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Messy, but addictive
The premise for this honestly caught my eye, and I've been super excited for it for ages. It turned out to be nothing like what I'd expected, and to be honest it was kind of a hot mess. AND YET, it was addictive and I felt anxious watching it.It's messy because it basically threw all the cliches into a pot and used all of them—rich man/poor girl, best friend love triangle, characters screaming their emotions into the void, backstabbing best friend, Cinderella's step-family...but the way they did it was completely unexpected and not in the order you'd expect.
I was really annoyed with all the characters' actions right off the bat: Jo-Jo for being a cheater, Sun-Oh for stabbing his friend in the back, and Hye-Young for being a creepy stalker. I felt like people were only rooting for him because they saw his perspective, but from Jo-Jo's point of view, he barely even talked to her and just creepily followed her everywhere.
Because of all the characters' immature personalities, for once I felt like the time skip was in the right place. And as someone who usually DETESTS all time jumps, I really liked how it was inserted, and how the characters changed during that time. I do hate that noble idiocy is such a huge plot point, but the fact that it took place in the time skip made it a bit better, even though I still found myself frustrated with the flashback scenes.
The time skip was also helpful in getting me to not hate Hye-Young, because I liked his character development and how he finally took action, instead of always looking from afar. Even though his character is growing on me though, I still definitely have second lead syndrome and am rooting for Sun-Oh.
The cinematography and visual effects were the best part of this entire thing. I loved the sound effects. how the app looks, how everything was filmed, and how the 10m radius is edited. EVERYTHING.
I really wish there was more sismance and bromance. The bromance was nice, even though it crashed and burned near the end. On the other hand, there was ZERO sismance, and I hated how all the female characters (other than Kim Jo-Jo) were portrayed as boy-obsessed, shallow, gossipy, etc. Honestly, Jo-Jo's minor scenes with her wedding work friend were so refreshing—and more friendship is needed in this entire drama, which would work out to balance all the romance drama.
Because it was so romance heavy, I also found myself loving the scenes that delved into more Black Mirror territory and talked about heavier topics, like the protests, exploitation, suicides, etc. I really wished that that was a bigger part of the story, because there's a lot of potential for the characters to get involved in more than the melodrama cliches.
I also appreciate the lowkey LGBT mentions and how it's addressed with "It's not like you can control your feelings." MORE, please!
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Comforting and fun, but has pacing issues
So I still enjoyed this quite a bit but definitely not as much as everyone else.To start with the good things, it's definitely a really heart-warming and inspiring show about following your dreams, connecting with loved ones, and finding what sparks your happiness in life. Every single character ends up in a better place than where they started and for that reason alone I think this drama is worth the watch.
To nobody's surprise, my favorite plot in this story was the story of Cheong-ah and Yi-chan. It's so much more than a romance; it was also about the importance of communication and how people with hearing disabilities can stay connected to the rest of the world, and about how Yi-chan would learn to face the world again after losing his hearing, this time with more people who cared about him in his life. Or rather, it should've been more about the latter.
It seems like most criticism of the plot surrounds the last episode being rushed (which I do agree with) — we get the big accident, some hugging and deep talks, and then jump back to the present day, all without any interaction between Yi-chan and Cheong-ah, who should've been the most important person in his life and the one who would've most understood what he was going through.
Which brings me to the biggest issue I had with this: pacing. Eun-gyeol's main goal to prevent his father's accident and stop him from losing his hearing goes all the way up to ~episode 15, while he also tries to get his parents together and Yi-chan still chases after Se-kyung until about episode 11. I was definitely getting really tired of the same plot points by this point and could start to see the ending coming.
By these episodes I felt like it was pretty obvious that the accident was not going to be prevented because one, it would've gone against the ethos of the show — Yichan does not have to hear for his life to be good, and to let his son follow his dream of playing music — and two, there was just not enough time to explore a brand new timeline by that point.
I really think they should've had the accident happen earlier and shown just a little bit more of the aftermath and interaction between Yi-chan and Cheong-ah and everyone else; I understand the counterpoint of not needing to show it because we've already seen Yi-chan's development and can infer how the future would change, but for me it would have been preferable to see this over a faux love triangle plot that started to get really repetitive, and then wait for Eun-gyeol's perspective shift to happen as late as the 15th episode.
The side characters were fine — I liked them as a whole but only a few of them had interesting subplots. And antagonistic side characters like Cheong-ah's brother seem to come in and out of the show when it was convenient. Eun-ho was a side character I expected to be a main character and I still wish he had gotten more screentime, whether it was with Eun-gyeol or with the parents.
Overall, none of this is a deal breaker by any means, and I still really enjoyed this drama throughout and would say it's worth watching. It's light-hearted and cozy, but I would be lying if I didn't say it stopped being plot-driven and started fizzling out for me.
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Light and cute
The leads are really cute have really great chemistry, but I think the show could’ve done a much better job of tying the romance in with the overall plot. I’ve noticed this about other GMMTV dramas, but here it really stood out to me.We have moments where the leads’ romance is developing and they’re being cute, and then we’ll cut to moments of tension with the antagonists’ plan, but it feels like there’s very little introspection in between. I wish we got more of an internal struggle on Pam’s part; when we get to her breaking point where she says “I can’t keep lying to Dokrak anymore,” I felt like we hadn’t really seen a lot of internal conflict.
The entire arc for Nene as the antagonist feels a bit murky. The premise is absolutely there — someone who has their live destroyed wants to get revenge, but starts connecting with the bartender and the families she’s trying to ruin. But it’s never really clear what her plan actually is; “revenge” is vaguely repeated often but by the time it seems that her plan was just revealing everything, which is neither a grand plan, nor something that Pam really played a role in.
Overall, the chemistry between the leads is there and the acting is great, though I wish the characters could’ve been more developed into their roles. I love the premise and being able to see everyone finding happiness, but I think the drama was more light than I’d anticipated, and the plot could’ve used more thought.
P.S. I love the OST titled "More Than Words." Such a beautiful song.
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Another fun installment to the series
I'm really glad we got to see this friend group together again — seeing all the characters and how they fit together to round out the team is still the highlight of this show.Plot-wise, though, I do think this one is the weakest of the three. The weekly cases, Do-Gi's different personas, and how the team infiltrates each situation are just overall not as memorable or creative. The pacing feels slower overall.
Part of this is that there's no overarching plot. The first episode made me think they were going international and having another "who's going to get to it first" arms race with Interpol, but those characters, who I thought were going to be secondary characters, never showed up again. And then the last case made me wish that there had been an overarching plot related to the military and Do-Gi's background; it makes for a really intimidating antagonist, and the personal tie would've added a lot of stakes. We didn't get either of those though, which means there's just no recurring antagonist and no ongoing tension throughout the show.
Nevertheless, I think this was a decent send-off for our Rainbow Taxi team — and it does leave room for another season if they end up making another one.
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Great sismance makes up for a lacking ML
I'm usually not one to harp on acting but the ML here really feels woefully miscast. I watched the actor in Silent where he was sort of the quiet, studious type and I just think his role there fits him so much better. Here, the charisma that he's supposed to have as Mr. Popular just isn't there, and neither is the subtle gentleness he shows towards the FL. The acting just feels forced and awkward; the show keeps telling me about how charming and lovable this guy is, but I don't really feel any of it and I just see him going through the motions.With that being said, I don't really think the romantic chemistry is there, but it is between the FL and her friends! I know this is a romance but the part that really shines through for me in this drama is the friendship between the three female leads. It's beautiful and heart-warming and any conflicts that they do run into are very realistic. Even the quote-unquote "evil SFL" isn't overly terrible, which is always refreshing to me. All the actresses were perfect (even though the FL is obviously gorgeous and people being afraid of her doesn't make sense, lol).
Overall, the plot is just wholesome; there aren't any overblown dramatics and communication is learned through very well-done character development. The pacing of the side plots goes a little up-and-down, but I still enjoyed them for the simple fact that I liked the 3 female leads.
Simply put, this is a comfort drama.
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Messy but pretty to look at
Aesthetically this was different from the first season for sure, but it was still pretty to look at despite the different style, and the sketches were reminiscent of It's Okay to Not Be Okay.The story was a real mess though, in terms of romance, the traumatic backstory, and the social commentary. It just felt like there was zero continuity with the first season. They completely dropped the ball on Jojo's backstory when it was such a big part of her trauma and decision-making.
Big questions around Love Alarm were about the role of technology in modern romance, privacy, the pressure of being perfect on social media, imposter syndrome, etc. and I had been really excited for it to delve deeper into a society so reliant on it, but they never really did. A lot of characters and plots weren't explained well and everything just felt all over the place.
Instead, the drama focused so much on a love triangle that wasn't really there to begin with, starting this season. The characters had little to no character development and were kind of brushed to the side, with a sprinkle of backstory here or there.
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Low stakes and oversaturation of characters
Before going into this, it was already pretty clear that Strong Woman DBS, which had one of the most iconic kdrama couples ever, was a difficult act to follow. I'm going to try and get all the comparisons out of the way first. While I wasn't a HUGE fan of the humor in SWDBS, it knew well enough to take serious moments seriously, and everything else was strong enough to make up for it; I loved the leads and the murder plot was thrilling and high-stakes. This drama has the same issue with its humor, but its other aspects are either weak or worse.The humor just isn't my style at all. There's a lot of physical humor and over-acting; it might be fine if it was only used in select moments, but I felt like it permeated every second of drama, even big fight scenes and what should've been tense moments with antagonists. Overall it made the entire tone of the drama seem kind of off — as if nothing actually mattered because it was all for laughs.
The drug plot felt low-stakes not just because of the tone, but also just because of the way it was written. I don't think anyone going into this drama should expect any profound commentary on drugs or class issues in South Korea. The drama seems to try every once in a while with an offhanded comment, but it really doesn't go much deeper and it's even self-contradictory sometimes. There's parts where they touch upon it, but they also make its lead a "good billionaire" because she's kind with her money and because she pulled herself up by her bootstraps. It felt contradictory to any commentary, just so viewers could get some #girlboss moments.
In terms of characters — I'm not a fan of ensembles to begin with and this drama is a good example of why. It felt like there were so many characters and so many subplots that none of them got enough screentime to be complete, and less important subplots took over more engaging ones. The drama spent SO MUCH screentime on the grandmother's romance, which felt slapstick and unserious, while Namsoon and Heeshik's screentime began to dwindle. And as the drama went on it felt like more and more antagonists were getting introduced as random side characters, and because they served no purpose other than to trigger plot points and had no backstory or personality, they began to blur into each other.
The only antagonist that really had a good story was the villain Ryu Shi-O, but my bigger issue with him plays into my low-stakes criticism. He was just...a bad villain. He has physical abilities, sure, but his plans, goals, and motivations weren't that clear, and most of all I just can't believe that he couldn't piece together anything our protagonists were planning when they were being so obvious about it. I mean...Namsoon's acting...
With so many things going on, romantic lines didn't have enough screentime for good development. I'd already mentioned not caring about the grandmother's romance, and while Namsoon/Heeshik were the best in the show, it felt like they didn't really go deeper than both of them being cute.
Honestly, I think there's an audience for this somewhere out there — maybe someone who likes quirkiness and shenanigans — but it's not me. I'm giving this a 2 (and not a 1) just because it didn't utterly infuriate me as much as me just not really caring.
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Strong start, but...
I think this drama started out super strong — the show wasn't afraid to be violent and gory, you could clearly differentiate between the classmates and what archetypes they represented, and there was so much intrigue around both who the mafias were and why the gamemaker decided to choose them.As the drama went on I definitely think it lost a bit of steam — Mafia reveals were interesting but you can only do that a few times before the audience wants to dig deeper and actually find out how and why the game started. Instead, the disorganization of the students lasts for a little too long.
So I think the backstory reveal started a little too late, and it introduced a new character that I couldn't really bring myself to care about so late in the story. The backstory itself wasn't fleshed out very well, never going in depth with some of the things they had hinted earlier about how each student was involved. I still don't understand why students were chosen to be Mafias, Citizens, the Doctor, or the Police, and if it was random it really lessens the importance of every one of them.
Without these specifics, the gamemakers didn't feel much like "masterminds" with a thought out plan, but just some people with a thirst for revenge and instilling suffering in whatever form. I would've much preferred it if the game had been a more direct reflection of what happened in the past, and if it was repeated until each student learned a specific lesson (with Yoonseo being the first to learn that she should've been there for her friend), as opposed to the ultimate purpose simply being "I want them all to suffer as much as possible."
I'm also part of the camp that feels mixed about the ending. While I've seen open endings that are done well, the one here feels too "unsustainable," meaning that I know it definitely can't last forever — there has to be more than the story and whatever it is should have been shown.
Overall, I still had a lot of fun with this. I don't know if there will be another season but I hope there is — there's a perfect set up for one and it would give the show a chance to delve deeper into its backstory and each kid.
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A slowwwwwww burn
So this drama requires one big thing from its audience: patience.It starts out slow; a lot of the early episodes are focused on establishing setting — the competitiveness of and within academies, how it clashes with public schools, etc. We see our main female lead, a star academy teacher, get caught up right in the middle of it, and its only after all of this do we get a little glimpse of an interaction between her and the male lead. It looks like a lot of people had already dropped the drama by then, and those people missed out — the chemistry between them is FANTASTIC.
But I don't blame them. The unfortunate truth is that the academy setting and plot just...isn't that interesting, despite how well-written it is. We've seen similar themes in other dramas — pressure on students, overbearing parenting, backstabbing coworkers — and honestly, those dramas were right to do it with more flair and flamboyance. While I appreciate how down-to-earth and realistic the conversations and lessons are (There are some that are truly heartwarming, like seeing a teacher rediscover her passion), there's really only one A-plot, and it really does start to drag. There's only one thing going on; we're spending too much time on it when I'd rather be with the main leads, or even getting more depth for our second leads, who end up really underdeveloped.
The melodrama-style editing doesn't help the slowness; while the melo vibes of the show really work towards the drama's favor when we're just spending time with our leads and watching fall in love and be in love, it also means we linger on the other academy-centric moments, and I find myself zoning out when an academy lecture scene about the history of Korea (or something) goes on for ten minutes, or even if the antagonists are having some really long, drawn-out conversation.
By the end, it feels like the main plot is a little underwhelming for how much time we spent on it, and I wish we'd spent more time just seeing our main leads happy or even just doing something different, something that's not lecturing or eating dinner (lol).
Honestly though, the main leads are absolutely golden. The chemistry is amazing, I love love love the communication and the tension between them, and their little flashbacks were so cute. It's crazy that they're the the main leads and it still feels like they didn't get enough screentime together. We just needed this drama to be a little more romance and a little less everything else.
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Forgotten plotlines, Frustrating people
I was a pretty big fan of Part 1. The large cast really grew on me and I quickly felt emotionally attached to the entire class, intrigued to see how they would face the "new world" together. Part 2 really dropped the ball on a LOT of plotlines, and they did it in exchange for shock factor.Sergeant Kim, who I thought would have a vital role to play after the events at the end of Part 1, isn't in this at all, and there's not even a name drop or throwaway line that explains why. The lovelines are kind of fun to watch at first but it devolves into nothing. The characters never get anywhere physically, which means you never get to see how the larger society has changed and how our characters would fit into it. It feels like aimless wandering. The hints from Part 1 about the spheres getting more intelligent is not addressed at all — in fact, the aliens are barely a part of these episodes, leaving you with more questions at the end.
Instead, it's a lot more about in-fighting and worst of all, doubling down on that one annoying, selfish character.
Don't get me wrong, I think that character is necessary in survival shows because it reveals the worst of human nature, but here's the thing: you need your OTHER characters to adapt and push back. If you don't, you just get one really annoying person dictating the plot. Essentially, they made the most unlikeable character even more unlikeable, and then they gave this character everyone else's screen-time. Evoking empathy only works if that character is going to develop or at the very least have some redeeming qualities. Without that, it's just frustrating.
The second issue is that shock factor is always temporary. What happens once all the adrenaline wears off? What are the consequences of being alive? That's always the most interesting part of survival shows; I can forgive the drama for starting off with a time jump but I can't forgive it for ending with one. We never got to see how characters might get their strength back after the worst days of their lives. That would've been the most powerful character development, had we gotten to see it.
And part of that is really just an issue of personnel; some of the survivors are the most random, unimportant people (I promise you, there were much more worthy characters to keep). Combined with all the other issues of the time jump and misplaced screen-time...the ending just feels abrupt and you finish the show feeling unsatisfied.
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Short and fun, but...
This was overall a fun watch! I really love these type of AU shows and the premise of this one is super interesting.Considering the premise though, I wish they had been brave enough to be a little more unconventional than just making it a mistaken-gender drama. The main leads could have gone through the entire falling-in-love and questioning-my-sexuality process without the soulmate AU. And that's why I sort of had second lead syndrome too, because I just felt like it would've been a much cooler plot and it would've made use of the soulmate AU if the character had to "go against their destiny" for real. Also, just as a person I pick longtime friends-to-lovers over everything else 99% of the time.
For this reason I also felt myself more invested in the second ship: two people who were unnamed in a world full of named people. Two people who had to find their own love while everyone else's was written out for them. They honestly had a more bantery relationship and I liked how outspoken Sae Rom was.
Overall though I did like the little life lessons — like Reply 1988 anything about getting off your butt and taking action to not miss your timing really hits home for me.
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The cinematography also got better, but the first few episodes had so many internal monologues, even by characters that I didn't care about, and not only did it make the plot move super slowly, but it just felt like they were trying to cram in all the tragic backstories at the start so that we didn't hate the characters.
I was super excited about the plot at first, but the way dramatic irony was implemented meant that I was just constantly frustrated because I knew about secrets maybe even TEN episodes before the characters would figure them out. I was also super annoyed by the "problems" that the characters were facing—most of them were caused by the characters not trusting each other and miscommunicating.
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Cute but could have been more
This was overall a really cute and wholesome watch, but I can't shake the feeling that it could have been more, even if it was just given hour-long episodes instead of 45-minute ones.I'm a huge fan of the friends-to-lovers trope, but I can't help but feel like the pacing for things was kind of fast. I wanted more domestic scenes where we saw them just talking to each other and doing things they liked — it doesn't have to be related to archery or about Chi Chi's parents or reminiscing about the past, I just wanted more of their banter. That was one reason I had a soft spot for their high school flashbacks.
The problem was that they tried to fit a LOT of years into not a lot of screentime, and there weren't enough markers in the plot — holidays, year-end competitions, summer trips — that let me know how much time had passed. In essence, it felt like everyone acted and looked the same, and I while I thought only days had passed between events, it was actually months.
While I also liked the student-athlete addition, I felt like Skate Into Love did it better in that the sport felt so embedded within every character's personality. Their paths to becoming better wasn't always smooth simply because they had things to learn, and not just because they got a disorder (which honestly feels too much of a noble idiocy trope for me to appreciate).
Some of the editing also took away from some emotions I wanted to feel — for example, fading to black before revealing competition results kind of took away from my ability to stress about it while watching it happen because you already knew what the result was going to be. They honestly could've used some more people sitting in the crowd as well just to have the sound of cheering. Energy goes a long way towards hyping up these competition scenes. I also hated the fast forwarding that they used to zoom in on faces.
I appreciated the heaviness given to Chi Chi's family situation, though it meant that her parents were some of my least favorite people even though there were attempts to give them redemption arcs.
Ultimately, I did like that there weren't any overblown misunderstandings, and the side pairings were really cute as well. The side characters were given enough background but not too much (though second lead could've used a LOT more development, and he just sort of fell off the face of the earth), and it was a fun friends-to-lovers watch.
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Run-of-the-mill
I was hoping the show would have a quieter and slower touch, and that it would talk about movies more and have some references for film-lovers like me. It ended up being a little bit more high-level, a more general romance drama where the main characters just happen to like melos and movies. We don’t actually see much of the movie or the music our characters are working on. I think this would’ve been the perfect opportunity to reference a different song or movie in each episode.And so, while I think this drama is enjoyable as a romance, it did end up feeling very run-of-the-mill. Two romances, both second-chance trope, with the characters vaguely in the same industry to facilitate their run-ins.
The romance of the leads was interesting at first but ended up feeling a little flat once the original issue of him leaving her was “resolved.” I don’t think I felt their relationship take the next step after that.
Unlike most people in here, I actually really liked the second couple. They gave the angst that I wanted, though I think it could’ve been paced a little better and I’m not sure it gives me complete closure.
I think another thing that was missing was the feeling of friendship. We have a tiny bit of it, but I was hoping we’d get more of the four leads together, but everyone always felt very fragmented, especially the main female lead. Especially since one of her backstories was that she didn’t have friends because she was hard to get along with, I think the show could’ve focused more on giving her friendships despite how prickly she is. The tidbits we got between her and the second female lead were very fun.
I am also not sure if it's just me, but I felt like this show had an abnormal amount of narration, and once I noticed I couldn’t un-notice it. Oh well, it’s small potatoes.
Overall, this was just fine. It’s a sweet watch but I don’t think I’ll remember much.
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Hard to get through
Unfortunately not for me, and I was really looking forward to this one after hearing it heralded as the successor the Untamed, which is one of my favorite dramas. I found this one really hard to get through.As a caveat, historical/xianxia always takes me a little while to get into (so if that's your genre you might click with this one faster than me), but I just found the story to move very slowly and be mostly characters having long monologues. The dubbing really did not work for me either, with every line feeling over-enunciated and the acting feeling far too unsubtle.
The plot also didn't really click. I'm not sure what it is but the villains felt very underwhelming, and everything was extremely rushed at the end. Chinese dramas have fallen victim to this so many times where everything is super dragged out until the last 2 episodes where it seems to speedrun the climax, but I feel like it especially did not work here.
There are some great moments still, particularly the fight scenes which are all very well choreographed. I know why people like this, especially if they're fans of the novel and have some context working for them, but it didn't work for me.
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