Stephen

Fantastic Characters

I don't remember why I added this show to my ever-growing "Plan to Watch" list. More likely than not I saw a preview on Netflix after a movie or something, like I do so many, and saw that it had fencing and figured I'd put it on my list, but I can't really be sure.

In any case, we actually started watching Twenty-Five Twenty-One by mistake. In my household we pick a series to watch while having dinner, and when our last series finished up I gave my teenager the pick. They had previously suggested a series, which also exists on the "Plan to Watch" list, but we couldn't remember which show it was. When we reviewed the list and saw the title, not remembering what it was, we thought that must be it and started watching.

I loved the series immediately. Na Hee Do's never-give-up attitude and largely sunny disposition especially made it enjoyable to me, but there were plenty of reasons to love the show. I loved that the rivalry didn't become a bitter feud with Go Yu Rim and instead became a close friendship. The level of humor was just right for me. The main characters all had development as they grew into adults.

While I understand a lot of people were unhappy with the ending, it was telegraphed from the beginning. While I avoided such endings (or anything short of super-happy) for a long time, this wasn't what I'd call a bad ending. I think a lot of people just weren't ready for the ending they surely knew was going to arrive.

Twenty-Five Twenty-One is a coming of age drama, and part of that experience is learning that sometimes life doesn't go as planned. Sometimes you have to drop out of college because you need to support your family, like Baek Yi Jin. Sometimes you have to give up all your hard work to maintain your integrity, like Ji Seung Wan. Sometimes you have to leave everything you know behind because of circumstances, like Go Yu Rim. And sometimes you have to accept that a relationship isn't going to work out regardless of how you feel about each other.

The only real issues I had with the show were some of the way flashbacks were handled, and that Kim Tae Ri was fine playing Na Hee Do at around 30, but for some reason they had Kim So Hyun play her in her 40s. This just seemed weird to me, especially given that Kim Tae Ri is actually in her 30s so I don't think it would have been that hard to "age" her for her older self.

An important thing to note about how my family watches the shows we pick is that we only watch 30-45 minutes at a time, and we never watch if one of us isn't here to watch with us. Due to various circumstances, and the holiday season, this means we started watching around December 9th, and just finished on February 8th. So Na Hee Do and Baek Yi Jin have been part of my family's lives for two months, and I can honestly say I will miss these characters.

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