Young Blood (2019)

The 'A' Team | Mission Impossible Theme

When I first read the title, I thought it was some youthful drama full of modern vibes and silliness, so I didn't give it much attention. How wrong I was! Normally, it takes me 1 or 2 episodes to get acquainted with a drama and the actors. But with this drama, my attention is immediately captured.

I love the acting of all the characters - each has his/her own flaws, and greatness. They also have their own stories and aspirations. How they come together to work as a team eventually to beat the evil doers and to bring good to the country is something that is inspirational and heart-warming. The actors are good and play their roles convincingly.

This drama is out of my expectation! It is serious, and yet humorous with great taste. There are some lighthearted moments, but they are not from the story itself; rather, they are from the playfulness of the main male character, Yuan Zhongxin, and the dumbness of Wei Ya Nei.

The story starts with a lot of twists and turns evolving around Yuan Zhongxin; it becomes difficult to discern his orientation and loyalty initially. And that's exactly the reason that captures my interest. He is my most loved character - honorable, upstanding, wily, street smart, intelligent, and mischievous. He stands behind his friends and family fully, and one can be assured that with him, things will be taken care of. I also love the character Wei Ya Nei played by Bruce He. He is spoiled, dumb and silly, and yet he is honorable and funny. Bruce He is so convincing that I begin to love him. My other favorite character would be Zhao Jian who is a badass girl, beautiful, smart, decisive and skillful in fighting. She is a natural leader that makes me feel good watching this drama. The other characters are equally lovable and impressive. Together, they make the 'A' team, fighting and solving espionage cases.

The story is fast paced. Viewers can brace for something to happen in every scene. Sometimes, it's hard to discern what is true or false, what is black or white, what is right or wrong. Every time when something seems to be bad, becomes good, and vice versa. There are twists and turns till the end of the story.

The fighting scenes are wonderful with beautiful choreography; the young actors are convincing and good looking; the setting of Northern Song is authentic and believable; the politics, espionage and scheming are cliff hangers and page turners.

This is a really good drama. It is highly recommended.

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This is a historical espionage story full of twists, filled with adorable characters, main or supporting or even antagonists, has fair share of comedy, lots of adventure, friendship and just enough romance to die for, and so much heart that I want to recommend it to everyone.

Our main character Yuan Zhong Xin is a playful cunning street savvy guy, who tends to scheme and compete against Zhao Jian, a proud independent smart girl. They are the kickass otp I've been waiting for, it's so much fun to see two people on the same level, whether against each other or working together. Wang Kuan is also pretty intelligent, but tends to be rather straightlaced. Xiao Jing is a cute innocent girl who's generally the peacemaker, Xue Ying is the simple minded brawns, and Ya Nei is the one with connections. The former three are all smart in slightly different way and devise plans, while the latter three all have their shining moment, and generally follow the plan.

The group go from a ragtag team to slowly getting to know each other, go through life and death and betrayal, to a highly effective team that's always there for each other. It's an incredibly emotionally satisfying journey to watch them grow, the camaraderie is awesome, you can ship any characters you want, since most have some fantastic moments. The supporting characters and antagonists are all very memorable with their share of humanising moments, no matter their allegiance or goals. The antagonists are often temporary due to all the twists, and they tend to be pretty smart, which is refreshing. The familial relationship is incredibly touching as well, like Yuan Zhong Xin's relationship with his brother, Zhao Jian's awesome dad, Lu Guan Nian's mentoring.

The plot is very unpredictable, and this is an original script! Which is so rare in this day of (web) novel adaptations, especially for a historical, and one that's so heavily reliant on a good script. I do think the last two arcs aren't as well done, second last arc have some draggy bits, and the twists could feel little forced at times, while the last arc felt a bit rushed towards the end (There's 5 scriptwriter for the series). That doesn't change that there were a lot of choice dialogues, some awesome ones that still applies today, like Zhao Jian's rather feminist values, or Wang Kuan talking about soft power. It also doesn't lessen the heart of these kids that wants to give their all to protect people they love, and the country they vow to protect.

The filter was a little off-putting at first, since I associated with low budget not very good webdramas, this drama is certainly low budget, but the story and acting was on point! It actually quite fit the bright, idealistic, adventure atmosphere of the drama once you get used to it The costumes aren't necessarily historically accurate, but that's okay, it's an idealistic drama about young people in Song, and they all fit their respective characters, which I liked. The music is pretty decent, the fight scenes is sometimes okay, sometimes really lackluster, but it does add in some unintentional comedy.

If you want a fun adventure drama with a lot of heart, please give this drama a try!

P.S. The original creator wrote an epilogue on weibo after lots of messages were sent his way when the drama finished. This drama actually only cover half of the story (he wrote like rough outline of the story, not a script), but the latter half could be hard to write and get pass NRTA due to what it covers (more politics involving Xia). He's in the middle of adapting a well known wuxia novel, and still have two more project, as well as probably Joy of Life s2 now that s1 seems to be doing pretty well. Anyways, I'll spoiler the gist of the short epilogue in the comments for those that finished the drama and need it.

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Sing a Song of Six Spies.

This is a lively, intriguing and exciting romp into the murky world of espionage during the Northern Song period. The various subplots of this drama delve into the counter-intelligence activities of six, young and budding Song spies as they work to undermine Song's arch enemies Liao and Xia. This under appreciated drama carries the hallmark witty dialogue, creativity and manifold twists that made Joy of Life such a huge hit, albeit with lower budget and a young cast.

Sing a Song of six spies
A pocket full of lies
Four and twenty black deeds
Faked by a Xia

Six young and promising individuals from vastly different backgrounds are recruited and undergo intensive training at a top secret spy academy. The morally ambivalent Yuan Zhongxin is cunning, cynical and diabolical; the perfect anti-hero in the high stakes world of double agents, conflicting loyalties and multiple betrayals. He is only bested by the fiery and badass Zhao Jian and together, they make a formidable pair. Although Zhao Jian comes off as arrogant and almost dislikable in the beginning, she is a rare strong female character whose desire to be relevant resonates from the get go. Along with the chivalrous Wang Kuan, who is pretty much 11th century google, Zhongxin, Zhao Jian and Wang Kuan are the brains of this outfit of six young spies. The well connected and commercial Wei Yanei alternately bullies or buys them out of trouble while the lethal Xue Ying more than pulls his weight in any skirmish. The disarmingly innocent Xiao Jing is the glue that binds this talented team together. Their goofy antics, youthful idealism, courage and sheer brilliance under pressure shines a bright light into the dark world of spooks and war hawks to whom the ends justify the means.

The rapport and camaraderie between this ensemble cast and how they grow to trust each other and learn from each other is the best thing about this drama. In each arc, one or two characters gets fleshed out and dimensioned - we get to see their home, family, who they care about. The character building is achieved via clever dialogue and suspenseful or action oriented moments that lapse unexpectedly into comedy before transitioning back seamlessly into the previous moment. The characters have unique shared experiences with each other, giving them individualized rapports and further deepening and dimensioning the team dynamics. I watched this right after Imperial Coroner and I cannot help but notice how uncannily similar Xiao Jing/Wang Kuan are to Chuchu/Prince An in terms of archetype. The big difference however is that in Young Blood, both characters grow and develop and they seem more real and fit in naturally with their team.

Most of the danger laden missions or arcs are creatively written and laced with the right mix of action, intrigue, comedy, romance, tragedy and of course betrayal. The superb subplots overflow with richly dimensioned characters - there are so many fantastic grey characters from villains, to rival spies and would be friends were it not for the different loyalties. There are few easy wins for our spy team as they are engaging with smart characters who are consummate liars that can (and do) beat them at their own game. In the last two arcs however, the writing did fall down somewhat. The writer seems unable to stop himself from overindulging in too many twists and surprise about faces. I did not appreciate how some of the smart characters got noticeably dumbed down in order to extend the plot or force additional twists. That said, the ending was good, tying up most loose ends but the end bit was a bit messy obviously to leave the door open for Season 2, which has since been announced. The strong performances, the richness in the characters and the team makes Season 2 a no brainer in terms of something I look forward to watching. Even if it doesn't materialize however, the ending can be considered satisfactory and conclusive. I give this super enjoyable watch a 9.0 although it should be between 8.5 and 9.0 or a 8.75.

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Initially, I started watching this drama because of the male lead ( Steven Zhang). He is a very promising actor, I dare to say. I had low expectations before I even press the play button. The cover indicated the low budget production and I could not find a trailer. Let's get to the point.
The story was mind-blowing! A plot twist upon the plot twist. Everything is connecting like pieces of puzzle in a very smooth and brilliant way that you cannot foresee, but it makes absolute sense. Most of all, i liked the fact that both the protagonists and antagonists are so clever, outsmarting each other every single time. No complaint when it comes to plot, just perfect. On top of that, their high intelligence makes you question their real motives.
The characters were the most enjoyable part of the journey. I saw character development and great character arcs in every protagonist. They were slow, gradual and epic. Even the "weaker" and more "idiotic" characters, that kept the comedy part alive, had an outstanding growth. They became the best versions of themselves. I do not wanna dive in the details, because I am afraid of giving spoilers.
The romances were also a sub-part of the series that keeps you on your toes. They are unfolding as slow as the personal characters' development, but they worth it. Both of the main ships were charming in their own way.
All in all, it is a relaxing drama, comedy, historical web series that intrigues you in every episode and at the same time offers a good laugh. The only thing I would say that annoyed me is the extremenly open ending. It hinted a season two, but nothing came up for now.

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This drama is truly made for everyone. There's romance, comedy, mysteries, murder, wars, martial arts, lots of schemes and character development. The writer for this show has a tendency to layer plot twist atop of plot twist, so you never really know who is the villain, and who's good or bad; which makes the entire show almost like a "who did it?" mystery.

Our six main characters can be divided into two groups, the stupid and the smart. But, every single character is unique, interesting and by the end, you will love all of them. Even Ya Nei and Xiao Jing, who seem to be useless and stupid, end up growing to be formidable and helpful (and Ya Nei is hilarious). The couples here are also really cute, especially the secondary couple. Also I totally ship Xue Ying and Ya Nei. Putting aside romantic pairings, the entirety of the seventh team is just a big family. They start out as barely acquaintances, but as they grow and take on missions together, they end up becoming a group that you cannot split apart. No matter what happens, the seventh team will stay together.

Acting here was pretty on point. Especially Bruce Heng as Ya Nei. He's the funniest, but can also be the most depressing. Steven Zhang perfectly captures Yuan Zhongxin's charisma and scheming personality. Zhou Yutong is amazing at portraying the confident and aggressive Zhao Jian. Wang Youshuo portrays the never-lying (but not really), noble Wang Kuan with just the right amount of pride and kindness. Su Xiaotong is soooooo cute as the innocent and kind Xiao Jing, and Zheng Wei does wonderful with the antisocial and loyal Xue Ying.

In comparison to the majority of idol dramas, the OST for this show kind of felt disappointing at first. However, by the end of the show, I had fallen in love with both the opening and closing songs. The background music is also used very well, and helps to add another layer of reality to the scenes.

Overall, I would suggest this drama for anyone.

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One of the top Chinese dramas of 2019

I was looking forward to this drama as the screenwriter is Wang Juan, the same person as Joy of Life. And indeed he did not disappoint me.
It is the story about 6 young men and women from a secret espionage school of the Song Country and how they complete difficult missions to protect their family and their country.

What seems to be rather serious is actually a total comedy. Wang Juan manages to create amusing dialogs and silly set-ups in rather serious cases that made me fall from my chair.
A lot of the amusement is coming from the main highlight of this drama: the six lead characters who form faction 7 for the espionage school. All six have distinguished personalities: the witty, the dummy, the naive, the honest, the stubborn, the muscle man...
All the characters are loveable and I am sure each one of you will find your favorite character very quickly. My favorite characters are Yuan Zhong Xin and Wei Ya Nei.
The other great thing about the characters is that you can create great pairs, we call it ”ke CP” in Chinese. Yuan Zhong Xin and Zhao Jian, Wang Kuan and Xiao Jing are the natural ones. But there are also BL ones such as Yuan Zhong Xin and Wang Kuan, Zhao Jian and Xiao Jing and esp. my favorite Wei Ya Nei and Xue Ying are so damned cute together, you just cannot believe it.
All characters undergo tremendous character development of which the end product even satisfies an Otaku like me.
The young actors who played the characters all have done an outstanding job. Despite having areas where their actions can be more natural or stronger emotionally I foresee that all of them will have a bright future as actors. Extra credit goes to Bruce He who plays Ya Nei. I have not seen such a foolish but pure-hearted dummy just attracts the audients’s love like a magnet. The side story of his dad is just so well played - I teared so much and he surely deserved an award for this! In terms of acting and character design, all supporting roles were great too. They all have their own little stories that spread a few episodes long so that it helps the audience to understand the reason behind their behavior. None of them are just tools for the story development and there is also no true villain.

The key themes of the story are the cases: They appear rather unspectacular at the start but developed to complicated, deeply entangled events concerning evil plots of traitors within their own borders or spies from neighboring countries Xia and Liao. Within one episode the same incident might have several turns and nothing appears at how they are at the surface: most of the people are lying/hiding the truth or there are some back stories behind all events. That is the style of Wang Juan: it is practically impossible to predict the story that keeps the audience interested until the end. There were several occasions at which I had to wind back to re-watch to the explanation to fully understand what has happened. The only drawback from this is that sometimes in order to create a surprise effect at the reveal, the ”reality” seems to be a bit exaggerated. Perhaps to the point that it might not be very logical or realistic if one would think about it in detail. After a while, I just started questioning everything that I see at first glance.

One improvement potential I need to mention is the end credit song of the drama: though the song itself is great, it just contains too many spoilers. I am unsure of the reason why they did that, maybe because their marketing budget is too low they wanted to use the end credit to hang on to the viewership. But I would say whoever turn into the first 1-2 episodes would certainly get hooked with our without the ending song’s content.

All in all, this is a drama that makes you laugh, and cry; your heart will cringe and fill with warm emotions. It very much reminds me of Japanese anime style about true friendship, effort and victory coming to real-life form. You will not regret having watched this.

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Worthy wuxia show to binge watch for 2023

If you like Sword Snow Stride and other wuxia movies, I think you will like this one.

The script is not as good as Sword Snow Stride but the pace and fighting is better. The characters we meet throughout are interesting and with interesting powers but I think side characters are kind of weak.

The main characters are interesting and sort of flushed out. The 3 male leads are excellent characters.

I thought it was a good balance of seriousness and a few bits of light hearted humor. But fortunately, it doesnt have too much silliness or silly romance humor.

Fighting is top notch and way better than Sword Snow Stride. Whoever did the choreography and action did a fantastic job.

Direction and pacing was great. Nice work with pacing and camera work.

Overall, not too draggy and great show. I enjoyed it.

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Amazing Teamwork & Unconditional Bond Built through Disasters, Hardships and Misfortunes.

This is an inspiring story of 6 Young Adult with different backgrounds who happened to be in a team and was able to get through so many dangers, troubles and challenges that created indestructible bond between them and eventually turned out as the BEST TEAM there is.

This may seem to be a Feel-Good-Drama at first but finishing it changes my mind drastically after. This drama surely has its own Goofy, Quirky, Fun and Ridiculous sides but it also carries such important and heavy topics that are relevant to the world right now.

The Story made sure that they tackled and highlighted some of the most underlooked issues for decades now such as Women Emporment, Power Abuse and Poverty and I felt that they all did justice to all of it.

One thing I want to aplaud and commend the director, writer and everyone who have worked for this production is the way they deliver the entire story in such a unique and interesting way. I admit that this is one of the most Oversaturated Theme there is in the market but I must say that they're able to establish their own identity in it and made it Different, Fresh and New compared to all those production who share the same plot and theme.

A 'Well-Rounded' drama that deserves more views and recognition. HIGHLY RECOMMEND for sure~!!

Story - 10 Satisfying plot and twists incorporated with a lot of funny, tricky and entertaining scenes that can make its viewers stick their attention to it from the first episode till the very last. I felt so bad that it was ended in an 'Open-Ended/To Be Continued' way but never got to release its sequal years after its release. I want to watch more of their adventure together. Wishing for the best!

Acting/Cast - 10, Outstanding Performance from every actors/actresses of this drama. They all executed perfectly and I never felt bored and awkward with any scene. They even made the Romantic Scenes comfortable, easy and fascinating to watch considering how I usually feel awkward watching them.

Music - 10, The moment I heard the Opening theme I've already decided fhat I will like it. The Anime-sounding and Adrenaline-Vibe only highlighted the greatness of this production. Other Music/BGMs used are either good and decent as well so I got no complaints.

Rewatch Value - 10, I would definitely watch it again. Its just that I have a long list of dramas to watch and I can't afford to wait to watch all of them as well. BUT, If they suddenly announce the release of it's Season 2/ Sequel then I surely would. DEFINITELY.

Overall - 10, This is such an Amazing and Interesting drama that should be watch and enjoy by many people regardless of Age and Gender. ?

If you find my review helpful please let me know.

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I just can't get enough if this

At first, I thought this is just a boring romantic drama. But I soon realized that it's not like that. The plot very well written and very unpredictable, full of plot twists and I can say the person who wrote this is genius. I still can't get enough of it. After watching the last episode, what I thought was "this is just perfect!" Everything is the way I want a drama to be, including the ending. Full of genius characters with excellent strategies, no cringey scenes, the love stories are just the way I want them to be and it didn't affect the main story, a little bit of bromance, comedy is just the way it should be. The combination of characters, each of their personalities, the way they changed, their humor and acting, not staying in one story for too long, full of interesting stories, just amazing! I really want to follow the writer's other works.
The places they used for the film are beautiful and the acting is very good. When I saw the main actor(actor who acts as Yuan zhong xin) for the first time, I thought maybe he is not that good as the main character, but soon I realized that he is perfect for the character and he became one of my top 5 favorite actors. I love his character and the way he acts. And I love all 6 main characters.
I will not have enough words to describe why I love this so much, but what I have to say is I have been watching so many Chinese dramas, mainly wuxia dramas, and this drama just became my 2nd favorite drama of all times.
Finally, This is too underrated and you must watch this, and I WANT SEASONS 2!!!

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Wang Juan is the best Chinese fantasy drama screenwriter

I will start this review by talking about the GOAT (Greatest of all times) screenwriter of Chinese fantasy drama. Not many people would start there review by talking about a screenwriter first. But after watching his dramas I just had to first praise this talented screenwriter and his team for creating such beautiful Chinese fantasy dramas. I first saw Joy of life written by him. But at that point I didn't gave much thought to the screenwriter of that drama. Then I saw Douluo Continent as I was a huge fan of that novel. So I didn't gave much thought to the screenwriter here also. Then a few days ago I started watching Sword Snow Stride and I found it a bit of similar to that of the Joy of Life. Be it the ML and a supporting actor or the story felt a little bit similar to that of Joy of Life. So after completing the show the first thing I did was to check the screenwriter of the drama. And I was awestruck to find out that he have written almost all of the Chinese fantasy dramas I have seen. So from here I came across Young Blood again and binge watched it in 3 days.

I am not gonna lie but I have seen Young Blood's poster before and I was not much hyped about this drama. I had only seen 4 Chinese fantasy dramas before. But when I came to know that 3 out of the 4 dramas that I have seen were written by the same person I had to see his remaining works also. So I picked this drama. And God oh God I was not wrong about this screenwriter. He delivered in this drama also. Also fellow viewers don't be like me to judge a book by its cover. Sometimes one can miss a gem if he judges a drama by its cover.

Young Blood has many characters that I loved. Wang Juan usually focuses on the ML while writing his dramas which I don't mind. But here he was quite thoughtful of the other characters too. We have got ourselves a strong ML(Yuan Zhong Xin) which the writer has written in all of his previous works. But we have also got ourselves a strong FL(Zhao Jian) here. He has written pretty decent FL in Joy of Life and Douluo Continent but I didn't found them that convincing as compared to this drama. Our FL is quite strong here and fights toe to toe with the ML. She came off as a cold woman at the start of the drama but as the story progresses she also finds the love of her life. I also loved Wei Ya Nei's character. He started off as a spoil rich heir but as our story progresses his character have a huge development. I think Wang Kuan and Pei Jing's character were the only characters that remained the same throughout the series. Even Xue Ying character had a character development. I want to point out about Yun Ni 's character. Even though she didn't got much of a screen time. But I fell head over heels for her. She was too cute.

I don't think I have rambled so much while writing a review. But this drama deserved it. It is nicely written with good character. I liked how most of the characters have a character development. In the end I would like to say that Wang Juan is the GOAT of Chinese fantasy dramas and do give this drama a watch as I assure you would also love this drama as much as I did.

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I was actually hesitant if I would be able to finish this drama without dropping after watching Ep 1. On Ep 1, I didn't feel it was interesting. But I kept watching and it got entertaining later on. Ended up binge watching. I like how it isn't frustrating and can be funny at times.
I would say the drama is divided into 4-5 sections/arcs
In each arc, you see how each of the characters grow and develop.
I love how Zhao Jian's character is written. She's independent and strong till the very end. They may have involved her in a tiny bit of romance, but it still didn't affect the strength of her character.
I also love Yuan Zhong Xin's character as well. Both the FL & ML are intelligent in their own ways. If someone were to deceive them, they will figure it out soon. It doesn't take them a bunch of episodes to figure out something and their intelligence can't be questioned.
What I didn't like is how they handled the ending. It does look like a setup for a season 2 which I saw might happen (but not anytime soon?). But at the same time, you can imagine how the second season would play out even if there's no S2. But by itself without expecting a S2, I would expect them to tie up the ending better since the drama's direction in the start leads to the end.
Also kinda wish their production team did better with the drama. When I watched it there were so many odd cuts it looked like sloppy editing sometimes. Even if the site I used had the fan sub version, I don't think the fan would cut the episodes in that way.


*Spoilers below*
- The start of the drama was the Qi Chuan battle and then we see Yuan Bo Qi captured and being privately interrogated by Liang Zhu.
- Yuan Bo Qi disappears from the drama. Then we see 7th squad on their first mission at the prison camp where we encounter Ding Er/Miqin Mubei, who is from Xia.
- Then the 7th chamber has missions unrelated to Miqin Mubei & Yuan Bo Qi and then after Han Dan Zhuang is killed, the secret chamber is closed.
- Then the part where they're in the Bin Province connects to the start. We see Miqin Mubei and Yuan Bo Qi back into the story. You see the connection and truth behind Qi Chuan battle.
However, they left Miqin Mubei alive in the end. I feel that didn't add closure to the drama.
If the problem of Qi Chuan battle was because of Miqin Mubei, then they should've resolved it. He should've stayed arrested or killed or something. But they took another twist, where he's left alive and Zhao Jian is captured along with her father.
It's a weird cliffhanger that I usually see in animes or some dramas expecting a S2 (but it's rare for dramas to have S2).
A good section of the middle of the drama was about Liao. Han Duan Zhang's + Headmaster's scheme against Liao took majority of the drama and Xia was just brought up in the end again.
The missions showed each of the 6 characters growth and development. I feel as if they should've had the missions more focused on Xia and lead it to Miqin and handle Miqin. Then if they wanted a S2 they could've used the Liaos then or another plot based off an issue of S1.
Cause right now, we aren't even sure how long S2 will take and when it will be released. We don't even know if they filmed yet either. It would be disappointing if there's no S2.
My hope is that they don't turn majority of S2 a damsel in distress type of thing where most of it is them trying to rescue Zhao Jian and she can't do anything.

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Fun Conspiracies

I have watched this after watching other dramas by the same scriptwriter - Joy of LIfe (which is my favourite cdrama) and Douluo Continent.

I think this drama is somewhere in between those two dramas. Like Douluo Continent, the characters are a bunch of youth, and like Joy of Life, it's about intrigue.

It's lighter than Joy of Life and fairly fun. This drama made me tear up a few times (some of the arcs are very touching) however I think they over-explain everything and S1 was getting a bit long.

I thought one of the characters was quite useless for a spy school - she was so dumb and was more like a handicap for the group and I don't know what she brings to the table except being...dumb/naive.

I think if this show was 30 episodes instead of 42 episodes, it would have been better - because towards the end (maybe last 10 episodes) I found my attention waning as the twists were no longer surprising as each arc has a "twist" and it was overdone and explained.

The male lead has a bit of a protagonist halo and things just work out.

Anyways, it's a very fun drama and at times very touching but I think it was a bit long-winded at the end.

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