9/10 is my rating. This is a 2021 South Korean romantic drama with 12, 60 minute episodes. It is based on a webtoon of the same title.

First I will provide a synopsis then review.

Synopsis
This is a slice of life drama about the music industry that follows struggling artists from their trainee time through finding success or struggling to get their big break. The lead female character, Ma-Ha (Jung Ji-So) is a hard working trainee who has relentlessly pursued her dream of going on stage with a group. She was on the verge of debuting when tragedy struck and her and her fellow group members were literally pulled off their debut stage. Trying make a break for herself she is doing side shows where she imitates her idol, Ri-Ma (Park Ji-Yeon) who doesn't take the imitation as a compliment. Ma-ha gets a sudden second chance at debuting with her original debut group. CEO Ji-Hak (Danny Ahn) has a reason for giving the the trio a second chance which is slowly revealed through the series. The new group, which they title Teaparty is being funded in a very unique way, they are salaried at first. The other two group members, Ri-A (Minseo) and Hyu n-Ji (Lim Na-Young), had been undergoing hardship as well since their failed debut but they all stayed together even being roommates. Ma-ha does a little of everything capitalizing on this unexpected chance and her presence in many aspects of the music and acting world brings her into frequent contact with Kwon Ryeok (Lee Jun Young) who, at first, has no respect for her as he sees her as an imposter who can only imitate others. Ma-Ra gets a lot of hate over imitating such a popular star. Her fellow band mates, and her friend from her trainee days, Lee Yoo-Jin (Yun Ho) keep Ma-Ra's spirits up as they know she has her own unique talent. Shax, whom Kwon Ryeok is center stage for, has found success but like all high profile boy bands has to be very careful of their image particularly to their fans. As Kwon Ryeok's feelings change from hostility to understanding to admiration to infatuation for Ma-ha they both find that life in the limelight does not look favorably on romance. Yoo-Jin sees Ma-Ra as more than just a friend and is a little earlier in his career and takes more risks to get close to Ma-Ra but she doesn't, at least at first, see him that way. Who will Ma-Ra be drawn to and can they all find a way to make their growing fame, romance and friendships all work out?

Review
I really like slice of life stories in general and those that focus on the acting or music industries in particular. The South Korean music industry has so many unique aspects it is very interesting to get a little bit of inside perspective. So few actually make it to debut and even those that debut may not become well known. This drama explored many issues specific to to being an Idol and the journey that trainees take. Professional jealousy, slave contracts, good companies versus bad companies, suicide, and relationships. I enjoyed it for the music and talent on that level alone. I recommend it to anyone that enjoys slice of life, likes watching about idols or the industry, or likes a fairly straight forward story line. There are not a lot of surprises or twists or turns. It is not light hearted, it deals with very heavy topics but it is entertaining just not deep or complex.

*Spoilers
Ryeok and Ma-ha's slow build romance was compelling. There was a definite loneliness for him and she was one of the few that could break through his rough bad boy persona. I found their relationship very heartwarming. I appreciated the irony of how much grief he gave his former group member, Lee Eun-jo (Kang Chan-hee) over his relationship with Girl group member Annie (Yeon Si-Woo) only to have a relationship like that himself. He felt very guilty over his role in Eun-jo's disappearance. The story between Eun-jo and Annie was very tragic. What was a little confusing is why they showed her collapsing from exhaustion and then never really explaining that but suddenly she is dead. I think they were trying to make that part of the mystery but it seemed disjointed for her to have had that issue and then suddenly suicide it made it seem the overwork was what was driving it and not larger issues. All of the relationships and even conflicts within and between the groups was interesting. I did not find it very believable that so many relationships would have developed where all of the Tea Party members were seeing one of the the Shax members. There were so many problems, early on, when Shax fans got wind that Ma-ha and Ryeok had even interacted, it was odd that later so many were actually seeing each other romantically but it was as if the fans no longer cared. And they never addressed that change. They indicated they were seeing each other in secret but we saw how, before, the secret could never stay hidden so it didn't make sense that all of a sudden they were all able to keep it a secret form the fans. They say Eun-jo's and Annie's song as a group but it seemed only Shax got the credit for it. With Tea Party it appeared they only had one or maybe two songs which made it hard to envision them as a super success.

Unlike other reviewers I did not find the fact that the male lead or female lead weren't idols a huge downfall. I thought they both acted very well and their role as idols was believable. In fact I thought Lee Jun-Young had this amazing super star aura especially when they had the shots where Shax was sort of lined up in a V formation walking toward the camera, it was breath taking. If Ma-Ha was a bit unpolished because the actress was not a K-pop idol in real life, the storyline really accounted for that. She was a struggling trainee then a newly minted idol so any awkwardness or lack of polish was fully understandable with that in mind. Plus there was this overall impression that Tea Party would have this sort of limited success. They constantly showed this contrast between sort of B string idol groups like Tea Party and super stars like Ri-Ma and Shax. I thought the story dealt with and showed how those two levels of success cause this stratification within the K-pop world where that limited success means those B String are often treated as lesser when those A listers are around.

For me personally the suicide aspect was very heavy. I have two work colleagues that committed suicide so it really brought it all back. In both cases I had spoken with the person the day before and now constantly replay that final conversation any time something like this reminds me. I liked the way this drama portrayed the way the pain of something like that never goes away and how, while the person may think their action will hurt at first but make things better later is not true. Annie's death did not save Eun-jo in fact it ended his career. So many people around her were impacted by that tragic event. I think that is ever present on trainees and members minds as they are under an undue amount of pressure for people so young and isolated from their normal friend and family network.

#Imitation
#JungJiSo
#ParkJiYeon
#ParkJiYeon
#MinSeo
#DannyAhn
#LimNaYoung
#YunHo
#LeeJunYoung
#TeaParty
#Shax
#Sparkling
#KangChanHee
#YeonSiWoo