Forgotten_Soul

For whatever reason I was hoping for this to be similar to Unforgettable Love. A nonsensical, sweet story with adorable characters to just watch for fun. This series never aspired to be that and I never should have treated it as such from the start.

I would separate this series into two quite different parts, although both happened at the same time with different prioritisation throughout the episodes. They seemed to follow different intentions and appeal to different tastes, which might be good if you are consciously looking for several very different emotions, intensities and tropes in one series, but honestly, I didn't. I wanted to watch a sweet cute family romance so that second part sadly failed to catch me.

Regarding the "first" part: The kids were cute and the overall acting skills of all characters were pretty good. The main lead however didn't seem to have the full bandwith of emotions in his acting repertoire. He was so good with sincerity, sadness and consternation, but his smile really wasn't to die for or even to be taken seriously.
The developing friendships and other relationships were such a nice watch and probably the only reason I still enjoyed the drama as much as I did. The two main leads had great chemistry - as best friends. They did things most people would not consider appropriate to do with a best friend like kissing, holding hands and such, but their overall interaction to me felt like exactly that. I didn't think they properly showed the development of their romantic feelings for each other, it came quite abrupt for me, and the following scenes couldn't make up for that. At times, I rooted a lot more for the second (and hinted third) couple, but that arch turned a bit too childish for me at a certain point. Overall, I wasn't fully satisfied with either couples, but would have given this drama a solid 7.5 if it had been only that for the sweet kids and the great friendships forming among the way - as well as the relationships that weren't too intense, sweet or romantic, but nice to watch.

Regarding the "second" part: They tried to bring mystery, suspension and a connecting common theme into this and I frankly didn't enjoy it. It was very exciting, very dramatic, but first, again, that wasn't what I initially came for, and second, it was simply too much. The drama either was too short to display both sides of the plot evenly well, or too long to go with just one of both. The couples barely had a few actually happy moments with each other as the next bad thing happend. And the next. And another. I don't recall a single episode where we could simply see them grow as a family. It was never a small mishap or short drama easily resolved, it was plottwist after plottwist after huge dramatic events - and most of them were quite foreseeable. The connecting common theme was quite obvious quite early on but was artificially exaggerated to create so (so) much tension when it would have fully fit into that sweet family story without all that extra drama.

Now, if you think this would actually suit your taste quite well because you love one thing happening after the other, the suspension, the drama - let me warn you, the first half might bore you to death. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a sweet cute family drama - you might never want to finish this, just as I ended up watching this while doing chores to just get it over with. (Which didn't do it justice, the last episodes were convincingly thrilling and would've made a pretty decent thriller series.) Be prepared to see both and you might be happier than I was.

Now, for the overall quality, both parts seperately, I would rate this a 7 at least. But the amount of reluctance every time I started a new episode because I was hoping for something sweet but figured I'd get served something sour once again wasn't all too appealing to me.