larami

The Downsides of Dividing a Story into Seasons: Not a Good Continuation of Season 1

Season 1 of BitchxRich was not a masterpiece by any means and had plenty of dramatic, head scratching moments. But for a web drama mostly with up and coming actors, it was a lot better than others like it. The story delivered/had unexpected moments, I was at the edge of my seat and ready to binge the 2nd season. Most people did too since the 1st season was successful enough for the drama to be picked by Viki and stream internationally. The budget similarly increased if we look at the more known actor playing The Principal (I will get into how replacing characters also was a bad move below), the dramatic press conferences, the school being entirely different, etc. Returning to Cheongdam High however, was like walking into your friend’s house only to see a bunch of strangers there and your old friends sidelined. So many vile and overdramatic things happened this season only for the pay off to end anti-climatically + wrapped up in a neat little bow despite very little making sense. The writer definitely changed and the people behind this new season is more concerned about aesthetics, posturing, which scenes would get tiktok edits than telling a cohesive story.

What I Expected : I rewatched 1st season in preparation and I think it would be good to explain what I expected from this season. The core Diamond 6 members would still be at the center + the poor FL. We focus on uncovering who killed Oh Si eun while Jena and Hye In learn to work through their differences and eventually become reluctant allies to actual friends. Because remember, this show is ultimately about Hye In and Jena. The dynamic of the Diamond 6 members from s1 changed dramatically as result of the expose from the last season and I wanted to see more scenes of Do Eon and Jena, Yul hee and Do Eon, etc.

SPOILERS
What I Got: The Drama Turning Into a Caricature of Itself.
S1 still felt like a show about high school students with the petty jealousy, wanting to be liked by others, blackmail, bullying, etc. But in season 2 we have some hacker BlackDog person who’s this all knowing being, a high school boy who acts like a middle aged makjang character fighting for the succession of his dad’s company, and he manipulates the shares of the 2 biggest companies in South Korea to take down their CEOs. Cha Jinwook is just such a Mary Sue. No offense to the actor (I find him very handsome) but he’s also 50% of why this season has been so bizarre. Every plot line leading up to him being the genius mastermind is just too much & made the other characters stupid so he can save them (like Jena taking those pills with her step mom living in the same house). He's clearly a genius, why is he not out there taking over the world atp.

SPOILERS END

Old Characters Set Aside:
The 2 female leads who should be at the center of it all (according to this drama’s own synopsis) gets brushed aside to make room for this insane ensemble cast of 2 evil dads, an evil principal, an evil stepmom, a male Mary Sue an, all knowing hacker, a knight in shining armor on a motorcycle, etc. Their personal character growths are of no importance to the new writer who just wants heart fluttering~ save the damsel in distress romantic moments. What gave them the idea this was the way to go when the unhinged female cast of the last season is what made the drama successful?

Speaking of unhinged, it doesn’t matter if you dislike Hye In for being greedy social climber or defend her as a relentless girl who’s just trying to turn her life around in our unfair society. She bought the drama. She was so gutsy and not afraid to stand up for herself no matter if she was in the right or bring and bought a campiness I liked in the 1st season. She had her stupid moments at times, but she always surprised you with this spunky unexpected cleverness. Season 2 FL feels so defeatist with her cowering and being pulled around like a puppet by every other character. Even the only other remaining character from S1 the ML Do Eon gets treated like a nameless background character (he was giving Haru from Extraordinary You). Do Eon was so relentless in finding who pushed his girlfriend in season 1. Where's all that energy and dedication? Kim Hae In was also supposed to be a wildcard who wants to take down these rich bullies and cunning to do whatever to achieve her goals yet she's so stupid in this season.

New characters & a lack of subtlety:
1. RIP LEE SOMANG - It’s pretty apparent that his character was always set up to be the big mastermind taking down this corrupt school AND the FL’s love interest from season 1. But with his actor starring in My Girlfriend’s The Man and dropping out of the new season, the writers had to find a way to still incorporate those storylines with heart-throb actors for the TikTok girlies. So what they did instead was divide his character into 2 different guys who appear out of nowhere and immediately start acting like they were here all along + know everything:

- Cha Jinwook ML #1 - The mysterious handsome guy thing can only work with Lee Soomang bc we spent an entire season with him acting like a slacker to cover up his knowledge of everybody’s dirty secrets. His cryptic messages about “I will take care of her for you” would’ve paid off this season + all the time we spent on his backstory as a black sheep of a rich family wouldn't need to be repeated. Cha Jinwook instead gets the “handsome guy who’s the black sheep of a rich family ” role. we spend so much unnecessary time watching him get bullied by his evil dad, have mysterious conversations with his mom, stare broodingly into the camera with a cigarette AND a gun because he’s so sexy and mysterious lmao. The blind loyalty he has towards Jena from their 1st convo whom has done nothing to show she’s different from other spoiled girls like Min Yulhee is unconvincing as well.

- Lee Sarang ML #2, the brother of Lee Somang (never mentioned in s1) takes over his role as the FL’s love interest. He starts being sweet and helping the FL from the get go just bc his now absent brother said so. Again, I’m not understanding why the MLs in this drama take 1 look at the FLs and start acting like they're knights in shining armors. The MLs in S1 even though they helped the FL, had their own hidden agendas and delivered the change in their characters from “I'm using you” to “let's be friends/potential love interests” well. There was no build up like this with the new MLs and the transferring of “being in love with the FL” from 1 brother to another is so tacky + uncreative. WHERE DID HIS BROTHER EVEN GO? He was here a few minutes ago.

2. THE PRINCIPAL Like I said, Season 2 is a direct continuation of Season 1 as in not even a day passed in between the ending of the 1st season and the beginning of the 2nd season. We pick top right off from the “Rooftop Fall” from the last season yet THE VERY NEXT SCENE IS THE PRINCIPAL CHARACTER GETTING REPLACED BY HIS BROTHER!!! AGAIN! Who is this man? Why is he here? What happened to the other principal who was just here a few minutes ago? Why are we getting so many scenes of him bullying his secretary? He’s a background character we only need to see once in a while as a symbol of how corrupt this school is. Who cares about this random lore where he doesn’t like this nephew but pretends to be nice to him? This continues on for so long with him popping up to have dinner with his student’s families, even in random engagement conversations between Jena and Jinwook’s dads. They also over do it with how evil he is. This is a common theme in this new season where every single character and dialogue is so in your face with their evil-ness. ZERO SUBTLETY. Jinwook’s dad is the same way where he threatens to sell his own wife to a brothel if Jinwook doesn’t fix Jena’s drug rumors. Not something to laugh at but I was so caught off guard by the cartoon villain-y of it all. S1 had overdramatic moments but the actors delivered it far better with an equally dramatic pay off and it still felt more grounded to me.

3. JENA’S STEP MOM has a different actress and while she’s not a central character, she does play a big part in the story as a potential master mind. The old actress had this air of a dignified kind teacher and there was more complexity like “is she or is she not planning something?” The new actress is not only so on the nose with her eyes and sneers, she’s also younger and has these stereotypical kdrama evil 2nd FL looks (I’m pretty sure the actress has been in a couple makjangs I’ve seen) so there’s no suspense. She’s very obviously planning/hiding something & Jena not being cautious or investigating her was nonsensical. Jena’ dad also caught this cartoon villain disease and immediately backhands his daughter on the first episode of season 2. All I got from him in season 1 was that he was a strict father who didn’t like his wife but loved his daughter in his own way. Here he’s just going around slapping his daughter on our first re-introduction to him. And he really did not need all that screen time. The story at some point stopped being “poor girl + rich girl face off at a prestigious high school” and turned into a teenage version of HBO's Succession.

Things I Liked:
Like I mentioned, so much of this season is based on shock value, long shots of the characters smirking and leaning into each other sexily to make a point. But the actors even being newer and fresh faces, did a decent job in my opinion. There wasn’t a specific actor who was so bad they kept dragging the others down, especially Min Yulhee and Kim Hae In’s actors were standouts in how good they delivered their roles. Kudos to Jena and Hye In also, their characters are not easy to root for but the actors pushed through and had me awww-ing at the little interactions they were allowed. Lee Soomang’s actor sadly was the strongest male actor we had, I was sorry to see him go. The other male actors were not bad but lacked the natural mysterious yet playful vibe he had. Overall I wish the script and pacing were much better to compliment the acting. Hope to see everybody in better works in the future.

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This is probably what being high feels like...

I wouldn't know but I really felt like I was either high on drugs or in those rom-com comas where the female lead dreams of falling in love with a hot guy. Except what I got was two hours of lucid nightmare full of violence, angst, and naked butts. There are at least 3 separate stories going on all at the same time that has somewhat of a connection but the writers have done a terrible job of making cohesive. I have a lot to say about this movie hence why I decided to write my first ever review for it.

If you expect a sweet, forbidden romance from the name and summary, you're in for a shock as I did. Do yourself a favor and look at the tag which I failed to do. Despite everything I said up to this point, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Not because it had spectacular acting, storyline, or cinematography. In fact, it is utter nonsense and very dramatic at certain points. But they were done right in a way that sticks with your mind. I give it a 8 out of 10 just for how entertaining it was and that is what a movie should do right? I guess the appropriate term would be so bad that it's good. The fact this was my first exposure to the BL genre... and I still want to watch "Forbidden Love" (which I guess is in the same series) says a lot about me as a person.

Trying to make sense of the characters and why they do what they do is like solving a puzzle and while it does gradually gets solved, I don't know what to feel about the end result. Usually, experiences like this really make me dislike a show or a movie bc I feel as if my time was wasted. The opposite was true with this. I felt accomplished and weirdly satisfied. Every once in a while I like to look at the comment section and the other members of this secret, a mess of a fan club because that's what it exactly feels like having watched this movie.

I don't really remember much about the music tbh, which probably means they weren't that great but they weren't that bad either. I'm guessing they fit well into the scenes somehow. The quotes in between were really nice though and helped somewhat explain the story. Rewatch value is pretty low just because the beauty of it lies in the shock factor so knowing what is going to happen beforehand kind of ruins the surprise. It would be fun to watch it with someone whose never seen it before and see their reaction.

The only complaint I have is there were not enough romantic moments between the two leads, whose forbidden relationship as student and teacher was the only reason I even checked this movie out. Most of the screen time is taken up by the annoying and delusional Ichiyo who I could careless about. He's not someone to be pitied. Because of his actions, a lot of people got hurt and no excuses should be made for him just because of what happened to him.

Most Japanese movies/dramas, in general, are a trip but they really do a good job of getting you to feel for the characters amidst the over-the-top plot. Overall, Boys Love was a rollercoaster, a very confusing and bumpy one. But like rollercoasters, you won't forget the trill you just experienced. Once in a while, it just randomly creeps into my mind. I will probably remember it for the rest of my days and for that I appreciate it. It shouldn't work but somehow it does: a true enigma.

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A hot mess.

I'm all for having preferences and respecting other's opinions but the fact this has a 7.9 just baffles me. And the fans are STILL insisting it deserves a higher rating and the only reason why some people rated it low is bc their endgame didn't happen smh.

Regardless of whom ended up with whom, it was a mess. I remember watching it when it was airing on cable but decided to rewatch it after seeing the high rating. . Trust me, the writing was so bad that by episode 12, I could care less about any one of them and this had my boy Park Haejin in it. So it isn't about rating it low bc my endgame didn't happen like some people are saying.

It is genuinely a hot mess of a story that never decided what it wanted to be. An action-thriller? A serious medical drama? A melodrama? A romcom? I rooted for Kang Sora's heiress and Park Haejin's shady genius to be together anyway so I'm pretty unbiased when it comes to the "who is the female lead?" debacle. I could care less about that.

Logic and reason do not apply to Doctor Stranger which works in some romcoms but again, this was trying so hard to be a serious action/medical drama that the inconsistencies eventually tore away at anything good it had going on. It honestly deserves a lower rating but some people enjoyed the eye candy, I guess.

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