Watch it as the first half of a story, it's still 100% worth it
Watch this as the first half of a story because that's what it is, and it’s 100% worth it. It's SO beautifully done. If you go into it thinking that it's a complete story, you will likely leave feeling disappointed or upset. I suspect this is why ratings are lower than I believe they ought to be. I haven’t ever immediately rewatched any show from beginning to end in adulthood and I’m in the midst of rewatching this one. The resounding refrain in my mind is – “The On1y One, how are you so good?!” It’s really well put together and has such great cinematic storytelling.My suggestion is to watch the drama, then pick up the novel and read Chapter 60 onwards, which is what I did. The drama follows the novel closely enough for it to be possible to continue on.
If you go into this looking for smut, that’s not what this is and you’ll be disappointed. It is a lovely coming-of-age love story with excellent storytelling.
WHY I LOVE THIS:
- It’s incredibly sweet without being saccharine. No one’s overacting, everything feels genuine, deep and gentle.
- It’s beautifully shot and edited so that you can see into the inner emotions and thoughts of the characters, even when unspoken.
- There’s something to the order in which details are revealed that is really captivating and transforms the watching experience into a wonderfully slow peeling of layers.
- The way that these episodes are bookended with further glimpses into characters with the intro/outro and poetic commentary voiceover – it’s gorgeous.
- I’m in my 40s and I feel emotionally moved and transported into adolescence. This feels like the experience of adolescence distilled into a show.
WHY I DIDN'T GIVE IT 10 STARS:
- I find piggy back rides a little silly, but I get that it’s a regular trope.
- The acting is generally solid, nothing is bad. However, the acting in some episodes is really good, so in comparison, there were a number of lines in other places that I wish were delivered a little differently so that they could have landed a little better.
- There are a couple plot devices that feel a little contrived just to move the story along, which I didn’t love, but it wasn’t too distracting.
I watched this once, then read the 2nd half of the novel, and now am rewatching it again from the beginning. Now knowing what comes next in the story, it’s clear that they’ve laid the story foundation for filming a second half. This is the first 59 chapters of a 120 chapter novel. I truly hope they are given an opportunity to make the second half of the story as well as they did the first.
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Eps. 1-10 are excellent, but it had trouble getting from there to the ending it wanted to have
I really loved the start of this one! The first ten episodes were excellent — solid performances from all actors and the chemistry was perfect. I actually quite liked the plot line/commentary on the entertainment industry, which felt like it elevated the show. The pacing generally felt good until about episode 10. I can’t underscore enough how great the acting and chemistry was from the main couple. So good! Really well done, including the breakups and crying scenes.However, the show falters in episodes 11-12. It seemed to only sort of complete all the plot lines and requires the audience to fill-in-the-blanks. There were closeups on a few different highlighted details that never came back into the story or we have to assume what happened with them. In the last two episodes, there was too much flashback and not enough story for the amount of story the show seemed to actually wanted to tell. Ultimately, Love After Addiction was trying to do too much with the number of episodes/minutes it had.
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Kill to Love desperately needed some breathing room to build the story
I really liked the concept, but Kill to Love really suffered from not having space to fully flesh out both the political story and the love story. I felt like I was watching a "Cliff notes" version of the story, and it fell short on both levels:Political story: Character decisions seemed inconsistent, but I think this was because there wasn't room to show characters struggling with difficult decisions, consulting other trusted characters, establishing depth of relationship with family members, etc. I felt like I needed to call upon my knowledge of watching countless costume Cdramas to reason out why someone might make one decision and then change their mind or why a particular decision makes logical sense. I've definitely seen characters from other costume dramas make similar decisions and take similar actions, but Kill to Love was unable to adequately show the struggle, I believe due to time limitations. So, it just felt like characters were being inconsistent.
Love story: Everything felt sudden. Again, I think this is a problem with not having breathing room to build up the emotional depth. I felt like it was too much relying on "childhood lovers," but there wasn't enough in either the flashbacks or present day to establish a deep emotional relationship. It just needed more time to show sweet interactions, etc, that could then be used as flashbacks later on to remind the viewer why these two care deeply about each other. Same issue with the second couple.
Chemistry was meh, not bad, but also not great, but honestly, I've really enjoyed series in the past with mediocre chemistry when the plot is good, but because Kill to Love also couldn't deliver on the political story, it just couldn't carry the mid-level chemistry. I'm mostly leaving Kill to Love feeling disappointed that it didn't have the space (and probably the funding) to fully flesh out the story because the concept is really interesting and I see how it could've been really excellent if it had the more standard 30-some episodes to fully build out complicated political storylines and establish character relationships.
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Thought provoking journey with twists and turns!
I just finished watching Lesson in Love and it is quite an adventure! I'm writing this review because I think this drama is probably very misunderstood. I was initially drawn in because of reviewers talking about an important twist (there are like 4 twists!) and MDL comments like, "Leave behind your judgements for a while and give this series a chance. It is not what you think whatsoever!"Lesson in Love sells itself as a teacher-student romance. Which it kind of is, so that's not entirely inaccurate, but also it really isn't. Yes, there is a teacher-student romance and it's critical to the story, but it's also very much about (perhaps more about):
- Thought provoking questions to explore
- Families and family dynamics
- Pasts, grudges, growth and forgiveness
- Mystery and suspense
I actually think it's best enjoyed by someone who is interested in thought exploration, interesting storytelling, mixed in with a little mystery and suspense with a core romance throughline.
THE WATCHING EXPERIENCE - we'll see if I can do this without spoilers
Episodes 1-5 are *very* cringy. It sets itself up as an (uncomfortable) romance. I watched those episodes with my finger on the 10 second skip button and would wholeheartedly encourage others to do that too.
Episode 6 starts getting very interesting when the drama poses some questions for the audience to ponder.
Then, from Episode 7 onwards it becomes a different drama. There's still a prominent romance throughline, the main couple is very important to the story, but it becomes also about family, society, expectations, wrongs, and mystery. Love is really more a theme that holds the drama together.
The drama does an excellent job at feeding the audience information in bits and pieces so that we can be surprised. It's good storytelling.
I actually didn't walk away "shipping" the main couple or feel any swoon with them (I know others out there did), but I also think it's very okay because it's not necessarily what the drama was about. That didn't make me enjoy the drama less.
Anyway, I think it's worth watching. Is it perfect? Nope. I'm giving it an 8/10. But, it is a super interesting journey!
Rewatch value is low because its appeal is in the surprises/twists. I'd encourage you to avoid all spoilers!
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