Vicariously

Maybe you'd like First Love: Hatsukoi. It's a J-drama, but it's really good!

It's perfect for the drama! Also reminded me a lot of the soundtrack for When the Weather is Fine

Ah, makes sense. I forgot he must've been involved at the restaurant and not just seeing her go home

I mean it's not that serious. IMO I wish we had more comedy scenes of the ML suffering through high school

I don't get why he drove to follow her after putting a tracking device under the car. Like why?

The stats catastrophe he tried at the start to try and prove she wasn't a witch was pretty painful too lol

I feel like this drama's really fun, but it could be even more fun if it leaned into just having more storylines that are just comedic. Like you have a spy forced to go through high school again - there's so much material here! And really great actors leading it too! We could easily just delete the angsty parts of this story and it would be better.

Him confronting the church guy actually bothered me a lot, his jealousy & possessiveness in that scene makes his stalking feel a lot worse. Like usually in a drama it's easy to turn the thinking part of your brain off and just experience what's going on, but moments like that are just way too close to what a real, crazy stalker would do. And Mi Jeong is just so vulnerable... it's such a fine line that the writers need to keep.

I'm glad he finally accepted what he's done, but IMO I'd like to see him give a better apology. Like there's a lot he has to own up to.

It actually makes sense for the truck of doom here. Like I'm in shock seeing this show up in a drama and have it not be completely random

I feel like this is the kinda show that would actually be better with 16 episodes. Would be funny to have 4 episodes of just shenanigans at or outside of school.

Damn this show really started well. Kinda think it would be better as a comedy/thriller without any romance. Like having a spy undercover at a high school is a great premise for a comedy, but I feel like the romance has a good chance of being kinda mid

I wish he had a bigger role in this, he suits the Stranger universe so well as an actor

I kinda liked seeing Dong Jae start to finally face some consequences for all the horrible things he did in S1. Idk if anyone else feels this way, but there's something about the way he apologizes for things or praises others that feels really insincere, but it's absolutely hilarious to watch.

Cause it's easier for people to imagine some random criminal getting punished than a mass murderer. But your point is right that logically it doesn't make much sense.

I thought even though they were high profile cases, they were more similar to real life. Bullying/assault in the police, covering up a politician's crimes to win political favours, these things happen a lot IRL. I didn't pick up on the covid effect at all, though now that you said it's kinda obvious lol.

I wanted to see more scenes between HSM and HYJ, because that felt like a really unique relationship compared to other dramas. Especially the rooftop scene I thought said a lot without directly saying it. And it'd be nice to have more scenes with HYJ and her boss. I feel like HYJ's supposed to be the more realistic character (vs HSM who's unfazed by almost everything), so I wish we'd see more of her in general. Her admiration for being able to work under a woman she respects, being isolated because her sexist colleagues envy her opportunities - there's a lot there.

So I just realized the writers for the current drama seem to be different than Stranger S1 and 2 which explains a lot. My take is that S2 was what the writer was free to say now that she'd already built up an audience from S1. Normally I'd agree with your take (that you should look at it from your perspective first vs. that of the author), but I think Stranger wears its politics on its sleeve - it's trying to convince you of something.

The message between S1 and S2 wasn't different, but the style of the story was less dramatic. The main unlikely event that happened in S2 was SDJ getting kidnapped. In S1 there was a serial killer, the fraud with the government importing weapons, a minister getting bribed - all high-stakes. In S2 the main event was a prosecutor and police officer taking bribes, and who covered up for them.

The writer's political argument in S2 stood out for me compared to S1 (since so many other kdramas are about corruption) because the events in the season felt more like something that could actually happen. I liked the first season a lot, but it hit me awhile after watching that the serial killer plot was kinda over-the-top. Since the writer wanted to say something about the real world, a more down-to-earth plot made that more effective for me in S2.

I agree that SDJ's much more interesting than HSM. He's more charismatic, he's more funny. But I'm personally just not a big fan of the crime/investigative genre as a whole, and I feel like this season is more like a typical crime drama than the previous seasons. For me Stranger's an exception because it feels more realistic than usual crime shows. I get why people might not like Stranger S2 as much if they're not into politics, since that was the whole point of the season. That's why I liked it, and I think it's closer to the author's true vision.

Watching the first six episodes of this makes me miss the two seasons of Stranger. Like this drama's entertaining, it's funny, but it hasn't had the depth, the substance that was in Stranger. Maybe it'll be different once the antagonist becomes more interesting

He reconciles with his mom, but she refuses to ever apologize to him

The only drama where I've had tears in my eyes just from sheer anger. Poor Dong Seok...