This review may contain spoilers
???? Not quite sure what I just watched
Soooooo looking at the host of other 10/10 reviews here I'm not quite sure if we've watched the same show. Because what I've watched was a disjointed, complicated, outrageously unbelievable mess of a show that definitely is not worthy of 10/10.
First of all, WHAT ON EARTH is this plot like what even??? High schoolers performing SURGERY. MULTIPLE TIMES. It was the most ludicrous part of the story and I took off points for this. The whole school being full of pill poppers was actually more believable than whatever the hell the surgery scenes were supposed to be. With such a short run time of only 30 mins per ep, I don't see why there was a need to introduce so many random ass side plots and plot complications that could not be resolved adequately. It was confusing as hell to watch. This was especially evident in the last 2 episodes where the pacing was all over the place and show was jumping from scene to scene almost randomly. I thought I was watching fan edits on Tiktok with those hastily spliced scenes.
Secondly, is this supposed to be a GL or what????? Maybe I'm blind or being deliberately obtuse but other than that makeout dream scene in ep 4, I'm not really feeling the supposed GL aspect. Sure, Jaeyi is oddly fixated on Seulgi the moment she lays eyes on her and goes out of the way to help her, but this could be explained by Jaeyi wanting to find out what their fathers are up to. Seulgi kind of just mopes around sadly with her backpack but probably wouldn't have given Jaeyi the time of the day if Jaeyi hadn't forced herself into Seulgi's life at the start. I guess on some level they DO care for each other, perhaps on a level sliggghttttlyyyy higher than a platonic relationship but because there isn't any confirmation of it right till the end, there is still that degree of plausible deniability. Comparing it to Jeongnyeon, which was also similarly marketed as a GL - I felt like it had stronger GL undertones despite not having any overt displays of affection between Jeongnyeon and Jooran. Of course, the rushed and nonsensical pacing here did this show no favours in trying to convey any subtleties in the feelings between Jaeyi and Seulgi. I've seen another review call this queerbaiting and yeah, it does kind of feel this way. If you remove that kiss scene, it would have just been a regular ass high school drama. The writer/director could have at least given viewers a scene of them confessing their true feelings or even ANYTHING but the only thing we got was Jaeyi and Seulgi passing notes to each other very UNDISCREETLY in class (as if her father wouldn't have found out??). They never had a proper conversation till the end, and it's honestly sad.
Lastly, I'm not entirely convinced on the director's/writer's casting choices for basically all the high schoolers in the show. I'm going to get mad hate for this but cmon, Hyeri does not look 18. Neither does Hyewon, even though she's the youngest in real life. Oh Woori who plays Choi Kyung looks the most like a high schooler probably because her dressing in the show is the least mature out of the 4 leads. But Hyeri is pushing 31 and while she looks youthful, she doesn't look young. Don't get me wrong, the acting is phenomenal and probably the best part of the show but for a show that is set in a high school, it's kind of important that the actors look the part. Even the extras are not convincing as high schoolers. It's like the "hello fellow kids" meme with adult actors essentially cosplaying as high schoolers. After a while, I kind of got used to it, and it was easier to look past it when they were in the school uniforms but holy shit in those scenes at the club - the immersion is totally gone.
If you've made it this far it might seem like I hate this show, but trust me I do not. It's actually a pretty compelling watch, thanks to those 10000000 mind-bending and confusing twists. The cinematography and music are actually pretty good too, even though the plot suffers. The acting is great too - Chung Su Bin and Oh Woori shine as relative newcomers to the acting scene.
In short - give this a shot but don't go in expecting a real GL romance or a plot that makes sense.
First of all, WHAT ON EARTH is this plot like what even??? High schoolers performing SURGERY. MULTIPLE TIMES. It was the most ludicrous part of the story and I took off points for this. The whole school being full of pill poppers was actually more believable than whatever the hell the surgery scenes were supposed to be. With such a short run time of only 30 mins per ep, I don't see why there was a need to introduce so many random ass side plots and plot complications that could not be resolved adequately. It was confusing as hell to watch. This was especially evident in the last 2 episodes where the pacing was all over the place and show was jumping from scene to scene almost randomly. I thought I was watching fan edits on Tiktok with those hastily spliced scenes.
Secondly, is this supposed to be a GL or what????? Maybe I'm blind or being deliberately obtuse but other than that makeout dream scene in ep 4, I'm not really feeling the supposed GL aspect. Sure, Jaeyi is oddly fixated on Seulgi the moment she lays eyes on her and goes out of the way to help her, but this could be explained by Jaeyi wanting to find out what their fathers are up to. Seulgi kind of just mopes around sadly with her backpack but probably wouldn't have given Jaeyi the time of the day if Jaeyi hadn't forced herself into Seulgi's life at the start. I guess on some level they DO care for each other, perhaps on a level sliggghttttlyyyy higher than a platonic relationship but because there isn't any confirmation of it right till the end, there is still that degree of plausible deniability. Comparing it to Jeongnyeon, which was also similarly marketed as a GL - I felt like it had stronger GL undertones despite not having any overt displays of affection between Jeongnyeon and Jooran. Of course, the rushed and nonsensical pacing here did this show no favours in trying to convey any subtleties in the feelings between Jaeyi and Seulgi. I've seen another review call this queerbaiting and yeah, it does kind of feel this way. If you remove that kiss scene, it would have just been a regular ass high school drama. The writer/director could have at least given viewers a scene of them confessing their true feelings or even ANYTHING but the only thing we got was Jaeyi and Seulgi passing notes to each other very UNDISCREETLY in class (as if her father wouldn't have found out??). They never had a proper conversation till the end, and it's honestly sad.
Lastly, I'm not entirely convinced on the director's/writer's casting choices for basically all the high schoolers in the show. I'm going to get mad hate for this but cmon, Hyeri does not look 18. Neither does Hyewon, even though she's the youngest in real life. Oh Woori who plays Choi Kyung looks the most like a high schooler probably because her dressing in the show is the least mature out of the 4 leads. But Hyeri is pushing 31 and while she looks youthful, she doesn't look young. Don't get me wrong, the acting is phenomenal and probably the best part of the show but for a show that is set in a high school, it's kind of important that the actors look the part. Even the extras are not convincing as high schoolers. It's like the "hello fellow kids" meme with adult actors essentially cosplaying as high schoolers. After a while, I kind of got used to it, and it was easier to look past it when they were in the school uniforms but holy shit in those scenes at the club - the immersion is totally gone.
If you've made it this far it might seem like I hate this show, but trust me I do not. It's actually a pretty compelling watch, thanks to those 10000000 mind-bending and confusing twists. The cinematography and music are actually pretty good too, even though the plot suffers. The acting is great too - Chung Su Bin and Oh Woori shine as relative newcomers to the acting scene.
In short - give this a shot but don't go in expecting a real GL romance or a plot that makes sense.
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