A Hell of a Drama, hell yeah!!

Twinkling Watermelon is a beautifully fleshed-out drama that is mostly well-written, well-acted, and well-directed. From its main characters to its support characters, everyone shines!

- First the Story -

I would've given a 10, if it wasn't for that evil stepmother plotline. I REALLY dislike that trope where the stepmother gets all the blame and the poor father/other responsible is blameless. "He didn't know, poor him :(" hell nah! The "he was out of the house this entire time" excuse doesn't stick, and I honestly wanted him to suffer the consequences also. Yi-chan was right, Cheong Ah didn't have to forgive him! I can't imagine any plot holes on the top of my head, so that's a good thing, I suppose.

Other than that, I'm frankly surprised they managed to keep this drama so consistently good, the story never fell flat, or had I lost interest (something that happens very often if I'm being honest)! Eun Gyeol is not a one-sided protagonist who is not allowed moments to show how flawed and immature he is at times, he IS flawed and he IS immature, he's a teenager and he acts like it!! Another Surprise was Eunyu who is a compelling deuterogist to this story. She is not a damsel in distress and knows very well what she wants and her growth was masterfully done!! Her romance with Eun Gyeol is one of the high notes of this drama and I was craving for some more cute scenes between them.

Ha Yi-chan's and Cheong-Ah's romance is REVIGORATING. So cute, so adorable, so pure. Ha Yi-Chan is a lover boy on the deepest sense of the word and Cheong-Ah is an angel that fell from heaven, frankly. Something someone pointed out that really stuck to me was that every scene between Ha Yi-Chan and Cheong Ah was kept between them, not even Eun Gyeol was there to see it and I thought that was so sweet, it's their moment, their story.

Every scene between Eon Gyeol and his parents was a blast! That poor boy was bullied to hell and back while he was just trynna help, lmao. The scenes in the final two episodes made me cry like I was a recently born baby, who just put his wrinkled lil face to the world, I was sobbing hard.

I was also really happy deafness was not treated like a horrible, life-destroying thing in here. It happens, people are deaf and they can and will live happy and fulfilling lives like it's shown in this drama. Really glad that this disability was treated with the respect it was supposed to be given.

THAT twist was also super cool, had me crying hard.

- Second The Acting/Cast -

Brilliant, simply brilliant, every single actor chosen in this drama was stupid good (and the script they were given is partially credited for that). I want to say that the one actor who shone the most is Choi Hyunwook, that kid's gonna go far, I'm telling y'all, he's brilliant! Every scene of his is fresh and funny and STUPIDLY well-acted. He acts so naturally at times I almost feel like I'm just seeing a random ass boy doing stuff instead of a drama. Secondly, Ryeoun is also phenomenal here, I loved him in '18 Again' but seeing him here was just a blast, he acted beautifully during the whole drama, and like Choi Hyunwook I was delighted by his presence as a protagonist.

Shin Eunsoo is AMAZING, she didn't have a single line of dialogue but her expressions, and mannerisms really talked for her. She's an insanely good actress who kept an insanely good performance from beginning to end. And the talk of the town Seol In Ah, do I even need to say something? Girl had two roles in one drama and she was a genius in both of them, giver her an award already.

The support actors were also amazing, special thanks to Ha Yi-Chan's adult actor, that man copied his counterpart's mannerisms to a TEA, insane stuff.

- Thirdly The Music -

The weakest link I'm not gonna lie, the BGM's were alright but the only one that I remember a lot is the 'nananana' sad music, it is engraved in my brain. The vocal tracks tho, were pretty good, however, 'SHINING' is generic and forgettable and I don't even remember the SPINE9 song, 'A song for you' tho... ahh, the strings of my heart.

- Fourth The rewatch value -

I would watch it again, yeah. I heavily recommend this drama to those who want to laugh, cry, and get nostalgic for something you never lived, an amazing experience.

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This is not good

Holy shit, this is not good, it fails in almost every single aspect what the hell. Trust me in this one: If you're really interested in this just read the damn manga, this drama is NOT worth it.

First, what bothers me the most, is the acting.

The female lead does a horrible job in acting, she tries so hard to copy the aspects of how the female lead acts in the manga that she forgets that this is not a manga, it's a television show and she's a human, not a cartoon character. The same can be said for the other actors, most of them fall for this trap to try and act like their manga counterparts and end up making of the silliest and most awkward acting I've seen in a while. They tried making as faithful as possible to the manga not remembering that there are things that ONLY WORK IN THEIR RESPECTIVE MEDIAS.

The romance is quite rushed with stupid silly plotlines (TOO SILLY EVEN), you can't take the "villains" seriously 'cause is just too silly, maybe this is a country aspect but I just could NOT take those girls seriously at all. They're fighting this one Sasuke-inspired kid and keep saying that "he's for everyone" as if he was an object, and trying to ruin some girl's life because she apparently is his friend, like??????

This show was filmed in 2017, a time when we already had plenty of very beautiful dramas and movies with smaller budgets even, this show looks like it was filmed in the early 2000s. It looks like someone took their mother's camera and everything she had was this one that she gained on her birthday in the '80s and they were like "sure ok no one's gonna notice" GUESS WHAT, I NOTICED.

It has this VERY desaturated filter throughout the whole thing, quite yellowish too (I watched it on Netflix), really ugly.

In short: Read the manga, don't waste your time with this piece of crap

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