This review may contain spoilers
ML, literally just him
TLDR: the ML is the only reason to watch this show.
Overall: This show never quite found its footing with me and I would point to the tone as the driving factor. It didn't know if it wanted to be a funny action comedy or a serious romance and the bullying aspect did not do them any favors when it came to mixing the two. I'm not sure what the obsession is with Korean media and extreme portrayals of bullying but it is pretty difficult to watch at times. I've never been through any Korean schooling so maybe it is that bad but in every depiction I've seen thus far (drama or manhwa) it goes from extreme bullying straight into full on criminal offenses in no time flat. I think bullying is a pretty tough topic to get right, especially when you try to include comedic moments like this show does because its quite jarring to see some kid quite literally left for dead in a dumpster then cut to some quirky music/one liners.
The ML is fantastic and his raw charisma carried me through 5 god awful episodes where everything without him was borderline unwatchable. Acting on point. Character on point. Only good things to say. Deserves better than the FL.
The emphasis on bullying hits the FL's character really hard because you have to remember the show is trying to be a romance so we need to like her. But they also pull the Kdrama trope of making one of the leads completely irredeemable for no reason at the start (so we can see them grow? I guess??). I'm not a teacher but even I was personally offended watching her debate the merits of just letting one of her students get bullied so she can get a full time job. Like what??? We are supposed to like her. After seeing her do that on top of her blatant incompetence before the ML got there (because if its happening then its happened before and she hasn't noticed), I no longer care about her character. Yes she does end up doing the right thing but it shouldn't take a secret agent rolling through your school for you to do that. Just as a teacher it doesn't seem like she cared any more than surface level about the well being of her students from what I saw so pretty difficult to get invested in her character and as a result the show since romance was such a large component.
Last thing I wanted to say was that the writers were clearly competent because there is an excellent portrayal of bullying in the sister's (cousins? I truly forgot her relationship to the ML) friend group. As the audience we get to see how the little comments, remarks, and gestures stack up to be a condescending relationship between the her and the rest of her 'friend' group. This was made even better because we can see how she might brush these things off as no big deal since they included her in the "cool kids club" so she might rationalize some stuff. I loved this portrayal because it hits all the right notes while being completely believable. The vast majority of bullying is not seen. No bully with any functioning brain cells does things that can obviously be traced back to them. Mad props to the person that crafted this portrayal because I feel like it both fits the characters and show really well while also having the IRL impact of showing people that bullying doesn't require you to get punched or something. This is probably the single best portrayal of bullying I've seen in Korean media which makes it so much more frustrating to see the main focus put on the other side where people should've been arrested ages ago.
Overall: This show never quite found its footing with me and I would point to the tone as the driving factor. It didn't know if it wanted to be a funny action comedy or a serious romance and the bullying aspect did not do them any favors when it came to mixing the two. I'm not sure what the obsession is with Korean media and extreme portrayals of bullying but it is pretty difficult to watch at times. I've never been through any Korean schooling so maybe it is that bad but in every depiction I've seen thus far (drama or manhwa) it goes from extreme bullying straight into full on criminal offenses in no time flat. I think bullying is a pretty tough topic to get right, especially when you try to include comedic moments like this show does because its quite jarring to see some kid quite literally left for dead in a dumpster then cut to some quirky music/one liners.
The ML is fantastic and his raw charisma carried me through 5 god awful episodes where everything without him was borderline unwatchable. Acting on point. Character on point. Only good things to say. Deserves better than the FL.
The emphasis on bullying hits the FL's character really hard because you have to remember the show is trying to be a romance so we need to like her. But they also pull the Kdrama trope of making one of the leads completely irredeemable for no reason at the start (so we can see them grow? I guess??). I'm not a teacher but even I was personally offended watching her debate the merits of just letting one of her students get bullied so she can get a full time job. Like what??? We are supposed to like her. After seeing her do that on top of her blatant incompetence before the ML got there (because if its happening then its happened before and she hasn't noticed), I no longer care about her character. Yes she does end up doing the right thing but it shouldn't take a secret agent rolling through your school for you to do that. Just as a teacher it doesn't seem like she cared any more than surface level about the well being of her students from what I saw so pretty difficult to get invested in her character and as a result the show since romance was such a large component.
Last thing I wanted to say was that the writers were clearly competent because there is an excellent portrayal of bullying in the sister's (cousins? I truly forgot her relationship to the ML) friend group. As the audience we get to see how the little comments, remarks, and gestures stack up to be a condescending relationship between the her and the rest of her 'friend' group. This was made even better because we can see how she might brush these things off as no big deal since they included her in the "cool kids club" so she might rationalize some stuff. I loved this portrayal because it hits all the right notes while being completely believable. The vast majority of bullying is not seen. No bully with any functioning brain cells does things that can obviously be traced back to them. Mad props to the person that crafted this portrayal because I feel like it both fits the characters and show really well while also having the IRL impact of showing people that bullying doesn't require you to get punched or something. This is probably the single best portrayal of bullying I've seen in Korean media which makes it so much more frustrating to see the main focus put on the other side where people should've been arrested ages ago.
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