Let's just cut right to it, this show was painfully boring. There, I said it. A story built around partial amnesia has real potential, but between the choppy scene structure and random flashbacks thrown in constantly, the whole plot ends up feeling more tangled than it needed to be. The romance doesn't fare much better either, it's written so poorly that I never really found myself invested in this couple. Both leads come across stiff on screen and deliver their lines in a really awkward way. The show runs 8 episodes, each somewhere around 30 to 35 minutes. Hanuel, a 29 year old language teacher, wakes up after an accident only to realize his memory stops at age 19. It turns out he'd been in another accident back then too, which is why his memories cut off at that point. He has zero recollection of the fact that he's currently living with his childhood friend Saebyeok, who's now a huge celebrity. That makes the whole situation even harder for Hanuel to wrap his ...
The story starts with students prepping for a stage version of Romeo and Romeo. Jack is directing and holds open auditions for the roles. His ex Dean used to get the lead automatically in Jack's shows, but this time Jack says roles go only to whoever auditions best. Dean still wants Jack back and tries to seduce him, but Jack turns him down. Another student, Raffy, likes Jack and figures getting cast will help him get close to him, but Jack has no interest in Raffy at all. Jack's stepbrother Rome likes Raffy, but Raffy keeps brushing him off. Every time Jack rejects Raffy, Raffy goes to Rome and they hook up. The third couple is Rua and Arnold. Rua is Dean's friend, his roommate, and the show's costume designer, and he has a crush on Arnold, so he pushes him to audition for the lead. Arnold and Dean both land the two lead roles, while Raffy only gets a side part. As rehearsals go on, emotions get messier, and the line between love, jealousy, rivalry, and vulnerability starts to blur. The show gets that when people create something together, feelings don't stay contained. Ego, attraction, insecurity, ambition, old feelings, they all collide, and that's where this show lives. Between casting rivalries, old exes, and jealous impulsive choices, the story stays charged and easy to stay hooked on.
With this many characters, it's hard to give everyone equal focus, but the writers try. There's a lot of painful misunderstandings, jealousy, manipulation, and seduction. The show lets its characters mess up badly without turning them into just their mistakes. Everyone has real flaws and insecurities. We see why Jack and Dean broke up, how they eventually get back together, then hit another misunderstanding involving Dean and Arnold that puts both the play and their relationships at risk. Raffy's leftover feelings for Jack keep causing tension between him and Rome. It's honestly frustrating watching Raffy chase Jack again and again just to get rejected every time. My favorite pair by far was Arnold and Tua. There's a softness between them that balances out all the heavier drama happening around them. Even when problems come up, like Tua lying about the actors getting paid, or the mess with Arnold and Dean, their conflicts stay grounded and real instead of turning destructive. Jack and Dean are supposed to be the main couple. They were fine, but their whole arc felt predictable to me. Their relationship keeps getting stuck between who they used to be and who they became after hurting each other. What makes the show work is that the characters are flawed. Jealousy, insecurity, and desire are shown pretty raw and unfiltered, which keeps the conflicts feeling real and spontaneous. The show also uses old pairings from past shows for nostalgia, throwing in familiar names for cameos.
I really enjoyed the first five or six episodes, but after that it got repetitive, cycling through the same misunderstandings, affairs, breakups, and patch ups we've all seen before. Still, credit where it's due, handling a cast this big isn't easy, so that deserves respect. As a whole, it was solid, better than a lot of other shows in this space. (7/10)
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