Exposure and Contrast

Hello Critique Corner! It's been awhile, but here I am, humbly crawling back to you for more of your sage advice.

My first question is...is the first photo too flat? I do my work on a very contrasty IPS monitor and my photos always lose a little pop when I view them on a TN screen.

Secondly, which of these photos looks like the more properly exposed one to you? Which is more pleasing to the eye, and are the two necessarily always going to be the same? I feel like I've been struggling to find that second-nature feel for perfect exposure and contrast for awhile now. Your thoughts and opinions are always appreciated!

Both look fine to me. The second looks a little my saturated. But remember, if you learn the "selection" tool in your photo software, you can make things "pop" by only saturating some parts, and DEsaturating others... as I did with your Cutie below.

First one looks better to me. Better contrast/color and more detail in the little guy's chest. The second one looks a bit overexposed for a final image.

To my eye / monitor / squishbrain, the first looks best and is definitely sufficiently contrasty as to, as you say, 'pop.' The second seems just a smidgen overexposed though not by much.

Agree that the 1st is the best. The 2nd is just a little too hot.

They also appear oversharpened to me.