Doing my best to be fair, especially as I was able to bear watching so little of this drama. But I had two attempts and still found it unwatchable. Why do so many people seem to love it? Beats me!
It is aimed at 13years plus. I am 5 times that age, so, obviously, this is not for me. But I saw many clips on YT with LSH and was intrigued, I followed my curiosity and so found myself in this awful position. But .... it was, indeed unbearable to watch! And me, well, I watch many dramas made for young people and even children, but I think that even when I was 13 (and I remember myself quite clearly at that age) I would have found this deeply condescending - and if not that, then still just awful.
First - the cast - are great, but my score there could not be higher because frankly the material could not, with the best will in the world be helped by however excellent the acting.
The storyline - I felt that the switching back and forth between school, ice hockey team, and the company was clunky and ... well pretty awful. Either ice hockey or school could be unnecessary - probably the hockey, for me, but who cares. The premis of a schoolboy standing in for his brother had potential - but .... execution failed big time
I found the writing absolutely abysmal with lazy repetition of over-tired cliches. ALL the females were mindless jerks - and this drama's target is probably young girls - which I find completely shameful. Korea is doing it's young people no favours here. Most of the male adults are petrified idiots unable to think or even form a coherent sentence - the young boys were pretty realistic young boys - idiots, too, but well, they are, and that's perfectly OK.
The FL, is yet another cliche - the dowdy, naive, sexually ignorant nerd unable to stand up straight or walk properly, reduced to taking tiny steps and serial self-humiliation. The ML is OK, but written in a pretty lame way. Both these actors did their best given the material - and, I suspect, the director.
If everything got a lot better later on, I apologise, but you need to KEEP your audience for goodness sake!
LSH (appears to play the only human being on the planet - well, apart from the adoptive dad and grandpa - so far, anyway. all those YT clips make him appear his usual cold but powerful tsundere, but (so far) he is lovely. Those scenes in which he featured were the only ones worth watching for me. And I am only a tentative fan of his.
And, yes, the direction - going for slapstick in a certainly fanciful piece, which would I think have been better served by some subtlety. Men unable to navigate a perfectly functional corridor without legs and arms flailing about in panic, women gossiping and simpering at work, and wearing completely inappropriate clothing which would never be tolerated in most offices, everyone unable to speak properly without stuttering, spluttering, and almost gagging on their lines. This is not down to the actors - this is clumsy direction. Technically it was competent filming, but that's it.
If you want to see "impersonation" dramas done even half way decently there are dozens of for example 1930s and 40s black and white films to model your work on - and those are outstanding, so you only need to get half as good to be a lot better than this. And before you object "but this is for teens" I was watching those films at the age of 9 and I still remember them, or those are American - well, the ML is trying to be an ice hockey star so the culture is clearly transferable! Lazy, lazy, lazy direction. Or production, I dunno where the decisions are driven from but it comes from the top.
I'm very aware that this viewing is a paltry sample to base a review on, but I am deeply disappointed with this drama, and I really did do my best! I skipped the most annoying bits or speed-watched and still I was overwhelmed by the sheer dross of it all. I really wanted to like at least the FL but she was so badly written!
Yes, this is an old drama, and has aged very badly - but it did not need to be THAT bad!
If I had been watching as a 13 year old I would have felt the same. Even if watching it at 10 years I would have felt similarly - at that age the complete lack of a strong female character would have had me legging it at the same point in the drama. I'm sure the FL eventually shows her strength, but young girls need a FL who is quickly engaging, and even if imperfect (all the better actually) admirable in some way, and a body of peers who are engaged, intelligent, yes, struggling perhaps, but not completely brainless ALL THE TIME!!!
If you are one of the apparently many who loved this drama - my reaction to it is no comment on your taste - we are all, thankfully, different!
Rant over. I feel a bit better now.