I had watched Boys Over Flowers before this—but none of the other versions, and right off the bat I knew I was going to like this better. ALL the characters were more likable, and that even includes FL's parents.

Of course, there were some things that were so ridiculous—like the parts where a bridge/poker game determined who got to stay in school—but there were dumb scenes in the original story, so I guess I had to let that go.

Compared to BOF, I felt like everything was more dimmed down, from the scariness of the mother to the social situation in school. I liked this, as it definitely felt more realistic.

Meteor Garden does suffer from something a lot of Chinese dramas seem to suffer from—the inability to focus on multiple plotlines at the same time. For the side characters, it felt like we were learning about one ship, and then moving on to another one after it had been wrapped up. Also, I didn't give a crap about Terence.

Sadly, the last few episodes of this show were just kind of a mess. Random drama was added in at the end, there was a sudden musical number, and I was so confused and disappointed that that was the ending we were going to get. Either way, I still quite enjoyed watching this.