Nothing Burger
While looking for a contemporary drama to break up the costume ones I've been chugging, I skipped down my watch list to IDOL I.
I want to say the positive things first.
I really liked the way the show looked. There was clearly a visual vision in every episode. There was some editing and camerawork that made a good impression of me and honestly had me hyped at the start of the show.
The acting is also amazing. Sooyoung has been an icon for decades at this point and she's never been in a truly bad drama. I loved seeing her play this confident woman with hidden duality. Kim Jae-young isn't as well known to me but he did a great job getting his emotions across, and he did such a good job that I totally forgot that he was a grown ass man who was older than Sooyoung.
Now the not so good stuff.
This show is a murder mystery that also seeks to tackle the pitfalls of idol culture, parasocialism, and even government corruption???
Bruh. they shoulda stuck to one thing.
The murder mystery is a jumbled up mess that's easily predictable and inconsistent throughout the whole story. The show will give you a clue that tells you one thing about the crime and then reveal the actual events were the complete opposite of what they told you. Other clues will give you the answer basically immediately.
This drama goes out of its way to show how awful Sasaeng fans are…. but they just get slaps on the wrist multiple times and technically never learn their lessons because they are STILL following the guy around by the end.
The cause of the most grief for kpop idols aren't just the bold fans who physically invade their privacy or bombard their phones, its regular faceless fans who make up the bulk of a fandom and will tear any idol apart for any perceived weakness.
This show expects me to be comfortable with a FL who expressed disappointment when she heard about our ML having a dating scandal and perked back up when he denied the relationship. We later find out the relationship was real and he did have strong feelings for the 2nd FL.
Watching a fan fall in love with an idol she's supposed to be defending, just felt icky. I think I would have liked it better if this show had no romance.
Speaking of the 2nd FL. Women chasing a man who has either shown them NO romantic interest OR has made it clear that they DON'T want a relationship is MY BIGGEST PET PEEVE. I can't stand it, and this drama offers a big helping of the jealous 2nd FL trope. It's annoying and awful and I hate it. Girl I know you're crazy 🤪 or whatever but have some respect for yourself.
I also had a huge issue with the corruption bits. It was so frustrating to watch a drama that thought I was dumb enough to believe that prosecutors doing their job was like a miracle. 2nd ML has so many dumb scenes with his dad where they're like “why are you doing your job? Make shit up!” It was so dumb, and I hated the way this whole thing connected to our (dadless) ORPHAN FL.
Also EVERYONE in this thing is like the WORST person ever to our ML once he gets accused. Every sad backstory you could think of for an idol, bros got it.
I didn't care for the musical bits but I was having fun at the beginning before the romantic bits started up. I know that its only 12 episodes but I was so frustrated watching the ML start questioning the FL about the men in her life… like dude, it's none ya business AND I think you got more important things to worry about? lol anyways, I'm never gonna rewatch. 5/10 no drama.
I want to say the positive things first.
I really liked the way the show looked. There was clearly a visual vision in every episode. There was some editing and camerawork that made a good impression of me and honestly had me hyped at the start of the show.
The acting is also amazing. Sooyoung has been an icon for decades at this point and she's never been in a truly bad drama. I loved seeing her play this confident woman with hidden duality. Kim Jae-young isn't as well known to me but he did a great job getting his emotions across, and he did such a good job that I totally forgot that he was a grown ass man who was older than Sooyoung.
Now the not so good stuff.
This show is a murder mystery that also seeks to tackle the pitfalls of idol culture, parasocialism, and even government corruption???
Bruh. they shoulda stuck to one thing.
The murder mystery is a jumbled up mess that's easily predictable and inconsistent throughout the whole story. The show will give you a clue that tells you one thing about the crime and then reveal the actual events were the complete opposite of what they told you. Other clues will give you the answer basically immediately.
This drama goes out of its way to show how awful Sasaeng fans are…. but they just get slaps on the wrist multiple times and technically never learn their lessons because they are STILL following the guy around by the end.
The cause of the most grief for kpop idols aren't just the bold fans who physically invade their privacy or bombard their phones, its regular faceless fans who make up the bulk of a fandom and will tear any idol apart for any perceived weakness.
This show expects me to be comfortable with a FL who expressed disappointment when she heard about our ML having a dating scandal and perked back up when he denied the relationship. We later find out the relationship was real and he did have strong feelings for the 2nd FL.
Watching a fan fall in love with an idol she's supposed to be defending, just felt icky. I think I would have liked it better if this show had no romance.
Speaking of the 2nd FL. Women chasing a man who has either shown them NO romantic interest OR has made it clear that they DON'T want a relationship is MY BIGGEST PET PEEVE. I can't stand it, and this drama offers a big helping of the jealous 2nd FL trope. It's annoying and awful and I hate it. Girl I know you're crazy 🤪 or whatever but have some respect for yourself.
I also had a huge issue with the corruption bits. It was so frustrating to watch a drama that thought I was dumb enough to believe that prosecutors doing their job was like a miracle. 2nd ML has so many dumb scenes with his dad where they're like “why are you doing your job? Make shit up!” It was so dumb, and I hated the way this whole thing connected to our (dadless) ORPHAN FL.
Also EVERYONE in this thing is like the WORST person ever to our ML once he gets accused. Every sad backstory you could think of for an idol, bros got it.
I didn't care for the musical bits but I was having fun at the beginning before the romantic bits started up. I know that its only 12 episodes but I was so frustrated watching the ML start questioning the FL about the men in her life… like dude, it's none ya business AND I think you got more important things to worry about? lol anyways, I'm never gonna rewatch. 5/10 no drama.
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