Pause.

It's like. good!!!!!! plot is bonkers and the first episode is pretty chaotic but whatever, the leads are A GIFT (a treasure! casting director struck absolute gold!!! im about to go in there and start digging tunnels like a feral mole and become a miner), and the cinematography is delicious. the colors?? the light? it's so visually engaging.... like I've missed this specific type of photography for real. also it's fun, and cute, and dramatic, and full of for real for real, almost old school romance.

me, nodding along like a dumbass: wow, kdramas are getting super progressive these days. His ex was a man? Huh.

and it DOES NOT end with a proposal or a wedding (but a promotion instead??)! we cheered!!!!! progress (??) !!!!!

whole show gave me the impression of a one-in-a-million music video. lots of beauty shots, incredibly unnecessary and lengthy super zooms, slow-mo galore... some shots, without being exactly repeated, are blocked the exact same way, many times over, without it meaning anything, except that the director probably really liked how it looked. i guess it was visually pretty, but it was boring, plain and simple.

also, the editing was meh in earlier episodes, but in episodes 11 and 12..... oh my god??? were they late for the final cut and they rushed the episodes out without checking, or were the abrupt cuts to unrelated scenes (music suddenly stopping included) on purpose?

100% of my criticism relates to the directing choices. and the writing. but the story could have survived the poor dialogue and plot holes and lack of depth IF the directing wasn't so, so very bland. and vice versa, i guess.

episode 4! OKAY WORK!!!—

—out of 12. dang, where do they go from here lmao