2
10
This review may contain spoilers
Humanistic portrayal of the complexity of relationships
It’s customary for me to begin my reviews with “Where do I start?” but this series is quite long and is character driven so it seems more fitting now than ever to ask, how the hell do I unpack this?
First off, You and everything else, is a series where we explore all the fluctuations in the friendship between Ryu Eun Jung and Cheon Sang Yeon as they go through 4 different stages of life: Their childhood, college days, post grad/adulthood days and finally, the present day.
My favourite part of the series is their middle school to high school era. It captures the essence of who both characters are by showcasing their family dynamics, the worries that occupy their minds, the pressures they face, the things they love… The show did one of the best character development set ups I have ever seen.
Also, the acting, especially from young Ryu Eun Jung, had me absolutely floored. It’s some of the best acting I’ve seen this year, point blank! I mean, the nuance she brought to the character, the micro expressions, the mannerisms that brought life to Ryu Eun Jung… These are things that create a serious bond between the audience and the character.
This is what makes us care about Eun Jung. About her hopes, about her getting the boy, about her doing well in school. The way people are depicted through her point of view is also immensely endearing. Ms. Yoon, for example, because of Eun Jung, it’s kind of impossible not to love her. And then Cheon Sang Hak comes along and it’s impossible not to love him either.
This is where I find the writing phenomenal because during the very short span that we get to be with Sang Hak, we are as enamored by him as Ryu Eun Jung is. And when we learn of his death, we experience the sadness, we experience the shock, we understand how and why everything else in the story revolves so much around this sole event.
When the girls grow older, however, I find that the acting quality (though still incredibly polished) diminishes. I love Kim Go Eun but I do find that she almost always just acts as herself. I did have to take a point off for that.
Park Ji Hyun on the other hand surprised me. I wasn’t expecting much from her, but she carried the show on her back! The nuance I was talking about initially, and the emotion, oh boy the emotion. The times when she’s third wheeling Eun Jung and Sang Hak, the sort of pull you know she has towards Sang Hak, and then the retreating when she realises that he is not hers to have. Ugh. I love it!
The writing for me starts getting wonky when we’re introduced to the arc where Sang Yeon is looking for answers concerning her brother’s death. I don’t think that was done as tastefully as other aspects of the series BUT since this is a character driven story, I understand that we needed something to unravel Sang Yeon.
I also think that (Kim) Sang Hak’s sort of shift towards the end of their college days has me side-eyeing the writer because it’s not particularly believable to me. Not because Sang Hak is a saint, but because he is someone who has a clear set of principles. Someone with principles like him wouldn’t just say “My heart was swayed.” He is someone who is level-headed, thinks things through and cares a lot. So for him to have acted as he did has me feeling like there is some inconsistency somewhere in the writing.
One thing that I really like about this whole thing is the humanistic take on Eun Jung and Sang Yeon’s relationship and how it evolves. The toxicity of their relationship feels familiar. Like you might see in your family, with your own friends, or in stories you've heard from others. It’s red flags that don’t seem so red at first.
Not until you become more mature and realize you allowed people to walk all over you. It’s the depiction of life as it flows, where everything is not obvious all the time. It’s thinking you had made the right decision only to realize that you had been wrong. It’s thinking that you have grown stronger and wiser, only to realize the opposite to be true. This is what is real, and this is what You and Everything Else depicts so beautifully.
The last segment of the story is the part that disappointed me most because it became draggy. We were going through the same ups and downs as we had gone through previously and Sang Hak as a character became utterly useless. At that point there was really no reason to continue with the story. Everything that needed to be established, had been; Sang Yeon has issues, likes to blame everyone but herself for things that are entirely her doing, and Eun Jung has a soft spot for Sang Yeon and will keep enabling her behavior until the end of time.
Okay, I know that this is me oversimplifying their dynamic but this is the essence of it.
Didn’t really care for Sang Yeon dying and didn’t really care for Eun Jung making the final decision to accompany her to Switzerland because again that entire dynamic has being explored already.
Overall, this show was enjoyable for factors such as the acting, the initial storyline, and the characters. I think that the overall length of the show ruined the pacing of the story when we entered 2013, making it draggy, redundant, and sort of pointless to be honest.
Yeah ok, Sang Yeon dies… so what?
First off, You and everything else, is a series where we explore all the fluctuations in the friendship between Ryu Eun Jung and Cheon Sang Yeon as they go through 4 different stages of life: Their childhood, college days, post grad/adulthood days and finally, the present day.
My favourite part of the series is their middle school to high school era. It captures the essence of who both characters are by showcasing their family dynamics, the worries that occupy their minds, the pressures they face, the things they love… The show did one of the best character development set ups I have ever seen.
Also, the acting, especially from young Ryu Eun Jung, had me absolutely floored. It’s some of the best acting I’ve seen this year, point blank! I mean, the nuance she brought to the character, the micro expressions, the mannerisms that brought life to Ryu Eun Jung… These are things that create a serious bond between the audience and the character.
This is what makes us care about Eun Jung. About her hopes, about her getting the boy, about her doing well in school. The way people are depicted through her point of view is also immensely endearing. Ms. Yoon, for example, because of Eun Jung, it’s kind of impossible not to love her. And then Cheon Sang Hak comes along and it’s impossible not to love him either.
This is where I find the writing phenomenal because during the very short span that we get to be with Sang Hak, we are as enamored by him as Ryu Eun Jung is. And when we learn of his death, we experience the sadness, we experience the shock, we understand how and why everything else in the story revolves so much around this sole event.
When the girls grow older, however, I find that the acting quality (though still incredibly polished) diminishes. I love Kim Go Eun but I do find that she almost always just acts as herself. I did have to take a point off for that.
Park Ji Hyun on the other hand surprised me. I wasn’t expecting much from her, but she carried the show on her back! The nuance I was talking about initially, and the emotion, oh boy the emotion. The times when she’s third wheeling Eun Jung and Sang Hak, the sort of pull you know she has towards Sang Hak, and then the retreating when she realises that he is not hers to have. Ugh. I love it!
The writing for me starts getting wonky when we’re introduced to the arc where Sang Yeon is looking for answers concerning her brother’s death. I don’t think that was done as tastefully as other aspects of the series BUT since this is a character driven story, I understand that we needed something to unravel Sang Yeon.
I also think that (Kim) Sang Hak’s sort of shift towards the end of their college days has me side-eyeing the writer because it’s not particularly believable to me. Not because Sang Hak is a saint, but because he is someone who has a clear set of principles. Someone with principles like him wouldn’t just say “My heart was swayed.” He is someone who is level-headed, thinks things through and cares a lot. So for him to have acted as he did has me feeling like there is some inconsistency somewhere in the writing.
One thing that I really like about this whole thing is the humanistic take on Eun Jung and Sang Yeon’s relationship and how it evolves. The toxicity of their relationship feels familiar. Like you might see in your family, with your own friends, or in stories you've heard from others. It’s red flags that don’t seem so red at first.
Not until you become more mature and realize you allowed people to walk all over you. It’s the depiction of life as it flows, where everything is not obvious all the time. It’s thinking you had made the right decision only to realize that you had been wrong. It’s thinking that you have grown stronger and wiser, only to realize the opposite to be true. This is what is real, and this is what You and Everything Else depicts so beautifully.
The last segment of the story is the part that disappointed me most because it became draggy. We were going through the same ups and downs as we had gone through previously and Sang Hak as a character became utterly useless. At that point there was really no reason to continue with the story. Everything that needed to be established, had been; Sang Yeon has issues, likes to blame everyone but herself for things that are entirely her doing, and Eun Jung has a soft spot for Sang Yeon and will keep enabling her behavior until the end of time.
Okay, I know that this is me oversimplifying their dynamic but this is the essence of it.
Didn’t really care for Sang Yeon dying and didn’t really care for Eun Jung making the final decision to accompany her to Switzerland because again that entire dynamic has being explored already.
Overall, this show was enjoyable for factors such as the acting, the initial storyline, and the characters. I think that the overall length of the show ruined the pacing of the story when we entered 2013, making it draggy, redundant, and sort of pointless to be honest.
Yeah ok, Sang Yeon dies… so what?
Was this review helpful to you?
