Kookely

No don't tell me about quirky food stereotypes😭😭😭

I'm just a halfway through – 8th episode to be exact – and you wanna tell me the hostage situation will drag on the whole drama?🥲

Anyways, your review is brilliant and despite me not having finished the show yet it pretty much conveys all of my thoughts and frustration and objections. Seeing the setting of the story won't change, I suppose my feelings will also remain the same.

The start was strong, the dynamics between characters and their various motivations and honestly I wasn't sure how much of a comedy does this drama intend to be or not. Quickly after few episodes the comedy and "college slice of life" vanishes into thin air and the dark hostage arc hits, and it hits strong although the sudden non-existence of the comedy is weird. Suddenly we only play serious notes and many traumatizing scenarios happen in a row.... Which brings me to the point where you mention Suho holding a gun to FL's head not once but several times – pointing a gun at her here and there, a loaded gun. Or pointing it at her friends, if you will. Firstly, she almost didn't know him besides getting butterflies from him cause he's an eye candy... Even the little talk they shared during the short hiding period weren't enough to fall in love, besides he has shared almost nothing about him with her. In my opinion it was mainly physical attraction and teen hormones, atleast where I'm at now. And based on that, I can hardly imagine myself in her shoes: discovering that this hot guy that I was starting to crush on is actually a spy from an enemy country and having him holding me hostage. No matter how much attraction I initially felt for him before, if he suddenly starts shooting around my dorm threatening everyone inside and then he puts a god damn gun to my head multiple times.... There's no way I'm walking out of that experience in a finger snap crushing on him let alone trusting him again? He was a stranger even BEFORE they took the dorm hostage. And now he's still a stranger, and a dangerous one at that, clearly not shying away from harming or even killing someone (even if his character wasn't like that, there's no way for her to know, solely based on what she witnessed him do up to that point).

The threatening parts also get repetitive, repetitive, and repetitive. Every once in a while someone starts shooting around, shooting the ceiling, threatening to kill people, yelling aggressively. But eventually nothing ever happens, hence soon there's no reason to take those criminals seriously anymore and in fact many characters actually do start losing their respect and dread as all their threats prove to be just empty words. Despite that, It's still a hugely traumatizing setting, so I can't believe FL or even Bunok's unserious attitude where they (separately) basically mock those criminals to their face. I don't know but even if they still didn't kill anyone that can very quickly change and I sure as hell would sit down and shut up and not even look them in the eye, praying that they won't kill anyone, as they still are a bunch of guys with rifles. Especially knowing one of them literally has anger issues and lashes out all the time I sure wouldn't be at ease. Then each time there's a chance that some hostages will be released those stupid girls start straight out fighting for the privilege to be released as if they couldn't catch a bullet to their head in a blink of an eye. They make the whole atmosphere unserious with their unreasonable bickering when they should be shaken to the core instead. They make it look like their lives are not at risk at all and like they're free to debate who gets to go first?
The plot armor for these unlogically "brave" characters considering the circumstances and them being mere "kids" is insane.

And for FL to think that she can stand up to ML and call him out on his behavior and insult him just because she's been hiding him for a few days makes it all the more ridiculous. I understand she's a school girl with pure naive heart and she's the main character... But just because you met him on a blind date and he gave you his necklace still doesn't make it safe for you to assume you can just yell at him as if he was your close acquaintance that you can pick a fight with. No matter how nice he was to you, you don't know this guy. He could've been pretending all along, he can be a psychopath who doesn't care about your opinion the slightest. He's a STRANGER with a RIFLE so it's not really that good of an idea to play the hero and think you can command him infront of all the hostages.

Lastly.... as much as I wanted it to be, the chemistry between the leads is an absolute zero for me. Freezing point. There's definitely a strong majority of people who somehow felt otherwise, but to me no matter how many times the leads exchanged meaningful gazes and how many times they stare into each other's eyes, I don't sense any lightning happening between them. Episode 1 and 2 looked promising but anything onwards just felt like a script and nothing more. They looked at each other softly, exchanged some life stories (mostly FL), but I didn't feel anything clicking between them, I didn't feel them connect. I don't sense any pull. That is personally my opinion, I don't say others who liked their scenes are wrong to like it. But to me their interactions feel incredibely bland and flat.

And I still have 8 more eps to go ..already knowing the ending. 😮‍💨

Agreed, we're on the same boat.

No need to apologize I think if I phrased my comment better than it would've been more obvious what I meant 😅 it's fine 😊

so overall you didn't like the drama or were you just joking too in your first comment ? (don't worry I won't nag)😆

No I meant more like it's actually kinda funny how people independently call it the same over and over and that it's like "ouch, this again 🥲" 😂😂

haha, I only write long comments once in a while when I feel like it. When it comes to other dramas I often see very long comments and paragraphs when people start discussing their takes or theories and this time I felt passionate seeing how nobody else came to defence 😂🤧 yeah 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don't see it there at all I'm sorry 😂😂 Those three you mentioned are definitely a yes when compared to one another though.

Oh okay, I see. Thanks for replying! 😊 What you described I usually rate in a 7.5 or 8... when I consider it generally good and enjoyable but with a few flaws and rather a one time ride...
And usually when I run into a rating below 7 it's from people who consider it very bad already and when that multiplies, the overall rating of the drama drops. So that's why I was curious, because the nice things you said didn't match the rating pattern I usually encounter in most people.

Still, I'm glad to see someone like you who can appreciate it even when it might've not been a blockbuster or like you said, memorable. I personally liked it very much for similar reasons you listed and the characters actually did grow on me.. So I'm in shock to see so many people hating on it, many of them feel like they just refused to give it a chance, really. Then, reading your review actually felt like a breeze of fresh air 😁😇

I agree with you, and I thank you for your take (this one and the first comment, too). And the fact that it's actually been a proven strategy here on MDL with multiple dramas and it's nothing unknown only makes me more convinced. Of course I don't force anyone into liking this drama. But the reasoning and excuses they give for their low ratings (and unusually extremely low ones for this kind of production at that) are just far fetched and baseless. It just feels lazy and dull, as if they only watched 3 episodes and then decided to rate the whole thing without finishing, even knowing that they indeed prefer something else – which doesn't equal bad quality regarding things that differ from what they enjoy. That's not objective.

I personally feel like, unlike many people here claim, this was one of the best structured and steadily paced dramas I've watched in a while. I'm not saying that because I like it others must like it too. But when I see so many 2 or 4 rated reviews of a fairly well done drama in a row.... I begin to be sceptical of what people have in their brains. If they decide to watch a slice of life and then are shocked by the slow pace, I don't know how to comment on that.

Now I don't know if you watched it, so I'm sorry if my rant is too long. The characters and their stories were fleshed out enough to me, the drama touched / scratched a lot of social topics that are not often spoken about enough and people forget about. And even though the solution or the way out wasn't always provided, it's still important the topics were brought to attention again in the first place – and just like in life sometimes there is no happy miraculous deux machina solution waiting at the end of the path.

This drama also nicely showed how some characters who were mostly adamant on their values began to question them and WHY they did so. It showed how someone's priority might reasonably and naturally change. It showed how it's hard to complete a task when it doesn't resonate with your heart and what you believe is right. It showed a love triangle without shoving it down our throats in a ridiculous and cringe way – the adult people showing affection for each other in a subtle and natural way without being awkward about it and making a fuss, taking their steps slowly, as sometimes that's just how it happens. And I admire and appreciate the fact how mature and realistic this has been just like the interactions between the friends and just like the gentle approach from the "third wheel" of the said love triangle, who didn't desperately compete for his "loved one's" attention but just treated them with soft and almost unnoticable manner instead. The characters felt indeed like real people from anywhere.
So to me, I can't wrap my head around some people saying this had no charm, no emotion, or no direction. In my opinion this drama knew exactly what it wanted to be from start to finish and managed to execute well. 🤷🏻‍♀️ It was a warm and cozy ride and I will miss it.

I think you described it very well and honestly there isn't much to criticize in my opinion. I agree with your points.
May I ask about your rating system? It's not in order to fight about it or that sort of thing, I'm just trying to understand why while mostly applauding the drama's pros in an objective way and not listing any cons really, you still gave it a 6 which seems rather low. I'm sorry if you have your rating system explained on your profile site – I'm currently on my phone and the app doesn't show user profiles, sadly. So out of curiosity I would like to ask for your elaboration, if you don't mind 🙏😁😊

Thank you, you might aswell be the only person here willing to praise this show just like me. 🙏

I'm probably the only one who liked it all till the end, all the characters and sub-stories and found it joyful to watch. But to give it a 4?? or even less??? 😕

If you don't like slow slice of life, DON'T watch it. It's difficult to understand that some people still go by the manner where it means that the quality is low just because they prefer more action. To say this had "no drama" is a stretch. Did we watch the same show? So many real life struggles were a "no drama"? Portraying the ambivalent nature of a lawyer's work and struggling with their moral compass and sometimes seeing the bad guys win just like it happens in our lives is not enough drama? Seeing the unfair passive-aggressive attitude of the employers is not a drama? Go watch a horror then. People are often very superficial indeed.

I can go and watch a cheesy comedy right now and then rate it with 3.0 because I didn't like the cheesy comedy. Somehow people go watch a slice of life drama and then are disappointed in the slice of life part... Where is any logic.

already been said here like a 100 times 🥲

OMG the stills look so gooood! 🔥 Hong Kyungaaaaah it's been so long 😫😫😫

sameeeee😭😭😭

He's genuinely my favorite character, I think he's very realistically portrayed. 😊

Thanks for your share. 🙏 I plan to watch it either way, but I was still curious to see the overall feedback. Given how much I care about cinematography, consistency and script logic, I guess I won't hold my hopes too high 😅

I agree with you, that's why I said "lowkey". I think people get hungup on the word "protect" where the association with his gangster past brings up a different idea of what to expect. They can read a lot from a verry little or from nothing. Even when "life" is very clearly mentioned there too.

Haha well... of course that's not entirely impossible 😂😂

The synopsis itself is lowkey misleading but all that needs to be done is look at the tags, too.... 😂