it the best drama in this category, it was still a super fun watch.

Yun Ga Min's goal is simple: he wants to study and get good grades. However, he sucks at it. In hopes of moving towards the top of his class, he transfers to the worst school he could find - full of gangsters that spend all day fighting instead of studying. But still, he can't seem to make any progress towards becoming a better student. He decides to start a study group, and even though at first no one wants to join, he eventually is able to pull together some students to join him; this does, however, put a target on their backs. Luckily, Ga Min is secretly the best fighter there is, and uses his seemingly superhuman fighting skills to protect his new study group friends.

The fight scenes in this show were surprisingly fun to watch, not because they were realistic, but because they were so over the top and dramatic that it made me laugh. I was hoping for a bit more depth on the characters' home lives and some of the trauma that was alluded to in the show, but the characters were still super interesting to watch. I do think that Ga Min was a bit too perfect, in the sense that we never really got to see him crack the way I wanted to. Not to mention, all the study group members clearly had issues with their families, but only a few of these were actually touched on. Still, it was a fun watch, even though I wish they could've given me a bit more from the characters themselves.

Read More

Study group but where’s the studying??

This show was pretty good overall. The casting and acting were solid too. It was entertaining for the most part, but I didn’t really like how they focused on all these side quests instead of actually studying. The main character kept complaining about wanting to study, yet he was doing everything but that— like no wonder he can't get a good test score. My favorite part had to be the two villains. They didn’t do too much but were serving face card at the same time. The teacher lowkey annoyed me but another than that most of the characters were great, Would recommend.

Read More

Is there a season 2??

Lets start with the webtoon story, it is a very unique shonen story days, it is quite unique to see this kind of story
a high schooler just only wanted to study but end up on a school with just a gossip, a very unique introduction
at the same time, the supporting lead ended up the same gossip, a very unique situation. story is just right, this could have been an easily 12 episode series, last episode in the last 25 mins feels rush.

Cast is unique and very interesting cast, a lovable, funny cast,
pair it with the backpacker OST whenever they made their entrance during a fight, someone on the music crew is a big fan of Kill bill, the slow walk makes it good while in uniform,

There is cons but minor parts and camera shots
each episode is only 40 mins, some 38 mins take the intro and outro out, they could have used this minutes not to feel rush the last 25 mins of the series.
Ga Min Master was not introduce, could be saving for season 2??? but could be a good thing because the story is about Ga Min,
Ji Woo brother just showed up on the last episode, not much screentime aside from the classroom fire fight with Ga Min
Last 25 mins was patterned with MOVING, c'mon, unless there will be a planned crossover??

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There is also a lot of lessons that was used and i think it was used in subtle way but useful,
importance of parents, importance of teachers, culture when studying on a school tag as school of bullies, students who want to study but to circumstances unable to go on,

A lot of fun and hope there is a season 2
because this is a auto rewatch for your holiday marathon

I wish i have a class like this in high school,

Read More

Fun premise, lost me halfway through

Dropped at 4.5 episodes cus I just lost interest, the protag's lack of emotion during fighting just didn't interest me, I love op protagonists, but I just couldn't connect to him when his face is a cool as cucumber during what's supposed to be emotional fight scenes (⁠´⁠⊙⁠ω⁠⊙⁠`)

Then there's the fighting app (my favorite detail) which was talked about, and then protag immediately skyrocketed to the top of his year in like the third episode and already defeated the top student in the grade above? Which, that's kinda boring? Maybe I'm judging the show too soon, but it would've been cooler to see him slowly climb up while defending his Study Group, I hope they did something more with the app and the protagonist cus then what a waste of a fun plotline

What ticked me off most tho was that the school was known for FIGHTING yet characters in the background were leading a pretty peaceful life TT life SHOW ME the chaos of the school, idk, I guess I just didn't see enough of the protagonist experiencing the school in the beginning to feel the tension

And lastly, I hate the antagonist, and not in a "wow, such a good actor for making me dislike him" way, but in a "please remove this man from my screen because he's seriously annoying me" way

Maybe I'll pick it back up if I'm itching for something with these vibes, I get it's more of an easy going show, but for now it's just not doing it for me in the emotionally connected or humour department so no point in watching 乁⁠|⁠ ⁠･⁠ ⁠〰⁠ ⁠･⁠ ⁠|⁠ㄏ

Not a terrible show, just not my vibe

Read More

The one thing I can't stand is bullies. However, the one thing that I absolutely love is bullies getting owned. This series reflected a lot of that. I will say I know the actress who played the teacher was in Bad And Crazy and I liked her character because she was strong in that but was kind of dismayed because she was weaker in this drama. I guess I'm spoiled. Whenever I see a Korean actor who can fight I expect to see them doing so in every drama they play in. Shame on me for being like this but I can't help it. I'm all for the male heroes in these dramas but when I see a female who can stand on her own it gives me some glimmer of hope that females portrayed in dramas aren't so weak after all. So yeah I whooped and clapped for the one lonely female student who held her own.

This drama stayed true to it's roots. The MML wanted to study and he stopped at nothing to do so. I felt so bad about his studying skills though.

What I can't get over is how my portrayal of Korean schools are. Are they all portrayed as being schools for bullies?? I will say some of the actors looked a little too old to be in high school. You could see the age on these actors faces close up.

I truly liked this drama until the last episode. Most of the scenes I watched gave me goosebumps. I even yelped and applauded out loud in one particular scene because I wasn't expecting what I was expecting.

Now why did I not like the last episode? Because some scenes were drawn out longer than they should and it was wrapped up rather quickly. I guess I wanted to see more justice done and wasn't satisfied hence the 9 score. I'm a bit leery about giving things a perfect 10. I don't do that unless I truly truly enjoyed a drama that gives me closure at the end. A lot of Kdramas don't do that.

In my opinion, this drama was way better than Weak Hero Class and yes, I did love that drama as well but this one was better.

Read More