When people ask me if I recommend a drama or not i usually reply by encouraging them to watch it themselves and judge its quality. This review is just to inform the audience about the show's overall vibe from my perspective. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and here i will be simply stating mine.

For me "Cheese in the trap" is one of those dramas that belong in the "love it or hate it" category.

THINGS I LIKED:
The beginning of the show was indeed very interesting and totally got me hooked. This isn't an ordinary slice of life love story, but instead many cliches are being broken throughout the show. The unexpected things that kept happening in almost every episode somehow kept me intrigued. The characters were all well developed, it was exciting to see their secrets unravel and find out why they act the way they do. I love how unconventional the appearance of Hong Seol was, it was cool seeing another hairstyle other than the silky smooth perfect hair most female leads have in dramas. The actors were all very good and played their roles fairly well, even the support roles were acted out excellently. The OST was nothing special but it wasn't annoying to listen to either.

THINGS I DISLIKED:
The age difference between the female and male lead was very intimidating to me. I am not the type of person to say such thing, i honestly believe that love has no age, but hear me out on this one. Despite the characters being only 2 years apart in the drama (almost 10 years in real life) they have to use honorifics. That's okay with me. But even after dating? Hong Seol didn't get to call her boyfriend by his name and kept calling him Sunbae. I like honorific speech and i respect Korean culture but that was too much for me. It just made it seem like the couple wasn't close at all. It felt sketchy. Also i strongly disliked Park Hae-Jin's role. He played it excellently but i just couldn't stand Jung Yoo's personality at all. I know that he had a reason for acting like he did but for me that wasn't enough to justify everything as well as Hong Seol's choice. Which brings me to my next point. Hong Seol's decision to date Jung Yoo, a guy who was literally lying to her, couldn't trust her, kept neglecting her or getting mad and was cold towards her, instead of In-ho who always tried to cheer her up and was there to protect her is just pure nonsense in my eyes. I don't care if Jung Yoo is like that with everyone. I just find this kind of relationship to be unhealthy and would never do something like that myself even if i loved the person. Love is a beautiful thing, but there are boundaries between awkwardness and ignorance. Since this is a realistic story not set in some magical land or the outer space viewers should be able to relate to the characters especially the protagonist, something that i was unable to do. Finally, the ending left me completely unsatisfied and rather disappointed, the characters were pretty much left hanging. It would've been so much better if they had cut out some of the bar scenes to dedicate more time in showcasing the couple's relationship and work on the character development. It's too bad that such excellent actors were given roles that stayed unfinished until the very end of the show.

Regardless of what I mentioned in this review, i would advise everyone to watch this drama and reach their own conclusion. Who knows? You may really enjoy it.

Read More