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Level Up korean drama review
Completed
Level Up
0 people found this review helpful
by Kate
Jan 1, 2022
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 4.0
Story 3.5
Acting/Cast 7.5
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 3.0

Childish and empty of content.

Level Up tried to have this quirky family drama vibe to it, with some over the top plot points and comedy taken from sitcoms, sprinkled with office romance, and it all just did not work out at all.

The drama is full of childish conflict that would not happen in real life in that compaction. There is a difference between there being one egocentric and emotionally immature person, and the majority of the characters failing to act like grown up adults. This led to ridiculous conflicts that should have never happened, or at worst, been resolved during one scene. There was simply not enough content for 12 episodes, so every plot line seemed stretched, slow and meaningless.

I would be extremely cautious to call it office romance, because there was barely any romance and truly no chemistry between the main leads. We get the usual main couple, and both male and female lead having their own sidekick that is in one sided love with them. How cliché is that?

Do you want a well written and gradual character development? Not here. Level Up gives us the 3x speed last minute growth for the main cast, and we are supposed to just accept that after good 10 episodes of them acting like kids.

The acting ranged from good to mediocre (and I’m being nice here). Han Bo Reum, Kang Byul and Jung Soo Kyo served the best performances for sure. Sadly, with how Han Chul was written, Baro could barely show any skills. And Sung Hoon simply failed in the role. I don’t think his skills are good enough to pull off that awkward acting in his character portrayal. What they tried to achieve was something like Go Tae Rim in Legal High, but it ended up just looking like bad acting.

That said, the drama does look nice. The set designs were truly good. I see no flaws in the production value in terms of filming and the technical aspects. It all came down to poor writing, and no directing could fix that.

Overall, Level Up truly does not deliver in any aspect. It’s a show with a level of complexity and writing that would fit children's taste. Small problems exaggerated to ridiculous levels, while complex problems shown in a too simplistic way with miraculous resolution.
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