CrusadingAngel
This review may contain spoilers
Uncontrollably Fond is a drama that starts out with many things happening at once. The writer/director throws many things at you at the start of the drama. This makes you wonder what is going on. It becomes even more convoluted when you have the writers add in a bunch of flashbacks as well. Luckily as the story goes on, things become more obvious. You begin to slightly see where the story is headed. Overall I gave this show a 7 on a scale of 1-10. 1-5 being shows that are unwatchable or just really bad. 5.1-10 being shows that are watchable and good. A 7.5 means that this show was on the average side. I honestly can't say much overly good or overly bad about the show.Story: [7/10] I'll start with the bad part of the show. One of the things that I did not like about this show was its use of flashback to tell the story at the beginning. The show starts by having flashbacks while the characters are in 2016. There are flashbacks to the past to show us events that have currently led to what is now happening in the present. Unfortunately I feel that it was a bad set up because we didn't know any of the story at the beginning either! Hence the flashbacks only made the story even more confusing at the beginning. Personally I would rather a story begin by telling the events of what happened in the past and then move closer to the present.
On the other hand, there were some good things as well. Besides the confusing beginning, everything else in this drama was very logical and easy to understand. The story moves at a very decent pace. i didn't really feel that it was too fast or too slow. That usually doesn't happen for me in many dramas. All in all though, the story was pretty average for me. Uncontrollably fond is pretty much your somewhat typical revenge drama. The villains does something bad and the good guys tries to get back at them. Obviously it's not that simple, but I also didn't want to give away any spoilers. All in all, there was nothing that made me overly jump at watching the drama or even to not watch it. Hence the 7.
Acting/Cast: [8.5/10] This drama had some big name actor and actresses. Personally I'm a big fan of Suzy. Hence I decided to watch it just to see her act. I also really enjoyed the relationship between Noh Jik and Ha Roo. As their relationship added some cuteness to an otherwise sad melodrama.
Music: [8/10] The music was decently good. I think I liked it for the most part. Although was there a remixed/edited Christmas jingle in this drama? I can't remember if it drama or another one, but I was not too fond of that one.
Overall I'd like to reiterate that this show was pretty average. Some people may like it a lot and others might really hate it. Personally I was on the fence with this one. This show is probably as typical as you can get for a Korean drama/melodrama.
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Story: [8.0/10] While you were sleeping is basically your typical prosecutor/lawyer/law drama with a slight little twist. The character played by Suzy can dream of events that happens in the future. Meanwhile Lee Jong Suk plays the role of a prosecutor. Throughout the drama he goes through solving many different cases through this ability that pops up to help him solve the case. There's is also a prosecutor turned lawyer played by Lee Sang Yeob who is the main antagonist of this story. He mostly spends his time defending the criminals opposite of main character prosecutor. I felt like the story started out pretty strong, but near the end it really started to waver. The story gets a little less interesting in my opinion when the viewers see the end result because Suzy's character can dream of the future. Instead we are left with trying to understand how we reach an end through viewing the stuff that happens in the middle. I'm just a little disappointed because it flt like the plot could be summed up as saying a prosecutor who solves cases through dreaming of the future. It basically makes for a deus ex machina. Other than my disdain for the simple plot, I really enjoyed the comedy. I also sort of liked the romance, but I felt like there wasn't too much spark or chemistry. Although I feel like that may also be a result of the plot and how the dreams played a role in how the two main characters ended up falling in love/getting together. It sort of makes it superficial. In the end, I thought that the story lacked a climax. I went to watch the episode today on 11/16 to find that it was the last one! I was like OMG WHAT? The show definitely didn't lead me to think it was nearing the end because it was sort of anti-climatic as well.
Acting/Cast; [9.5/10] This was one of my favorite parts of the drama. I'm a big fan of the two main characters. Often times I feel like a show has better production value if you have big name actors and actresses. This drama was one of them. Lee Jong Suk and Suzy has been in many big named dramas that ended up doing very well. I also enjoyed the villain that was played by Lee Sang Yeob as well. It really made me annoyed when I saw him enter the screen. I know that a show has a decent villain whenever I hate to see them. It means that the show made a good attempt at trying to make him a treacherous character.
Music: [8.0/10] I generally don't really have much about to say about music in dramas unless the genre of a drama is specifically musically-related. The music was okay. I give it around an 8.0/10.
In conclusion, I give this drama an 8.5/10. Generally I usually view dramas that score at least an 8.5 on MDL. I find that these shows are very much so above average. A 9.0 is a must watch and anything higher than that is what I assume to be a top notch drama. This show currently has a 9.0 at the time of me writing this. I slightly disagree. This isn't really a must watch drama on MDL for me, but I definitely think it's above average. I definitely felt like they could have done more with the dream concept as well as the plot. Although I'm sure that they were a little constrained based on the fact that this was a prosecutor type drama. TL;DR I liked the characters, the ending, and the comedy. I wasn't a big fan of the plot.
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Story: [8.0/10.0]
There are two things that DOTS should be applauded for doing well. First off, the romance found in this show was very refreshing. If anything, the romance in this show overshadows a lot of the action in the show. I enjoyed watching as the relationships started forming between the main characters as well as the relationships that were forming between some of the support characters. I found myself gushing at some of the romantic scenes as if I were in those scenes myself. Those scenes where just that good!
Another aspect of the show that was done well was the creation of the characters. The show made sure that each and every one of the main support characters stay relevant. You'll see which ones are the main support characters once you watch a few episodes. Each support character's interaction with the other characters only helped to make the story better. I especially liked the part where the doctors were watching the soldiers running. I thought that part was hilarious. You'll just have to watch the show to see what I mean.
Although there were some good parts in the drama, there was also some bad parts as well. Personally I was really annoyed with the villain that the producer/director chose for this show. Not so much because of the actor that it was chose. I was more annoyed at the villain's role in the show. Argus was the main villain of the show. The problem with Argus was the fact that he seemed like some sort of quasi-villain. Argus was more like some sort of jay-walker or speeder in terms of the types of villains that are out there. I was expecting more when they showed him as a drugs/weapons/human trafficker. Unfortunately that was not the case. Honestly I liked the parts where the cast was confessing to each other more than a lot of the confrontations that occurred between the villain. That's not to say that they all of the confrontations were bad though.
Overall, the romance and the characters in this show was great. However, the same cannot be said about the plot. The plot was lacking more than just the main villain as well. Sadly it also lacked events that I could actually care about as well. The main part of the show (besides the romance) where the characters where in Urk was mostly very boring. They could have taken about 50% of the material out of the material of that part of theshow and the overall plot would not be any better or worse. It felt like a lot of the story was there for the sake of filling the 16 episodes.
Acting: [10.0/10.0]
As mentioned earlier, the cast did a very great job in this drama. They both did very well in terms of acting and employing the cast to make the show that much more interesting. I did not pay much attention to the acting. That's a good thing in this case because it meant that there acting was very natural. Usually I only notice the action when it's bad. I.e. when someone shows no emotional sadness when there suppose to be sad about someone's death or something. I also enjoyed the fact that the most of the actors and actresses in this show had a great control of the English language. Some parts of the show required the cast to speak English. It was refreshing to actually understand the English when it was spoken and not having to work out the accents.
Music: [9.0/10.0]
As per usual, you really can't go wrong with the music. The music did what it was suppose to. It made sad moments sadder. It made happy moments happier and so forth.
Thanks for reading my second ever drama review on MDL! I hope that you have enjoyed the review. I only gave this show an 8.5 overall, but that does not mean I did not enjoy it. I merely tried to grade as objectively as I can. I rarely give shows that I review all 10s because most often they are often not as perfect as they can be to receive the 10s.
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The main character gets hit by a car in the first episode. As a result, his mind gets a little messed up. He ends up time-traveling(???) back to 1988. Or was it time travel? I honestly don't really know. You'll have to watch and decide for yourself. Anyways, he ends up getting transferred to a police station in 1988. He ends up with a new team whom he solves different cases with. These cases are for the most part related to the events that happened in the first episode. Throughout the various cases, he begins to question his sanity. As he begins seeing hallucinations that suggest that the current time period he is not reality.
I really liked the way that the drama was told for the most part. It's still told like a k-drama, but we sort of get to see it in the lens of the main character's mind. I liked it because the drama told the story in a way which made me have an emotional connection with it. I was confused when the main character was confused. I felt anxious when he was anxious. Awkward when he felt awkward, and so on. It's just plain great storytelling when a drama is able to put you in the main character's shoe (Or in this case his mind lolol...).
Acting/Cast: [8/10] Personally I thought the acting was just okay. The focus of the story is on the main character's point of view. Everything is seen through his eyes and through his distorted reality. The focus is all on him, so it's sort of hard for anyone else to outshine him in terms of acting (or to have great chemistry with a female lead, there were "hints" of a love interest, but essentially no romance). The police team had nice chemistry, but I think that was more so because of the storytelling and not because of the acting.
Music: [8/10] This is the general/average music score I give to the music category. The drama gets a higher score usually if it's a music based drama or has a great OST. A 7 or 8 is usually average for me, anything lower usually means below average.
Rewatch Value: [8/10] I generally don't give a lot of dramas high rewatch values unless there's something special about the drama. This drama definitely had a very great plot. The investigation were intense, fast-paced, and complex. You didn't know what was going to happen and you didn't know what was real and what was fake. A lot of shows now a days has contrived twists and turns in dramas that seem fake or they are just there for the sake of having one twist at the end of each episode. This drama did a good job with keeping me on my toes trying to guess what was going to happen. I would definitely rewatch this again in the future if I hd time.
TLDR: This show had an amazing plot for an adaption of a previously made show. The acting/cast was okay. There were 2-3 actors that I've seen from other dramas. Otherwise nothing really special. The music was okay too. Overall, I definitely recommend you watch this show if you like crime/mystery dramas. The show currently has a 9.0 on MDL for a very good reason.
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