Thumping Spike

Thumping Spike

4.5/10

Thumping Spike

Genre:                                Episodes: 20                          Year: 2016

School

Comedy

Romance

Synopsis:

In order to dodge a potential lawsuit, top volleyball star Kang Se Ra decides to coach the floundering Daehan High School volleyball team. She is helped by the Team Captain, Baek Woo Jin- however the team’s star player, Hwang Jae Woong, dislikes both the new Coach and the Team Captain.

Cast:

Song Jae Rim (Hwang Jae Woong)

Hwang Seung Eon (Kang Se Ra)

Lee Tae Hwan (Baek Woo Jin)

Son Ho Young (Kim Ki Joon)

Ha Seung Ri (Son Soo Bin)

Shin Hyun Soo (Lee Han Sol)

General Thoughts:

It’s cute, it’s fluffy, it’s a typical web-series. It starts off pretty average as initially the character of Se Ra is a bit of an entitled brat, but once the romance gets going it becomes much more enjoyable. Plot-wise the series is a little weird. The writers chose to focus on Se Ra and Jae Woong as our main characters, with hardly anyone else in the series getting much development or characterisation at all.

No one else reeaaaally matters

Woo Jin and Ki Joon are given a fair amount of screen-time, but are not really given much story of their own. Instead they only seem to be important because of their feelings for Se Ra and how Se Ra views them in return- but not really as characters in their own right. The rest of the volleyball team are really nothing more than goofy, archetype characters who are only there because you need more than two boys on a volleyball team.

I know the names of maybe three guys on the team

Looking at the way the characterisations are set up and how much importance (and screen time) is given to our leading couple, you’d think that the main storylines would be about their developing relationship and obstacles that get in the way of that relationship. But instead, the plot circles the volleyball team’s journey to winning the main tournament. Which is satisfying as this means Se Ra succeeded as a coach and Jae Woong would get to go to the university of his choice- but it didn’t really hit the super satisfying note that it would have if we had spent a little more time getting to know a few of the other boys on the team. What would have been super satisfying would have been seeing the cute, adorable love-line between our leads come to complete fruition. But that doesn’t really happen. Se Ra gets surgery and goes to Germany. Really? That’s how you’re going to wrap this up? Screw that- all I wanted was them having a good ol’ snog at the end of the tournament and ending it right there. That would have been great. But no. Instead we get Germany.

Should have just ended the series here

In regards to acting it’s all satisfactory for a web-series. The character of Se Ra was pretty bland so Hwang Seung Eon didn’t really have a heap to work with. Thankfully her chemistry with Song Jae Rim was pretty rocking, so once her character stopped being a whiney brat you could really let yourself get swept up in the cute whirlwind between them.

Not as annoying as she could have been- so that's a plus

Song Jae Rim was awesome. He does aloof and superior so well, and it was great to see his chilly exterior melted (very quickly I might add) by Se Ra. There’s basically nothing to say about anyone else in this drama, as no one else (character-wise) really matters. It could have been 20 episodes of just Jae Woong and Se Ra and it would have achieved the same results, just in a slightly different way. The volleyball boys were there for the occasional laugh or to say/do something that couldn’t be said or done by either of our main leads. Lee Tae Hwan didn’t give his most convincing performance of the year, but it wasn’t outright bad. And really, if he had to give a mediocre performance in anything this year, at least it was this drama and not his others. I tend to prefer him in more bad-boy/tough-guy roles (which is what he seems to be good at), so I found his character here to be a bit too smiley for my taste. In regards to music, I can’t actually remember any part of any song from the soundtrack, so it’s safe to say that it was pretty unremarkable. The only camerawork that left any lasting impression was ‘jeez I think I’ve seen this transition shot of the empty running track about ten times now’. It’s not that the editing or cinematography wasn’t good- it was just pleasantly mediocre. 

What Was Great:

Our Main Man:

Song Jae Rim really smashed it out of the park as the leading man. Having a weak male lead would have destroyed this series, as it was basically the only thing that was keeping it entertaining. Jae Woong falling for Se Ra and trying to win her over (while also trying to fight off every other guy with more than 5 seconds of screen-time) was basically what made this drama. He was endearing and easy to root for.

Good grief that boy's good lookin'

His character didn’t really get much in the way of backstory. He was once injured and has a sick sister, but after being told that neither of these facts really come into play later down the track. Song Jae Rim gives a strong and convincing performance, and it was easy to fall in love with him and his character. He also made Se Ra seem much more likeable. While she started out as a rather irritating character, through her interactions with Jae Woong, she became much more tolerable- and even a little likeable. 

Pretty darn adorable

Cute Factor:

The main love-line was super cute- which is just as well because that’s really all there is. While it’s nice to see the volleyball team doing well and starting to step it up, it’s the romance between Jae Woong and Se Ra that kept us all moving on to the next episode. Song Jae Rim and Hwang Seung Eon were adorable together and sold the romance well. While it was easy to forget that Jae Woong was supposed to be four years younger than Se Ra, in the end it didn’t really matter. 

What Wasn’t:

No Other Characters:

Beyond our two main leads, no one else really matters. They’re kinda there just because this story wouldn’t have exactly worked with only two characters. The writers seemed to give them as little development as possible in order to squish in more scenes of Jae Woong and Se Ra. Which is fine. In a longer, more serious drama this lack of characterisation would be a huge downfall, but ‘Thumping Spike’ is able to get away with having hardly any characters in it. We have to see development between the leads in every episode, and as the episodes were so short this meant that most of every episode was given to our leads.

Some guys who are here for...wait...why are they here?

It’s not a gaping black hole in the series- it just might have been nice to have a smidge more on the other boys sprinkled throughout the series rather than just in the final speech after the tournament victory.

Re-watch?

Maybe. While it’s definitely not the greatest drama out there, it’s short, sweet and straight to the point. Song Jae Rim really rocks it, and it’s a good drama for a small bit of fluff you can watch and enjoy without having to think too hard (or at all).

All I know is: I <3 Song Jae Rim