What could have been.

I know i’m not familiar with Taiwanese dramas as I am with Korean, but bear with me as I felt they followed the same formula to a certain extent. Keep in mind that Autumns Concerto was released one year after Boys over Flowers. So it’s hard to gauge the impact it had on this series, if it had any at all. This is all before the “me too” era. To cut to the chase, this drama had so much freaking potential, but by the middle half, it goes completely bonkers.

There is so much to digest here, and there might be a few spoilers, but there was just so much wrong with this show. The main character forces himself on the female lead at least 4-5 times. So much is glossed over, as if it’s normal. There’s attempted kidnapping, murder, attempted rape, prostitution, and so much more. All of this seems normal, despite little consequence until we get to the 30th episode where things get more absurd.

The FL almost never expresses a full thought that bears emotion and weight with what she’s faced in life. She’s frail and timid, never allowing herself to say what’s on her mind. This starts to change, a little bit, but I kid you not, by the 29th episode. The formula every single character uses then, especially the FL, is to lie. And boy does everyone lie. Lies upon lies, upon withholds. We never get complete answers from the FL, no matter who asks, especially when it mattered. The solution is to keep lying while thereby creating more needless drama. During 2008, I think producers and writers felt that this kind of path gave the viewers an inclination to keep watching. This doesn’t work in the digital age and I don’t think it did much then either. If you watch only the first 10 episodes of this series, you could say it’s almost among the best. The brain tumor storyline was done insanely well, but it’s the only saving grace.

So many of the extra side characters are useless. The “best friend” male is an utter train wreck of a character. He has no money. No title. No completed education. Instead, he tries to solve real world problems with his fist and manly facial expressions. It’s almost a joke by the 29th episode. At one point a character says this exact line, “I don’t know how to explain how absurd all of this is.” A line used by the ML’s would be wife, who decided to keep a recovering amnesia patient in the dark so she could have her happy fake fiancé. By the time you reach that line, you realize how fitting it is to tie the whole series down.

If it weren’t video speed pro, I wouldn’t even had bothered.

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One of the most horribly written characters and plot I've experienced in a K-drama.

You can only do so much, even with a talented cast. I came into this show after watching the female lead in another show titled "Female Historian," I thought we would get the same caliber of acting and plot, but boy was I wrong. For some reason, the male lead is written as an extremely dimwitted and dense character. It's almost as if they decided he was born at 20 and just barely learning social development skills. Granted, most k-dramas take this route, but it's usually a lead character who is anti-social and only opens up when a female lead piques their interest. In this case, the male lead himself is just dense af. There really is no other word for it. There are numerous cringe-worthy lines, along with awkward writing and meetups that it becomes an abomination by the 6th episode. In fact, the sixth episode is perhaps the worse written of them all.

To make it worse, the male lead acts in a robotic manner with a puzzled "why am I here" look 90 percent of the time. It's infuriating cause there are moments where he acts in a normal manner and stems to be a person who does more for others than himself. The problem is that information is withheld within characters. No one says why they're doing what they're doing, or gives corrections to rumors (except for his fake actress relationship), but instead, hold back info that is counterproductive to their social lives. It makes absolutely no sense. Then when the characters revert to a pre-social development stage, it's when you seriously want to throw the remote at the screen.

For what it's worth though, Ms. Seo or Dan/Dahn is perhaps the absolute best reason to keep watching the show if you must. Her beauty, story, and acting come together for what little material she has to work with. Her love story also overshadows the main leads. To have found this actress is the only reason why I'm glad I checked in.

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One of the worse dramas attempting to mirror grief.

I'll try to keep it short. The drama tries its best to tackle grief and show how different individuals overcome and experience hardship. The problem is that it simply isn't realistic. The coping doesn't involve professional help, but rather toxic traits that include pill-popping, destroying lives around you to feel better, and being stuck in a time loop of self-destruction. Now, many of these things can be real for us, but the show does little to really address problems head-on. People don't give full answers, there is little context to justify the pain sometimes and the approaches to cope are never healthy.

The first 6 episodes are actually very well done. There is little drama, the cringing is kept to a minimum, and every character shows promise. Then, with little context or reasoning, it just goes bonkers and many characters attempt to destroy their own lives. In one episode, the male lead experiences ghosts of the dead and voices in his head. This isn't grieving, it's a mental disorder and borderline schizophrenic. The crazy part is that this is never addressed again in any other episode, nor do we see those ghosts again. If you're having trouble understanding me writing that, imagine watching the show.

Overall, your time would be much better spent watching virtually any other drama.

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I'll keep it brief. Any show that tries to redeem a rapist is unworthy of being watched. Period.

The headline pretty much says it all. I feel so bad for the male and female leads. Despite crappy writing, there is something special between them. From what I understand, the writing team went through a transition halfway through filming. What we ended up getting was an even bigger mess. As an American, I can understand that the redemption process is different in every culture. However, rape and rapists, are universal subjects that aren't allowed legroom to overlook. The writing team tries its best to redeem the second male lead, which might be the worse written character I've seen in a decade. If you're an anti-feminist who believes in redemption no matter the sin, this might just be right up your alley though. Otherwise, avoid like the plague.

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