Unlike my other reviews, I didnt read other opinions before writing my own here.

So firstly, lets start with the things i LIKED:

1. The friendship between the 3 male leads.
Ok, yeah, more than the romance between the main characters, above all I loved how healthy the rivalry and friendship between the male leads was. I'm tired of seeing shows where they are torn apart due to loving the same girl, torn apart then come back together, or make some kind of childish bet on the FL like she's a mindless doll with no agency or feelings :/ This show handled that well, with a refreshing feel to it that i honestly didnt expect coming outta China :side eyes: They were great as friends, and its comforting to know that even after the show, and regardless of their standing with the FL, they still will be. So refreshing to see such a healthy rivalry o.O (now can we get sumn like this but with girls shotting for the same guy, lmao)

2. The FL
Yeah, she did some questionable stuff towards the end, but this FL, while imperfect and i definitely wanted to yell some sense into her, is a strong FL in the sense that she doesn't let either of the leads walk over her. She does seem a bit willfully ignorant sometimes, but she doesnt let things fester.

3. The 1st and 2nd Male Leads
the 3rd male lead is adorable, but the 1st and 2nd male leads have a history you see. This ties in with my first point, but their (reluctant) bromance is cute and I love them so much. maybe its because the actors are in the same idol group already, but they felt like good friends on screen together. Great chemistry there.

4. The incorporation of sports and overcoming difficulties
something happens nearing the end with Li He and his athletic career, and I'm glad he also had a moment that needed to force his character development. Many things happen towards the end that force the characters to overcome a challenge and grow up. And while most of it was cheesy (like with Ze Yu's mom) I'm glad each of the main cast had to face some sort of character development.

THINGS I DISLIKED THOUGH:

1. the story isn't all that original
It's a classic formula, nothing is really re-invented here, (besides the bare minimum of healthy male rivalry) but it does so well, and it never really promised to re-invent anything from the blurb either.

2. what "two factions"? lol
The whole "two factions" thing sounds promising, but soon we realize that the entire sports faction consists of 4 boys, LMAO, and 3 of them are the lackeys of the male lead. I wish the different "factions" could have had a richer backstory, depth, and more believability to it. Wish things happened within those factions, with different characters, besides what revolved around the leads. But it's likely this may have had to do with filming during covid, maybe a low budget, and limiting the number of people for the cast. regardless, the whole factions thing didnt feel believable, but it doesnt detract that much.

3. Last few episodes are rushed af
This is a common occurrence. I was pleasantly surprised at the end, but still, it wasnt worth the train ride they put me through to get there heavily condensed into like 3 episodes O.o

4. Not as deep, or emotional as you might expect. (more below)

OVERALL:
this is a good drama. It isn't AMAZING, but it does what it sets out to do well. I do wish it could have had a richer, deeper exploration, and feeling to the school atmosphere, like it did with Li He's sports journey,(and to everything, really), and I also feel like some form of social commentary cud have been made on the various challenges the characters faced (the gaokao being the fat elephant in the room ;-;) but what I see as issues are probably not seen here, or cud not be commented on cause censorship O.O

U might argue, but its 24 episodes, and yeah, regardless idt those 24 eps were used the most efficiently. Regardless, Please Classmate isn't the deepest, most emotional high school coming of age show, but that isnt to say it's not emotional, or heartwarming in any way. I think it does a good, decent job, at being a high school drama. It definitely is the better of the high school dramas I've seen China pump out to this day (a love so beautiful, The best of you in my mind, these are a few it does better at. a love so beautiful is nOT that good dont @ me.)

Wouldn't rewatch Please Classmate though. Maybe the first few eps, but not start to finish. (i remember sassy go go much more fondly :P)

hope this helped! and if u needed it
tl;dr - give this show a shot! It's worth a shot.

FINAL RATING: 7.8
idt this show deserves a 8, but a 7.9 looks petty, so we're at a 7.8 for now.