**Season 1 : Review**
------------------------
> Dreams are endless, no matter how late or what age one has, as long as he/she has the will and belief then he/she can achieve it.

I am not that familiar with Korean Music Industry (K-PoP) but I truly enjoyed every minute of this drama that it became quite addicting to watch that i binged on Monday night (Mon 6pm to Tue 8 am)

PLOT
-------

The title caught my attention, and that's the reason I started to watch this show. The title describes the plot overall, I believe so. I love the blend of music and the plot because as you watch you'll be entertained as well. In addition, a lot of lessons were embedded in the story that made it satisfying to see. If you're a teen or teen at heart, Dream High is relatable, however, I highly recommend this for everyone. For me, the story was about:
1) Fulfilling and achieving dreams no matter what hardships one can encounter,
2) Turning weakness into assets,
3) Enhancing talent through effort,
4) Believing one's ability from within and
5) Everlasting friendship that lasts through time.

There was no dull moment, it was fun seeing the casts singing, dancing and performing on stage. I loved the romance! I had the I-want-the-second-couple-lead-to-be-together syndrome [spoiler] IU was adorable and I'm glad that couple did at the end pair [/spoiler]. They were really cute together. Having said that, however, I liked the main couple as well. The conclusion was good for the overall story, there were happy endings but I felt it was incomplete somehow.

The main romance story really surprised me, because I had no idea who Hye Mi was going to wind up with until episode 15. I liked how the writers showed her interactions with both Sam Dong and Jin Gook and how all three of them slowly developed feelings. I also liked how the writers made it so that you could wind up liking characters you hated in the beginning- or at the very least wind up respecting them.

CAST
------
Its is a well know cast ; as most of them are famous 9 years later in 2020

Kim Soo-Hyun ; a well know actor with recent hit Its Okay to be Not Okay and My Love from the stars ; I have to saw I was surprised how well he portrayed the emotions in the show compared to the recent shows. He is the main reason I binged the show and the character ; a genius musician from the countryside is well and struggles he face coming to Seoul following his Dream (love)

Taec-yeon does well but there was a limited growth in his character ; nice inside and hard exterior .

Bae Suzy (Go Hye-mi) is well know to be a bad actor ;especially the facial expressions ; but here the writers used it smartly to make her character emotionless stoic face during the initial episode to ease us into the show . [spoiler] One things i don't like about this character is how easily she is confused by pity with love and keep getting swayed by the other lead [/spoiler]. Hye Mi was overly proud and felt unrealistic,

IU as Kim Pil Suk was the second best character on the show ; wish they focused more on her but she didn't have a strong partner to do justice to her talent. But whenever she sings in the show it wakes me up and continue to binge the show

Remain Karin high school students and teachers performed their roles very well ; Also the loan sharks and the Ahjummas have added some funny scenes to make it more interesting.

Taecyeon and Suzy were okay actors. They forced themselves sometimes, but they managed to decently convey the story when called upon. Kim Soo Hyun was amazing and pretty much carried the entire show with his portrayal of Sam Dong, Wooyoung and IU were cute, and everyone else ranged from good to amazing.

MUSIC
--------
Since this was a music-oriented show, aside from the OST, almost of the songs played were wonderful to hear. I absolutely loved the acapellas, it proved they were really good singers. I was so addicted in the OST , I loved the message of the song, it really matches the story.


VERDICT
----------
A highly entertaining show of five students who, despite their own difficulties have passion of following their dreams. A must watch if you want to be inspired. I'd say there's a fair chance of me rewatching parts of this, but I probably won't for a while.
"Dream High" is an acquired taste. It sort of grows on you as you move along through the story. It's not the most amazing drama out there, but it brings something new to the table.

Season 1: The drama started off mostly alright for the first 3 episodes or so, but once they confined everything into the school settings, problems started to seep from every corner. Imagine all of the school related tired tropes and cliches amplified by cringe to create the cheesiest abomination. Jason as a character, actor, story and writing was easily the worst aspect of this drama. Which created one of the worst memorable dynamics with his love interest. From the outset, the plot followed a predictable trajectory but things got a lot worse around the last 1/3 of its run. During which the story became static, the characters fell apart and the drama started to shove empty scenes of side characters. They reduced Sam Dong screen time significantly as well. They also isolated Pil Sook and Jason despite being main characters and had little to no interactions with others later on. All of this led to a below average last episode and a lukewarm ending. Despite its flaws and problems, somehow it worked, to a certain degree.

In comparison, season 2 was an obvious downgrade in all regards, it's just plain worse. The empty scenes I mentioned earlier turned into amateurish random musical performances here. I noticed they were mostly using Korean songs in this season, compared to season 1 which had more western/global songs. In season 2, no one had any chemistry with anyone, all pairings were as incompatible and dry as they could get. It also had the same ending as season 1. I think the cast also had more idols than actors? Anyway, changing the directors and writers made its sequel DOA.