Don't expect too much

Well, I watched Ep 9, and I'm now dropping this. I will tell you why: The writing is abysmal. You can FEEL this is based on a trashy fanfic that's only popular because of the hotness, the toxicity, the tension etc. I didn't read the novel, but it seems to me they are doing a better job in the series and are trying hard not to make it too stupid and too cliche. Unfortunately, they failed. Let me go into detail: the characters.
Kinn: His real persona seems to be a nice guy, who doesn't really want to be in the mafia. When he was out in the woods, he felt great, and didn't want to return. We got to see a very child-like, fun and adventurous side of him. So what now? What does he do? Is he planning for the future? Is he trying to escape his family? Is he trying to lead the family business in another direction? Is he doing anything? Yes, he is "acting" as the cold/bad mafia boss he is supposed to be. He rules by fear without being very convincing. What else is he up to? His love life is apparantly very important, but also pretty messy. That's what he is doing. Thinking about love, and who he can trust.
Porsche: Apparantly he is a nice guy too. He was working as a bartender. We got a sappy story with his uncle gambling away the money. You would think the family is poor, but their house says differently. Now he works for the mafia. He has to kill people. Gruesome! Does it bother him? Yes, a little bit and for a short time. What is he up to now? His love life. I would expect him to think about the future, to have nightmares, to wonder in what kind of mess he finds himself and what bad things will happen next, but nope. He is busy dancing in his underwear and flirting with the mafia boss. Guys, come on!
Then Vegas/Pete: Everyone on the internet is gasping if Vegas appears on the screen. Yeah, great. I'm getting wet too. Not really. What makes this character special? What? He seems to have sadistic tendencies. Is he smart? A mastermind who pulls the strings in the background? Nope. If his manipulative games are working, then only because everyone around him is dumb. And Pete? Well, he is the comic relief of the show. Great pair!
Then our 3rd beloved couple: Kim (the next as*hole) and Porchay. Well ... Kim plays guitar. You know, because it's not a BL without a guitar player or a soccer player. Enough said.
I don't want to go deeper into all this mess: Like making EVERYONE gay and most of them behaving like a f*ggot. You would expect gay guys in the mafia being more hardcore. Tankhun is too silly, and gets too much screen time. The character is not believable. Kinn's friends neither.
If you go for such a story: make it dark, make it intense, make it believable, play ugly mindgames, make me scream and clench my teeth from excitement! But no. Lets drink and dance and have some sex, while showing occasionally some torture and blood, before skipping to some sappy dialogue where Kinn's or Porsche's friends gives some deep love advice as if there is nothing more important than having a sincere love life, while being in the mafia. And if there is some time left, make everything more gay and more stupid.
Come on! That's all you have got? Sad enough.
I will still give it a 7, because of the good performance and charms of the actors. They somehow manage to breath some life into those boring and brain dead characters. The filming (especially the love scenes) is pretty good, and overall you can see the effort and how hard the team worked. Just fire those stupid writers or hire some good ones. With such actors, such a production team, you could aim for the sky. Instead they give us a silly rom-com with mafia background without exploring it much further. Just do it for god's sake! Be brave! Be edgy! Be revolutionary. Nope. Play it safe. Show us some sex, so people will keep watching and talking about it. No offense to the sex scenes. They are without a doubt the highlight of this brainless series.

EDIT: I watched until Ep 13, though I skipped many parts. I'm shocked, really, and I will lower my rating. The VegasPete story was soooo strange. Is this BDSM? No. What is it then? It was cruel, and then it was cheesy, and everything happened too fast. I'm baffled how bad this relationship was presented. Meanwhile KinnPorsche became also such a cheesy couple with lots of scenes nobody needed. This went downhill BADLY. Stupid people, shallow emotions, unnecessary violence and sex scenes that don't do anything for the story. But you know, 50 Shades Of Grey was apparantly also popular. I'm out here. Bad. Really bad.

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Jesus Christ...! I binge watched this series until 4am and now I have a terrible headache and dry eyes.
Honestly, I don't even want to know what other people think about this. I can imagine some find it disturbing seeing a love story between a robot and a human. I know about the sexbots and AI development of recent years, the uncanny valley, so it wasn't surprising to me even though a had a strong reaction when I first heard about it. I think those kind of develompments tell us a lot of society and what a person is looking for in a partner. He has to be good looking, capable of doing everything, always kind and nice, never talking back etc. It seems we want the perfect partner and a human cannot be perfect. That said, I didn't mind the romance. It was cute and fluffy, the sexual issue was never adressed (thank god) which wasn't surprising. I mean, we are talking about a Korean drama where everything is innocent and lovey dovey. To make it short: the robot was cute, the romance enjoyable, but it wasn't the reason why I binge watched this until early morning. What I enjoyed was the conflict between the human Nam Shin, the robot and the whole envirnoment. This was extremely captivating. It's a while since I felt so much for a character. The human Nam Shin was very complex, but also a poor soul. He was the "bad guy", but it was obvious many cared for him, because they knew how kind he really was. The anger, pain and sadness made him behave like a jerk and cross the line. The relationship with his mother and his assistent made me tear up several times. I cried a lot watching this drama and I must give credit to the actor. This sure was a very difficult role. He had to change so often between playing the "robot" and the "human". It was always very clear which role he played at the moment (expect for the scenes where he intentionally tried to imitate the other one).
I must admit I wasn't a fan of the comic relief scenes in the gym with the father of the girl and the robot. Also, there was just too much fluffy romance going on (which is typical for Korean drama), but that doesn't make me love this series any less. I wished for more scenes with the human Nam Shin, I would have loved to see how he redeems himself. He did that at the end, but I really wished for a happier end for him. The robot was always the "good guy", the hero. That may arise many questions. The robot had a much better life than the human to begin with. The mother giving all of her love to a robot instead to the human ... I mean, come on! In my opionion the human was the bigger hero who had to survive many hardships (his father died when he was child, he was threatened by his grandfather, he lost his mother, he had to live in a hostile houshold). I honestly wondered throughout the drama why they insisted to make the robot the perfect guy, perfect lover, perfect son, while the human was always on second place.
Well, whatever. It was a good story and whoever wrote it did a good job. I would have changed some things, but that wouldn't have made it better or worse.
To sum it up: A great drama. One of the best I have ever seen. If I think about it, no other drama ever could draw me in so much as this one.
10/10. I'm thankful I found this one. It's proof that there are intriguing stories out there. Korean Drama can be really great.

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I lately watched Semantic Error, a very short and cute Korean BL which I rated with 10 stars. So giving Not Me less stars may seem very unfair. And maybe it is. But it depends on what a series is trying to do. Not Me is a very serious series that provides us with lots of action and social criticism. It tried to do A LOT. It tried to be A LOT. It succedes in many aspects but not always and not 100%. Let me start with saying that I didn't care much for the romance, because everything else was more interesting. That doesn't mean the romance was bad or boring, it just means that everything else was more intriguing. The plot, especially the twin aspect, was great. I waited for Black to wake up, I wanted the gang to find out there is a twin, I wanted to know who is the traitor etc. But not only the main plot was interesting. The way how they told the story was excellent. The music and the filming just draws you in. There were countless beautiful well filmed scenes. So why did I not rate it higher? It just didn't feel "perfect". Sometimes the action was great, sometimes rather amateurish. Sometimes I was on the edge of my seat, then again everything was rather dragging. I was into the Sean/White love story, then again I wasn't so much into it. The plot was convincing, then again it wasn't. Sometimes it just didn't feel "smooth". If I rate this with my BL googles on it deserves more than 10 stars, but since I want to look at it as a series where BL is just the subplot, I feel like 9 stars is a good rating.

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Beautiful drama. The writer is a genius. I was constantly on the edge of my seat and didn't skip a single second what NEVER happened before. I'm honestly thinking this is the best Korean Drama I have ever seen in my life and I have seen many over the last 10 years. I can imagine people aren't fully sold on this, because 1) they don't like the gaming theme, 2) they watched this mostly because of the love story and – to be honest – the love story wasn't overwhelming and 3) they were disappointed in the ending which has a lot to do with number 2. I'm personally not a fan of those gaming series either. Since I watch Japanese anime for over two decades now, I know very well that this is a popular genre. Seeing some medieval soldier coming to life and having a sword fight with Hyun Bin somewhere in Spain made me almost drop the series (I'm really not into this stuff), but everything is so incredible well done, that you cannot stop watching. The directing, the music, the acting – this is flawless. Hyun Bin did a great job. Everyone was doing great. About the love story: It was nice. But this wasn't the strongest part of the story which is okay. I never got tired of Hyun Bin being the tragic hero, I never got annoyed by the girl being rather helpless. This couple worked out pretty well. For such a tragic hero a woman who supports him emotionally is the best writing choice. The strength of the story lies in the whole gaming theme and how one detail after another gets revealed. The strength lies in the psychological aspects of the story, the deep and complex relationship between the characters, the whole life-threatening scenario. This was such a great watch. I‘m still in awe of this incredible series after finishing it an hour ago.

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When a series has such a high rating, there is only one explantion for it: It appeals to a majority of people. And what appeals to a majority of people? Something that's simple. Well, honestly, Goblin is really beautiful. If you want to watch something nice, calming and beautiful - watch Goblin. I cannot imagine that there are people out there who don't like it or don't enjoy it. The cinematography, the music, the scenery - spectacular. The best I have ever seen in any Korean drama to date. So why the rather low rating? It has no substance. The story isn't very exciting. After four episodes I felt like I knew everything I had to know about the main couple. What keeps you watching then? The love story of the Grim Reaper, I guess. Unfortunately he and Sunny only had a few scenes in every episode while the main couple is going back and forth. Again and again. There were so many recaps later on (I don't know when it started to annoy me), many flashbacks, I felt like they recycled scenes. The end product was somehow very artistic (I will admit that), but the story in general wasn't very deep. The emotions couldn't reach me. If I compare Goblin to the drama Korean Odyssee I recently watched I must say that the latter made me cry and weep like a baby many times while I had a hard time feeling sad for the Grim Reaper or the Goblin. I cried when the old men climbed the stairs to heaven and his dog was there waiting for him - just saying. That was sad. Maybe it was because of the comedy between the two characters (there was comedy between the couples too), but even though they had a tragic past, they lived pretty good lives for a very long time. I mean even if they would have died at the end of the series (for real) they had a satisfying life. This series was in general very "satisfying". Every single moment felt satisfying. I just think there was no real reason for being sad. I felt like they shared too many tears that couldn't reach me. So to make it short:
Story: 4/10 (not much depth), but the execution was 10/10, so I wil give it a solid 7
Acting: 9 (because I think Lee Dong Wook could have done a better job, I liked him a lot more in "Scent of a Woman")
Music: 10 (it cannot get any better)
Rewatch value: Well, if I want to relax and enjoy something that's beautiful for the sake of being beautiful ... 8.

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When it comes to those two actors acting as a couple there is some psychological problem going on in the heads of the fans. I feel like everyone is crazy in love with Mean/Plan acting as Tin/Can in LBC, so if they don't act as exactly those two characters - then nobody likes it. I had a similar problem. At first, I wasn't interested in this, but then I gave it a chance and the characters grew on me. To rate it objectively: The story was nice and realistic, the acting was good, the production was good. The happy end happened too fast, but well, who cares? It's a bit too silly occasionally, but again, who cares? It was fun. Good. Solid. Enjoyable. I was entertained and I'm glad that I watched it.

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I never wrote a review for this series, because back then when it aired, almost everyone hated on it, and so I didn't visit this site anymore. All the negativity got to me.
So let's talk about the elephant in the room: the plot involves cheating. That's a red flag for most people, because it destroys the idea of pure and everlasting love. I only care about a good story. A believable story. A story that feels real where you can connect with the characters. I don't care about cheesy fairy-tales. I don't even care about a sad end.
The thing is, that this series was rather mature compared to other BL series out there. Some parts of the plot were rather silly, but the way they portrayed the emotions were really great. There was sadness, desperation, regret, love. Everyone (Yihwa and Cho included) did a great job. I wasn't really a fan of the "villain", but the whole series was extremely intense. I can recommend it to people who are tired of the cheesy school-boys BL.
Max and Tul are the kings of the BL genre. The most "badass" couple how Tul once said in an interview. The chemistry is mind-blowing. That alone makes this series worth watching. Even though they weren't lovey-dovey (they had trouble in their relationship after all), a simple kiss on the shoulder could melt my heart.

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A beautiful, very realistic love story. For once the girl chases the guy which was very refreshing. She is the strong one in this relationship. I loved it, how those two met each other. She found him in an alley all beaten up and brought him to the house of her father. In so many dramas the first encounter is something special. The leads feel attracted to each other immediately (or are fighting with each other). In any case there is something going on. In this drama the girl didn't even look at him enough to recognize him when she met him later. The male lead was looking for the girl who saved him, but not in a desperate way. He just saw her around and got interested in her (not in a romantic way at first). THIS was great. Really. They then gradually fall in love. Everything feels so real, like how he brought her to his house to read comics. Everything was cute, lovable and beautiful. Like I said before: the girl took the initiative which I really liked.
About the acting I must say Jun Ho (I didn't know him before) was spectacular. The female lead, Won Jin Ah, was great too, but Jun Ho's role seemed more difficult. He somehow managed to play a character who was strong and vulnerable at the same time. I must say I'm not a fan of those overly dramatic series where PTSD plays a big role. It becomes cheesy and unrealistic pretty fast. But Jun Ho did a really good job.
Enough praise. I would rate this series with a solid 10 if I only had to rate the first 9-10 episodes. But later on it became so cheesy suddenly. I know, other people may like this, but I felt it became so slow. Even Jun Ho's acting couldn't save this anymore. Don't get me wrong, it was still a good series, but they just dragged it out and made the character too emotional for me. Still the end was great and the series overall was just very well told. It was one of those series where I didn't feel like skipping parts (at least until episode 9-10).

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I didn't like the beginning and I think the title is pretty stupid. Still I started watching it and was surprised how much it had to offer. Sometimes it was very mature and it did a good job avoiding some BL cliches or even making fun of them. I got interested in Bohn and Duen immediately. Later I felt in love with Mek and Boss. Unfortunately both couples became extremely annoying throughout the series. I thought their relationship problems were extremely childish. At the end I only finished My Engineer because of Ram and King. Those two were without a doubt the best written couple and very enjoyable to watch. I'm conflicted about the rating. I finished the series, it was enjoyable, sometimes good, sometimes bad. I can recommend it, but it wasn't that great. Still a solid BL.

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Great drama, worth watching. I must admit in the first half I was very frustrated and annoyed, but the characters developed over time and it got better in the second half. That doesn't mean that the first couple of episodes weren't great. It just means that it was hard to watch. Teacher Kim was a jerk at the beginning. Even though his behavior made sense looking back, I refuse to believe there wasn't a better way to teach his juniors. I myself would have quit several times if I had to work with him. But I enjoyed that he wasn't portrayed as some super hero who can do no wrong. His character/personality was very difficult at the beginning, but he did grow too. There were many different emotions I felt watching this. I cried more often than I want to admit. It's very dramatic and sad with all the medical cases. Of course many people die in a hospital series. I enjoyed the romance, but that wasn't the main plot of the series. It's about politics and money and about how to live a life worth living, about your principles and believes. It's very touching and thought provoking not only for people who work in the medical field.

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I found this series on Youtube and didn't expect much. It blew my mind immediately! My first thought: It's the best thing ever, even better then Heroin/Addicted. It was beautifully filmed, the music is great, the scenerey ... fantastic! It is such a soft and charming story with a very interesting character, a novelist who writes like an old men but is naive and behaves like a child. The actors are very charming, good looking too, I guess. It's all pleasant to the eye. I enjoyed especially how honest and straight forward the relationship was carried out. I thought the writer of the novel the series is based on must be a genius.

Well, then I watched episode 7. I had a very bad feeling at the end. I don't want to spoil, but the story goes in a direction I didn't enjoy very much. I'm a very open minded person so at the beginning I found the conflict very interesting, well executed and overall pretty original. It's something you don't see often and that's always a good thing. Reading the original novel (an English translation of course) I must say it's terrible written, I always wonder how they are able to create such beautiful series with such trashy source material.

So at the end I'm conflicted about the rating. There were some scenes I wish I had never seen. They planned a season 2 but I guess it will never come. It leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. But overall it was a good series worth watching. Well deserved 8.5 points. Go watch it NOW!

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Let me start with admitting that I like cheating plots. I know for many people this is a red flag, but I really like how it pulls on my heartstrings. In real life it's a red flag for me too. So I don't hate this because of the cheating plot. I was really excited to watch it. I Told You About Sunset wasn't satisfying me at all. I wanted to know more about those characters, to understand them more. But after watching the sequel, I don't know anything. Until the very end I have no idea who those characters are. What was going on with Teh? So sensitive, so dramatic, and then so ... I don't know. It's too cheesy and too shallow. I feel like the script writer just wrote down his own fantasies and maybe his own experiences. This is about love and lust, and we just have to believe that those two love each other. I feel they don't match each other at all. It's just sooo dramatic. If not for the actors who have good chemistry, and apparantly a deep bond, this wouldn't work at all. The actors behave in real life like a long married couple. It's astonishing. I have never seen such a couple before. There is no fan service, no shyness. It just comes to them naturally and without any drama. They really deserved better. I would watch those two any time in another production with a better script! Maybe I should watch "My Ambulance" where they also worked together.
To make it short: great cinematography, nice soundtrack, good acting, but cheesy and amateurish script. The plot is pretty okay, but the characters are written in such a bad and shallow way - it's terrible. But since I enjoyed the series and like I said, the whole production is pretty good, I give it 7 stars out of 10.

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