Synopsis: Having returned to college after a year long break, due to her family's poor background, Hong Sul, a hard-working over-achiever, inadvertently got on the wrong side of Yoo Jung, her senior who is athletic, good looking, gets good grades and has a kind personality, but also a hidden dark side. From then on her life took a turn for the worse and Sul was almost certain it was all Yoo Jung's doing. So why is he suddenly acting so friendly a year later?

My Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Title: Cheese in the Trap

Episodes: 16

Genre(s): Drama, friendship, life, romance, psychological

Air Date: January 4, 2016—March 1, 2016

Country: South Korea

Network: tvN

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This review is actually coming fairly late. I finished this drama back at the start of March, when the last episode came out, but never got time to writing something about this drama. Mainly because...I'm not a huge fan of it, to be honest. I'm not the type of person who likes to compare something to its original work (Cheese in the Trap was originally a webtoon available on LINE) because I feel that's unfair to the producer and the webtoon author both, as two separate artists. I just like to think of things, even if they're based on each other, as their own separate works and respect them for what they are and who created them, and the vision that those people had when they created it. Movies based off books, TV shows based off books—anything, whatever it is. I just try not to compare. Even when there is a parent material to something, everyone has their own take on it, and that's something I respect.

But I couldn't help myself once it got to around episode 12 of CITT. It was completely impossible to not compare in my mind. The drama just doesn't have the same feel of the webtoon. Now if you read a previous rant post of mine, you probably know that I don't care about the whole drama-not-following-the-webtoon-storyline problem. For the same reason as above. I respect both things for what they are. I know there are separate issues about that which make CITT extremely problematic, but my thought on that is whatever. That's not the reason I didn't like CITT once it got to later in the drama.

Honestly, I was enjoying for the most part. I didn't care that they weren't focusing on Jung's backstory and instead were focusing more on In Ho. I didn't care that they were playing with the idea of a Seol/In Ho love possibility. Because despite what others watching the drama and reading the webtoon thought, the author was and is playing with the idea of In Ho and Seol. Maybe not as obviously as Jung...but it is there. And yes, Jung got more backstory in the webtoon than he did in the drama and maybe that's a little unfair. But people were making such a big stink about it by the time the drama was about to end that all of that ended up being one thing turning me off from this drama by the time it came to an end.

But I really was enjoying it in the beginning. It's funny, cute, and I loved the character development. I loved how certain characters would take one step forward and then a few steps back. I'm regretful that certain characters didn't appear more, and certain plotlines weren't developed more...but I really liked what CITT as a drama was offering and it was fun to watch while reading the webtoon. But then it just got to this point where everything this drama became wasn't what I was looking for in a drama. I wanted the love and romance, and friendship plots, and that very minimal psychological twist. I enjoyed watching a college-themed drama.

But somewhere along the way all the complaints about the drama got to me. And then the production started to feel really cheap and as if things were being rushed. Then certain characters started to appear less and I didn't think much of it, and at certain points I didn't even mind it...but then it became extremely blatant and it felt as though favorites were being played, rather than a story being told. I feel extremely regretful toward many of the actors for this. Toward Park Hae Jin who joined because he enjoyed the webtoon. To Kim Go Eun who hasn't ever acted in a drama production before, and this was her first one. And to Seo Kang Joon who did his best acting yet and finally got recognition, but also got backlash as if what was happening in the drama were his fault. I feel so sad for them all.

I've watched a lot of school themed dramas in my time of being interested in Korean dramas, so the fact that this drama was centered around college was really nice. While it didn't focus on college life explicitly, it was still nice to have certain things thrown in that referred to college life and because it was still a school drama, but college-centered, some things were a bit more realistic. As said before, I liked the character development of many characters. I also enjoyed the use of Seol's inner thoughts in the drama—an aspect that was extremely prevalent in the webtoon, along with the first few flashbacks that were important to the plotline. I think the drama did a decent job of intermingling those flashbacks, whereas the webtoon did the obvious thing and made them the first few chapters to allow backstory.

Amidst the good, though, somewhere along the way I just lost my spark for this drama. The complaints got to me, as I said, and production for the drama started to decrease. At least, that's the way it seemed. The time and energy that went into these characters who I was so excited to see brought to life on screen just seemed to dwindle out. Even the actors weren't putting as much effort in. Or maybe it was the way the drama was edited that was making it seem that way? That and some characters were losing their depth, like Jung. And as the series wore on his acting just dwindled to nothing. Not even including the fact that he wasn't as present as often anymore, he just...wasn't delivering lines like he should have been and he seemed uninterested. Jung as a character is like that to a point, but this was different. It made watching him on the screen boring. It made me tense whenever he appeared for a scene in the drama. Then characters like Baek In Ha never even had any depth to offer, and while I enjoyed her presence in the drama I felt she made more of an impact in the webtoon. That and Lee Sungkyung's acting didn't help any, which disappointed me. Lee Sungkyung is a good actress, but her playing In Ha was overdone, disgustingly dramatic, and felt like she was trying too hard.

I still recommend this drama, to an extent. I did like it. I didn't like it at the end. The ending to the story felt rushed and left everything up in the air. There was absolutely no closure at all and it was rough to watch characters I had grown attached to be given nothing at the end. Even In Ho, who started playing piano again, to me felt like he got duped. I kind of just sigh now, thinking of this drama. It could have been so much more, but it wasn't. And things got messy with the author of the original webtoon and the producers, and the cast. I wish it hadn't been like that. This drama had so much potential. But for what it was worth, there were still moments that made this drama worthwhile. The friendship in this drama was important, the problems that arose were also things that viewers could relate to. The characters were still amazing. It's a fun watch, and it will give you a ton of feels. But it may not end the way you want. It may not develop the way you want. And for me, it didn't...and I'm fairly disappointed in this drama.