Super fun

I haven't laughed this hard at a drama in a long time — and it came at such the right time because I was getting so sick of slapstick humor. All the characters (the main leaders, and especially Zi Rui) had the most amazing comedic timing.

This has my favorite type of female lead — you don't have to be the best at everything and physical fighting to be smart and make good decisions, and of course, it has my favorite type of male lead that's lowkey a badass but goes soft for her.

The chemistry between the main leads was so good and I just love the relationship that the two of them had together. The sidekicks were hilarious as well and worked so well with our main characters and with each other. And it really felt like all the characters had their own personalities no matter how small their roles were.

I do think I enjoyed the first half a little better when it was our main character trying to navigate the new world and all the subplots that were going awry. I felt like some of the magic was lost a little near the end (especially after the goddamn noble idiocy!) because it was reduced to the main plot around government control. It also seemed to reduce a lot of characters to their cliches, and I had loved that they subverted the tropes in the beginning.

Nevertheless, I really like how this show's plot turned to a darker tone without ever really losing its style of humor. Sadly I can't really say if it surprised me — I'm still mad at myself for obsessively watching clips on YouTube before I decided to binge it in a day — because I knew the scenes already. But overall the plot is still really clever.

Overall, I still had a really fun time watching this — I cannot wait for season 2 even though I have to wait an entire year!

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Loved the second ship, hated the mains

The second ship really saved this for me. From the start I knew I would love them so much better — the playful, teasing relationship that they had is my favorite type of ship. And I really watched the drama for them, even though the plot went OFF THE RAILS for them. The second female lead had the personality that I loved — outgoing, bubbly, straightforward with her feelings.

I also had really terrible SLS for this drama honestly, I felt like second lead had so much more character and backstory to him, whereas you barely knew anything about the main lead and the development with the FL was absent as well. My stars are also for second lead, who I feel like got the short end of the stick, as second leads in cdramas often do.

With that being said, I basically could not stand either main lead.

The guy was unlikable. I'm just not a fan of cheaters and he did it multiple times, and always seemed to blame it on the other person.

The female lead was the worst part. The acting for the female lead was not only bad, I think it was simply a terrible character who couldn't hold a conversation for more than two minutes, NEVER learned to stand up for herself or be herself for that matter, and also maintained the same facial expression throughout all 16 episodes. I couldn't, for the life of me, see what was so interesting about her, and as the drama went on it felt like she only got worse — more dependent on her partner, more selfish in what she asked of him, and more delusional in the idea that nobody should change and that she was for some reason owed a relationship.

In fact, the entire drama seemed to put such an emphasis on "how dare you change?" for each character. They fought over promises they made years ago that don't make sense to keep considering the obstacles that life threw in their way, and it was like only the second ship managed to learn how to navigate new situations.

Ultimately though, the pacing was done pretty well with their coming of age being evenly spread out; I'm obviously a larger fan of the high school days, before things haywire, but I'm super glad the second lead got their ending.

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As a historical and cultural marker, this film is pretty famous and has a lot of symbolism and motifs of modernity, tradition, Westernization/globalization, repetition, reflections, class struggles, and the circularity of life that are really interesting to break down in a culture class. I appreciate all the little foreshadowing in dialogue, and the parallel of different storylines.

Whether I ENJOYED watching the show is a different matter altogether. It was definitely long, and a lot of the time it was hard to be truly engaged. Some of the acting was kind of cringe, from over-the-top sobbing to stiff dialogue.

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Messy ending, but characters are intriguing

So yep, I really don't think this drama should be thought of a romance. But if we do see it that way, then yep — SECOND LEAD SYNDROME IS REAL. I've always been a bigger fan of the playful, comfortable, easy-to-talk relationship and how comfortable Baek Inho and Seol were with each other and how she made her laugh and how he actually had such good advice about how to live life...I LOVE him to death.

Everyone who says that the ending of this drama is a mess...they're pretty much right, but if we DON'T think of the drama as a romance, I actually loved all the characters on their own:

Yoo Jung: I've always wanted to see a main lead like Yoo Jung — cunning, resourceful, with a thirst for justice and yet he goes about it in the coldest, cruelest way. Slytherin to the core. Loved it, and honestly the end of the drama felt more about his way of thinking than anything else.

Seol: So relatable in how endlessly hardworking she was and I loved how chill she could be with her friends. It was frustrating to see who she had to deal with, but I felt like the ending scene with her in the office and seeing colleagues who mirrored her college classmates...it tied everything up nicely.

Baek Inho: I've already said I loved him and he's one of my fave character archetypes — the estranged bad boy with a temper who goes WAY soft for the girl. His character was way complex and the backstory was heartbreaking, and there was so much tension between all his emotional turmoil vs. the emotions he wore on his sleeve.

Baek Inha: If I knew someone like this in real life, I'd be endlessly frustrated with them and hate them, but in this drama she was both annoying and hilarious. I can't help but feel like her character development was way out-of-the-blue and she got the short end of the stick with how crazy the drama's plot went, but ultimately she was still interesting.

Bora + Euntaek: Loved them. I wish they got a little more screentime but they gave me the friends-to-lovers that I always crave.

With that being said, the plot definitely went crazy, but since I watched this years after it aired, I was mentally prepared for it and it turned out to not be as bad as I expected. As a romance, it was problematic because I don't think the leads were good for one another, even from the very start, but if we're looking at the characters individually, I felt like this drama had a lot there.

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Like most web dramas, Yellow doesn't have much depth to it and it was full of cliches, but it was still a fun watch anyways. HOWEVER, second lead syndrome really hit me with this one, and it was one of those situations where you just kind of knew one of the guys had no chance. The development between the main leads was kind of lacking, and I thought the ship with second lead was so much healthier.

I couldn't help but compare it to Shut Up Flower Boy Band in my head, and one thing I noticed was that bromance in that drama was so much stronger, and I wish Yellow had more of it.

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DAMN. This plot had everything I'd ever dreamt of, as a fangirl who'd spent late nights reading fanfiction and dreaming about fictional characters. Except it was a thousand times better because there were so many twists and turns that I didn't see coming. As the title says, the plot was absolute genius and I loved how the plot twists actually built upon one another.

To be honest, though, I might have enjoyed the first half better than the second, mainly because of one huge plot twist that broke my heart and never really got resolved the way I wanted it to. Still, it was hard to stop watching.

Soo Bong was probably my favorite character. Though he was so minor, the character development was there, and he was ALWAYS relatable.

Last thing: I swear this drama has like the longest and slowest car rides ever?? ESPECIALLY when the characters are in a rush...

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Fun but unsubstantive

There was something quite charming and enjoyable about this drama, crazy visual effects and all — it's the kind of show you can watch without using any part of your brain. Once you did, however, you find that there's a lot lacking especially when it comes to plot and substance.

As much as it pains me to say this, the humor is almost on par with that of Melting Me Softly — it's loud, obnoxious, and zany, and most of the time it misses the spot. A few characters seemed to exist just for the laughs, but they really just ended up annoying and one-dimensional and seemed to serve no purpose. The worst culprit was DH's sister.

There are a lot of things that definitely made me uncomfortable, especially how race was handled. I understand that the people behind the drama said the webtoon artist was supposed to represent how people can come together around love for a culture, but his personality had not much to it other than being dirty and liking to draw x-rated cartoons. It also just felt incoherent at times, especially if it was used for humor which, as I previously mentioned, often fell flat.

I'm a fan of any romance that shows people slowly falling in love with one another in everyday situations, but I really just didn't FEEL it in Backstreet Rookie — honestly, I much preferred the dongsaeng-style relationship that SB and DH had, for multiple reasons. They dragged on the ex-girlfriend plot for far too long, and they also added in a "childhood" connection that made any sort of romantic plot seem even weirder with the age gap.

I also didn't like SB's sister, Eun-byul, who I felt like made so many bad decisions and never owned up to them, instead having SB run after her apologizing. I felt like I just really wanted more substantive conversation between the characters.

With all that being said, one thing that I did love about this drama was the theme of family (which may be why I preferred DH and SB being that). SB and DH's mother had the most heart-warming scenes together and the most touching conversations, and it was definitely something I wanted to see more of.

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Vibes but no plot

This review is coming at you from a non-novel reader, just FYI. But it's another one of these beloved dramas that I ended up just not quite clicking with.

The concept is fantastic. I love a good time travel / isekai type story à la Scarlet Heart Ryeo or Romance of Tiger and Rose. The acting is sometimes good and sometimes a little awkward.

I feel like my main issue with this drama is that so much of it feels unearned and aimless.

There's a sort of "mystery" subplot surrounding a conspiracy reveal that appears for maybe three episodes, and it's all played out so fast from the moment it's first mentioned to the final reveal. We never really follow the story; we just know it's happening in the background, and then the big reveal happens and the story just ends.

The romance, which is the biggest part of the story, gives me much of the same feeling. I am absolutely a hater of insta-love and "destined love," and here it really does show my biggest problem with it. I'm just not understanding why or when they fell in love with each other, and we're given these romantic moments when I feel like they should still be getting to know each other better. It's weird because the potential is definitely there — the massage scene, for example, is A+ — but it would've been even better if it felt earned.

It also feels aimless in the sense of Jom's time travelling not being explained. It's explored at the start when he's so frazzled and trying to figure out what's happening, but he gradually just starts living a normal life. His situation is only addressed when he's forcibly confronted with it, and it leaves a lot of questions by the end. I constantly wished the drama went deeper into this aspect and upped the stakes. I think this is where the conspiracy subplot could've been used, because it could've given Jom a goal, and a "oh, THIS is why I came back" moment.

Ultimately, the ending also feels quite rushed. I know there's a sequel though, so maybe it'll help. Nevertheless, I think the vibes are still there, and I know the novel probably explains more, but from a drama-only perspective, that's what I felt.

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An underdog story

I had heard a lot of good things about this one. It's true — you don't have to know anything about baseball to enjoy it. In fact, there's probably about ten minutes of baseball actually being played.

It's more about the relationships between coworkers and family, about the tension of corporate politics, about your balancing your dreams and being realistic, and about the characters who have to work together to actually put the teams together despite lack of support, funding, and everything else. In that sense, Hot Stove League really is an underdog story. This is one of those dramas where it's a string of mini arcs, one after the other, but it always feels very cohesive. The core group really grows on you, too.

I think the male lead is also one of the most interesting personalities I've seen in a kdrama. He's a little awkward and aloof but it makes for really interesting ways to resolve situations and really unusual character dynamics. Min Namkoong plays the character really well, from the subtle micro-expressions to the really heavy emotional scenes.

There are some plots that are a little jumpy here and there, and I also wish we had more closure for different characters in the last episode. There are so many arcs that I just wish got a little "epilogue" moment, even if we just montaged through it. Overall, though, this show was really worth the watch.

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Closure, but it's unmemorable

I thought Season 1 was generally enjoyable, and Season 2 was also interesting, but had a little too many subplots and random characters. Season 3 fixes that by once again focusing on the most important character (Hyun-su) but doesn't give him much to do.

I'm really glad Hyun-su got more screentime in this season, especially with Eun-yu and Eun-hyeok, because these three were and still are the most important and most intriguing characters, but plot-wise, these three were pretty underutilized. I think the issue is, firstly, just not being quite sure what the end goal is. We know generally that they're on a crash course towards the antagonist, but I didn't really understand what the plan was. And secondly, between this season and the previous season, there's a pretty big shift away from individual stories and showing what triggers monsterization and how they should be dealt with. I get that it's difficult to do this once you've scaled up the story and there are so many arcs to address, but the unfortunate trade-off is that nothing quite sticks.

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Watch for the characters

As a lover of all things time travel, I was very interested in this drama right off the bat. It did, however, take me quite a few episodes to get into the swing of things.

Something about the drama seemed choppy throughout it, whether it was vague dialogue, plot explanations, or the editing of scenes. Even as the show progressed, it felt like there were constant loose ends. For example, it started out with three suspects — something that seemed very pivotal to the story — but they were quickly ruled out, whereas I think we should've done a deep dive into each character to see how they were involved and why.

Still, I think the best part of this drama is the characters. I loved seeing the FL's friendship with her younger mother Soon-Ae, the FL's frenemiship with her younger father Hee-sub, Soon-Ae and Hee-sub's budding romance, Soon-Ae's relationship with her sister, and most of all, Go Mi-sook — who I know is an antagonist but is just so intriguing of a character.

I also want to note that the romance in this drama is very subtle and not at all a big part of the plot; if you're watching for the romance, you might not enjoy this, but in my opinion it actually made the show better; we were able to see them as partners-in-crime who communicated and supported each other, instead of being treated to all the romance cliches that dramaland loves to throw at us. We get family as a bigger theme, and it's great.

In the end, this is a pretty character-driven show, and yet I feel like the FL was quite underutilized. She almost feels more like a support character in the second half of the show, whereas the male lead seems to take the reins on the mystery.

Overall, I did enjoy this one, and while it has the mystery vibes down, I feel like the plot wasn't quite fleshed out. The characters are worth watching though.

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Endearing and fun

After all the angst and misery that Young Royals season 3 gave me, I really just wanted some fun and light-heartedness, and this drama HIT THE SPOT.

The main couple is, of course, the best part of the show. The chemistry is fantastic and this is a great example of how to write a healthy relationship that isn't boring. I loved seeing their relationship develop from "enemies" (with gigantic air quotes lol) to friends, and watching how they communicated and supported each other throughout. The side romances were also great and I never once felt like I wanted to skip any scenes.

I was also pleasantly surprised at how well the humor worked. There are a lot of comparisons with this and 2gether, but I found that drama's humor too over-the-top, making the drama feel low-stakes and nonsensical. On the other hand, this show's humor was well-timed and endearing, and most importantly it never interfered with the tone of the show. It was serious when it needed to be, touching and sad when it needed to be, and funny when it could be. It struck a great balance between touching on some serious topics like homophobia and discrimination, while also making sure we got the feel-good friendships and family scenes.

Overall, this was a great watch. I admit that not all the songs were my vibe, but I loved the ending song, Once Upon A Time. Whether or not you like the songs won't really affect how fun of a watch it is. Ultimately, it's not a life-changing drama, but it will, without a doubt, make your weekend better.

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