After reading all those raving reviews, amazing feedback and comments and the cult following this kdrama developed, i decided to watch it, but in the very end, i left feeling dissapointed... I guess the bar was set too high because of all the overexciting reviews and the show couldn't possibly live up to the expectations. In no case, this was a bad drama, but i really don't get what was so 'perfect' about it. Here are some of my thoughts
STORY
Your very basic romantic comedy. The story is pretty straightforward. The story is set in the late 90s, we have a band of friends and we see their everyday life. The story has two goals. Goal 1: 90s nostalgia: teenage problems/school/ dreams for the future ect, kpop's first years of success and blooming. Goal 2: First Love.
In terms of story that was it. Pretty plain isn't it? I mean i've watched complicated-enough-to-keep-things-interesting rom-coms, and this definately wasn't it. Yes, i like complicated and deep things. Here, the characters felt superficial and childish, there was no effort to scratch the surface and get deeper with feelings (and the fact that they are teenagers doesn't feel like an enough excuse to give it a pass), and that bothered me. Yes, the comedy was on point, but that couldn't save anything.
The plot was heavily based on the multiple love triangles. In this band of friends, everyone is in love with the other one, so you understand what is happening here. Yes, this is a kdrama love triangles are to be expected, but they were overused here. They are nice, but the whole plot was based on them, and driven by them, enough is enough... It got old very fast. They tried to make things interesting when they fastforward to 2012 and they keep us guessing who the female protagonist ends up with, but it was extremely obvious who she would end up with in the end.
They tried to complicate it with some questionable couple options. Like love triangle between brothers, intergenerational loves, same-sex relationships. Even though all these are interesting, and they could have made the story 10x more interesting, the show chooses to go the easiest way make the safest choices and becomes predictable... Sadly....
Generally, the story wasn't that bad, it was just predictable, and done before many many times. The plot was too straightforward, no ups and downs, kinda boring a lot of times.
ACTING
Great, especially if you consider that 90% of the cast consisted of idols or ex-idols.
RECOMMEND/REWATCH
Would i recommend it? If you are a kpop fan, you like romantic comedies about first love and you don't want to watch anything deep, then sure, go ahead. Don't expect to get blown away by it, i don't understand how people got so invested in it, it was good for what it was, but there have been better rom coms out there, definately!
Would i rewatch it? No, it was possibly the most boring kdrama i've watched to this day.
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