Ah phooey. This was my most anticipated drama release of the month AND THE YEAR, but compared to my expectations, I was sadly a bit disappointed. The second half of the show just really lost the juice that was driving the beginning and I started to feel detached. First of all, I personally felt that the leads lacked chemistry to the point where I didn't care about what happened to their relationship. They were almost too perfect for each other, but the breakup was a bit too sudden in my opinion, especially since they were depicted as super stable. Which brings me to my main problem with the couple: they felt underdeveloped. We soared through their "crush" phase (which was incredibly short, making me wonder why they even liked each other) and when they were in a relationship, I quickly got bored of the couple. Surprisingly though, this show didn't seem to focus on the romance, and was much more focused on Hye Jun's family.
Side notes:
What happened to Hae Hyo? I was so prepared to feel for him and get some angsty second lead syndrome, but he just kind of disappeared? He quickly lost relevance in the middle, making me wonder what the point and importance of his character was. He got more screen time in the end, but I just did not empathize with him at all as he felt underdeveloped.
Hae Na and Ji-u were so cute. They deserved more screen time and development and I am devastated.
Hye Jun's character and struggles in the beginning made it super easy to feel for him. However, his character got lost in the second half. My fears were confirmed: the show just became less interesting for me after Hye Jun got famous and rich.
A couple of times I felt like they skipped through time too much. It was a little choppy, like when Hye Jun was suddenly finished shooting a drama or when Jeong Ha quit her job and was teaching? I'm not even sure what she was doing it was never explained.
We never got to learn too much about Jeong Ha in my opinion. This show was focused on Hye Jun (which was refreshing since kdramas usually focus on the female lead) but it made me feel detached from Jeong Ha's character and I couldn't really grasp who she was and never got to the point of rooting for her or relating to her.
I'm not sure if it's just me, but there was kind of a lot of acting that felt a bit awkward.
The OST was super good. It fit the youth theme really well and was quite refreshing!