A missed opportunity here; it needed to pick a lane.
I'm from a rugby-centric country (ie. New Zealand) so this was always coming up in my Netflix spotlight. After a year, and having watched a number of dark dramas, I needed to watch something light. I thought it may be another 'triumph of the underdogs' story.This is not a story about the sport, or sports.
To start it was fun, I enjoyed watching the team coming together with the acceptance of Ju Ga-Ram. I think the series should have stuck with this theme of being a team. The first couple of episodes had me laughing out loud as it seemed to poke fun at the K-drama tropes. The story is sold to us as a rugby team "...which competes hard to win the National Sports Festival but always comes in last " - so why did we not see more rugby? We saw more shooting than rugby. I wonder if this was supposed to show the difference between individual sports and team sports?
The love story became a bit repetitive and boring. I-Ji just always seemed to blame everything on Ga-Ram which got annoying after awhile. The cast was good, a little too pretty for a rugby team but sometimes they came across as too juvenile (but they were my favourite part of watching anyway). Speaking of, Ju Ga-Ram, although he had moments we it came across as endearing the way he acted like a teenager half the time grated on me at some moments.
If they really wanted to do this story well they could have incorporated more of the team coming together on the field because that is where the sport really tells its story. I would have loved to have seen them progress as a team, playing against other sides - but when the opportunity arose it cut the story off and we shifted over to the shooting team. Rugby (like other sports such as rugby league, basketball, netball etc.) is a passion and is a rich vehicle for delivering stories about passion for the game, team work, dedication, and definitely about underdog sports. I wish they would have leaned into that, whilst still delivering the Korean feel.
I appreciated how they spoke about the seriousness of doping issues and the alienation of when professionals can't continue I feel this all got lost in the mish-mash of what this was about. Pick a lane - shooting or rugby, teamwork or individual, redemption or romance? Find Your Front!
I wouldn't watch this again, I had to force myself past ep. 7.
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