> Lovable characters and very heart-warming, good music , slightly dragged towards the end with an ending that is not to be but still enjoyable!

PLOT
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Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol (the notes to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) is about a naïve rich pianist (Goo Ra-Ra) who reaches rock bottom after the death of her father, and a mysterious man (Sun Woo-Joon) who lends her money and helps her get back on her feet with a piano academy. As fragile souls out in the world alone for the first time, they find comfort and love in each other as well as the cast of characters around them.

The plot was well paced revealing secrets ; a.k.a mini knockout punches once in a while . In the middle ( 10-14) it loose pace with all Cliche' but gains pace in the last two episodes with a promising ending [spoiler]that is destroyed in last 3minutes with writers once again choosing the easy way out instead sticking to what's laid out to users and accepted.[/spoiler]

Here is a rant on the ending ..skip it...

[spoiler] We all know the romance b/w an 19 yr old and 24 yr old is not acceptable in korean TV ;so to make sure they don't date for 5 yrs the writers choose pesudo-kill Sunwoo and if they have sticked to it that would have been a good ending and lesson to search for happiness despite loss . We all know leukemia doesn't kill you 6 months there was always a chance the mom was lying on his behest but it was still shocker to see him appear despite the heartwarming music and moments at the end. [/spoiler]

CAST
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Despite this the strengths of the show are

1. Man-Bok Grandpa's past love story
2. Joon and Grandpa's friendship
3. Ra-Ra and Joon interactions

Go Ah ra (Go Rara) is delightful and does a wonderful job of playing Rara, the role suits her perfectly since her personality is very similar in real life.. Despite falling so far from a sheltered life of comfort, she stays positive and hopeful, and her warmth heals the characters around her (and us in the audience). She sees and brings out the good in the people, and they reciprocate with the same energy. Multiple characters which start out antagonistic become part of the beloved extended family and my heart is so full of love.

Though Sunwoo Jun starts out as a more restrained character compared to Rara, Lee Jaewook is great at communicating Jun’s inner thoughts through his eyes and body language, and he especially excels during the more emotional scenes that come later on.

Go Ara and Lee Jaewook have great chemistry [spoiler] We know Ra-Ra is older in real-life but didn't guess she was older in reel-life too ; which means she did well and almost reminded of her famous character in R1994 [/spoiler]


Other members of the cast do a great job at portraying supporting characters that we come to adore just as much as the main leads. Considering that this is a romantic comedy, the comedic timing does not disappoint either.

Rara has a pomeranian named Mimi and she needs a special mention for an excellent performance too.

Music
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Music is an integral part of Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol. It takes classical pieces and weaves their meanings throughout the plot and characters, and their melodies throughout the background. The piano scenes are so beautifully emotional , In addition to the classical OST, there is also the conventional pop OST.


VERDICT
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Despite the cast , music and a strong start ( I didn't pick the show until it aired half episodes because of weak synopsis ) ; the drama veers off at the end with both plot and pacing. This drama really likes to subvert our expectations of tropes, which is a strength for most of its run ; but its last quarter, it falls victim to the typical **show-is-ending-soon-so-let’s-stir-shit-up** to increase the views bait that afflicts so many Kdramas.

As a warm and positive show which became a source of healing for so many people, the last part of the drama is exhausting with the way it constantly tries to trick us by attempting to be smart with its manipulation of its tropes. While in the beginning, tropes are subverted to avoid melodrama, the last quarter would subvert a melodramatic trope with another melodramatic trope. Its signature cute and heartwarming moments are still present but be prepared to get whiplash from the main couple, and don’t watch the episode previews because they become maliciously misleading

Nonetheless, Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol is still enjoyable. If you wanted a drama with a tightly woven plot, then you probably need to look somewhere else. But, if you enjoy cuteness, laughter, character growth, supportive relationships, and cathartic music, then you should watch this drama. I also recommend to binge it quickly to not loose interest and abandon the ship.

It was an 8/10 until the last [spoiler]3 minutes of the show[/spoiler]

I don't think that I can say anything than I already haven't said on the episodes reviews or that @chillikun hans't already said in their wonderful review of the series, but I'll try to add a little more:

DoDoSolSolLaLaSol started off really great, Go Ah-Ra FINALLY redeemed herself with this character (I find her characters in Reply 1994 and Black borderline annoying) and Lee Jae-Wook proved in his first screetime that HE was the male lead and noone else. All side characters were lovable and their histories and interactions with the couple were simply BEAUTIFUL and a HIGHLIGHT of the series, but with all this out of the way, aren't we all tired of love triangles at this point?! And this series has WAY TOO MANY, at some points I was wondering if that's the only way to display relationships in the writers mind. We had all classical love triangles in just ONE SERIES, the best friend one, the childhood friend, the rich kid, and the poor one, the mature guy, the naive girl, the bad guy who actually has a big heart...it was TIRING to see every single relationship being displayed and introduced as a love triangle, geez give us a break.

Mid-Season was a mistake, just like Record of Youth, this was when the series lost it's mojo and pace, specially when it came to Jun's character, he became a bland stereotype of male lead and the twist to justify it was "meh" to say the least, not to mention a HUGE overshadow that was being build to one character changed last minute to actually be HIS plot. And so, we arrive at the last episode, I was really excited and thinking THIS is a BOLD move, and I hope they stick to it, and was specially excited to prove myself wrong in my first and previous predicts about this series plot, cause that would make the series closure chefs kiss, Seo Yoon-Sil and Lee Soon-Jae's acting were ON POINT and made me really love the direction and how they were handling their choice, but then...last minute...ugh...it was just THE perfect example of how Korean dramas ruin their plots and histories, because they don't have back bones to display things realistic and stick to bold choices.

Looking back at the scores, I see that most episodes were given 7/10, with only episodes 3 and 6 getting 10/10, and the overall series getting a 5/10 simply because the good episodes got those scores based on the actors performances, not the plot itself, and many sub-plots and twists were just...poor handled (specially dodosolsollalasol identity reveal, which was SO anti-climatic due to writers "filling up for the last episode" choice).

Do I recommend it? No, unless you want something silly to binge watch while you do other things, or if you're good at not getting attached to characters. If you watched Record of Youth, My Firs First Love and is watching Start Up right now, and feeling rage quits moments, stay away from this series, as it has ALL the problems these other series have.

The story was outright bad in the first place but its execution was even worse. Incoherent disjointed narrative, more often than note there was no clear direction or goal. It's impressive how it managed to continue for 16 episodes. The first 4 episodes were completely empty and could have been cut down to 30 minutes at most. Other slice of life dramas are more eventful than this one. As per usual the trend seems to be to over-saturate everything and turn a blind eye to anything else. This is Go Ah Ra's weakest project and the shallow character itself was tiring to watch.