> PLAIN and BLAND. Lack of development and communication of the characters were the major flaws of this drama


Record of Youth debuted with great potential to be an incredible drama. The cast and the story, at first, captivated me a lot, however throughout the episodes I started to have the feeling that the story was not developing. The focus of the drama was the growth of the main characters, both personally and professionally, however the story revolved around only Hye-Joon (Park Bo-gum), the other main characters of the plot were erased and we viewers, practically not we saw their development.

The romance between mail leads or the love triangle never shoot-off ; it always felt like friends hanging-out and not two people in love. The spark exists initially when she was only a fan but it fizzles out soon along with all the reason

PLOT
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Let's talk about the plot. For me, I like the topic about trying to achieve one's dream but having so many hurdles in front of you that a lot of times, you just want to give up. I sensed that in the first half of this drama. I felt the hardship. Being ripped off, being seen from others as a no potential, having others stepping on you like your worthless because of your status. At the same time, we see two sides of family impact as well, barely any support and too much support to where they are controlling and you don't know how to adapt to reality. Some people may find these kind of issues in a drama boring but I liked the realness of it and I could sense it. I would've been fine with this drama had the whole drama revolved around this, focusing on the family relationship issues and the relationship hurdles when becoming a celeb now.

But here's where it went wrong. The writer lost a sense of direction in the second half of this drama.T hey added conflicts that, in my opinion, weren't needed. [spoiler] I think they were trying to add the reality of scandals occurring in a celebrity's life but I just didn't see a purpose for this relating to the initial plot. The annoying reporter and the stupid old manager who cheated on Hye Joon's success and growth were a real pain that ruined the 2nd half of this drama.[/spoiler] To be honest, the last few episodes weren't handled well. The last episode may solve a few things but in honesty, a lot of episodes wasted.

CAST
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The acting of everyone was just fine... nothing amazing but nothing bad either... the second male lead is relatively a newcomer so he needs polishing... even though i liked Park Bo-gum's acting I wont say I was very impressed with his acting... something about him just don't click with me and i know what it is... cheesy stuffs and kdrama is filled with cheesy things... i am still not into them enough to check out a project solely because of them... most of the times when i complete an ongoing drama i start liking the leads enough to check out there other projects or wait for their next projects...
Hye-Joon is so high on morals and principles and don't take a shortcut no matter what may come.... he is so straight and upright to the level that we can simply predict how he is gonna react and what he is gonna do... [spoiler]in the last 2 episodes the makers tried so hard to create tension b/w the ML and his manager that they wanted to create suspense whether he will renew his contract or not but just knowing the ML for 3-4 episodes is more than enough for us to understand that he is gonna renew the contract... they just simply wasted time on creating friction b/w the manager and the ML...[/spoiler]

Jung Ha (Park Sodam) when it appeared was poorly developed and all the plots that the story opened for her character to be developed, ended up not gaining much focus and worsened the development of the character. I really wanted to see a little more about [spoiler]the construction of her salon and the solutions to the problems she had with her parents [/spoiler], but unfortunately, almost no screen time was given to her plot, sometimes I had the feeling that her only role in drama was to be the love interest of Hye-Joon and Hae-Hyo, thus creating a love triangle for the story.

Talking about Hae Hyo (Byeon Woo Seok), he, for me, was always a complex character, since the beginning of the story I wanted to know how he would react when Hye Joon started to be the focus of attention, [spoiler] and the story at that point it surprised me, because it didn’t turn him into the envious character who wants to take down the protagonist, in fact she showed a real character that had reactions that all of us in his place could have, [/spoiler] but unfortunately the story didn’t develop much of his character’s story either and we ended up not seeing his development very well after he found out [spoiler] that his career was practically bought by his mother,[/spoiler] i found his end too open and it bothered me that the story didn't show how he was after the time jump.

About Hye Joon's family nucleus: For me this was the nucleus that best developed within this drama. At first I thought his father was extremely toxic, but throughout the episodes I got to understand him a little more and I liked the way he has evolved throughout history. Hye Joon's grandfather was also a great character in this drama, I loved the evolution of his relationship with his son and I admit that I was very moved by their final scene in the drama.

VERDICT
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The performances in this drama were very good, but unfortunately the characters and the story prevented the actors from shining even more in their roles. The drama ost is good, but it is forgettable.

[spoiler]** I hate open endings** but I thought the end of the story was coherent and I preferred to see them become friends a thousand times, their relationship was very beautiful, but from the beginning I thought that they behave more like friends than boyfriends. Their open ending was coherent and it is up to the viewer to think about whether they stayed together or remained friends.[/spoiler]

The only reason I rate this a little higher because the writers managed to keep me pulled in every week (Unlike Its okay to be Not Okay or Stranger) and its my first K-drama that i finished while its airing and not try binge later.