Venom30

I gotta say I loved it. Really did. But it feels like something's missing, right? Something that doesn't give you the feeling it did in season one. I think I know what that is.

I don't have a very good memory, but the S1 of this show had an impact on me. I remember crying my eyes out like crazy watching the last two episodes. Both seasons had great quality, good directoing and phenomenal acting. The fight scenes were really good too. In this season you can see clearly the difference on Paku and BaekJin's characters in their fighting style; Paku has this explosive fighting style with powerful punches that one of them is enough to take someone down. On the other hand, BaekJin - while keeping that style, showing who he's learned from - has cleaner moves. He punches exactly where he has to and with his great speed he won't let a hit to land on him, getting out of a fight - even with two adult men - with only his clothes a little messed up, nothing you can't fix in a second. I like how this fits their characters. their outfits too, and the way they talk - BaekJin with a soft voice vs. Paku always shouting. I think this season was more about these two confronting, and Shi Eun only played a part in it. But that's how his character is, isn't it?

But the problem here was that unlike season one with Shi Eun and his group of friends, they didn't take the time to really get close. We had glimpses of the characters, then they got into fights. We didn't really feel them get close, while in season one, here and there we could catch little details that gave depth to the characters. Like when they went to the restaurant So Hu worked at, or when they were eating at the cafeteria (how can you talk about eating even when you're eating?/ You don't talk about living when you're alive? /Insert crying/). I mean these little moments were absent in this season, the moments that played a critical role in letting the viewer really feel the closeness between Shi Eun and his new group of friends. For example I had trouble really understanding the friendship between Paku and his friend and that little guy (I'm sorry for forgetting the names). I mean they were the untouchable guys in that school, so the reason why they got close with the small, glasses guy should have been emphasized more.

Also the relationship between Paku and BaekJin didn't go deep enough. I think they did well about BaekJin's character - I really felt bad for him when I figured he was an orphan. But what they missed here was focusing more on the relationship between the two boys. That's their last fight and also Paku's worry about BaekJin stayed on the surface and didn't really get to involve the viewer's emotions.

Edit: on second thought... I think they also kinda missed on BaekJin's character too. BaekJin was an orphan who got bullied when he went to elementary school. Then he found Paku and he practically saved him by being his friend + teaching him how to fight. Paku was basically his family. Again the problem here was not showing their past together when they were "BFFs" - of they had, we would have seen BaekJin's soft side too, and that would have made him a lot more than a villain. He loved Paku like a family and was struggling to keep him by his side, which Shi Eun correctly pointed out. All he had was the Union and Paku. He had lost Paku, but still had the power of the Union behind him and tried to use that to hold on to Paku. /Sigh/ what a shame. This part of the story was probably the most important one that they only passed it by Shi Eun's small remark (you might consider Paku your friend, but does he think of you as his friend as well?). Imagine we'd seen this part of BaekJin too: how would the big fight look then? We wanted Paku to win, but also didn't want BaekJin to lose - because losing that fight meant losing everything he had: Paku and his power. And BaekJin's struggle - although he had an injured shoulder and an almost broken leg - would have carried a lot more emotional weight. Also his ending would have been more sensible and wouldn't have come as a shock. Instead what we saw was a fight that made the viewer think, 'oh come on, just fall down and don't get up, BaekJinah'. Oh, what a shame. 😭

Another complain that I have is about the ost. First season's ost was freaking great - some of them are STILL in my favorites playlist. but in this season I think the ost wasn't mostly new. I with they had done better with that.

With all of these, I still think this show was really good. The acting was top notch, the production was high quality and also Su Ho woke up 😭 it didn't live up to the expectations it'd given us after season one, but I know I will watch some parts over and over again. (Like the part Paku came back to school. This man can be hilarious. My favorite character in this season!)

And now I'll have one more thing to be hoping and praying for: season 3 of this. I hope they get a longer runtime or increase the number of episodes. In this season too, if there were more episodes all the issues would have been solved.