Jinyoungie
This review may contain spoilers
Starts out well, but loses it's way
Strongest Deliveryman I remember seeing all over my recommended on my streaming services when it first came out years ago and I am only now having watched it after having been stuck on Kim Seon Ho in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha.
To me the strongest elements of this drama were prevalent in the first half or so, the comedy and dialogue was fun and entertaining and it was interesting seeing how the characters meshed with each other. It wasn't clear where relationships would end up and how people would come together and over the first few episodes, seeing characters come to understand each other and see the value in each other was a hopeful set up. However, as things went on the lost potential became clear.
I would argue that Kang Soo & Jin Gyu's relationship was a large element laying the framework to the drama's first big conflict, their relationship sparked a lot of intrigue and seemed to indicate that it would be a steady constant throughout. They started out immediately butting heads coming from two completely different backgrounds, to becoming quick friends with a mutual respect learned on the job, to feelings of betrayal and desperation. Their budding bromance was special & heartwarming, making the inevitable conflict all the more heart wrenching and exciting. It seemed clear they both had things to learn from the other and yet once that first major conflict between them was resolved they slowly had less and less scenes together. I understand that the storyline shifted, but there was a lot lost when there ought not to have been. I also am a sucker for a good bromance, so to see that this potential was there and that both characters had a really fun banter, well it was more than disappointing that the writer's left this unexplored. All in all the relationship between the two felt like a great set up with little pay off.
Kang Soo & Jin Gyu's interactions weren't the only ones that seemed to have a great foundation to only be abandoned later. Dan Ah & Jin Gyu as well had an interesting dynamic and meaningful relationship which was tossed to the sidelines later. I mean Dan Ah literally saved Jin Gyu's life and witnessed him at some of his most vulnerable points, she even defended him when no one else would. And then flip was switched and suddenly she no longer had a care or worry for the struggling, emotionally damaged human that suffered through some really horrible familial abuse and suicide.
At a certain point the writer's seemed to want to completely shift the audience's attention and care to the romance between Kang Soo & Dan Ah, but beyond their playful banter I found their romantic relationship forced and quite honestly uncomfortable to watch. The chemistry for me wasn't there and to make things worse their dialogue became so cliched and shallow that I started to cringe every scene they had together. Needless to say it wasn't a good thing when the attention shifted to spotlight their relationship.
Alongside the increased screen time for Kang Soo and Dan Ah's relationship meant the lessening of screen time for our other main leads. This was odd to me for a couple of reasons. One, Jin Gyu's character was raw and his struggles real and begged sympathy from the audience, thus making every emotional break through his character had quite impactful. He went through some extremely difficult life hurdles only to continue to surprise us with a renewed verve and hope for living a good life despite all of his past trauma and regrets. All of that growth coming with little to no support from anyone else. Also, considering he was nearly beaten to death seemingly on multiple occasions by his father, couldn't his character have had more justice then him just having the ability to walk out on his father's offer to join the company? It just seemed like he had too much of a stake in the beginning of the drama for the writer's to drop him off at the half way point as just the remaining love interest for Ji Yoon and then to have no major scenes any time after. (Don't get me wrong, as a couple Jin Gyu & Ji Yoon were surprisingly cute & believable together). This brings me to Ji Yoon, who I found super annoying in the beginning but once the writer's shifted her direction onto Jin Gyu she seemed to mature leaps and bounds and her puppy love and endless support and care for him seemed so genuine. Some of her scenes with him were so outlandishly hilarious but made her seem like a real person for how weird and raw they were. Her character, like Jin Gyu's, seemed like she could've become much more integral to the plotline or at least have had more screen time as she had to make some pretty difficult life choices herself, like completely emancipating herself from her parents and starting her own career.
Overall, this was enjoyable, but I felt a lot of potential lost and I feel like the message was also muddled a few times between a disconnected romance and imbalance of character development and storyline.
To me the strongest elements of this drama were prevalent in the first half or so, the comedy and dialogue was fun and entertaining and it was interesting seeing how the characters meshed with each other. It wasn't clear where relationships would end up and how people would come together and over the first few episodes, seeing characters come to understand each other and see the value in each other was a hopeful set up. However, as things went on the lost potential became clear.
I would argue that Kang Soo & Jin Gyu's relationship was a large element laying the framework to the drama's first big conflict, their relationship sparked a lot of intrigue and seemed to indicate that it would be a steady constant throughout. They started out immediately butting heads coming from two completely different backgrounds, to becoming quick friends with a mutual respect learned on the job, to feelings of betrayal and desperation. Their budding bromance was special & heartwarming, making the inevitable conflict all the more heart wrenching and exciting. It seemed clear they both had things to learn from the other and yet once that first major conflict between them was resolved they slowly had less and less scenes together. I understand that the storyline shifted, but there was a lot lost when there ought not to have been. I also am a sucker for a good bromance, so to see that this potential was there and that both characters had a really fun banter, well it was more than disappointing that the writer's left this unexplored. All in all the relationship between the two felt like a great set up with little pay off.
Kang Soo & Jin Gyu's interactions weren't the only ones that seemed to have a great foundation to only be abandoned later. Dan Ah & Jin Gyu as well had an interesting dynamic and meaningful relationship which was tossed to the sidelines later. I mean Dan Ah literally saved Jin Gyu's life and witnessed him at some of his most vulnerable points, she even defended him when no one else would. And then flip was switched and suddenly she no longer had a care or worry for the struggling, emotionally damaged human that suffered through some really horrible familial abuse and suicide.
At a certain point the writer's seemed to want to completely shift the audience's attention and care to the romance between Kang Soo & Dan Ah, but beyond their playful banter I found their romantic relationship forced and quite honestly uncomfortable to watch. The chemistry for me wasn't there and to make things worse their dialogue became so cliched and shallow that I started to cringe every scene they had together. Needless to say it wasn't a good thing when the attention shifted to spotlight their relationship.
Alongside the increased screen time for Kang Soo and Dan Ah's relationship meant the lessening of screen time for our other main leads. This was odd to me for a couple of reasons. One, Jin Gyu's character was raw and his struggles real and begged sympathy from the audience, thus making every emotional break through his character had quite impactful. He went through some extremely difficult life hurdles only to continue to surprise us with a renewed verve and hope for living a good life despite all of his past trauma and regrets. All of that growth coming with little to no support from anyone else. Also, considering he was nearly beaten to death seemingly on multiple occasions by his father, couldn't his character have had more justice then him just having the ability to walk out on his father's offer to join the company? It just seemed like he had too much of a stake in the beginning of the drama for the writer's to drop him off at the half way point as just the remaining love interest for Ji Yoon and then to have no major scenes any time after. (Don't get me wrong, as a couple Jin Gyu & Ji Yoon were surprisingly cute & believable together). This brings me to Ji Yoon, who I found super annoying in the beginning but once the writer's shifted her direction onto Jin Gyu she seemed to mature leaps and bounds and her puppy love and endless support and care for him seemed so genuine. Some of her scenes with him were so outlandishly hilarious but made her seem like a real person for how weird and raw they were. Her character, like Jin Gyu's, seemed like she could've become much more integral to the plotline or at least have had more screen time as she had to make some pretty difficult life choices herself, like completely emancipating herself from her parents and starting her own career.
Overall, this was enjoyable, but I felt a lot of potential lost and I feel like the message was also muddled a few times between a disconnected romance and imbalance of character development and storyline.
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