Green Flag Enthusiast

I Feel So Many Things

I know I'm technically about 5 years too late to watching this, but that doesn't matter. All that matters is that I finished, yeah? Now, this review will not be like some of the other reviews in this section. I LOVED this show, so I won't be agreeing with the rest of the peanut gallery in regards to this show. Like always, I did NOT feel the same way the majority of the K-Drama fandom felt about this show. Not at all, and I'm perfectly fine with that.

I do want to start off by acknowledging the elephant in the room here - usually I only find myself salivating and obsessing over the female leads in this story. However, Ha Ru (Rowoon) is absolutely positively divine. The show did such a great job at creating the buildup to revealing and introducing his character to the audience. The first time I saw him, my mouth dropped. I was absolutely shooketh. I was stunned by how absolutely beautiful this man is. I've never been blown away by any of the male leads in most K-Dramas and that's something I've had to deal with for quite some time and I was fine with it. The entire time I watched this - that was the only thing going through my mind. I was awestruck by his beauty. Don't get me wrong. The actress that plays Dan Oh is adorable too. They were both a very good-looking couple. However, I'm now in love with Rowoon so there's that. Now, onto the review.

While I will agree with some fans about the story not making sense, I don't care enough to stress about it. I'm one of those annoying fans who doesn't give a fuck about a shoddy plot, just as long as the characters are likable and I get my romance. Yes, I'm THAT fan. The plot could fall apart in 5 episodes and be held together by a single piece of thread for the remainder of the show and it won't matter if those characters are hitting all of the right beats and tugging on my heartstrings in the way that I enjoy. I do believe this story lasted far longer than it should, but that's always been a pet peeve of mine regarding most of these dramas. Most dramas don't need more than a certain number of episodes to tell the story. In that way, I do feel as if the writers dragged certain things out that they definitely shouldn't have, but what can you do? The pacing is the issue in that regard. Also, having two love triangles in the same show means that I am entitled to some sort of financial compensation for emotional damages. Down with love triangles! It's not 2008 anymore.

Now, The Writer. The hand wavy God-like figure writing the comic within the show. I did have an issue with this part because I honestly thought that Ha Ru was The Writer before they revealed that he wasn't. I feel that may have been far more interesting. Ha Ru is The Writer who somehow ended up in his own book. Ha Ru, The Writer, jumps through that weird black hole to get in and get out of that make-believe, fictional world. That's what I initially theorized but that's not what happened. I don't like the fact that we never found out who The Writer was either. I did like the subtle meta digs the characters would take at The Writer though. I found that kind of funny. I never saw Boys Over Flowers (?), so I don't understand that reference. Sorry!

Let's tackle my favorite aspect of this show now, shall we? The lead couple sunk their claws into me and they never let go. These two have my heart and will always have my heart honestly, because they were just that perfect. They had the right balance of angst and happiness. I did not care for the long, drawn-out love triangle though. I'm past the age where love triangles interest me so I would have preferred that Dan Oh and Ha Ru's relationship woes were purely about fighting their predestined fate instead of fighting with Baek Kyung (just wait for it because I have a LOT to say about him). I know some people had an issue with Ha Ru seemingly only existing for Dan Oh, and I don't see the issue. Most men need to learn how to stand there, shut up, and look pretty sometimes. It's a necessity, if you ask me. Plus, that's a favorite trope of mine - man only existing to serve, worship, and protect his female love interest. Again, what is the issue here? People kept saying that Dan Oh's journey was minimized to simply loving Ha Ru, but it makes sense. For all intents and purposes, Dan Oh is a teenage girl. What did people really think her priorities would lie? Have you ever actually talked to a teenager in high school? Their priorities are mostly about what they're feeling right now in that very moment. The attention span is short.

With all of that being said, let me drag Baek Kyung for a minute. I did NOT like him at all. By the end of the show, I still didn't care for him. I didn't pity him either. The only feeling I had by the end of the show was wondering whether he fixed what he screwed up because he thought it was the right thing or if he did it because his guilty conscience started to eat him up inside? That's where my mind went, because I didn't buy his so-called redemption arc. The writers (all the Baek Kyung lovers should blame them for sure) spent too much time on him being the antagonist and not enough time actually developing a believable redemption for me to buy it. I didn't buy it. Yes, he fixed it but it was AFTER he fucked it up. What he did was the bare minimum. He killed the girl he claimed to have true feelings for and suddenly realized that forcing someone to be with you when they don't want to be and removing their agency and free will is wrong. Finally! He realized this in the fourth fucking quarter! You realized this in the penultimate episode? Wow. We can blame The Writer for making him a jackass on the stage. But what's his excuse for him being an asshole in the shadow? What was the reason? He treated Dan Oh like crap the entire time, both on stage and in the shadow. But you expect me to believe he truly had feelings for her? He only started to feel something for her once he realized that she started to have a mind of her own. For the longest time, he kept trying to convince her (and Ha Ru) that her on-stage self was the real her when it wasn't. Baek Kyung never liked the real Dan Oh. He liked the girl who constantly chased him after he spit in her face (metaphorically speaking) and humiliated her in front of their peers every single day.

I didn't like the Dried Squid Fairy; I couldn't stand him. The boot licker in him agitated me. Why are you so adamant about following the rules and allowing things to happen to you without attempting to change them? It was clear The Writer lacked creativity, so who cares if you change things here and there? The Writer didn't have enough creativity and imagination to walk outside of their own front yard. Who cares? Burn it all down! Buck the system and stand up for something for once in your miserable life.

Now, I LOVED Lee Do Hwa! After the main two characters, he was my favorite. I enjoyed his character so much. I hate that he didn't get his happy ending but I knew it wouldn't be possible. Yoo Ja and Nam Joo were ... something. Yoo Ja became an interesting person to watch and I liked her. Nam Joo was there, I guess?

Okay, are you still here? Good! You get a cookie. Would I recommend it? Yes! Don't listen to the naysayers. If you want to watch it, watch it. Decide how you feel for yourself. I would definitely rewatch certain episodes again; I wouldn't rewatch the whole thing because there's just too many episodes but definitely some of my favorite episodes now and then.

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What In the World Happened Here?

This drama has a rather interesting and compelling concept and that's what initially drew me in. It was different and subversive, and I have to applaud the writers for writing a drama where virtual characters are real people trapped by some evil mad scientist. However, that's where my praise starts and stops. I wanted to love this drama SO bad; I really really did! It was interesting and entertaining and I didn't have any issues being swept away by the story, but a major issue began to present itself early on.

My first issue with this drama - why is the lead couple so unlikable? Not just as a couple but as individual characters, as well. I'm not a girl who typically falls prey to the supposed second male lead syndrome, which I don't even think applies in this situation? Mainly because the SML is not really pitted against the ML; he has his own thing and his own lady love. Anyway, I digress. The female lead of this show was annoying; her personality was too much. She was too juvenile in my opinion and not very bright either, if we're being honest. She was slow on the uptake and she immediately exhausted me. The male lead was an outright asshole. I do not like asshole male leads. That's my biggest pet peeve and it's the easiest way to get me to tune out because the world (and CDramaLand) has enough assholes with a heart of gold masquerading as male leads. We don't need more. Give me something different than an awful male lead who is angry at the world and physically/mentally/emotionally takes it out on his supposed love interest. That may be a thing for some fans, but it's not a thing for me. The fact that the female lead allowed the male lead to push her around for a huge chunk of the beginning of this show was enough to leave a nasty taste in my mouth. Like, why? Why must we deal with this nonsense? It's a modern drama; the least they could have done was given her a damn backbone. Alas, they did not.

Now, it seems like all of the makings of a perfect couple were given to the second lead couple. They were absolutely magic! I don't know why or how but those two were far more interesting as individuals and as a couple than the primary leads. It was simply more interesting to watch them than to watch the primary lead couple. So much so that I started skipping all of the primary lead couple's scenes just to get to the second lead couple. Once we had gotten to that point, I realized that it was time to wash my hands of this drama. I tried my hardest to finish this drama, but I couldn't do it. If I have to FFW through the primary lead just to get to a scene where things are interesting and palatable, then it's time for me to take the L and move on with my life. Sidenote: even though the second lead couple were a lot more interesting, things started to get rather stale between them once they became an official couple. I don't know what that was about; they lost their initial spark as a couple. I'm uncertain if that was due to writing/directing choices but becoming a couple was probably the worst thing to happen to them. The star-crossed lovers and Romeo & Juliet thing worked for them.

Also, this drama had entirely too many episodes. This is absolutely a drama that could have been wrapped up in 24-26 episodes. This drama dragged on for longer than it needed to, and that was another huge reason as to why I checked out. After they were defeated by the evil mad scientist, the tone of the drama dropped drastically. It became less interesting and a LOT more depressing; I typically check spoilers to get more info on the length of this weird depressing arc all CDramas seem to have but I couldn't gather up the energy to do so. I was just ready to be done with it.

ANOTHER THING: Fan Shuai Qi was the MVP of this drama. I just found out how young she was but she embodied an older character really well. I couldn't even tell that she was only in her early 20s. She BODIED this role! That's an actress that I'll be on the look out for because she was amazing. I'm going to say something controversial here: she was a better actor than her counterpart. I know everyone loves him, but his acting skills still need some work and I don't doubt that he can get better. It's been a few years since this show aired and I've only seen him in one other thing since this drama aired, but she ran circles around him in terms of acting. She's a MUCH stronger actor than him.

Would I rewatch this show? No. Would I recommend this show? Also, no. Don't waste your time. It's going to start off fun and exciting, but it's not going to stay that way. The excitement will quickly dwindle when you realize the momentum of the primary arc of this show hit and then dipped off. You're going to look up and realize that you still have 12 episodes to watch and nothing is entertaining enough to make you keep watching. If you're bored, watch it. If you're not, I suggest that you pass on this one.

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It Was Okay .. I Guess?

I dropped this show midway through episode 5. Now, this review comes from someone who NEVER watched the webtoon and doesn't have any sort of prior biases or personal feelings regarding the original source material. This review comes from someone who's mostly objective, or rather someone who started watching this show with no prior knowledge of anything concerning this show.

This show had an interesting idea, but the execution was crappy. Yes, I know it's based off a webtoon of sorts. I've seen enough mentions of that in the review section to be well-aware of that by now. This show is the quintessential K-Drama, which isn't a good thing. So much of this show doesn't work from an objective standpoint. Let's talk about my primary issue with this series - why on Earth is the male lead unable to recognize the female lead in a face full of make-up? He even said it himself, make-up doesn't completely change the way most girls look, right? So, how in the WORLD was he unable to put 2 and 2 together when it came to her? She looks EXACTLY the same. The only thing that MIGHT throw people off is the fact she hid behind those large glasses. Other than that, absolutely not. Not only that, but he met her and spent quite a bit of time with her with her glasses off. Her glasses broke when he stopped her from doing that very permanent thing. She can barely see without her glasses, but he could see just fine.

It just made no sense! It doesn't MAKE SENSE! The make-up didn't make her look like a completely different person. At least not enough for her to be considered completely recognizable by everyone who claimed to know her before her big transformation. Also, the male lead is a douche. He was just downright unlikable and insufferable before he started catching feelings for the female lead. Before that, he was awful and I found myself rolling my eyes every time he showed up on-screen because who wants to deal with the guy with the bad attitude? Yes, you're attractive but that doesn't excuse your horrible attitude. Grow up, sir! As for the female lead, the actress was fine. She did well enough as the awkward, naive, girl next door type. However, that shtick got old really fast. She was so clueless about everything and it bothered me. Her relationship with the male lead was fine, I guess. I did see the chemistry but the show wasn't compelling enough to make me want to continue.

Anyway, I read some spoilers that put the final nail in the coffin for me. You may know where I'm going with this and I'll give you ONE hint - I was IN LOVE and enamored with Soo Jin. Imagine my surprise when I read spoilers that she actually does like the male lead. When I watched the little interactions they had with each other, I would often talk about how I actually liked their relationship dynamic. Mostly because I got brother-sister/cousin vibes from them. I didn't know it was because Soo Jin actually liked him. I find that to be weird as hell because their chemistry didn't give that. I don't know if it was an acting or directing choice, but their chemistry did NOT give me "gorgeous and tough woman pining after clueless but stoic man" vibes. It gave me annoying kid sister loves to bother her older brother but he tolerates it because he loves her.

But anyway, not only does she like him but she does the unthinkable. Her character is COMPLETELY ruined due to her feelings for the male lead when she discovered that the female lead is dating him now. They had her being this badass character willing to stand up for her friends and putting the absolute fear of GOD into random men. All of that went down the toilet for a guy who's not even really nice to her? I don't understand. She stabbed her friend in the back for a man! I cannot. I don't even want to think about it. As for the other guy in the love triangle, I didn't watch the webtoon so don't stab me, friends. I didn't care enough about him to talk about him. He left little to no impression on me at all. Which may be due to the fact that apparently some of the female lead's scenes with the male lead actually belonged to that guy in the webtoon? Welp! That's too bad because it made him a non-factor in this show for me.

All in all, this isn't a show that I wish to continue with. I've seen everything I needed to see, and that was enough. If you like most K-Dramas, then you may like this one. If you read the webtoon and loved it, you may not like this show. Most of the webtoon fans complained about how much they changed from the webtoon to the series and they weren't good changes, apparently.

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What A Waste of Time.

Umm ... wow! That's really all I can say to start this review off because there's just so much to talk about. To start things off, I will say there's no logical explanation for why this show had a college setting. Absolutely none. Granted, I prefer college-aged characters because it's more interesting in my opinion. However, the things these characters talked about and the things they did felt more juvenile. It didn't fit with the vibe of college students. Sure, college students are young and wild but they're not this juvenile. Maybe it's a cultural thing but most college students don't care that much about their looks. Here, in the States, most college students don't care enough about their appearance to constantly talk about who and what is good-looking 24/7. There are far more pressing matters to worry about rather than nitpicking someone's looks. These characters spent an unnecessarily unusual time discussing people's appearance, which I understand. That's the whole point of the show, right? Yeah, but that gets old.

I want to talk about the thing that truly made me drop this show. Rapey McRaperson. I don't know the character's name but I know he's the Little Guy. Now, Little Guy (or Mr. McRaperson) had way more screen time than he deserved. I don't understand why he was allowed to be apart of the primary friend group of the main characters. In the very first episode, we watched this man attempt to sexually assault and coerce the main female lead by trying to trap her in a room alone with him before the male lead saved the day. Not just that, but he continued being an absolute creeper. He never stopped being a creeper. I didn't make it past the second episode, so I don't know if he ever got better or if he finally received his comeuppance but I would rather not deal with him. Now, I know you're wondering - why would you drop this show for a side character that's awful but is still very much a side character? The unfortunate part about this is that Little Guy isn't the only character in this show that gave me strange, sexual assault-y, rape-y -like vibes. Even some of the women in this show were giving me these strange vibes that told me they clearly don't understand the word "no." There was this one woman who hit on the male lead a few times, even though he'd already told her that he wasn't interested. He was very direct about it, and yet .. she didn't get the memo. What the fuck is that about?

Now, Soo Ah is interesting but I've never been the type of person to stay and watch a show for the antagonist/villain. It just doesn't make any sense to me to do so. While she is interesting, she is awful and I honestly didn't like her. I had second thoughts about possibly sticking around to watch her manipulate these awful guys in the show, but she intentionally lied to Rapey McRaperson, which caused him to lash out at the female lead and I bounced! That was it for me. I didn't want to have to deal with situations like that happening over and over again for the remainder of this show because I get the feeling that would be a running theme. I already saw the forest for the trees.

It's finally time to talk about our lovely main couple, yeah? The female lead in this show was awful. Just completely and utterly awful. She's not awful in the sense that her character does awful and irredeemable things. She's awful in the sense that she's absolutely dull. There's nothing compelling or interesting about her. She has no personality. She doesn't have anything that makes her more dynamic than the other characters and that's troubling because she's the fucking lead. Sure, she got plastic surgery to deal with her self-esteem woes but it clearly didn't help because she's still the same pathetic person she was before. One of my biggest pet peeves is watching a show with a promising story go down the drain because they write a weak, pitiful female lead. I don't even care enough to write her name here because I don't even remember it honestly. Her love interest is .. alright? He was more interesting than her, but that's not saying much because it's pretty easy to be more compelling than she was. I don't have much to say about the actor because I watched True Beauty and he played the exact same character in that show too, so ...

Which brings me to my final point - if you want to watch a show that has a similar concept to this, just watch True Beauty. It's essentially the same plot and it even has some of the same actors in it. I kid you not, The male lead in this show is the male lead in that one, plus a couple of the other actors. (ETA: Also, the male lead in BOTH shows is the only person who knew and saw the female lead before she undergoes her great "transformation," which speaks volumes about the lack of creativity and originality within this market of drama.) The only difference is that the female lead/actress in True Beauty is actually a lot more animated and interesting. You would enjoy watching her on-screen a lot more. Now, don't get me wrong. I hated True Beauty and I dropped that one too, but I hate TB a LOT less than I hate this show. Not only is it slow and there's copious amounts of sexual harassment, but the female lead isn't enough to make you stick around. Which defeats the purpose of watching the show because no one goes out of their way to watch a show for the supporting characters, and I'm definitely not one to continue on with a show knowing that I have to skip through the entire main plot just to get to the interesting parts that don't include the primary cast.

Would I recommend this show? No. Did I enjoy it? Also, no. Don't waste your time. Pass on this one and find something better.

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It Was A Tough Decision.

*deep sigh* Let me first start off by saying that I had incredibly high hopes for this drama. I started it once before and I put it on pause before I finally decided to sit down and actually finish watching this one. This was a difficult decision for me to make, and I don't doubt that this review is going to be another one of my NOTORIOUSLY long reviews. If you're not a fan of those, I suggest you scroll/click away right now because I have a LOT to say and I'm going to say it! As for everyone else, buckle up!

As much as I found myself enjoying this drama, I also found myself unwilling to move forward once I got to the amnesia plot. Typically, I'm not a huge fan of amnesia storylines. However, I thought I could push through with this arc because I was enjoying the drama otherwise. Alas, I was wrong. There's just something about the main character not remembering anything while we, the audience, are privy to every single thing that's happened up until that point that rubs me the wrong way. It feels icky to me, and I don't like it. In fact, it actually fills me with anxiety and I hate feeling that way when it's unintentional. But I digress. I don't like that they dumbed the FL down during this time period though. As a character, she was fine enough but she lacked that intelligence that she had before she lost her memory and that wasn't very enjoyable for me. That was the first pet peeve (or "ick") that hit me like a ton of bricks.

The second pet peeve (or "ick") is a ME problem and I'm completely fine with admitting and accepting that - I don't like the main couple. *runs away* Yes, I know it's sacrilegious to say that because I can see that most fans loved these two, but I'm unfortunately not one of them. I was fine with the FL's relationship with her teacher because I saw their dynamic as most people would see it as a teacher/student, master/disciple/, mentor/mentee relationship. I loved their dynamic, although I never viewed it as romantic. But when his .. reincarnated self (?) was introduced and started sniffing around the FL, I was completely taken out of the story. No offense to the actor, but I felt like he was too old for the FL. I feel like this relationship would have worked FOR ME if they either aged the FL up or aged the ML down. Strangely enough, I don't mind age gaps/age differences in my ships but I definitely minded it in this case and I'm unsure as to why it bothered me so much. I can't put my finger on it. After I've slept on it some more, I'm sure I'll figure it out but that's not going to be any time soon. I couldn't view this ship as a romantic ship with two people who were romantically and sexually attracted to each other because the ML was so much older than her. In my favorite ships, I have to feel some sort of romantic/sexual tension in order to enjoy it. I felt like these two would have been more of the elderly couple, asexual, sexless type had I continued watching it due to the ML's age, which sounds horrible but it's the way I felt. Yes, I'm well aware of the censorship embedded into all C-Dramas, but I'm mainly talking about the fact that there should be the promise of something more, something sexy and seductive, between two characters in order for me to enjoy and root for their love. That promise didn't exist in this plane for this ship. It's like we know we're not going to get anything that raunchy, but I still need to pick up on the tease of something hotter underneath the surface and I didn't get it with these two.

Finally, this is the first time in my entire FANGIRL life that I've said this and I'm shocked by it. I found myself rooting for the FL to get with the SML. I've NEVER been a fangirl who has fallen prey to the second male lead syndrome. Never. This is the first time it's happened to me, and I'm still uncertain on how I feel about that. I LOVED the SML until he screwed up. He was beautiful, he was protective, he went against his abusive father to save her, and he was honest and upfront about his feelings for the FL. But then, That Awful Thing happened and all of my excitement left me. I found myself stuck in a conundrum of sorts because I didn't know how I was going to move forward with this show. I hated the amnesia arc, I was bored by the main couple, and the SML was saddled with That Woman Who Refused to Die/Go Away! So, all of that made for a very interesting recipe for disaster because I wanted to keep going but I knew I had to drop it. That was the last straw for me. I had nothing else keeping me tethered to this show, so here we are.

One last thing before I go: I didn't care for the side couples/characters either. They weren't even enough to keep me interested in this show. I skipped/fast forwarded through all of their scenes. Unfortunately, the side couple's interactions in this drama made me completely remove their spin-off sequel from my watchlist altogether. I know that there's a possibility that I could have enjoyed that drama more than this one, but this one left such a strange and unpleasant taste in my mouth that I wanted to completely cut ties with this verse.

Do I think I'll pick this show back up in the future? Doubtful. Would I recommend it? Yes? It's not that bad honestly, but there's no way I would have been able to enjoy this show had I kept watching it. It's not bad and some people may enjoy it, but I'm not one of them.

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