3
2
Salatheel
Wholesome apple pie
OK it’s no secret that I’m not fond of romcoms, but this one is good enough to win me over. (Thanks to Zogitt for the recommend.)
There are absolutely no surprises and it follows the tropes and clichés to the letter. You can tick them off as they come up: random football, pretend boyfriend, mistaken identity, accidental kiss etc, etc… But that doesn’t really matter with this one because the courtship is so sweetly done, with lashings of delightful flirtatious banter.
It’s full of gentle humour and is such an easy watch to chill out to. No adrenaline rushes or cringeworthy moments, no whiny manipulation or cold arrogance—just wholesome apple pie. The two leads pull it off admirably as two people finding their way to being together as they bump over the minor speed humps placed in their way. They did the psychology right for the FL which led to some beautifully touching exchanges between the lovers.
The secondary couple are a little more stilted and less easy to ship, but engaging enough. Though I’m wondering if their scenes might have been written by an assistant writer as they have more of a pedestrian quality to them.
Basically, the script is a 12 step instructional program on how to negotiate a relationship like a grown-up. And I’m being literal here, there is quite an educational tone to it and after we’ve done the obligatory PP, it does get a bit medical education for the masses and lost me somewhat in the process. But it’s way more palatable than its companion drama, “Meet Yourself” which is basically a glacial-pace (fictional) docusoap, whitewashed nicely.
Unfortunately, about three quarters of the way through it runs out of plot and the problems get solved in the background, which was pretty unsatisfying. The script lost its edge and became very ordinary and the pace really dropped off as it bumbled along to the end.
The opening titles tell you everything you need to know about the story in bite size, so if you don’t like what you see in the first one and a half minutes, then you can duck out without wasting any more time.
Be warned, the soundtrack is not just bad, it’s abysmal. There’s an inexplicable cocktail of operatic arias, from Traviata (drinking song) through to Carmen (habanera) that don’t seem to have any relevance to the action they accompany (with a splash of Beethoven and Mozart thrown in for good measure) or, you can suffer some unbelievably naff lyrics (maybe something got lost in translation) set to hotel lobby style arrangements. And my taste in clothing is just a tad different to the ML, who gets totally swoony over an absolute shocker of a dress worn by the FL and as for her shoes, well they were just plain ugly. I suppose there’s no accounting for taste.
What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.
There are absolutely no surprises and it follows the tropes and clichés to the letter. You can tick them off as they come up: random football, pretend boyfriend, mistaken identity, accidental kiss etc, etc… But that doesn’t really matter with this one because the courtship is so sweetly done, with lashings of delightful flirtatious banter.
It’s full of gentle humour and is such an easy watch to chill out to. No adrenaline rushes or cringeworthy moments, no whiny manipulation or cold arrogance—just wholesome apple pie. The two leads pull it off admirably as two people finding their way to being together as they bump over the minor speed humps placed in their way. They did the psychology right for the FL which led to some beautifully touching exchanges between the lovers.
The secondary couple are a little more stilted and less easy to ship, but engaging enough. Though I’m wondering if their scenes might have been written by an assistant writer as they have more of a pedestrian quality to them.
Basically, the script is a 12 step instructional program on how to negotiate a relationship like a grown-up. And I’m being literal here, there is quite an educational tone to it and after we’ve done the obligatory PP, it does get a bit medical education for the masses and lost me somewhat in the process. But it’s way more palatable than its companion drama, “Meet Yourself” which is basically a glacial-pace (fictional) docusoap, whitewashed nicely.
Unfortunately, about three quarters of the way through it runs out of plot and the problems get solved in the background, which was pretty unsatisfying. The script lost its edge and became very ordinary and the pace really dropped off as it bumbled along to the end.
The opening titles tell you everything you need to know about the story in bite size, so if you don’t like what you see in the first one and a half minutes, then you can duck out without wasting any more time.
Be warned, the soundtrack is not just bad, it’s abysmal. There’s an inexplicable cocktail of operatic arias, from Traviata (drinking song) through to Carmen (habanera) that don’t seem to have any relevance to the action they accompany (with a splash of Beethoven and Mozart thrown in for good measure) or, you can suffer some unbelievably naff lyrics (maybe something got lost in translation) set to hotel lobby style arrangements. And my taste in clothing is just a tad different to the ML, who gets totally swoony over an absolute shocker of a dress worn by the FL and as for her shoes, well they were just plain ugly. I suppose there’s no accounting for taste.
What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.
Was this review helpful to you?
