Apple of My Eye (2023)

It was NOT the cast that made this bad

I have to say up front that it was NOT the cast that made this whole drama tank - the cast was amazing and they are the only reason I stayed until the last episode. It was the WORST storyline I have ever seen and I have made note of these writers and will not watch anything by them again.

Where do I even start? The storyline started out good but what you read in the synopsis is nothing like the drama ended up being. The ML loses his male lead status for at least 70+ episodes as the drama focuses on the supporting character of Ju Hyuk - and at some point his status as supporting character changes to Main Character. Why? I have no idea who allowed that change to be made. but the story dragged on and on and on, ad nauseum, about the FL, Mi Rae, being in love with the cheating, gaslighting, abusive Ju Hyuk, who happened to be her first love. We rarely had any interactions between the two leads that were suppose to end up falling in love and having to fight for their love. The two "leads" - Kang San and Mi Rae - do not even get together as a couple until episode 91 - and the drama is only 121 episodes. The two actors did not have much chemistry - maybe due to the fact that the writers and director didn't have them interact much with each other for over half the drama. The characters that needed background stories for us to understand them more, never had them. The writers clearly hated Kang-San - the character they CREATED. They made him passive, meek, a doormat, and a pushover from ep 1 all the way through ep 121. The synopsis states he would have to fight for his love but we never truly saw that. The only time he came close is when Ju Hyuk was revealed to be the cheater that he was. That lasted about 2-3 episodes., then it was back to being the same Kang-San that had no self esteem and really came across as a loser.

Seo Joon Young tried his best with the terrible script he was given. He did pull out some really great emotional moments that you felt his pain so much as his character struggled day in and day out. SJY really is a great actor and I hope to see him get a ML role that he can sink his teeth into and show us more of his acting ability and ML status. I think he definitely could pull off a better romance drama. Give this guy a passionate, romantic role, please!

Kim Si Eun - I cant say enough good things about this young woman. She honestly stole the show and this girl has an awesome career ahead of her is she chooses to stick to acting. You loved her character Jan-Di and you hated her. From episode 1 - 121 this girl showed a wide range of talent and emotions. I cried, I yelled, and laughed with her. I look forward to seeing her in many more dramas.

I have made note of the Director as well - there were many scenes where I was left scratching my head as to what the director was trying to say in his scenes. So many scenes looked as if it was missing parts - it was jumping from one scene to the next with no continuity at all. There were some scenes that is obvious parts were cut and melded together - again, making no sense. At one point the ML saves Mi Rae from a motorcyclist and ends up unconscious in the hospital and it is said he would be in there for a while and have to wear the neck brace for a while then the next scene appears to be the next morning where he is sitting at the breakfast table with no neck brace and no cast on his arm. There was no indication there was a bit of a time skip or that it could have been a week or two later - it seemed like it was the next morning. Lots of us were like "what happened here?" This happened on several occasions. a lot of the time the video previews at the end of the episodes - scenes from those were never aired.

So I gave the cast and actors a 9.0, but I didn't want to even rate the story because I felt even any rating was too much, but it wouldn't let me leave it blank so I gave the story a 1.0 - If I could give it a negative number I would - that is just how bad the story was. Save yourself the trouble of watching.

**edited to add that Seo Joon Young won an Excellence Award -Actor in a Daily Drama for his role as Kang San, and Kim Si Eun won Best Young Actress Award for her role as Jan Di, at the 2023 KBS Drama Awards. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

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How to NOT do a daily drama

Don't bother.
At one point I was going to suggest watching the first 20 episodes then skipping to about 70 and picking up from there. But the series fell apart in the last few weeks and it's not worth bothering.

I can't believe that a writing team that HAS done a 120 ep daily before did not plan out the plot better. They could have easily fit in all the plot lines they wanted to, but instead wasted 50+ episodes with nothing happening and then tried to cram everything in at the last 3 weeks. CRAZY!!! They left plot-holes galore, undeveloped characters, no chemistry, ridiculous premises, unpunished villains, and the list goes on.

The could have saved it (Kinda) if they had the guts to make the ending sad or even bittersweet. It would at least have given the series a point. But instead they pulled a monkey out of a hat (not the metaphor I wanted to use) and came up with A HAPPY ENDING. Good Grief.

All this in addition to the worst ML character I've ever seen. I feel sorry for the actor playing this loser and I hope that he does not get typecast in the future.

The only redeeming thing in this mess was the acting of the daughter by Kim SiEun. Her growth as an actress thru this was amazing and if she doesn't get Young Actress of the year at the KBS Awards in December, it will be a crime. She could easily compete for Best Actress, period. As much as I disliked her character, it was her performance that stole the show.

So again, don't bother watching this. It's not worth it. And a curse on the writers and producers for wasting an interesting concept with undisciplined writing and poor oversight. And toss the Director in the Fiery Pit as well...

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