Would I rematch that one? Perhaps not, although it was relaxing and interesting viewing of the whole 16 episodes. Watch it, and judge it for yourself - that is my advice :)
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IDK why this keeps happening to me, but you're watching this for the secondary couples. They're cute and adorable and way more realistic than the nonsense going on between Go Hye Rim and Choi Soo Hyun. I now want them in all the things in ways I didn't know I needed.
I lay the blame in the failure of the main couple on the writing of Go Hye Rim. She starts off super awesome and you're definitely fighting for her despite all the obstacles Choi Soo Hyun is determined to throw her way. And then she turns into this simpering little girl experiencing love for the first time and it's so abrupt you're gonna get whiplash. Soo Hyun is much more maturely developed in his feelings, and it's fun to see the sneaky ways that Hye Rim gets under his skin and softens him up. He's still prickly by the end, but becomes more of an Irie Naoki type of character which you're much more willing to put up with than the straight jerkface that he is in the beginning.
One thing that absolutely drove me crazy is the total lack of Hye Rim's daughter in the storyline in the second half. There is a conflict involving her, it's resolved, and then we never hear from her again and it's so not okay. THAT'S HER DAUGHTER!! You don't just write off a person's daughter. Not okay.
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Soo... when I started it I had nothing else to watch (like most of you). After the first episode you start to get into the drama. The more you get into the drama the more you like it.
At first I didn't like the actors when I found it because... they are older than most actors I've watched, but they are pros. Acting was great and the plot is original. Great idea, but sometimes it was slow at other times fast. It is watchable and super funny!!! I was like Lol!! WTF??? It is funny, so watch it.
When I finished it I learned something from it... As someone with problems, that you can see in this drama... I can relate a little to it and the story... 99% of you will relate with something in it. The drama is not the best of the best, but is good and you can watch it without feeling like you lost your time. I finished it in 2-4 day... I think but not more... As I said its good, but not like super good. The funny stuff and some of the plot saved it for me. It depend on the person watching it. If you are older you will like it more, it deals with some grown up shit, what I'm saying is its not all funny it can be sad, because the main leads haven't had it easy. They learn to deal with stuff from their past... I found it usefull, if you are not old learn from the mains amd you will get to understande how a grown up thinks. The world is not about you, sometimes you have to let go and move on.
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WHY ALL THE LIES?!
I wanted to love this drama. The main guy is one of the few actors I actually look forward to seeing. His kissing skills were just as amazing in this drama as it is in his other dramas. Main woman was independent, a con artist, but still very likable. I liked that she was an older single mom as well, though her kid wasn't in the show at all. However, the experiment was ridiculous, he was breaking all kinds of rules if you studied even intro to psychology (the biggest being getting the subject's consent) and he then engaged in a romantic relationship with her. Chemistry between them was good but he LIED to her like 5 times about this darn experiment. First two times were understandable but he would not let go to this idea about love. It just got ridiculous. Almost until the end he was trying to trick her which made me very upset and kinda ruined the plot for me.Was this review helpful to you?
Thus, I must also give credit to the director for his achievement, and to the supporting cast, all who delivered strong performances.
Korean writing takes a bit getting used to, and, wittingly or not, it employs a good measure of redundancy and fantastical elements, even in its most serious dramas. By fantastical, you should understand "unbelievable" or "incapable of allowing belief to be suspended". I learned recently, however, that Korean shows are produced on very tight budgets and schedules, and are often written and filmed right up to air time, literally. With those facts in mind, the superior quality the Koreans achieve is nothing short of astonishing. For sheer fun and often intense, gripping moments, the Koreans have no equal among their Asian counterparts, in my humble opinion, and they exceed almost all American television shows.
That's why Han Ye-seul's light shone so brightly in this series. She demonstrated an incredible range of emotion and thought in the relationships Go Hye-Rim dealt with: Dr. Choi, her business, her landlord ("the chairman"), the men chasing her in the "experiment", her daughter's newfound affection for her stepmother, the stepmother and Go's ex-husband, her sister's elopement and violation of traditional Korean values, Go's scamming and being scammed, and ultimately what it meant to scam no more and to just give with one's whole heart to the emotionally crippled Dr. Choi, all in a setting rich with drama, comedy, and romance.
Some reviewers may want to reconsider how they looked at Madame Antoine. At any rate, I heartily recommend it!
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However the story was boring, nothing new and always really predictable, I was unconfortable with the actuation of actress in my opinion she was so exaggerated and unnatural. Also after some episode the situation becoma si stupid all charathers know what happen but continues pretending and lying and all i the the same direction "experiment" and repeat the same thing.
The others couples were nonsense just the las part in a magic way they solvet all. The only interesting part is some coments relative to psychology but I,m no sure is real or not.
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Hidden gem
This is a 2016 South Korean romantic comedy series with 16, 60 minute, episodes.Like all good fortune tellers, Go Hye-rim (Han Ye-seul) is good at reading body language, picking up on subtle verbal clues and asking insightful questions. To add an air of mystique to her sessions, she speaks French and pretends to consult with French Queen Mary Antoinette. She even goes by the name Madame Antoine when telling fortunes out of her coffee cafe. Hye-rim is a beautiful divorcee who is putting her daughter through school abroad. Although burned by love before, she is ready to give love another chance.
A serious and handsome research psychologist moves in to the space above Hye-rim and annoyingly sets up a practice he calls Madame Antoine. Choi Soo-hyun (Sung Joon) thinks the woman in the cafe below is a con artist and is determined to teach her a lesson. He has never been in love and believes that women choose men for material reasons and what people consider love is all in the brain not the heart. He performed an experiment on a woman once where he had three desirable bachelors approach her: all handsome but one wealthy, one athletic and a young flower boy to prove she would pick wealth. It worked that time so he plans to repeat it and show the same outcome. Only this time his female participant will be Hye-rim and he plans to play the role of the wealthy bachelor to observe her closely. Things get complicated when the three men start to genuinely have feelings for the beautiful and intuitive Hye-rim and the Doctor struggles to maintain his objectivity.
spoiler ?. I was really surprised by how much I like this. I thought from the title in several of the descriptions I read that she would be some kind of silly fortuneteller. She was actually a very intuitive person and even without training a great counselor. Everyone around her realized she had that natural ability. At first I did not like how cold he was until I later understood the reason for it. I had a hard time believing he would’ve so steadfastly stuck to the experiment and I thought he should’ve realized he loved her sooner than he did. There was a point where she turns things on him a bit and what she did was pretty cold although he deserved it. I also did not like how people around her when she broke it off with him were kind of blaming her for how sad he was. He had used her and lied to her so I thought if anything he was the one that should’ve come around. I also thought it was out of character for him to sink to a suicidal level of depression. As a psychiatrist or psychologist I think he would’ve realize the signs of that level of depression and reached out to someone. I also thought he was more narcissistic than to take his own life. So that seemed a bit out of character for him.I did like the way it ended very well but I just wish we had seen him moving toward an understanding of what she meant to him a little earlier rather than just a few minutes at the end. Overall I thought it was a great drama with lots of surprises with the characters and the plot in the side stories were also very cute. Second guy was beyond cute but I understood why the main were a better fit as both had a certain level of emotional damage that helped them understand each other. I recommend this highly as a hidden gem.
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I can't believe I waited so long to drop this series. There are SO MANY PROBLEMS. In fact the entire premise of the drama is incredibly problematic: a psychologist conducts an experiment on a woman, manipulating her emotions and lying to her, with the end goal to make her fall in love and the yank the rug out from under her. The main male character continuously lies to her, and we get his inner monologue so you know he knows he's leading her astray, making her doubt things she saw with her own eyes and information she knows to be true. The casual portrayal of gaslighting and psychological relationship abuse is deeply problematic. Not to mention that his experiment is completely unethical (that he would be a participant) and the design is preposterous. I'm not saying this kind of experiment could ever be well designed, but with a few tweaks it could be less absurdly stupid. Not only that, but in the end she has to save him! He is the abuser! There is no world in which his conduct is excusable.Initially I expected this to be a fun drama about two people who try and help people, one with therapy and with fake fortune telling. Her fortune telling is dropped almost instantly! There are a lot of similarities in those professions and I think playing with that tension could have made for an excellent opposites attract plot. I have no idea why they would stray into such asinine and upsetting territory instead of using the rich weird characters they created.
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How to make even hot cast boring and psychology dumb
I honestly don't think that had I not been in love with Sung Joon already (fell for him in 'I Need Romance 3') I'd continue watching after first episode. In this drama, he portrays pretty annoying character. And, again he got paired with decade older woman (what's up with that?). Sometimes, I wanted to close my eyes and just listen to Sung Joon's attractive voice, because the facial expressions his character makes won't make one fond of him lol. The 35 year old fortune-teller woman was more likeable than his doctor (even though her fortune-telling place is called 'Madam Antoine' - not MadamE, even - and it's all kinda unclear how it was supposed to help her see anyone's future even if she COULD contact Marie Antoinette:) and that's not flattering. Especially it was not flattering to him that she actually made better psychologist.During further episodes, I further struggled with this. I love Sung Joon but I don't even like Choi Soo Hyun. I like the way the both mains handle their "cases of the week", but I don't care about those, really. First, I was afraid these cases would take most of the screentime, yet even more of it is filled with the doctor trying to make fool of the fortune-teller by making her participate in his "psychological experiment". I couldn't help it, watching him put so much time and energy into making her fall in love with him only pointed out how he was actually the one trying so hard. After much effort, even if he did succeed, I didn't get what that was supposed to prove. And I didn't get how having many suitors was supposed to make the woman look like a fool. While it was true that the doctor was the one who engaged them into pursuing her, a good psychologist should also know that nobody is capable of pretending 100%. Including himself.
He tries to convince her that he likes her since episode 3. It's like a trap he entangles his own self in. Despite seeing him struggling with the budding feelings, I didn't start cheering for him. Like I mentioned, even the woman, using senseles babbleing in french to convince others that she's conversing with Marie Antoinette (which becomes a problem any time she encounters a person who actually can understand french, lol) was still more likeable. And so was any of her other suitors. I literally cheered for anyone other than Sung Joon's main guy to win her heart. Episode 7/16, we can see Han Ye Seul dressed in goth style and with different make-up and I realized she really is pretty, lol. Interesting how it changed for me since the beginning of the show, I didn't particularly like her while I sure did like Sung Joon and now during this drama that seems to have reversed, lol.
I enjoyed the kiss. Because Sung Joon is a good onscreen kisser. But, the moment the characters quit kissing and started talking, my interest dropped. I seriously did not care whatever relationship these two would or would not develop. Choi Soo Hyun kept babbleing about psychological methods and tests. I thought, we watched the kiss, we had enough clear result already, lol. I wouldn't mind if the woman just left him there talking and went on with her bussiness. Somehow in this drama, Sung Joon successfully managed to portray a character who is good only for mating, not dating. LOL. The whole "secret psychological experiment" plot bored me at 1/2 series already. I didn't care. And I was annoyed that the main heroine did care. She was too cool for that. She should have kept Choi Soo Hyun as a booty call, tops. Or she could have climbed some tree and call out loud that she loved him, for it finally be over. It would be the same to me. His only luck was there was no attractive man except Sung Joon in this drama (the two other guys were both the gay types).
So, the main girl (well, woman) attempts to date Sung Joon's character, who is a psychologist who himself needs treatment. Even that doesn't make him more likeable. It could be said he would do better to concentrate on his own problem instead of his dubious experiments on women.
They should have added even more hot making out scenes. Because everything else was a bore. At episode 11, the (so far likeable) woman decides to repay the main guy by doing the same experiments ON HIM, which I found out of character and to say plainly... stupid. I was seriously tired. It was more than TEN episodes. I asked myself: Won't there be ANY other plot than the endless "experimenting" on each other? And I had to reply to myself, that I don't even care how this will end. So, I don't want to see 5 more episodes. I am bored ALREADY.
All in all, it was interesting experience to watch a drama with actor I like so much, and yet in this drama I didn't like him at all, LOL. Apart from that, the story was not so interesting, I found it all rather draggy, and the "psychology" rather dumb.
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This is now going on my faves list. When i first saw the previews it caught my attention, sadly i put it on hold half way through due to other dramas at the time but when i picked it back up I got into it really fast. Story: Now The story I give a 9, To try to avoid spoilers I had some problems with the story at some points but in the end it did wrap up nicely.
Acting/Cast: This would be my 3rd Sung Joon drama I've watched (others being Hyde Jekyll and Me, and High Society) he is now one of my faves. Han Ye Suel was perfect as Hye Rim this was my frist exposure to her and she was really cool. the supporting cast was perfect knowing that this a comedy they could have fun in their roles. The Acting/Cast I would also give a 9.
Music: When I rate music in a k drama I rate it off the impact of the songs sink into me and Swing Magic did just that. Swing Magic was so catchy so virbent feel to it that it felt so right in this show. The music I give a 10.
Rewatch/ Overall Value: I will definitely rewatch this st some point it cute, funny, and has everything out of it in what i look for in my dramas. The overall value though I would give a 9.5 due to some glaring issues but this is one of my faves now.
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One of those that you sit and think "is it a cultural difference?" "It's just a story so am I taking it too seriously?" "Maybe I'm misunderstanding?"
Before being honest with yourself and saying this is a hideous plot line to try and hang a Romance on. It's abusive, stalkerish, voyeuristic, manipulative, etc. (1% of Something & Well Intended Love I'm looking at you!)
She wasn't great either.
I watched it on Viki and my review was -
"Horrible, manipulative twat, aided by two other Herberts, gaslights a women and treats her terribly. So of course she falls for him... he is rich though. Managed about four episodes before I couldn't stand it anymore. Terrible!"
I am unable to watch this sort of thing and ignore the horribleness. I don't think "oh it's just a plot device for a light entertainment programme" I think Jesus if someone did that to me, or my daughter, or my mother, or really just about any other actual human being I would despise them and fight them. Which is OK if they are a villain doing villainous things but not for the Romantic lead.
Sort of Spoiler ALERT!!!
Secretly filming a woman whilst doing a highly unethical experiment on them is a point of no return for me.
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