23.5 Degree the World Incline

This a goofy, comforting and sweet coming-of-age story that will make you smile from beginning to end.

All the different side stories bring out a number of important dynamics (in a pure and non-toxic way) from friendships and family support, to intimacy and neurodevelopment. The also allows for many different kinds of love (especially amongst the different girls/women) to be explored. That truly stands out!

The chemistry between the two main leads is simply outstanding. The two actresses bring you on an emotional journey like no other. Every single interaction is packed with emotion and tenderness. Shyness, embarrassment and angsts are all beautifully portrayed. Truly 10/10 there! Intimate scenes deserves a special praise as well for being pure and a fairly realistic representation of teenage love. They showed the love many queer women wished they had experienced back in high school in a very sweet and tender way.

In hindsight, I wish it had been a longer show. Throughout the episodes there were instances where I felt like time was taken away from the main storyline. It was also somewhat imbalanced. The two main characters (Ongsa and Sun) were not explored to the same extent. It felt more like a coming of age of Ongsa. While showing growth, the very last episode was overly predictable and lacked the emotional depth of previous episodes. The usage of voiceover was soothing but more could have been done there.

Overall, the depiction of first love is as beautiful as it is clumsy. I loved the casting and all the different subtle references and the little details (from outfits and makeup to lighting) that the production team deployed. I genuinely wish shows like this had been around when i was in high school.