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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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The Pinnacle of Youth Dramas
Oh my god. I really don't know what I'm going to do with my life now that this show is over.At first glance this might seem like every other Chinese youth drama — sunshine FL/quiet ML, some grade-obsessed parents, sports day, a playful second couple — but so many things actually made this drama shine above all others.
The first thing is just how the plot really feels like a coming-of-age drama, without being overdramatic or sugary. I know it might be fun and inspiring when we watch a youth drama and a friend group is depressed when they find out someone's transferring schools, only to band together to stop it. But in real life, there are a lot of things outside our control and the only thing you can do is let it happen, know you can get through it, remember everyone still cares for each other at the end of the day — no matter the circumstances. That's what this drama did: physical obstacles were rarely overblown into emotional obstacles. It might sound bittersweet, but the fact that the plot flowed this way made it ten times more relatable to real life.
It really also meant that each character was given their time in the spotlight. Every person dealt with something themselves and everyone else was there to support them. Each person in the friend group had a distinct personality and subplot and it never felt choppy or random. It felt simply like learning more about your friends over time. WIFTY struck a perfect balance between giving its characters freedom and still making them feel inseparable that I don't think I've seen done so well in any other show.
I need more drama writers to take notes from Su Zai Zai, who seems like a typical bubbly FL on the surface but was actually really straightforward, stood up for herself, was smart in her own right, and had her own goals and was realistic in chasing them. She's absolute proof that giving an FL a crush doesn't mean it has to become her entire personality.
Zhang Lu Rang was a fantastic ML too. Once again, he might seem like the typical quiet and smart ML, but he was never mean or rude or overly perfect, and he had his flaws too that SZZ perfectly balanced out. This drama perfectly encapsulated why they belonged together. This was one of the rare dramas where the couples didn't get boring for me after they got together.
In fact, the chemistry is absolutely amazing between both couples, who also had their distinct dynamic and plot development.
Between the friendship warming up your heart and the romance giving me butterflies, there are absolutely no moments in this drama that I would skip. The OST fits perfectly and the cinematography is beautiful. The only bad thing I can say about this drama is that it ends.
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Fun additions
This was pleasantly surprising! It wasn't like the specials of other dramas that end up just being compilation of scenes we've seen before. Instead, this actually added more to the story and filled in a lot of gaps and questions that I had. It was also fun to see that they gave us backstory for both the ships and didn't focus just on one.I also really loved their high school days so it was nice to see them all together again, and to see how their classmates interacted with each other because I don't think we saw much of that during the drama itself.
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The writing is a mess. Taking every single trope in the book and just smushing them all together does not give you a story. It gives you needless drama and nonsense. And dumb miscommunications that could’ve been solved with a conversation.
A lot of rich man/poor woman tropes were used, and even though they tried to go for enemies-to-lovers, I felt like the main leads spent so much time arguing over basically nothing. The FL was especially annoying in this aspect as she was antagonistic for episodes for no good reason.
It also tried to do this makeover scene with the FL where every guy suddenly thinks she’s beautiful afterwards. It’s a cliche we’ve seen everywhere, but it flopped so bad here.
And that’s because it felt like the drama itself never bought into the ridiculousness of it all, whereas dramas like BoF did and you could at least enjoy the craziness and suspend your disbelief. This drama used all the crazy tropes and made them tedious to watch.
The characters are all very stereotypical and one dimensional. There’s practically no natural character development, and it feels like they’re just paper cutouts, going through the motions and the plot points the writer put them through.
It also relied on this lack of character development to reuse the same conflicts and have characters do things over and over again.
The only character I really enjoyed was the second lead (Ye Xing Yu), and the only ship I really enjoyed was the one with Yu Xi (boy-crazy roommate).
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Wholesome and heartwarming
This is the EXACT kind of drama I'd always been looking for — wholesome, friendship, romance, no frustrating evil scheming, and no dumb noble idiocy plot twist.It's true that the girl is the very typical bubbly, bad-at-school type, while the male lead is smart and popular, but the way they did the roles wasn't cliche at all and they were both super likable. Honestly, the ML went soft for the FL very early on, and the FL tried very hard at school, was strong, independent, righteous, and just downright adorable in her optimism.
Second lead was very likable as well and I was pleasantly surprised at how respectful he was of the FL in the love triangle. It's honestly one of the best-executed love triangles I've ever seen and although I wouldn't say I had SLS, my heart hurt for him.
The second ship was honestly amazing and I was LIVING for it. It's the perfect friends-to-lovers kind that's my favorite trope, and they were adorable from start to end, with the way they teased each other and fought, and yet knew each other so well.
The romance was overall pretty subtle, and I was surprised that they pulled off the "childhood connection" trope so well.
The overall drama is so soft, which I loved, and the pacing of the entire show was really good and there was no unnecessarily dramatic drama. The friendships were really great and I liked how they never fought over dumb things. The only part that kind of tripped this part up for me in the middle was when the other girl returned from abroad and the main leads sort of miscommunicated, and it kind of annoyed me that the two main leads never learned how to deal with their feelings and balance friendship — the lack of ability to get the two girls to co-exist was kind of problematic for me.
But ultimately they resolved things naturally and I really liked how they didn't turn any second lead girl into a terrible person in order to push the romance through and make things angsty. The same could go for any character and it was really refreshing how even the guest characters were pretty good people who might've gone astray sometimes — much more realistic and relatable. Even the families weren't overly frustrating, which has happened a lot in school kdramas.
I definitely felt super nostalgic and cried while watching this — I honestly connected to the characters so much and I will forever be sad that I never grew up in such a tight-knit high school class. This is honestly the kind of drama I'd rewatch over and over again in my free time because it just makes me THAT HAPPY.
And the OST is honestly so good. It took me a while to actually start watching each episode because I'd just replay the opening sequence over and over.
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Better than BOF, but crappy ending
I had watched Boys Over Flowers before this—but none of the other versions, and right off the bat I knew I was going to like this better. ALL the characters were more likable, and that even includes FL's parents.Of course, there were some things that were so ridiculous—like the parts where a bridge/poker game determined who got to stay in school—but there were dumb scenes in the original story, so I guess I had to let that go.
Compared to BOF, I felt like everything was more dimmed down, from the scariness of the mother to the social situation in school. I liked this, as it definitely felt more realistic.
Meteor Garden does suffer from something a lot of Chinese dramas seem to suffer from—the inability to focus on multiple plotlines at the same time. For the side characters, it felt like we were learning about one ship, and then moving on to another one after it had been wrapped up. Also, I didn't give a crap about Terence.
Sadly, the last few episodes of this show were just kind of a mess. Random drama was added in at the end, there was a sudden musical number, and I was so confused and disappointed that that was the ending we were going to get. Either way, I still quite enjoyed watching this.
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The antagonist that started to be introduced near the middle of the drama was something that REALLY intrigued me, especially given the parallel storylines — but it felt like the character and tension was never really explored fully. It was solved quickly and seemed to be used more as a plot device for separating the main couple.
Speaking of the main couple — I don't think I was ever fully on board with them. The relationship always felt more familial, and age gap aside, I just didn't feel any chemistry between them. I also didn't like the secondary ship as much because the relationship just seemed to lack any content and connection aside from them being fated. Overall the arcs for both ships felt repetitive.
There are a few things that I appreciate about the ending. but other things that I don't like. I'm also a time-skip-hater, but for some reason, I didn't dislike it as much in Goblin, but I'm not sure if it has to do with me not being emotionally invested at all or if it felt more in line with the way the plot was going.
(Full disclosure: I've got some basic philosophical differences with the themes of this show, so that might have to do with me not clicking with it — more specifically, it's the idea of romantic destiny that I kind of scoff at.)
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The first half was better, but I will forever love Dan-oh and Haru
The beginning of this drama was definitely the best part of it, but saying that I was disappointed with the second half is much too harsh, because I still love Haru and Dan-oh so much together. But it's true that there was a lot of mystery and intrigue in the beginning, and that our questions were answered as we asked new ones. The pacing definitely slowed down near the middle and there was a lot more fluff and repetition — but it's understandable considering the nature of the premise. Even so, I felt like there was a lot of meta and fourth-wall-building that was hinted at but never truly explored, which is sad because I had got so many theories in my head about the writer and about the outside world and we never got to see it.Something about the ending is both satisfying and really unsatisfying again at the same time — I DESPISE time jumps, but I appreciate that they both knew what was about to happen before Haru disappeared, and that they remembered each other at the end and it wasn’t one of those open-ended “let’s stare at each other, I think I know you from somewhere” scenes. Still though, I wanted something with more OOMPH. Maybe something to break the fourth wall more in which Dan-oh and Haru interact with the portals and the writer of the comic directly, some sort of confrontation. I thought that was the strongest part of this drama: the beginning, when they both actively pitted themselves against the writer. There was a lot of opportunity for something more meta, but the drama never explored that.
Ju-Da’s storyline also kind of tapered off for me, I thought there was so much potential in the contrast between her weak stage character and vengeful shadow self, but in the end she never did anything to break out of it. I know reasons were given, but it really just feels like lost potential. Going off of that — for a main role (in the drama), Nam Ju’s character did a whole lot of nothing. Even so, I’ve never found myself so invested in the first, secondary, tertiary, AND QUATERNARY ship.
The acting was honestly amazing by THE ENTIRE CAST. The blinking, tearing up, ephiphanies...you could see all the emotions on all the characters, EVERY TIME, and it HURT me. Extraordinary You tugged at all my heartstrings.
Also: Amazing OST.
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Touching
Really enjoyed this one, and I think it's one of the rare cases where the pacing and the short amount of episodes all worked really well. This drama had a purpose and it delivered. The weekly cases are pretty good, but the overarching plot and building tension absolutely shines. The chemistry between the characters is really great, and Jun-ho is a really interesting character to follow. It very much feels like this season was setting up something bigger though, so I can't wait to see what S2 brings.Was this review helpful to you?
Vibes but no plot
This review is coming at you from a non-novel reader, just FYI. But it's another one of these beloved dramas that I ended up just not quite clicking with.The concept is fantastic. I love a good time travel / isekai type story à la Scarlet Heart Ryeo or Romance of Tiger and Rose. The acting is sometimes good and sometimes a little awkward.
I feel like my main issue with this drama is that so much of it feels unearned and aimless.
There's a sort of "mystery" subplot surrounding a conspiracy reveal that appears for maybe three episodes, and it's all played out so fast from the moment it's first mentioned to the final reveal. We never really follow the story; we just know it's happening in the background, and then the big reveal happens and the story just ends.
The romance, which is the biggest part of the story, gives me much of the same feeling. I am absolutely a hater of insta-love and "destined love," and here it really does show my biggest problem with it. I'm just not understanding why or when they fell in love with each other, and we're given these romantic moments when I feel like they should still be getting to know each other better. It's weird because the potential is definitely there — the massage scene, for example, is A+ — but it would've been even better if it felt earned.
It also feels aimless in the sense of Jom's time travelling not being explained. It's explored at the start when he's so frazzled and trying to figure out what's happening, but he gradually just starts living a normal life. His situation is only addressed when he's forcibly confronted with it, and it leaves a lot of questions by the end. I constantly wished the drama went deeper into this aspect and upped the stakes. I think this is where the conspiracy subplot could've been used, because it could've given Jom a goal, and a "oh, THIS is why I came back" moment.
Ultimately, the ending also feels quite rushed. I know there's a sequel though, so maybe it'll help. Nevertheless, I think the vibes are still there, and I know the novel probably explains more, but from a drama-only perspective, that's what I felt.
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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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Just fine
I felt like this drama had a really strong start — the female lead's spunkiness made her really likeable, the mystery was intriguing, and the time travel also made for really interesting parallels.As the drama went on, I felt like it a lost a lot of its spark, opting for either humor or a modern-only plot, leaving the saeguk mystery and time travel element both really neglected until the last episode and not really tying the two timelines together well enough. It didn't make much sense what Yeon-woo's time travel had to do with the modern storyline, or why those parallels even existed. I think the stakes weren't established well enough for me to feel emotionally invested: I paid painstaking attention to the modern day characters to figure out how they were tied to their past lives, but by the end it felt like the modern day characters were the far more important ones. I really think this drama could've used a full 16 episodes to balance out the modern and historical plotlines and add some explanation for the time travel.
Other than that, I felt like the side characters were fine and occasionally funny but pretty unimportant to the plot, and the main romance was also fun but generally a cookie-cutter ship. It's a fun watch but for me, not very memorable.
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Fun little extra but not a lot of Totono
The first half was a rehash of the first episode so it was nothing new, and the second half was a new case which was a pretty cute watch and a fun addition, especially since I absolutely loved the original drama. But there actually wasn't a lot of Totono in it.The case introduces a new character — Sagara Ren, who was bubbly and fun and had a really adorable relationship with Totono. I loved the two of them together and I hope we get to see Sagara again.
The case itself was fine, but the detective work was actually done mostly by Sagara and the other characters, and it just didn't have the same endearing awkwardness that situations usually have when Totono is front and center.
Overall, this is definitely not a necessary watch, but it's light-hearted and low stakes. I can see why it was split off into a special and if anyone wants to see Totono again it's still worth tuning in for.
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