Reviews

I never expected to like this drama

I thought I was going to hate this drama because I could tell there would be fatphobia; no matter how much the writer tries to get around it by saying it's not about being skinny, it totally is - fatphobic people always say it's about being healthy when we all know it isn't, because what they fail to realise is that being slim doesn't mean being healthy, but then again, they don't care about health. Also, the main female lead is supposed to be overweight, which is insane because she's thin.
Having said that, if you can get around it and stay for the incredibly funny scenes, you won't regret it, especially because along the way the story gets very serious and it's extremely moving - shout-out to Haein because Sol was hands down my favourite character, followed by Alex and then Bongwon! But it's impossible not to love almost all the characters, and the actors were all perfect.
I love the character development, but the fact that the fatphobia isn't 100% gone at the end of the drama was what stopped it from being perfect.
Side note: it's unbelievable how Seungryeong sounds just like Jinki (from SHINee)!
The soundtrack is amazing, btw - I don't get why it's so underrated.
Also, props for including BTS photos at the end of the drama because nowadays it's rare for a drama to include them, so thank you so much for doing so!
I'd watch this drama any day, over and over again because the comedy is just that good, and so are the serious parts.
I will say, though, that 'Pump Up the Healthy Love' makes no sense as a title, because the title written in Korean is '24-hour Health / Hell's Club'- this is because they pronounce 'health' as 'hellss', so it makes it a great pun, and I really think they should've gone with '24-hour Hell's Club'.
Thank you to everyone involved in this project!

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cool

very cool“An artist should recognize a metaphor” a character tells the show’s protagonist towards the end. And like Jin Soo Wan’s earlier shows, this one uses metaphor (in this case the trope of time travel) to explore how pain can become the garden in which art and joy grow, how parents can fail and save their children, and how it is not luck or fame or fortune but love that keeps us rooted in this broken world.



Most shows hesitate to mix comedy with serious themes, as if by merging the two, they’ll either destroy the lightness of the former or dilute the gravitas of the latter. Twinkling Watermelon explores child abuse, neglect, suicidal ideation, and discrimination against the deaf community, but it does so amidst a candy-colored swirl of music and unbridled teen exuberance. Its characters face real trauma, but they also laugh and flirt and rock out with their friends and wear their hearts on their sleeves for all to see. There are few dramas as unapologetic in their delight as this one, and even when plot points get messy or a random gang of thugs appears, the show’s warmth never falters. And in the end, it suggests that’s what truly matters both in art and life.



So to judge it by this criteria, does this show spark joy? Yes. So, so much. And its happy moments shine all the brighter for being set against the darkness.

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Great cast

I love Kim hye soo’s acting so when I heard about this drama with Cho Yeo-Jeong I knew it was gonna be good and it exceeded my expectations because this entire drama was a rollercoaster. The acting was amazing, the younger actresses play the role very well which makes you feel like you’re experiencing the situation with them.
We see the heartbreak that one of the female leads face and how that leads her to become the villain in another persons story. I also find the characters themselves very compelling, the story really makes you accept each of them for who they are despite their many flaws. The cinematography was top notch, the editing and transitions were very clean cut which made the story even more interesting to watch, I also love the queer representation and that they weren’t homophobes.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the comedy aspect, Kim ji hoon did not disappoint, there was never a dull moment in the drama, I absolutely love how they were able to turn usually dark themes into comedy, at the end when you see how the situation just spirals into chaos that’s when we understand that the affair truly was just the beginning.
I’m really hoping for a second season as soon as possible.

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Drama, a Drama Queen, and Totally Worth Watching

I loved all three seasons of DMD Friendship (Thailand), as well as Love Casting (Taiwan), so I went into Project XY already familiar with the basic setup.

The cast—Waner, CH, Elio, Tyler, Young, Joel, and Alan—were distinct enough that the appeal was never just about guessing who might eventually pair up. It was about watching seven very different people approach connection, attraction, friendship, compatibility, and performance in very different ways.

The premise had a lot of potential: seven men with different personalities and levels of experience trying to find viable CP chemistry for future BL projects. That meant the show had several jobs to do at once—create a compelling nine-episode reality series, identify strong pairings, help viewers get attached to all seven contestants, launch the eventual CPs, and build enough audience investment that people would want to follow these men into whatever came next.

And that was where Project XY became both compelling and frustrating.

The biggest problem was the editing. The show spent an extraordinary amount of limited screen time centering one person’s jealousy, hurt feelings, pouting, crying, anger, and reactions to his crush in the house. Even when other contestants received screen time, they were often talking about that contestant or reacting to him. In a nine-episode show with seven contestants, that was a major storytelling choice. And it may have been a disservice to that contestant himself, since they mostly showed him when he was upset, hurt, jealous, or angry. Meanwhile, we got relatively little time to get to know the other six.

The frustrating part was that the quieter dynamics were often more interesting whenever the show actually allowed us to see them. One couple developed in a way that felt organic and surprisingly tender. Alan arrived late and brought a completely different energy into the house. Waner remained one of the most compelling contestants for me precisely because he was quiet, slow to warm up, sincere, and helpful .

The show was at its best when it trusted those subtler dynamics.

It also took far too long to make the actual selection process clear. For much of the season, it was difficult to tell what mattered most: acting ability, camera chemistry, professional compatibility, emotional connection, votes, challenges, production judgment, or some combination of all of them.

The finale, however, was surprisingly warm and humane. Some of its most touching moments came not from the final selection itself, but from watching the seven men look back on their time together through self-edited vlogs filled with candid memories, private moments, and small pieces of daily life. Seeing how each of them chose to remember the experience—and how deeply moved they were by one another’s memories—gave the finale an emotional weight the rest of the season did not always earn. By the end, their sadness at leaving one another felt genuine.

In the end, Project XY was frustrating, uneven, emotionally manipulative, and far more compelling than I ever expected it to be. I still had plenty of questions for whoever made the editorial decisions on this show, but I finished the show caring about these seven men far more than the production ever managed to convince me I would.

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Season 2 should have stayed on my plan to watch

This season was such a mess. It focused way too much on the counter stuff and not actual on their human lives or emotions. So Mun's friends barely got any screen time and they were such an important part of the first season. His grandparents were also barely present. I also did not like how we introduced a love interest, old flame/friend for Hana. Mo Tak didn't get enough screen time too. I truly did not like how they wrote his character.

I also couldn't care less for Mr Ma and his storyline. By episode 4 I was already over him. I truly don't understand why he got soooo much screen time. The other villains also let me down. They also overpowered So Mun waaaaay too much. That truly lessened my enjoyment as well.

Overall the writing truly went downhill and it's honestly such a shame what they did with the second season. I absolutely adored the first season! They kinda ruined it with this one.

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A very wholesome kdrama

I know I might be exaggerating but this drama was legitimately very wholesome for a drama about teens. I first watched this drama in 2021 when it was still being released weekly and it was really good to my teen mind so I rewatched it and I still find it to be really good.
I loved that they explored some heavy topics like bullying, the harm that society’s beauty standards have on people even from childhood and the very complex relationship the fl had with her mother. Romantic kdramas have a tendency to be very funny and lighthearted in the first few episodes and then get very heavy and boring later on but this drama was able to balance the romcom and the gloom also.
Some people may disagree but I think that ju-kyung and su-ho are well matched and that their personalities fit each other, su-ho really struggles with expressing his emotions while ju-kyung is insecure, recovering from being bullied and is feeling guilty because she feels like she’s living a lie so they find comfort in each other. They also have a past connection so it makes sense that romantic feelings would develop.
I didn’t enjoy su-ho or the second male leads characters though, there are certain things/misunderstandings that occur due to su-ho’s inability to communicate and the second male lead only likes ju-kyung because of her relationship with su-ho and picks on her for some reason. I honestly feel like none of them deserve her but su-ho does overcome his issues.
The drama was kind of cliche but it was well done and the acting was good.

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It comes off surface-level

It tries to be deep but fails. It also tries to mix silliness with seriousness and fails. It is not at all immersive. The story? What is it? There's stuff happening and FL gets into danger a bunch of times and we know who the villains are (except a few hooded guys in dark rooms) but what's the story? What's the goal? Yeah, the FL has a goal of becoming an official, but what will she do afterwards specifically?

The emperor does not feel like the emperor but someone who no one takes seriously and don't even pretend to. They kneel, yes, but it's very clear that they don't care what the OPINION of the EMPEROR is of them. WHAT?!

And then there is the gang in the capitol. Am I missing something? There was 0 resistance to getting INTO a government building and TAKING IT OVER.

It felt like I was watching a short drama - you know, where they're over-dramatic, fighting all the time, a hero comes to the rescue, and not enough people for real immersion. It felt like there were whole groups of people missing. The extras were there, though? I don't know. It just felt off. I've watched better short dramas. I've seen short dramas that are more put together than this.

Where was all the immersion?! Why is every character in lala land?!

Did this have production issues?!

I also didn't like FL and I don't know whether or not it was Wu Jin Yan's fault, the director's fault, or how terrible the actual character is. Meng Ting Hui acts like a spoiled brat when she shouldn't. She should have more sense but Meng Ting Hui is senseless whilst the drama is trying to tell us otherwise. And I don't feel like the character is an actual person. I've seen other works where Wu Jin Yan does really well. This seemed flat, overperformed, and emotionless. Perhaps the fault lies just in the director and the script. Or perhaps Wu Jin Yan wasn't connecting with the role?

I think all the other actors tried their best. Chen Zhe Yuan could have done well, but there wasn't an opportunity to. You can see he's trying.

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What is with this storyline?

I love the lead actress. She is why I was excited to start this one. But the plot seemed as if someone threw multiple dramatic conflict elements in the air and watched where they landed and said… perfect. The writing feels disjunct and those plot twists were as if a hugh schooler thought it up for a school project. The ML was as annoying as can be. The only person I liked was Calvin and the husband’s lawyer. The whole thing felt like an immitation of RomComDram. Like someone slept up until the deadline. This just did not meet the quality of storytelling I am acustomed to in K-Dramas.

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Disappointing with no character development

Great cast and soundtrack, but this one really fell short. I haven't read the webtoon which apparently has more depth, but just based on this k-drama it was just not worth the time. It was hard to watch the main character, Nabi, go through so much and learn nothing. She turns away from other chances at happiness to pursue a toxic relationship with a narcissistic partner, and even worse, she's so so passive through the whole story.

Nabi is immediately taught not to be trusting and vulnerable. The show sets her up for a new romance and to pick a direction for her life and work as an artist all at once. I was so ready for the moment she finds her voice and stops being a bland, boring, melancholy spectator in her own life. It just. never. happens. Instead she lands right into that doe-eyed 'surely I can fix him' role and gets hurt again. Song Kang is great at playing the bad guy heart-throb character and the sexual chemistry is great in this show, but it's hard to imagine them as a couple when trust can never be a sure thing. Jae Eon starts off as a jerk, who we discover has reasons around vulnerability, and then he just... stays a jerk. It's hard to enjoy the romance because Nabi is always up to feel shocked, hurt and dejected over and over and we're supposed to believe this is growth away from Ep1? The plotline with Yang Do Hyuk is genuinely heartwarming, and so is the side-plot with another couple in the friend group, which just makes me wish the main story didn't leave such an awful taste behind.

I get that this show is called "Nevertheless," and even the idea that the 'safe' choices aren't always the what our heart wants, but man. Both of these characters need some time to just focus on themselves.

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A rollercoaster

I watched this a while back but forgot to review. “Behind your touch” was advertised to be a romcom that also had a mystery and it was until it wasn’t, it started off funny and lighthearted but before you know it there’s a killer on the loose and we have no idea who it is. I liked it in spite of this though cause it was honestly really good, the writers did a good job with the mystery aspect; most characters that we meet have good traits and legitimately seem like okay people so that makes it hard for you to discern who the actual villain is and you’re left guessing the entire season but I wish they had added more romance to it.
Would definitely recommend if you love a good mystery/crime drama with a funny side as well.

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The most boring drama I've ever seen so far

To watch series like this is terrifying. I feel I live in an utterly dumbed down, low IQ society.
When the director made the US movie, Idiocracy, he didn't know he made a DOCUMENTARY.
This series live up to that name, idiocrasy.

Utterly boring, utterly made up. As long as 5 episodes till another 5 nothing really happens. The first part was meant to be an emotional hit but it was not. I couldn't live in the story as was too made up. No in this world there is a 8-10 years of girl who 'bravely' wants to die first. It is a sheer and unlikely manipulation of your dumbed down, low IQ childish emotion (I mean if it worked on you). I still can recall a series and a part when I was really emotionally moved and it was the Lost you Forever' part when Xiao Liu misses the emperor's new wife thinking that she was her mother - take it as example for playing with the emotions of the audience - that was a hit, this.... I felt nothing but was distracted. How poor, how disrespectful to treat us all as if we had a lobotomy in the past 6 years.

The acting, ML is good but had very limited time on screen. FL is boring, weak, while playing being to perfect and smart - but just as lucky as she could win the lottery 5, her expressions are fake, she is boring and I didn't see her in other dramas but based on this she is a very poor actress and one of the most boring female I saw so far in Chinese dramas.

The story: basically there is no story, the drama revolves around an allegedly smart - in reality mainly just lucky - girl and the rest (of the casts) are just fillings, after 20 episodes almost nothing happened expect to girlish cheesy stuff disguised as 'the real life of the maids'. I am sorry, in my free time I wish to be entertained, and the life or made-up life of servants is absolutely not my cup of tea.

What a waste of the handsome and good actor ML, and what a waste of my time.

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