- #1
Basically a poor man's version of Strategy to Capture that Scum Gong. (And I'm speaking as someone who absolutely hated that novel -- just look at my essay-length 1-star review on it!) If Strategy to Capture that Scum Gong was like watching a really offensive train wreck live, then this series is like watching a yawn-inducing documentary on all the boring mechanics behind why train wrecks happen.It's actually astounding to me that such a blatant copy of an incredibly offensive yet reluctantly engaging series could be this... boring. It has exactly the same story beats, the same scum MLs, the same outcomes, yet everything feels stale in comparison to the high-octane, patently ridiculous, prime-time soap opera-esque drama that it copied from. It feels outdated despite being written in 2018.The whole series feels phoned-in in a way that kind of screams inexperience, actually. There's a lot of summarizing going on, instead of actually showing the audience. The MLs seem to fall in love simply because the plot requires it, with no explanation, and the scum ab*se is less elaborate scheme than... rehashed plotlines from older, better novels/dramas. Which also unfortunately makes it completely unmemorable. I didn't read this too long ago, but I've already forgotten what the previous arcs were about, and I'm usually quite good at remembering what I read!Like, I'm not sure if I want a better version of this story, since, as I mentioned, I found Strategy to Capture that Scum Gong so offensive and terrible that I wrote an essay-length review about how I wish I could bleach the entire story from my memory, but... this story? I honestly wonder why it even exists, since there's already a better (worse) version out there, and it's utterly, completely forgettable.