BlackSanguine

The Trauma Olympics

My 2nd review here on MDL, and I just felt I needed to write down my thoughts. It is supposed to be short and sweet (unlike my 1st review lol, which was supposed to be short) but who knows

Disclaimer: These are my opinions, so don't take anything personally. We don't have to agree, and I'm not here to argue with anyone. Just dropping my honest thoughts on something I very much like.

First off, I just want to say Namkoong Min is a fantastic actor; his chilling performance in this drama is reminiscent of King Joffrey Baratheon in Game of Thrones. I have never hated a main villain the way I hated Nam Gyu-man in this drama since Joffrey; he literally carried this entire drama on his back. Oh my, I wanted the nastiest death to happen to him. That's how much I hated these characters. What that shows is how perfectly they acted their roles and immersed themselves in them, so credit where it's due to them. Now that's out of the way, let's get to the chicken.

Why I called this the "trauma Olympics" is because the show is just a collection of "How much can we traumatize the main character as well as the viewers rooting for him?" Every episode was just me waiting for the inevitable "string of misfortunes." It's not for people that want happy things each episode because we don't get those till the last five episodes. So it's 15 episodes of constant "string of misfortunes" for our ML, Seo Jin Woo. The writer didn't hold anything back and poured every misfortune in the kdrama book on him, lol, but he persevered and got his lick back.

The drama is a revenge drama, where Seo Jin Woo tries to get revenge on the people in Inho's group, namely Nam Gyu-man, for framing his father. Initially while watching this, I thought it was going to be him trying to get his father off death row as well as putting the actual criminals behind bars, but when his father died, I quickly understood the route the writer wanted to take the show in. Our ML suffering on his way to vengeance, which he did get, and OH, it was very satisfying.

I've been a fan of Park Min Young since Healer, and I did like her performance in this, but I don't get the people that said she wasn't needed in this drama. I vehemently disagree because, without her, I don't think he would've accomplished his mission. She was his rock and emotional support throughout, especially with his Alzheimer's disease. YES, like I said earlier, they poured every misfortune playbook at our ML.

After watching Park Sung Woong in Man to Man, I took interest in his dramas because he is a very good actor as well. He didn't disappoint in this; it was very good, and I liked his character arc in this one. Also liked the good cop bad cop vibe he had going with Jin Woo; he seems to like bromance to be a thing in his drama (2 for 2 now in his dramas i've watched.)

Then we come to our man of the hour, Nam Gyu Man, an insufferable prick with anger issues. Just wanted to punch him in the face anytime he got on screen 😅 but he was fantastic as the main villain because I absolutely loathed him. He did get his just reward after he was sentenced to death. I also liked the way his final arc was handled because it was fitting the way he went out, a coward's way, because of the way he was portrayed throughout the entire show. A coward that hid behind Daddy and his money/power. A fitting end for such a character. I was a fan after watching The Veil, where he played a good character, but I didn't think I'd enjoy him more as the villain, a nice and welcome surprise.

The rest of the cast aren't worth mentioning like that; nothing noteworthy. Nam Gyu-man's sister was just a spoiled brat airhead till the latter part of the show; the dad was a typical Korean archetype business-before-family type character. Then the Outskirt Law Firm members, the typical supporting cast, literally. They all played their roles very well.

All in all a very good show, an 8.5/10 for me all because of Nam Gyu-man, by the way. So if you're going into this because you came here to see Yoo Seung Ho as Jin Woo, then prepare to be slightly disappointed because the one that carried it was Namkoong Min. This is not me saying his was bad or anything; his performance was good as a lead, but he didn't carry the show for me; that was all Gyu-man. So, prepare to enjoy his performance as the villain. Also if you're into—as my friend would call it—"suffer porn," then this is the drama for you.

Thank you for reading my long-winded review (which was supposed to be short 😅 again), but I hope this was able to help you.

Read More

Ignore all you've read about this and go in with an open mind

This will be short, seeing as it's my first ever review here, and I just wanted to write all I felt during and after watching this drama and my process of rating a drama good.

Disclaimer: These are my opinions, so don't take anything personally. We don't have to agree, and I'm not here to argue with anyone. Just dropping my honest thoughts on something I very much like.

The drama does start off slow, trying to set up things—a little too slow in my opinion—and because of the whole love potion bit, it kind of made me lose interest a bit because it did start off well before the love potion bit. I was lost by episode 6, and I just had to power through and hope that it got better.

After episode 7 I was invested again, and it didn't disappoint. Yes, Yun Na was cheating, but before Sin Yu knew about it, he was already thinking of cheating himself. So I think we can say he cheated after the fact (still cheating), but he had been looking to end things way before; she was just clingy af. So I understand people not really liking this because of that aspect, ultimately glorifying cheating and calling it "fate." But I look past these things because it's K-drama.

What I look for is if the story-writing is compelling enough to overlook certain flaws and if the actors (mainly the leads but some supporting cast) are executing that story very well, and this didn't disappoint in the latter, and the former just had minor details that I mentioned but didn't really take away from the main plot.

Jo Bo-ah, as always since her debut, is fantastic as an actress and sold her character for me. Our ML Ro Woon, my first intro to him, and he was a great match for her, and their chemistry was solid off the bat, even though I kind of hated the love potion thing at first in the beginning, but ultimately it didn't matter. The other leads and cast really did well too.

But one thing that bugged me and still does is how did Na Jung Beom get his hands on spells or even know about them? And was it the love potion that made him crazy, or did he just legit think Hong Jo looked like his dead wife? Plot holes were bound to exist in this sort of drama, but everything else was very good.

Overall, besides these aspects, I mentioned one important factor that supersedes most of all I said, if not all, which is enjoyment. If I don't enjoy it, I can never rate it no matter what. And because I'm not a paid critic or someone who just looks for plot holes or things to point out while watching dramas, I have to choose enjoyment first before anything else.

So I gave this a 9/10 purely from the acting and execution from our leads, their chemistry, and my overall satisfaction and enjoyment of the drama. Really glad I finally watched this after putting it off for so long, and it was really worth it for me.

Ok, this ended up being kind of long in the end, but I hope this my personal review and thought process are able to help you give this drama a try. Because personally, I don't think you'll regret it.

Read More