This review may contain spoilers
SOOO GOOOD, BUT FELL FLAT A LITTLE AT THE LAST FEW EPISODES
You know the drama is good when you're a few episodes in, but they're still cooking and you're liking it. This is the first c-drama that I thought to myself "Oh my god, is this gonna be my first 10/10 cdrama?"
I was kinda worried when I finished episode 1, cuz I thought this would be one of those shows that I would watch at 1.5 speed so I could move on right away, but I decided to push thru ep 2 and by the end of it I was like "Hmmmm... this might have a chance", so I watched the next episode and MY. GOD. I was finally hooked.
The story was SLOOOOOOW AF, but I didn't mind it, because it's good, heck even the side characters are well fleshed out. Also, since the back story was them at college being an IT student, I was kinda interested in that part, since I also took an IT course in college. So it was really fun to see them coding and the way the writers wrote it is that they kinda put good vanilla romance cutesy crumbs here and there to keep you hooked. So you'll be there sitting watching episode to episode waiting for the payoff like "JUST CONFESS ALREADY!!!"...
I think if the series didn't start at the part where they are all adult and started at the university part, I think it would've been a good start. Cuz you're watching ep 1 & 2 and you're so lost like wtf is happening then suddenly at episode 3 you're now watching a backstory??? and then they should've cut the series into 2 seasons. Episode 3 is where they should've started then ended it around episode 17/18 where the romance payoff is and that would've been a perfect 10/10 College Romance Drama because, I was worried when the ML and FL confessed to each other like "Well, they're basically together? how could you go more from this??" cuz after the confession there was a time skip, so they're are now 4th yr college, who are about to graduate and enter the world of adults. And story from there slowly started to fell off a little hence I couldn't give it a full 10/10(well, at least for me).
The transition from University to them being adults was kinda fast paced a little and then some sprinkle of bullshit and then when we got back to where the story from episodes 1 & 2 left off, that's when the drama started turning into a Business Revenge Series.
The business side was fun like them entering the Professional world of the IT Industry, specifically the Game Dev Industry, I think it's really fun. I think even if they stretch the series to 50 to even 100 episodes turning it into a Slife of Life of just them and their daily lives as Game Developers, I think I would still eat the shit out of it. But the Revenge side is where they fell flat, in the beginning, it was good, but then it's kinda getting fast paced, knowing they'll have to end it by episode 36. And then there are so much convenience, just because this character is this, so he could always do this, like no! that's bullshit. and it was not even a satisfactory revenge, because they started pulling all these cards that they didn't even hinted early on.
The acting was good, I didn't pay much attention to it since it was not that "OH MY GOD TOP TIER ACTING" it was good and that's it.
Minor nitpick criticism, even though I thought this is on par with korean dramas, like the overall product is very well presented, they still don't know how to end an episode. Like there will be an important conversation or scene and then the episode would just suddenly end.
The soundtracks are top tier, but sometimes maybe occasionally they can't time it when to play the soundtrack, or like sometimes they would play it a little late, I might download them later, so I can listen to it over and over.
Overall, this was a good c-drama and I would highly recommend it if you can sit through 20 episodes of build up.
I was kinda worried when I finished episode 1, cuz I thought this would be one of those shows that I would watch at 1.5 speed so I could move on right away, but I decided to push thru ep 2 and by the end of it I was like "Hmmmm... this might have a chance", so I watched the next episode and MY. GOD. I was finally hooked.
The story was SLOOOOOOW AF, but I didn't mind it, because it's good, heck even the side characters are well fleshed out. Also, since the back story was them at college being an IT student, I was kinda interested in that part, since I also took an IT course in college. So it was really fun to see them coding and the way the writers wrote it is that they kinda put good vanilla romance cutesy crumbs here and there to keep you hooked. So you'll be there sitting watching episode to episode waiting for the payoff like "JUST CONFESS ALREADY!!!"...
I think if the series didn't start at the part where they are all adult and started at the university part, I think it would've been a good start. Cuz you're watching ep 1 & 2 and you're so lost like wtf is happening then suddenly at episode 3 you're now watching a backstory??? and then they should've cut the series into 2 seasons. Episode 3 is where they should've started then ended it around episode 17/18 where the romance payoff is and that would've been a perfect 10/10 College Romance Drama because, I was worried when the ML and FL confessed to each other like "Well, they're basically together? how could you go more from this??" cuz after the confession there was a time skip, so they're are now 4th yr college, who are about to graduate and enter the world of adults. And story from there slowly started to fell off a little hence I couldn't give it a full 10/10(well, at least for me).
The transition from University to them being adults was kinda fast paced a little and then some sprinkle of bullshit and then when we got back to where the story from episodes 1 & 2 left off, that's when the drama started turning into a Business Revenge Series.
The business side was fun like them entering the Professional world of the IT Industry, specifically the Game Dev Industry, I think it's really fun. I think even if they stretch the series to 50 to even 100 episodes turning it into a Slife of Life of just them and their daily lives as Game Developers, I think I would still eat the shit out of it. But the Revenge side is where they fell flat, in the beginning, it was good, but then it's kinda getting fast paced, knowing they'll have to end it by episode 36. And then there are so much convenience, just because this character is this, so he could always do this, like no! that's bullshit. and it was not even a satisfactory revenge, because they started pulling all these cards that they didn't even hinted early on.
The acting was good, I didn't pay much attention to it since it was not that "OH MY GOD TOP TIER ACTING" it was good and that's it.
Minor nitpick criticism, even though I thought this is on par with korean dramas, like the overall product is very well presented, they still don't know how to end an episode. Like there will be an important conversation or scene and then the episode would just suddenly end.
The soundtracks are top tier, but sometimes maybe occasionally they can't time it when to play the soundtrack, or like sometimes they would play it a little late, I might download them later, so I can listen to it over and over.
Overall, this was a good c-drama and I would highly recommend it if you can sit through 20 episodes of build up.
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