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Best kdrama of 2023
This is probably my favorite 2023 kdrama. It really just had me by the first episode, where we saw the childhood backstory of our two leads. It was heart-breaking but also beautiful seeing how they went from simple classmates who judged each other to two people who stood with each other against the world.I was a little nervous going into this, since the premise of “a girl gets stranded on and island and wants to become a pop star when she returns to civilization” seems sort of like a goofy premise…but the first episode completely dispelled all my worries. There are stakes in this, for sure. There’s the familial abuse plot, which was what I was most invested in, and I really loved how we got a “found family” aspect amidst all of it.
I also just loved the dynamic between our characters after the time jump. You had our leads, who had amazing chemistry despite one of their identities being hidden. It’s really a testament to great acting and directing that most people started shipping them so early on. And despite a bumpy road at the start, they grew into a communicative, trusting relationship where you could see how much they wanted to protect each other. It’s really refreshing that how real and human all the characters seemed: they tried to stay kind but sometimes wavered out of fear and made selfish decisions, or it could be something as simple as they tried to lie but weren’t very good at it.
The side characters were all well-rounded as well. The second male lead had his own backstory and emotional growth — although I do think his part in the love triangle was unnecessary, but it was good that it wasn't blown out of proportion — and the family members also played their part in the story, with their own heart-warming backstory. It was beautiful. Even Ranjoo had her journey of becoming a singer and her fall from fame, which tied together with Mokha.
I admit I cared a little less about this plot; don’t get me wrong, I LOVED all the songs — both actresses are so immensely talented and the songs are definitely new additions to my playlist — but the ickiness of the entertainment industry’s power struggles, rude fans, pushy reporters and press conferences…I think I would’ve been happier with less of it.
Overall, I still really loved this one. In addition to great characters and story, you can tell a lot of thought went into the cinematography and set design (I looked into an art print in one of the shots and it totally had symbolic meaning) and it really just added that much more to the atmosphere. Definitely recommend this 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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Needed to be longer
I haven't read the original source material but I can feel that it's so rich and really needed more than seven 30-minute episodes. So many things happen that we needed a lot more scenes where the main characters could just simmer and go about their daily life, rather than jumping from one plot event to the next without really showing the development of emotions in between. The non-romantic angst is one of the most intriguing parts of the story and I feel like it didn't nearly get enough screentime. Towards the end, there were a few time jumps that felt very sudden and overall it made the pacing uneven. The final few episodes solely focus on the romance but I feel like it was also scattered and there were a lot of loose ends I wish were revisited.The acting of the main leads was just okay — it was very obvious that they were rookie actors, and so the more light-hearted and fun scenes were great but I don't think they were able to carry scenes with more emotional weight, especially because the scenes felt disjointed already.
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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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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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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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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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This review may contain spoilers
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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This review may contain spoilers
Potential lost in a jumbled mess
When I was a pre-teen, I LOVED writing fanfiction. And I especially loved the enemies-to-lovers trope because the angst that it delivered was impeccable. I wanted the arguing and the tears. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to actually get there. And so what resulted was a string of incoherent moments, the most random and petty arguments just to get to the angst that I wanted, and my ships jumped from “I hate you” to “I love you” but skipped the most important part in between.That was what watching this drama felt like.
I really think this drama would’ve worked much better as a character-driven drama instead of a plot-driven one. You have all the great archetypes in this cast, but instead of diving deeper into their motivations (Phukao’s loneliness, Plu’s desperation to help his grandmother, Kongkwan being associated with a murderer, Zo’s habit of hiding everything behind a smile) and showing growth, it was like the drama kept throwing conflicts (kidnapping, affair secrets, family death, a big scary mob boss, etc.) at the characters just to watch them react to it and be upset.
Speaking of which, a sidenote: nothing about the mob boss was scary. Random punches and gun-wielding minions are not enough to convince me of someone’s power and it felt more “cartoonish.”
Anyways, as the plot gradually unraveled it became clear that character motivations weren’t thought out and there was no hierarchy of conflict; the romance, which had been what I was looking forwards to most, had no logical progression beyond their childhood connection. And the murder and Lak’s “sacrifice,” which was supposed to be the big hurdle, faded into irrelevance both because its reasoning was nonsense and because everything else was treated equally dramatically.
With the situations so overblown, it felt like the acting didn’t live up to it and this is where I blame both the writing and skill/chemistry. Most of the acting (even the side characters) just felt like they were going through the motions, which is really unfortunate because this was a drama that really tried to sell every character’s pain.
Part of that is, once again, the lack of character motivations. But the other part is simple chemistry. Lak/Mai and Zo/Nink were one of the few duos with good chemistry — it was lacking with all of the parents and there was NONE between Phukao and Kongkwan.
Which brings me to my biggest character problem: Kongkwan. Her character was quite simply, pathetic. When she wasn’t crying she was looking depressed. She had no personality beyond that and honestly, Tu’s acting didn’t help — I can see her doing all the right facial expressions but I just never FELT it. Without any sort of character trait other than “I'm sad my life sucks so I need this doll” there was nothing to connect with.
My favorite character is honestly Lookzo, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that she’s probably the only character without some sort of tragic backstory, which even most of the side characters were saddled with. Despite that, Zo had best writing out of the four mains; her happy-go-lucky, spunky personality contradicting the secret difficulty of how hard it was to be happy was very relatable and emotional, and I think View killed it with her acting. Her relationship with her father was lovely to watch. June was fantastic as well, and the chemistry between Zo and Nink was also good.
I also want to give a shoutout to the child actors for the main leads, especially Little Phukao, who got some of the most heart-wrenching scenes and actually made me feel every bit of it.
Overall, the OST is good and I still think the premise has a LOT of potential, but in the end it just felt messy. The love triangle was unnecessary and they should’ve just focused on the characters healing and digging up the past instead of focusing on new spectacles. It’s unfortunate because there are really great lines of dialogue and questions about family and forgiveness, but that’s all they are — separate moments that are few and far in between.
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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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Ultimately, I still really like the aesthetics of the show, and there's a twist that I enjoyed quite a bit. I really like the main characters of the Crown Prince, Gun Guy, and Physician — but didn't really click with anyone else. I also liked the zombie plots in general, but overall it was too much politics, too many side characters who I didn't care about.
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A beautiful multi-generational story
Oh I sobbed so hard, especially in the last two volumes. The themes — both of the bravery of parenthood and of finding a romantic partner who supports you and your loved ones without thinking twice — are so realistic and moving, and I love the focus on womanhood.I think the drama did take a little while to pick up for me. While the first few episodes have some similar themes, it didn’t hit me as much as the “second gen” story in the later volumes. The romance between Ae-sun and Gwan-sik is cute, and the relationship between Ae-sun and her mother is touching, but it felt like were in “prologue mode,” whereas the parallels really start to shine after the halfway point.
The entire drama, ultimately, is really powered by the long timeline of the drama, and by the end of the drama I felt like I’d really lived a lifetime with these characters, and I didn’t want it to end.
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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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