Light hearted blend of genres and likable central performances... but I just didn't enjoy it
I really wanted to like this show but it just wasn't for me. The blend of romance, comedy, melodrama and mystery didn't work very well and I felt pretty uninvested in the outcome of the story. If you like silly comedy, a blend of genres, and introverted, passive female leads this show might have more appeal for you. Give the first episode a try, it's a pretty good indication of the overall tone and quality of the show so if you enjoy it you may well like the rest of this drama.
Things I Liked
The performances of both the leads are great and they have good chemistry together. The characters of the FL and ML are both a bit different from the norm. The ML starts out brash, cocky, ignorant and money obsessed and I expected the show would give him a story arc where he would change for love, but instead they basically said he was just fine as he was. I quite liked that it subverted my expectations on this. The ML was shown to be a decent man who was pretty likable despite his flaws. The ML is consistently interested in and open about his affection for the FL and treats her well. I quite liked the bratty, spoiled politicians daughter SFL. The pacing is pretty good- the story generally progresses at a reasonable pace. The show tries to blend lots of genres, with mystery, melodrama, romance, comedy etc. whilst keeping an overall fairly light tone.
Things I didn't like
I didn't really like the character of the female lead Kim Da Li. This is partly a writing issue and partly personal preference. I just found the character exasperating. She responds to seemingly everything by walking around silently and crying a bit. I was pretty sympathetic to her not knowing what to do in the earlier episodes, but by the time she showed that she was incapable of washing dishes and taking a bus successfully I longed to slap her in the face. She is an introvert who knows nothing about anything but art and is almost entirely passive as her world crashes down around her. This will not bother all viewers, but I found the character as written hard to enjoy, despite the likeable performance by Park Gyu Young (who I think is an incredibly talented actress).
The romance also didn't really work that well for me, partly because in the scenes where their relationship evolved I felt the FLs words or actions were often fairly odd. The moment where they first kissed seemed like such a strange time to choose to kiss someone. Once they got together, the ML immediately became pathetically sappy in a way I found nauseating. Overall, the writing meant I never felt very invested in this relationship and my interest in it was pretty much just because the two central performances were quite charming and the leads had good chemistry.
The rest of the cast are mostly either comic relief or part of the villainous, melodramatic sub plots. None of the comedy was my cup of tea, but I suspect the show would be much more enjoyable for those who do enjoy this type of humour. The villains are never very threatening so the conspiracy sub plot doesn't really lead to much tension and it gets resolved with a whimper rather than a bang which isn't exactly satisfying. Many of the minor characters performances are over the top and clearly intended to be funny but I found several of them grating. The blend of genres gives the show a fairly light tone, but tended to neutralise the tension in more serious moments and left me struggling to care about what was happening.
I remember disliking the first episode but quite liking the performances of the two leads so I persevered. This was basically how I felt at the end of the show too. I didn't really like the writing and felt there were many issues with the production, but the central performances were the best part about this show. If you like the first episode, I think you'll enjoy this drama much more than I did.
Things I Liked
The performances of both the leads are great and they have good chemistry together. The characters of the FL and ML are both a bit different from the norm. The ML starts out brash, cocky, ignorant and money obsessed and I expected the show would give him a story arc where he would change for love, but instead they basically said he was just fine as he was. I quite liked that it subverted my expectations on this. The ML was shown to be a decent man who was pretty likable despite his flaws. The ML is consistently interested in and open about his affection for the FL and treats her well. I quite liked the bratty, spoiled politicians daughter SFL. The pacing is pretty good- the story generally progresses at a reasonable pace. The show tries to blend lots of genres, with mystery, melodrama, romance, comedy etc. whilst keeping an overall fairly light tone.
Things I didn't like
I didn't really like the character of the female lead Kim Da Li. This is partly a writing issue and partly personal preference. I just found the character exasperating. She responds to seemingly everything by walking around silently and crying a bit. I was pretty sympathetic to her not knowing what to do in the earlier episodes, but by the time she showed that she was incapable of washing dishes and taking a bus successfully I longed to slap her in the face. She is an introvert who knows nothing about anything but art and is almost entirely passive as her world crashes down around her. This will not bother all viewers, but I found the character as written hard to enjoy, despite the likeable performance by Park Gyu Young (who I think is an incredibly talented actress).
The romance also didn't really work that well for me, partly because in the scenes where their relationship evolved I felt the FLs words or actions were often fairly odd. The moment where they first kissed seemed like such a strange time to choose to kiss someone. Once they got together, the ML immediately became pathetically sappy in a way I found nauseating. Overall, the writing meant I never felt very invested in this relationship and my interest in it was pretty much just because the two central performances were quite charming and the leads had good chemistry.
The rest of the cast are mostly either comic relief or part of the villainous, melodramatic sub plots. None of the comedy was my cup of tea, but I suspect the show would be much more enjoyable for those who do enjoy this type of humour. The villains are never very threatening so the conspiracy sub plot doesn't really lead to much tension and it gets resolved with a whimper rather than a bang which isn't exactly satisfying. Many of the minor characters performances are over the top and clearly intended to be funny but I found several of them grating. The blend of genres gives the show a fairly light tone, but tended to neutralise the tension in more serious moments and left me struggling to care about what was happening.
I remember disliking the first episode but quite liking the performances of the two leads so I persevered. This was basically how I felt at the end of the show too. I didn't really like the writing and felt there were many issues with the production, but the central performances were the best part about this show. If you like the first episode, I think you'll enjoy this drama much more than I did.
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