This review may contain spoilers
a show that could've had meaning
to start i'd like to say that i do think some of the reviews for this show are hypercritical, but i agree with their sentiments. the reviews had me believing that most of the runtime would be dedicated to the straight couple, which is why i am only just now watching it, despite how excited i was for this show as a fan of the manhwa. it has been several years since i read heesu in class 2, so i can't fully speak to the accuracy. maybe i'll reread and change my mind about some things (for better or worse lol).to give this show some credit, i think the acting was really well done! there wasn't any moment where i thought "wow that was bad," which occurs with most dramas i watch. and ahn ji ho really captured heesu's essence. i do think the cast probably looks a bit old for high school, but this is far from the worst i've seen in terms of a too-old-cast. and this show was very cute. i don't really watch shows with straight couples because honestly i find it hard to relate to their relationships, but even ji yu and chan young were cute. i really liked all the nervous moments between heesu and seungwon, but i do think that the period of heesu crushing on chan young felt a bit too long to me.
as for critique... while i was happy that the show was not entirely the straight couple, definitely not enough time was spent on heesu and seungwon's relationship after their confessions. i kept checking on how much of the episode was left while watching the final one, thinking "hello?? is it really just gonna be a confession and done????" and alas.
the part that really made me frustrated, though, was how this drama had the potential to be something that truly had meaning. when seungwon asked ji yu if she was oblivious to the fact that something like confessing was harder for him than it was for her, it gave me hope that this show would delve more into that. and when heesu snapped at his friends asking him to say who his crush was and just confess, i really thought we would be getting something that touched on the struggles of queer people in a country like korea. that was not the case.
really, both heesu and seungwon should've been far more angry with their respective friends' lack of understanding throughout this show. they both should've had the right to be mad at their friends for these things, but instead, somehow it made them the bad guy?? the fact that chan young insinuated that heesu finally telling him the truth was harder or him than it was heesu made me so so angry. and then heesu was like "sorry" and then he was fine with it???
and the ending, i mean that just kind of hurt my heart to watch. all the straight couples holding hands and walking together happily and the show decides to end with seungwon putting his arm around heesu's shoulder saying "they'll just think we're close friends." you cant be serious. after all that inner turmoil, you end a show about a gay relationship by having them happy to hide? when ji yu spent all that time moping around about hiding her relationship for like. a week. and then the gay characters are happy with that.... good god.
well anyways. i did enjoy watching this show, but it fell so completely flat in so many ways. as a fan of the original work i am most definitely disappointed.
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