American Perspectives: Reaction to "Our Blooming Youth" Ep 1-Will it be interesting? Or is it going to be time slot filler?

"Our Blooming Youth" Will it be substantial, or will it be fluffy?

I just began "Our Blooming Youth." I watched all of Episode 1, and about 1/4 (25 minutes of Episode 2), which I hope to finish this evening.  It's ok so far, but I'm not feeling too excited about it.  Like I'm not enthusiastically anticipating the next episode, mainly because I'm a 사극 fanatic, many of the same themes are being repeated, and nothing has been presented to me to show that it will have an extraordinarily unique twist that will keep me locked in.  Or, the writing hasn't shown itself to be intriguing enough that the repeat of the same themes isn't tiring.  However, this is just the first episode, and first episodes can sometimes be a little rocky.

So far, I feel it has a mix of a "Bloody Heart," and "The King's Affection" vibe.  For me, in spite of all the rave reviews from the 장혁 fandom, I found "Bloody Heart" to be boring as hell.  It brought to mind an attempted variation of what could have happened in "Scarlet Heart: 려" without the time travel, but it just wasn't well developed to grab me emotionally.  "The King's Affection," it was ok, but I definitely felt it was a fluff 사극 intended to fill a time slot or a metric quota while waiting for something better.  It just wasn't memorable, and the most memorable part to me was the male lead shirtless.  That, I will happily remember forever.  Everything else was reminiscent of a fluffy chick lit novel that is a pleasant read, but not something to be remembered.

Image obtained from Pinterest

So, I don't know what to think of "Our Blooming Youth" just yet.  I do see that they have the often repeated theme of the cross dressing female lead on the run from something.  Cross dressing female lead has gone in either direction.  If it's done like 기황후 where the character is 100% committed to acting and behaving like a male; that is top notch.  If it's more like "Shine Or Go Crazy" where it's done just to be done because it sells, for the love of God, please don't. If the cross dressing is for more than two episodes, let's take it all the way, like 기황후.  Otherwise, I'm reminded of the scene in "Too Wong Foo," when one veteran drag queen tells an aspiring drag queen specifies the difference from a full fledged queen vs. a boy in a dress.  In this instance, I'd say it's the difference between a full fledged disguised male vs. a woman wearing a man's 한복 for fun.  I'm trying not to sound like a condescending foreigner, I just have a huge preference for substance that actually inspires me to get every book I can find on the topic to learn more, instead of some superficial fluffy piece that inspires absolutely nothing. Although, if it has comedy, the fluff aspect doesn't bother me.  So far, this show isn't funny.  I do, however, think the guy with the monkey paw has the potential to be awesome.

The false accusation toward the female lead, I'm finding to be tiresome.  I think it would actually be more interesting if she did indeed commit the crime of killing her family, but everyone was so sure it was a royal conspiracy? Why?  The other storyline has been overdone for one thing (and it's beginning to put me to sleep, unless if it's well written, that is), and for another, we consistently have male leads, such as 왕소 from "Scarlet Heart," or Dongfang Qingcang from "Love Between Fairy and Devil," who do kill their family members, but the writers are able to make it justifiable, and able to still make these characters likeable.  I think it's time to do a little bit more of that with the female leads.  Like, what I love about 기황후 is that she is an unapologetic bitch, but is still very likeable.  Like, she's someone I'd totally want to have as my friend.

Another thing I'd like, is instead of the recurring theme of male and female lead not liking each other at first, is to go the opposite direction, have them like each other at first, and then realize it just isn't meant to be. It would just be so much more interesting.  But again, I only watched one episode, and 25 minutes of another so far; so maybe it will be better tonight.