Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze?

I watched True Beauty with no context of the webtoon. I followed Cha Eun-woo here from Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung. This drama is somehow extremely cliche, but also incredibly stress inducing!! There is way too much back and forth in the plot in an attempt to keep viewers hanging. It was like a slow, emotional torture. I was rooting for Cha Eun-woo, but I was still driven crazy by the back and forth of it all, though I knew she would likely end up with him.

They will not let you be happy or relaxed for a single episode of this show. And yes, I mean that in a bad way. It isn’t that you can’t figure out what will likely happen…just think of the thing that will make you cringe/you don’t want to happen, and that is EXACTLY what will happen. Some of the mean girl stuff, not just the blatant bullying, but the betrayal of her friend gave me major anxiety. It was disappointing and stressful.

I thought they did a good job adding humor. The acting overall was really great. I am new to Cha Eun-woo, so I am confused by anyone who thinks he can’t act?! His character, demeanor, EVERYTHING was SO different from Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung. Hwang In-youp did a great job and was one of the most lovable second male leads I have experienced.

I agree with some comments about them not properly fleshing out some big points like: inner beauty, self-confidence, suicide, mental health, etc. I don’t think that the FL was as helpless as some reviewers believed…she did some things I wouldn’t have, but I think that it could’ve been landed better. In a country known for TOXIC beauty standards, NO girl has Cha Eun-woo holding her hand through the school day or running all over Seoul to console her. I wish they had a better message surrounding this.

Overall, I watched this to spend time with Cha Eun-woo, and while he served some major ~looks~ in this show, I didn’t get to enjoy it as much as I hoped. I liked his Mr. Darcy vibe, but there was too much imbalance of stress vs happy moments in this show. I felt like I only got 3 good smiles—boo!! Every time something good happened, I was filled with dread of a bad thing to off set it. If you have anxiety, depression, etc., you may find the juice here to not be worth the squeeze. If not, you may find this okay to watch, as long as you don’t fall for Hwang In-youp, which is also a challenge! Fighting!

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