Școala 2017 (2017)

I loved School 2015, so when I heard about School 2017 I got excited. I am Sejeong's fan as a singer but the thought of her taking a lead role on her first drama doesn't really suits me. But I decided to give it a try, why not?

So I decided to watched the first episode, which is sadly didn't appeal to me as much. I stopped after around 10 minutes. I think I attempt to finish the first episode 3 times before I decided that I will really watch it.

The story is okay. Nothing much new. It's kind of predictable. I like it when they are finding X, but then when X got revealed, it got me bored. I remember fast forwarding some scenes after episode 8 or 9? (For the story, I like Sassy Go Go better)

The acting are fine. But I don't find chemistry between the leads, I actually like Dae Hwi and Nam Joo more.

Maybe younger ones prefer this show more. I'm way past this age so.. maybe just not my cup of tea.

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This is the only "School" series that I watched. Never watched School 2013/2015, but I think this is a great drama to watch.

I must say, the plot is great. The investigation to find X, the relationship of the parents and the main roles, the corruption of the administration, the rich students and parents who dodges the bullet every time, the romances of the roles, the friendship, bullying, etc., there are a lot of things going on in the drama which makes me have mixed emotions like anger, happiness, anxiety and romantic excitement. The last 2 episodes are a bit rushed for me because I wanted it to be longer to keep the flow of the story smooth that's why the points are deducted. Other than that, I think the story is amazing and it leaves life lessons.

The cast, they executed their roles amazingly and it makes me amazed too. Kim Se Jung (Eun Ho) & Kim Jung Hyun (Tae Woo) fit through their roles and make up a cute and lovable couple which is great to watch, and their acting is so good for rookies and I didn't know that their just new to the acting business. Jang Dong Yoon (Dae Hwi) and Seol In Ah (Nam Joo) also make up a great couple. Can't believe they're new to acting too, they executed their roles so well. Other than that, other casts (villains, staff, other students) did executed their roles very well so I gave it a 10.

The music, I don't mind the music at all. I just deducted .5 because there are some music that didn't hit my emotions.

Overall, a great drama to watch and if you can handle your emotions well, you can watch this drama. :)

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Potential Ruined By Bad Writing

LIKES:
Cinematography
Location shots
Acting
Chemistry between FL & ML
The student X storyline
First few episodes had good: pacing, intrigue, chemistry, rebellious teens, everything a good high school drama should have
Music was okay.
Nothing that needed FX.
The friendships: between FL and supporting female friend (they grew apart but talked things through to reconcile), etc.
How they showed the FL trying to deal with her phobia at the end. [Attempt at character growth.]

DISLIKES:
PRODUCTION:
Shaky camera syndrome, no film stabilizer used.
Director failed with some of the pacing, to the point there was a lot of boring parts.
Pacing was bad, to the point I used fast forward to other scenes. Mostly done during the “plotting” of doing bad things by the adults.
WRITING: So much potential ruined by bad writing.
Over done on the sh!tty school that uses and abuses the students.
Didn’t handle the issues of bullying, study pressures, corruption of the school system, classism, etc., in a productive way
Unfinished storylines of the supporting characters (her best friend and who became her boyfriend; the idol or the guitar player)
No kisses, just teasing, holding hands and hugging: they are seniors by that point they would’ve had a few kisses at least.
Romance of the second ML and his girlfriend, was barely even a friendship, the writer at the end tried to fix it, but without any impact.
Big reveal of who Student X was, failed to have impact. And was way too easy to guess in the beginning.
Not as good as the other School series.
Usual trope of rich bad boy likes poor good girl
Character growth was missing, but they did show a little of it with the supporting characters.

ACTING/CAST:
The Educational Director (ML’s dad) couldn’t pull off the evil character at all.
Overdone Principle as bad character.
The students all looked like they were at least college age and not still in high school

OVERALL:
Quick easy watch, good for someone just starting out watching high school dramas.
I wont watch it again.

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Likes
- Kim Se Jung is adorable and lovable in this. Very easy to root for her.
- Plot and mystery was intriguing and kept me wanting more.
- The friendships being built or rebuilt in this was heartwarming and gave many feel good scenes.
- The main romance was cute and heartwarming, with simple acts of love that made you feel the love.

Dislikes
- Music was not memorable. I cant remember a single song from the series.
- The motivations of antagonists in this reach super villain level of silliness.
- Too slow of a build up of the main romance in my opinion.

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Excellent acting

Acting: Kim Jung Hyun as Hyun Tae Woon was really, really good. He's got an interesting look about him. He's kind of rough around the edges and isn't the typical Asian "pretty" actor. He does serious, he does funny, and I totally believed him in this role. I also enjoyed Kim Se Jeong as Ra Eun Ho, but what I enjoyed most was their chemistry. The hate to love didn't go on too terribly long, and they had an actual healthy relationship, based on mutual respect and support, with both of them having a good sense of humor, which, let's face it, is important in a relationship!

Story: The plot started out okay, but got bogged down. There were the obligatory evil teachers, administrators and parents (did we really need so many?!?!). There was the one teacher that stood up for the kids - I enjoyed his character. However, ultimately it was less about good and evil, but more about how much the school sucked. I did enjoy the friendships in this drama.

I would have to say that my favorite parts of this show were watching the main couple together.

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It's trying to depict many issue in High School environment, from bully, unfair treatment of student based on their social standing, the stress of to get the best score, etc, but they are just fail miserably. There is the tenstion for the sake of tension, at times preachy, but it's just a bunch collection of problem throw it you down of your own throat. The writers certainly doesn't has talent to match between romance, bromance and realistic conflict they arise.

But the good news is, This cast is the best casting compare to among other previous cast in school series in recent memory (well, compare to School 2013 and Schcool 2015). School 2013 and School 2015 has the same fail attempt to depict teenage environment in high school. But this School series has one advantage, is the cast and make the show become bearable.

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Example of how good story can be ruined with bad acting

Strong suite of this title
Story- it shows reality of schools and it’s students. The depiction of problems faced by modern day students and how their families can support or bring them down is accurate.

OST- some songs are well suited to situations

Weaknesses
The cast -
FL just could not do justice to the role. Her reaction to most situations is a smile and mostly it felt fake.
Second ML was a disappointment too. The romance looked too dull between second couple and failed to convince.
chairman character dint look like imposing father or show any emotions.
Principal and vice principal did justice to their roles.
Second FL though she tried her best to do her part , her part itself was too small.
ML - he was the reason I could endure the series. His expressions , attitude was perfect. The lead couple love story looked convincing only because of the of the ML else FL looked like she was lost throughout the series.
Teacher and police officer were good too

Episode number - the life of story was short but it was dragged too long and could’ve been over by 12 episodes

Dialogues- after a while they were repetitive

FL crisis syndrome- FL was target of every disaster and ML saves her was the cliche implemented over and over again. Along with face that FL was too good to be true as she was always righteous.

Overall - good story ruined by poor acting by the cast

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The best "School" Installment so far

I literally have no idea why this drama isn't praised everywhere. I watched almost all of the new School-20xx installments and this is by far THE BEST one!

I went in expecting something along the lines of School 2013, and instead it was so much better! The whole storyline with the mysterious Student X and the "rebels" is so thrilling and entertaining, keeps you always on your toes and makes you want to know more!

The romance in this drama is on the same level as the best romance kdramas you can think of. The chemistry between the leads is smoking hot, it will make your heart beat and you will giggle hard as if you were the one living their love story! There are so many parts of this drama that are a perfect example of what romance in dramas should be like.

I can't think of a single thing I didn't like about this drama. Please watch it! You really won't regret it. It's even on Netflix now!

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Most consistent plot-wise among all the School series I've watched

3rd Stop on my School series marathon. Same as School 2015, this is my 2nd time watching this series although that was years ago so I don't really remember what happened so as I was watching it's almost the same as watching it for the first time. I feel like the first time I watched it was when I was busy with school works as a stress reliever so I didn't appreciate it as much as I did now. Without further back story here it is.

REVIEW PROPER STARTS HERE. School 2017 wasn't as popular as Who Are You: School 2015. I didn't hear it from someone who strongly recommends it unlike School 2015. However as I re-watched it I realize I probably liked this as much as School 2015 for a slightly different reason. Plot-wise, there's nothing really big or extraordinary on its story. It still follows the common pattern on the School series: a student is a child of the school director, a teacher who really cares about the students but doesn't have much power, someone who's really smart school but is always second and is usually rich, management corruption, bullying, rich kids feeling entitled as always and etc. However I feel like this series is the best in terms of sustaining the excitement from start to finish. I always had that one thing I look forward into every episode. Unlike other School series wherein some episodes felt like they were just fillers. Maybe it's also because the characters in this one is much more interconnected. It doesn't feel like an individual story every time. It's more of like diving into the characters' life while they interact with the other characters which for me added more depth and flavor into it's story.

It's a series full of emotions whether about friendship, family or school. I have laughed and cried throughout the series and there are lots of scenes that I can emotionally relate. The casts definitely contributed in making all those emotions come to life. When I first saw this series, I remember that I don't know any of them. I just found out later that SeJong was from I.O.I and saw JungHyun in Eulachacha Waikiki in around 2020. Maybe that's the reason why I have appreciated them more now. I love the chemistry between them (although I'm already shipping Kim JungHyun and Seo JiHye from CLOY) and also the friendship chemistry among 'Team X' as I personally nicknamed them. Knowing the history of how they became friends made me love them more. The Principal, Kim EungSoo is really annoying until the very end however the character suits him well. I have a love-hate reaction to him. Very fantastic acting for me to curse him really well all throughout the drama but at the same time I cannot imagine him not being part of the story.

Of course, we won't forget the OSTs. For me School 2015's OST is still something really memorable for me however School 2017 also had a lot of really interesting and something that I'd definitely add on my playlist. OST can sometimes make or break a drama and for me it did well for School 2017.

Overall, I highly recommend this drama. If you just really miss school this is a good drama to reminisce your school days.

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Not a typical teen drama

This is not actually a romcom, it's not very lighthearted or cute. Teen dramas tend to be dismissed easily as just that just bc of expectations. This is neither too dark or too light imo. The theme is rather universal, whether to stand up to fight injustice, or to go with the crowd which is always easier. Very few people can stand strongly behind what they see as right and ethical when the rest just have an easy time not caring. School bullying and burnout due to insane pressures and competition are also rather universal I guess, not only happening in SK. Also the rich/poor divide is strongly accentuated here. The romance thread is nicely executed. In good taste. This is far from a perfect k-drama but worth watching nevertheless.

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