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To be very honest, the first few episodes were really hard to get through. I felt like the pacing was slow, and I wanted something emotionally harrowing and scary right off the bat. It felt like the drama went for something more light-hearted, and some humor.
But as I kept watching, it became hard to stop. All the characters grew on me, even the side characters, and it was amazing how three-dimensional they all were. Everyone had their own stories and no one felt like a plot device.
I'm also surprised that the drama how handled cliches not in a cliche way. They went for the "these two people were connected in the past SOMEHOW and them meeting over and over again is fate," but it didn't annoy me as much as these types of things usually do.
I'm honestly super torn about the ending. It's not your typical happy ending, and I normally hate time skips, but within historical and cultural context of North and South Korea today, I honestly couldn't imagine the drama ending any other way.
Overall, I honestly am kind of sad that I don't seem to be as into this as everyone else is — and that I didn't shed any tears over it, but I still find myself appreciating the writing and the love story a lot. It's the kind of story that really needs the setting and all its contexts to break your heart, and for me it's the kind of story you think about when it's 4 am and you can't sleep.
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Warm
A very warm show about dealing with grief. The short runtime is kind of a double-edged sword. On one hand, it really made the most of its time — the pacing was steady and we wasted no time. On the other hand, I'm not sure I could fully connect to the characters; they felt more like archetypes or representations of their themes. But this was still a pretty sweet watch.Was this review helpful to you?
Fizzles out but stays cute
I’m kind of surprised by the glowing reviews on this one, because as cute as the main couple is (and not only are they cute, they’ve got an AMAZING kiss scene)…I really think this is one of those dramas that starts out strong but ends up fizzling out.The first episode is extremely strong; the heart-wrenching tragedy of the male lead’s death gives our female lead a purpose in her time travel journey, and the added layer of her being able to walk after being in a wheelchair for so many years adds is also great. There’s commentary about disability and inaccessibility, which I really appreciated. I also really loved how we saw Im Sol getting back the will to live.
The next few episodes were still promising; it was the right balance of funny and heart-wrenching, and I was also pleasantly surprised that the FL already went back to a changed future.
The first thing I didn’t really like was the mystery element. The recent trend of inserting a random serial killer into a rom-com drama is something I really do not enjoy, and this was no different; it felt like a lot of the profound commentary we got at the start about living with a disability or depression and suicide became reduced to “actually there was a villain, so our ML was never depressed, and our FL shouldn’t have been disabled anyways.”
As the drama went on it felt like the story focused more on the mystery, with the second lead randomly popping in to fulfill his police officer role, while our main couple also got more repetitive: Im Sol was always sad because she had seen a sad future, while Sun Jae was in a perpetual state of ignorance, or even amnesia. The actual state of the future switched around, sure, but their core characters were always the same.
Ultimately, I think this was still a very cute watch; there are funny, chaotic scenes and the male lead is one heck of a green flag. I just wish it kept all the substance and momentum it had at the start.
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Just the romance could have, and would have been enough
This was the drama I've been looking forward to all year, and I was so so disappointed. This drama is what you get when a writer wants to write a rom-com but can't develop it well, so they start inserting random plot points and cute, trope-y moments and just cross their fingers.I'll be honest. The drama lost me the moment the stomach cancer plot was introduced, for multiple reasons.
From a writing perspective, it just doesn't work. It's a lazy way to evoke empathy and it gave me tonal whiplash — the scenes specifically about Seok-ryu's cancer are well-done and heavy, but the show itches to revert to its light-hearted rom-com moments. It feels like the cancer plot is big for a few episodes and then completely forgotten, save for a few random mentions. The show falls into the unfortunate trap — instead of adding depth, it ends up feeling too light-hearted for such a heavy topic.
On a more serious note, I also just feel like the cancer plot point undermines the commentary on mental health, which I was really enjoying at the start. We have the main character undergoing familial pressure, burnout, and depression — things that are SO relatable to just about every single person — and suddenly the cancer reveal happens, and it's like oh, all those things that Seok-ryu was going through was because of the cancer. Her mother, who just thinks Seok-ryu is going through a phase, suddenly cares because the illness is physical. But the entire time I couldn't help but think it would've been such better writing and so much more touching if there had been no cancer plot and Seok-ryu's mother had grown to understand the importance of mental health instead.
After the cancer reveal, the plot pretty much winds down and starts going through subplots (like the parents' almost-divorce caused by a misunderstanding, and a few fights) that make it feel a little aimless. It's like the drama doesn't really know where to go from there and the writing just takes a steep dive because it never took the time to fully develop either Seok-ryu's cooking journey, or Seung-hyo's architecture company. We only seem to see glimpses of each.
I think the best scenes in the show are actually the flashbacks, where we got to see the chaotic depths of the leads' relationship from each of their perspectives and how it was paralleling present day. The banter that they have is actually pretty fun, but they definitely lose that spark once they get together and just become a very common couple with the common kdrama scenes. The chemistry that had potential at the start isn't there anymore.
As for the second ship...they're fine. They start out cute, but despite the potential of the backstory, I just don't feel like they ever touched my emotions.
Ultimately, I really wish this had either (1) gone full melodrama and given the cancer plot the weight it needed (even the second ship's backstory has a lot of potential for angst), or (2) trusted in the rom-com genre, and that the development between the leads as they followed their dreams together would've been enough to give us an amazing story — without all the extra stuff.
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Frustrating
This one already got off to a rough start for me, and as it went on it only got worse.I actually quite enjoyed the past timeline. The way the main romance started was a little too easy and full of coincidences for me, but I actually appreciated the conflict in their relationship being about money, and I thought both of them had valid perspectives. The FL did not want to become dependent on someone else, and the ML wanted to take care of someone he cared about. I thought both of them had very good points and it's actually a really realistic conflict for a new relationship when two people are from different financial backgrounds.
But it feels like we just never move on. The characters double down on, and we rehash the same issues over and over again. The leads just take turns doing noble idiocy. The love rivals are all irritating. The leads make up, but it's clear the issue is not actually addressed, especially once we get to after the time jump. The FL is still so tight-lipped and non-communicative, we just get episodes of her getting close to the ML but then rejecting his advances. And the ML is still so stubborn and pushy about rekindling their relationship despite her constant rejections. What the show advertises as his perseverance just looks to me like disrespecting boundaries.
I think the show just tries too hard to convince us the leads should be together, instead of writing actual character development to show so. Each episode is full of lines about how they are fated because they had the same survey response, or because they had the same childhood toy, or because they met again. But the way the characters actually act just tells me the opposite — that they should not be together.
I did not care for the second couple either. The teacher-student trope is already something that I find deeply uncomfortable, and it's weirder because the drama doesn't address their power dynamic at all. Her thing is playing hard-to-get and he gives us nothing.
The third couple, surprisingly, was my favorite. They had very little screentime but they were cute and that was all I needed.
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They are the CUTEST
The chemistry between the leads is FANTASTIC and it's hands down the best part of the drama. I was giggling and kicking my feet the entire time.I have a love-hate relationship with Esther Yu's performances — she's great but the aegyo is often so over-the-top. Here, though, it fits well for the most part, though there are some subplots that are quite cheesy. He Yu absolutely sells the bad boy (with a soft heart) persona.
The only hiccup this drama has for me was the big conflict that lead to the main couple going no-contact for years; while I like how the female lead's bubbliness came through while dealing with it, the angst leading up to the separation just didn't quite land and was more frustrating. It's already one of my least favorite tropes, but especially since the drama already started with the main characters reconnecting after not communicating while they were younger, utilizing a similar trope the second time just didn't really work.
Ultimately though, this was a highly addictive watch (especially in the first half) and I hope we get more of this archetype of ML in the future — they're really hard to come by but I eat it up every time.
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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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Great acting and characters
The acting of each character is fantastic, which is so necessary when we have such layered and deep characters. I really liked the "whodunnit" style of drama where each character took their turn being a little specific before we delved into their actual stories.Ultimately though, I feel like this just didn't really hook me? While I highly enjoyed the unique ways in which our main characters responded to conflicts and clues, I felt like the case itself wasn't all that interesting, and on a note of more personal taste, I think I just prefer stories that are faster paced.
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What could have been
The teasing male lead, the hilarious bickering, the girl pining over someone else while the male lead pines over her before she realizes who's been there for her all along...all this combine to form one of my favorite types of romance, so this drama starts with a winning formula...but it never actually uses it to its full potential.While I enjoyed seeing the female lead deal with unrequited love, it should not have SO. DAMN. LONG. She's deep in it for 25 episodes and it lingers for a few episodes after that, and we're hit with scene after scene of the female lead never taking the male lead seriously. Meanwhile, the second male lead (Cheng Lang) pines for another girl, and those two are given wayyy too much screentime. I never cared about them and they kept getting slow motion scenes.
We sort of have the opposite issue with the third couple, Qiu Le Tao and Huang Jun, who also have a really interesting story, but they get together so fast that I found it difficult to care for them. And I even like the ending of her reconnecting with their childhood classmate, but the show tried to give it shock factor and left the reveal till the very end, despite it being pretty obvious. The result of that was no time to develop the actual relationship, and a situation where her supposed best friend Xiao Ju didn't even know she was marrying until the engagement party.
In fact, the last few episodes are just filled with misunderstandings and time jumps, and I feel like the leads really lose their spark. They're supposed to be grown-up, but they're still written like children, and the show opts for "fun bickering" scenes when a more serious conversation was long overdue. The ending, overall, feels rushed and makes no sense, which is sad because the early high school and even college days were still enjoyable to watch despite the flaws.
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Short and bittersweet
There are no words to describe how glad I am that they added this extra scene — though this was implied, I had wanted a more fleshed-out ending and even just 5 minutes did that for me. It's really wholesome and bittersweet at the same time, and I love how they were able to incorporate a running theme (birthday wishes!) in it.I hear the movie starts with this scene so maybe we'll get more of this timeline as well; that was probably the only thing I wanted in the original drama and this was kind of a sneak peek into that.
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Adorable Slice-of-life
I always feel like these more realistic slice-of-life stories are so underrated, but they're my favorite. It's just so relatable to watch normal teens and college students go through everyday issues like picking a major or dealing with family pressure.And the main leads are adorable! As someone who loves slow burns and friends-to-lovers, the main leads got together in the perfect amount of time, with so many satisfying jealous moments and awkward tension. The FL is clumsy butDespite the male lead being described as "cold", it's plain as day that he went soft for the FL early — which is just so fun to watch. There's great chemistry and the leads are also pretty straightforwards with each other, so misunderstandings are cleared up pretty quickly and the ML never gives the mildly obsessive second female lead the time of day.
There are some sub-plots they kind of dropped the ball on, but for the most part, there was a good amount of continuity for even the side characters, who each had their own personality.
Ultimately, I'd definitely recommend this as a light-hearted, chill watch and there are definitely scenes I'll come back to. This is a rom-com in its PUREST form.
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Good but watered down
Reviewing this as someone who’s read the webtoon. I wasn’t obsessed with the webtoon but I enjoyed it and was excited to see a female-centric drama with such a cynical, no-nonsense protagonist.After finishing the drama, my perspective that it’s overall a decent adaptation, but it DEFINITELY feels watered down. Harin is less subtle, the backstory is less tragic, and the stakes just feel a tiny bit lower. I think the biggest change I didn’t like was the backstory — the original was really interesting, whereas the Jaeun/Harin relationship feels more anticlimactic in the show; they also gave more scenes to an old classmate who was bullied, and I felt like this was just anecessary. Kdrama has already had a lot of these types of backstories and Pyramid Game could’ve stood out from them more without it.
In fact, I think they added a lot more “kdrama” type scenes that just overall made the show feel less claustrophobic than the webtoon.
Even with the changes, however I noticed some off pacing, which made this feel much like an adaptation; they jumped from scene to scene, some of which I recognized, but the reasoning and development felt kind of choppy and unexplained. I feel like the themes were just less clear. The climax just also felt less world-changing, though I think this one might’ve been affected by its budget.
Still, one perfect part of this drama is the casting, especially Suji, Jaeun, Harin, Yerim, and Eunjung. It’s super interesting how each character pairing has their own dynamic and it truly felt like every actress understood the assignment.
And I just want to give an extra gold star to Yerim/Eunjung and sapphic representation; it’s still very low-key, but between Yerim/Eunjung and Sol/Jiwan from Nevertheless, it’s obvious that “girl friends to girlfriends” can be peak friends-to-lovers if done well.
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This review may contain spoilers
It pains me to rate this so low because if the entire drama had been more like episodes 1-8, it might’ve gone into my all time favorites. But it has what you call car crash writing, when you’re in the car and the wind in your hair feels great and then you realize the breaks are broken and then things just SPIRAL.I’m going to start with things I loved:
The entire mood of the show is really nice, and that includes the OST. I know a lot of people hated on repetitive music, but the songs fit the scenes perfectly and I loved the mellow atmosphere of the entire drama.
The chemistry is so good. There were so many scenes where I had to pause and just SQUEAL because they were so cute together.
But this show proves that chemistry isn’t everything. In fact, story probably is.
Nothing feels wrapped up at the end. So much of the drama hinged on Jin-ah needing someone to provide for her future, and that question was never really answered, especially with how annoying and haphazard the ending was.
With that being said, the plot entirely got very repetitive and it essentially ruined Jin Ah’s character. Every conflict was about someone hiding something from the other, and for Jin Ah they felt like nonsensical, selfish decisions.
That’s not to let Joon Hee off the hook — his decision to run away to America without discussing it with Jin Ah first was annoying, and it just felt like another avoidable miscommunication.
The sexual harassment plot was super real and I really enjoyed the heaviness of it. I kept waiting for the cathartic ending and the sismance where they all worked together to defeat the executives…but no, we never got it. It felt very open-ended and almost discouraging with the way everything played out — and though there might be an aspect of realism to that, it added to the feeling that we had watched 16 episodes and gotten hope, just to be told “why bother?”.
The sismance thus had so much potential, but because of the office plot, I never got what I wanted from it. The same could kind of go for Jin Ah and her bestie, who started off adorable and then became victims of the melodrama and had over ten years of friendship dissipate into thin air.
And lastly, the worst part: Mom. I’m already a hater of Disapproving!Parent trope, and I had braced myself for overbearing parents, but nothing like this. It honestly pissed me off that the drama treated it as parental love from beginning to end. At some point a middle-age woman should be able to make her own decisions and recognize the toxic people in her life. Every line out of the mom’s mouth was about marrying into a high-status family or about how worthless Joon Hee was…and honestly she just never got better. Her ending was out of the blue and by then she had gone too far for any redemption. She could’ve dropped dead and I would’ve thrown a party.
So. Long review, I know, but I had a lot of thoughts watching this.
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This review may contain spoilers
I felt like they started off really strongly with great backstories for everyone, a perfect combination of romance, school, and mystery...but then shot itself in the foot by focusing so much on the love triangle and simply unraveling at the end.I honestly did not care much for the romance in this at all, though if I had to choose, I'd go for the second lead (like pretty much everyone else). The main lead just felt TOO tied to the twin sister, and it honestly never felt like he even liked LEB. When second lead found out she went back to Love House, he went all the way there and main lead...did nothing? Seriously — two sisters, two guys. The math could've worked out perfectly, come on.
Instead, I cared a lot more for the mystery part, but it felt like it just sort of unraveled by itself, with everyone suddenly doing things voluntarily and there not really being any repercussions for it.
Another thing I wanted badly was for LEB to get her satisfying ending with her new family and friends, but it felt like we never got the satisfying confrontation between her and the antagonist. Instead, it felt like GEB did all the heavy lifting there — which is helpful and fun to watch, but misses the entire point of LEB's character arc to finally stand up for herself now that she has a strong support system. I never felt like the antagonist hit rock bottom (usually the most satisfying moment) when her character could've had so much more personal growth.
And part of that is that the reveal of the twins to the class which I was anxiously waiting for turned into an "oops" moment. Upsetting, because I'm a sucker for a badass reveal scene.
It also felt like the show tried to handle too much — essentially it didn't FEEL like a school drama, which usually focuses a lot on school issues like day-to-day bullying, cheating, parental pressure. There was some of it but it was all in the side characters and I felt like I was watching two different dramas. There was also a serious lack of teacher-student sentimentality, which is one of my favorite parts of school dramas. I think this could've been explored in the sister of the student who died; her character was reduced to a catalyst in the plot, when I thought it could've been so interesting if she had actually started caring for the students who she was supposed to be getting revenge on and had to feel that internal conflict.
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Half a tearjerker
The Somang/Hamin plotline was absolutely beautiful to watch and it totally made me cry multiple times; I absolutely loved the emotional development that we saw our characters go through, and the portrayal of grief and guilt was very visceral.I enjoyed the other plotline as well, but I don't know if it's just the nature of a more light-hearted school plot, but this plotline really made the drama come across like the webdrama it was, while the Somang/Hamin part just felt like it went into much more depth.
I think the casting has to do with this as well — I had read the webtoon prior to watching the drama and Hamin's casting was really the only one that felt completely right. Sunhee and Somang were okay, but Bomi, Jaemin, and Jinyeong just felt off to me.
Overall, I still think this was a nice watch but part of me wishes it was a full-length TV drama because I felt like it just fell short of the source material.
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