NOTHING HAPPENS.

Well so guess what? NOTHING HAPPENS. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Well until maybe the last 45 mins of the drama.

Well the cinematography was amazing. The drama is full of some really stunning, creative shots. 10/10 on that front really. But really, didn’t expect anything else from a Netflix production. The coloring really suited the “tone” they were going for, kinda greyish and dark. We have this very sudden change of coloring whenever we have romantic scenes which is okay I guess maybe but it kind of just highlighted again why I really can’t stand romances in these type of dramas unless the people creating it actually know what they doing. IT JUST DOESNT FIT. It doesn’t fit so much that we have to create an almost seperate space for this romance to exist through doing things like changing the colouring. I don’t know if I’m making any sense but that’s how I saw it.

The acting was really good. Like actually amazing. Best performance for me goes to Hye-won. She completely nailed her character for me. The actresses and actors are so beautiful. I was blown away so many times through out the drama cause of it. They look great. Unfortunately and obviously that isn’t enough to save this show.

It was a mess. I’m not sure the writers knew what they were doing with this one. First of all we start of with a great premise. An angry brother looking to avenge his brother who he believes was murdered by students at a school of the elites. Come on now who doesn’t love a good revenge plot with rich and powerful people too. But here the problem already starts, there barely was any revenge.
This supposedly angry and devestated brother gets so caught up in a romance that he forgets what he is even here for. The drama shifts the plot of the drama from this ‘revenge’(which we only really gains traction in the first episode until slowly and slowly shrinking in relevance) to exploring Ha’s feeling for Jae-i. In less than 2 episodes Jae-i manages to become as important to Ha as his brother. It was absolutely stupid.
I loved Jae-I’s character but was I the only one that thought she was slightly insane? Like why were we pretending like Ri-an wasn’t that bad? Yes he wasn’t hitting these kids but he he played a huge role in it but I was supposed to what? Still swoon over him and the strong and amazing feeling he had for Jae-I???
The drama spent so long trying to evoke pity and sympathy for characters who really didn’t deserve it. At the end of the day they were horrible people and no matter how sweet they are to each other THAT will never change. But the drama seemed to act like they had given these characters a redemption arc even before they actually had given them that redemption arc(they never really do even get a redemption arc).
The plot was boring. Nothing interesting. It just dragged and talked about the same things over and over. Even the plot twists were so mediocre. Ha was too busy trying to be a “good person”(it was really only cause he liked Jae-I) he didn’t do anything interesting enough and well good for him but not so good for the drama. I think what Hierachy taught us all is you can’t do revenge plots without morally grey characters. It doesn’t work. In my opinion Seon-woo should have led this plan. He seemed to be the only one willing to actually set this shit on fire WHICH IS WHAT I CAME FOR NOT WHATEVER THIS WAS.

Most of the drama and chaos only really happens in the middle of the last episode . We finally get to see some sort of justice coming in to play and even that was so horrendously anti climatic and before you know it we are back to where we were before. And then guess what? When you think it’s all over, WE ARE BACK TO THE ROMANCE. What did the writing team even want for the outcome of this drama.
And the most annoying part of it all? The final gag of disappointment? The fact that it wasn’t even one of the kids that killed In-Han. They literally ruined and took away the one thing that was gonna make this show interesting.

It’s just a romance drama really, with a side story. That’s it (I should have listened to that Netflix tag, dammit)
Also some of the clothes these characters wore? It was worrying.

This was just a shell of a show, made of hopes and dreams that they didn’t know how to keep up with. And that’s just too bad.

Read More

Actually pretty well done

Going into this I didn't really know what to expect. There was quite a bit of hype built around it when it first came out so I was quite excited to watch it.

The story is very interesting. It's new and I think they did a pretty good job in developing it. We get various characters, all with their own individual flaws and baggage. You come to despise the characters(which is not a bad thing at all obviously, especially when the characters are inherently bad people) as the story continues and we unpack this very complicated, layered story. When we are first introduced to the couple Tee and White I was so in love. And then when Tee's personality is given to us I was just hoping they wouldn't show any more romance between them cause I knew I wouldn't be able to enjoy it BUT they managed to use the romance to add more devastation which I thought was actually genius. It's not just a stupid romance in the midst of this disaster, but rather used as Tee's and White's worst fears and punishments.
The ending I thought was perfect. Like I was not expecting that at all and it suited the storyline I think.

The production was really well done. I don't know if I'm insane, but at the beginning of the drama the camera work takes on the 'found footage' style when we have super dramatic scenes like running in the woods and fighting/arguments. The camera shakes a lot and follows the actors in this almost rapid way that gives off the impression that it's not by a professional camera crew, that we as the audience just happen to be stumbling upon what's happening to these boys in the woods. And then as we go back to the past, and more of the story comes out we go back to that production and camera style we are used to and I thought that was a cool touch(if I registered that correctly).
They also really managed to give the drama this eerie, uncomfortable feel to it that I really liked. They really had me flitching away and genuinely scared.

I thought the acting was good, especially taking into account that most of them are very new actors. I was more impressed by how great they did in really dramatic scenes that need really good acting to pull off like in the last episode. Mio left a wonderful impression on me, I think he did an absolutely great job.

This was actually a pretty good watch, I really enjoyed it. i think they really did the plot justice.

Read More