Ruler: Master of the Mask

Ruler: Master of the Mask

4.5/10

Ruler: Master of the Mask

Genre:                               Episodes: 20                         Year: 2017

Romance

Historical

Synopsis:

Pyunsoo is a group that control Joseon from the shadows. The organisation uses their power and wealth to privatise water, and the country’s people suffer greatly due to their actions. Crown Prince Lee Sun is an idealistic young Prince who wishes to free Joseon from Pyunsoo. 

Cast:

Yoo Seung Ho (Prince Lee Sun)

Kim So Hyun (Han Ga Eun)

L (Lee Sun)

Yoon So Hee (Kim Hwa Gun)

Heo Joon Ho (Dae Mok)

Park Chul Min (Woo Bo)

Shin Hyun Soo (Lee Chung Woon)

Bae Yoo Ram (Park Moo Ha)

Lee Chae Young (Mae Chang)

Kim Seo Kyung (Gon)

General Thoughts:

Whew- this one was a bit of a struggle to get through. Despite the great expectations that this drama raised, it crumbled underneath all its hype. The show aimed to be a sweepingly romantic, epic sageuk, but it didn’t come close.

It was just salt in the wound that this was stealing ratings away from '7 Day Queen'

The romance was weak, with the leads falling for each other in a split second with no build up and no reasoning, and all points of the show that should have been epic were either easily avoidable, confusing or concluded without much struggle. The writing is definitely to blame here, and the slow and befuddling plot makes the drama a real drag.

My feelings when I realised I had to sit through 20 hours of confused nonsense

For starters, the show didn’t really stick to its premise. Yes there’s a mask and a real King and a fake king, but water being privatised was brushed over in about 30 seconds in the first few episodes, and the heroine’s vendetta against the King/Crown Prince is short and bland- not to mention she doesn’t act on it. I was kinda expecting Ga Eun to be a secret, sly assassin waiting for her chance to strike the King (only to find out it was the man she loved all along)- I didn’t expect her to be a useless crybaby that didn’t do anything and only got about 5 minutes of airtime each episode. Hooooooo, okay, let’s go back to the beginning. Sun’s Dad sells himself to Pyunsoo to become King. And then he’s super agitated that he’s a puppet King and Pyunsoo Group has all the control (like, hello dude, what did you expect?). He then places a huge amount of pressure on Sun saying that he needs to be the king that saves the people (from the evil he invited in, I might add). Then everyone gets super angry when Sun tries to do something about it, saying that he can’t know how the world works because he’s sheltered (as if they weren’t the ones who sheltered him).

"Son, you were born to battle the evil I let in, and I sure as hell won't help you in any way."

Then for a very thinly veiled reason Ga Eun’s father is arrested and scheduled for execution. When Sun finds a way to sneak Ga Eun’s father out of prison he refuses (yeah what) saying that he won’t live his life as a criminal, so instead he gets executed as a criminal (double yeah what).

Why is everyone in this show so eager to die?

Dad dies, Ga Eun cries and Sun makes his (very) newly made friend, Lee Sun, stand in for him as Crown Prince. Pyunsoo kill Sun’s Dad (am I supposed to feel bad about this? He was a total ass, not to mention super unhelpful…), Lee Sun is crowned as a fake king and Sun lives outside the palace to ‘connect with’ and ‘understand’ the people. I say this sarcastically because this is glossed over in the time skip, and Sun is really no smarter about the people 5 years down the track. Anyway- so that was our opening, and the rest of the show makes about as much sense as that did, if not less. The characters get very little development, and the development they do get is often extreme and not at all realistic. Rather than showing a gradual buildup of emotions, our characters were suddenly 100% confident in their feelings. After several brief, and not very deep, encounters, Sun and Ga Eun are suddenly so very in love with each other that they would risk it all for the other.

And you like each other...why?

After more than 5 years waiting for Sun and being a quiet puppet king, Lee Sun suddenly hates Sun and wants to be king forever. I mean, these aren’t unbelievable ideas, it was just that there was no progression towards these outbursts- they just suddenly happened. The smaller stories (buying up the copper, rescuing the child workers, burning the poppies) were all interesting enough, but I just didn’t care enough about the characters to have these events hold any gravitas.

♫ I don't ca-a-a-a-a-are ♫

Except for Hwa Gun who was fab. Because the characters had such little development, it just felt like a bunch of blobs running around slowly (and I mean slowly) solving some problems. I’m sure that there were pieces of information that would have made the confusing aspects of the plot a lot less confusing, but I often found my mind wandering during episodes. Sure, it’s partly my fault for not paying attention, but it’s also kind of the writers' fault for not engaging me. When I’m engaged in a story I will remember every detail- I don’t even want to admit what sort of ridiculous details I remember about ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ (there’s a lot), but I can barely even remember the ridiculous reason behind why Ga Eun’s father was beheaded in this show. Of course, having characters that are poorly written gives the actors an extra hard job too. I’m slowly starting to realise that I’m not as much of a fan of Yoo Seung Ho as I thought I was (please don’t kill me). His characters often annoy me, and when he cries I tend to find him weak and useless rather than pitiful or loveable.

Whine on

I like him much better when he’s determined and strong, which thankfully he was for the most part in ‘Ruler’. But he just didn’t sell the love line that well. Understandably, because the love line is pretty darn awful. It was a difficult task for Yoo Seung Ho to convince me that Sun was a character that made sense, and he didn’t quite manage it.

Let's start picking better projects, okay?

I mean, when the character is written as a King who wants to rise up so he can save the common folk, but then constantly risks everything for one girl, the actor’s not really going to be able to make that go smoothly. I mean really, the whole ‘what sort of King would I be if I couldn’t even save the woman I love?’ thing was just stupid. You’d be an alive King who could actually do something about the people’s suffering. Stupid. What good are you to anyone if you’re dead? And boy did Ga Eun make me really angry at the casting director. If you’re going to give us an absolutely useless female lead, cast someone I don’t care about. Don’t cast Kim So Hyun and squander all her talent! It actually made me quite angry at how this amazing, powerful actress was given absolutely nothing to do. L was okay, but I really don’t think he was quite up to the task of making a bland character pop. Lee Sun was pretty annoying when he was a whimpering servant, but his transition into confident, mildly villainous king was just a tad too schizophrenic for my taste. Also his posture killed me. Yeah, I know he’s trying to be a cowering lower class man and all, but all that hunch did was make me want to put a knee in his spine and yank his shoulders back.

Like come one man, sit up straight

Yoon So Hee was a bit rocky to start, with her character's sudden and random love for Sun, but as the story progressed she settled in Hwa Gun’s character nicely. By the end of her story arc she felt comfortable in her role and gave a convincing, confident performance.

Quit playin' boy, we all know you ain't takin' it off

The side characters were all okay, barring Kim Young Woong who I find weirdly bad in everything. The plot itself felt super long, and dragged out points that should have been addressed much earlier. I mean, it took more than half the drama for Ga Eun to find out that Lee Sun was the King, and even longer than that to find out that Sun was the real King. There were so many moments where characters came close to finding out secrets about each other (that we the viewers already knew), that by the time these reveals came around I just didn’t care anymore. Ga Eun nearly discovered Lee Sun behind the mask so many times that it stopped being a cliffhanger moment- because we just knew something would happen that would prevent that mask from coming off. Long story short, this drama isn’t really what I was expecting it to be, and didn't really do a good job in telling its story.

A little less talking, a little more action please

Worse than being downright ridiculous-bad (giving ‘Scarlet Heart’ some serious side-eye here), ‘Ruler’ kind of just meandered on boring-bad, where it had all the right ingredients but just had no idea what to do with them, and so decided to do nothing. For 20 hours.

What Was Great:

Antagonists:

Thank goodness for our antagonists because really, they were the only ones that got anything done. Any time Dae Mok wasn’t actively involved in the story the pace of the show slowed right down and my interest started to drop.

He may be evil but Dae Mok knows how to get sh*t done

Once Dae Mok was back on board stirring things up and making trouble, the show became a lot more enjoyable. It almost got to the point where I was rooting for him and Pyunsoo just because he was interesting to watch on screen. While technically our second female lead is a hero, I’m still going to include Hwa Gun in this section,

The heroine of my heart

because as Dae Mok’s granddaughter and the new leader of Pyunsoo she was always aligned with the other antagonists. Boy, was Hwa Gun interesting. Once you accepted her rather abrupt love for Sun, her dilemma became quite fascinating. Her love for her family always collided with her love for Sun, and the tension just grew tighter and tighter as the time came for her to make a choice between the two. Hwa Gun was an upright and upstanding character who made many sacrifices for Sun, despite his indifference to her romantic feelings. She had a total Romeo and Juliet type of relationship with Sun, and I can’t help but wonder if this series would have been any better if Hwa Gun had been our leading lady. Hwa Gun was the interesting, active heroine I wanted for this show, often taking situations into her own hands and striving to always be on the front foot (unlike Ga Eun who knew nothing and did nothing). Hwa Gun’s defiant attitude and unwillingness to compromise Sun made for an interesting dynamic between the other Pyunsoo members. The love between Dae Mok and Hwa Gun was clear to see, which only made the friction caused by Sun more fascinating.

This is where the real tension's at

Hwa Gun’s Dad was a character I found surprisingly interesting. He lacked the smarts and cunning that Dae Mok and his daughter had, but his gentleness and love for his family was always nice to see. It was clear that Hwa Gun was going to be the dividing point between her father and grandfather, and it was bittersweet to see how her death at Dae Mok’s hand was what lost Dae Mok the respect of his son.

The only couple I really care about

And of course, without Hwa Gun we wouldn’t have had Gon. It took me a bit by surprise how alarmed I was when Gon was nearly killed, and I realised how much I didn’t want him to die. Even though he was a side character’s side kick, Gon still managed to get more character development than either of our leads. Despite not having many lines that went beyond accepting an order, Kim Seo Kyung was able to express Gon’s one sided love for his Lady, Hwa Gun, perfectly. As much as I adored Hwa Gun’s pure and unfaltering love for Sun, I liked Gon’s secret love just a little bit more. Gon was a character that gave Hwa Gun (and later Sun) power through his fighting skills, so it was nice to have a reason for him serving the two that went beyond just following orders. Lee Sun was a character that was either super interesting or super boring. For about 80% of this drama while he’s politely keeping the throne warm for Sun, Lee Sun was dead boring. Then towards the end he starts to have some autonomy (or so he thinks) and tries to shake things up a bit. Yay for shaking things up.

Really at this point I'll cheer for anyone who does anything that's not sitting around and talking

Sadly for Lee Sun, this didn’t exactly make his character any more likeable. It was less the fact the he was going against Sun and Ga Eun (because I didn’t really care about those guys at all), it was more the suddenly schizophrenic nature he possessed that made him a bit weird. Frankly speaking, I kind of wished that Lee Sun had successfully taken something away from Sun, cuz the real King seemed to have everything going for him and actually didn’t have to sacrifice much over the course of the drama.

Honestly speaking, I couldn't care less who ends up King

While a lot of people cursed him and called him greedy, I actually liked Lee Sun’s desire to keep the throne for himself. Because as things stand Sun really screwed his ‘friend’, over pretty royally. I mean, Sun (unintentionally) set up events for Lee Sun’s father to get murdered. He then starts wooing the girl Lee Sun likes.

You guys are terrible, terrible friends

He then asks Lee Sun to pretend to Prince just for a little while. Sh*t hits the fan, Lee Sun is forced to join Pyunsoo group, is continually poisoned and under threat of death every 15 days all while Sun runs off into hiding to protect himself. A whole FIVE YEARS pass in which Lee Sun is still being used, poisoned and threatened (all while separated from his family) and Sun makes no move to go and free his friend. While Lee Sun is suffering, Sun is off chasing a girl and making no effort to help anyone really- he’s even getting chummy with Lee Sun’s mother and sister. And still after all this Lee Sun intends to return the throne. Sun trying to marry Ga Eun was really the last straw for Lee Sun and he understandably snaps. Basically Sun and Ga Eun are officially the worst friends anyone could ever have. So I couldn’t help but cheer for Lee Sun a bit when he tried to keep the throne, if only because I wanted Sun to see how much of a wanker he’d been to this poor kid. Of course he doesn’t though and instead guilt trips Lee Sun for wanting the throne when he had nothing and Sun had everything. 

Costuming:

Everything was very pretty in this drama, particularly the costumes. Historical dramas always tend to have beautiful costumes and ‘Ruler’ is no exception. However, historical K-Dramas don’t always have the best wigs (I’ve seen some real shockers), but this drama thankfully gives us very nice and very natural looking hair- for both the males and females. 

Much pretty

What Wasn’t:

Non-Existant Heroine:

Ga Eun sucks. Sageuks are known for having pretty useless heroines (‘Moon that Embraces the Sun’, ‘Scarlet Heart Ryeo’), but ‘Ruler’ really takes the biscuit for the suckiest heroine.

Damsel in distress

Originally Ga Eun was quite cool. She hated injustice, was studying despite being a girl in a patriarchal society, and had no problem being friendly with people ranked lower than herself. She had to see her father executed and was then forced out of her home. Despite all the hardships,

Damsel still in distress

Ga Eun rallied the villagers around her who had also lost their homes and they built a market place in the middle of nowhere under Ga Eun’s instruction. And there ends our heroine’s usefulness. It also didn’t hurt that at the start while Ga Eun was quite likeable, Hwa Gun was acting kinda like a crazy person. But as soon as Sun comes on the scene, Ga Eun becomes completely and totally nothing-y. She literally does nothing of importance for the rest of the series. It kind of felt like the only reason she was in this show at all was because there needed to be some reason for Lee Sun to want to keep the throne. Ignoring that fact, without Ga Eun the rest of the drama probably would have progressed much the same, except that maybe Sun would have actually been a hero for the common people rather than just chasing after some girl and then becoming King so that he could marry her. I mean, I guess she did find the jar containing the document that proved Sun was King, but at the same time she was told to look for it in the first few episodes and didn’t actually find it until the second-to-last.

Congratulations, it only took you 15 episodes

During the period of time after the time skip and before Hwa Gun died, I actually think Hwa Gun got significantly more screen time than Ga Eun. Because she just mattered more, was more involved, and wasn’t annoying. I swear, Ga Eun never actually tried to solve any problems (and the times she did try she just made things worse- like becoming a court lady? Really?). Instead she just sat around and cried a lot. Frankly speaking I have no idea why Sun was so drawn to her, as in Joseon I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard to find a girl who whines and cries.

Recommend?

I strongly DO NOT recommend this drama. It’s long, exasperating, and left me feeling worn out rather than entertained.

Aaaaaaand it's over

Age of Youth 2

Age of Youth 2

7.5/10

Age of Youth 2

Genre:                                Episodes: 14                           Year: 2017

Romance

Comedy

Mystery

Synopsis:

Set one year after the conclusion of Season 1, Kang Yi Na is moving out of the Belle Epoque share-house. Jin Myung has found a job, but struggles after having to fire an employee she grew close to, Ye Eun is still recovering from her kidnap and abuse from the previous year, Ji Won searches for the truth behind a lost memory, and Eun Jae is struggling with her first breakup. A new housemate, Eun, arrives after finding a threatening letter addressed to Belle Epoque.

Cast:

Han Ye Ri (Yoon Jin Myung)

Han Seung Yeon (Jung Ye Eun)

Park Eun Bin (Song Ji Won)

Ji Woo (Yoo Eun Jae)

Choi Ah Ra (Jo Eun)

Kim Min Suk (Seo Jang Hoon)

Son Seung Won (Im Sung Min)

Lee Yoo Jin (Kwon Ho Chang)

Ahn Woo Yeon (Heimdal)

Shin Hyun Soo (Yoon Jong Yeol)

General Thoughts:

I love Age of Youth! As soon as I’d finished watching the first season I was wanting a season 2, and now that I’ve finished Season 2 I want a season 3. It was nice to come back to the house and the housemates that we loved so much in the first season, and it’s good to see that not much has changed (though there ARE some noticeable big changes).

I missed you guys!

The second season really does feel like an exact continuation of the stories in the first, and that’s a big achievement considering how successful the first season was. While the two shows are delightfully similar (same pastel colours, same hint of dark mystery, same painfully realistic problems), the actual stories in season two managed to be vastly different. So while the show is a continuation of all the things we love from Season 1, it’s not a repetition.

It's kinda like being welcomed back home

Obviously Kang Unnie has departed the house so we have a whole new housemate to learn about, but the girls from last time are still growing and developing and having to face new challenges in their lives. The structure of the episodes was also a little different. Rather than having one girl take centre stage and narrate the episode, each of the stories were pretty evenly spread out in every episode, and each of the girls shared the narration. Despite this change in format, the individual stories actually felt much more individual than they did last year. At times I found myself missing the interactions we had between the girls previously as the stories this time around were much more event-based as apposed to character-based. I was actually happiest with how Yoon Sunbae’s arc went. It might have seemed a little strange to some, but I personally enjoyed it a lot. Yoon Sunbae was much more relaxed than she was last season, but still had her semi-prickly exterior, and was still the mother hen to the other girls.

With all her baby chicks

When the character descriptions were released for Season 2, I was sad that Chef wouldn’t be playing a major role, and thought that Yoon Sunbae was getting a new romance. It was a delight that Yoon Sunbae was still dating Chef, even if he was far away, and it made her Noona-Dongsaeng relationship with Heimdal really sweet to watch.

Dorky and kinda cringey- but still cute

I’m glad the show through in a few snippets that suggested that Yoon Sunbae might have been reminded of her younger brother when she looked at Heimdal, but regardless of if she did or didn’t she obviously felt some sort of responsibility towards him. Despite how much she wanted to not care, she just did. Heimdal didn’t have a lot in common with Yoon Sunbae- he was following his dreams and believed if he worked hard enough his effort would pay off. Perhaps Yoon Sunbae felt that way herself once, before she was saddled with debt and had to work any job she could just to survive. It was heartbreaking to watch Heimdal slowly realise that he would never achieve his dream of being a famous idol, but it was almost more heartbreaking for Yoon Sunbae to already know that and have to watch him discover that his dreams were just too out of reach and no amount of hard work or effort would get him there. Ji Won seemed to be making up for the lack of story she got last season, as her story this time around definitely got the most amount of screen time. Hers was the only story this season that had an air of mystery to it, and it was carried out quite well. The show dropped enough hints that by the end we were aware of what had happened without the show needing to blatantly spell it out for us.

The saddest of the 'Age of Youth' stories so far

My favourite part of the mystery was less about the actual events and more about the character responses to the event. Once it became clear what had happened between the two young girls and the art teacher, it became less important what the exact details were and much more important how Hyo Jin and Ji Won reacted.

Sherlock Song and her adorable Watson 

I appreciated that Hyo Jin didn’t hold too much resentment towards Ji Won for what had happened, and that in the end it was about gaining closure and revealing the art teacher’s crimes rather than about revenge. It’s a tricky topic to navigate smoothly, but the writers did an excellent job at keeping the yuck-factor to a minimum while dealing with the fallout of the situation, and I think a lot of that was due to revealing just the right amount of information and of that information just the right amount in flash-back form. I much preferred gathering an idea of what happened from hearing Ji Won discuss things with others rather than seeing an overload of flashbacks with a creepy teacher and a young girl. Ji Won’s reactions to her discoveries were always perfect and fit in well with how her character had been developed previously. She latched onto the mystery as soon as there was a mystery to latch on to, but she didn’t shy away from what she was uncovering. Ji Won was ready and willing to accept any responsibility and/or punishment for any wrong she might have caused Hyo Jin- as was evident in the hostage situation.

So much of Ji Won's personality got explored this time around

She was scared and shocked, but she never backed away from her involvement with the incident, which was so in line with everything we knew about her character. Despite the fact that most of what she was going through was something personal and individual, I adored the friendship and support that Sung Min offered her. Their interactions and hilarious banter quickly became a highlight of the show (after being offered so little of it in Season 1), and no time spent with the two was wasted time. Though I do wish that they’d actually got together on screen rather than just having it being heavily hinted at. Again.

Just kiss already!

Ye Eun’s story picked up pretty much exactly where we left off in Season 1. I appreciated that her story really revolved around her anxiety and other issues caused by her violent boyfriend the year before. I was glad that the show was very realistically addressing her mental health issues and gave her a nice, steady progression throughout the series.

Never before has a taser been so sweet and sincere a gift

It was satisfying and rewarding to see Ye Eun start to come out of her shell again, but it had an air of realism in the few steps back along the way. While her progression was steady, it wasn’t smooth at all. There were moments when Ye Eun became more fearful and there were situations that would set her into overdrive. The show defiantly didn’t suggest that there was a quick-fix to her trauma, and was actually hinting more that this was something that would always stay with Ye Eun and something that she would have to learn to deal with rather than ‘fix’. I also appreciated that the show didn’t just throw another man at her to fix the problem. It would have been easy to give her a strong, confident, capable man and say ‘there, now she feels safe’. Instead it was satisfying to have Ye Eun make those steps towards feeling confident and safe on her own. Ho Chang was a great partner to help Ye Eun help herself. As a victim of bullying himself he could sympathise with her and offer slight assistance, but he never forced Ye Eun out of her comfort zone, nor did he suggest that he would be able to keep her safe. It was a cute and sweet romance that never once suggested that Ye Eun needed to rely on Ho Chan for safety or anything else.

She relied on him because she wanted to, not because she needed to

Unfortunately, this time around I found Eun Jae’s story a little exasperating. I really loved her Sunbae romance last year, so I was pretty disappointed when I read in the character descriptions that they’d broken up. At the start, Eun Jae’s obsession with her ex was mildly annoying, and she herself became a smidge irritating. It was all just a little unclear where the show was trying to take her story.

Sorry Eun Jae...you just...weren't as fun as you were last season

For a long time there I thought she was going to get her ex back in the end. Once it became clear that the story was actually more about Eun Jae realising her mistakes and having to let go and move on, I was much more interested and much more sympathetic towards her character. Because getting over a heartbreaking first breakup is much more interesting than watching a girl try and win back a guy she dumped herself. Finally, we arrive at Eun. Last season we came into the house with Eun Jae and learned all about the housemates through her, so it was a nice parallel to have us learning about the new girl through our old housemates. On paper Eun’s story is pretty simple, but it still managed to have its interesting aspects. Thankfully, her story left behind the mystery of the revenge letter pretty early on in order to focus on her own issues. When I think about it, not a lot actually happened, but it was interesting enough to watch Eun, who had become so protective of herself over the course of parents’ separation, slowly start to open up towards Jang Hoon. As enjoyable as her relationship development was with Jang Hoon, I do wish that her female friend had been phased out a bit earlier.

Get rid of her. Like now.

Overall I liked the commentary on their relationship and how having to let go of that toxic friendship was still hard for Eun (as they’d been so close for so long), but I just found the friend so freaking annoying. She was just the worst. I didn’t find her cute and I didn’t find her fun, and she actually sucked a lot of enjoyment of of Eun’s story arc for me personally. Acting-wise everyone was pretty good.

And Min Sukie is even wearing his high shoes

The three girls from last season were all splendid and slid perfectly back into their roles. They felt exactly like they did last yer, but were still able to show how their characters had changed and how they were continuing to develop. Choi Ah Ra was pretty good most of the time, but sometimes I did feel like she got outshone a bit by the other actresses. She was very good at acting the awkward, soft-on-the-inside-hard-on-the-outside sort of character, but I think she struggled a little when it came to portraying Eun’s increasing comfort around the other characters. Ji Woo really had the hardest job of all as she was coming into a character that had already been so loved and so well received when played by a different actress. Overall, she did an excellent job. If given a choice I defiantly would have loved to have Park Hye Soo resume her role as Eun Jae (as she was one of my favourites from Season 1), but Ji Woo did wonderfully at making the actress change as unnoticeable as possible. Her take on Eun Jae was enjoyable and sweet, and she really could have played Eun Jae in Season 1 to the same success that Park Hye Soo had. It’s just so difficult when a show has to recast a character- for both the actress and the viewers.

An excellent job at a difficult task

The boys were all excellent, no questions asked. Kim Min Suk has been a favourite of mine since his ‘Shut Up Flower Boy Band’ days and I adore him in everything he’s been in. Cute, funny roles suit him well (though he can bring the heavy emotion too when called for), and he was undeniably sweet in this series.

Delightfully dorky

It was hilarious to have his height be incorporated into the show’s humour, especially when paired with Choi Ah Ra’s height. It was an unconventional, but still delightful pairing. Ahn Woo Yeon was excellent as the unpopular idol, and I really felt for him when his story arc came to the more emotional moments. He could play the optimistic dreamer well, but it was his moments of grief for his lost dream where he really got me. I was a little disappointed when Onew lost his chance to star in this show due to a rather unfortunate and over-exaggerated scandal, but I completely forgot about him (sorry, Onew) once Lee Yoo Jin made his appearance. He was hilariously endearing as the quirky nerd, and he absolutely nailed all of Ho Chan’s odd, nervous habits and made them look completely natural. And of course Son Seung Won was perfect- when is he not? Thankfully he got much more screen time than he got last season, so he was really given space to sparkle. Not to mention his chemistry with Park Eun Bin is just ridiculously addictive.  

If we're all being real- this is what we came for

What Was Great:

The Girls:

The stories are all fun and are all enjoyable to watch. Season 2 returns with a familiar every-day vibe even when the events aren’t all that every-day. Each of the girls have their own problems to face and each of them deal with their issues in very unique ways. Much of the success of the series comes from how different these girls are and how well developed and structured their characters are.

I love our girl gang

When you consider how often leading heroines feel the same as each other, it really is a marvellous achievement to populate a K-Drama with unique, distinct female characters that have their own identities. Yoon Sunbae would never react to a situation the same way that Ji Won would, and that is clearly showcased in the series. Each character is entirely her own, and there’s no overlap in the house. 

The Guys:

One of my longstanding favourite aspects of ‘Age of Youth’ is how secondary the men are to the girls. It’s not saying that they’re unimportant (because they’re not),

I also love the lads

but the story really focuses on the girls themselves rather than the romance, which is kind of refreshing. In saying that, the boys are are still excellent characters. One of the show’s strengths is having these completely capable, wonderful girls open up and share experiences with these completely capable, wonderful men. Rather than focusing on the romance in the situations, the show really focuses on the relationships- there may be romance involved or there may not be. Similarly to the girls, each of the boys is a fully developed and nicely constructed character. Each of them have their own past and histories, and their own hopes and goals for the future. Jang Hoon’s feelings about his approaching enlistment were particularly interesting as a foreigner watching, as I have really had no experience with that issue before, and I’ve not watched a lot of K-Dramas that present army enlistment as an issue. I also enjoyed how, as the landlord, Jang Hoon was a little bit involved with each of the girls. Previously each of the boys were only really around the girl whose story they were a part of, but Season 2 did a pretty good job at bringing the boys and the girls together. It wasn’t only Jang Hoon, but the other boys also came along for some more group moments- such as apple picking. It was enjoyable to see our boys interacting with each other as well as with the girls, and really made the individual stories feel as though they were part of a greater whole.

Even Chef made an appearance!

What Wasn’t:

No Closure:

I understood the lack of closure in Season 1 as it was clear the writers were angling for a Season 2, but the lack of closure this time around was a little unsatisfying- second seasons are rare, and third ever rarer. I still feel like we never made it to the bottom of Ji Won’s story.

So...so close...

Yes, we discovered what had happened with her and Hyo Jin and had a pretty good understanding that Ji Won would be successful in her trial after another victim stepped forward, but I would have liked to see that play out a little more. And then the biggest disappointment is that she never actually starts dating Sung Min. This is a relationship that has been hinted at since Season 1, and while their interactions as friends is cute and fun in its own way, I really was waiting for them to express their feelings. Ji Won admitted that she thought of Sung Min as more than a friend and Sung Min even went as far as saying he was interested in Ji Won- but then nothing happened! We’ve been waiting two seasons to see these two finally admit that they liked each other, only to have it NOT HAPPEN. I need Season 3 just to see who cracks and confesses first. I also felt there was a little more to explore with Eun and her parents. Seeing her hatred towards her father and his new family start to fade was a good start, but I really wanted to see Eun stand up to her mother.

There's still more Eun to unveil

Her mother has been a hurtful presence in Eun’s life, telling her that she was abandoned by her father and constantly bringing her down (Eun’s short hair being a constant reminder of that), and I thought the show really needed a moment where Eun stood up for herself. Acknowledging that her friendship with Ye Ji had become unhealthy and hurtful was a good place to start, but being the new addition to the house I kind of wanted a little more development for Eun.

Recommend?

Of course! It’s a very similar style as the first instalment of ‘Age of Youth’ and I got just about as much enjoyment out of it. If you liked the first season, you’ll like the second.

Here's to Season 3!