This review may contain spoilers
A challenging but rewarding love story
It seems like a lot of viewers go into Friendly Rivalry expecting GL, and end up feeling betrayed or baited. I had the opposite experience. I didn’t have high hopes for the GL aspect going in, and I ended up blindsided by an intense, emotional, and very queer love story. This is now probably my favorite GL series.
If you’re expecting a traditional romance, where the characters confess and start dating, I can understand why you would be frustrated—Friendly Rivalry isn’t one of those. It also isn’t *just* a love story, so if you’re looking for romance and nothing else, you might be disappointed. I won’t lie, I had my own queerbaiting concerns in the second half, when there’s less focus on Jae-yi and Seul-gi’s relationship, and I wasn’t sure where the story was going.
But I have no idea how someone could watch this series all the way to the end and come away thinking it’s *not* a love story. Like…how? If Friendly Rivalry revolved around a het pairing there would be absolutely no question if the characters were in love or not. Why are we holding queer stories to a stricter standard? Why do we need them to be *more* conventional to be “real”? Straight love stories don’t all have to be romcoms, do they?
Okay end rant. Friendly Rivalry is one of the most impactful stories I’ve experienced in a long time. The characters completely capivated me. All the actors are perfect in their roles, but Lee Hye-ri and Chung Su-bin as the leads are phenomenal. Jae-yi and Seul-gi are my Roman Empire. Their chemistry is off the charts, and their relationship is so complex—there’s jealousy and resentment, heartbreak and betrayal, but at the bottom is pure love. (And yes it is clear that they are attracted to each other. Folks let’s be media literate please.)
Honestly the GL elements are about as straightforward as Friendly Rivalry gets. Because while it’s addictive and easy to binge, it’s also demanding. I don’t want to sound like that Rick & Morty reddit post (“To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ…”) but I think FR goes over a lot of viewers’ heads—my own included. I’ve seen it all the way through twice, and I’m starting it a third time, and I’m still noticing details in almost every episode that I either completely missed or didn’t understand. The writing is *dense* and there’s almost no handholding. Just following the plot takes effort, and almost every scene contains symbolism or some hidden clue.
I don’t actually recommend binging the series because there is just so much to absorb. It’s better to take some time to process each episode, especially in the second half when you’re expected to fill in a lot of the gaps and connect the dots yourself. It can get exhausting tbh, and the plot towards the end is probably more convoluted than it needs to be. That and the focus drifting a little too far away from Jae-yi and Seul-gi for while (mostly in eps 10-13) are the main flaws.
If you can meet it halfway, though, Friendly Rivalry is richly rewarding. I’m in awe of how much thought and care was put into every frame. The director spent about three years working on the script, and you can tell—most things that seem unbelievable at first have a logical explanation, and the characters are multilayered but consistent. The symbolism adds further layers of depth. And on top of that the show is just beautiful. I would never have guessed that this is a low-budget production because everything from sets to costumes to cinematography looks amazing, especially the underwater scenes.
Friendly Rivalry might not be for everyone, but it was definitely for me. This is exactly the kind of love story about messed-up girls saving each other from their trauma that I needed.
If you’re expecting a traditional romance, where the characters confess and start dating, I can understand why you would be frustrated—Friendly Rivalry isn’t one of those. It also isn’t *just* a love story, so if you’re looking for romance and nothing else, you might be disappointed. I won’t lie, I had my own queerbaiting concerns in the second half, when there’s less focus on Jae-yi and Seul-gi’s relationship, and I wasn’t sure where the story was going.
But I have no idea how someone could watch this series all the way to the end and come away thinking it’s *not* a love story. Like…how? If Friendly Rivalry revolved around a het pairing there would be absolutely no question if the characters were in love or not. Why are we holding queer stories to a stricter standard? Why do we need them to be *more* conventional to be “real”? Straight love stories don’t all have to be romcoms, do they?
Okay end rant. Friendly Rivalry is one of the most impactful stories I’ve experienced in a long time. The characters completely capivated me. All the actors are perfect in their roles, but Lee Hye-ri and Chung Su-bin as the leads are phenomenal. Jae-yi and Seul-gi are my Roman Empire. Their chemistry is off the charts, and their relationship is so complex—there’s jealousy and resentment, heartbreak and betrayal, but at the bottom is pure love. (And yes it is clear that they are attracted to each other. Folks let’s be media literate please.)
Honestly the GL elements are about as straightforward as Friendly Rivalry gets. Because while it’s addictive and easy to binge, it’s also demanding. I don’t want to sound like that Rick & Morty reddit post (“To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ…”) but I think FR goes over a lot of viewers’ heads—my own included. I’ve seen it all the way through twice, and I’m starting it a third time, and I’m still noticing details in almost every episode that I either completely missed or didn’t understand. The writing is *dense* and there’s almost no handholding. Just following the plot takes effort, and almost every scene contains symbolism or some hidden clue.
I don’t actually recommend binging the series because there is just so much to absorb. It’s better to take some time to process each episode, especially in the second half when you’re expected to fill in a lot of the gaps and connect the dots yourself. It can get exhausting tbh, and the plot towards the end is probably more convoluted than it needs to be. That and the focus drifting a little too far away from Jae-yi and Seul-gi for while (mostly in eps 10-13) are the main flaws.
If you can meet it halfway, though, Friendly Rivalry is richly rewarding. I’m in awe of how much thought and care was put into every frame. The director spent about three years working on the script, and you can tell—most things that seem unbelievable at first have a logical explanation, and the characters are multilayered but consistent. The symbolism adds further layers of depth. And on top of that the show is just beautiful. I would never have guessed that this is a low-budget production because everything from sets to costumes to cinematography looks amazing, especially the underwater scenes.
Friendly Rivalry might not be for everyone, but it was definitely for me. This is exactly the kind of love story about messed-up girls saving each other from their trauma that I needed.
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