StayDontStray
Cute in the Beginning, Hard to Finish Near the Middle
This drama honestly set my expectations pretty high at the beginning. The chemistry between the characters, the light and fun plot, and the focus on badminton made it all extremely enjoyable.Until episode 9. During the show, it's revealed that the main character (Taeyang) has some kind of traumatic past, which is fine. But honestly, I feel like they dragged it on for way too long throughout ep 9 - 12. Like it was all cute and whatever at first but it just felt like it (1) took way too long to resolve, (2) didn't really fit in with the light and fluffy theme of the show that they set up, and (3) didn't really contribute much the characters' development. I expected that once the issue surfaced, the characters involved would grow from it and become stronger. It just felt like the opposite. It was dragged on for no reason, harmed relationships, and made so many people upset. The whole show became less fun and gloomy, and it just became a melodrama that wasn't requested. It was so boring to watch, and it didn't even help the story.
Butttt once you get through the doom and gloom it returns to its original fluffy and happy storyline, which is a HUGE relief honestly.
In short:
Pros:
- chemistry between leads (OFF THE WALLS!)
- ost !!!
- super cute (except eps 9 -12)
- beautiful cast (all of the men and women in this show are so good looking)
- really funny and lighthearted
- cinematography (quite literally beautiful to watch)
- side couples, side characters (most of them are all so loveable)
Cons:
- episodes 9 -12. (ruined the whole vibe ? )
- problems dragged on for way too long. was hoping for a real friendship to form between taejun and junghwan but there wasn't really enough time to let that happen bc of how long it took to resolve taeyang's issue.
- lack of badminton scenes near the middle. I loved when the focus was more on the sport and taeyang's improvement as a player. really sucked when the show started to lose that charm and became mostly about her past issues.
Overall, I think it's a fun watch if you need something that's cute, or if you're bored/waiting for a better drama.
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Static Plot and Characters
The first two episodes are honestly really exciting. It sets the tone of the show and shows a lot of potential for the directions it could take. However, I've watched over half the show by now and nothing has changed. Every episode essentially goes like this: one of their artists has a problem, they try and find a way to fix it, meanwhile evil director guy tries to get the webtoon team kicked out of the company because they're struggling to keep up sales. This fact, by the way, is one of the major issues in this webtoon and, yet, despite reaching episode 8 NO progress whatsoever has been made. I was hoping for a story like Search: WWW where they come up with ways to increase sales and become number one. However, this entire first half of the show was just a major drag and repeated complaining. Also basically all the characters except Ma Eum (female lead) and the annoying coworker are static and boring. They have no character development whatsoever, and the male lead (is he even the male lead at this point?) lacks any personality. Honestly getting ready to drop the show....Was this review helpful to you?
