If you’re looking for a lighthearted drama to binge over weekends, look no further. “A-Teen” is your Korean web-drama, available for free on YouTube. Although the series is entirely filmed in the Korean language, there are extremely well-done English subtitles—amongst some other languages—accessible to global audiences.
At first glance, “A-Teen” might seem a little clichéd or immature, but it’s actually so guiltily addictive. It’s a simple story about 18-year-old students in high school, with episodes ranging around just 10 minutes. In this drama, we follow the ups and downs of teenager Do Ha Na (Shin Ye Eun) and her group of friends as they deal with issues of insecurities, crushes, friendships and academics. It’s like a perfect coming of age movie but sliced into little digestible episodes.
The 19 available episodes, although short, are so toasty and warm to watch, which I think is perfect for fall. Although romance is central to the plot, the story is filled with common worries amongst teens and young adults. It deals with the complications of friendship groups, feeling left out, miscommunication, denial and more. There’s a common theme of showing the bigger picture at the end, dipping into someone else’s perspective to show there’s always more sides to a story.
Although the videos typically last for just around 10 minutes, the length actually makes the story even more engaging. The show feels more like a slice-of-life, realistic and everyday experience of teen-hood. Even though the characters are high school students, they’re written to be so captivatingly youthful and charming without making them overly immature or unrelatable. The theme of friendship in the story is done in a realistic but still appealing way. The plot is overall rather light, filled with a little bit of angst for indulgence, but the journey of the stoic but lovable protagonist is still very relatable, even if her life is set on the other side of the planet. It’s a perfect drama that talks about the overwhelming aspect of being a teenager.
On a cinematographic level, the coloring of the video is very soft and pleasant to watch, totally adding to the binge-ability of the drama. The stylistic choices of the scenes are simple but almost dreamlike. The shots are done well and with impeccable quality. There are some incredible close-up shots with pretty exposure from the lighting, creating these whimsical scenes. It’s aesthetically pleasing and relaxing to watch. The music choices are very well done too, not tearing your attention away from the show but instead adding texture to the videos.
The narrator changes in each episode, depending on which character is the focus in the particular video and it’s done so in a very smooth way that helps the audience learn a lot more about each character. One would think that a drama with episodes this short would have problems giving depth and complementary personalities to each character, but this drama does it perfectly.
One of the best things I love about the series is the very relatable topics it deals with. Sure, we might not actually encounter such complicated love triangles in real life, but they talk about a lot of real-life sources of anxieties, such as exams, broken trust and arguments between friends and feeling insecure around friends who seemingly look like they have their life together. It’s touching, in a way.
There are 18 episodes to be binged right now on YouTube. The channel, called PlayList Global, also produces a lot of other completed Korean web-series. They also include behind-the-scene videos that make you fall in love with the actors and actresses behind the characters. It’s a series that doesn’t require a lot of focus to watch, but it naturally demands your attention in the simplistic beauty it contains, both physically and emotionally. All in all, it’s a lighthearted and easy watch that will warm your heart this fall.
_Edited by Siena DeBolt | sdebolt@themaneater.com_
