Beatrice

Pleasantly grounded idol romance

Immediately the photography of the show really stood out, it's very cinematic and would look good even theaters. The space and breadth within the shots is so nice, it honestly doesn't look like a gmmtv show if I didn't know what channel it's on. The cinematographer also previously worked on F4:Thailand which was also very good. The color grading is on the digital muddy side a bit, but it's not too distracting, because the beautiful photography and lighting makes up for it. The direction, pacing, writing, and acting are generally solid as well. One of the things the show does really well is showing a scene or situation in a certain way and showing a different point of view of what happened later. I also love how they let the romantic moments play out organically, letting the acting and the story carry it in the moment. That's how you respect the audience's intelligence. It's really nice that lead characters actually have a relationship, learning about each other, growing as individuals, learning how to have a relationship.

The story has as grounded of characters as a a romance fantasy can have, but there's still plenty of humorous moments that are drawn organically from the interactions and story, which is how it should be. I really do like Po's journey that he learns that he has no dream and that's okay. That sounds funny, but it's true not everyone needs to have some sort of epic goal, just wanting to live a life with the people you care about is good. His conversation with his tailor shop boss who doesn't have a dream, tailoring is just his job and it's totally fine is so nice to see in a drama. Po's lost puppy face really does give him some cute boy privilege with many people kind of babying him. The job interview panel in the opening gave him good constructive feedback while rejecting him at the same time for his unprofessionalism and bluntness about prioritizing his personal life over film directing work. It's also cute that Po is basically an implied fanboy of Bright Vachirawit who was in F4:Thailand and formerly the Riser labelmate of the real life boyband that is playing the fictional boyband Mars in this drama. Po says he likes the song Good Time and Thame sweetly sings it for him. It's the the ost from Bright's storyline in the anthology drama Good Old Days and he wants to watch Bright's film Love You To Debt which becomes a major part and continuing reference of Po's romantic storyline. I highly recommend the film, it's very bittersweet with romance and a brutal look at cycle of poverty. Po is also privileged in the way that he has a great support system with his mom sending him some spending money, his best friend looking out for job opportunities for him, and his tailor shop boss continuing to give him a flexible part time job along with fantastic advice and time for him to spend with Thame at the shop.

Thame getting furious when he spots Po at the company thinking he's a sasaeng that snuck in is understandable because he is fiercely protective of his bandmates as someone who selflessly looks out for others, especially with the responsibility of band leader. The sasaeng issue is bad in all countries and it's also a real problem with these stalker fans getting jobs at the companies. It was funny that Po didn't think he would have stood out enough for Thame to recognize him just one time, but he was being too cute for Thame not to notice with him thoughtfully picking up a little kid so she could see the band walking out better. Thame trying to get Po to quit opens the door for Po to just to be totally frank and trauma dump his point of view of seeing Thame being just like his ex Earn, being selfish and leaving the band after using them. Thame also starts to open up that he's actually also in a lot of pain which opens Po's eyes that Thame is actually different than what he thought and wants to understand him more, which he asks directly. To anyone it would sound like a romantic request, but Thame hilariously takes things with Po at face value throughout the drama, but thank goodness his observant bandmates help steer him back in the right direction and he immediately take action to rectify the situation. The same with Po getting Thame to realize how he needs to reconnect with his bandmates. Respect to Thame for also knowingly going up on stage for the freestyle rap battle for Dylan who was mad at him and wanted to set him up for humiliation. Thame actually did very well for even getting as far as he did in the rap battle. Freestyle rap is a totally different skill from written, a lot of rappers do not and cannot do freestyle.

Po and Thame staying up all night talking to each other, Thame even staying on the line until Po woke up and sings to him is so cute. The scene captures new love so well. It's funny how Thame is one step behind his feelings, his actions are already all in, he just doesn't understand the context to what he's even doing, but it's great that he has people around him to clue him into himself and he immediately owns up to it and takes action. Pepper pointing out to Thame that this is romantic to Thame and Thame going to Po right away to find out via the proximity and the touch test of his feelings is funny and sweet. The whole band pointing out the Thame that he totally missed out on the atmosphere of physical intimacy time when he and Po went back to the apartment and he also corrects that as soon as possible too is also funny and spicy. I really like how he encourages Po to just walk on his own pace and let Thame adjust to him rather than the other way around. An issue that in asian dramas in general, is that the writing uses shows really toxic behavior with the use of jealousy for humor, but I think this drama struck the right tone without it going overboard. It's pretty funny how Thame really just stood there and watched Po pack up all of Earn's clothes. Thame also read my mind and sharpied over the Earn cup, which I had been thinking Po could have done in the first ep when the cups first appeared. I appreciate that the kiss scenes, which are extremely hit and miss in the asian drama world in general regardless of the sexualities of the characters, look normal. It's a surprisingly hard bar to clear for some actors and directors before they can even begin to convey the feelings of the characters in the scene. I love that Po and Thame act like that adults that they are without being juvenile about wanting physical connection nor the scenes being over done.

Pepper rejoined Thame really quickly, so his storyline is revealed later to be that he has also been dating. His girlfriend Gam is a very pretty staff Oner staff member that Jun also flirted with. Jun keeps accidentally flirting with his bandmate's significant others. The actor who plays Jun looks like a twin of Bilkin, they can totally play brothers. Jun is a fun chaos demon of a character. He's the sharp on the uptick, seeing through Thame's self sacrifice with th eslave contract to pay off the group's debts, and wanting Thame to succeed rather than be held back by the group. Jun may be a flirt master 3000, but he's got the romance too, it's sweet how he does Po's subtitling edit work so Po can focus on their music video work, bringing him to a cool speak easy style spot to work, and serenading him. It's so nice how he immediately backs off once Thame confirms that he really does like Po because he knows that Po already likes Thame. No petty drama, he just goes back to being a great friend to them both. The show via Nano flirts with pairing Jun and the prickly Dylan, but it doesn't happen. They don't have the vibe for it, so it's fine. Their Oner boss is the main antagonist, but since this show is a vehicle for promoting gmmtv's own boyband, it's really funny that it may the reason that they actually make her be a more three dimensional person that a straight up villain. She has a vision to expand T-Pop and she pulls her punches at the end when she allows them to keep their band name.

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Cutie boos

The actors really lucked out twice in a row between this and their next projects that have a generally good writing that focuses on the characters. The leads are both charming, but the acting, particular for Kang's actor I hope will be much improved by their upcoming third project. Moo feels like a comic side relief character that got his lead role spin off, which isn't a bad thing, just an interesting vibe. The actual secondary characters Potae and Yos had a good friends to angst to romance arc and just the right amount of screen time for their story and being friends with Moo.

I don't love the no means yes thing dialogue that came out of the mouth of a woman character no less when Neth tells Moo to keep going after Kang. The two years age difference with Moo still in the last semester of high school is also really skirting the uncomfortable age lines, but the bar is in hell with these high school dramas, at least they are both in college soon. Kang's trauma regarding the tablet and his father was sad, I'm glad he was able to heal from it and re-enroll in university to major in art.

Moo's arc to learn independence is pretty messy, it started strong with him living on his own and wanting to help Kang out at work, but then he gets his way to date Kang, gets his way to go to the boyband audition, and tries to get his way secretly dating despite the contract stipulations, which of course does not work with Moo having zero chill in public even without another trainee intentionally out to get him. The show generally has the characters communicating with each other pretty well, but it gets stuck around the contract plot line that drags the pacing of the last couple eps down.

Everyone but Moo understands the stakes except for Moo. He doesn't really even deal with choosing either his job or having a relationship until it's time to renegotiate the contract when he already has built up enough popularity to renegotiate. He just keeps bothering and guilting Kang without settling the issue that kept them apart by Moo's own choosing for over a year. He wanted his cake and to have it too without a plan. In the end it worked out for him, but it's rather just the timing than his master plan.

The screen kisses is definitely another thing along with facial expressions that the actors need to work on to look more organic. There was one scene at the apartment Moo was staying at before the boyband auditions that they actually pulled off a good kiss scene that even ended up shockingly steamy. And then they completely lost the skill, which I will also blame the director. It doesn't need to always be steamy to be good, I'll take the scene not looking awkward. I think it would be good for them and other contractually obligated to only ever play same sex romance roles forever together actors to actually switch up getting romance pairings with other actors so they can learn from experiences acting with other acting styles and discover different types of chemistry, but alas it's really rare if not never.

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Math Camp L0v3

I'm so glad that the math camp story has it's own page, because the quality is night and day compared to the other story of the anthology that has so far aired. Though the acting of the leads is still greenish, they have lots of room to grow, the writing, direction, and overall production is sharp, producing a very competant, sweet story of friendship and self discovery on the cusp of adulthood in 4 episodes. The humor isn't too exaggerated and overall it's so much better than other full series that just drag on and on.

The math camp itself is already full of kids that are probably on some level of neurodivergent, but Mawin is the most neurodivergent of them all. It's social awkwardness despite wanting to connect with people is so relatable while his genius ability to process math as fast or faster than a computer isn't He's also a really keen observer and solid advice giver. It was unfair of anybody except for Err who he got emotionally and physically involved with to be mad at Mawin because they're they ones who sought out a rando stranger to ask solutions from, it's not Mawin's fault it's him. He didn't even charge any money.

Err is also gifted and is studious towards math, but he's full of self doubt and his loving funny bestie Benz interprets the fortune in the most extreme way and Err just roles with it. I love that Mawin's letter confirms that the fortune just meant for Err to make some friends and not to make him fall in love. It's so such a lovely twist for Mawin that Benz somehow interprets the most general advice into sending Err his way. Err is good at socializing and speaks up for his friends. I love that his friend Mhee from middle school and also at the math camp is also the same way and also gets the math kids to realize what they did wrong against Mawin.

It's lovely the kids reveal they aren't bad people, but it's only because there are other kids brave enough to call them out and correct their their behavior that they made out of fear. This is such a healthy lesson for people of all ages to learn, but especially young adults who are still learning to navigate the world. The way each one of them apologizes to Mawin who has to deliver their laundry as punishment for skipping out on class is heartwarming. Mawin skipping out on the the final exam was handled well. Err misunderstands it concurrently with finding out he was the fortune teller and tragically they don't spend the remaining senior year together while Mawin returns to ostracization. All because Mawin's letter was in the book the ramen coaster course book that Err didn't need to use anymore.

The dramatic irony of Mawin realizing that most everyone just had communication issues and that's what was keeping him and Err apart. I really do like that Mawin gets to have likes and wants and his own set of friends. He didn't want to go overseas, but he wants to learn English to make international calls to Boston, Massachusetts where his boyfriend will be. Good for him for completing his wish of not only making friends, but the bonus gift of getting a boyfriend too. The kissing is the classic awkward stilted jpeg, but the characters are babies and the actors are very young so at least they have reasons. I do appreciate framing them in wide shots.

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Slightly sapphic thriller

The show is a full steam on brutal school bullying, drugs, academic pressure, and murder mystery, packing a lot of story into every half hour or less episode. There is a dream kiss scene. They also hug and hold hands. They don't do that with anyone else. That's about as much for the hetero romances too. That's certainly more than mainstream dramas with a lesbian character *cough GenieMakeAWish cough*. I hope this is a step closer to quality dramas of this caliber with full sapphic romance within it's storytelling too. For a darker show about high school girls, it's really refreshing there is not a single hetero romance. There are also the topics of self pleasure and abuse of teenagers without being exploitative.

Seulgi and Je I are such a fascinating pairing to watch. Seulgi is suspicious, but is warmed by the attention that Je I gives her. Je I is ever ambiguous in intentions, always keeping Seulgi on her toes at the same time as drawing her in. It's usaully Je I surprising Seulgi, but I enjoy the moments where Seulgi is the one being surprising like leaving print outs of her own essay that other people wanted to steal in every one's desk. All the girls are morally grey and look out for their self interests. Choi Gyung also takes so pill helpers to study, her drug of choice to destress for a test is jerking off in public places. She's her mom's visual mini-me and out of everyone has the healthiest home life comparatively. She really learned she needs no man, just career and alone time. Ye Ri has a savvy business sense, but she's not in the situation to put it to the best use.

A couple things that's of character silly though is the girls going through the night club touching their ear like they are playing pretend spies and the psychopath Dr. Yoo's scheme to remove the CSAT pill from the stomach instead of just giving the guy a laxative to remove the pill from the stool. The teacher did abuse his daughter, but not the most efficient way for the scheme if revenge wasn't the point. It's interesting that Dr. Yoo realizes that his eldest daughter Je Na has psychopath or sociopath tendencies like him, but he still favors his second daughter as his project for perfection. He doesn't give the same attention to his Je Na, but still expects the same, maybe as a pacemaker like how he refers to Seulgi.

Je I does also possibly have sociopathy, though she's the only one that hasn't murdered anyone. Her upbringing could have also made her express emotions and love in the way that she does. Her most unhinged moment was when she filmed the threat video to make that girl move schools. She's utterly has no shame or fear when it comes to moments that would be embarrassing or scary to others. She does absolutely care about her sister, her dog, and Seulgi. She thinks about their deaths and she tries to save them. She wins the game against her father, but the system is ultimately unfair, despite the huge scandal csat scandals, kidnapping and faking the death of his daughter, falsifying the identity of the dead orphan, there is nothing to tie the murder to him, so he only has four months of prison and his free to harass and stalk Seulgi and her step mom.

It's lovely that Seulgi did form a little family unit with her step having already lost both her parents and the step mom never getting to have a child with her late husband. She also gets a cryptic photo from Je I of a scene by the sea side where Je I is land surfing. May the sapphics get their sea side happily ever after.

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Leaps without thinking

It would have been great if there was equal care in the writing of the story as there were in the crafting of the various death scenes that range from heart breaking to cool looking. It feels like the show was more of vehicle to serve showing off the effects than the effects serving the story. That works for an attractive trailer, but not a satisfying story. A majority of the plot progression relied on the characters making the most frustratingly unintelligent decisions or things that just make no sense at all.

Dream's actress whose overacting when it comes to portraying peppiness was easier to be overlooked in her previous role in the romcom My Love Mix Up, but is particularly off putting in this story that needs a more grounded performance. Dew who plays Night has potential, but he has yet to find that breakthrough in the limits of his emotional range. The romance between Night and Dream has no inherent chemistry, though it does make internal story sense that the extremely isolated and lonely Night would fall for someone who cares about him and constantly around him. Aside from that, there isn't any kind of bond that develop between them aside from proximity that makes them worth rooting for.

Night knows Dream doesn't care about boundaries for good or ill, always forcing her way into his life and has already has penchant stumbling into traffic on a regular day, but instead of telling her to just give him space for one day or that he's leaving town for that time or something, he does it in the worse way possible, especially when she's already shown up at his house. He himself shouts for her to leave and then realizes she's exposed to being run over by cars and decides to driver her home himself instead of going back to his house where it's closer to ride out the final destination curse that is also affecting Day and Ozone. This is the only accident where it's not her fault, but Ozone running into the path of the car. All the other times is either her dropping glass on the kitchen floor then slipping from rushing, her slipping from rushing down the emergency stairs with no particular reason to run, and then her rushing into traffic towards Ozone. She is a danger to herself.

Ozone at least has an excuse for running into traffic as he's already sensitive from his autism, but also even more so with the disorientation of fear and the universe signals. He knows from his vision dreams later to not rush forward, just calling out to Night from a safe distance of the on coming traffic. His familial bond and relationship with Day is the heart of the story. Ozone's actor Gun is a fantastic actor and while the GMMTV shows are extremely hit or miss, especially ones that are contractually ship pairing based, his performances are always the best. Pond who plays Day is serviceable. Day is the one who utilizes the most sense comparatively in the entire show. He remains kind and amiable despite living through all the familial losses that Day has. It was really lovely how he models patiently interacting and communicating with Ozone instead of being angry or forceful to get Ozone to do what he wants.

I like the scene where his co-worker shop clerk calls his cousin a dimwit, so he counters by quizzing the clerk which planet the sticker from the blind box that Ozone definitely knows is, which the clerk can't answer. He's a film major who has an open mind and kind heart, but not necessarily the skills or scientific mind needed to break the curse on his own. Night is the one studying medical science to prevent deaths, but he's very closed minded and defeatist. Even when change literally hits him like a car crash in the form of Day and Ozone that results in zero deaths for the first time in his life, he refuses to work together with Day for way too long. When he finally does, he's able to decipher Ozone's drawings that contain messages from the universe that's trying to be helpful. Also as an aspiring doctor, Night immediately agrees that passing the curse on to two innocent women who will immediately die, followed by all the loved ones of the surviving children every 4 years sounds great even though he has 4 years to figure out if there is an alternative or not. He only chickens out when he's facing experimenting on an actual woman without her consent.

Props to Dream for immediately breaking up with Night and for Professor/Dr. Wiwat's wife and daughter for immediately leaving after learning about his essentially knowing serial killing via curse on their unwitting behalf. Dr. Kit goes about trying to communicate with Day and Ozone in the most traumatizing, criminal way possible made all the worse with the reveal that he is a doctor who should know better than to treat a neurotypical person, let alone an autistic person like that. He didn't even try the regular way of just straight up talking like regular person. He knows that a Leap Day curse sufferer would want to know some more information already. Just approach Day when he's not around Night or if it really must be Ozone, talk to him nicely whenever he's waiting for Day to get out of class and Dream isn't there either.

It's interesting that there were Americans that were researching the Leap Day curse, implying that it's a worldwide phenomena. There wasn't much information on how far that research went before they let Wiwat know that passing on the curse that will cause a whole other two groups of people to die works. Did they try going to shamans? Did they try passing the curse to pregnant lab rats? Did Night's mom die at midnight and the Leap Day curse is only completed by force when Wiwat induced Day's mom's labour at noon and that's why people only noticed his suspicious misconduct for Day's birth? Also despite the first episode suggesting the curse works in a final destination kind of way, most of the time it's just an act of god style randomness. The heart attack and even the kdrama car of doom is fine. But the razor blade materializing in Ozone's noodles that Day personally made himself is nonsensical, especially when there was the broken fan blades from earlier that would have at least made some kind of sense. And as I mentioned before Dream just hurts herself by her near deadly clumsiness.

There is an uncomfortable trope of neuero atypical people having magical abilities that Ozone falls into, but the show supposes that him being a direct target and his mind is just different enough to be able to hear a force that opposes the destructive energy of the curse. The force seems to seek to protect Ozone in particular, pretty much telling Day that he needs to die for Ozone to be okay. It was set up by a social worker at the beginning that Day's aunt and uncle didn't leave much money behind for Ozone and that Day would need to get a job to provide for them both. Though never said by the show, Day probably thought sacrificing himself would be better because Night who had pretty much become family at that point after living together for 4 years at Night's house would be able to take care of Ozone. Dream's family is also in a dire economical circumstance as explained by a phone call that Night overhears, explaining why they never travelled to visit her even though she's been hospitalized for very extreme accidents more than once. Day had suspected it's what the universe was asking of him, but rather than discussing with anyone else, he kept it to himself and decided to be the noble idiot trope.

Was it not great that he just made the decision himself? Yes. Is it worse that the show chickens out and cheapens his sacrifice with a coma reveal? Yes. It opens more questions, like is the solution then to arrest the heart, resuscitate, and induce a coma? Did the force lie or did the interpret it wrong, that all four of them could have just left together all along if resuscitating worked all along? It would have been better if the show stuck to it's guns, having the purgatory wearing shirt Day be dead, but his spirit stuck in the weird in between place until the souls of his friends and family join him after living full lives and they move on together. But no good grade for the wishy washy concept that we get instead.

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Choppy, repetitive, and forgot to include it's lead character

There were interesting story elements, but overall the script felt like it needed more time to bake in terms of pacing and build up for various plot points, as well as the development for the characters and their relationships. The first part of the season was extremely bogged down with fanservice scenes in place of actual character interactions that both deepens the connections and advances the story. There is so much wasted time that was needed for the immense cast that the season decided all gets an arc. That is everyone except for the main character Babe who essentially becomes a side lined, supporting love interest.

Most of Babe's scenes are just the aforementioned fanservice scenes. Aside from the scenes having to do with just sex or his relationship, he got to investigate Willy who is constantly sexually harassing him, but then even that plot gets folded into Charlie's and he is shut out. It's not until the final few episodes that Babe is finally in on the action when the entire cast is on the same page that we see why he's the lead character to begin with. What a waste of a second season to not further develop Babe's story from the first season, especially with the rare talent they have in Pavel is so incredibly underused who has a great range from emotional to action, it's mind boggling.

There are scenes that seems like it's missing and the direction of reactions of characters to certain moments don't match the severity of the situation. When Chris the scientist appears, Babe just assumes he's Way and Pete tries to go hug him. Babe is at least showing some shock, but Pete is way too calm. Nut breaths so much life into Chris, he eats the role up. I'm impressed how he's able to emit such dignified sass in his body language and line delivery. I love his rare scenes with Pavel, not only because Babe finally gets to interact with the rest of the world, but they have each have someone else who is also an good actor to react off of.

Later Dean crashes his race car and he's assumed dead, but everyone again is way under reacting. He and his kidnapped comatose self becomes the impetus for Alan to approach Tony and get powers from the serum. I thought Tony broke him out of jail, but he's not wanted by the police and is able to race for some reason. Jeff and Alan are in a carousel of characters, but especially for their storyline taking turns doing the stupid thing of keeping important information from each other. It's especially egregious because they used Alan at the beginning of the season teach the lesson that you should do that and he ends up doing that for the whole rest of the season. There was no particular pay off to Alan getting super strength other than his neck issue that no long requires surgery.

One of the rare positive change from the first season is that Charlie's overly cutesy acting got toned down, which makes his scenes more bearable to watch now. He's still so extremely green especially in all the scenes with Pavel. The show not only hits the secret twin trope with Chris and Way, but then gives Charlie amnesia. There is some build up to it at least, but the scenes just don't hit the emotional notes as it's a rehash of more of the same relationship angst through the entire season already. That's another result of the show not giving Babe something else to do and saving the heaviest of the relationship friction for the amnesia plot.

The first season showed the chemistry and potential of Kenta and Pete, but that's not explored here, which is not totally a bad thing. Kenta's story line probably plays out the best. He's in what essentially feels like the A plot that Babe should have been doing. Smoking is gross, but the scene where he shows up in front of Pete is pure aura. His investigation into Tony is dynamic compared to the stand still that the rest of the characters are stuck in. His pairing with Kim is surprisingly good with Kim's confident assertiveness, the ability to be observant, and thoughtfulness actually help Kenta open up. The fight scene that ends up with Kim showing up in a car to send goons flying off while he does donuts around Kenta was so cool. This is what the season could have been. There isn't really any romantic chemistry on immediate vibes with these characters, which I think might be both on the direction on Kim's actor's part to just give a bit more spark, but Kenta and Kim get to organically develop with their interactions in the story and it works. It was kind of weird that Kim leaves Kenta with a bro pat to the shoulder though they kept kissing. But it makes sense for Kenta to figure out who he is with the freedom he has now before jumping into a relationship.

Sonic and North's relationship or rather lack of is such a waste of screentime. Winner being turned into Tony's right hand man could have been very interesting, but there was no development there and they just let him get away despite torturing Kenta and doing murders. I think I saw him at Babe and Charlie's wedding at the end but I'm not sure. Kenta should have been allowed at least a punch before Winner slinks away. Willy also had the potential for a much more fleshed out interesting story as he's revealed to also be a victim of Tony's. It's also revealed that his creepiness towards Babe is 100% just him, Tony didn't tell him to do that. Babe seems to have a weird soft spot for him as well, being extremely forgiving. I think he was also at the wedding. The whole season seems really mismanaged somehow, the script all over the place. The cinematography of the show was always good though, they and the actors deserved better writing and directing to work with.

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Strongest as a mystery thriller treasure hunt. Unbearable as a Romcom

None of the promo materials that I saw indicated this was a treasure hunt, which makes it so much more interesting that the undercover highschooler teacher romance, which is as creepy as it sounds whenever the story dipped into that plot line that also grinds the pacing to a halt. It is the worst part of the show which unfortunately means more often than not the female lead who is the teacher in the equation is the worst part. She is a terrible teacher not noticing the actual bullying occurring in her classroom while being extremely violent with the male lead who she thinks is a teenager and violating boundaries by showing up at his house on short notice. Once she learns he's NIH undercover, both of their brains go out the window. They are always out drinking together or touching hands, they are just courting a student teacher scandal.

The treasure hunt however is quite interesting, I really enjoy the clues being hidden in tales of ghostly hauntings that also mirror the real life school bullying of Hae Jeong and his classmates. The villain of the treasure hunt storyline is amazing. She is both cunning and unsettling that other kdrama villains think they are. The way she picks apart her daughter's self esteem, what she does with a steak knife to her own wrist in front of her daughter who freaked out at the photoshoot refusing to expose her scarred wrists, what she quotes about a slavery era book. Her daughter being cruel to Hae Seong's sister who just accepts it in order to be kind to the girl she saw with the scarred wrists. Later when she beats up a kid in the rest room who badmouthed her daughter in front of her and she chastises him to watch his mouth around elders while banging her own head on the mirror is so unhinged.

The romance is so forced, the drama would have been stronger without it. The secondary romance was also terrible and never funny even though it was supposed to be comic relief moments. The spy versus mastermind dynamic between Hae Jeong and Myeong Ju is so much more electric to see . I don't know if it's because I just didn't catch it, but I didn't see any specific branding on the sandwich shop until ep 4, which is a funny mini background mystery until it's revealed to be Qiuznos. The end where Hae Jeong points a gun at Myeong Ju only to hand it over to the same woman clearly having a dangerous mental health episode where she's already threatening the entire class of kids with oil and fire, was ridiculous. He's otherwise smart enough most of the time. I like that he clocked the principal truly caring about Myeong Ju and Ye Na and urged him not to enable her anymore.

The treasure hunt ending in Hae Jeong getting closure in finding out what happened to his father is meaningful. It's lovely that the cute little star motif between him and his father leads him to the gold his dad hid. All of his classmates showing up at his father's funeral was sweet. He got to remake his high school experience that was so terrible he got a GED instead the first time. His adopted father and son relationship with his uncle is also really sweet. I loved the moment he supported his decision to quit high school and was the one suggesting the GED. His annoyance at the thought that his adopted sister Yu Jeong may become his colleague is funny because he was colleagues with his adopted dad. Though there were still elements that I enjoyed, the momentum of the mystery and the pacing of the story really fell apart towards the end. It might have been a tighter with a few episodes less.

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Dragons and Compassion for wronged Spirits

Eastern dragon lore is really underutilized as far as supernatural entities in fantasy stories go, so it's cool to see when it happens. I really like how Yeo Ri has multiple skills, shaman, optician, glasses maker to make ends meet. Her relationship with Gang Cheol is interesting. From both the way he and his brother Bibi behaves, they are forces of nature who just so happen to have enough moral overlap to be targeting elder humans with evil in their hearts to consume, but otherwise don't have or need to be exactly understanding of humans and their needs. Yeo Ri is one of the rare people who can see Gang Cheol in his deity spirit form and both he and his brother are quite childish in their interactions. Gang Cheol grows and matures once he's in Yoon Gap's body and actually learns to care about others through growing relationships with them, only then and also learning the truth about his intentions does Yeo Ri finally see him in new light. I like how the Eight Feet Spirit confronted him about how he's a deity but he focused on ascension rather than intervening in the slaughter of the village below that night. It's technically true and he made the sacrifice to heal the trapped spirits and he himself is freed from Yoon Gap's body that he was trapped in, but of course gets to make the choice to live out the days of being Yeo Ri's guardian spirit and husband.

I feel sorry for Yoon Gap, he was tempted by evil, but still overcame it, having to leave the short life he had with everyone who loved him, his mom, the King, and Yeo Ri who really did initially like him back to be continued by Gang Cheol instead. It was so tragic that he became a foreign spirit in his own revitalized corpse. It was cool to see the distinct differences in the relationships with the same people that Gang Cheol has. The King found an equal that he can be a bit silly around in Gang Cheol who does not have to be held to the same etiquette as regular humans. It's so funny when the King cannot hold back his annoyance when he sees Gang Cheol doing the full etiquette while undercover that he actually knows how. It was nice to see the King legitimately love his queen and told the doctor to prioritize saving her over the fetus. Sadly she passes away. Her character is one thing the show could have done better to give more characterization to so that her death would have more emotional impact on the audience. All she got to do was cry or stare lovingly at her husband and son. The head eunuch is a wonderful scene stealer. He's always annoyed at Gang Cheol's lack of decorum, but he so thoughtfully gives the best sweets in the palace for him and tells Gang Cheol the story of his own loss of his sibling to comfort Gang Cheol who grieves for Bibi. Gang Cheol's relationship with Yoon Gap's mom is also sweet, adopting him as another son after Yoon Gap moves on as a spirit, becoming grandmother to his and Yeo Ri's daughter.

There's a scene where Gang Cheol buys Yeo Ri a fur head cover and it's the most distracting, fake looking polyester product ever, totally looking bad over the otherwise very solid costuming and props that surrounds it. The weakest storyline of the show is the Queen Dowager. She's totally complicit in enabling the evil shaman for the explicit reason of coveting the throne for her rapist son. The show spent way too long on her grief and sorrow when he gets sacrificed by the shaman for his spirit to be consumed by the Eight Feet Spirit. I don't care about the rapist and his scheming mother, I rather the screen time to be given for the Queen consort to get some more personality or the murdered palace maiden in the well who really enjoys a friendship with Yeo Ri to the point she doesn't want to move yet at the end of the story. There seems to be a rise of shamanism dramas and films. The core of the use of it is compassion in finding the source of the "evil" spirit's pain and to alleviate it so they can be at peace and leave the humans that they deemed to have wronged them alone. The dramas often take a more optimistic justice served against the living perpetrators than the films do. I hope to see more dragon stories too, there is a well of possibilities and interesting narratives there to be explored.

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Silly but Slow Isekai

I only meant to watch a couple episodes, but the audacious main character and how she got herself in and out of situations kept me watching for more. The pacing unfortunately grinded down to pretty unbearably slow towards around the ep 9 when a new character was introduced.

The writing and the performance of the character Yi Gyu is so bad. He could have been more interesting have actually known the person that Seon Chaek before her current incarnation. He's just so cartoonishly over the top greasy with no nuance and it doesn't help his whole plot is the boring political business. The women are all good, especially the twist villain arc of the former female lead Eun Ae, her determination to succeed turning dark. Hwa Seon the bully got pretty funny after she was stuck in a more humbling situation without being humbled at all, just huffing at the injustice that's now directed at her.

I really like that the original Seon Chaek actually gets to live on in the real world as she wants instead of her existence being over ridden. I love that so much that the original soul gets recognition in the story having seen so many where it doesn't. I like that the main couple aren't squeamish around sex, because it's so annoying to see two grown adults act stupid in kdramas when it comes to consensual intimacy. I would have liked if the main lead was shown to have improved his manners towards other people. He was completely awful to Eun Ae, a complete stranger at the beginning when he had no reason to be. It would be nice to see him have some change to people other than the woman he's in love with.

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Brisk with room for more

The concept of the series revolves around the different type of sexual relations, from the positive to the heinous crimes that human beings engage in along with a supernatural twist, the fantasy aspect of which comes to a full boil that leaves the possibilities of more story to be told to explore the lore, and the interpersonal impact on the world after the events of the final episode.

The entity that masterminded the events to unfold is fascinating with the further powerset they have that is revealed. The series kinda waffles between sex positivity and slut shaming the detective for humor. I like that they showed Hyeon Hop getting to experience safe, consensual sex, with someone her own age without exploitative scenes. I do hope there will be another season, but the parent channel seems to often end shows this way and I haven't seen second seasons happening yet.

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Intro to resisting systemic corruption

Every strike Yun Ga Min lays against a variety of bullies is a cathartic release of power that we all wish we had to defend ourselves. The beat down scenes are very well set up in each situation. It's so funny how he accidentally became a martial arts savant on his path to do everything to boost his chances on finally getting good grades. The only muscle that is the most resistant to strengthening in the poor guy's body is his brain alas. He may not be smart, but he his heart and tenacity is inspiring to the people that he cultivates a supportive circle that inspires them to stand up to the corrupt school and bully system they are trapped in that also goes beyond it. It's also important to note that Yun Ga Min comes from a middle class background in comparison to his economically disadvantaged schoolmates. Their financial insecure status is a key point that is taken advantaged of by the rich kid Pi Han Ul who is a rotten apple fallen from the rotten violent rich businessman gangster tree.

I like that teacher Lee acknowledges that violence is a legitimate self defense reaction to when the student is facing violent behavior and detective Na acknowledge the limitation to how much he's able to help them. Ms Lee has zero fighting skills and knew from the start her mentor was stabbed to death and she still went to this school and took a stabbing to protect her student from a murder charge and faced down many attempted murders. She went into her personal mission with eyes open to the danger. It does seem she healed from the stab wound really fast. It's also good that the Study Group doesn't just have Ga Min as the only protector, Ji U and to a lesser degree but better than Se Hyeon and Hui Won, though Se Hyeon is a pretty quick study, able to to swiftly follow both Ga Min and Ga Min's mom's direction to fight bullies. Se Hyeon might be an all rounder in brains and brawns with more training. Hui Won has potential as well, knocking down a bully american football tackle style. If there is a season two, it would be nice to see the group train up in all stats, both grades and fighting. Sun Cheol just wanting to study and his grandfather learning something new until he died are both very moving stories.

It's eye rolling that of Ga Min's mom, the director of the Tae Kwon Do association would be knocked out with a severe injury despite so many other characters getting worse hits and just shrugging it off. This was ultimately unnecessary as it didn't change Ga Min's character trajectory in anyway and she recovered just fine anyways. The drama leaves some dangling threads like Ga Min's master that his mom banned him from meeting anymore and possibly more to do with Han Ul's father and of course the kids who are only first and second years getting into college. I hope Sun Cheol who is already a senior gets into college as well. I hope this show gets another season to finish out the story.

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Loses steam half way and dragged on too long

Han Joon is very entertaining as solves crime in the guise of a shaman with his own sharp deductive skills augmented by his misfit team comprising as his computer savvy sister Hye Joon, his brawler buddy barista, and pretty boy cafe host who kinda disappears as the plot gets serious. He's the best part of the show with the range to balance comedy with heartbreaking angst. The few scenes that he had with the late prosecutor best friend Jae Jung that was murdered showed a million times more chemistry than any of the scenes he has with the female lead love interest Jae Hee/Jangmi who is woefully miscast as she does not have the acting skills to either be funny or be serious let alone traverse the tone in between and it doesn't help that the writing for her characterization is atrocious. She's just violent and refuses to think with any kind of reasoning even though supposedly she closes a lot of cases. She just beats gangs up with brute force, with no detective problem solving skills. Her best relationship is actually her friendship with her sunbae that she is the superior of with them finding mutual respect for each other.

People saying the drama is not meant to be taken seriously sound like they are watching a whole different show, like a best friend being burned alive before their eyes haha? Victims of rape and murder, haha? They have the comedy moments which work best in all the dynamics outside of the chemistry-less romance that grinds the pacing down to a halt and serious subject matter as well. 18 episodes drags on for way too long for the show which should have been 12 episodes max. The writing for even the best character starts getting messy like Han Joon's either being very good at fighting to suddenly not being good whenever the plot needs it. Han Joon not knowing Jae hee was Jangmi is really nonsensical too with how he can read people and Hye Joon can dig up dirt with her tech skills. The casting for the characters with age gaps make zero sense either. Jae Hee's actress is the same age as Han Joon, but she looks a lot older even though his character was an adult when she was a kid. If it's just to make it so he wouldn't recognize her, they could have been both around the similar age as kids instead. The shaman auntie Im is supposed to be older being an adult already when her goon and her boss were kids, but they look way older than her as adults.

The twist on who the true serial killer is was nicely done having telegraphed it all the way when Prosecutor Cha ignored Han Joon's witness statement regarding the scar. He had better chemistry with the female lead which led to the disturbing reveal of his affections for her due to seeing her flounder in her search for her brother's killer and relying on his seeming kindness in helping her. He was otherwise the prototypical good guy drama character other wise. I think it would have been even more devastating if a friendship was played up with Han Joon and the others more too in the superfluous 18 episode runtime.

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Humanity over Political Agendas

Moving is like a full season of western broadcast shows of yore like Heroes with 20 of 40 something minute episodes, except with possibly a bigger budget and better fight scenes. Heroes was allergic to the big fight scenes, closing the door when the fighters finally meet for it to happen off screen, but that's a whole other review. Han Hyo Joo is put to great use here as Lee Mi Hyeon, way better than Happiness where she was pushed to a back seat to the male lead once the romance entered the story. I'm always glad that she shifted to action based roles because she both humanizes her character with great acting while making her characters cool with great fight scenes. It's so fascinating that even with the no make up make up to give flaws and pores to her face to age her character to look older as her actual age difference with the actor who plays her son is just 11 years with her playing older and him playing younger, she still looks stunningly gorgeous. I really enjoyed how her character uses her supervision and hearing in conjunction with her top secret agent skills and quick thinking to eliminate her foes. The trick shot with the reflective surfaces and her rapid fire snow balls on the security cams were great. It's kinda sad though her son Bong Seok had inherited both his parent's powersets of flight and the super vision/hearing, he did not inherit his mom's survival instincts, though part of it could be due to her not teaching him what to watch out for and just to hide himself and keep himself down. He got lucky Frank was momentarily called off.

The drama does not take a position that any political entity that are using superpowered individuals are in the right, all of them are either complicit or the same in using these people as expendable pawns in their political ploys. The enemy combatants who were soldiers or agents needed to be stopped but they aren't allowed to be a one dimensional villain. Frank is assassinating the super power retirees who mostly have either complicated or very loving relationships with their children, on orders from the CIA, but he's show to feel bad when he goes to the funeral service of the woman he murdered to track down and kill her child, but finds that she's a great mother to many adopted children who felt just as loved by her as their sister that was her biological child. Frank was also technically and adopted child having been taken and trained through inhumane treatment by the CIA. Doo Sik thought he was sparing the North Korean soldier's lives by shooting them in an area that gives them the greatest chance to recover from if they get medical attention in time, but the soldier that was begging him not to enter the North Korean leader's room was not to protect the leader, but to protect all the soldiers from the consequence, which was execution which was what happened to all the other soldiers that survived. He then is tasked to cruelly brute force suspected superpowered individuals to awaken their powers by forcing off a cliff, to use their powers or die. If they manage to survive, they are forced to serve their country or their family's would die.

Some of these people were from the prison holes who would form a comraderies including one with Doo Sik who was caught in his second attack on North Korea that would lead to him finally being able to escape to reunite with his family. It's pretty ridiculous that he didn't bother to mask or do anything to hide his identity or country of origin, especially when he intended to leave a ton of witnesses alive during his first attack. He always showed a hubris in bucking his agency's protocols like not bothering to hide his identity to even his partner by only using code names, but he really though that would be fine on an assassination assignment in a foreign country. Absolutely ridiculous. Doo Sik was released by a fellow superpowered flying person. The variety of powers being limited to flying, strength, electricity, super hearing/vision is interesting, fast healing is interesting as well. It seems to be confined unless the off spring is from two super people thus giving them a combo. I'm shocked non of the agencies had breeding programs and they didn't know that the super abilities could be passed down to offspring until they saw toddler Ganghoon toss toss the swat team out of the apartment. Maybe that will be in the alleged season 2. Even though Ju Won lost an eye in the fight against the North Korean agents still adopting the big healing powered guy after that guy lost his only friend and was found sobbing by Hui Soo was sweet. Maybe Frank will eventually join their self healing family too. It's part of the ending which felt very rushed including Doo Sik killing director Min, Frank being alive, and other things. I respected it though because it has all the vibes of a show that found out it got cancelled and won't be getting further seasons and wanted to close off some plot lines the best it can like Pushing Daises.

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