Shut Up Flower Boy Band

Shut Up Flower Boy Band was released in 2012 on tvN from January to March. Starring idol characters like L from Infinite, Lee Hyun-jae from Mate, Lim Kim, Jung Eui-chul, Sung Joon, and Jo Bo-ah, this drama follows the lives of a high school rock band known as Eye Candy. Topped with rivalry, love triangles and more, Shut Up Flower Boy Band takes all of their fans on an adventure worth a lifetime.

Plot

It all starts with the notorious, free-spirited leader known as Joo Byung-hee who rules over the underground rock band, Eye Candy. He's best friends with Kwon Ji-hyuk and happens to win the hearts of the remainder of his members: Lee Hyun-soo, Jan Do-il, Kim Ha-jin, and Seo Kyung-jong. He has a way with his words and his personality seems to reach out and touch the hearts of everyone including his friends.

The high school that was once their playground is forced to shut down for its bad reputation and the delinquents wonder if school is even worth it. Byung-hee is fully dedicated to Eye Candy and his influence of passion and love seems to keep the band going. Their fame is short-lived of course when they transfer to Jung Sang High where the rich, wealthy, and intelligent rivals known as Strawberry Fields start a turf war. Out of spite, Byung-hee claims that he and his friends should continue attending class only to rise to the top and take over the school with their boyish and rebellious charm.

As tension flares from leader to leader, Yoo Seung-hoon and his cronies fake an apology to Byung-hee. They ask him to come retrieve a drum kit in hopes of settling their differences. Thinking little of the situation, Byung-hee goes alone and is attacked by the members of Strawberry Fields. With a serious head wound after being beaten by a metal rod, Byung-hee is struggling to get back to his members when he is tragically struck by a speeding car.

With their young leader dead, the members of Eye Candy are helpless. Ji-hyuk rises to the occasion and takes the spot as the new leader, struggling to differentiate his dreams from his best friend's.

Overall

I'm always very hesitant when it comes down to the "flower boy" dramas and I honestly picked Shut Up Flower Boy Band because it seemed to focus on the outcast individuals who wanted nothing but to show their individuality. Of course, my expectations for this weren't that high, but even so, I found myself severely disappointed.

In the beginning, I loved the chemistry between Byung-hee and Ji-hyuk. They were best friends through and through, all trusting and more like brothers to say the least. Lee Minki was a perfect role for the crazy rebel teen who would charm his way into the bedrooms of other girls and end up jumping out windows. He had an outlook on life I'm very familiar with: "Live in the moment." Of course, he died in just the second episode, but the two hour time you're given with his character is a time you refuse to revoke.

I will admit, his death gave him absolutely no justice. Head wound or not, how are you hit in the middle of the street when it's seriously bare? Okay, maybe I shouldn't rely on kdramas for their realism or accuracy or maybe even their common sense (since according to Shut Up Flower Boy Band, no one has a speck of common sense or impulse control).

This drama did have a lot of potential. Byung-hee may have been childish, slightly immature, and very impulsive, but it fit his character since he wasn't the type of person to contradict his choices. He was very set in his ways and cared little for what other people thought of him or his members. In short, he was proud. Now, when Ji-hyuk rose to take over the empty throne, he wasn't in any way, shape, or form like Byung-hee. Ji-hyuk had to prove himself a leader and gain the respect of his members as more than just their friend. If the drama just dealt with the inner struggles of Eye Candy without throwing in stereotypical characters and a thousand love interests, maybe I'd appreciate it a bit more.

Jo Bo-ah is a gorgeous actress and I love her charming smile and pretty eyes, but playing the goodie two-shoes I absolutely hate seeing in dramas didn't play out so well in her favor. In the beginning, Im Su-ah is the smart, innocent girl who catches the eye of the infamous Joo Byung-hee who calls her his "muse". He openly talks of his love for her without even having spoken or getting to know her whatsoever which always makes my skin crawl because really? Another cliché? The bad boy and good girl are so overplayed in the high school dramas I've seen that I'm pretty sure I shouldn't expect so much anymore. Regardless, Kwon Ji-hyuk—his best friend—seems to have caught her eye instead.

So there the first part of the love triangle starts. Byung-hee's death doesn't exactly mean that everyone else would approve of Ji-hyuk and Su-ah especially since Byung-hee made it very clear he had feelings for the girl that Ji-hyuk is having a more personal and intimate relationship with.

But let me take this small moment to comment on Su-ah's best friend who is given the unattractive, nerdy-girl look. She's obnoxious and has oversized glasses, no fashion sense, and lacks the need to shut up sometimes. I don't know what it is with these types of characters or if they're supposed to make the female lead look ten times better, but it bothered me for sixteen episodes straight.

Now if there was just the "I'm in love with my dead best friend's soon-to-be girl" cliché, I think I'd be able to handle it (not really), but we also had to throw in Su-ah's close guy friend from when she was young—Yoo Seung-hoon. Played by the gorgeous and oh-so delicious Jung Eui-chul who always pulls at my heartstrings, I was a bit more lenient before realizing that my patience level for irritating characters is no longer as high as I thought.

Seung-hoon is a very favorable character. He's smart, handsome, intelligent, and the pianist and leader of Strawberry Fields. To add, he's cold and brooding while thinking there is no other girl in the world aside Su-ah and will act like a jealous jerk until the end of the series. His attachment to Miss Goodie Two-Shoes is something I didn't understand, especially after she rejected him. I was seriously staring at my TV for over six episodes just screaming, "She doesn't like you, she has made herself clear, and yet you're still trying to snatch her heart? Dude!"

The only favorable characters I seemed to have were Joo Byung-hee, Jan Do-il, and Lee Hyun-soo. They were the three most understandable characters I could see portrayed on TV.

Lee Minki has always been a favorite of mine as portrayed in For the Emperor (despite the horrible plot) and Monster (despite his psychoticness) so I can love and adore the eyeliner wearing rocker dude who would be your potential hype man at a party. I've never seen him play a role like this before, so I got in my laughs and kisses while I could before he was tragically ripped away from me. But it's not like I cried watching his death scene because I honestly saw it coming from all angles. There were invisible exclamation marks and caution signs while he was standing in the middle of the street because that's usually a sign that someone's going to die.

I've never seen Lee Hyun-jae in anything before, but Shut Up Flower Boy Band was a horrible place to start. He was your gorgeous drummer boy with hair down to his shoulders and bright eyes. Silent, mysterious, and rocking the look of a school boy or just the son of a gangster (which was so random because that came up near the end of the series). He seemed to want to understand why his members were upset or put them before himself only to be yelled at or shot down. But push come to shove and Hyun-jae executed a relatively amazing character who was more misunderstood than the ones we were supposed to be giving sympathy to.

Now, I've never seen L in a drama either and though he was a bias of mine in Infinite, I pushed aside all my love and affection for the puppy-dog looking idol for his mean, unsympathetic character here in Shut Up Flower Boy Band. The funny thing about it all is that I totally understand why he is the way he is. He doesn't like showing his emotions or even remotely showing that inside, he in fact is vulnerable and weak. Putting up a strong front is something Lee Hyun-soo is good at, but the moral of his personal story is that he doesn't have to fight alone. And in short, none of us do. Thank god for L getting better at his random outbursts and screaming binges in the drama because in the beginning, it was so bad I laughed a few times and couldn't take him seriously.

In short, these three amazing characters nabbed my heart because they were reflections of me. With bipolar depression that makes me feel crazy and wild, Joo Byung-hee was my spirit animal who is uncontrollable and can't be stopped. With an awkward aura and first impressions, Jan Do-il was my shadow trying hard to understand why people feel the way they feel when I lack that part of myself. And with a warrior's heart refusing to show my weaknesses, Lee Hyun-soo was my male counterpart who faltered and fell but always rose to the occasion.

If you're a fan of thousands upon thousands of clichés thrown together to conjure a drama, then I applaud you for wanting to take on Shut Up Flower Boy Band. But if you realize that you're totally picky and can't handle even the smallest cliché or need something ten times more realistic, skipping this drama would save you a lot of time.