Expected more, but satisfactory

I’ll start off by saying that I’m writing this after binging this entire season without break so my brain is fried. I apologize if this is incoherent lol.

Firstly, I love this drama overall and would rate s1+s2 a 9/10 bc overall, the story flowed well and the conclusion was satisfactory. However, I think season one is definitely better than this season, in all aspects.

Season one had interesting and engaging games, as did season two, but the problem was that the games this season weren’t showcased as well as the previous games. I felt like there was something missing in each one, I’m not sure how to explain it. Honestly, I just found the games this season quite boring. Still, I can see how this might’ve been intentional since this season is more focused on them finding answers to their questions and conveying the main messages of the drama. Additionally, the games this season were made by previous players that defeated the games but chose to remain in borderland so I guess it makes sense for the games to be easier. Personally though, I still wish this season had the same momentum as the first one did in terms of games since that’s one of my favorite parts about this series.

In terms of acting and performance, I have no complaints. Everyone did really well in their respective roles. The action scenes were amazing and the cgi was done so well, you can tell how much time and money went into this season.

Lastly, I’ll talk about my thoughts on the ending and the explanation for borderland. I’m honestly very conflicted on if I liked the ending or not. Don’t get me wrong, the explanation makes sense and I appreciate that we got a closed ending for the most part. But, I feel like there could’ve been more to it? For example, I would’ve liked to know if borderland was actually real and the meteorite had to be created after the players chose to return, or if borderland was just a metaphor for something. The ending is meant to be interrupted in different ways though, so that’s why I don’t hate it. I like that we got a completed ending that everyone can still make different meanings of. It was a great conclusion to the series.

From my perspective, borderland is self explanatory, it’s literally a borderland between life and death. The meteorite hit and everyone near it was left to fight for their life and in this world, the borderland between life and death is a game world where people’s will to live is tested. Throughout the journey, players question their lives and whether they even want to go back to the real world aka if they even want to live. Those that make it to the end and choose to become citizens give up on life and die/remain in a coma state while those that deny citizenship wake up since they chose to live. I love this interpretation of life and death, especially in the context of the series since everything makes sense. We also get to see different perspectives of life, each of which is important. In the end, you can’t really judge those that remain citizens since there’s a reason they made that choice, whatever it may be.

Overall, I enjoyed this series a lot and would definitely recommend it to everyone. It delivered an engaging story and provided conclusions without leaving too much to interpretation. Alice in borderland, I’ll miss you. :)

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What? How? Why?

The first thing to note about this drama is that it will leave you with more questions than answers, almost no answers actually. Luckily the big question of who the killer is was answered, though not well.

The story was very engaging at first, so much that I binge watched half the episodes within a day. I was really enjoying the plot and mystery in the beginning since there was important discoveries. The questions that came up at the beginning didn't bother me because there was ample time to answer them. What I didn't know then, but soon found out, was that these questions would either be given simple answers or never be answered at all. This drama suffered greatly from a dragged out plot and had issues with plot development as a whole.

At first we're given three (or four) possible suspects and time is given to investigate each of them. They're all quickly ruled out though and the hints for who the killer is seem to stop since the first two murders are stopped, or so we thought. It turns out that the murders the main characters spent numerous episodes trying to stop end up happening anyway lol. That part really upset me because it seemed like all the work they did was in vain. The characters themselves are visibly frustrated though, so I appreciated the showcase of their inner turmoil. They did successfully save the third victim later though, but I still don't understand how she was saved but the other two had to die?

The main characters continued their quest for the killer for way too long, and to make matters worse, when the killer was found the explanation of Why he did it just leaves you with an incomplete feeling. I get that he has mommy issues and was targeting women that read because of her, but that's too simple for me personally. The reason for him killing the FL's mother in the future was never even explained. And it turns out that he didn't even kill the ML in the future so essentially he time travelled for no reason lol. I'm just glad this drama didn't leave us with no answer to who the killer was though, so props for that. I appreciated the plot twist since I was genuinely shocked, but I would've rather if someone else was the killer since it would've made more sense.

After all my complaints you might be wondering why I still rated this a seven out of ten, and the simple answer is the characters. I loved all the main characters and the relationships they developed. My favorite character was actually Misook, I appreciated how her characteristics made sense given her tragic backstory. She was a very selfish person, but for good reason. She truly only had herself to depend on since not even her own mother supported her or tried to stop the abuse she went through. The things she did were horrible, but at least the answer to Why she was so selfish made sense. Apart from her, I loved Haejoon, Yoonyoung, Soonae, and Heeseop. Watching Yoonyoung's relationship with her father change for the better as she finally understood why her dad became the man he was in her future hit me very personally. The connection she had with her mother also hit close to home for me and I'm glad her new future with both of them was a happy one. I also enjoyed Haejoon and Yoonyoung's relationship and I don't think it came out of nowhere like most people do. They grew closer as their search for the killer progressed and realized that they cared for one another. I do however wish that the explanation of their son inventing the time travel car made more sense lol.

Overall, I appreciated the drama's ending since it tied things up to some degree, but I still believe the drama is incomplete because of all the questions it leaves me with. This drama is still worth watching though, especially if you enjoy mystery and family reconciliations. You will also cry a lot, which I personally enjoy lol.

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Mid Heist Korea

When this drama first got announced I was very excited because I love the original series and kdramas. I couldn't wait to see how this adaptation would turn out, especially since the cast was perfect in my opinion. Overall I had a lot of expectations for this drama. Sadly, most of my expectations were not met.

This drama is a Remake which means that the original plot would be copy and pasted, but I still expected there to be some differences between the two, just to keep people that have watched the original engaged. When the trailer was released and it revealed that the drama would focus on the unification of South Korea and North Korea, I thought this would be the thing that would differentiate the original and this drama. However, apart from causing conflict in the drama, this plot point isn't used well and there was almost nothing else that differs from the original. This wasn't a huge setback for me though, since I already expected that the drama would turn out this way, it just disappointed me. Also, people that haven't watched the original series won't have this complaint at all, so I won't take points out of my review just because of this.

Since the original series is great and this drama followed its plot, the drama was interesting enough for me to get through, but it lacked a lot in terms of pacing and storytelling. I'm assuming that they're trying to fit the five seasons of the original into 12 episodes, so thats the reason the drama was so fast paced, but I don't think that's an excuse for the bad pacing it had.

The actors themselves did great in each of their respective roles and brought the characters to life, but the pacing was so off that it didn't let me get invested in any of the characters. Some of the characters' stories were revealed in these 6 episodes, but at the same time I felt like I learned nothing about them. And the characters that didn't get their stories told in these episodes I just didn't care about at all since they had little screen time. I think it would've been better if all 12 episodes were released at once.

In all, the drama did its job and retold the story of the original, but thats all it did, and it didn't do it well either. There was also nothing particularly special about it that would make me recommend this version over the original. It would've been much more interesting if this drama only took inspiration from the original and focused on a new heist plan, or at least didn't follow the original's plot as closely as it did. If the original version of a series is so good that you replicate it to a t without adding anything unique, then just don't remake it.

That being said, I would still recommend this drama to people that haven't watched the original because it is a good drama. But, if you're someone that has watched the original series and you're thinking about giving this drama chance, don't waste your time and just go rewatch La Casa De Papel.

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Short, but good

I started this drama with low expectations since it's a short webdrama, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good it actually was. The plot is engaging enough to keep you interested in how things will play out, and it is a fast paced drama, which I personally loved. However, even if you don't like fast paced dramas I don't think you can consider this a flaw when it comes to this drama since the episodes are shorter which means they had to fit the story in somehow. I actually think the story was developed well given its restrictions, and they even included a plot twist at the end which I did not expect at all. Overall, this drama was really good and I truly believe that it would've been even better if it was a full length drama with more budget.

In terms of the acting, I wouldn't say there was any stellar performances, but I think all the actors did well in their respective roles, especially the main leads. I loved the chemistry between them and their kiss scenes were ten times better than some kiss scenes I see in other dramas. They have a lot of potential as actors and I can even see them becoming top stars to be honest, especially since they have good visuals as well. I really hope that they can get bigger and better roles soon and showcase their skills to a larger audience.

In all, I recommend this drama if you want to watch a short, fast paced, but well developed story with intriguing characters. Don't go into this expecting a great production like you see in longer cdramas, instead appreciate what the cast and crew created with the resources they had, which in my opinion, was a great drama!

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Had potential but it was ruined

I'll start off this review by pointing out the good things about this drama, because the bad things are just endless.

I watched the Korean version of this drama a few years ago and from what I remember that version of the drama was much more dramatic and full of evil characters. This version had much less drama and only one villain so I praise the story writer for taking this route.

I also really liked the male lead in this version much better than the other versions' male leads. In this version he is much nicer and charming, he is never mean to the female lead and is very understanding in my opinion.

The family element of the drama, especially Xiyi's family, was a really nice touch and I loved watching the family scenes. I also really loved the casting of this drama and the chemistry that all the characters had, there was no forced or bad acting in my opinion.

Now on to the bad things....

I didn't actually dislike this drama when I first started it; I actually loved it! I like the route this version of the story took in regards to how they met and conceived the baby, it was much more believable than the other versions of this drama. The meeting of the two leads was interesting enough to keep me hooked on this drama for the first twenty episodes; I binged them all. The progression of their relationship from strangers to friends to lovers was very well paced in my opinion. The only thing I didn't like at the beginning was how Xiyi was deceiving his girlfriend. He really should have told her what was happening when he first found out Jiaxin was pregnant. Maybe if he would've told her, none of the problems that ruined the drama for me would have happened.

Once Anna came back and found out about what was happening, all hell broke lose and she did terrible things. Personally, I kind of understand Anna for being upset and acting the way she did, but at the same time I don't. She knew that Xiyi was going to propose to her, but she chose her career over him so you can't blame him for eventually giving up on her and falling in love with someone else. Still, he should not have lied to her the way he did and should have broken things off with her or at least told her about what he did. I will say that Anna's action of changing the divorce papers was uncalled for. At that point Xiyi had made it clear that he didn't want to be with her, so she should have let him go but instead she remained obsessed with him and refused to give up on him. And that led to many problems. After that and the miscarriage, everything went downhill.

And that leads to another thing I hated about this drama: Jianxin running away from problems and leaving everyone in the dark. I really hated that she did that because she even shut out people that had nothing to do with the pain she was going through. I understand her breaking contact with Xiyi, but it was so unnecessary for her to also push her best friend away. She literally disappeared off the face of earth and expected to just call Siqi one day and be forgiven. If I were Siqi I would have never forgiven her.

So after three years of running away from her problems, Jianxin finally meets Xiyi again and absolutely hates him. I get that she hated him for the marriage paper misunderstanding, but she should not have blamed him for her miscarriage. Throughout the last ten episodes she was selfish and acted as if them losing their child only affected her; she never listened to Xiyi nor considered his feelings. Literally never.

The last ten episodes were also full of the two leads going back and forth with each other. We would see the two slightly reconcile but then everything would end up bad when Xiyi would try to explain himself and solve their misunderstandings; Jiaxin would just shut him out and run away again. And this happened again and again and again for around TEN episodes. It was so frustrating to watch.

To make matters worse, we didn't even get to see them truly reconcile and solve things until the LAST episode. And it wasn't even in the first minutes of the last episode, but rather the last five minutes. They solved things at the airport (just as Jiaxin was about to run away again lol) and then BOOM they get married (for the 2nd time) and the drama ends. It's clear that the director and writer didn't even try to give this drama a proper ending.

So in all, this drama had a lot of potential, seeing as it solved the issues that the other versions of this drama had, like the evil characters and bad attitude of the male lead. But sadly, all its potential was ruined by the last ten episodes. Once Jiaxin ran away there was no saving this drama. At this point I just need the director and writer to apologize for ruining a potentially good drama and for wasting my time.

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Good only because it’s a “classic”

This is the first kdrama I ever watched, so it had (and still has) a special place in my heart for a long time. However, after recently rewatching it I came to realize how much it lacks and that it's not the great drama I once thought it was. I think I used to think of it as a great drama because I was young and it was the first kdrama I ever watched, so I didn't know have anything to compare it to. But now that I'm older and have watched a lot of dramas, I can definitely say boys over flowers is not a good drama. At all.

It's good in terms of it being a "classic" and "must watch" but it doesn't have much else to it. The plot is fairly interesting and at first the drama is entertaining. However, as it progresses and the characters encounter ridiculous obstacles that make no senses whatsoever, it gets bad.

I won't blame it all on the drama though, because I know it's based off a manga so they might just be following the script there. But, I've watched the jdrama also based on the same manga and it's better than this adaptation.

In all, if you want to watch this drama just to say you watched it, go ahead. But if you're going into this thinking you're going to watch a drama with a great plot, amazing characters, and good development then don't bother watching this. It's really not worth your time and you'll only be disappointed.

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More Than Beautiful

I went into this drama expecting to only fall in love with the main characters, Yuanyuan and Kai, but instead I found myself immersed in all of the characters and their individual stories. That's exactly what a good drama should do; make you care about all of the characters even if they don't have a huge role in the series. Each character is unique in the struggles they experience, but they're all developed well, even if their ending isn't the happiest. Speaking of endings, before going into this drama you should know that you Will cry, a lot. The writing in this drama is so beautiful and deep, it will hit every emotion there is; you will be happy, angry, emotional, etc. And the cinematography is just as good, if not better, you will be in awe at how beautifully filmed each scene is.

The only downside to this drama is the rewatch value, which I rated an 8/10. This isn't because the drama is bad in any way, but rather because of how devastating it is. Personally, I don't think I can ever rewatch this drama because I might actually run out of tears if I do. It cuts so deep that I think a part of me actually died while watching this drama.

I could go on and on about how great this drama is, but I'll leave it at that. Hopefully my review will encourage you to start it, I promise you won't regret it. Yes, it will make you very sad , but also very happy. Bring lots of tissues!

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so much more than just romance

I loved EVERYTHING about this. They kept the essence of the novel while adding new elements that only helped build on the story. The structure & sequence was perfectly aligned to Young’s character development. Every single cast member poured their hearts out! I want to give a standing ovation to Nam Yoonsu. I already had so much respect for him for taking on the role and embracing it with so much confidence in the face of the backlash, so to see that reflected in his performance was amazing. He was the perfect Young, I can’t imagine anyone else other than him.

Sending most love out to the crew behind this masterpiece though, it wouldn’t have come to life without them. I’m glad the writer was so involved with the drama bc I don’t think it would’ve been as true to the novel if he wasn’t. no one knows the story and characters like him. Also props to him for being so willing to make changes to his own novel and making young’s friend group have a bigger presence in the drama. I don’t think the drama would’ve been the same without them fr. I loved seeing a queer friend group in a kbl for the first time. And the fact that they’re all so in touch with their queerness was so lovely to see. Truly one of the best aspects of the drama. Park Sangyoung you are a mastermind!

Overall, the drama was the perfect adaptation of the novel, and in some ways, it was even better than it. This drama is in a league of its own when it comes to kbls like it won’t be topped for years to come. Thank you to the cast and crew for bringing such a masterpiece to life!

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