This review may contain spoilers
2nd male lead carries the show and the rest is just about ok
I was not going to write a review because there are already many that share more or less my opinions of this show but I think this is one of the times I've felt the most frustrated and suffered the biggest 2nd male lead syndrome. I need to get it out of my system.
Seo Joon as a character was to me the best of the show, not only he has layers to peel but also he has the edge and nuance. I guess I should clarify that in reality I'm glad he didn't end up with the main character for I got kind of annoyed with her as the drama progressed, but I feel he deserved so much better and I'm left with a big bitter feeling in that respect.
I haven't read the webtoon so no idea how much better it is or anything, but I feel I would feel as frustrated if the plot lacks the same depth this did and if it's very blatantly obvious FL will end up with Su Ho.
Most of my rating goes for him as a character and his banter and scenes because although the drama was entertaining and funny at times until about episode 7 in general, from then on it goes massively downhill and at points quite melodramatic for no reason.
For starters I feel like the premise of the drama is quite unrealistic and cliché, the beauty superman I guess, some glasses and pimples already make the main character unrecognizable.
I found quite bad taste the way they blatantly did the eyebrows in the child and teen FL when she's "ugly", it made no sense, it was someone made them with a sharpie, they couldn't just fill them in naturally so they looked thicker? I feel if they wanted to play with this concept of the two faces of a person they should either have made really transformative makeup or maybe even have different actresses of similar body figure playing the main character, as is it feels mostly cheap and difficult to agree with the "fantasy" element of this (that no one recognises her instantly) when she looks the same with or without makeup and especially given the fact that every other actor/actress in the show is wearing the same amount and at times even more makeup than her, "your bare face is so ugly" - says character with a cake of makeup on.
This is full of rather bad clichés, there are clichés I can enjoy and in here some of them I didn't mind as much, but some others just make you facepalm very hard, like the accident and the amount of time they had to get out of the way, the breakup, her sudden stomach problems at the end of the show that add nothing, them knowing each other since young and other "fated"/"first love" cliché or bullies being bullying for the whole drama just because.
What did the FL learn here really? It's what I wonder first and foremost. We didn't have at any point a thought from the FL about beauty as it is, mostly what she does at the end happens because she's cornered and then a light bulb flickers for two seconds and decides to do something different. Also, I get it's trying to be comedic but I found quite bad taste her mother taking her to see a plastic surgeon. Sure, her mother's words make a point to say she's beautiful but honestly when she said she was taking her somewhere I thought she was taking her to a dermatologist, that it's where she should have gone like her friend Soo Ah told her, as well as to therapy for her confidence, her trauma and self-esteem issues.
I'm tired of seeing female lead characters that lack certain level of temper, I feel writers need to understand you can still have self-esteem issues, be shy and also at the same time take no BS from anyone. FL here is total damsel in distress, but at times she shows certain level of temper and can be quite selfish as well when comfortable with the people around her, what just ends up being kind of frustrating to watch for me and made me not like her too much, like at points I found her kind of rude to Su Ho once she was comfortable with him for example.
Don't get me started on the unrealistic portrayal of class dynamics where everyone, every-single-one-of-them, agrees she's ugly and no one sides with her or defends her (both in her previous school or current one).
And don't get me started either on Soo Jin, what a waste of potential character, I liked her way more than the main one until she went psycho.
Su Ho... pffff, what a stick... I think he was the constipated one for most of the drama and I felt mostly nothing for their relationship. Sure, they were cute at some points but it didn't move me much. But the two most problematic things for me are him using her at the beginning in that manner, and the other one is his behaviour after breaking up. Obviously the breakup was pointless as usual and meaningless, but the way he just came back and immediately tried to pick up like if nothing happened was actually kind of disgusting, as was his stalker behaviour and overall pushiness, even certain level of cockiness?
Meanwhile Seo Joon had been there all the time and being there for FL and whatnot while she's presented as just an NPC placeholder during those 2 years that is still stuck on the same guy that broke up with her. I'm changing canon and I'll always believe she knew deep down Seo Joon liked her but she used him to not feel so lonely, the alternative is honestly worse. How are these people passing their studies with that level of brain cells? I don't find any logic, and I say this as someone that needs it very obviously shown to know someone is interested in me because I also suffer from self-esteem issues but Seo Joon was so obvious it could be seen from space, the aliens were facepalming too.
There are many ways the plot could have unfolded that would have made this refreshing and way more out of the basic formula but I guess that's all they wanted to do with this so they achieved it.
Either way, the love triangle was pointless as always and I would have liked and preferred more side stories of other characters, except perhaps less of the one of the sister with the teacher if only because it could have been cute and interesting but it was used only as comedic relief, what at the same time feels like mocking a relationship where the power roles are different than those that fall into the gender stereotypes. They overacted the comedy too much, pushing it to let the audience know very blatantly "this is comedy, laugh".
Overall I feel there are other shows out there with similar concepts that didn't drag as much as this one and that had more depth. If you want very superficial story with love triangle and school setting you might enjoy this. If you want fanservice you might enjoy this too but take it for what it is, a collection of pretty pictures at times with veeeeery basic cliché plot.
Rewatch value none for me.
Seo Joon as a character was to me the best of the show, not only he has layers to peel but also he has the edge and nuance. I guess I should clarify that in reality I'm glad he didn't end up with the main character for I got kind of annoyed with her as the drama progressed, but I feel he deserved so much better and I'm left with a big bitter feeling in that respect.
I haven't read the webtoon so no idea how much better it is or anything, but I feel I would feel as frustrated if the plot lacks the same depth this did and if it's very blatantly obvious FL will end up with Su Ho.
Most of my rating goes for him as a character and his banter and scenes because although the drama was entertaining and funny at times until about episode 7 in general, from then on it goes massively downhill and at points quite melodramatic for no reason.
For starters I feel like the premise of the drama is quite unrealistic and cliché, the beauty superman I guess, some glasses and pimples already make the main character unrecognizable.
I found quite bad taste the way they blatantly did the eyebrows in the child and teen FL when she's "ugly", it made no sense, it was someone made them with a sharpie, they couldn't just fill them in naturally so they looked thicker? I feel if they wanted to play with this concept of the two faces of a person they should either have made really transformative makeup or maybe even have different actresses of similar body figure playing the main character, as is it feels mostly cheap and difficult to agree with the "fantasy" element of this (that no one recognises her instantly) when she looks the same with or without makeup and especially given the fact that every other actor/actress in the show is wearing the same amount and at times even more makeup than her, "your bare face is so ugly" - says character with a cake of makeup on.
This is full of rather bad clichés, there are clichés I can enjoy and in here some of them I didn't mind as much, but some others just make you facepalm very hard, like the accident and the amount of time they had to get out of the way, the breakup, her sudden stomach problems at the end of the show that add nothing, them knowing each other since young and other "fated"/"first love" cliché or bullies being bullying for the whole drama just because.
What did the FL learn here really? It's what I wonder first and foremost. We didn't have at any point a thought from the FL about beauty as it is, mostly what she does at the end happens because she's cornered and then a light bulb flickers for two seconds and decides to do something different. Also, I get it's trying to be comedic but I found quite bad taste her mother taking her to see a plastic surgeon. Sure, her mother's words make a point to say she's beautiful but honestly when she said she was taking her somewhere I thought she was taking her to a dermatologist, that it's where she should have gone like her friend Soo Ah told her, as well as to therapy for her confidence, her trauma and self-esteem issues.
I'm tired of seeing female lead characters that lack certain level of temper, I feel writers need to understand you can still have self-esteem issues, be shy and also at the same time take no BS from anyone. FL here is total damsel in distress, but at times she shows certain level of temper and can be quite selfish as well when comfortable with the people around her, what just ends up being kind of frustrating to watch for me and made me not like her too much, like at points I found her kind of rude to Su Ho once she was comfortable with him for example.
Don't get me started on the unrealistic portrayal of class dynamics where everyone, every-single-one-of-them, agrees she's ugly and no one sides with her or defends her (both in her previous school or current one).
And don't get me started either on Soo Jin, what a waste of potential character, I liked her way more than the main one until she went psycho.
Su Ho... pffff, what a stick... I think he was the constipated one for most of the drama and I felt mostly nothing for their relationship. Sure, they were cute at some points but it didn't move me much. But the two most problematic things for me are him using her at the beginning in that manner, and the other one is his behaviour after breaking up. Obviously the breakup was pointless as usual and meaningless, but the way he just came back and immediately tried to pick up like if nothing happened was actually kind of disgusting, as was his stalker behaviour and overall pushiness, even certain level of cockiness?
Meanwhile Seo Joon had been there all the time and being there for FL and whatnot while she's presented as just an NPC placeholder during those 2 years that is still stuck on the same guy that broke up with her. I'm changing canon and I'll always believe she knew deep down Seo Joon liked her but she used him to not feel so lonely, the alternative is honestly worse. How are these people passing their studies with that level of brain cells? I don't find any logic, and I say this as someone that needs it very obviously shown to know someone is interested in me because I also suffer from self-esteem issues but Seo Joon was so obvious it could be seen from space, the aliens were facepalming too.
There are many ways the plot could have unfolded that would have made this refreshing and way more out of the basic formula but I guess that's all they wanted to do with this so they achieved it.
Either way, the love triangle was pointless as always and I would have liked and preferred more side stories of other characters, except perhaps less of the one of the sister with the teacher if only because it could have been cute and interesting but it was used only as comedic relief, what at the same time feels like mocking a relationship where the power roles are different than those that fall into the gender stereotypes. They overacted the comedy too much, pushing it to let the audience know very blatantly "this is comedy, laugh".
Overall I feel there are other shows out there with similar concepts that didn't drag as much as this one and that had more depth. If you want very superficial story with love triangle and school setting you might enjoy this. If you want fanservice you might enjoy this too but take it for what it is, a collection of pretty pictures at times with veeeeery basic cliché plot.
Rewatch value none for me.
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