Jdramas are hella weird. We know this. Honestly its why I watch. They provide a nice break from too serious full of drama Korean shows and the trope heavy same old from China. Japan knows how to put out the odd quirky weirdness.
This one was surprisingly hilarious. Normally folks are complaining about teacher student relationship shows that Japan seems to love to make… but this one was not even remotely in the same realm as those. Its so funny. So weird. But cute, and for goodness sakes these leads are 2 yrs apart in age in reality- they look the same age and nothing seems off about them being together at all. Theres a season 2 hoping its now beyond Graduation so we can have a bit more relationship now.
I wanted to love this. I feel like I’m saying that about most dramas lately. Feels like dejavu. Its not awful. Its very slow paced, with a broad cast and less focus on the leads. If anything it reminds me of cdrama “Slice of Life” dramas without so much of the lengthy timeline. The editing is rather choppy. A gazillion flash backs to explain current thoughts. I don’t mind it, they seem to benefit rather than annoy.
The disappointment stems from clueless as heck and rather selfish FL (but this is quite a typical trope for Asian dramas), sappy ML who has loved FL forever, and never had courage to say and FL has had either head in the clouds or had eyesight on other guys to notice the super hot and sweet bestie..
I was more invested in seconds relationship but even then opportunity was lost to stir up some chemistry. Its always so flat with all of them. ML is the only one who seems to express his emotions well, but there is just zero chemistry running thru this show.
MLs parents story held good tension, but even though I know they needed to resolve her medical condition without it being serious as to not distract from leads story, it didn’t resolve satisfactory and having a mom who had alzheimers that was my expected outcime there. Overall they packed this show with well known names, and eye candy (ML, Reporter, ex bf and brother) it just lacked something. The episodes were too long as well. I probably skipped most of the final 2 episodes- it was tedious and boring. I needed this to be a Viki show so I could console myself while watching with other commentors, who were also resisting poking their own eyes out lol. I gave it an 8, which feels generous because there was moments when I liked the story. It just didn’t feel fresh. I feel like I’ve seen this before.
This show does need a trigger warning: early attempted rape scene (adults) and then several child sex abuse moments. And someone jacking off outside a kindergarten. This is not a comedy (unless you count the handful of short scenes with the friends). By all means watch Woobin does a stellar job, but they needed to warn viewers because the synopsis isn’t going to go there.
Why oh why didn’t they throw the budget they set aside for this spin off into 2 additional episodes of No Gain No Love and fix that terrible rushed ending? I was a big fan of our seconds in the original drama. There was real angst for her and a redemption arc for him, their chemistry was sweet and romantic.
NGL this was weird.
The best part of the entire two episodes was Lee Sangyi’s beautiful singing at the very end.
I’m all over the place with this one. On one hand it delivered an enjoyable, funny at times, dead serious in others drama. I was gunning to give this one a solid 10, but 7 episodes in the skips were needed. The FL becomes really unlikeable, and most of the reasons for that never clear up or become a part of a growth arc. She has zero epiphanies- and is still bossing around and forcing her opinions on her “sisters” at the end. No thanks. Why do the writers do this? We don’t need pointless breakups, or cold FL nonsense, throwing away sweet love because they are selfish, or stupid timeslips for no other reason that Kdrama tradition dictates it. I love it when a writer is new and fresh and the last 1/3 of this drama was one typical trope after another. Ending was rushed too. I did not enjoy that final episode at all. It skyrocketed through too many plot points all at once. There were things to love but I’m so disappointed that this show dropped off as it progressed. Like seriously sad. Shin Mina and Kim Youngdae are incredible actors in their own right, and I was so annoyed at the writing. Do we care Jayeon bought an apartment- needed to move in immediately but it was never heard, seen or spoken of again? 🤣🤣🤣This should have been 16 episodes to do this story justice. 11 was an entire waste, and 12 was a rushed patch up job.
They took a handful of serious themes. Dementia, Abuse, Murder, Fear, Family reconciliation and discovery, Loss and Grief. But most of the time they didn’t make the effort to pad them out. Most of the time stomped all over them. sad.
Extremely draggy and terribly edited show. Much to like. Much to despise. I was a fan of several of the main characters but all of them, and I mean every single one of them will annoy the heck out of you at some point, except maybe Ai Li who is just the sweetest soul who doesn’t deserve what happens to him in a certain scene. As you ponder whether or not to poke your eyeballs out through all the pointless script and annoying episodes halfway in and onwards, I stayed with the hope for the relationship I was most interested in, the one that got the shortest screen time but redeemed this show (slightly) for me near the end. They were the cutest and deserved their happy ending. No not the leads. But our cute Song Zihao 🥰Best I could give this was 6.5 folks. Shame, editing on that script, less of the gaslighting nonsense - and cutting the relationship whiplash of the leads would have made a fun shorter and happier watch.
Firstly, this show did what Heirarchy did not. I fully expected Heirarchy to be more like this. Second, I’m…
The male teacher seemed to get off scot free even after its made public to everyone but why on EARTH didn’t the counselor pursue advocacy there? Because she had slept with him herself? Because she was clearly in love with a student herself? Not quite sure about that. I mean we are used to Jdramas with student teacher relationships- even though generally they seemed to be frowned upon in Asia too.
Firstly, this show did what Heirarchy did not. I fully expected Heirarchy to be more like this.
Second, I’m a little unsure about the accusations in some reviews that this show glorifies child exploitation. OK yes, there’s sex scenes involving “high school age kids” however all actors are over 22 years old AND lets face it this is what many teens are doing whether you or I like it or not. Clearly the end of the show - points out this isn’t the experience of all teens, just a select few. The teacher x student relationships were my biggest gripe.
Started out so so good! But sadly it lost a lot of sight and that ending/last episode was full of far too much again and was too rushed. It was a diservice to leads and everything they went thru.
Acting of ML was incredible. That was an emotional role to play and he hit it out the park.
Interesting that the MDL rating is so much lower than Viki’s, which I actually believe MDL is sitting about right for this show. 9.3 on Viki is extremely generous and I suspect driven by folks fangirling of the ML.
Yes Moon Sang Min is a fine piece of work and an excellent actor, and I believe most stuck through those awful early episodes due to him. However, the writing and in turn directing of this show was a massive disservice and the reason I just can’t rate it above 8. Great ifea, and having Mom do what she did right at the beginning, but it didn’t work. Not once was the FL convincing to me that she genuinely wanted a break. She was deeply in love and it showed. So that plot point was weak, further damaged by the repetitive nature of the script. It was realistic-most folks fight for their relationship especially if they don’t believe the other person. However to spemd 6-7 episodes of a 10 episode aeries on this same stuck record was exhausting. The show felt monotonous and weak. I was disappointed, there should have been additional issues added to add some depth. The work collegues were funny for all of a couple episodes and then they turned fully obnoxious and irritating. Ugh. Finally the show gets a break, when FL does what we all know she has wanted to do the second she got that cash from the Mom. And the rest of the drama rolls out in an over abundance of storylines that it felt odd.
What are the wins for this show? ML and FL are aesthetically well matched, and have chemistry. To pull that off with the massive age difference was awesome and there were times ot clearly didn’t look like 14 yrs. The second couple were magic, and so refreshing to not have evil power playing older siblings in a chaebol family. Its the usual line with kdramas and so so wonderful we got the best older brother for Ju Won. Honestly, I would have loved to have much more screen time for their story during that initial chunk of the show and balanced the stuck record part.
The final episode had some lovely scenes and for me helped yank this series out of the mud, because I genuinely was headedin that 5-6 stars range earlier on.
Would love more awesome dramas from all 4 of the main cast, even the flat attempt at a 2ML needs more dramas. Love him!
This one was surprisingly hilarious. Normally folks are complaining about teacher student relationship shows that Japan seems to love to make… but this one was not even remotely in the same realm as those. Its so funny. So weird. But cute, and for goodness sakes these leads are 2 yrs apart in age in reality- they look the same age and nothing seems off about them being together at all.
Theres a season 2 hoping its now beyond Graduation so we can have a bit more relationship now.
The disappointment stems from clueless as heck and rather selfish FL (but this is quite a typical trope for Asian dramas), sappy ML who has loved FL forever, and never had courage to say and FL has had either head in the clouds or had eyesight on other guys to notice the super hot and sweet bestie..
I was more invested in seconds relationship but even then opportunity was lost to stir up some chemistry. Its always so flat with all of them. ML is the only one who seems to express his emotions well, but there is just zero chemistry running thru this show.
MLs parents story held good tension, but even though I know they needed to resolve her medical condition without it being serious as to not distract from leads story, it didn’t resolve satisfactory and having a mom who had alzheimers that was my expected outcime there. Overall they packed this show with well known names, and eye candy (ML, Reporter, ex bf and brother) it just lacked something. The episodes were too long as well. I probably skipped most of the final 2 episodes- it was tedious and boring. I needed this to be a Viki show so I could console myself while watching with other commentors, who were also resisting poking their own eyes out lol. I gave it an 8, which feels generous because there was moments when I liked the story. It just didn’t feel fresh. I feel like I’ve seen this before.
NGL this was weird.
The best part of the entire two episodes was Lee Sangyi’s beautiful singing at the very end.
They took a handful of serious themes. Dementia, Abuse, Murder, Fear, Family reconciliation and discovery, Loss and Grief. But most of the time they didn’t make the effort to pad them out. Most of the time stomped all over them. sad.
Second, I’m a little unsure about the accusations in some reviews that this show glorifies child exploitation. OK yes, there’s sex scenes involving “high school age kids” however all actors are over 22 years old AND lets face it this is what many teens are doing whether you or I like it or not. Clearly the end of the show - points out this isn’t the experience of all teens, just a select few. The teacher x student relationships were my biggest gripe.
Acting of ML was incredible. That was an emotional role to play and he hit it out the park.
Yes Moon Sang Min is a fine piece of work and an excellent actor, and I believe most stuck through those awful early episodes due to him. However, the writing and in turn directing of this show was a massive disservice and the reason I just can’t rate it above 8. Great ifea, and having Mom do what she did right at the beginning, but it didn’t work. Not once was the FL convincing to me that she genuinely wanted a break. She was deeply in love and it showed. So that plot point was weak, further damaged by the repetitive nature of the script. It was realistic-most folks fight for their relationship especially if they don’t believe the other person. However to spemd 6-7 episodes of a 10 episode aeries on this same stuck record was exhausting. The show felt monotonous and weak. I was disappointed, there should have been additional issues added to add some depth. The work collegues were funny for all of a couple episodes and then they turned fully obnoxious and irritating. Ugh.
Finally the show gets a break, when FL does what we all know she has wanted to do the second she got that cash from the Mom. And the rest of the drama rolls out in an over abundance of storylines that it felt odd.
What are the wins for this show? ML and FL are aesthetically well matched, and have chemistry. To pull that off with the massive age difference was awesome and there were times ot clearly didn’t look like 14 yrs. The second couple were magic, and so refreshing to not have evil power playing older siblings in a chaebol family. Its the usual line with kdramas and so so wonderful we got the best older brother for Ju Won. Honestly, I would have loved to have much more screen time for their story during that initial chunk of the show and balanced the stuck record part.
The final episode had some lovely scenes and for me helped yank this series out of the mud, because I genuinely was headedin that 5-6 stars range earlier on.
Would love more awesome dramas from all 4 of the main cast, even the flat attempt at a 2ML needs more dramas. Love him!
The end.