scenophile

A thrilling end

A really solid second season. It picks up right where the first season leaves off, provides us with more backstory and lore, and wraps up the story cleanly without overstaying its welcome. I do think I like this season a tiny bit less than the first season, but not by much.

I like the focus on Keisuke (my favorite character!); he has an extremely engaging dynamic with many of the side characters, and his own story arc is extremely compelling. The downside is that we really shifted away from Daigo and his family. It doesn't hamper the movement of the story and his journey wraps up nicely, but he definitely feels more like a supporting character this time around as things happen around him.

In terms of effects and soundtrack, they're still as creepy as ever — this might be the most blood-curdling drama I've ever seen and that's a compliment.

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Peak enemies-to-lovers

Oh, it's been a long while since I've seen a drama do pretty much everything right. THIS is how you do enemies-to-lovers. Yes, the leads have banter from the start and I thought it was just going to be annoyance-to-lovers, but they really ramped it up in the next few episodes and damn. We get actual violence and real betrayal. Yay!

The chemistry between the leads is fantastic, and I think this is one of the few instances where the romance arc weaves into the bigger plot perfectly. As much as I like some couples, it feels often out-of-place to have a "dating" episode where everything is sunshine and rainbows while the plot is put on hold. Instead, we get to see the leads communicating and working together to solve the mystery and catch the bad guy and that just means so much more. I'm just so impressed with the writing from start to finish; the setting and premise are creative and original, and even the subplots and mini-cases were impressive, and the show did an amazing job of raising the stakes and keeping them high.

I don't have any many criticisms about this drama, and if I do they're pretty minor; the transitions are just a little weird — it's like the show made it really clear where the ad breaks are, and the drama fades to black at the most inopportune times, like during really tense scenes. It's a really small thing but it did feel jarring sometimes.

Other than that, fantastic watch. I'm not a rewatcher but I think I might make an exception here.

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Real romance is BACK.

I’ve been craving a soft romance like this for a while and finally got it: a drama that is slow and quiet (with a soothing OST) and gives the characters and the story time to breathe, but one where it’s not quite a melodrama either because it’s full of life and has dashes of humor in all the right places. I was just so impressed with the story of this show and the pacing it was given. The case-of-the-week subplot style really works in tandem with the overarching growth of our characters.

The two leads are fantastic. Ji-yun is a headstrong and ambitious female lead, but she never comes across as cold or rude (which many male CEO characters do); she’s just passionate about her job and very very good at it. Eun-ho is such a green flag male lead as well; he’s soft and warm, an amazing father, and good at his job too. In fact, Eun-ho is the character that owns the

I feel like it’s actually pretty rare to see a drama where both main characters have equal footing in the story, instead of one being the lead and one being the love interest.

I also just love how mature they both are and what that did for the romance. There are the butterflies and the nervousness of falling in love and not wanting to overstep your bounds, but the communication between the leads was actually really great and the romance never felt frustrating.

The second leads and side characters are really great as well. Yes, there’s some unrequited love (as dramas always have) but it’s also not stretched out unnecessarily, and they also approach everything with maturity. The side characters are surprisingly memorable even without much screen time, and they really add to the feeling of closeness at their workplace.

I’ve seen a few comments about how the addition of childhood connection is unnecessary, and I actually do agree. The characters had built up a very solid foundation already, and it would’ve meant even more if they grew from their past without it being forcefully shoved in their faces.

Although this is probably the only reason why this isn’t getting a full rating, but honestly the addition of this plot didn’t affect my enjoyment of the drama that much. The main leads’ communication and maturity stopped the show from getting frustrating, and other than this trope, I was pleasantly surprised at how this show subverted most other clichés.

Love Scout is one of the few dramas this year that stayed strong until the very end, and I’m SO happy that it’s what I started the year with. Highly recommend!

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Simultaneously good and bad

So for a short drama there are parts of this that are genuinely impressive — the cinematography is good, the sound mixing fits the vibes, and I admit...some steamy scenes were great and a breath of fresh air from the cutesiness that c-dramas usually stick to.

With that being said, it felt somewhat overdone. I lost count of how many times the ML kabedonned our FL or pinned her wrists down, and because the drama WAS so short, I felt like we really needed to just cut some of the kiss scenes and just work on the plot more.

There are moments where the story jumps around; it's not crazy and you can still follow the overarching plot (which is actually quite solid and needed more screentime), but I was still left feeling confused as to when we got from Point A to Point B.

The acting is also inconsistent. There are some very impressive moments, like a particular crying scene for our ML. But every single character feels a little stiff at some point and the dubbing doesn't help at all.

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Good vibes, bad pacing of character development

I think this drama had a very good start and I didn't mind that there would be another guy to pressure our leads, even though we all knew he had no chance. Just overall, I really loved the vibe of the show as well; the music and soft cinematography were really comforting, not to mention how the chemistry between our leads was off the charts.

The ending felt a little rushed, however. I'd say that the show was decently paced until the last episode, where the main leads went through getting back together, breaking up, some individual character development, and then getting back together again.

I feel like the contents of the entire last episode should've been distributed more evenly throughout all the previous episodes and the amount of love-triangle scenes could've been lessened (and I'm saying that as a love triangle enjoyer).

Hyunseo's insecurity problem should've prevented them from getting back together in the first place, and the ensuing episodes could have been spent on communication and her trying to work on that, rather than having them get back together first and THEN bringing back the insecurity issue to break them up again. With so much being stuffed in the last episode, there also just wasn't enough time to have the leads communicate more, and it made their final reunion feel abrupt and unearned. If we'd seen more character development outside of the romance it would've helped as well — like seeing Hyunseo's journey with the piano and Suho's journey with trying to find happiness in the little things again after working so hard the past few years.

Overall, I still think this was a light watch; Steve Noh is fantastic and I would love to see him in more melodrama/romcoms because he was great at both emotional and comedic scenes. I've loved the softness of both this series and the prequel Soundtrack #1, and I hope they follow this up with another miniseries.

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Mystery > Romance

I rarely find myself preferring the thriller to the romance in a thriller romance, but that was definitely the case here. So it was kind of a shame that this drama only really doubled down on the main mystery plot in the last few episodes, which turned out to be my favorite.

I really didn’t connect to the romance for multiple reasons, the first one being that the main female lead was possessed by someone else for much of it. I found myself constantly questioning who the ML was really falling for and when it was all reasoned at the end into “it was her all along,” it didn’t really feel earned. Other than that, the chemistry between the leads wasn’t really there and it felt like there was a large age gap (or at least maturity gap) between the leads.

My main issue with the romance and general plot, though, happens during those moments of possession. The second female lead (the ghost) thinks the reason she can’t pass on is because she died a virgin, and so she spends all of her screen time trying to sleep with the ML by touching him, climbing into his bed, etc. It’s really uncomfortable to watch, especially since all of it is just played off for laughs. I don’t think this aspect added anything to the story either — she could’ve very well thought she had another grudge and still made her personality loud and bubbly so that the ML would notice her acting different.

If they had spent less time with the romance, we could’ve really gotten more time expanding on the mystery, which was the most interesting part. The unearthing of the backstory is satisfying, but I wish we got more reactions from other characters, or some explanation about character motivations and plot developments.

Still, this is pretty light-hearted and fun watch. It feels like another 2010s drama classic, for sure.

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Inferior to S1 in every way

It was really great being able to revisit these characters that I had grown to care for but the first word that comes to mind when I think about this drama is "unnecessary." Season 1 left off in a great place and I felt like this season had no idea what overarching story it wanted to tell, it left some beloved side characters in the dust, and it also gave up on the past-present parallels.

Our main character went through a lot of character development in the first season, whereas in this one I felt like for everyone we pretty much ended right where we started. Conflicts that seemed to make little sense (as the result of actions that felt out of character) were introduced and then resolved at the end, expectedly.

One thing that I loved about the first season was the way it tied the present timeline into the past. In every episode of this season it was like they tried to do the same thing but couldn't quite think of a story. The scenes jumped back and forth a little more haphazardly and I struggled to understand why this flashback was being shown or honestly what was even happening.

Because of the wishy-washinesss of the plot, it also just felt like many important characters and relationships were sidelined.

I will say that the acting still stays pretty consistent and I still love the casting of the main female lead and her younger self; it just feels so natural with the way they talk and argue and act and it really pulls me in.

It's a great drama to learn about the little bits of Taiwanese culture and language but as a drama I think the first season was way better.

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Plot vs. Plot Triggers

To start with, the world-building was a little confusing, but it definitely definitely grew on me. I grew to enjoy the different rules, aesthetics, and customs in different Clans — it's sad that we rarely see all of the groups get together because so much of the story is focused on individual characters, but as a backdrop they were still great to see.

The characters were plentiful but not confusing (at least not once you got used to them) and I particularly liked the female lead Baiqian, who was a strong female lead both in name and in personality. The relationship with Yehua was also great — a male lead who was so faithful and never wavered is always so satisfying to watch, even though there were some scenes where he was forceful and it made me uncomfortable.

Other than that, there is one thing that really bothered me and that's how the plot points were triggered — always by the cliche backstabbing, jealous, second female lead trying to sabotage the main leads' relationship. I've always been very annoyed by how the misogyny present in the writing of second female leads, and it was so obvious in this drama. It felt like there was an entire magic world and a faction war out there and yet everything was triggered by the pettiness of female characters. There had to be over three of them, and I honestly can't think of many female side characters that were genuinely good and important. I'd rather have the Ghost King or another antagonist be the main plot-driver.

Still, I think this drama played on tropes pretty well — while amnesia and time jumps usually bother me a lot and still sometimes felt convenient or rushed, I understand how both of them were an essential part of the plot and were explained generally well.

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Real and nostalgic

There's something so nostalgic about these Taiwanese coming-of-age films, about everyone in a class growing up together — and this movie was no different. Part of me really wanted this to have more runtime, maybe as a drama or mini series. There were just only two characters I really cared about (the two leads) and I couldn't really connect as much with the side characters and the feeling of friendship, although I knew what the movie was going for. Still, I loved the main leads a lot and they had really good chemistry.

At the same time, this had a really "movie" ending — bittersweet and not that satisfying, maybe a little more realistic than I wanted it to be. In the end, this movie just kind of left me with mixed emotions.

Great background songs also.

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Soft but problematic

I really loved the cinematography and soft vibe of this drama, but I have to admit that I liked the younger timeline much better than the characters as adults.

There's a really adorable softness and innocence to the younger characters, and I loved seeing what they were fighting for and seeing the feeling of us against the world.

The adults started out quite promising also and I liked that they had to deal with more adult problems like their children and experiencing firsthand corruption in business. However, I felt like there were actually so many typical kdrama tropes that I hated, like the overbearing ex. I also just felt like their adult development was so unnatural and rushed — I hated how overbearing the ML was while he was still in a relationship and I hated the financial disparity and the uncomfortable power dynamic it resulted in.

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Love the main leads

As the title says, my favorite part is undoubtedly the two leads and their interactions with another; this drama was peak enemies-to-lovers and I really liked that there weren't any stupid, clingy characters — each person had their own thing they were good at and their personalities. The families were all different as well and I loved that we actually got to see a lot of examples of healthy relationships, whether it's romance or familial, even when there were tidbits of noble idiocy.

I really enjoyed the first half of this drama as the classes merged and they got to know each other through different events, but honestly ever since the third-lead was introduced I just feel like this drama tried to take on too much. It dedicated a lot of time to just the third-lead, whose plot was really cliche and I didn't care much for, and the character development started to feel a lot more dragged out and slow. Even though he had his moments and jealousy scenes are always fun, I feel like he's a bit unnecessary and I would have rather spent more time in the school setting rather than suddenly decending into the entertainment business universe.

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Gets better

This was one of those dramas that gets better and yep, by the last few episodes I was getting really into it and I loved the direction that the plot took.

It did, however, take a while for me to reach that point; I kind of wish the earlier episodes had played into the plot more instead of just feeling like story set-up. without really answering or asking any big questions.

I also really loved a few of the characters — namely Hyun-su — but the cast was just a tad too big and I really didn't care much for many of the characters until the latter few episodes.

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Fluffy but inconsistent

To be honest this started off so frustrating with a string of bad things happening to the FL. And while I understood that and, what grew to be more annoying was the main FL's consistently bad decision-making and the repetitiveness of misunderstandings. There was pretty weak character development on her part — it seems like she just waited to be saved and still made the same bad decision next time, and it was always the same kind of miscommunication issue.

There are also a boatload of tropes in this that just got a little too cliche and cheesy, and this drama also suffered from the unfortunate syndrome of the big conflict coming in late and everything falling apart haphazardly, then rushing to get everything back in one or two episodes. Even with this issue, I liked how they tied in amnesia and the backstory.

The way they handled some situations just made no sense to me, and I also hated the way they diminished the best friend's anger with something like "Girls are just emotional like that."

Overall, this has its cute moments and the theme song is a bop.

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