scenophile

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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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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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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I was super excited for this one. Even though I didn't like the "fate" aspect that much, I liked the concept of two opposites as the main lead. Most of all, when I first started, I loved that the main female lead was ACTUALLY a tomboy, from the way she dressed to her reputation at school.

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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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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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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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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Give me more of the original cast

So I was sort of middle-of-the-fence about season 1, and I feel similarly about season 2.

To start with the good things — the vibe of the show is on point. The cinematography and set design give, and the effects do a nice job of tying it all together. I particularly love the look of Hyun-su's monster form.

The characters that had survived S1 were all my favorites — Ji-su, Eun-yu, Hyun-su, Yi-kyung — so I was really excited to see how they stories would continue and who they would meet along the way, but I tuned out to have a bit of mixed emotions on this.

I liked Hyun-su's story but I felt like we barely saw it. There were a few episodes where he was completely sidelined and just in general the subplot of him being experimented on ended really fast, which was disappointing because it would've been a much different plot than the "humans running from monsters in the wild" situation we'd seen before.

I was the most satisfied with Eun-yu's story and her screentime. It was amazing seeing her develop into such a badass, and she had really good chemistry with Chan-young, who is probably the only new character that really grew on me this season.

With that being said, I felt like there were one too many new characters that were introduced and I don't think I was that invested in a lot of them. There were a lot of soldiers and some new people who were also just living at the base, and overall I didn't think focusing on all of these characters were necessary. There were several antagonists, some of which I didn't care too much about, and overall with so many subplots I feel like they took screentime away from the original cast. To be honest, I also just found the soldiers difficult to tell apart.

My biggest gripe, however, is with Yi-kyung and how sidelined she felt when she was supposed to be a main character. I've never been a fan of the "special child" trope, and this really reminded me why — a new character comes in and suddenly all our original cast acts like they're the most important and their existing plotlines fizzle out. Yi-kyung was pretty much shown only in relation to her daughter this entire season, and even the other characters like Hyun-su got a bit of this treatment near the end.

It's one thing if we had gotten more time to gradually see the development, but the time jump + flashback method didn't help.

Other than this, this season still ends on a strong note, and I'll be tuning into S3, for Hyun-sun, for Eun-yu, and for Chan-young.

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Nonsensical

This drama started out extremely promising but by the end...it made little to no sense.

The idea of exes being brought together by a dating show is really interesting, and I was really excited for the drama to build on the tension that our leads established in the first episode. Instead, the "dating show" wasn't at all interesting or relevant to any of the subplots that we ran through, and most, if not all, of the characters became very irritating.

The first issue that arose for me was just that the drama didn't take advantage of its "dating show" premise at all. I think it would've been interesting if we'd actually gotten a broad cast of characters that we'd be able to see become friends. Instead, the show changed the dating show to some sort of "throwback" theme where it was the FL and her two friends, plus the ML and his two friends. Six people who were from the same high school. And most importantly, it is NOT a dating show if it's obvious from the very first second what the three pairings are. I don't mind this in general (since all pairings in dramaland are pre-ordained) but every time the characters called it a "dating show" or talked about how it was trending and getting super popular...I just did not believe it at all. I felt like there was zero drama, competition, or anticipation — which is what usually makes a dating show fun. I am a master of suspending my disbelief but I can only go so far.

The "dating show" is also barely a plot point at all, other than serving as an excuse for our main leads to spend time together, and having those little interviews at the end. Instead, the drama rolls through different subplots that take place OUTSIDE of the show, and then every once in a while they say something like "we have to film" and then one of the expected couples goes to a restaurant or something. The show seems to make little sense — inserting stories like a wedding for an elderly rural couple.

When the dating show is relevant to outside subplots, it also just...doesn't make sense. I can overlook the weird situation that forced our female lead from being a producer role to starring in the show and still being behind-the-scenes because that was such a big part of the premise, but when a character becomes the lawyer for someone trying to sue the dating show she's currently on, or any of the second female lead's shenanigans, the conflicts of interest render the dating show setting even less believable.

With that issue aside, however, I just think the plots aren't interesting or well written. It uses tropes like "car accident" and of course the evil second female lead to trigger plots, and with all of these things it just feels like the writing is from a drama that aired in 2010.

I often just find myself thinking that these two main characters...these two people just shouldn't be together.

Beyond the first few episodes, there's very little tension between the pairings. Our main leads get back together extremely fast without ever sitting down and having a mature conversation. Both of them have very valid perspectives — both of them were selfish and either cold or pushy in the past — but in the end it feels like the drama went for a "we just love each other" approach. They say the right things by the end, but it doesn't quite feel earned.

They are both bad at different points in the drama; the FL constantly puts down the ML when he has concerns about a SML who is rude, petty, and very obvious insulting towards him because he wants the FL. It's played off like a "misunderstanding" because she didn't think the SML liked her, but the lack of respect towards the ML and her refusal to listen to his concerns should've been a much bigger deal.

And then the ML does something that is even crazier and unforgivable; the FL's father, who she is no-contact with because he is a horrible person who keeps dating women much younger than him, hosts a FAKE FUNERAL FOR HIMSELF so that the FL will come and give a nice speech about him and he can see her. The ML learns about this event and SAYS NOTHING?? AND JUST LETS THE FL GO TO IT AND GIVE HER SPEECH UNTIL THE FATHER HOPS OUT OF THE BUSHES AND SAYS "GOTCHA"????? The idea that because he did it because he thought it would "be good for her" is absolutely insane to me. If someone ever did that to me I would cut them off right then and there forever; I don't care if they thought it was for my own good or if my parent was on their deathbed — this is a decision that the person needs to make for themselves, especially considering how much trauma the FL had around her father. But the drama just...moves on. The ML says he didn't know about the extent of it, and the FL just insists that she won't love anyone else, despite this pushiness being the exact reason why they'd broken up in the first place, and despite this behavior being just insane in general.

The other two couples are fine, but pretty unmemorable. I think three couples might've been too much and diluted the emotional impact of each. If it were up to me I would cut out the divorced couple, since they're mostly there for comedic relief anyways.

I could go on, but you get the gist. This is a drama that starts out promising but quickly devolves into nonsense. Even the ending scenes where we got mini interviews started out very insightful and revealing in the first few episodes, but ended up feeling out of place because of the "dating show" theme not being clear.

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Wholesome but short

There were some scenes in this short web drama that really hit me hard when it came to insecurity and family, and I was really surprised that this drama was so pure — its really just about two people who found each other and fit perfectly together like puzzle pieces.

There are some parts of it that kind of went in over my head though, where conversations were confusing and I wasn't really sure what was going on. And of course, since it's a short web drama, there are some subplots I wish they delved into and side characters I wish they explored but there was no time for. Other than that, though, this was still a really nice watch.

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Mostly flashbacks

This had a little conversation between the leads, but it was really mostly flashbacks from the original series, which was cute to watch but nothing new.

I kind of wish we saw more of their lives — what their little family and house look like, what they were doing in their careers, how their friends were doing in their lives and relationships, how their parents were, etc. I do understand different sets and outfits probably weren't in the budget though and that they had limited things to work with.

The little conversation between the director and screenwriter was funny though and it gives me hope for a season 2!

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Sisterhood

The strongest part of this one was definitely the relationship between the three sisters (and their grandmother). Scenes with all 4 of them were so endearing and it was pretty sweet to see that all of them have love lines.

Surprisingly, I think the romance of the main leads ended up being the weakest of the bunch. They had good chemistry and the whole "mystery" of their backstory was interesting while it was on screen in episode 1 and in the final episode, but in between, it felt needlessly overdramatic and hard-to-believe. I also just personally found it hard to root for the main couple when they had such a big, one-sided, secret hanging over them.

On the other hand, I thought the eldest sister's romance to be really touching (good yearning!), while the youngest sister's was so innocent and sweet.

Overall, I think this had good moments, but the main romance was kind of a miss. Also, using AI while the characters are supposed to be working in creative fields? BOOO. Tomato.

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Comfort show

This was a fantastic watch! As a gigantic fan of WIFTY and similar youth dramas, this one hits a similar spot. The combination of romance, friendship, family, and the theme of following your dreams all make for a really comforting coming-of-age show. The conflicts are all quite realistic and relatable, and all handled with great communication and not dragged out. Even in the younger years, the show never shies away from really intense and serious conflicts, and the characters handle everything with surprising realism.

I think the strongest episodes in this drama were probably the high school years, but that's what I've noticed about a lot of youth dramas. I know 30 episodes is already pretty long, but I would've loved a few more episodes to pace out the post-college years. We speed pretty quickly through a few romantic developments for the side characters, and even some moments of the leads deepening their relationship or pursuing their careers. I feel like the college and post-college years didn't have the same heartfeltness, though it did get really close.

Overall, I don't think the "friendship" theme is as strong as it has been in other youth cdramas, but maybe that's inevitable when you establish a love square within your friend group. I know Qiqi's character was frustrating to some people, I actually found her self-sabotage and loneliness extremely relatable to my own high school years. We also have a few side characters who had potential but were never quite "integrated" into the group, which I was hoping for. Still, we get a lot of great one-on-one friendship moments.

The romance is just really cute as well! This was one of the most natural romantic developments I've ever seen, probably. It was not a "I noticed you at first sight" or even a "we didn't get along at first;" instead, the leads were genuinely just family friends who got along, and gradually grew to care for each other as more than friends. Everything just felt so down-to-earth, and I'm happy to say there were no drawn-out misunderstandings and break-ups.

The drama wraps everything up pretty nicely, and we have a really heart-warming and nostalgic final episode with the full main cast. This became a comfort watch for sure.

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