No No No No La La No

WTF!!!!!!!!!
If someone I loved pretended to be dead for 5 yrs and suddenly appeared in front of me, I wouldn't even want to look at their face.

The grief from death isn't the same as the grief from a breakup.

The writer had been playing with this since the beginning by giving the doctor a case of pills to carry everywhere. Writers should stop trying to make the audience cry. At this point they just seem like the bad teacher that hits you so you become better. This is not a healthy way of creating emotions in people.
The last few 4 or so episodes seemed like fillers with lots of throwbacks and nonsensical plot lines.
It's ok to make dramas shorter. If a story can be told better in fewer episodes, do it! It's better than spoiling a story that was good to begin with.

This idea of going through hard times alone even if you have loved ones is an Asian ideal that I can't really understand and I believe it's so damaging considering the mental health and suicide issues that are so prevalent there. Especially in South Korea. We've seen so many idols die to suicide. Pushing this idea that you have to endure hardships alone and come back to your loved ones when you're "not broken anymore" and not cause them "trouble" is something that might make this issue worse.

I can't stand by this drama anymore. The ending message is very damaging to those suffering from any sort of illness.

I'm not even going to speculate about the ending. It doesn't matter. It is what it is. And it doesn't do it for me.

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It could be so much better

We all know this could be so much better.
It was messy and boring at times. The acting is the only reason I'm giving it a high score. The actors were all amazing.

I don't like the beauty ideal message sent by the drama. I wish we could stop feeding the plastic surgery industry. It makes me think they have a drama lobby.
Somehow all the dramas that deal with looks different than the ideal all try to change the person instead of working for acceptance. You see that with beauty and weight (oh my venus, gangnam beauty, coffee do me a favor).
Even the drama weightlifting fairy kim bok joo has that problem, calling perfectly normal women overwheight and recommending skin whitening creams (that one didn't escape me and I hate that drama for that.)
It's 2020. Let's start accepting people come in all shapes and sizes. More diversity and true acceptance lead to a better and kinder society. Stop brainwashing young girls and young women into thinking they need to change their looks to be accepted or valuable. They don't.

I also have a thing with the main song! YOU HAVE SOME NERVE SINGING I'M SO LONELY WHILE WE'RE WATCHING THE LEADS KISS!!! hahaha

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They should all be single

If you won't bother updating a story to present day standards, why bother making it?

This was like watching a kdrama from 15 yrs ago. The levels of stoicism, toxicity and overal domestic violence are so disturbing. I thought we had evolved from that. Apparently, there are many people who still want this type of revivalism. I say just watch older kdramas. We don't need younger generations learning to love from these type of stories. We break generational trauma.

The story was clear, simple and predictable but that was expected and there's nothing wrong with that.

What's wrong with this story is passing the idea that people have to assume a stoic posture whenever they're facing hardships and can't lean on their loved ones to not be a burden. That's very bad because it goes hand in hand with the huge mental health problem they have in South Korean. It's time we show people better coping mechanisms.
This also disregards the age of technology. They have video chat, texts all at the reach of a finger. This "he'll disappear for countless days" doesn't seem plausible anymore, unless he's a player.

It also doesn't seem plausible to simply disregard all the harm people have done to you just because some time has passed by or because they used to have a relationship. It doesn't make sense?! That's just foolish and disregards all instincts of self-preservation.

Both the main and the second lead couples have so many red flags. The possessiveness, the control, the violence! There's another review on here that goes into that in depth, so please read it. It's very accurate.

Don't let anyone tell you this is what love is supposed to be. Love also isn't letting go of your dreams and opportunities because of your partner. He has money to pay for a carer.

The acting was ok. There was some cuteness but that seemed lacking. The male lead was too cute and soft for this role, he didn't have the presence that I feel the role demanded.

I hope that if they pick up older stories they take the time to update them.

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I'm happy it ended

If I'm happy it ended, it must not have been that great.

It started off well, it made me laugh out loud in real life, which is rare, so I thought this would be a good one. It wasn't, but it wasn't bad also. Probably some chewing gum for the brain since it's hard to be left with anything that's remotely mind tickling.

The best part is how strong the female characters are. The worse part is the lack of a compelling story and the boredom of the main couple.

It was great they have communication and the woman isn't a scared little kitty, she has thoughts and wishes and voices them clearly. On the other hand, even the male lead's voice is boring and lack some sort of personality. Being old and supernatural isn't a personality. He wasn't even that supernatural, we hardly saw magic in action except for the first episodes.
Sometimes, when they were together, I didn't know if what irked me was him acting old or the way she seemed to be infantilised when next to him. We didn't even get a surprising return, he was gone and then he just appeared back again as if he had gone to the convenience store. There was no build up, she just wakes up, he's there and we don't even see her run to him. Nothing.

The side characters had more life and more conflict. It was a shame some of those stories weren't developed.

To sum it up, it was ok but it wasn't good.

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It could have been better

This has a very hard theme for me, the Alzheimer's part, I couldn't watch those parts, but that's on me.

I feel like this drama could have been so much better if it developed the second lead character and the mystery behind his story. 

I could connect with the drama, in the beginning. Life can really be hard sometimes, but I like that the women all seem to be strong and pulling through despite their flaws. They're not just walking clichés.

The male lead's character was too bland and couldn't really connect with him until I knew about his back story. Still, he felt it very differently and showed almost no emotion except when faced with the writer on his deathbed bed. It certainly wasn't the way I lived the illness and I can't relate to that.

I feel like the male lead just had to be there, just because. His conflict and ways he could have intervened were completely overlooked. So many times he simply turned his back on the lead and didn't stand up for her. I would have stood up for her even if I didn't know her, how can a friend and love interest just throw you under the bus like that? 


On a positive note, I liked that they used one of my favourite bands for the soundtrack (The Black Skirts) and that they didn't make them 30-yo virgins or celibates and acknowledged that sex exists in a simple way. 


I was expecting this drama to get me into Korean literature but I can't. All the texts and the way they talk about books is too cheesy and poetic for me to understand and not find boring and annoying. I guess it's not my thing.

So it feels incomplete, not quite there yet. 

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Couldn't finish it

They managed to make this more toxic and more violent than the Kdrama. I thought they would bring this to the 2020's. I can’t see a redemption or a real change, they just accepted Gorya and decided to be on her side.
I can't even see any relationship between the leads. There's nothing there. F4 wasn't charismatic at all. Gorya wasn't as strong. There was more chemistry in Lita's and Gorya's first encounter than there was in all the scenes between the leads.

I know they have to promote the produts in the show but they don't need to promote dieting or small figures for women.

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Space is closer than North Korea

What I learned from all this is that it's easier to have a relationship with an alien than with a North Korean.

I also learned the importance of money and being born in an important family.

It took me a while to watch this drama because of the hype around it. I kept watching spoilers and I was worried they'd ruin the experience for me. I was wrong. The story did that on its own.
Yes, my expectations were high since I loved this author's past work. The drama wasn't bad, it just wasn't as good as I thought and it makes it very hard for me to understand all the hype around this drama.

The main thing that still sticks out for me is that Yoon Se Ri is not a likable character. She's not relatable, she comes from privilege and meanness and that makes all the acts of kindness she does seem unauthentic. Even at the end. How is it believable that the CEO of a major corporation spends her lunch hour with her subordinates in subway? They could have least set the lunch up in their meeting room or in the company's cafeteria. I know, I know, product placement and all.

There was no chemistry. I don't know if the main actors were compensating because of the dating rumours but there was no chemistry. The sweet moments were very few. You mean to tell me they meet each other for the first time after being apart and all they do is eat, work, shop for clothes and work and exchange couple rings? There are no demonstrations of love and this is why the very dramatic scenes seem a little artificial, because there was no proper build up.

The secondary story was done better but there was absolutely no reason to kill him off. The scene was dramatic enough. It was just cruel and I didn't even care for that character that much.

There's a difference between being uninformed and being dumb. There was no need to depict North Koreans as dumb. They even did that with the main character. He lived alone in Switzerland, I'm sure he would know how to use a coffee machine or would at least figure it out. I'm not going to talk much about how they depicted North Korea because I don't have enough information, it seemed as if they went with a 70's theme as that's it.

I did have some fun, I did enjoy the story and had some laughs and cried a little bit as well.

The ending is very bittersweet. They misused the fingerprint door thingie. It would have been more impactful if he showed up at her place at some point. Their encounter was a bit anticlimactic.
They spend two weeks together every year. I have a closer relationship with my mail delivery person. Even the alien from another star was able to come back and have a proper relationship. The mermaid had to stay near the ocean but she was present! Why didn't they both move to Switzerland or any other country? He lived abroad before.

Anyway, I'll miss some of the characters.

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So so boring

I believe the main issue with how bad it was is the story telling. Everything is a sequence of a sequence and it's not a causality, you're only told the cause when you're no longer interested in knowing. The situations aren't revealed, they seem to be tailor made to fit a very explicit and simple narrative.

I was expecting it to be at least average but it wasn't. It's boring, long, without a purpose and, as the episodes amount, it becomes unbearable.

I don't know how to put this, but at some point it seemed like ¡ncest. The leads look very physically alike, they could be siblings in real life. To add to that, they build a very strong and long friendship relationship without any signs of romance. They were raised like siblings, treat each other like strangers and then go back to behaving like siblings. It's like things just happen without a rhyme or a reason. Then they show you the reason but it feels like something they made up to account for what happened. It doesn't feel true.

The acting was too plastic, fake even. Over exaggerated fights and screams, they looked theatrical instead of believable. You can't portray truth if it isn't mildly believable.
The paramedic could be young at heart and like and maybe believe in superheroes without acting childish or speaking in a childish manner.
I don't blame the actors for any of this, actors do what directors and writers assign them to do.

There were some interesting themes but they weren't properly developed and I find that sad and a waste.

Something that has been bothering me is how Korean dramas portray the ownership of a restaurant as something the owner does themselves and by themselves. You can't physically be the cook, the dish washer, the waitress, etc of a restaurant. Restaurants are businesses, they need profit. You can't have two tables and say it's a restaurant, it won't have enough turnover to even break even. You can't have the same person who's cooking tending to the tables. Has anyone in the kdrama world ever worked in a restaurant or been in a restaurant and looked around? This is not the first kdrama that portrays restaurants in this manner. If, indeed, Koreans have to do all those things by themselves, then I guess that's a part of why they have a mental health crisis, because it's physically and mentally impossible to run a restaurant or even a café without staff.
Yes, this seems a very petty thing to have an issue with, but the little things are what makes a story believable or not. If it really works like that in South Korea, storytellers should be criticising how that's not sustainable or ideal, because it's not.

I'm leaving this review here because this platform seems to have a problem with real opinions that don't put their favourite media on the same pedestal they do.
We can only build better media by being honest in our opinions.

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Baby teeth don't last forever

The first part was good but soon you realise there is no depth. The hints are all there and the writers decide not to take them.

How can someone who has lived for centuries be so ignorant especially about how people work and think? How can a vampire so old be poor? How can someone who has a business not account for the future? There were banks and safe deposit boxes in the 20's. Why does he have servants and how did they agree to follow a leader who doesn't lead at all and has nothing to offer in exchange?

He had loved before and failed to recognise it. He needed a 20 something year old to tell him that? How is everyone around him so unwise? How did it take him so long to realise she was HER when it was right there?

How can there be no solution? How can such an old cat not have any answers? How can he offer no paths since he's seen as a sort of spiritual leader or oracle?

The beginning was exciting but by the time the leads got together I was no longer interested.

The ending was pitiful and didn't make any sense. She'll live her whole life waiting for someone when she's not immortal. She'll continue the cycle instead of ending it. You need to be immortal when you're waiting on a reincarnation.


It's also an issue when casting actors with an age gap. It's best to have no kissing scenes than to give us non-kisses. There was one kiss and it was enough. the other ones were non kisses. Instead of going for age gaps, it's best to cast older actresses. There's nothing wrong with women not being in their 20's anymore. We need to be allowed to age. We are not vampires.

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Was this funded by the plastic surgery industry?

This wouldn't be bad if the main plot wasn't so offensive. What's wrong with being 50 years old? If the message is age doesn't matter, they should have cast 50 yo actresses.
The message I got is that if you want to date a younger man (in their 30's) when you're older, you need to look like you're in your early 20's or like a teenager and that 50yo can't have hopes and dreams or do certain types of jobs. That's the patriarchy on steroids teaching very young girls who watch this show that they're only valid while they look extremely young.

People should look their age. There should be more representation of older women in the media.

And plastic surgery is not a youth elixir.

Now about the rest of the show:
Considering the type of show, it was good. It was Thai comedy but not over the top. There were some funny parts, especially with Satta, the boss and Pop Purim. It was a funny dynamic.
I'm afraid Jimmy ruined the word daddy even more for me but he was funny and so out of touch at times. It was good seeing Max in a less serious role.

Mew was better than I expected. I believe his acting is improving. There was a mix of seriousness and silliness in his character and he managed to navigate through those two extremes. His character, unfortunately, didn't learn anything at the end of the show and ghosted his supposed girlfriend again. Someone get Pop Purim a LINE account!

I didn't enjoy how much they infantilised the girls. Bee was the only one who sometimes was a bit more mature. The most realistic part was Plaifah not being tech savvy and leaking their private conversation but it clashed with her being the spy or maybe not. That part wasn't very clear for me.

It was a light watch for me. I hope every young girl and women and even older women who watch this don't feel bad about their age or about how they look or about getting older. Aging is a good thing, it means we're still alive and, hopefully, living.
Society has all these goals and boxes to limit us, don't let anyone except yourself decide what you can and cannot do. It doesn't matter how many wrinkles you have. What matters is if you manage to keep the fire in your heart alive. I hope you do!

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We're not going back

I wasn't going to write a review but there's just too much that bothers me about this drama. It was bad.

I had hoped this drama was good since both leads are some of my favourite actors but it was very disappointing. Rowoon had, so far, chosen the most green flag characters to play and that's something I liked about his dramas. Bo Ah has some of the strongest, smartest and best characters I've seen in kdramas. This choice was very disappointing coming from them.

It's impressive how they managed to milk a non-story into 16 episodes. You only get a sense of the story by episode 13. This could be a 6 episode drama. You can't set up a backstory and basically ignore it for most of the episodes, even forget it exists and then suddenly remember it again. It's boring and nonsensical.

The mean CEO doesn't fit the main character. It's probably one of my most hated tropes, but even if it wasn't, it doesn't make sense. They say he was in love with her after the spell and then go back and say he was in love with her from the start. HE WASN'T! He wasn't even interested in her. He was his bully cheerleader.
The love triangle also makes no sense. The other guy is only interested in her once she has another guy? That's just not wanting someone else to play with your toys, it's not interest or love.

Everything seems so outdated and awful. We're not going back to these types of relationships. There's a lot of misogyny and men mediocrity and this is why we'll continue choosing the bear. I'm hoping movement 4B reaches kdrama land. We don't need to teach young girls and women these types of standards. They're not acceptable anymore.

The FL only stands up to protect "her man" that she loves more than life itself. She doesn't mind harming herself for him to be ok and nothing she does protects him anyway. She keeps putting herself in trouble instead of thinking with her own head. This isn't love, it's some sort of sordid obsession caused by some love bombing.

Among other things that bother me in this drama, there are some that take the cake:
- the talk about purity. It's weird, inaccurate and cringe.
- he offers her a literal handcuff as a symbol of their love.
- everyone is evil for no reason. her colleagues are evil and annoying. They don't even stop being evil or using her once they start talking to her and having meals with her.
- their parents relationship of abuse is awful. What's more awful is that she goes back to him because his company is in trouble. That won't stop the abuse, he won't love her now that she's gone back, things won't get better. He treats his wife so badly and wants his son to have a relationship just like his, someone he can manipulate and abuse. The mother is constantly repeating the abuse she's inflicted and she says that her son chose someone just like her, equally dumb. That's a high level of self-hatred and misogyny.
- the songs don't match the vibe. This drama should be set in another decade according to the misogyny and music.
- the florist storyline makes no sense. There is no indication that he was a chaman in his previous life. He was a guard. His obsession with FL doesn't make sense once we establish that the love potion doesn't work. Her meeting him alone after he tried to murder ML also isn't smart at all. Meeting him alone without any plan and attacking him with a stick? She didn't even have a rock? Things don't add up.
- not even the police on call and a bunch of bodyguards can deal with a woman's stupidity. To be a bait there needs to be a plan, Getting caught and calling the police is not a plan.
- two grown-ass women fighting over a man whose only positive traits seem to be being a handyman and knowing some martial art is cringe, to say the least. It's like they're trying to bring back the idea that women constantly fight each other because "good men are scarce". I believe more in "p€nis is abundant and of low value". This drama confirms my thoughts.
- what made me write this review was how they treated child bullying. In no instant in that interaction did they simply tell the children that bullying is bad. Saying it is illegal and it won't allow them to be famous or earn a lot of money isn't the same as talking about the moral values behind not harming other people. We know it's not true. Not even in South Korea bullying has ruined many careers. Not even the r@pists have seen their careers completely ruined. Even if that were true, and people's lives got bleak (as they said in the drama) because of being prosecuted for this behaviour, it doesn't address the issue, it doesn't stop it. It just tells them they shouldn't get caught doing it.
- the idea that poor people are uncivil and uneducated. There's nothing more rude than arguing with someone in a hospital bed and treating everyone, except your son, like they're beneath you. The women constantly putting themselves down to cater to this man is obnoxious and sad. His outburst and nonsense aren't funny at all.
- the thing about being pregnant and the whole first time is absolute cringe. I'm not even going to talk about that old-fashioned lights off and white dressing shirt in a closet full of clothes kind of nonsense.
- cooking is not a talent, it's a skill.
- women, especially the ones who have been married, are not rushing to marry again. They pressured her to get married. Read the room!
- the unreasonable jealousy is also so last decade.

In conclusion, the ML is a walking red flag and somehow changes personality in the middle of the drama. The FL is one of the weakest I've seen in a while. We're assuming having your heart stop will get you rid of a curse that we don't even know if it's true or not and having it beat again counts as a new life. I don't think it even works like that with cats. It's a half-arsed story with a great cast and a good production. I hate it.

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Run Away

Save yourself!
Run Away would be a better name since this drama seems to run away from every point it makes as soon as it touches it.
I really wanted to like this drama. I wanted to like the characters but I couldn't care less what happened to them after the first few episodes.

This drama seems to be written on the spot without an overall look. Every episode seems to run in an unexpected direction that doesn’t tie in with the previous or the next one in a meaningful way. After a certain point, it seems more like a never-ending advert than a drama.

What puzzled me the most was that the characters' personalities didn’t seem to match their actions a lot of the time. FL was extremely straightforward, brave and insightful, yet she couldn’t be honest with ML and would speak in riddles and makeup problems and misunderstandings. I honestly don't know how their relationship worked or why they fell in love. No, pity doesn't lead to love. Not healthy love, at least. Empathy and pity are very different.

A lot of the plot points seemed so useless. She invited him to stay over so he wouldn't be alone, yet didn’t make him company. They lived in completely different time zones. How can you fall in love with someone you hardly have contact with? They're also very different and don't have anything in common. "Opposites attract" only tends to work for batteries.
They seemed like friends most of the time. There was no spark, there was no relationship. They seemed like colleagues at times who were sharing the same space out of obligation.

The second leads' relationship also doesn't make any sense at all. The CEO isn't likeable. There's no reason for the constant breakups. It makes no sense how someone with a congenital heart disease drinks a whole bottle of whisky at least once a week.
At first I thought she would drive him away because of her disease, but in the end, she drove him away for no reason at all. If she had to be destroyed in her line of business, she would have already by being (falsely) outed as a lesbian.

Also, the art always pertains to the artist even after it's sold. A Renoir doesn’t stop being a Renoir just because he's dead or because it was sold.

What I hate the most is that the man who used his whole family for personal gain was forgiven in the end. Didn't they learn anything?

There's too much that doesn't make any sense at all. It's not even worth mentioning. With such a good cast I was expecting something better, something different. Maybe this drama just isn't for me.

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Pretty on the outside, not much value on the inside

I really hate it when the media treats women as if we have an expiration date.
The body of a 20yo isn't much different of a body of a 30yo. This is evident on the way they treat the women and the men in this drama. There's no talk about going back to your 20's body or on how they can't do certain movements anymore. They're 30, not 60!

All this seems ageist and misogynist. The whole blame for the "cheating" was on the woman as if a man has no responsibility when he dates someone. He was the one with the girlfriend, he had to know how to respect his relationship and not the person who didn't know he had someone in his life.

The drama is called how to be thirty yet everyone except for the 24 yo and the film director seem so childish.
The ML was in a half-arsed relationship. He fell back in love with the FL and ended his relationship to start a new one, which is the right thing to do. Yes, when he slept with the FL he was still in a relationship (that's not very clear because he's seen ending things with the girlfriend several times) and could have held off of doing that until after but I don't think it's the big deal they make it in the drama. The FL didn't know about the girlfriend at the time so it's not her fault.

The girlfriend was a brat and the ML said so and he was right, that was proven with her attempt to ruin the FL's career. When someone breaks up with you, you respect it.

When FL has a conversation with the ex-girlfriend at the end, the blame goes around between them and is not direct at who certainly has the blame which is the ML.l, if there were any blame at all.
To me, it seems like it probably even isn't his blame. It looks like he tried to end things with the GF several times but she didn't respect his wishes.


Anyway, this is not what being thirty is. I'm older than that and I honestly can't tell what being thirty is. Probably is what the Caffe lady was, spending a big amount of time with someone you found out you don't connect with and then staying off jumping from relationship to relationship to really figure out what you want in life.

The best part about this were the visuals, the fact that they don't hide that adults have sex and the friendship between the three women.

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Too much of a good thing

First of all, I'm stunned I was able to watch 33 ~one-hour episodes of a love story that was resolved in the first few.

The story is mostly about nothing, except Chinese culture and gastronomy. It's more of a postcard with THREE group trips and not much else. The group dynamic was disturbing a lot of the times. Even I was embarrassed for all the couples. The group was funny but too nosy and always there.

The main thing I have to point out is why are 30 yo men after college girls? That was probably one of the things that irked me the most. I don't find it cute or appropriate. They're in completely different stages in life. That's how manipulation starts in abusive relationships. He doesn't let her do anything with all the "surprises". He didn't even let her savour her graduation and had to put the wedding and their relationship at the centre of such an important time for her. He was, many times, condescending and that upset me a bit.

The pacing in this show is non-existent. I'm surprised, tho, that they didn't have more flashbacks and were able to fill most of the time with new scenes. There were many cute scenes, many funny scenes and the cultural themes were interesting. They presented the world of voice acting and traditional singing quite well.

Besides being able, for someone out of uni, to think they'll be able to buy a house (is the Chinese economy that good?), the other hard thing to believe is all the cooking. It looks like Instagram reel cooking and not real cooking. Everything is fast. All the dishes are done in no time. Taking over a restaurant's kitchen instead of eating with his friends is absurd as is ending up cooking for her family when he was the main guest. Who invites someone for dinner and has absolutely nothing prepared? Where do all the ingredients appear from, is he like Jesus with the fishes? Why would they buy something they didn't know how to cook?

I'm not familiar with what more recent Chinese dramas are doing but waiting 19 episodes for a kiss when they've been dating since episode 8 is absolutely uncanny. It was mostly a friendship until then, only after it was pointed out to them that it was indeed like a friendship did things start to heat up between them.

There isn't much more to say about the story because there wasn't much of a story. Everyone is nice and everything is good and there are no obstacles and the obstacles that are probably what, in real life, would end this relationship - like the fact that someone who is a doctor who has a second job and a university student who doesn't study and is mostly a supermarket clerk - aren't shown to us. It's good to have a sweet drama but too much of a good thing isn't necessarily good. There was no need for 33 episodes.

The voices are amazing. The performances both of the voice acting and the singing are fantastic. It made me curious about that world. The male lead has a voice that can move mountains.

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Anti-Climax

It started well, it was fun and engaging and it had a good starting point.
The main problem I believe is the storytelling. The notion of show not tell is completely lost on this K-drama. The last episode, with the children's play, is a true representation of that. They show us the story we just watched and include the story we just watched again. It's like saying the audience isn't smart enough to take a hint.

A lot of the plot points were too forced. Everything was conveniently placed or things conveniently happened, like FL having to enter the dating show. I didn't mind that if it continued to be fun but it wasn't.

There seemed to be no romance outside of the love triangle. Once the love triangle stopped, the romance turned into a friendship.

The most important part was the emphasis on mental health and the importance of being honest with oneself.
I believe it was mostly a story about how harmful stoicism is and its implications for our mental health and our relationships with ourselves and the ones around us. So, don't bottle it up and don't go through hardships alone. We can be trees but we're also a forest.

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