Let's Face It: It's A Youth Drama With the Wrong Lessons

Let's admit the fact that Start Up's premise is that of a youth drama, coming of age set with "rainbows and unicorns sailing without a map" set in a very demanding and fast paced world of Start Ups and Tech.

Park Hye Run hasn't made such a youth oriented drama since Dream High (also with Suzy) as she tackled really deep and quite interesting topics such as integrity, justice and 'doing the right thing' in all her shows between Dream High and Start-Up.

I won't go into the summary of the plot because everyone else has gone through it, but here is a more technical and objective review of the series.

The core theme was all about the tech industry and business behind it, which was a great refresher. Business topics in Korean Dramas aren't new, but the attack from the first half of the series was fresh and nostalgic to a mature viewer who once aimed to change the world and are now hit by the realities that they wish to change, and the idealism that the writer would like to express and show the youth in "following their dreams."

Of course no drama is complete without love - but that's exactly the topic that threw the drama off by overextending its due date. The rising action towards the revelation of the real letter writer, the foundations of such letters, and the actions each character did became the core focus of the entire first half, which is quite magnificent, touching and in fact very relatable - but also created probably the greatest divide in terms of characterization that I've seen in KDramas.

The further you watch, the more glaring it became: Start-up easily layered a cross-generational drama and gripe because of the levels of maturity the main leads (Dal mi and Do san) and the 'supposed' support (Ji Pyeong and Choi Won Deok halmeoni - Dal Mi's grandmother, to be exact - as she is technically our fourth lead here)

With a youthful cast, supported by seasoned thespians as second leads, it could easily have been two separate story lines to reach the goals they are all searching for, and that is where the boundaries were severely misplaced by involving Ji Pyeong to a love triangle that was already weak at the beginning, extending an unnecessary tragic plot for the character that has a ML backstory that made viewers hooked.

I could mutter and rant all along with how injustice was done towards the role of Ji Pyeong and all the values that Park Hye Run tried to instill in all her past series this decade (2011 to 2020) went down the drain because of one show, but I'd rather attack this review as rational I can get, "emotions aside, " which was the key tone she wanted for every other mature individual - character and audience - to withhold, so that a Dal Mi - Do San angle would be shoved to our throats.

I cannot blame Suzy and Nam Joo Hyuk. Both showed acting prowess in other series they starred in, which called for a more vivid interaction and micro-expressions we could not see in the entire 16 episodes. Experience? They could use more adlibs. Miscast? Probably. But same could be said to the other side of the equation if they are pitched as leads.

Kim Seon Ho and Kim Hae Sook were gems - the only redeeming factors of the casting, considering they placed everyone else aside like half baked cookies. Even Kang Hanna, who's considered as a second female lead, felt like a plot device so that everyone can bow down to such a crazy and unreal plot, like a rowdy bull charging its horns over an audience.

Instead, love could have been used instead as a plot device to settle and sort out the differences in the immaturity of Ji Pyeong's character towards indebtedness and the need for filial support, and greater purpose, something which was glaringly communicated since Ep1, but shoved as a romantic angle between a mature, almost-40 man, and spunky-late 20's youth with the need to learn more about life's twists and turns, which the real confession ending in Ep16, depriving the audience of the 'divine' justice they have set up for the character since Ep2. The wise use of symbolisms at the start of the show were thrown away, which is ironic considering how Park Hye Run relies on it so much in her past work.

As for the lessons? The 'kids' got away with everything, and the grown-ups were made to 'eat their words, ' albeit reluctantly. The reverse is true in the real world. It sets a dangerous 'rainbows and unicorns' precedence to any young individual with the hope of starting their own business.

Overall, it was an emotional rollercoaster, and a mentally anguishing pain to watch. Something that's starkingly and snarkily told to mature audiences by the 'kids' who pretended to mature in the series - to completely set emotions aside and use their rational judgment on them. It leaves a bitter aftertaste which could have been remedied had they focused on two different plots of romance and self growth equally among the leads, than drag the mature character, Ji Pyeong into an unnecessary immature and toxic situation - and wallowing in like a pig in the mud, a contrast where most mature audiences are dying to get out of such toxicity in their lives.

Considering that Park Hye Run and Oh Choong Hwan have worked with the majority of the cast of Start-Up in various hit shows, they should have known better - and have no one but themselves to blame for such a violent and divided reaction from fans.

For what it's worth, you're sucked in the story because its too close to reality (no one gets bedridden in the hospital, no bus explosions and no present time deaths, car crashes or kidnappings). But that's exactly where the frustration sets in - as such a content like this is supposed to be an escape for the majority of people who feel deprived or invalidated in their life in needing of the justice and love the feel they deserve - exactly like Ji Pyeong.

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