Binge, Stream or Skip? Drama Review // Twenty-Five Twenty-One 《스물다섯 스물하나》

 

You can watch the trailer above or start watching episode one here on Netflix.

Warning! Spoilers ahead.

Nam Joo Hyuk is the male lead in this drama. Do I need to say more? Hahaha there's more that I want to say actually. To be honest, when I first saw the trailer for this drama, I wasn't very enticed to watch because it had a slice of life component to it. I probably am not describing my thoughts very well now...but it had a mellow feel to it? Before this I was watching trillers, crime, etc etc so the inertia to pick up this show next was huge. I was into this drama first and foremost, because of Nam Joo Hyuk. Especially when the School Nurse Files was like...meh. Not that Nam Joo Hyuk needed to redeem himself for his acting (his acting is brilliant in all of his dramas) but I wanted to see more of him and in a more decent drama that is worthy of his acting. Boy, am I glad to have watched this because this show is bingeable. I started on it without the drama having aired completely so the weekly wait was so painful. I recommended this drama to some of my friends and they were thankful.

Synopsis (taken from Netflix):

In a time when dreams seem out of reach, a teen fencer pursues big ambitions and meets a hardworking young man who seeks to rebuild his life.

What I like about this drama:

It's so realistic. In a sense that the slice of life component of the show really hits you. It really hit me hard. There were so many times I cried so hard because I felt the same frustration in my own life as the characters so it was more than the show being touching but because I could relate. Of course, to be able to relate to the characters could only be possible if the actors and actresses have done a brilliant job in the first place. Otherwise, you would just be like "oh yeah, that could happen." or "right, I've been through something like that too." Them tear ducts wouldn't be as unstoppable.

They don't add useless romantic scenes just for the sake of hoping it gets blown up as the next hot topic. What I mean are iconic scenes that people would take away and talk about it a long time even after the drama has ended. For example, the shoelace tying scene in Descendants of the Sun, the foam getting on the lips while drinking coffee in Secret Garden, so on and so forth. Such iconic scenes even have other dramas featuring them. While I don't hate on cliche scenes, what I hate is when the writers try to force it in and it just doesn't make sense to have such a scene. Whether is it a new idea or copying a previous iconic scene, I don't really care as long as it is not forced. This drama doesn't force any romantic scenes that I deem useless.

Who I like in this drama:

Nam Joo Hyuk! Nam Joo Hyuk! Nam Joo Hyuk! Now I really need to find myself a Baek Yijin in reality. But where...? Sigh.

I really like all the characters though. All the characters are so realistic that you probably would be able to identify one or two of such people in your own life. Nobody is extremely annoying nor is anybody unrealistically good.

What I don't like about this drama:

If I really have to name one, I would say the ending. But my reason for feeling disappointed with the ending might be different from others. While others are disappointed that the male and female leads were not together at the end, my disappointment stemmed from a different reason. I could totally understand why they broke up. But precisely it was because I could understand the reason why they broke up in the first place that I didn't understand why the female lead would just marry some random dude during the peak of her career. And they didn't even show this random dude at all in the drama. Just out of nowhere, after they fast forwarded time a bit, she's married. Like, what? So in summary, the reason why the two leads broke up was largely because of their career, none of them willing to give up on their career so their schedules were also conflicting. As such, they don't have time for each other and gradually drifted apart. This is why I don't understand. What kind of a person did she meet and how was she convinced to get married to some dude during the peak of her career? I felt that they should have expanded on this more so that I can accept the two leads not getting back together at the end. Because if she wasn't married, they could get back together and the relationship could actually last since she was going to retire. From the start, it was kind of already known that the two leads won't be together at the end. Because when they showed the present, her kid's surname is Kim while the male lead's surname is Baek. While I could accept that leads don't end up together at the end of the drama, but her just getting married out of thin air is unacceptable. They writers probably didn't think they needed to elaborate more on this relationship, I suppose. So if I really have to point out on one thing, it would be this.

Who I don't like (or possibly even dislike) in this drama:

Nobody. There's really just nobody to hate on. Although the female lead's fencing seniors at school were a tad annoying but stuff like this happens. There are people like that. The female lead got back at them in her own way so it was very satisfying to watch.

Other notes:

I heard and read some articles online about there being a controversy about this drama. Because the male lead is supposedly a college student/fresh grad (although technically he didn't really graduate college due to some circumstances) while the female lead is in high school. So a romance between a non-high school guy and a high schooler female was a bit of a controversy? But if you watch the drama, they might have met when the girl is still in high school but technically, they only got together and acted on their feelings after the girl was done with high school. Their age gap in the show is only 4 years, which I deem perfectly acceptable. So...I actually don't see what's wrong. In the first place, wayyy before this drama, there are tons of other shows where they show high school girls dreaming of dating college guys and then the popular girl in high school actually dates a college guy. But there's no controversy? Honestly, in my opinion, even in such cases, I don't see what's wrong. It's not like some old geezer is preying on high school girls, then that is disturbing.