L13

What is this about?

What's the point of making the protagonist of your show so unlikeable?

Calm down.

This show is entertaining, but I just can't buy into the premise... Fah's mom is certified cuckoo, so why is Fah listening to her? The easiest thing in the world is to convince an emotionally unstable, delusional person that when you're out of the house during the day, you're doing the crazy things they're telling you to do (as long as you don't act suspiciously to trigger their paranoia, of course)... Keep repeating "sure, mom, I met the guy you want me to seduce, I went out for lunch with him, he loves me, he wants to marry me, I ruined his engagement, here is a vial of his blood for you, the Juthatheps are all evil and I've planted a bomb in the office" etc. etc. for 3 months until you can get your mother on the good meds, and date Petch in the meantime? Why is this so complicated?

I take it you've watched 5 kdramas max if you think she's "one of the most stupid [sic] female characters in the kdrama history"... Also she does plenty of things well? She definitely has her strong points.

I never saw it before, but the goatee kinda makes him look like Bai Yu.

The drug is not real, but somehow everything about how people interact with it aligns with the conservative view of addiction as a personal moral failing.

I’ll break it down for you in simple terms before I peace out: inaccuracy in fiction is bad when it’s presented as true to life (this isn’t a fantasy drama) and it’s even worse when it serves to advance reactionary political beliefs (like the conservative myths that all drug users have zero impulse control, pose a physical danger to themselves and others and cannot participate in society because they prioritize getting their next fix over anything else at all times, or that just one hit is enough to override a person's free will and turn them into a powerless addict) on which South Korea’s hardline conservatives are basing their ongoing war on drugs to distract the electorate from their rampant corruption and many policy failures.

Please don’t respond with another long essay misunderstanding my point because I’m not going to read it.

It is a shortcoming because it reflects common misconceptions about drugs and more importantly addicts in Korean society, not the writer’s creative vision. The show perpetuates dehumanizing stereotypes and myths about how addiction works. The lack of realism is harmful.

Also everything you said to discredit my opinion was wrong.

It doesn’t.

I'm on episode 3 and the show is pretty decent, but I turn my brain off any time someone is supposedly on drugs because that's just not how it works whatsoever. Like, totally hooked on an opiate after you try it once even though you don't remember any of it? Rather unlikely, but OK. People running into traffic for a pill? Not really. Junkies gaining zombie strength and reflexes and attacking a police detective while in detention for a pill? Absolutely not. The high lasts a week? Give me a break! Koreans really don't know shit about hard drugs lol

Because people on MDL don’t want subtle social and political commentary with their romance.

She got an internship specifically established for senior citizens—and even there the fact she was the youngest applicant was treated as a positive. The show has been consistent in its portrayal of ageism.

It’s really nothing special.

No way, an annoying woman without any positive qualities that we're supposed to project onto... gets a marriage proposal from a cold and emotionless CEO...? And then he immediately and inexplicably starts acting like he's in love with her, even though it was supposed to be nothing but a business deal? But she's too stupid to notice, so misunderstandings and insecurities will keep them from confessing their mutual attraction for 10 episodes? Someone's first love will show up again midway through the show?

Revolutionary.

I love Jinyoung, but he gotta start saying no to roles that require a high-school uniform. Have some self-respect!

This girl was so fucking passive and delusional I was rooting for her to end up alone and unhappy by the end.

I HATE it when jdrama heroines force themselves to stay in a pointless relationship with some irrelevant loser that goes on until the final episode and can only be broken off by the irrelevant loser himself telling them they're in love with someone else. YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO REALIZE THIS ON YOUR OWN SIX EPISODES AGO! Why should I be rooting for your happiness if you firmly refuse to pursue it?

Is there a protagonist or main couple, or is the screentime split evenly between different plotlines? Ensemble dramas tend to bore me, but I'm a fan of some of the cast and 'love in the big city' style romance in general, so I'm debating if I should start this...

I'm LOVING our main couple. Their mutual attraction is getting harder and harder to ignore, but they both have bigger fish to fry at the moment. I loved the tension running through the chess piece conversation and I can't wait for the moment the choice between love and revenge becomes untenable for one or both of them.

That said, I hated that the courtesan character had to die. It felt a bit like the show killed her off because while she was completely devoted to Xue Zhao, and thus a worthy love interest, she was 'sullied' by having sex for money and could never be with him even after his return from the dead (as she herself told Jiang Li). So making her his tragic backstory was the most convenient solution.

She wasn’t worried so much as she was furious that he was expressing guilt/care forJiang Li’s feelings in front of her when he told Jiang Li to shoot without fear.