Daytimel

Missed Opportunities

What I liked:

🪷 Beautiful costumes for the leads
🪷 Gorgeous OSTs and BGMs
🪷 Chen Ye’s arc

What I struggled with:

The leads:
⚫️ Both leads lacked character development. They remained the same throughout, just falling in love. Their personalities felt flat and one-dimensional making it hard to connect with them.

The villains:
⚫️ Mo Li's motivations weren’t fleshed out enough, which made it difficult to see him as a real threat. Zhen Yu was even harder to take seriously as a villain.

Second lead couple:
⚫️ Chong Zhao was at least consistent, while Bai Xi’s characterization felt uneven. At first, she had almost no distinct traits beyond her devotion to Zhen Yu. Later, when she "found herself," she underwent such a drastic shift that it felt like she became a completely different person rather than evolving naturally.

The eternals:
⚫️ Their decision-making was frustrating at times, often jumping to extreme actions without much thought. It made some moments hard to take seriously.

The demon lord’s sidekicks:
⚫️ They didn’t add much depth to the story.

The romance:
⚫️ I didn’t feel much chemistry between the leads, which made their relationship hard to invest in. The second leads had a little more spark, but still not enough to be memorable. There was one particular kiss scene, Fan Yue’s farewell while Bai Shuo was crying, that just felt off.

Pacing and writing:
⚫️ The pacing was okay, but the frequent scene repetition made some episodes feel stretched. I watched at 2× speed and didn’t miss anything, which says a lot about how often things were recycled.

⚫️ The script relied heavily on repetition, not just in dialogue but in story structure. The same patterns played out over and over, which made things boring.

⚫️ Almost every character introduced died except the leads, making the entire journey feel pointless.

OSTs:
⚫️ The music was beautiful, but it was overused to the point that even the best tracks started to lose their impact. Some placements felt odd, with multiple songs stacked back-to-back, which took away from their emotional weight.

Worldbuilding and production:
⚫️ The world had a lot of potential, but it felt too empty. The leads’ costumes, while stunning, stood out so much that they sometimes felt out of place compared to the rest of the cast. Some props also looked artificial, which affected the watch.

Casting:
⚫️ The casting wasn’t the strongest. Some performances stood out, Dai Lu Wa as Fu Ling was a good choice, and Chang Hua Sen really gave his best effort as Chong Zhao.

The ending:
⚫️ In the last moments, the show claimed everyone got revived, but since they were never actually shown, it felt unconvincing.

⚫️ It felt rushed, packing too much into the final episode without giving enough explanation or closure.

Final thoughts:
✨️ This drama had the potential to be great, and there were definitely some strong elements, but it felt like a lot of opportunities were missed. With more consistent writing and character development, it could have been something really special.

This is just my personal view though 😊

Read More

More in the future please!

📍Characters:

Daon is a character you get to know very little about.
Sungyeon is a cute lead, but he's too perfect to feel real, which takes away from his impact.
Jaemin was an okay villain, but again, you don't get to know much about him. He felt too one-dimensional.
Soo Hyun was the most interesting character out of all of them and had the best entrance, in my opinion. The actor really stood out.
The chemistry between Soo Hyun and Daon was stronger, but I still loved that the main leads ended up becoming a healthy couple.

📍Story:

There was no real character development for the lead characters, and their one-dimensional approach made it hard to care about them. Only Soo Hyun seemed to go through some change, I think.
I really liked the pacing of this drama and how they revealed new information at the end of each episode, it made it fun to watch.
The script and dialogue were simple but effective. They did the best with the limited time they had, though it definitely could have been better.

The ending was sweet, but I cringed so hard when they revealed that the leads had known each other since they were teenagers. I absolutely hate that trope and think it should never be used again!

📍Production:

There were no memorable OSTs or BGMs.
The cinematography was good.
The casting was okay overall. Especially Kim Jun Seo, who played Daon, did not deliver a strong performance in my opinion. Cha Jung Woo, who played Soo Hyun, was definitely the highlight.

✨️Final thoughts:

I loved to see a BL Kdrama with more than one lead. I hope we will get more in the future ❤️

Read More

Too many plots

First of all the things I liked about this drama:

◇the Ha family before the time-travel
◇portrayal of deaf people and their struggles
◇Cheong-Ah as a character
◇Eun Gyeol as a child and teen
◇the relationship between Eun Gyeol and Choi Hyun before the time-travel

Now to the things I did not like. They tried to put in as much plots, subplots and storylines as possible to make it shiny, the problem was though, that the quality dropped because of it. It's like trying to learn 5 languages... you will be mediocre at all of them instead of choosing one and using it perfectly instead. So what was this drama trying to be? A story about a boy who is a CODA? A story about music, passion, teenage dreams? A time-travel story?
After choosing that, they again had to choose on which character they wanted to go with. Eun Gyeol? Lee Chan? Cheong-Ah or even Eun Yoo? It was all over the place and like that, the story was half-heartedly executed. And even with all those plots, subplots and storylines... it was still boring. It was predictable and not a special drama to remember in the future.

There were characters without a real purpose and who did not even get introduced properly, like the people who would dine at grandmas. And then there was Eun Gyeol who I felt like was carrying the whole drama. The screenwriters must have realized this too because in the last 2 episodes, his character got cheesier and out of character lines.

The characterization of Lee Chan was not the best either and he was one of the main leads. In his old form, he is way different character-wise and this is not something that can be explained with age or trauma. Old and young Lee Chan were 2 completely different people and I couldn't put them together. Also the casting of Choi Hyun/master. All 3 actors were so different from eachother... it was just not good.

The ending was not executed well either. Eun Gyeol and Eun Yu arrived in the present and it had no consequences. The parents didn't recognize Eun Gyeol and Eun Gyeol himself got all his memories from his first life. It just felt like lazy writing.

I was trying to find reasons to love this more, but sadly I couldn't.

Read More

Masterpiece

The leads were truly out of the ordinary, not the usual kind, not clichéd, and without a patriarchal pattern. Yet, they remained incredibly strong, distinctive, and undeniably cool, with chemistry that went through the roof.

The drama featured all kinds of side characters, each making the watch even more interesting. They weren’t just there for the sake of it; they had their own arcs and developed as characters. No one felt one-dimensional, they were real, essential, and added to the plot as they should.

The angst and tension were definitely present, though I felt the villain was a bit lacking. However, the well-executed angst helped overshadow that shortcoming.

When it came to chemistry, it wasn’t just about the leads, everyone had chemistry with everyone, and it worked so well!

The concept and idea were amazing! What I loved most was that this was a story about a female protagonist, and no character could take that away from her. She remained the focal point, as she should be. The female lead was incredible, and the spotlight was rightfully hers.

The characters did develop, but for the most part, the leads stayed true to themselves without a major "I changed for the better" moment. Furong though had the best character development and I actually appreciated that a lot.

The pacing, structure, script, and dialogues were simply chef’s kiss! Absolutely nothing to complain about there.

The OSTs and BGM were fantastic, and the cinematography was breathtaking, the world felt so lively and real. The casting was also spot-on.

And I really, really loved the ending. Wrapping it up with an episode full of comedy and heartwarming moments was genius. One of the most underrated aspects of this drama was its comedy, it truly glued the characters and the overall storyline together.

I cried, I laughed, and I felt every moment of this drama, I am truly grateful for it. This was a truly beautiful watch that I will never forget. I will miss Shen Li, Xingzhi, and every character in it. What a masterpiece! 🥰

Read More

Beautiful but Unnecessary

These three words basically sum up how I felt throughout the entire watch.

📍Main Leads:

Nice to look at, but too surface-level. You feel absolutely nothing for them emotionally. They had great chemistry, though.

📍Side Characters:

The side characters got more screen time than the leads, which really annoyed me. I still can't believe we spent more time with the sister and her husband than with the main couple. And after them, Ansu and Song Mo’s brother took over. Like, why?

📍Angst / Tension:

There was none.

📍Concept / Idea:

It started off great, but they completely lost me after the time skip. Where was the red string that was supposed to guide us through the story? It had no impact at all. The fact that Dou Zhao and Song Mo got reincarnated didn't change the story one bit. They could've skipped that part entirely, and nothing would have been different. That was a big mistake, and part of why the leads left no real impact.

📍Character Development:

Yes, the characters changed and overcame their fears, but it didn’t matter because you didn’t care about them.

📍Pacing / Structure:

The structure was okay, but the pacing was way too slow. Almost nothing happened throughout the entire series, making the drama pretty boring.

📍Script / Dialogue:

Some interesting dialogue, but a lot of missing pieces. It felt like trying to finish a puzzle without all the pieces, no satisfying conclusion.

📍Ending:

It was okay, but again confusing, especially the part with the daughter finding out about multiple versions of "Blossom".

📍OSTs & BGMs:

Nothing memorable here.

📍Cinematography:

Visually stunning, but often wasted on unnecessary scenes.

📍Casting:

Good, but underutilized.

✨️Final Words:

All in all, this could have been something great, but they messed it up. A beautiful yet unnecessary drama, and ultimately a waste of time.

Read More