This review may contain spoilers
If you need to "Just skip" the majority of the show, it is not a good show
Let's start from the beginning. It is not a BL. Youth story, story about highschoolers, anything but BL. You know why is it disappointing? It's adapted from a pure BL. But, regardless.
Positives:
- Music. You can hardly go wrong with music, but it happened in some shows, so I'm still giving a point for that.
- Visuals. Beautiful. You can tell that they poured a lot of money into this one.
- Acting. If some of the characters are annoying to you, it means that the actor played them well. Well....if it was meant to be that way? Otherwise, oops. Still, acting is the highlight of the show.
- The astronomy methaphors. Every single one of them is beautiful, and every single one captures the summary of the each episode beautifully. I wished there were less tennis and more of Astronomy, but oh well. Some people wish that pigs could fly.
- Heesu and Seungwon. Separated, together. They gave a lot of depth to them specifically...not always knowing what to do with it though. You can remove everyone else from the story, and story becomes better. Not amazing, but good. Still, i said everything about that in the headline.
- As a youth story it's okay. If you do not take it as anything else but a youth story, if not, well....
Negatives:
- Let's start from the elephant in the room. The straight pair, that got together almost at the very beginning, and for the quite a big chunk of the show we saw them dating, while the main pair fubled around each other. You could've shown the begining of their crush. How they briefly dated, sure. But showing them in our faces every time when the mains are barely friends is straight up disrespectful, considering that it's adapted. From the bl. Where they didn't even exist. And it's not the only one straight pair, nooo. Sisters and their boyfriends, Ho Shik and his girlfriend. Everyone got to shine. Expect for, well.
- Pacing. Too fast, too slow. Some crucial and important moments happen in the blink of an eye, but the unimportant stuff drags so badly you wonder what's the show even about.
- Character development. Oh no, the mains are okay. Could be better though. But literally everyone else? I couldn't tell if I'm supposed to see them as comic reliefs or serious characters. Cause why, pray tell, did you give so much screen time to Chan Yeong and his tennis and then just....not done anything meaningful with it?
- This being an adaptation. In short....it is not. It's a completely different show, that has characters under the same names. Why would you even adapt this one, if you hated it that much? I have no idea.
- This being a supposed "slow burn". Where's the persistent tension between the main leads? Where's the lots and lots of meaningful scenes and deep conversations? Slow burning show, sure. Not slow burning relationship, though.
Overall, if you're not a fan of the original work, and not a fan of queer centric stories, but a fan of simple youth stories, this is for you. For everyone else....i am deeply sorry, really. But as a queer story, as an adaptation, this is a disappointment.
If someone wants to crop everyone from the show and just keep Heesu and Seungwon separate and together, you can get a decent show. Otherwise, well, i do not see why would you rewatch it.
Positives:
- Music. You can hardly go wrong with music, but it happened in some shows, so I'm still giving a point for that.
- Visuals. Beautiful. You can tell that they poured a lot of money into this one.
- Acting. If some of the characters are annoying to you, it means that the actor played them well. Well....if it was meant to be that way? Otherwise, oops. Still, acting is the highlight of the show.
- The astronomy methaphors. Every single one of them is beautiful, and every single one captures the summary of the each episode beautifully. I wished there were less tennis and more of Astronomy, but oh well. Some people wish that pigs could fly.
- Heesu and Seungwon. Separated, together. They gave a lot of depth to them specifically...not always knowing what to do with it though. You can remove everyone else from the story, and story becomes better. Not amazing, but good. Still, i said everything about that in the headline.
- As a youth story it's okay. If you do not take it as anything else but a youth story, if not, well....
Negatives:
- Let's start from the elephant in the room. The straight pair, that got together almost at the very beginning, and for the quite a big chunk of the show we saw them dating, while the main pair fubled around each other. You could've shown the begining of their crush. How they briefly dated, sure. But showing them in our faces every time when the mains are barely friends is straight up disrespectful, considering that it's adapted. From the bl. Where they didn't even exist. And it's not the only one straight pair, nooo. Sisters and their boyfriends, Ho Shik and his girlfriend. Everyone got to shine. Expect for, well.
- Pacing. Too fast, too slow. Some crucial and important moments happen in the blink of an eye, but the unimportant stuff drags so badly you wonder what's the show even about.
- Character development. Oh no, the mains are okay. Could be better though. But literally everyone else? I couldn't tell if I'm supposed to see them as comic reliefs or serious characters. Cause why, pray tell, did you give so much screen time to Chan Yeong and his tennis and then just....not done anything meaningful with it?
- This being an adaptation. In short....it is not. It's a completely different show, that has characters under the same names. Why would you even adapt this one, if you hated it that much? I have no idea.
- This being a supposed "slow burn". Where's the persistent tension between the main leads? Where's the lots and lots of meaningful scenes and deep conversations? Slow burning show, sure. Not slow burning relationship, though.
Overall, if you're not a fan of the original work, and not a fan of queer centric stories, but a fan of simple youth stories, this is for you. For everyone else....i am deeply sorry, really. But as a queer story, as an adaptation, this is a disappointment.
If someone wants to crop everyone from the show and just keep Heesu and Seungwon separate and together, you can get a decent show. Otherwise, well, i do not see why would you rewatch it.
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