ash
This review may contain spoilers
The leaning tower of pisa of kdramas
I told my friend just after finishing episode 11 that Business Proposal was much like the leaning tower of pisa. It looks good, it's competently shot, well acted, the music is utilised decently well, but the foundation on which it rests on is extremely shaky.
To take from Folding Ideas video on 50 shades, the story is written much like a fanfiction. It follows the structure where plot A connects to B, B connects to C and so on, where you need all of them for the story to make sense, but A and C aren only tangentially related. The amount of times that plotpoints are picked up then dropped is very annoying, it makes the pacing pacing of the show much faster, which is extremely good for the "light, airy" feel it has, but definitely does detract from the story's quality as a whole.
After the reveal early on in the show, the quality of the show seems to dip considerably. The tightness of the first few episodes is very prevalent, minus some scenes that set up something later. It's later on in the show where emotional moments are brought up just for the sake of the story needing emotional beats. The story could have easily been "light and airy" all throughout, but it brings in a very poorly shoved in third act conflict.
If there is one thing that is good about this show it is the acting. The chemistry between the actors is very obvious, and the leads make one of the most natural lead couples I have ever seen. They all play off of each other very well, and with more time I think they could have also done more with other under utilised characters.
It's very difficult thinking about whether or not this show needed more episodes. There is a lot that could have been explored still, Hamin's relationship to the family, more about the grandfather, more with youngseo and yujeong's relationship, but I don't know if that would make the show more bloated than necessary. For the story to work, I think they should've cut the whole Yoora plotline completely. At the beginning of the show I really liked Minwoo compared to his webtoon counterpart who is somehow worse than the show version, but the contrived drama they create for him is so lacklustre, it's actually embarrassing.
Overall, the show is good. It isn't great, and it stems from structural problems that can only really be fixed by rewriting most of the script. If you want a quick laugh or a convincing romance, it is enjoyable enough.
To take from Folding Ideas video on 50 shades, the story is written much like a fanfiction. It follows the structure where plot A connects to B, B connects to C and so on, where you need all of them for the story to make sense, but A and C aren only tangentially related. The amount of times that plotpoints are picked up then dropped is very annoying, it makes the pacing pacing of the show much faster, which is extremely good for the "light, airy" feel it has, but definitely does detract from the story's quality as a whole.
After the reveal early on in the show, the quality of the show seems to dip considerably. The tightness of the first few episodes is very prevalent, minus some scenes that set up something later. It's later on in the show where emotional moments are brought up just for the sake of the story needing emotional beats. The story could have easily been "light and airy" all throughout, but it brings in a very poorly shoved in third act conflict.
If there is one thing that is good about this show it is the acting. The chemistry between the actors is very obvious, and the leads make one of the most natural lead couples I have ever seen. They all play off of each other very well, and with more time I think they could have also done more with other under utilised characters.
It's very difficult thinking about whether or not this show needed more episodes. There is a lot that could have been explored still, Hamin's relationship to the family, more about the grandfather, more with youngseo and yujeong's relationship, but I don't know if that would make the show more bloated than necessary. For the story to work, I think they should've cut the whole Yoora plotline completely. At the beginning of the show I really liked Minwoo compared to his webtoon counterpart who is somehow worse than the show version, but the contrived drama they create for him is so lacklustre, it's actually embarrassing.
Overall, the show is good. It isn't great, and it stems from structural problems that can only really be fixed by rewriting most of the script. If you want a quick laugh or a convincing romance, it is enjoyable enough.
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