Kate

Like her smile was often "hyped happy" not "in love happy"... don't know how to explain that hahaha

they won't stop producing, but it will slow down the improvement of the production quality. And none of the Korean BLs are mainstream productions - that's my point. For me the goal would be producing gay romance driven stories as mainstream productions like any other romance dramas. But big companies will not invest, big names will not risk getting cast if they can avoid potential backlash and have a safe alternative - self censored bromance based on bl stories.

Risking backlash from the still quite homophobic society for maybe some profit by producing BLs or risking backlash from a still small fanbase of BLs (compared to overall consumers of dramas) for larger profit with censoring bls and making it bromance - one is obviously better option for production companies than the other.

That's what I said - self censoring for profit. With his gross 👍🏻
no one brought up hatred again there < and it will be EXACTLY the same for this drama. 3 years after this one finishes airing there will be just people who watched it and liked it, and little backlash.

Backstreet Rookie had a huge backlash for black face and the fact the drama is an adaptation of borderline pedofile story and now years after it aired, ain't no backlash in comment section. That's just how mdl is. A lot of reaction when the show airs, little to none years later.

Again, there was no romance between leads in ADSG. The main romance in the drama does not happen instead of gay romance. There is no romance between leads in the webtoon.

The bigger issue here is the fact if this becomes popular, we can say goodbye to founding for BLs in Korea for some time and getting bigger production. Ain't no one gonna risk investing in gay stories, when they can just "turn it into bromance" and get a lot of 💲💲. This having positive reactions will mean slowing down the progress in BL genre. We gonna have China 2.0. But while in China it's literally illegal to produce BL dramas and companies do their best to present as much of a romance in bromance as they can with censorship, Korea will censor itself to get more money 🙃

yeah cool story.
The way to fix BLs and the heteronormative lens they are often written and film with is NOT by REMOVING HOMOSEXUAL ASPECT OF EXISTING STORIES 👍🏻

but that one received no backlash... < it's did. Not as much as this, but it did and people were loud about it in comment section too. It was less severe simply because the romance was never prominent in the webtoon in the portion of the story that was adapted (since not the whole webtoon was) and the romance did not happen between the main characters in in the webtoon.

At the end of the day, it's gross that Korea self-censors simply because gay romance is less profitable and not easy to market. Just don't do adaptation of stories with gay romances if you then remove them from the story. It's that easy.

I mean of course if they re wrote like 70% of the show they could easily make it interesting 16 episodes, the potential is there. But with what they had show and how detailed they were thinking a out the plot, making it 12 episodes would be easier to make the pacing and quality better 🤡

I could not stop laughing when it happened 😂😂😂

Btw can i ask you to hide the comment under spoiler? I don't want someone who have not seen the who to be spoiler if they check the comment under my review 😅

I liked it a lot, i watched all the episodes every week right after they aired 🤣
but when i look at the show as a whole it's more of a pretty box with little inside. Like, small things that make you happy, but that's kind of it...

She for sure knew what's up. But that just annoyed me more tbh. Coz again, they hinted something and explained nothing. And I feel like the whole plot of the show was hinted but not explained hahah

~universe works in mysterious ways~ theory ✋🏻😔 < well, that's one way of dealing with underdeveloped plot hahaha

to the point that made people question my sanity. < been there done that too 🤣🤣

Great review! I am strong believer of subjective rating and more level headed review writing and that's exactly what I see here ❤️

I feel like there are many different ways this drama could improved with some plot changes 🙃

yeah around episode 11 i started to see how little content there actually is in the show. The plot is underdeveloped and honestly, i would actually like it more if they kept it more simple and shorter 😭

80% of the show is just cute and fun moments, and there would be nothing wrong with that if the drama did not try to pretend as if the reminding 20% were interesting and important. Make it 12 episodes and switching the crime to depression and we would get top quality heart warming healing rom-com.

Overall, often after I finished watching the episode I had this thought: wow, that was really a filler episode, but I had so much fun. It’s happy and bright, overdramatic with its mystery when the mystery is shallow and barely working for this plot. I had a great time watching, but I would hesitate to recommend it.

If anyone is interested in more elaborate thoughts of someone who liked, but did not love the show, you can check my review: https://kisskh.at/profile/Shini/reviews/363193

👍🏻Rating: 7.5/10

reactions as i watch episode 6 🤡

I get why some people don't like it, coz the directing goes hella hyperrealism so even the transition scenes leading to another scene are basically full on scenes of... nothing lol 🙃

For example, you have character A going from place A to place B. Usually the character will either verbally say they are going to place B, cut the scene and they are at place B, ot they will visually show them going - leaving the house, getting into bus, car etc. Here... character A says they are going to place B, we get more of the "going" 🤣 They don't cut out the realistic, but not exactly necessary moments.

I does not bother me tho 🤣

The way Seo Hye Jin tried to rationalize her feelings, bitch same 🤣

The way Kim Hyun Tak tired to explain himself in front of Hye Jin and that small smirk on her face clearly saying: what a load of 💩💩

omg the meeting of two men traumatized by Hye Jin to the point they started smoking again 🤣

HIS GREED IS NOT TOWARDS ACADEMY AND TEAHCING BITCH 🔥🔥🔥🔥 SHE BETTER GET IT 🤡

ASJGFHEWIUTRYEWUWRYHEWILWF AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I RECOGNIZE THIS SET UP! ERJHGEWUIF RTHE POSTER SCENE IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN AND I AM ABOUT TO DIE!
R.I.P ME. I LIVED A GOOD LIFE FANGIRLING OVER OPPAS, GEGES, AND PRIESTS 👍🏻

My heart is palpitating omg. That last scene... damn. fuck... oof.

Business talks being so tense 🤣 How am I not bored is beyond me.

So... I appreciate how they did not go the typical road with Nam Cheong Mi, and did not turn her into an asshole. I am quite excited to see her grow as a teacher.

Gray Witch is scary. Honestly calculative people like that who see 💲 and 💲 only and make all the actions according to what will bring the most profit and would not stop from scaring and using teens is just... oof.

This episode was far more simple compared to previews episodes. It focused far more on presenting what are the relations between academies, but also people working in the academies. First 4 episodes made it seem like Seo Hye Jin is untouchable in the academy and has a good and healthy partnership with Hyun Tak, but this episode showed how at the end of the day she is still just a tool to be disregarded if she becomes too "dangerous" and risky to keep. But that's also why I loved the ending scene 🤣 The awkward smile Hyun Tak gave now that yet again he needs Hye Jin, but he just tried to ruin her 🤡

it would not make a difference for me. I finished watching it when it was airing. I just did not like the characters and found them pretentious as fuck 🤣🤣🤣

Here's the thing with slow paced slice of life - quality does not really matter. What I mean is a high quality drama can still be boring for some people. It's the "you either vibe with this specific title or not" type of a deal. That's why even tho form me it's extremely interesting and I cannot wait for next episode and I did not really find a moment of it boring, I am not surprised by people saying it's extremely boring for them. Coz that's how it usually goes with slow paced slice of life.

I love the genre overall, but there are some titles I did not vibe with: Lost and My Liberation Notes being two examples. I just could not connect with the setting, characters and these specific presentations.

Whenever someone finds a drama boring or not is extremely subjective anyway. For example, technically speaking all makjang dramas are fast paced and eventful, known to be there for pure entertainment - I find them painfully boring 🙃 and the actually quality of it makes no difference, I just cannot connect with them at all.

Conclusion - it's a drama that is hard to predict if you'll like it or not just based on the comments, because the same aspect that some people find boring and too slow, is what other users love.

from what i've seen being on mdl for 10+ - if the drama has a really specific style of directing and writing that is not mainstream, but curated for specific target audience, the lower the rating, because a lot of people will simply not enjoy it as much, which is perfectly fine. Examples - Matrimonial Chaos sits on 7.9, On the Verge of Insanity 8.1.

Also, slow paced dramas are risky business for directors, writers and producers. It's harder to ignore aspects you don't like - the slow pacing makes you spend more time with them. Slower pacing often means less dynamic changes between the scenes, which means longer scenes, which means if you dislike a plotline or a character, you will be forced to watch their moments longer, which will make you like the drama less.

But these are just my ideas on why it might be ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

These academies are DIRTY lol To use a kid to spy on each other and basically insinuating it's something they have to do coz of the scholarship they are receiving. That so low.

Nam Cheong Mi acting all annoyed because she herself decided to give up on the opportunity. You can only balem yourself lol Working in the Academy seems like such a pain in the ass coz you need a perfect balance of rivalry and cooperation to make it work. And i think Cheong Mi will struggle with it a lot. Coz first she went full cooperation, giving up all her "good cards" not to cause any issues for others, but now she seems to be full "competition" mode, and it can hurt the Academy as a whole in a long run...

I think Seo Hye Jin was a great teacher in the past that cared about the education a lot, and now after years of working in the Academy she moved towards caring for the grades and sales. And Lee Jun Ho has still this, a bit naive idea about teaching. Like, choosing the poem for the free lecture because it's a good poem, and how she reminded him it's different from being good for sale. Hope they will dive deeper into these two different approaches and the disagreements that come from it.

Them waiting for the kids in the classroom gives me anxiety. From the preview I know the free class will not go well, so now I'm scared 🙃

YESSSSSSSSSSS SHE IS BECOMING HUMAN AGAIN 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

THE ENDING OF THE EPISODE MAKES ME SO HAPPY! 🥲🥲🥲🥲
OMG AND THE NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW! Will she sign? I feel like she might. She only now started to be human again 🙃