I think I’ve finally worked it out. For the longest time I’ve been scratching my head over how these shows are getting 9 and 10 stars, but I am confused no more - it must be that the Viki rating system is NOT, in fact, an indication of how good a film is, but a cuteness factor rating.

And yet, even armed with this new revelation, Cherry Blossoms did not rate a 9.6 on my cuteness radar, no matter which way I tried to look at it. ??‍♀️

So let’s start with some context. This show is based on a webtoon of the same name, one which I didn’t necessarily love but still persevered through. I’m all for steamy romances but 150 chapters worth of smut was a bit hard to walk through, especially when webtoon Haebom looked uncomfortably too much like an underaged boy. Still, I skipped through it because it was hugely popular and I wanted to see what the fuss was about. I come across a lot of this weird combination in BL manga: super cute art in bright colours (in this case, lots of pretty pastels) paired with a truck-ton of explicit sex. It can be a very unsettling experience.

So why on earth did I watch the live-action drama, WHYYYYYY? Again, I guess curiosity got the better of me. And we all know what curiosity did to the cat.

Look, I’m a big fan of slice-of-life college romances in all forms and sizes. I love the newness, the thrills and the angst - oh the angst - of young love. But this really was nothing to write home about. If Kim Bok Joo is a deliciously fragrant, warm cup of tea in winter and I Told Sunset About You is a single origin, equal parts bitter and sweet latte, complete with expertly poured art on top, Cherry Blossoms is … is …. like a coffee franchise ice-blended red bean special that you thought might be a good idea cause you’re dead tired on an airport layover and thought you’d just give it a go.

So, some positives: they casted two fairly good-looking actors with a reasonable amount of acting chops. The support cast were also okay. The producers did what they could within their limited budget to still deliver the “pretty” settings - the house they grew up in looks the part as a “wealthy” home and the apartment they end up in is styled to a T. This is the least we’ve come to expect from a mid-level budget K-webdrama, so no surprises here.

I think ultimately that was precisely the main issue with this show: there is really nothing new here, not even by BL standards. Story aside (hard to rate the problematic storyline, because they were just being faithful to the original manhwa), the acting was okay and the chemistry was also okay-ish. The pacing was really not great and neither was the cinematography. Use of slo-mo in truly uninspired moments, and not even paired with a good score to try and improve these weird bits. The first half was actually better for me than the second half - at least the school bullying arc was interesting, as was seeing the boys trying to come to terms with their feelings. In the end the serious, dark bits ended up coming across as too incongruous with the rest of the show, which was just so much ice-blended red bean filler - a bit like the manhwa. It could have been cute, but it was largely dull or problematic, and quite a bit cringe.

Still, good shows don’t need to be life-changing. We still watch a lot of rom-coms with the same tropes over and over again - and we still enjoy them, as long as the show is done right. Unfortunately, Cherry Blossoms just came across as bland and uninspired. I’ll give it a 6, because it wasn’t God-awful, but just terribly meh.

So, should you watch it? Maybe, if you were dead-tired on an airport layover and didn’t have much else to do.