This review may contain spoilers
What lengths would you go through to fulfill your dreams?
This drama really came out of nowhere for me. There's been little marketing for it, and to be honest, I clicked on it by mistake. But WOW, what a show. I thought I knew what this drama would be about but I was so wrong. It completely went above my expectations. I expected caricature characters, an obvious love triangle and an annoying main character. I guess the cover kinda gave me teen idol drama writing like heirs, cinderella and four knights kind of vibes. I was so wrong.Acting/Cast:
I'll start with our characters, and specifically Kim Jenna, our protagonist. I refrain from calling her the female lead because that would mean she needs a male lead to complete the drama but not Kim Jenna. She's a force all on her own. She is the leader of the failed group Cotton Candy. And this is truly her characterization. She is, in the truest form, a leader. She is the glue that holds the team together. Without her, the group would be nothing a long time ago. All the members care for her mainly because they can see, through her endless actions, that she cares for them as well. Even Hyunji, who comes off as the brat (love her though) treats Jenna like her big sister and will do anything for her. Jenna is a no nonsense girl who will fight, bite, claw her way through anyone and anything to make sure Cotton Candy is successful. She is also the only person who is unwilling to give up on Cotton Candy. Even other members have their moments. But not Jenna. Never Jenna. She knows what each and everyone had to do to get to where they were and she is unwilling to let things end badly for them. Hani has a fantastic crying face. She portrays Jenna well.
If Jenna is the glue of Cotton Candy, then Stella, the Visual of the group, is her rock. She is the emotional support for Jenna and has very similar views to Jenna. But unlike Jenna, she is quite weak hearted as we see with her mental health issues. She is not one for confrontation but she makes sure Jenna is never alone, and is in some way, Jenna's big sister.
Hyunji. Oh my fiesty, lacking-a-filter Hyunji. The Maknae of the group. She is very hateful at the beginning because of her troublemaking character but also becomes my favorite, again because of her character. She will insult everyone and anybody. She will insult the CEO, her members, her manager, her fans, inanimate objects. Basically anything that crosses her eyes. But this is why we love her. She is honest to a fault and she sometimes says what I wish I could say to some characters. Bbyong, I'm looking at you, you piece of trash. She is the baby of the group and often times, other members try to restrain her character.
Elle, the Main vocalist. She is the reason I love this drama. I love stories where the conflict is justifiable, and we see that in Elle. She has spent sooo long wishing to succeed that she is desperate. So desperate, and I feel that desperation. She loves her members without a doubt but wishes to succeed even more. I also like that she isnt perfect. She is very selfish. She left KillA when they were unsuccessful for a long time and then moved to Cotton Candy. Very selfish of her. But yet I ask myself, as an indecisive person, would I make a different choice if I were her? She cant know the future. We only say she is selfish because we see KillA succeed at the end. But what if they hadn't? She couldn't afford such an unclear future. I really feel for her but I know she will find her way back to the group.
ChaeA, the sub vocalist and sub dancer. Usually when you have an ensemble cast, there's always that one you dont quite know so well or relate to. But not in this drama. We all know of a ChaeA in every kpop group. That one member who is just average at everything. Not really excelling in one thing but good enough to complete the formation the company is looking for. This is ChaeA. She's not the prettiest, not the best dancer, doesn't have the most sparkling personality or voice. And ChaeA knows it. And she works hard to make sure she does not fall behind. I love her for that.
The brilliance of the writers of this drama is that they are able to give everyone their moment. Troy is another character I enjoy often. If you introduce a character halfway through a drama, viewers might not relate well with the character. But not Troy. I can feel the friendship he had with Cotton Candy through his emotions. He hates them but also cares for them. I also love his relationship with Elle. When he watches Jenna and Elle perform as backup dancers, you can see the anguish in his eyes. I love him.
Ceo Ma and the Manager were two characters I also love. Ceo Ma had a real dilemma a lot of company Ceo face, which is, what do you do with a group that's bombing. His idea of keeping Jenna also makes sense, if you look at the trend with in real-life groups that are like Cotton Candy. They will usually keep one or a few and make them solo, or turn them into actors or variety stars while the rest are just left to rot. Which Jenna picks up on when she calls him out. Nevertheless, Ceo Ma also has a strong bond with the girls as they are his first group and that makes them special to him. He is unable to treat them too badly.
The Manager is also very lovely. His bond with Hyunji was enviable and perhaps his passing served as the turning point in her behavior.
Ceo Cha is nice. I saw his change coming because Jenna can be pretty inspiring.
Mars member Ji Han is the least interesting character for me, oddly enough. By the comments section, he is well liked and yes, dont get me wrong, he is likeable but not interesting. Amongst the slew of complex characters, he is a little bland. And that's ok. This drama needs that. His character serves almost as a stress relief for us the viewers and for Jenna as well.
All the other characters add something to the drama as well and dont come off as caricatures. even Bbyong and his over inflated ego makes sense. Director Yoon is also hilarious comic relief though I sense Cotton Candy really is stressing him out. His dynamic with Hyunji is hilarious to watch.
Story: One of the most realistic conflict and conflict resolution I've seen in a drama so far. The writer knows what she's doing.
Music: Some of the best music I've heard in 2021. Every song is a hit. Every song sets the tone of the drama properly. All very catchy. I have a few in my Spotify playlist already.
Rewatch Value: 10. I've already rewatched several episodes multiple times. Its quite addicting.
Overall a fantastic drama so far. So underrated though. JTBC should've marketed it more.
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
It's a good plot but....
I like the story. Trust me, it's well thought out and all but... I'm going to have to complain that they keep dragging certain things out. The next problem is why were they unsuccessful and why is everyone looking down on them. I get that most companies like to focus on the money making acts in the company but I've never seen such actually happen in K-pop... like would a company really hold a group hostage and not give the members some sort of solo gig to bring some income to the company for that long of a time?Was this review helpful to you?
The irony
The irony.This ends up being a failed drama about a failed idol group.
Similar to the idol group in the story, this drama did not get the support it deserved, almost no promotion and shown in a late night timeslot, not optimal for the target audience of this drama.
But unlike the story, there is no fairy tale ending as ratings continued to suffer. It is disheartening to see that all the efforts put in by the cast and staff went unwatched.
For me, it is a very underrated drama, and I like the fact that most characters were played by real idols. All except Stella in Cotton Candy are real idols, and it makes it so much more convincing. The singing and the dancing were good as expected. Most of the cast in Mars are trainees or having previous auditioned for idols or survival shows.
It gives you a glimpse of the reality of the fate of most idol aspirers, which is failure (I think the stats given in the drama is that there are about 320 idols / 60 groups debuting EACH YEAR in Korea, and how many of them become successful?)
Was this review helpful to you?
The Power of Friendship, But Make It K-Pop
"Idol: The Coup", a drama that takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions depicting the journey of a failed five-member girl group that is about to reach the end of their seven-year contract with their label.This drama is centered around the failed girl group Cotton Candy: Stella, Elle, Chae A, Hyun Ji, and their leader Jenna. After debuting as StarPeace's first talent, they failed to become popular and were thus tossed to the side as the label continued to debut other groups in hopes of profit. Almost seven years pass and they are nearing the end of the contract with one question in mind: should they disband? We follow the girls on their highs and lows, interpersonal struggles, and battles with the general public as they work towards their dreams in the public eye.
The story itself is a journey, with all its twists and turns. In my opinion, this show can be split into three specific acts. The first act does an incredible job of depicting and laying the foundations of where the girls are at this point in their lives. You get a first-hand experience of what it's like to be a forgotten K-pop idol just trying to make ends meet. The second act is a bit messier when it comes to the plot. Storylines get drawn out, unnecessary drama is sprinkled all over the place, and it just feels like soap opera at points. However, once you get past that point in the show, you get to my favorite portion of the drama. The writing feels more cohesive, conflicts finally reach a resolution, and all of the characters get their own moments to shine. While at times the ending might feel rushed, the team behind this show did a great job of making the story feel complete at the end of the day. And while watching the show, if you ever feel like things are being rushed, sit back and think to yourself, is there a reason why things should be drawn out?
The music in the show is great. You can find a lot of the full versions of the songs on Spotify, which I appreciate.
If you do consider watching this drama, do try to watch it till the end. Only then can you get the full perspective of what the show is about.
Was this review helpful to you?
Watch IDOL: The Coup!!!
The drama is still on going and i really love how the story progresses. This drama is worth watching, they have good music and good choice of actors. Since they act as an idol, music production is included in the drama. This really impress me, with that kind of music they are producing, they could really produce an Idol and earn some money lol. The main roles and even the support roles do their characters very well. Hani and the Director nailed it. I really love it. I love their little romance in the drama. By the way , i think this is not a teenage drama, just like what i read in tiktok comments, this is not just about kpop, instead they depict how idols survive just to build their career. And that is one of the reasons, im still watching this drama. There are a lot of darkness behind the music industry and this has to be address. They said that the rating in Korea is a low but i think, maybe because they are not into lives of kpop IDOLS, nevertheless im asking u to watch this jebal.Was this review helpful to you?
Believe In Your Dreams
The fictional idol making company, Starpeace Entertainment, demonstrates painfully how a bad, neglectful, and incompetent record label will destroy the career of aspiring talent. This almost criminally underappreciated Idol drama serves as a dazzling introduction, for the uninitiated, to the wonderful talents of real life idols: Exy , Hani and Sol-bin. While the script is flawed and falters at times, there are some outstanding drama and music scenes with the aforementioned trio of idols that really standout.Idol:The Coup has been a ratings disappointment, ironically mirroring the failure of its fictional idol group Cotton Candy. This drama may ultimately be vindicated, achieving cult classic status with the passage of time as more viewers discover it.
Was this review helpful to you?
Not What You Expect It To Be (in a good way)
This drama subverted my expectations of an idol themed drama. I was worried it may be shallow, or focus too much on unwanted romances. But it ended up being a storyline with a lot of heart. The story made me genuinely happy and genuinely sad. The music was quite good as well! The main cast was great too, despite many of the girl group actresses being rookie actresses.My only real critique is that there are some small plotlines or moments that I feel left more to be desired and didn't always give me exactly what I was hoping for.
Was this review helpful to you?
Lazy!
This entire drama was like babysitting children. The amount of fights and ear piercing screams was mind numbing. Having a loud fight for every other scene is one of the worst ways to create tension. Its weight and impact diminish and become redundant the more they result to the same tactics.Was this review helpful to you?
Heart fluttering music making, waisted potential and characters you may want to shove of a roof
This is a show that has you wondering how many set backs are too many? How many times can a girl crash down before she gives up her dreams? When is the right time to let go? how self centred can a girl get before her friends kick her out? and how much wrong can men do and still get away with it?To be honest I would have dropped this after the first episode if someone (Kate here on MDL) had not told me that the first two episodes are really bad but once you pass them it gets really interesting, and that is true once you pass the first two episodes this drama does indeed get very interesting.
Basically it is a show about what happens when you take a bunch of broken girls who used to have a dream, and try to crush that dream over and over again? Well they go all self destructive and more or less give up, feel a lot of regret and wish they would have spent their youth doing something better... some also shift blame.
But then there is Jenna who adapts, saves her friends, gets pushed down, saves them again and ultimately crashes at rock bottom where she would probably have remained if someone had not given her a slither of hope and taken it away pushing her over that limit beyond rock bottom and over to crazy side. Jenna is this super human who lets us see both her weaknesses as well as her fight power and boy does this girl have some fighting power... What I love about her is her way of learning from her mistakes, and seeing beyond here and now... Looking back at the past she can see what went wrong and instead of getting blinded by anger, hate or shifting blame she actually does this really rare thing and takes responsibility as well as finding solution to not only her own but also her friends problems.... Giving us countless scenes of power, friendship, fighting spirit and tears.. and when I say tear I mean a lot of tears.. so many tears that I had to turn of the sound for this drama as Jenna cries relatively quietly her friends cry louder...
There is a lot of good to say about this drama, the story does seem to show a lot of realistic problems that face people in the ido l/music industry and young women in society, as well as shows a lot of heart-fluttering music making, work relationships some that could easily outshine a lot of romances.
However none of these problems and relationships are explored or offered realistic solutions, to be clear they do offer some kind of solutions to most of the problems, but they do not match the rest of the real slice of life, slice of darkness feel to the drama...
The acting and chemistry between the different characters is inconsistent while some are great others are just not convincing at all. The twists may not always be super predictable from the first episodes but never ever come as surprise (at least not for me), The main thing to make drag down the score from a 9 or 10 is the youngest member of the group called Oh Hyun Ji her character is so annoying, inconsistent and loud that I again had to shut of the sound... the girl does have some lovable moments but overall I wish they would have given all her screen time to others, literally anybody else would do, preferably the CEO, manly Idol and Jenna but a cat, a sign, a singing hot dog would do.
There is a lot of underdeveloped potential in this story, its like they give us teasers without fully delivering and though there are a bunch of heart fluttering moments, and a clear ending yet I find myself left unsatisfied with a lot... That Said I did enjoy the drama, and do recommend it , had it not been for those annoying characters, and just a little bit too many unnecessary turns of events... it could easily have been a 9 or a 10. So I guess this drama recommendation/review comes with a warning:
Do not get your hopes up, be were of the annoying elements and do not be afraid to mute the screen.
But if you do like dramas about idols, music and fighting spirit this is a good place to find it,
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
Such a great show!
This show had everything I look for in a drama. Great cast, great music, great storyline.This show made me cry, laugh, scream, smile and cry more and more and more....
It's about "Cotton Candy" which is a kpop girl group with 5 members Jenna, Hyun Ji, Stella, Elle and Chae A. They're a failed idol group who never really had any success and they never had a comeback after their debut. Now they have one goal, have one last comeback and win a music show to then disband.
The show talks about a lot of issues that real life kpop idols face as well. Bad treatment of idols by their company, false rumors, fans of other groups who go out of their way to hate/attack other groups, etc. It was very well done.
The music in this show is really good and I kinda wish Cotton Candy was a real group lol (Stella would be my bias).
10/10 show, highly recommend to everyone who likes kdramas and kpop.
Was this review helpful to you?
