Dream High: Episode 1

After having just watched the first episode of Dream High, my feelings are mixed. The hype of an idol-filled drama mixed with heavy advertising might suggest that this drama would be the hit of the season, a great way to start off 2011. However, I will try to keep in mind that this is the first episode and we shouldn't hold it against the drama. First episodes tend to be the worst which is horrible if a drama wants to keep their audience to the end. Now onto business!

What I liked about the drama is the plot and tone. I liked the concept of a girl attending this school to make something of herself, but I'm not a big fan of how they went about it. That the girl was rich, snobby, and arrogant played in the drama's favor when it came to humbling herself, but at the same time, situations were slightly unbelievable (father's business failed and ran for it, fight scene with loan sharks, stalking a guy to get a picture back, loan shark making her audition for this school so that she would be an idol...). Ok, I can deal with this if it made logical sense for all of this to happen, but right now I am not fitting the pieces. Obviously, we're setting the foundation here, but the foundation is slightly unrealistic. It almost reminds me of fanfictions where the authors write characters having arranged marriages. If this drama wants to be believable, it needs to stop going to extremes and come back to reality.

The acting, also, was sub-par, but I think that's to be expected when you have singers and dancers trying to be actors. While I commend them for their first episode, they still have very far to go. Even Bae Yong Joon was a disappointment as the director who just didn't give off any impression that he was a person of authority. Rather, he just kind of went through the motions because he had to because that's what the script said.

For right now, I shall give this drama a chance since this is the first episode and first episodes can be deceiving (ex: My Girlfriend is a Gumiho). However, my rating on this drama is a 2 out of 5. I dearly hope that the drama improves from here.