To My Star 2 (2022)

To My Star 2: Our Untold Stories te hace escalar una montaña de sufrimiento, con pequeños descansos de alegría, para dar mayor profundidad y contexto a los protagonistas. Muestra las inseguridades, traumas y palabras no dichas que resultaron en dos corazones rotos.

Toda la producción de esta temporada está en un nivel superior que su antecesora, las actuaciones no fallan en seguir destacando. Sin embargo, me quedo con la trama de la primera.

La forma en que se desarrolló, con uno de ellos insistiendo en reanudar la relación y el otro rechazándolo durante casi todos los episodios, me agobiaba. Agregado a eso, los personajes secundarios no se ganaron mi interés.

Claro que tiene sus partes bonitas, sacando brillo a la adorable química de los actores principales, pero en general me gustó menos de lo que esperaba.

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This is my second attempt to write a review, because with time passing, my thoughts and impressions changed a lot.

Let's start with the good things: the chemistry of those two guys is very nice, the production felt high quality despite the choppy editing we got sometimes, the acting was very good from everyone, the music was also great.

Now let's talk about the elephant in the room: Ji Woo's behaviour. We learned in s1 that he is an awkward guy, who has some trust issues and likes to put up walls. But he was also adorable, he smiled occassionally, he was pretty lively despite most of the time appearing rather calm and looking gloomy. He had interest in the world around him, and he also was interested in Seo Joon. Serisouly, he was cute. Good looking too, a good cook. And last but not least: he was good at heart. He had a lot to offer, and I could 100% see why Seo Joon felt for him. They both had different personalities, but resonated well together. A match made in heaven. Sure, the viewer could assume they would get some problems in their relationship. Maybe their different personalities would be an issue sooner or later, maybe Seo Joon being an idol/movie star and having a tight schedule would make everything difficult. But still we trusted in that love, and - I'm talking here for myself - I trusted in those two guys because they have a pure heart.

Now we got s2. We learn they broke up. Why? Well, that's the question that wasn't answered for the longest time. We as viewers had to guess what the reason was for Ji Woo suddenly ghosting Seo Joon. He just left him a note and vanished. Is this a mystery series? We then got some flashbacks (we later learn those scenes were from the future too), we get a lot of angst, a lot of drama, in the first two episodes at least we got a bit of humour too. Nothing was explained well. They used their time to introduce new characters with their own storyline. They weren't just there to support the main story. During all that time we still didn't know what was going on in Ji Woo's head. Instead we had to endure how he treated Seo Joon like sh*t. It was pretty obvious he didn't enjoy it though. It was his way of pushing Seo Joon away. He just put up a big wall like he did in s1 too, but this time it was too much. He just crossed the line. He was cruel. A person that's good at heart, shouldn't be that cruel. He could have behaved differently. People tend to forgive this behaviour, becasue Ji Woo was also suffering. I can't forgive it. From my perspective, being weak and hurt and confused, is no excuse to hurt other people badly, especially the ones you apparantly love. He just went too far.

So what happens next? The series is almost over, and we don't even know the full reason for the break-up. Some mysteries were resolved about Ji Woo's parents, and then we FINALLY see that Ji Woo indeed cares for Seo Joon. He decides to not run away any longer, maybe after Seo Joon told him he gave up, and now Ji Woo is running after Seo Joon. Great. Seo Joon pushes him away, once, twice, but then Ji Woo tells him, he will not be able to chase him any longer if he keeps that up, and Seo Joon gives in.

People say this is realistic, relatable, emotional, romantic, complex, mature. Is it really? The core ideas of the series aren't bad. But they just went too far. Ji Woo became a gloomy and unattractive guy who behaved like a baby - he was even crying like on! - that had no real character growth through out the whole series. At the end he AGAIN had lots of demands, and Seo Joon was the one who now must adjust to him even more, so he won't run away. What's the message here?

The author apparantly wanted to show us "that in a relationship one always loves more and works harder". Is this a good message? One that leaves you with a warm feeling in your heart? Not in my case. It's very questionable and honestly depressing.

To sum my thoughts up: They destroyed the Ji Woo character by tooking away his good qualities and emphazing his weaknesses. They even destroyed the Seo Joon character to a certain point. He obviously loves Ji Woo, but I wonder why at this point. Why does he want to be with him? I never asked myself this question when watching s1. I thought he was attracted to his big heart. He felt save being with Ji Woo. The writers took that away completely.

I think the director has a talent to make everything artistic, cryptic, complicated, emotional and beautiful. It's an EXPERCIENCE watching her work. So she fools the viewers in thinking it's "deep". Indeed it was pretty shallow at the end of the day. Minor issues were blown out of proportions, and where we expected some big rivelations for expample regarding Ji Woo's parents or Seo Joon's trauma, everything felt trivial.

I still rate this series rather high, because I was glued to the screen the whole time. They did something right if people talk about it so much, discuss it so much and in general are so deeply affected by this story. That sure is an accomplishment by itself.

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