Where did the plot GO?

What is it with Netflix and these dumb-down dramas?
Whatever happened to the story? For the first half, it may have been silly but like good silly since it had a PLOT to follow. The spells and the curse were interesting. But then suddenly the plot disappeared and we were left with nothing to support this story other than the romance.
So by the end of it, I am left with nothing but confusion, disappointment, and a lot of questions left unanswered. For example:
Didn’t he like have a degenerative disease? What about the love spell, was that ever a thing? There was supposed to be a curse…what happened to it? The crazy stalker was present in both timelines did that mean something? How did he know how to make spells? Am I just missing something? did I miss a whole ass episode where all of this got explained??

Yeah, they were cute and had a ton of chemistry but by the end, there were 0 explanations. It’s like it was an entirely different drama in the second half.

Also, it felt like they had good actors who were terribly underused. Why have Lee Pilmo and Lee Taeri in your cast when they barely appear? They didn't even get proper storylines they were just there to fill space with some sublevel plotlines. Wasted talent in my opinion.

Other than that the other actors did fine. Jo Boah has a talent for obnoxious characters, she plays them too well really. Rowon we can agree, had that good scene at the beginning of ep 16, the rest he did what any other handsome idol/actor does well: play the perfect, cold, stone-faced character. He did have a lot of smiles and puppy eyes for Jo Boah in the end though. The rest of the cast was nothing but fillers since they did not add much to the story. Well maybe a little bit the second ML, I kinda want to see him do an ML gig soon, I saw him in Bad Prosecutor too and I liked him and his acting.

The OST was fine, the production great, the CGI was passable, and the budget was budgeting.
In conclusion, the drama was a letdown since I quite enjoyed the beginning. I don't know what is going around lately with these rom-coms that show on Netflix. Good-looking, popular leads with a high budget and good production will only get you so far. They need to step up their script game because, CHILD how can you spend so much money on something that's this lacking, underfinished, AND JUST SO BAD?

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Follows the RomCom blueprint.

There’s nothing particularly bad about this. To me it was boring and I background-watched it, meaning I was either doing sudoku, painting my nails, or scrolling through/playing with my phone while it played. The only reason I stuck to it was Lee Junho.
I'm not necessarily a fan who keeps up with everything that he does but to me, he's the best idol-turn-actor I've seen yet and if I'm scrolling and see his name I click. And yes he is magnificent down to every little detail of his character, and let's be honest he looked extremely dapper in a suit.
Other than that the story was a little boring to me because there was no real pushback from anyone ( the sister was a big letdown for me) and the big mystery surrounding his mother's whereabouts was revealed in the most anti-climatic way they could think of and it took less than an episode for the whole reveal.
Every problem the FL and her friends were going through got resolved in the most idyllic way too. As you know it's not very realistic.
Now why did I say there's nothing particularly bad about this? Because your enjoyment of this drama will depend on what you're looking for. If you're looking for fluff and love and rainbows, something to get you away from the harsh realities of this world, then this one is definitely for you.
I'm just confused as to why I was not particularly in love with this one. It had its moments where I was hooked because Gu Won was swoon-worthy, the comedic timing was wacky and I loved it and the little side noona romance was a win in my books. Maybe it was not my moment to watch it or maybe it was Yoonah because, for some reason, I always have the hardest time finishing anything that she's in.

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It was a frustrating fun watch if you adjust youre expectations.

This is my first time watching a 50+ ep drama, I usually only watch dramas no longer than 16-22 (and my first weekend drama) and I'm slightly amazed at the amount of people that are suprised this was not that good. I mean did you read the summary of this thing? Did that sound like the most original, plot driven drama of 2021 to you? Because to me it felt like something i read ages ago back when i was a teenager in Fanfiction . net im sorry. Im guessing (based on the comments) that most of the frustration comes from that amnesia plot which lets be honest WAS really annoying. But overall I feel like this delivered exactly what it promised to be TO ME. Now I am from latinamerica (Panama) -where this show is doing BIG NUMBERS- and im going to easily explain why that is. This feels exactly like a telenovela. Im not even kidding, up until early 2010s this was the way telenovelas would go. So to anyone who has sat through a whole 100+ episodes of a telenovela of that time, then they can easily walk through this. I think Netflix knew exatly what they were doing when they put this out. Earlier this year a telenovela remake of the 1990s (meaning it HAD all the usual cliches and stupid misunderstandings) called "CAFE CON AROMA A MUJER" did big numbers too (not to mention old telenovelas are always on the top 10). So this could be another niche market netflix might be soft focusing on and another way to introduce korean dramas to the general public. Would not be surprised if we see more of these dramas released in Netflix this year.

Well what did I enjoy about this? I felt that some actors were more than decent so much so that I wondered why some of them read the script and said yes im going to waste my talent in this?

Special mention 1: President Lee Young Guk (Ji Hyun-woo). Why? he was good. A little too stiff in the beginning but as the episodes go by he feels more comfortable with the kids and Dan Dan. Dont know if this is the usual for weekend dramas but there was a lot of crying, which was annoying at times, but im not that used to see the male lead cry as easy and as much as President Lee did and it looked very natural. He does need to work on his indoor voice though other than that i liked how much of a gentle giant he was with Dan dan, a total simp. As a character though he was frustrating....LIKE VERY FRUSTRATING. The amnesia plot was frustrating too but at the same time it was kinda fun getting to see a 22 year old president fall in love again with dan dan which adds to the whole he really loves her idea AND he was way more honest and fun. When it got annoying again he went back to 41 year old president so it was all good UP UNTIL THE VERY END WHEN THAT CRAZY WOMAN MADE SOME CRAZY ALLEGATIONS THATS WHEN I LOST IT.

Special Mentionn 2: Park Dan Dan( Lee Se Hee). This one i get why she took the job shes a lesser known rookie actress and this was a good(?) way to get her face known. GIRL i hope they kept a water bottle close to you at all times while shooting because the amount of TEARS you had to shed Im AMAZED you didnt suffer from dehydration. Park Dan Dan was the strongest (stupidest?) soldier because i wouldnt have been able to push through so MANY rejections. Her character was not one I loved but somehow she made me root for her and thats all thanks to Se Hee. Who SOMEHOW made her likeable to me. Dont ask me what it is. I read shes in D.O's new drama so I hope she gets to show her true abilities in that one.

Special Mention 3: THE KIDS!!!!!! EVERYONE HAS TO AGREE THE BIGGEST FORCE OF THIS SHOW WERE THE CHILDREN. I had seen the girl already in The king's affection and she blew me away there. She wasnt as present as the youngest ones but always showed up when needed. Se jeon and Se chan were the CUTEST. I cant explain how much i loved the show thanks to them.

Quick distinction: Anna Kim (Lee Il Hwa) The only mother who deserved forgiveness IMO because seriously what was wrong with the mothers here?!?!?! , Jo Sa Ra (Park Ha Na) she made me hate her guts no more explanation needed.

Also this drama, for its quality, had a great OST.


What I disliked. WELL theres A LOT. It was wayy too predictable and while some actors did a good job overall others DID NOT.

I was constantly wondering if the scriptwriter had some mama issues because the mothers here are some of the worst ive ever seen.
Oh and people said that the first 15 episodes were the best and i only agree a little because to me everything was moving along too fast so i wouldve change that and let those plot lines develop a little more and take up more episodes so that they didnt need that amnesia plot at all or not have it take up that many episodes.
I was baffled by the fact that we didnt get to see our happy couple that much in the end. they were focusing on everything BUT the main couple in ep 49is to the half of ep 51 which i found wierd because they were FINALLY together after everything.
To be honest i skipped some parts specially the ones were Sara was and there were too many relatives, everyone was related to somebody and it ended even more twisted because of the marriages. so that was weird.

In the end this series became an addiction, I enjoyed its ridiculousness and cliches The kids were a delight to watch and though I hated the "kissing scenes" the chemistry between Ji Hyun-woo and Lee Se Hee was THERE, they were the cutest together. So while im not rating this very high nor do I think this is THE drama. It is and easy and halfly enjoyable watch when you are looking for something simple to follow. And YES I think might watch this again some time in the future. as crazy as that sounds.

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The world they built was too good for this

The best way I can describe how this drama felt to me is a shoujo reverse harem manga type of thing. I don’t know if that’s explanation enough but that’s the best I can do. I did have a lot of reservations about part 1, some of them carried out to this second part others didn’t but then new issues emerged in this one.
Let me explain, one of my biggest issue with this show (both parts). Whenever you’re watching this sort of stories there are always key scenes that are meant to draw you in and make you root for the Lead/s and make you go “WOW this character is super cool”.
This drama had -IN MY OPINION- too many. It was specially bizarre to me in the first part how Jang Uk was supposedly an underdog but then there was always -insert convenient plot hole here- and it allowed him to show off his out of the ordinary abilities. I get it he was supposed to have super abilities compared to the rest because of his horoscope but sometimes they stretched it too thin for my liking. With this second part I got it the first couple of times. it was needed to understand how powerful Jang Uk had become but then every other scene they are showing off his abilities and it got boring very fast.
Now one thing that I liked about the first part that didn’t carry into the second part was the ensemble cast. I know we only had 10 eps for this part but it amazes me how much talent and chemistry this ensamble cast HAD and they let it GO TO WASTE LIKE THAT. Part 1 & 2 feel WORLDS APART in that sense.
The focus was the main couple and I know this sounds ridiculous but the way it was presented to me in the first part was an ensemble cast rather than just the main leads and the rest acting as background which is what part 2 became (except maybe for Park Jin and his new wife). Why introduce so many characters in the first part that ended up amounting to nothing but a couple of sidelined sub level plot lines at most or not used at all.

One thing I liked about this second part though (even if the story felt a little rushed and nonsensical) was that I could finally root for Naksu and Jang Uk to be together. And that’s mostly because they greatly reduced Seo Yul’s presence here but mostly because Jang Uk had infinite amount of romantic chemistry with THIS actress. I was mostly team Seo Yul in the first part because I felt Minhyun had better romantic chemistry with Mudeok than Jang Uk (Besides Yul was given more of the date like romantic scenes than Uk)
Naksu was done WRONG in so many levels they turned her into nothing more than a damsel in distress for this 2nd part. Jang Uk literally had to rescue her up until the very end. Like yes she learned to rely and depend on someone else which is nice but let’s not pretend Naksu wouldn’t have relied on her strength and ability to fight even more so now that she had someone to protect. The shift was too sudden and in my opinion out of character that it felt like we had an entirely new and different female lead.

Because of the way the characters and this world was richly built and shown to us the ending was a little disappointing because it could’ve delivered something more. The OSTs and the cinematography was top notch and it does feel like I could watch another season of this with the newly appointed King and/or Seo Yul stories as the main focus because they are interesting characters by their own right.

There’s so much more Id like to add like how they made me cry so much for no reason because nobody ended up dying (it would’ve been better if they had it would’ve set how high the stakes were and the severity of the fight at hand) or the way they recycled Jin Mu one too many times BUT overall this was an enjoyable watch though nonsensical at times.

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Youth, passion and growing pains

This drama is the epitome of youth, passion and growing pains.

I’m not much for watching coming of age stories but this one got me good. Right now as I’m writing this I’m still picking up the pieces of my broken heart caused by that heart wrenching end. No kidding I was a sobbing mess.

Honestly I haven’t cried this much watching a drama before (like I’ve cried before but not like this, I was gasping for air?!). I was like Jesus can you please stop I want to stop crying!! I could not stop sobbing throughout the last episode so much so that I kept thinking I couldn’t cry anymore because I didn’t have any tears left and then BAM! the waterworks started again.
And you know what? I wouldn’t have had it any other way. The lesson that this drama and the writers set out to teach was that sometimes love is not enough.

And in this case it didn’t matter how stupid in love they were with each other if they couldn’t overcome their problems. In some ways it felt to me like they loved each other too much. So much so that it ended up being their demise. She loved him too much to be selfish and ask him to be there for them and he loved her too much to share his burden with her because he didn’t want to taint her or drag her down.

Ultimately what killed me the most was that *we don’t know whatever happened with Baek Yi Jin?!?!* Did HE get married? Did he stay single pinning for the love that never was? Had any children??? Does he regret anything???!! I know that the story is Na Hee Do’s but STILL how could they leave him out and only put him in that ending? Scene??? Though it was ironically sad how the name of the person you THOUGHT you would have by your side, love forever and grow old with becomes but the answer of a security question. 21st century sadness.

The cast did a terrific job. Everyone say thank you to Nam
Joo Hyuk for making Baek YiJin what he was. I saw an interview were him and Kim Taeri where they said that YiJin in the script was totally different to JooHyuk’s YiJin. Apparently Yijin was cold and distant and then JooHyuk said let’s make him warm and cutely dorky/weird. I’ll love you forever for that Nam Joo Hyuk. Taeri WAS Na Hee Do no more needed. And the rest of the cast was great too their chemistry was good.

The ost was top notch, the cinematography excellent, the nostalgia on point and it even got me excited for FENCING -didn’t see that one on my bingo card-. Tough tbh I was low key salty about the other couple making it through

At the end of the day Twenty-five twenty-one can be summarized with two words: first love. And, sadly, the undeniable truth is that we usually learn a lot from it before it reaches its final destined day for it’s seldom made to last. Because first love is as fleeting as youth.

Ps: now I’m going to sleep because my eyes and my head HURT from all the crying! I have half a mind to sue the writers for causing me distress and irreparable emotional damage. So excuse any grammatical or spelling mistake.

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I feel empty after finishing this. There were so many unresolved issues at the end of this drama I felt completely cheated. The young actors did a great job but when they changed actors it felt like I was watching a completely different drama. We got so much background stories of problems that were never resolved so I’m really questioning why the directors/writers didn’t cut the “past” episodes into a maximum of 5 instead of the 12 they gave us for nothing. Some of the secondary stories we’re underwhelming and so much focus was put on them that we barely get to see the main couple/storyline. This had the potential to be really good but somewhere along the line they lost the purpose of this story. Additionally the casting team did a terrible job with these actors. The two actors portraying Junsu couldn’t look more different from one another and the older version’s acting was not that great though he did a better job than the older version of Guk. They could’ve just aged the “youn” actors like they did with Junsu’s uncle. Overall I feel a lot of potential was lost due to the excessive plot lines that amounted to nothing.

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