i wasn't interested in watching this drama when the trailer or the initial episodes came up but gave it a try just to know what is this obsession with the second male lead and why this drama has such a proactive comment section in MDL... this were literally the only reason for me to watch this drama...
from the first episode i got my answer on why everyone is getting obsessed with han ji pyeong... from his background story, his onscreen charm to the acting of both young and adult HJP were spot on... the drama had a really good start and the first 4-5 episodes were well made but then it all went scrambling down... the show couldnt even hold on the first half of the drama...
this was supposed to be a youth motivational drama but we have a male lead who made the female lead his DREAM... wow what a motivation for the youth...
the drama has a lot of loopholes and the female lead's characterization suffers a lot due to an unwanted forced love triangle...
dosan as a character was quite adorable at the beginning but then he literally had no quality that made me root for him after the first 4-5 episodes.... dalmi started off as a very energetic go-getter kind of character but after a while as a viewer you dont get what she likes, who she likes, why she likes, what she wants... the acting of suzy didnt help either... dalmi is just there so that 2 guys can fight over her just because she is the FL...
this drama without a doubt has one of the lousiest written main leads in kdrama history and one of the most well written and well-acted second lead in the kdrama history...
on the business side of the storyline... there isnt much to talk about either but its set in a fantasy world where if the female lead wants to make a flying elephant, the male lead will make a flying elephant...

like i forgot to mention the second female lead the makers also forgot to show her onscreen... she is like an extended cameo... had great potential... she seems like she belongs to the search www drama but sailed without a map and landed up in the world of fluffy startup where business is seen in a rose-tinted glasses... she was supposed to be the younger sister of bae taemi but god messed up and she became the older sister of seo dalmi... poor girl...

what i liked about the drama
1. KIM SEON HO as HAN JI PYEONG... he is such an amazing actor... audience can understand his feelings and emotions even without him uttering a single dialogue... his every single expression was on point and didnt overdo a single scene
2. GRANDMA AND HJP - they share one of the warmest relationships in kdrama world... prepare a box of tisues every time these two share the screen
3. the first 4-5 episodes

what i dont like
1. EVERYTHING ELSE... normally kdramas only have 1 or 2 irritating characters and rest of them will be nice but in startup you will only find 2 or 3 characters that you want to root for and the rest irritating af...


now coming to acting i already talked about how amazing kim seon ho is... kim hana didnt had enough screentime for me to talk about her acting... from whatever she got she did a good job...
nam joo hyuk as dosan was really good in the first 4-5 episodes but after that he acting suffered due to bad writing... its not his fault... the last i saw of him was in the bride of habaek and compared to that he improved drastically but he still dont have great screen presence and can easily get overshadowed by a better actor....
suzy, as dalmi was only good at scenes, where she has to convey her emotions through dialogues... she literally has a blank expression when she has to convey emotions through subtle expressions... she was pretty decent in screens where she has to cry and express her feelings through dialogues... dalmi could have been played by literally any female actor in her late 20s... like dosan, dalmi is also a victim of lousy writing...

the lead couple lacked depth in their love story and we dont even know when,how and why dalmi started liking the real dosan over the dosan from the letters... their chemistry is also flat... i guess if the actors atleast had strong chemistry i would have rooted for them forgetting all the flaws in their characterization...


overall i dont regret watching startup simply because it made me love kim seon ho... it had potential like almost all other kdramas but got ruined by a forceful love traingle and a forcful love story...