1
2
This review may contain spoilers
Messy ending, but characters are intriguing
So yep, I really don't think this drama should be thought of a romance. But if we do see it that way, then yep — SECOND LEAD SYNDROME IS REAL. I've always been a bigger fan of the playful, comfortable, easy-to-talk relationship and how comfortable Baek Inho and Seol were with each other and how she made her laugh and how he actually had such good advice about how to live life...I LOVE him to death.Everyone who says that the ending of this drama is a mess...they're pretty much right, but if we DON'T think of the drama as a romance, I actually loved all the characters on their own:
Yoo Jung: I've always wanted to see a main lead like Yoo Jung — cunning, resourceful, with a thirst for justice and yet he goes about it in the coldest, cruelest way. Slytherin to the core. Loved it, and honestly the end of the drama felt more about his way of thinking than anything else.
Seol: So relatable in how endlessly hardworking she was and I loved how chill she could be with her friends. It was frustrating to see who she had to deal with, but I felt like the ending scene with her in the office and seeing colleagues who mirrored her college classmates...it tied everything up nicely.
Baek Inho: I've already said I loved him and he's one of my fave character archetypes — the estranged bad boy with a temper who goes WAY soft for the girl. His character was way complex and the backstory was heartbreaking, and there was so much tension between all his emotional turmoil vs. the emotions he wore on his sleeve.
Baek Inha: If I knew someone like this in real life, I'd be endlessly frustrated with them and hate them, but in this drama she was both annoying and hilarious. I can't help but feel like her character development was way out-of-the-blue and she got the short end of the stick with how crazy the drama's plot went, but ultimately she was still interesting.
Bora + Euntaek: Loved them. I wish they got a little more screentime but they gave me the friends-to-lovers that I always crave.
With that being said, the plot definitely went crazy, but since I watched this years after it aired, I was mentally prepared for it and it turned out to not be as bad as I expected. As a romance, it was problematic because I don't think the leads were good for one another, even from the very start, but if we're looking at the characters individually, I felt like this drama had a lot there.
Was this review helpful to you?
As expected for a short web drama though, it didn't get to explore these things in depth as much as I wished it did, and the ending felt very bubblegum as everything just suddenly started going right.
The more action-packed plotline was also a nice surprise — it's rare that web dramas try to explore a story that needs so much backstory. Sadly though I felt like the resolution was very deus ex machina, and it had no lead-in or sufficient explanation.
I also really didn't like the side characters, and maybe part of it is just that there were way too many, and they all seemed to be dealing with the same issue of not knowing what you want to do in life. And the robot would solve it for them — it all got a bit repetitive.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
I'm a sucker for high school / college dramas, but not ones that span a long time. So obviously I had mixed feelings about this before I even started. To be honest, I had gotten it all spoiled for me, and knowing that the ending was unsatisfying, I ended up skimming the entire drama.If you asked me to describe this drama in one phrase, I'd scream "SECOND LEAD SYNDROME." Lu Zhi Ang was undoubtedly my favorite character, and it hurt knowing that he wouldn't get the main girl, when he was SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE MALE LEAD. And as much as I liked Yan Mo, I usually never quite like the second love interest as much, especially for a character I was so invested in. I never really cared about the main ship either—in fact, I've gotten a little tired of the "strong and silent" type of boy being the love interest, and I felt like Zhi Ang was just so much more lovable.
I still really liked the first half of this drama. If I wasn't someone who just HAS to finish everything till the end, I'd have stopped at the episode when they graduated college. Honestly, that's what I'd recommend too. Although the high school parts had some cliche plotlines (ex: cheating on a test), I still liked how pure it was.
The last 6 episodes were the worst. Everything was really random and extreme, and the sort of mellow and slice-of-life drama I'd been watching suddenly became a soap opera where everything went wrong without any good reason other than to make things tragic. I also HATED Qi Qi's character arc—she was another one of my favorite characters and she was completely ruined.
Also, I felt like there were so many unnecessary flashbacks. I swear I watched Yu Jian with Qing Tian's interactions a million times, and it was always the same scenes over and over again. There were also so many flashback montages for the main leads and for Zhi Ang and his mom, and they were always the same scenes. I also was lowkey weirded out by the flashbacks of how Xiao Si's parents fell in love: I wish they had gotten actual young actors instead of just doing things like putting the mom actor in a pink doll dress and giving her pigtails.
Was this review helpful to you?
Boring and uninspired
I know this movie received critical acclaim and a lot of people loved the plot twists but wow, it did not click with me at all. I liked how the plot was set up at the start but as the movie went on, it just felt like it was dragging a lot. There were a lot of scenes I didn't care much for, and all of the characters (especially the main guy) just felt very bland and uninteresting to me.Part of my apathy, though, I know is just a lack of interest in this genre as a whole — I found it really difficult to suspend disbelief when the explanations were reliant on religious mythology, exorcism, and themes like that. If you are a fan of those kinds of movies, you might enjoy this more than I did.
Was this review helpful to you?
Fluffy but mediocre plot
I really liked the vibe of this drama and the fluffiness of scenes — the relationship between the leads and the second leads are adorable, and the bromance and sismance were also really nice.Though I like individual scenes though, some things just feel really cliche and hard to believe when it came to plot, and development of the story was sometimes lacking cohesion — some things that happen are unclear and led to cliches that I didn’t need. I have to admit that the premise of the drama requires some suspension of disbelief which I had trouble with, but over time I got used to it.
Other than that, most of the obstacles were handled well, but I felt like the last few eps of this drama fall into a melodramatic progression (to be honest a lot of Chinese dramas fall victim to it) but there were the very dramatic tropes of kidnapping, noble idiocy, corporate corruption, etc. All of these are just really annoying and unnecessary to me.
Lastly — I have to say that the OST for this drama is really good, but sometimes doesn't match the scene well.
Was this review helpful to you?
Another thing — they used a time turner as the prop?!!? As a huge Harry Potter fan, that lowkey destroyed some of the immersion for me because I kept thinking: that is NOT how the time turner works, you can only change the past if you've already changed it ?
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Peak bromance
This was a great action drama that manages to hit just the right spot between heart-warming, funny, and dark.I absolutely adore the ML and his kind-heartedness and care for his mother; the friendship between the two leads really is the heart of the show and it was such a great display of healthy masculinity.
On the thriller side, I'm also really impressed with the show's willingness to kill people off and just be utterly brutal. It makes the stakes feel much higher. On thing that does hamper the plot a bit is the disappearance of Hyun-ju's character, who was such a vital part of the first half it felt weird to not have her in the second half at all. I understand that this was a side effect of the situation in real life though, but it feels — especially in hindsight — such a shame to not have that throughline in the plot.
Other than that, a great drama with great action seasons. Looking forward to season 2 later this year.
Was this review helpful to you?
Good in my brain but average in my heart
It was great seeing these characters again, and in general, I do feel like S3 stayed true to the characters and to the heart of what the Borderlands have meant up till now, but ultimately this season was sort of missing that spark that S1 had in particular, and while I did hope for a S3 because I am an amnesia trope hater, this one ultimately still feels a bit tacked on.One part of that is the side characters. We always have a little cast of B characters, and while S3's weren't annoying of out-of-place necessarily, I definitely found them the least memorable, aside from the professor/doctor. It doesn't help that Arisu and Usagi spend 95% of the season apart, so we really have no pre-established relationships to rely on for those deep, yet comfortable scenes that gave the show a lot of heart. Arisu/Usagi scenes were probably the strongest in the entire season.
The games ARE fun though, and as usual I enjoyed the stunts a lot. The climax delivers in terms of cinematography and stakes, and the cameos we get at the end are fun and really do provide closure. I'm glad we got this season, but I do think I never quite felt the gut punch I wanted.
Was this review helpful to you?
Should've been in the original
Almost didn't know about this since it wasn't on Netflix!Look, the original show didn't really click with me, but I definitely feel like this epilogue made the show better and it should've been part of the original cut. This is only 10 minutes and a lot of it is flashbacks, but it provides a little more closure.
Was this review helpful to you?
Decent entertainment
This is a pretty good watch but something just didn't really click for me; the way the plot is exaggerated is certainly fun, but I think it's lacking the more emotional aspect, and the lessons are just pretty simple, and just as a matter of personal taste this definitely isn't the tone of the dramas I usually watch.I think the characters are fun, but they do fall a little short of feeling like actual people, seeming more like exaggerated archetypes. It's ultimately an entertaining and light-hearted watch.
Was this review helpful to you?
How to Make Millions before Grandma Dies
1 people found this review helpful
Warm and healing
A beautiful story. It's definitely been done before — particularly in Asian media, but that didn't really affect my enjoyment overall and I really appreciate the slow but steady pacing. It feels very down-to-earth, in a way. It did, however take a while for me to get into this but I think it grew on me and will keep growing, slowly.Was this review helpful to you?
Okay
I thought this drama was very good when it came to the down-to-earth moments, the more subtle scenes, and the angstiness of their traumatic childhood, though it loses me a bit when it crosses into dramatic mode, like gangster fights and terminal illness.Even though I really felt the chemistry between the leads while they were in the "unrequited love" phase, and I felt the chemistry of the leads as lovers, I felt like the actual transition between these two phases left more to be desired. I think it's partly the non-linear editing of that particular scene, but also the fact that we spent so much time solidly in the first phase, instead of slowly inching towards the confusing, blurry middle ground, that their first scene being together felt a little out of the blue, even though it was shot and acted beautifully.
Overall, a good watch with its touching moments, but not one that would stick in my mind.
Was this review helpful to you?
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.
Was this review helpful to you?
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!
Was this review helpful to you?
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.
Was this review helpful to you?
