Racket Boys

Don’t be fooled by the overall low rating.

When you’re googling this series, you will see that it has a horrible rating. It’s not because this South Korean drama is bad but it was because Indonesian netizen was being petty after the country was presented in a bad light according to them. It was few minutes of it but pretty damaging for this series itself.

Racket Boy is a South Korean coming of age series released back in 2021. It centers around the story of a badminton coach with badminton athletes from the rural side of Haenam. These young athletes dreamed of competing in the national junior athletic competition. While chasing their dream, they overcome various challenges and struggles. As well as this, we're given a backdrop of Haenam village that has low occupancy and the struggle of its various inhabitants from a couple who recently moved from Seoul to Haenam. To an elderly couple who loved their grandson and wanted to connect with the younger generation.

There are mainly five characters, especially the athlete from Haenam Seo Middle School’s Badminton Club. All of them throughout the series undergoes character development that was well-paced. The characters are endearing in its own way and watching this series was quite a comfort. This series teaches you so much about failure and how to be fine with it.

This series has 16 episodes but even after it is all finished and the boys eventually went to high school, it makes you want to follow their journey even more. All of them were strangers who then became best friends and overcame their fears and challenges together. From this series,you will also learn that Badminton isn’t as popular as football. Even so, there are athletes and people who devote their lives to it and are pretty enthusiastic about it.

When I watched the controversial episode, I didn't think there was anything wrong at all. They were speaking out loud of things that probably shouldn’t and the criticism was valid. Although I have to say that Indonesian netizens aren’t known to be polite online. So, they were treading on thin ice. I am sure that it was an expensive lesson for them.

Other than particularly controversial episodes, the overall series was fun to watch, comforting and it can evoke a certain nostalgia. Not to mention, potentially convincing you that living in the country isn’t bad at all. Personally, it’s one of my most comforting series lately apart from Hospital Playlist. This is available on netflix and I personally would give it 6 out of 10. Whenever you have spare 16 hours, it’s a must-watch!