Juelin

Nope

Honestly, I didn't expect much from this adaptation because the plot of Hana Yori Dango (HYD) is quite awful. Yes, it is a beloved classic, but it can't get away from its very horrible storylines - normalization of bullying and abuse of power, entitlement, abusive male lead, toxic relationships, betrayal, flaky female lead, absent parents, abandoned children. A re-make means recycling these terrible storylines because they make up the main plot.

One of my biggest gripes with HYD is that the F4 are portrayed as rich and popular boys who are good at everything, except they don't do anything to be good at everything. This show did a very good job at showing them wasting time not going to class, bullying their classmates, partying, and drinking alcohol all the damn time. I would think a modern adaptation would flush out this plotline to show them participating in some activities to make their talents more believable and to give them some goddamn personalities. When Domyoji /Thyme is not a psychotic bully, he obsesses over Makino/Gorya making her want to get away from him.

To make up for the lack of character development, the actors overacted the characters' feelings making the scenes look very forced. There was very little motivation behind their actions and everything looked thrown together just to move the story forward. Thyme's mother had a lot of screen time, but the writers didn't give her any personality. In the original, she was already very cold. Here, she was a female terminator in pursuit of some mythical "perfection" while treating her children as stepping stones to achieve that perfection. Some plot lines were not in chronological order, and I quit the show as soon as the fiance showed up. I hated that storyline anyway.

Gorya and Thyme spent most of their time yelling at each other and having no romantic chemistry. Watching them together quickly became a chore. The cheating kissing scene with Ren was turned into an awkward hugging scene which wasn't properly resolved. And, the acting altogether was quite terrible. I did like that Gorya's parents were tolerable and not as stupidly annoying as in the original.

Overall, this show was just another awkward attempt at resurrecting an old skeleton that should stay buried.

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Nothing is exciting about this drama

I really tried to like this drama. The premise is interesting telling a story about a woman's personal and career growth. But, a promising start about female empowerment fizzles out into an uninteresting and hardly exciting corporate drama with almost no romance.

The writers build up Lu Ji Ming as an overbearing jerk who constantly undermines Ning Meng's education, career aspirations, and talent. He always berates and insults her abilities telling her that she will never amount to anything other than being his secretary. Based on this characterization, it's very hard to root for him as a romantic lead because no self-respecting woman would ever fall in love with a man with such an abusive behavior. But, after many episodes of being a jerk, the writers drastically change his personality making him suddenly nice to Ning Meng so they can have a happy ending. There is no consistency in character development and storytelling.

The pacing is slow for the majority of the show. There is too much corporate filler, that is not particularly interesting, and not enough romantic development. To make matters worse, the writers introduce love rivals half-way through the show taking the opportunity away from the main couple to spend any meaningful time together. That's why these types of shows should not drag for longer than 20 episodes. There is no consistency in story telling with too many unnecessary plotlines deviating from the main plot and creating a very boring and choppy story. Overall, the drama has a good start but falls flat in later episodes and has very lukewarm romance.

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Oppa!

There is a whole lot to like and a whole lot to dislike about this show. If you are looking for a medical drama about curing mental illness and showcasing good medical ethics, look elsewhere. The show rather focuses on over-the top characterization of mental disorders and a love-conquers-all plot.

Watching Ji Sung act is pure delight. He effortlessly switches from comedy to tragedy and skillfully changes tone and characterization between personalities. One moment, he is a cunning, eyeliner-wearing bad boy, the next, he is a teenage girl screaming "OPPAAAAA!". His acting truly shines where the plot fails, making the drama very performance driven and flat on storytelling.

The worst thing about the show is Oh Ri Jin. I know that a dorky and messy female was a popular stereotype at the time the drama was filmed, but, Ri Jin is frustrating and mostly annoying. She is loud, sloppy, and unintelligent. And, she screams all the damn time. The writers build her up as an empathetic doctor, but they make no attempt to show her medical skills or have her treat patients. Instead, she is always between jobs while being praised for the skills she does not seem to have. Her character lacks depth and goes through very little development. While childhood abuse is the source of Do Hyun's torment, Ri Jin happily bee-bops through life with amnesia. When she finally regains her memories, it does not seem to sway her or have any impact on her at all.

Secondary characters don't do anything relevant, but hijack a lot of screen time. I like Park Seo Joon, but Oh Ri On is an eyesore. He has no purpose and the writers constantly insert him between Do Hyun and Ri Jin with no push-back from her, making the show often a frustrating watch. He is meddling and manipulative, but the writers never address it and portray him as an overprotective brother with one-sided incestual love for a woman raised as his sister. Instead of creating a deep brother/sister bond, the writers follow a cliche formula where multiple males must fall in love with a weak heroine without her actually deserving it.

The storytelling is very inconsistent with too many tonal switches. In one episode, Do Hyun's teen girl alter ego is chasing after Ri On. In another, Do Hyun is tearing up for multiple scenes trying to deal with his never-ending trauma. While I enjoy good comedy, it is out-of-place here because the show's focus is on past abuse and mental illness, which are anything but funny. Some of Do Hyun's personalities have no depth and only serve as comic relief. But, the personalities that are the most impactful disappear for episodes at a time. The writers try to do too many things at once by sporadically flip flopping between hilarity and tragedy and thus creating a very choppy story.

Overall, the drama has consistently good pacing and Ji Sung's versatile performance makes it entertaining. But, it would've been much better with 16, instead of 20, episodes. Too much time is spent on the secondary characters and flashbacks. Editing needs work as episodes haphazardly jump between scenes before finishing them. The final showdown between Do Hyun and his relatives for the control of the company is very anticlimactic. And, the writers drag Han Chae Yun's obsession with Do Hyun for way longer than necessary.

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Hilarious and delightful

The enemies to lovers plot is nothing new, but, the show makes it hilariously entertaining. What I love about it is that the writers manage to create comedic characters without turning them into infantile nincompoops. Mi Ran and Kang Ho are very well matched in terms of intelligence and assertiveness. She sees through his fake charm and he appreciates her assertiveness.

The show is very well rounded in terms of pacing and storytelling. Because it has only 10 episodes, there are no boring story arcs and the plot moves at a very good speed. I also appreciate that the writers don't unnecessarily drag out plotlines and resolve any misunderstanding fairly quickly. The rest of the drama is focused on the main leads' explosive chemistry. He loves her not because she is a cute, but because she is brave and not afraid to put her well being on the line to save other people. By getting to know each other, they lose some of their cynicism and realize that there are good people in the world. Not all women are opportunists, and, not all men are cheaters. Kim Ok Bin impressed me in "Arthdal Chronicles". Here, she shows her versatility in a comedic role. And, I absolutely love Kim Ji Hoon. He can be a convincing psycho serial killer and a romantic character. We need to see more of him in main roles.

The final episode gets a little bit convoluted. The writers decide to throw a last minute curve ball for the sake of tension. I don't think it was necessary to expose Mi Ran's serial dating life style and to create drama between the main leads. It felt very forced and unnecessary compared to the drama's otherwise very fluid storytelling.

Overall, the drama is very enjoyable. All the characters are likable and the romance is very satisfying.

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A whole lotta stupid

I give this drama an 8 for the first half and a 3 for the second because everything becomes stupid. It's pretty unbelievable that the writers are able to create such an engaging story and then turn it into a marathon of stupidity.

Kim Moo Young is built up to be a cold, manipulative, incredibly intelligent sociopath with a sex appeal up the wazoo. He doesn't care about anyone's feelings and shamelessly uses poor Seung Ah as a recreational activity cuz he can. He plays her like a drum while the plot slowly develops his feelings for Jin Kang through playful banter, meaningful conversations, and flirting. His bad-boy charm, cunningness, and insanely good looks are the highlight of the show. Unfortunately, all of this intelligence goes *poof* in the second half leading to some very stupid choices.

The drama's biggest let down is the characters' motivations, actions, and incomprehensible consequences based on those motivations and actions. Everyone hates Moo Young's lack of empathy. But, Yoo Jin Kang has no problem spending time with him while he dates Seung Ah all the while preaching sanctimonious b*llshit about morals. Later on, she unapologetically lies to her brother and goes on dates with her hot boyfriend behind oppa's back while preaching more sanctimonious bs. Oppa gets a little too high on his moral high horse about Moo Young's shenanigans and stabs him in the gut without regrets. It's even more asinine that he does not get arrested for assault/attempted murder or even get questioned after making a confession. Jin Kang throws a temper tantrum about her sexy boyfriend now having a hole in his belly, but doesn't seem to care that her brother is the culprit.

The murder mystery is the most interesting and complex storyline. But, it ends early with Im Yoo Ri's character being largely unutilized while the writers decide to bore us with the childhood trauma plotline, and characters preaching morality and acting illogically. Moo Young transforms from clever and observant to gullible and reactionary. He believes Jang Se Ran's atrocious story, the same Ms. Jang who is an insane sociopath and the least likely to tell the truth, and hastily makes a life altering decision leading to very tragic consequences. Special "thanks" to the genius who decided to make a tertiary character like Ms. Jang into a central plot device. She is an attractive and calculating older woman who is the head of a conglomerate. So, it's totally believable that she would fall for someone like Moo Young, who has no special skills, talent, or money, and then make him a CEO. And that's because Moo Young's biggest asset is dat ass.

Moo Young and Jin Kang have some very spicy chemistry on screen. But, the best thing about the drama is acting. Seo In Guk was made for this role. He wasn't just playing Kim Moo Young. He was Kim Moo Young.

The ending is tragic, but who cares, because everything! is! stupid!

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One step forward, three steps backwards

This drama should serve as a cautionary tale for women to choose wisely in a marriage. It tells a story of empowerment, healing, and new beginnings. Lin Shuang gives up her brilliant career to be a housewife and a mother just to find out a few years later that her husband is unfaithful. Instead of sulking in depression, she picks herself up and pursues self-improvement for the sake of herself and her daughter.

The plot moves between different storylines of friendship, marriage, workplace, parenthood in a very realistic way. Lin Shuang achieves through trial and error overcoming multiple roadblocks all the while having to deal with her soon to be ex-husband's dirty schemes. She is kind and likable, hard to anger, and tends to avoid confrontation, which makes her an easy target for manipulation, especially by her overbearing in-laws. But, while I enjoy a good tale of female empowerment, Lin Shuang's character is just too good. She lets a lot of things slide for the sake of dignity, which is unsustainable and quite often hard to stomach. The breaking point is when she checks Wei Ming's parents into a nice hotel after they abducted her daughter to use as a bargaining chip in the divorce proceeding.

The pacing starts to drag as soon as the drama introduces secondary and tertiary characters nobody cares about. I couldn't care less about Jiang Xi mom's cancer or a continuous marathon of her brother's failures. I am here to watch a woman brave through a divorce, not filler characters being ridiculous. Another issue is that Lin Shuang has to deal with too many roadblocks. It's a drama, not someone's life story. For every step forward, she always takes three steps backwards, which makes the drama tedious to watch.

Lastly, the story reaches its logical conclusion at around episode 28 when the divorce is finalized. Everything moving forward is Wei Ming's new set of matrimonial problems with the next missus and Lin Shuang's incredibly slow and uninteresting romance with Gu Xu. The romantic development with Gu Xu should've been part of the story much earlier. After the divorce, it felt like the writers tried to scramble the plot because they forgot something.

Overall, this is a good slice-of-life drama with likable characters and semi-decent pacing. I recommend having a fast-forward button on stand-by.

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Ode to Ji Ah

The drama has a promising start with an exorcist and a medium solving ghost mysteries following the familiar ghost-of-the week format. The title is inaccurate because the plot only focuses on the exorcism storylines with the realty business being an afterthought. No actual home selling is being shown in any of the episodes. What I liked about the drama is that every ghost story is not only about sending ghosts happily ever after into the afterlife. Both Ji Ah and In Beom experience ghost memories allowing them to resolve any unfinished business and provide closure to the surviving family, which adds depth to the story and characters.

The drama's weakest link is Ji Ah. When she is not brooding, she is crying. When she is not crying, she is mad. When she is not doing any of these, she is sleeping. She is completely underdeveloped as a character and keeps doing the same things in every episode, which significantly affects her relationships with everyone else. Her and Oh In Beom have many near death experiences and share ghost memories. He even helps to send her mom's ghost into the afterlife. There is so much potential to develop their relationship into a solid friendship, even with a possibility of romance. But, with Ji Ah's perpetually constipated attitude, they always feel like strangers.

Even the promising exorcism plot turns into an endless loop of Ji Ah drama. The story surrounding mom's death becomes a boring array of flashbacks showing the same thing over and over and over with Ji Ah's always losing her sh*t at the end. The egg ghost plotline is the most compelling, but it is completely underdeveloped and ends with a fart, while the writers insist on boring us with scenes of Ji Ah crying hysterically after suffering through another dead mom flashback.

I really enjoyed about 2/3 this drama, but the poor writing at the end and a lack of character development were disappointing.

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A slice of happiness with zombies

This is not a zombie apocalypse drama but a slice of life story showing how people deal with each other in the midst of chaos. Influenced by the events of Covid-19, the drama somewhat delves into the problems society faces when having to deal with an unknown deadly disease, the balance between safety and individual liberties, and people's biases.

The show starts off with a virus putting people into a zombie-like state making them crave blood. The first two episodes are about the spread of the disease until the plot switches to the main characters getting quarantined in a massive apartment building with no access to the outside world. The story mostly focuses on the best and the worst of human nature showing various residents dealing with their own problems and human-made happenings around the building. This reminded me of the movie "Clue" where a group of strangers got stuck together trying to solve murder-mystery.

If you are looking for passionate romance, you won't find it here. Although, the two main characters eventually kiss and become a couple, the romance is very subtle and focuses more on how Yoon Sae Bom and Jung Yi Hyun treat and protect each other without the use of cheesy romantic cliches. There are no tropey moments of staring and forlorn glances. The characters are very mature. They are not afraid to be alone and have physical contact without awkwardness.

The biggest problem with the drama is pacing which slows down somewhere in the middle. This is not so much about the plot, but the setting never changing. Characters run around various locations around the building and do the same things in every episode. This makes the show a bit tedious to watch.

The best thing about the drama is Park Hyung Sik. He truly shines as a serious character proving that he can play something other than stereotypical semi-comedic heroes. Here, he is a badass cop and a total stud. I want to see more of him playing generals, kings, and other males in positions of authority.

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Mediocrity r us

The drama had enough to create an engaging story and interesting characters, but for me it fell short. The show felt a lot of like a modern workplace drama with characters playing dress up. The plot didn't delve deep enough exploring the difficulties Haeryung faced trying to fit into a man's world. And, the dethroned prince storyline only picked momentum towards the end.

The chemistry between Haeryung and Yi Rim was a bit bland. She was six years older than him and acted more like an older sister than a love interest. They often looked awkward together and weren't convincing as two young people in love. I was very apprehensive to watch this drama because of SSK's abysmal performance in Captivating the King. But, surprisingly, she did a pretty decent job.

The ending was very underwhelming. The drama had a very progressive message for women to pursue their dreams and not being shackled by society's expectations. However, neither Haeryung nor Yi Rim achieved any tremendous heights at the end. They lived together like a married couple, but they weren't married and nobody paid too much attention to that. This was especially strange considering the historical period they lived in. Yi Rim abandoned his princehood and became a nobody while Haeryung blissfully continued to bebop through life as a historian. At the end, they achieved nothing and their so-called "freedom" consisted of them blissfully living in an extramarital relationship. I didn't get anything out of this message except that being mediocre was ok.

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Not bad, but could be better

The drama definitely would've done a lot better with some plot and episode trimming. There were too many side characters with minor story arcs that were irrelevant fillers. I couldn't care less about every auntie's personal problems. That didn't add anything and only deviated from the story and dragged the plot.

In the last ten episodes, it became apparent that the writers completely ran out of ideas and just wrote whatever to finish the 40 episodes. The spy/envoy arc had nothing to do with the main plot. It felt like a filler and was completely uninteresting. The main story was about the FL saving her family from poverty and bringing the male relatives back and ML dealing with the royal family drama. The envoy arc had nothing to do with either.

FL also felt a little too perfect. There was no character development to show achievement through trial and error. At the beginning, she was a teenager from a privileged family who never had to struggle with anything and didn't have good relations with any of her family members. After the exile, she magically got her act together and had all the answers without having to overcome or learn anything. Even the mishaps were not due to her mistakes but mistakes of her aunties. Everything that she achieved was completely undeserved because she never had to struggle. She went from zero to hero overnight.

The acting was mostly ok. Hu Yitian's had his usual frozen face that took away from his chemistry with FL. But, he got better later on and started showing a little bit of emotion. Zhang Jing Yi was ok, but unconvincing as a historical character. It felt like a modern woman playing dress-up.

The chemistry was ok, but FL's Mary Sue personality made secondary couples a lot more interesting. Shen Huan and Shaoyao were a lot more fun because there was actual character growth and the couple looked like they really couldn't wait to be together while ML and FL just hanged out without taking any steps to move their relationship forward.

Overall, I enjoyed the show. Hu Yitian's is definitely an eye candy and the fighting scenes were entertaining.

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Too long

The drama would've been monumentally better if it was cut down to 40 episodes, 50 tops. When something was happening, it was interesting. The rest of the time, it was draggy and boring. There were too many scenes and conversations that should've been edited. Watching characters interact in a regular home environment was not interesting even if the drama was portraying a more realistic family life.

It took ML and FL 40 episodes to get married. Before that, he was off somewhere serving in the military with the story rarely focusing on him. Instead, it was just her dealing with family drama and her childhood crush on a day-to-day basis. After the wedding, the sisters mostly disappeared from the plot making me wonder why the writers gave them so much screen time. It would've been more interesting if the drama was more narrowly focused on ML and FL growing up and falling in love, instead of less relevant side characters.

Another thing that was frustrating was the fact that none of the villains were properly punished. The evil stepmom burned the house down and died in the fire. The evil aunt got stabbed trying to kill FL. The fourth sister just continued on with her miserable life after scheming against FL. There was no actual punishment that they truly deserved after all the evil crap they pulled.

Overall, this was a one time watch for me. If I had to do it again, I would skip about half of it.

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Good enough

The show was well paced with a very well developed plot centered around political intrigue. All the male characters were interesting, and, thankfully there weren't any convoluted plotlines and cliche tropes. My favorite relationships were between Ha Seon and the Chief Royal Secretary, Eunuch Jo, Guard Jang, and the villains. However, the show should've gone without the romance.

This was probably the first drama where I couldn't care less about the romance. It felt like an afterthought. Nothing against the actors. Everyone did a great job portraying their characters. Big props to Yeo Jin Goo being so young but already so talented. He did a fantastic job playing two completely different characters. But, the romance bored me out of my mind. Yeo Jin Goo next to Lee Se Young looked like a younger brother rather than a romantic partner. Their relationship was completely uninteresting and the chemistry was bland.

The ending was odd having an unnecessary death then returning back to life. The writing choice didn't contribute anything to the story but rather pointlessly dragged the plot for a few extra episodes killing off some very cool side characters and focusing on the boring romance story between Ha Seon and So Woon. The bromance between Ha Seon and the chief royal secretary was way more interesting.

Overall, I enjoyed the plot about duty and loyalty. But the story could've gone without a bland romance between two people who had no chemistry on screen.

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It's ok for a low budget flick

A low budget show is low budget with only 10 very short episodes. It's a shame that this wasn't a full length drama because there was enough plot to write a nicely developed story and characters.

The acting was decent. Na In Woo is still a bit inconsistent. His acting is good in some dramas but stiff in others. Here, he was good.

The plot was mostly straight forward, except for some side stories that went nowhere because of the short length. The writers tried to stick a lot of material into a very short drama without giving any of the new characters and storylines any development. It felt rushed and awkward.

Rewatch value? None. It's a good show to kill time for a few hours and forget about afterwards.

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Fanservice disguised as historical drama

This drama should really be taken for what it is - fan service. All the effort was spent on casting idol actors to attract a certain fanbase of adolescent girls and nothing else. There is no coherent plot, just pretty boys running around with fancy hair and lip gloss looking like they belong in an 80s glam rock band.

Romance was a tropey mess. Dude momentarily gains consciousness just to kiss a girl after hearing her confession, then loses consciousness again. Puhlease. The characters were kind of shallow and didn't really have much development. Even if the focus was on fanservice, the writers could've done something with the plot. Instead, we had convoluted storylines that didn't make sense. The queen wouldn't give up the throne to her son and kept hiding his identity to supposedly protect him, instead of putting him on the throne and helping him secure it. Not to mention, there was this lame conspiracy plotline and the queen's self-serving motivations for the sake of pretending there was a plot. The Hwarang were supposed to be the king's guard, but they spent most of their time bickering and doing song and dance. Only towards the end, somebody started doing something interesting. And don't even get me started on the incest plot where the queen wanted to marry her son the king to her daughter the princess because of some "sacred bone" tradition. I understand this is a fake historical drama, but seriously. And, OMFG, Sam Maek Jong's CONSTANT whining about how weak he was as the king during the entirety of the show - while he was in hiding, after he became Hwarang, after he officially became king, every freaken time he was faced with adversity he bitched and moaned about being incompetent.

The OST was pretty underwhelming. The same song with a female singer was playing in most episodes during romantic/angsty scenes as if it was on a loop. Production and acting were ok. I thought Park Seo Joon and Park Hyung Sik did a good job. Seo Yea Ji had the easiest acting gig as the princess, she looked constipated with the same expression in every scene. Ah Ro was forgettable and weak. She never stood up for herself and allowed everyone to make decisions for her and did whatever she was told. Her bland chemistry with Sun Woo did not justify any of their romantic angst.

All the side characters with their stories and romance would've been interesting if the writers took the drama a little more seriously and wrote an actual plot and character development. I ended up skipping most scenes from episode 13 onward because there was no interest in anything other than the three main characters. I don't think I missed much.

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This drama......

This drama will leave you laughing, infuriate you, and totally KO you emotionally.

It started very strong. ML and FL met when they were both young, had quirky and funny interactions and a quick romantic development. Unfortunately, the romance plot, while having a fun beginning, started going in circles to the point of frustration. San chased after Deok Im (DI) begging for her to love him when he was the crown prince and he continued pursuing her and begging her to love him after he became the king.

At some point, I wanted to see DI get a promotion, an upgrade, to move up in life which would've also given a chance for San/DI to develop further aside from just being a king and his maid. But, she did the same things for the entirety of the show and had awkward interactions with San about their relationship, which made the pace and story development a bit stale. Her consistently rejecting him, because she wanted to lead her own life, would've made sense if DI actually had plans to leave and move on after he found a concubine, but she kept coming back to be his maid, which went against the entire premise of her wanting to lead her own life. This plotline needed to either wrap up a lot sooner or the writers should've written more story to avoid the round-about "love me!!!" by San. And, frankly, them always having the same conversation became really boring.

The other plot lines with San living in the shadow of his "traitor" father and having a love/hate relationship with his abusive tyrant grandfather was very well written and made San an extremely sympathetic character. The transition between him being a crown prince and a king was also very well done showing him transforming from a scared little prince to a decisive king who wasn't afraid to get rid of anyone who opposed him, including family members.

I was going to write about the treatment of women, but it would be redundant considering that this is a period peace. It doesn't matter which period and which country. It always sucked for women everywhere until 100 years ago. Enough said.

The ending broke me until it didn't. After DI accepted San and became his concubine, the story quickly switched gears and showed that their love wasn't happy at all. For the majority of show, San was broken-hearted from being continuously rejected by DI, and DI wasn't very happy being San's concubine because she was forced to wait for him, was at the mercy or his schedule, and had to share him with other women. The scene of DI telling San on her deathbed that she didn't want to meet him in the next life really drove the tragedy home and showed the awful predicament women back then. Even a woman who was well loved and lived in privilege had nothing of her own and was just another thing a man owned.

Just as I thought that my depression couldn't get any worse, it turned out that the ending was San's dream. Waking up in cold sweat and realizing that DI was alive was a second chance of sorts for San to appreciate what was truly important to him. I wasn't particularly thrilled with that twist because it messed up the chronology and made the story more complicated than it should've have been. And, it felt emotionally draining after having to witness DI's death and San's loneliness and longing for years to come after he lost the one woman he ever loved. Nevertheless, this was a beautiful love story.

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