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I agree. It's a shame because the I binged the first four episodes of Spooky which were pretty good and then started watching weekly and it's slowly lost the more fun essence.

For me, I find 10s hard to give (one drama made me break it and has basically set an almost impossible to meet standard). I barely give 9s (and when I do it can get quite subjective). The fun kdrama that is entertaining and decently written is then roughly an 8 which I calibrated back when I started using mdl a few years ago.

For A Bona Fide Killer, I wonder if people just had different expectations from what it actually is. Before it started there were plot comparisons to Flower of Evil and this drama is just way more lighthearted. There's also the fact that A Shop for Killers and Agent Kim Reactivated just recently finished their runs and from what I know they also had a pretty serious tone (which I guess I thought would make people appreciate the difference in approach here but maybe people just wanted more to scratch that itch).

I'm confused, aren't those recycled themes like foundational kdrama writing?

I think people are just comparing to how things used to be rated on this platform. To me, this drama is on par with an 8.1-8.3 rated drama from a few years ago, and particularly back then a drama getting less than 8 meant there was something particularly off about it. I think the way things have been rated more recently has shifted and broadened a bit.

Another way to look at it is comparing Spooky in Love with this drama, both of which I'm watching. They feel fairly similar in quality but the difference in their rating is significant enough. Either way, 8+ used to be a pretty good benchmark on this site, and the basic standard kdrama was essentially defacto ~8.2

Was it Love Affairs in the Afternoon? Or maybe When My Love Blooms though I don’t think the FL was married there.
On the other hand there’s also The Interest of Love which is its own type of messy relationships

I feel similar. Excluding this, I have seen three of his works - The Veil, Awaken, Falsify - and I had problems with the character he played in all of them (could be chalked up more to the writing and directing than his acting but when I get that kind of exposure to an actor and feel very so-so about them it stands out). It seems like the vast majority of people watching this drama were here for him so I was wondering if it was because of My Dearest (and maybe Good Manager). I have seen clips of Our Movie and One Dollar Lawyer and I liked what I saw so I kind of chalked it up to his acting style not working for me in thrillers (which unfortunately just got reaffirmed with this) but maybe being better in romance, melodrama or comedic roles

I get that, but like, enemies to lovers is a popular trope. I don't think shipping requires logic, a lot of it can be vibes based, which is very subjective

Idk I thought shipping was all about just what characters who shared a dynamic that was interesting to people. I don’t see what’s necessarily aggravating about that, let people enjoy their delusions lol it isn’t hurting anyone

Vigilante was pretty decent at trying to mesh action with more overt themes about ethics of vigilantism. I haven’t gotten around to watching The Killing Vote (and didn’t finish A Bloody Flower) but afaik both of those also feature extrajudicial justice

This drama had so much potential but it seems the writers didn’t know what approach or story they were trying to tell. Disappointing that they featured and explored so little of the leads’ relationship considering the title in Korean is The Completion of Marriage

Not a webtoon reader so just speculating that they have someone backing them. They are an assassin team hidden in a corporation and they contact someone to get authorization on all their targets so I don’t think they’re independent. Even with their new recruit, what seems like poor writing with her not being checked out before joining the team becomes less egregious if they have some yet to be identified entity supervising them.

I always thought it was a more interesting decision story wise for him to have actually said those things and didn’t get why so many people were so quick to dismiss it as a manipulated video. Like the guy was stuck in marriage, finally is like let’s get a divorce and wife still refuses, was it really that unbelievable that he would say something like that while drunk?

Really liked the detail when they were eating ramyeon of Yeori using the underjacket Ganguk was wearing

I don’t think we are supposed to know at this point, they’ll probably reveal it later. I’m just assuming that the thing is a listening device till we get more information

Not assassin plot, but Psychopath diary is a thriller comedy centered around a serial killer. I don’t see why assassin and comedy won’t work, I personally think it’s an interesting approach and it’s certainly working for me.

I mean I get that, I was just replying to say that there’s a recent Mr. and Mrs. Smith and it isn’t just an old movie. I think the lack of women playing assassin characters is not limited to Asian media in general, and I do think in recent years there’s been somewhat of an expansion in Korean media. Some I can think of, mixing both movies and dramas, and admittedly being very loose with the “assassin/killer” genre, we have: Ballerina, kill boksoon, my name, a shop for killers, the villainess, Alice the final weapon, the witch, Mary kills people, hyper knife, inspector Koo, queen mantis, dear X, the judge from hell

100% agree about the FL. Kim Hye Jun is doing such a good job because I find her more endearing than annoying when it’s typically the opposite for me with characters with such bubbly almost childish naïveté as their personality

2005 is not that old 😭😭 but there is a show that came out in 2024, also western

Nikita reference in 2026 that’s dope

Just a fundamental misunderstanding of the kind of drama this is trying to be. And we are literally only on episode three. But like if it doesn’t work for you that’s fine, there are other dramas that are darker that might better fit your tastes

The team dynamics are so refreshing and fun to watch. I’m glad that even though Bona is clearly the star or the Ace, they all have their own skills and can support themselves