2
10
1
2
1
This review may contain spoilers
This series swings wildly between "meh", "heart-rendering" and "horrible", unfortunately. Overall, the actors were decent to excellent, the music was so-so (not that good for a series about a singer-songwriter), and the whole vibe felt distinctly Korean. The last point means that I feel already a basic disconnection to the story and its characters, so the not-so-good aspects weigh much heavier than they might in a Japanese or Thai production.
The series can be divided into three parts, which all have their own level of quality.
It starts out slow and average, with a meet-ugly and a rejection, and then two young men who grow into a friendship with a one-sided crush. It's all terribly predictable, and really nothing to write home about, but done well. Only Baram's reaction to the rejection felt overdone -- which might be because we don't have a connection to the young boy yet. The worst point is when we get an undefined time skip from high school to -- when? The two other band members, a woman and a man, call our couple oppa/hyung, and the woman has her own bar. So, how old are they supposed to be, exactly? Somewhere in their mid to late twenties, I guess?
From episode 3 or so, the quality of the screenplay increases significantly, and the story gets more captivating: There's plagiarism, extortion, the fear of being outed, the heartbreak of being rejected: This is where both main actors shine; they show their feelings in subtle movements of hands, eyes, lips. Even if the reasons for the second heartbreak are a bit cliched, the execution tugged on my heartstrings and the resolution felt perfect.
Alas! The drama doesn't end here, and takes a deep dive. Our couple regresses into 12 year olds who can't even say the word "kiss" and ponder if they are "really" dating. For two men in their twenties, this is not believable at all; and whenever this happens in a (BL) romance, I am taken right out of the fantasy.
Luckily, it gets resolved relatively fast, but the quality never recovers from that in the last sugary episode.
Was it good?
It would have been okay to quite good if not for the last one-and-a-half episodes.
Did Iike it?
Hard to say, with the wild variation in writing quality.
Who would I recommend it to?
To those who generally get on with K-BLs, and who don't mind if their main characters occasionally behave like 12 year olds.
The series can be divided into three parts, which all have their own level of quality.
It starts out slow and average, with a meet-ugly and a rejection, and then two young men who grow into a friendship with a one-sided crush. It's all terribly predictable, and really nothing to write home about, but done well. Only Baram's reaction to the rejection felt overdone -- which might be because we don't have a connection to the young boy yet. The worst point is when we get an undefined time skip from high school to -- when? The two other band members, a woman and a man, call our couple oppa/hyung, and the woman has her own bar. So, how old are they supposed to be, exactly? Somewhere in their mid to late twenties, I guess?
From episode 3 or so, the quality of the screenplay increases significantly, and the story gets more captivating: There's plagiarism, extortion, the fear of being outed, the heartbreak of being rejected: This is where both main actors shine; they show their feelings in subtle movements of hands, eyes, lips. Even if the reasons for the second heartbreak are a bit cliched, the execution tugged on my heartstrings and the resolution felt perfect.
Alas! The drama doesn't end here, and takes a deep dive. Our couple regresses into 12 year olds who can't even say the word "kiss" and ponder if they are "really" dating. For two men in their twenties, this is not believable at all; and whenever this happens in a (BL) romance, I am taken right out of the fantasy.
Luckily, it gets resolved relatively fast, but the quality never recovers from that in the last sugary episode.
Was it good?
It would have been okay to quite good if not for the last one-and-a-half episodes.
Did Iike it?
Hard to say, with the wild variation in writing quality.
Who would I recommend it to?
To those who generally get on with K-BLs, and who don't mind if their main characters occasionally behave like 12 year olds.
Was this review helpful to you?
