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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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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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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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From strangers to...acquaintances
I appreciate a fluffy, drama-free romance show as much as the next person, but I just didn't really feel any spark between the main leads, despite the way they actually meet being quite promising.They are cute at certain moments, but the biggest issue for me is just that they're always so POLITE, and it never got better. Even in the penultimate episode, their conversations felt very robotic ("Would you like some [food]?" "Yes, thank you. Wow, that is spicy!" "Here, have some water.") I know this type of relationship probably does exist and works for some people, but as someone who likes a bit of casualness and banter in their everyday dialogue, their conversations just felt like ones I'd have with a coworker who I'd just met at a networking event. Ultimately it made their relationship feel pretty flat and repetitive; they do something cute, everyone teases them about it, repeat.
The second couple were also cute at times, but ultimately very similar to the first. It seems like there's some light-hearted banter when each character is with their friends, but they completely shut down when they're with each other. It would've been interesting to see this dynamic open up over time, but sadly we barely got any of it and we jumped to them just being together in the ending. I think some of the writing just feels very generic and not quite tailored to the actual character arcs. Zhou Zheng and Geng Xiao Xing are given the iconic line: "If we break up, then we can't even be friends" — but their storyline was never friends-to-lovers anyways and I didn't feel like the "friendship" had become that vital because the progress was very minimal.
Instead, that line should've been reserved for the third couple, which turned out to be my favorite despite having the least screentime of them all; that's Dou Dou and Feng Ya Song, a couple that you could tell really felt comfortable around each other, with a really good "we like each other but can't say anything" dynamic. I wish they'd gotten more scenes paced throughout the show instead of having all of it in one episode near the end.
I'm also just not sure about the mix of themes: dubbing industry and cooking. Part of it is personal preference (I don't care much for cooking or for the dubbing industry), but I think individually it's also just...fine. The cooking doesn't really add any character depth and it feels kind of random the way it flits in and out. The dubbing industry part had some interesting moments; the songs are great and the voice acting is actually really satisfying with all the historical drama scenes, but there's actually no clear through-plot for it. There are events and projects here and there but you don't really get to follow the characters towards a specific goal, and it's definitely not one of those "follow your dreams" dramas because the tone stays pretty monotonous throughout. I think the part I liked least about the dubbing industry plot were all the fangirls fawning over the main boys — I know this is a common drama trope, but it was way too reminiscent of the idolization we saw in old dramas like Meteor Garden that it made me cringe a little. Plus, one can only take so much of the side characters comparing themselves to the male leads and calling themselves "little nobodies."
Overall, I can understand why so many people enjoyed this drama, and I do love how unproblematic it is. It's heart-warming for me too, but was really missing the spark for me, especially as the show went on.
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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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But after the first episode, and after the male lead appeared, that practically disappeared, and the "tomboyishness" of the FL was completely dimmed down again. Her clothes became pretty "cutesy," and worst of all, the plot hit her with ALL—and I mean ALL—the damsel-in-distress cliches, from "girl with a hurt ankle needs guy to carry her" to "girl is about to get bullied and guy saves her." I just...the main lead started off so strong. What happened?
To add to that, I was never a fan of insta-love in the first place, and this just confirmed my disdain for it. The main character's personality completely did a 180 the second she laid eyes on the ML, and the amount of whining and crying she did afterwards pissed me off. I didn't see ANYTHING attractive at all about the male lead, and to be honest, the second lead was much more fun and caring.
Lastly, the plot was just...bad. I'm okay with a drama that revolves around the romance plotline, but it has to be good. The story for this entire drama was predicated on one misunderstanding after another, because the main characters refused to communicate at all.
The only characters that I really liked was Angelina, who started off annoying but quickly became the badass that I thought the main character would be. Honestly, the second pairing was so refreshing because she was so upfront and straightforward about her feelings.
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Light-hearted goodness
This is similar to Hospital Playlist in its slice-of-lifeness, where we get to follow a few characters around the hospital and just living their lives. The main cast of characters is fun to follow and they have a really enjoyable dynamic, and of course I loved seeing all the cameos each episode.I do think the plot starts getting a little muddied? It's hard to explain because there's not really a clear A-plot, but I do think that as the episodes went on, they started to blur into each other a little bit because the main characters weren't having such clear plotlines, and the subplots of their patients also became less memorable and impactful, with less clear messages or ends. Some arcs that started were wrapped up a little haphazardly, and I wish we'd gotten more character development for our main girl; she started off in a lower place and while it was clear from the start that she was a good doctor and cared about people, I feel like the actual trajectory of her attitude was more told to us than shown.
Ultimately, I still think this was a really enjoyable watch and it's something I think people could rewatch as a feel-good show. I'm honestly not sure if I'll remember anything from it but I made my weekends relaxing.
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The only good part: the FL
I'd been waiting for this childhood-friends-to-lovers drama to come out for the longest time, but after watching it...I think the only good thing about it is the FL.She's the very typical type of FL you see in Chinese youth dramas — not too bright but really optimistic and bubbly, but I absolutely love how Zhang Miaoyi plays her. She's endearing, chaotic, lovable, fun, but most importantly, stands up for herself when it counts. Which is why it was very disappointing that none of the other characters really matched her energy, and it was even more disappointing that the drama gave up on developing her character in exchange for tropey romantic scenes. For example: the FL is apparently good at martial arts but this is suddenly forgotten so that the ML can come and save her.
Just in general, the plot felt choppy. A lot of youth dramas have cookie cutter scenes; the better ones link them together well and make it seem like they're memorable moments in someone's life. In the more typical youth dramas, they remain recognizable tropes and it just feels like one scene after another, which is what this one felt like. In terms of the side characters, they were also very cookie cutter and I didn't really care for the friend group as a whole either. The plot and the characters all just felt like they were going through the motions.
Additionally, this is one of the dramas where the dubbing really negatively affected it. It was very obvious and made lots of dialogue seem off. For the FL, it was best when we got ZMY's original voice, but there were some lines that were dubbed and it was very jarring to see the mouth and sound suddenly not match up. For the ML, the voice didn't match the acting at all.
With that being said, the acting of the ML was...not good. He had very few expressions (and basically no microexpressions) throughout the show, and I just felt like it was very flat and bland.
And so: I don't think I really felt the romance. The hardest part about doing friends-to-lovers is transitioning from the platonic relationship to a romantic one, and that transition was very confusing and random. I wasn't sure when it happened and because of the lackluster acting and lack of well-paced plot progression, the leads felt better off staying friends.
My advice? Watch When I Fly With You instead. It's one of the few recent coming-of-age dramas that did everything right.
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Mellow and quiet
This is a character-driven drama for sure — if that's your thing, then this drama pretty much does it perfectly. It's just a drama about relationships (family, friends, lovers) and there's never really any outside pressure. The characters and relationships are all pretty unconfrontational; things just happen as they do and this drama is more of a ferris wheel, as opposed to a roller coaster. What that means is that if you prefer a more plot-driven plot, it might feel like the drama is dragging and that there's nothing happening.With that being said, I definitely skew towards the latter; there were scenes and progressions that I was craving and never really got. At the same time, I really loved how all the characters were portrayed — nobody was over-the-top, there were no true villains, and I liked how even minor side characters had their distinct personalities come through in very little screentime.
Overall, this is just a warm, soft drama — for me, it wasn't a tear-jerker or a heart-wrencher, but it'll make you feel fuzzy and cozy.
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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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