Beatrice

Cinderella in shining armor for a few seconds

It's a trend nowadays where the age difference is downplayed by either the younger actor playing a lot older or the older actor playing a lot younger so the gap is actually so close it's negligible. The difference here is focused on job status, with the female lead as the team leader and the male lead as initially an intern. It was actually pretty cool to see from his memories how she guided him as the responsible boss, the Cinderella in shining armor. It would have been great to see more of that. Their dating days were also cute and I really liked how the first two episodes had subversions like Yun Seo learning from Ju Won's brother that he didn't like horror movies, but went for her and learned to like something new. It would have also been nice if the rest of the show had them learning more about each other, but it quickly slipped into bog standard romcom cliches with the most odious being the faux love triangle with Ju Won always having a jealousy stand off with the painter guy Seong Min, who almost committed suicide, but then his mental health was magically fine afterwards. Yun Seo's storyline with escaping her abusive household and not buckling to her mother's pressure to take on her father's debts was really powerful. Sometimes the people you need to cut out of your life are your blood relatives and to keep them far away for your own well being. I feel it's especially important for Asian audiences to see that it's okay to do so. I like how Yun Seo wanted to break off the relationship because she knows that Seong Min's family would not be accepting of him. I feel like the show could have better connected the fact that it would be yet another parental figure treating her terribly. Yun Seo and Mi Jin's short friendship at the end was really short, I rather they have started their sisterhood sooner and less of Mi Jin and her husband's shenanigans. Yun Seo deserves more supportive friends and family. It would have been nice for Yun Seo to have one more scene with her mother in law, finally in acceptance and support of her, one big happy family.

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Weirdly transphobic

The first episode is the strongest being very atmospheric with nice cinematography and color grading that isn't a lazy gray tone that the other episodes do. The isolation and growing fear is very palpable and the vibes is a mix of psychological and supernatural. It reminds me of a Junji Ito story that also had to do with peeping eyes and being spied on.

The final episode is straight up Backrooms: Korea with the newbie security guard getting lost in ASync and everything. That other security guy working there didn't try very hard to warn her, though she most definitely wouldn't have believed him anyways. Poor newbie. Kdramas don't do backdoor pilots, but this certainly looks like a backdoor pilot of a kdrama if such a thing existed lol.

The home shopping story and the convenience store stories were about not taking weird jobs no matter how much money is offered. Besides that as a common theme, multiple times the episode monster is a guy wearing women's clothes and make up. That transphobia is really outdated and really telling of the prejudice from the production.

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Not worth picking up

The drama asks a lot of leeway to be given, to root for the romance, but it fails to earn them with the two important categories which is the writing and the chemistry. The two leads doesn't bring any sparks in their individual scenes let alone together. Had it been better actors that suited the roles and the romantic chemistry together, it would have brought life to the drama to the dark family secrets they bear the scars of. It was really lazy of the drama which puts so much emphasis on sign language to not spare an expository line that Hee Joo can sign both KSL and BSL because there is not just one universal sign language when she went to that political shindig on duty as an interpreter. It's ridiculous that Sa Eon decides to save her from a political arranged marriage by forcing her to marry him and proceeding to treat her coldly and harshly for three whole years until she snaps from the mistreatment, but it's all okay and romantic because he's been in love with her for decades and was doing it for her own good.

Hee Joo just has the lowest bar from being horribly treated by her mother all her life. Hee Joo also has terrible survival instincts, just going back into her car that was previously shown very high jack-able. Her willingness to take the wheel from the kidnapper and drive it into death would be more impressive if she's not so callous constantly. She's repeatedly kidnapped and needs saving in some way again and again, the designated damsel. Sa Eon getting out of the car to face down the serial killer with a shotgun rather that flooring it as soon as he saw who it was, either forward or backward is really ridiculous, especially considering he does that with a whole squad of militia firing at him while he plays international batman. He shouldn't have sent her any clues, of course she would just intentionally literally walk into a warzone and just so happen to survive unharmed enough to be rescued. The political stance the show decides to randomly take at the end is pretty horrific, though it seems that may be bad translation work, which is very ironic in a show that's centered around a presidential spokesman and presidential interpreter.

A plot line that was almost good was Do Jae's tragic arc with him out for revenge against his brother's killer only to unwittingly end up helping the guy instead and the unyielding support is what Sa Eon unconsciously craves so much that he blindly trusted Do Jae, even more than he trusted Hee Joo. Better writing could have done more with this meaty plot line, as was In A's heel turn to want sisterhood with Hee Joon randomly after all these years. They should have shown what exactly made her feel this way in the three years she was gone from the plot.

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Fantasy justice and criticism for real world laws

Justitia is an extremely educated demon, having not only learned demon laws, but apparently all of the law and procedures of the South Korean court system in addition to memorizing the Christian bible and who knows what else. I do wonder if it was also a form of torture for her to endure in addition to being the heir to Bael, but whatever the lore about that, her skills makes her uniquely suited to play the system to her own ends. Manipulating humans while dealing with new feelings that her human body sends her is another issue. She did not understand how crushes causes dangerous impulses like fluctuating with wanting and not wanting the attention of a guy by taunting the police with dead bodies that would lead back to her being a glaring suspect. It's so ridiculous that she knows how the investigations work, but she still leaves the bodies with an extremely unique stamp on the forehead of the bodies around. Her cases draw attention to how the system both in the show and in real life can give slap on the wrists for the most horrific crimes and even in the case of serial killers, they can become "innocent" by just waiting out the clock on the statute of limitations, as well as corruption from the rich and powerful in the justice system.

Although Justitia falling for Da On is a big turning point, it's merely one part of her softening towards humanity. Her heart also pains for other people and she sheds tears for them as well. The Satan hunting Demon charity volunteer group leader and demon crime scene cleaning crew shows that this is a danger and possibility for all demons to become sympathetic to humans, so it's not only Da On causing this in Justitia. I really like that when she asks for 3 years in the human world, it's not to play house with Da On, but to live as an actual human judge full time. She's not at this point centering her life around this man at all, so I'm fine with the romance. The awkward immobile closed mouth kiss scenes never look good, directors need to wake up and accept the fact. The actors show in a much later kiss scene that they can do a normal kiss scene just fine. Also the interrupted kiss gag is also never funny, especially when it's multiple times. The ending has Justitia suddenly given another deal about killing 10 killers to remain human forever and also there is the fate of the original human Judge Kang Bit Na uncertain. It seems to suggest a second season rather than closing out cleanly with room for more, which would have been better as there is never any guarantee for a second season, especially for asian dramas.

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Through the dark river into the light of the other shore

The show kicks off with stunning cinematography introducing the world and our main protagonist Su Muyu, the enigmatic assassin that turns out to be an introverted extroverted and whose brotherhood with his best friend the extroverted introvert Su Changhe is a driving heart of the story within the many relationships that Muyu forms. He's really the one makes friends with ease and even getting a girlfriend despite Changhe seeming the more outgoing one. Muyu is meticulous in negotiations, while Changhe is cunning in manipulation, Muyu is played wonderfully by Gong Jun with the expressive eye acting that he's known for, especially with the more understated character like Muyu compared to the more outspoken personality of all the other characters. Though Muyu has his girlfriend and Changhe has his blood younger brother, Muyu and Changhe definitely has the strongest bond in the entire series with the most moving decisions, their collective will shaking the martial arts world.

People are born or fall into a cycle of poverty and violence and it's immensely difficult to extract themselves from it. A otherwise normal person can be trapped into joining gangs because that is the only support system available to them. This is how a lot of the characters in this drama are. Many of them being orphans who had to join to survive or die. Muyu and Changhe were both orphans that share a similar background of their families and cities being annihilated and both have goals to change the circumstances of themselves and all their peers. To annihilate the gerontocracy of Blood River as a start and break all the chains that keep them as pawns for other's political struggles and bring Blood River into the light, to the Other Shore. Both are equally fierce and goes all out for their ideals and for each other. Since they children, Muyu would save Changhe, and Change would put himself in harms way for Muyu, Muyu would catch a sword with his bare hands for Changhe, and Changhe would plunge a dagger into himself so Muyu could be the lone survivor. Muyu tells him "Those who are strong, have the right to be naive/idealistic." They will find a third option together.

I really enjoy how the characters to the minor characters have personalities and lives that seem to go on off screen. It's something that James Gunn does well and it's always enjoyable to see in a drama. The costumes design is absolutely stunning from the different layers, fabrics, and designs of all the robes to the detailed hair pieces and make up as well. The martial arts battles is actually a feast for the ideas with creative visualizations, choreography, and stunt work that makes fight scenes that are usually a chore to watch in other shows very fun to watch. Muyu's humble umbrella sword alternatingly giving him a ghostly visage at times and an elegant ethereal spirit in others. Yumo's boyfriend's Phoenix that he promises to pick up her up with. Giant demons, swords, etc. The weather, plants, blood, anything that can be formed and manipulated with the will of the inner force. A force that can also form in otherwise inanimate objects like a sword. The music is also really good and some are even unconventional picks for dramas like this that add even more dynamic feeling to the fight scenes. There are still a lot of story that can be told for the main characters and the world that the story takes place in, I wonder if there will be a sequel, if so I hope it's made by the same team, starring the same actors.

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Erase it all

The series opened with such meaty angst with Lee Gun driven to deep mental unwellness by his family treating him as a second class citizen after his tragic tennis accident from when he was just a kid. His pain when he finally snapped and let his family have a piece of his mind was so palpable. It all goes down hill after the extremely ethically questionable procedure done to his brain to take away the bad memories and his personality turns into an annoying, obnoxious cartoon character. The actor can't bring any grounded nuance to balance Lee Gun out. Ju Yeon also just becomes annoying whenever she's with Lee Gun and gets worse as she falls in love with him. The chemistry for the two main couples are all mismatched. Lee Gun is actually way more interesting with his Sae Yan whose wacky personality actually levels out his cartoonish over the top behavior to something bearable. Lee Shin and Ju Yeon are also more interesting together with him having his own mental health issues that are more on the level that Ju Yeon can help with without lies and they can relate to each other better. 16 episode is way too long for this show as well, it might have been slightly more tolerable if it was maybe 10. The twist that Ju Yeon was the actual first love all along is extremely uninspired.

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Another no kiss, exploitative fanservice drama

I didn't know anything about this drama or the actors, so I gave it a fair objective watch and it's so disappointing. If the actors cannot commit to fully playing gay characters that includes even one plain kissing scene, then they should not be playing the leads of a gay romance. If they did at least commit to that minimal professional extent, then it would at least give the drama some sort of legitimate artistic grounding, but since they didn't it just makes it so many meta layers of bad, undermining any possible critique of the hypocritical kpop industry of making money off the the appearance of a gay romantic actions without any support for any actual gay rights or artists by literally embodying the hypocrisy.

The premise itself is a very real issue of using gay as concept to attract attention which the character Ji Hoon plays lip service to being against. Using skin ship and other actions as fanservice to pander to real people shipper fans that many idols are forced to do that have now gone from the once ubiquitous homophobia laced pocky game to non committed queer roles with no kissing. The in drama company so clearly is using the "Business gay" concept but also having their artists staunchly deny and have to avoid the media questioning their shady tactics like the media is wrong to question them. This is playing into the delusional fantasies of real people shippers that idols that are denying relationships are lying to them.

The in drama ceo is also quick to sell her artists to J who wants to work with his first love, and Hyun Bin who has roofied both Ji Hoon and Eden and had them both assaulted by an actress. He took photos of it happening to Ji Hoon and almost tanked his whole career. That's a huge criminal deal and the drama just brushes past it just like it has with everything else that's also a disturbing very real thing that kpop idols have to contend with, their management selling them for sexual favors. There are so many heavy industry things that the drama is lamp shading but does nothing with.

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Poor Opening

There is a fine line between expressive and over acting and the actress that plays Ah Young has annihilated that line and needs to take it down 5000 notches. The character is also immediately very annoying, turning off the tv that someone's in the middle of watching to hit on them, daydreaming and impeding traffic with her car stopped on the road but of course gets away with it because the cop that stops her knows her and she continues to take a phone call while standing in the middle of the road after he drives off. She literally writes herself in as a y/n character of course under the guise of saving Woo Bin. I feel so bad for this guy getting physically harassed by her. It was nice to see her be separated from him once Rebecca writes the police guy Myung Hwan in as her husband and probably his partner as their kid to distract her. It's weird that he's the only one that didn't get to return to his police officer job and is suddenly running the beachside book store. This drama randomly has the most explicit sex scene in recent non Netflix kdrama years.

It was a terrible struggle to get through all of her scenes even with the short half hour plus run time of a mere 6 episodes. This could have been way more enjoyable with a good actor with better acting skills, but this isn't that. It still has an interesting premise that they tease at the end could be expanded upon. I hope if they do it will be better cast with competent actors as the lead.

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Atypical Kdrama

Right off the bat I enjoy the casting of the main leads for Gwi Ju and Da Hae. I like how Jang Ki Yong is playing against his usual cool guy role, being a dorky regular Joe Gwi Ju who has the mushroom/coconut hair. Chun Woo Hee is effervescent as Da Hae who gives off this endearing charm where it's understandable how people are drawn to and trust her. I love how both of the actors ground even a silly funny reactions so that they aren't cringey, which includes the bickering which is usually a fast forward moment in other dramas. I love the scene where Da Hae goes off to con a fourth husband in order to shake of Gwi Ju. She shows off her full con mode, she's very effective but Gwi Ju doesn't have any jealousy or anger or is even phased. Which was a preview version of later when he finds out she faked her death in an attempt to save him. He was angry and confused, but he just embraces her as soon as he realizes why she did what she did. Their chemistry is so good! Of the extended cast, Kim Geum Soon is really impressive as Baek Il Hong, Da Hae's loan shark turned adopted mom. She's fantastic at keeping her motives ambiguous as to whether she's sincere or a plot, whether she loves Da Hae or she's a cold hearted crime boss who will collect on Da Hae's due.

The writing for the most part is really good. The writing for this show actually understands how to withhold and reveal information with impact. They play with the expectations of the powers really well from the evolution of Gwi Ju being able interact with past Da Hae, to her revealing to him things his future self did but the audience aren't sure if she's lying or not and she's able to use this in a actual lie as well, to her simultaneously interacting with both past and future him, and how he's saved. The flower scene is probably the most trippy time travel event of the whole series, because she didn't lie but he also didn't buy the flowers until his future self gave them to her. Ina's friend/bully doesn't even know that Ina has the power to read minds when she looks into people's eyes but was unknowingly able to use it to mentally bully Ina. Da Hae is able able to flip Man Huem's fatalist viewing of her negative dreams into a reinterpretation of the events into a positive outcome, building on what her fellow regular human father in law Man Seok has been doing to make the positive dreams come true. Man Seok seeming like she was tricking Il Hong about a vision about seeing the daughter she lost (the one that died while she was in prison) grown and alive but actually was about embracing Da Hae who faked her death hit me so hard in the heart.

The weakest part of the writing is Dong Hee's storyline and struggle with eating and body image. Dong Hee was used a comic relief character when she was heavyset and then suddenly she's just all serious when she's lost the weight again. The optics of that is really suspect to say the least. I could see there was the intention of wanting to convey the reasoning behind Dong Hee not being able to fly was not actually her physical weight, but the crushing mental insecurity and regret, but I don't think the story conveyed that as well as it can be. Then the other weak parts was the unnecessary teasing of the scumbag doctor by Da Hae and Grace that causes him to push her out the window and then him being the one to cause the foreseen school ire that forces Gwi Ju to time travel to the past feels forced. It's like they just transferred all of Dong Hee's cartoony nature into him just to move certain plots along.

The conclusion is lovely though. It turns out Da Hae and Gwi Ju definitely got frisky at least once at some point because they have a son at the end and it's so beautiful that her child is who brought Gwi Ju back to the safety of the future. I thought it was funny that they didn't show Ina's face in the future, only that she has long hair. Her actress was probably actually around 11 at the time playing a 13 year old while all the class mates were played by 14 or 15 year olds which makes her look as small as possible, so I understand how it would be hard to age her up. They should have cast an older kid so she could reunite with her dad too. Overall the drama was very enjoyable to watch and it's always great to see kdrama try to do something different and mostly succeeding.

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C grade

The adults act so childish while the teenagers get all the emotional heavy stakes and interesting plot developments. The best parts of the drama were actually the teenagers and their struggle to meet these physically and mentally taxing educational standards and expectations of their parents and society as well as the mother daughter relationship between the aunt and niece. The wildness of the the hagwon institutions like how the parents have to line up everyday to get the best seating for their children was interesting as well. The murder mystery part of the drama was okay, but it was dragged on for like 3 or 4 episodes too long. When it was revealed that the brother is a red herring and assistant guy is the murderer, that's when they should have wrapped it up.

I quite enjoy seeing pairings where both grown consenting adult characters have the female lead as older than the male lead and the corresponding actors, but the casting here is really distractingly off with the actress not looking anywhere near believable as the character age range she is portraying. It didn't really need to be a noticeable issue except for the drama itself making it awkward by throwing lines like "she doesn't look old enough to be a mom to a teenager" and showing that only a decade has elapsed between the past and the present the story takes place in. It's compounded by the fact that the costume department didn't make a single effort to at least style her to look like she's in her 30s or even 40s and always put her in clothes and hair styling that made her look very middle aged.

Her character is also like an emotionally volatile doormat, it would have been nice to see her have some smarts and effectively save or stand up for herself and her loved ones from time to time. Her version of acting cute was really off putting as well with the over the top laughing as she covers her face and violently hits whoever is in front of her. The romance plots of all of the adults were the least interesting parts of the story. None of them had chemistry and it would have been better to keep those as brief as possible. The teenagers were more interesting, I like how the two boys actually developed a friendship despite being love rivals.

For a single mom with younger man romance that also includes a serial killer plot, I recommend watching When the Camellia Blooms instead of this drama.

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A touch of archetype subversion

The story is a concise, well drawn progression of Hioki and Watarai from strangers to boyfriends. The show manages to illustrate the inner life of both of the main characters so well, that it would have been nice if the writers were allowed to go even further with more episode runtime to explore some more of the psychology and the impact of the popularity hierarchical expectations that haunts the both of them and the other popular kids as well. The switch in perspective to Watarai was especially fascinating. Watarai himself is suffocated the unwanted idol status that has been forced upon him just because of how he looks, particularly in the way that his otherwise normal actions causes the class to smack talk a classmate that he just randomly lent a pen to. He hears the shallow way people gossip about him, which is why he's so incredibly touched to overhear Hioki describing Watarai the way Watarai sees himself to Hioki's friends, as a normal guy. We see through Watarai's perspective that Hioki is not an awkward loner at all, he's actually very sociable and well liked among his school sports team friend group. His own friendship with the other guys was also only formed because they happened to be in the same class and started talking to each other because of the weirdness of being grouped together as "The Big Four" by their schoolmates though they literally never met each other until that sophomore year class.

Both Hioki and Watarai are trying to figure out things as they go and it's lovely how they are both communicative through their feelings. I love how Hioki acknowledges how brave Watarai has been making the first steps to connect with Hioki and confessing to him and Hioki steps up to bravely ask the question to solidify their relationship as boyfriends. The supportive adult of the series is Ryoto who is the older brother of one of the popular kids Morisaki. He has a rather horrific introduction in which he tricks Hioki into thinking he's been kidnapped to be murdered. That's not a funny prank to anyone let alone a teenager. Though I think guys should be shown this scene to understand the perspective of what women have to deal with and fear. Outside of that terribly unfunny prank, Ryoto notices Watarai's feelings for Hoiki and lets Watarai know that Ryoto it was nice for him to subtly let this queer kid he just met know that he's not alone.

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Schoolby Gang

The show has a nice cinematic feel though there are jarring, though thankfully rare moments where it seems the cinematographer changed when it suddenly has the look of a more typical tv drama camera set up. The scholarship students fight against the systemic corruption and it's great that the smart kids put their intelligence to use and actually gets results, but the pacing of the story drags on for a bit at the beginning, though gets better towards the end. Each episode ranges from 40 to 50 minutes or so long for 16 episodes. It's an interesting twist that the scholarship student used to be a rich girl, though aside from monetary issues for her not being able to study cello anymore, there isn't much that she deals with adjusting even though she was rich just months before. The one year exchange student music program deal is not too bad, at least she would have to deal with one less year of her school debt since it's all expenses paid unlike her actual school. Every scene of the boys that Rose are friends regarding their crush on her and jealousy at each other and her closeness with her long time friend Bom are extremely boring. There are so many and doesn't add anything to the story at all.

Rose's objectively attractive, popular athlete, one year older friend Bom who also had a perhaps for a while mutual crush on her is also part of the problem in student leadership but just wants to go along to get along because it doesn't harm him as much being at the top, but Rose changes his mind enough to help them in the end above and beyond expectations, using his access to get video footage of the corruption. Better late than never. Rose becomes aware that all her guy friends are crushing on her, which makes her feel the burden of not wanting to hurt her friend's male egos. It's so annoying when Boo and Surf are jealous, let the girl who works hard to bring seemingly impossible changes to the school spend time with the gorgeous senior before he graduates. Rose tells Surf she likes him, but there's zero chemistry and they have more sibling vibes. She also does stop liking him in that way, which to Surf's credit notices and is the one to bring it up with her. It's refreshing that the show shows that dating in high school doesn't mean the feelings never change.

I love that Lily is actually genuinely a good student and is convinced to do better by the school like Rose. Boo is a huge incel who snuck into her room and fanned the flames that she's the thief who stole the corruption money for her father's surgery. The flames hit him too. He doesn't rat out Teacher Mike knowing that his thief girlfriend who is charge of the school funds stealing the student's parent's government entitlements out of bro code, but doesn't even spare a thought the pressure Rose is under with her dying father needed expensive surgery. Rose's mom still doesn't find it suspicious whenever the principal visits from that corrupt school. It's good that the kids are able to, though just barely, find adults who are able to help, though the kids are the ones who did all of the investigative leg work that's needed. It's nice that Lily's villain seeming head of the PTA dad also has a change of heart like she does and becomes one of the adults instrumental in helping the kids enact their plan. The teachers and staff help once their livelihoods are on the line as well. If this was an American show, Rose would take her aptitude at tackling corruption and apply to be an FBI agent or something, but she's off discovering herself now that she has some money again from her father's life insurance while her friends have a reunion and thinking of her.

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Only works as acting reel clips for the child actors

The child actors were acting pretty well, so it felt pretty abrupt to suddenly transition to the high school junior/senior characters who didn't seem to match the acting level of their younger counterparts. Checking their filmographies, the kids were from I Told Sunset About You so they had some solid experience beforehand. It's so strange that Smart is the one that tutored Peach to pass the university exams despite being a year younger, but he seems to be studying three times as hard for the same exams. A lot of the story is Smart studying and trading texts about he's gonna do his best to join him at the same institution. Finally he does, Peach has nonsensical jealousy to one of their childhood friends giving some vegetable-less noodles to Smart and ignores Smart for a while, but suddenly has no issue anymore Smart performs at Freshy Night and they both audition for a label as a duo before the scene cuts out without knowing the answer if they passed or not and it ends there. Explicit romance, there's none. Conclusion, there's none. There is less of a throughline than a trailer for a movie.

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Gen Z in love

The series starts slow first episode setting up all the pieces, but picks up starting in the second episode where all the personalities, ambitions, and interests of the various characters interact and bring change in each other. Shane finding out he actually enjoys shooting people in lazer tag to even shooting his own team mates was funny as was the twist that the Literature club aren't stuffy elitist and they actually also enjoy Doremon that Kit brings up as his fave and gives his reading on it and Mon was only upset because he didn't give it a chance before and instantly got the comics to read so that he can also do a analysis on it. Kit is truly down bad to do math problems all night. It was a funny bit that Per happens to be a photo taking savant, taking less than a millisecond to get the perfect school ID portrait. It's cute that Shane and Kit can walk around holding hands though later he has to overcome his hang up of showing PDA around his friends. These kids have so much energy to wake up early to go to school together. Shane already has a an Olympian study schedule though, so he's already up. The way that the issues with the parents are presented and resolved is very nice.

The high schooler seniors act more mature in terms of knowing and expressing their feelings than the math teacher Tan who is ridiculously passive aggressive against the nice fellow teacher Nat who he has a crush on. Nat doesn't care that Tan stalked him though, he's finally found a guy that won't easily ditch him like all the other people he dated, but doesn't want to become serious. Tan is 29 and Nat should be around the same age, so they are about the tail end of the millennials age range. Tan is envious about how the kids are able to be themselves freely in this era with them able to abolish school uniforms and in terms of sexuality. Though Tan can't change his teenager years, he can make the most of the current times and he and Nat has a sweet, supportive relationship where Nat helps Tan realize that he needs to like himself more. It's nice to see the actor Papang get to play outside of the mature or bad guy type he's usually cast in. The scene where goes full soft boyfriend voice to ask a favor from Nat was really cute, his glasses magnifying the puppy eyes to completely melt Nat. Tan is able to give advice to Shawn not just as a math mentor, but also as an intergenerational queer one.

It's good modeling of communication for both the parents and the kids. It was a surprisingly strong point in the series where they don't villainize the conflicting views of the parents and the children nor the views between the two romantic partners. The only exception is Shawn's dad trying to sell the condo and break up their kids who have been raising each other and the lives they have created for themselves as part of the war against his ex-wife, using them as pawns to choose sides. Shawn has taken up a lot of responsibility even though he has two older siblings to take care of himself and them, even having to cover the bills. In the end his elder siblings at least help him by stepping up to confront their parents, his sister laying down the ultimatum that she will change all their last names if their dad makes them leave. There was a sweet and funny scene where Kit begs his parents to send off the Germany to study with Shawn and his dad sharply refuses, but reflects on it and tells Kit his remorse in not being supportive and is willing to send him, but Kit says he changed his mind, not mentioning that Shawn is no longer leaving and that heartfelt moment ends abruptly. It's so sweet that his dad was willing to do that for him. Mon and his school counselor mother though, love each other. He's unhappy with always moving around for her job, but she's not as controlling as she seems like she would be. She chastises him for not properly introducing his boyfriend when she came in and was the one ignoring Kim's calls all night. She's also having a friend get together when Kim takes Mon hope promptly before 10 and is happy that Kim is someone who keeps his promise.

Both Shawn and Kit each had different instances of thinking about where they want to continue their future, either abroad or at home, which major or which school or city, as does their friend group. It's all major life decisions that all 18 year old high school seniors need to make. It's nice that the characters learn that they can't control how it will turn out, but they will make a decision they won't regret not having tried. I like that Kit has some genuine concerns other than his boyfriend as reasons for not wanting to study in the US like the language and cultural barriers. I feel like for him, he made the right choice to study his major in Thailand instead. Surprisingly Kim with the average grades and scholastic performance gets excepted into the engineering program, which makes sense he would accept it and he and Mon become the long distance couple. Per the sports guy finds his calling in the film/communications department where Tar is also applying though unsure of which specific part he wants to specialize in. I'm so shocked that he never considered something in fashion as he's definitely the fashionista in the group. I loved his little dachshund shoulder bag and the shrimp plushie attached to his blue cap.

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