My personal relationship with this drama was definitely one of love and hate. I have to say this because I’ve always loved Lee Sung-Kyung. She is good actress and since her days in Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo, she’s always impressed me with her acting. Though where my pet peeves slowly crept in came from the direction of the plot. For me personally, the relationship between our leads while acting as the kingpin for the events of the plot, felt often underwhelming and dispirited by cliches and monotonous setups.

Firstly, I’m going to say again that I had no problem with the cast at all . Kyung, her costar Kim Young-dae and supporting actors Yoon Jong-hoon, Kim Yoon-hye and Sojin were fairly decent here and were probably one of the saving graces of the drama series.

However where my issues did begin to manifest came through the actual screenwriting. I didn’t think it was entirely all doom and gloom per say. I actually thought the concept was interesting. It is still rare to see light shone upon the lives of those working behind the scenes in the entertainment industry and the drama was surprisingly willing to present this openly.

Yet unsurprisingly, the series relishes in the idea of bringing about all the joyous tropes and cliches of the hardworking and oppressed heroine into the generic stereotype of main female lead, Oh Han-byeol ( played by Kyung).

Now, I could see where they were going with Byeol as a character. Honestly, I have a lot of respect for shows which are willing to present the grisly realities of characters who work hard and the challenges that can arise for them. However in typical K-drama fashion, Byeol’s problems and issues are rarely tied with her character drive. Instead they were placed at the front of attempting to pair her off with main lead and unsurprisingly her rival and one of her artists that she’s forced to manage, successful star Gong Tae-sung ( played by Dae).

To be fair and like a lot of cliche dramas where we see unlikely love interests being paired off in a storyline, I certainly noticed that the character and relationship drive between Tae and Byeol did improve with time . However in between moments where we did actually see this relationship branch out and the storyline begin to mature at times , I still found it hard to ignore where there were garish moments of cheap comedy moments ( which raised a lot of issues)and questionable subplots.

This is where I could find a slightly grating element of the show. For me personally this came through the problems of the plot becoming quite monotonous in parts where we saw the same repetitive scenario of an issue/ point of conflict being raised, the main leads having to face it and “ struggling” with their feelings/ bond and then making up and repeat. I don’t always necessarily think having issues or dilemmas in a relationship is bad and can allow room for growth for characters. But rather than offering opportunities for us as viewers to see new problems arise or at least for even the characters to be conflicted with their own personal growth and careers was kept minimal.

As for the styling and OST I have to say I was in the middle with its impression on me. It was by no means bad. I liked how smooth some of the transitions were and typical of K-drama fashion, it was fairly sleek at times. However I can’t really say that on reflection that there were many scenes which really spoke out to me or made me do a double take. I know some may argue that a lot of editing and styling is down to production value but I’d argue that you don’t necessarily have to have state of the art equipment of editing teams to make an impression on fans; just intuition and imagination. Again, not saying it was bad just felt a bit lacking here and there.

Shooting Stars definitely feels as though it will win over more international drama fans than domestic in the long run. Do I think this is necessarily a bad thing? No, of course not. I don’t always think popularity is necessarily marked by the quality of a show but one of the main reasons why I decided to bring this up in my final thoughts came through acknowledging why it may appeal to some, especially in the international K-drama community.

It’s cheesy and easygoing fluff filled with a good mixture of familiar and rookie stars who helped to freshen up the roles to a certain extent.

On the other hand for me personally, I felt as though the show felt like a bit out of place and time in the sea of dramas for 2022. The writing felt a bit stale in parts including the character and plot writing and I felt as though what could’ve been a good springboard for a lot of old tropes and cliches being taken into a new light or being given a new spin slowly descended into a cesspit of predictable storyline. Overall a 7.0/10. Not bad but certainly could’ve been a better show for me.