An OK script lifted by exceptional production values.

Raw edges. That sums up this show as both a compliment and a criticism. The compliments are for the cinematography, colour palettes, set design and music. The criticism is for the writing. This was an OK script that scrubbed up well because it was dressed in designer clothes. The attention to detail and co-operative work between director, lighting designer and cinematographer are what really made this show special.

More money went into this than is available to the network broadcasts and it shows. The look and feel of the drama was classy and there was a great deal to feast the eyes on. It had a wonderful raw, grungy, greasy, grimy feel to the sets that you could almost smell. The colour palettes were varied, with rich blood reds and charcoals for Moo Jin’s world and ice blues and golds for the gambling den.

The biggest gong as far as I’m concerned goes to the cinematographer. Superb lighting throughout but especially the extensive use of side lighting was magical. It emphasised the chiaroscuro, creating mood and atmosphere by the truckload. The thoughtfulness was not just for wide angle shots. Sometimes, even in close shots, one face would be lit in colour and another, right next to it, almost B&W. This richness served to emphasise the stark contrast to the police station scenes which were filmed with flat lighting and no dynamics.

The cinematography was imaginative with a lot of use of low and high angles helping to build a sense of unpredictability and energy. An up-close-and-personal approach to the action scenes added to the visceral nature of this drama. It didn’t flinch from violence and there was a nod to credibility in the fight scenes which were well choreographed and numerous.If you don’t like blood and gore, this may be a bit OTT for you. Not just visually but sound-wise as well.

Add to all the above, a great OST. I loved the opening of the drama, cool and edgy, and that music really set the tone for what was to follow. Overall, the soundtrack had a rawness to it, not smoothed out or overproduced which totally complemented the other production values.

There was a lot that was good with the writing, but some parts were sloppy and not well thought through. There were amateurish aspects to the undercover scenario which were basically to serve the plot and character interactions and I could not credit them in the context of the sophisticated and ruthlessly organised gangland portrayed in the story. On a number of occasions convenient plotting stuck out like a sore thumb with inexplicable motivations and character choices. Hence my criticism of raw edges. The ending stretched my credulity a step too far and didn’t really work for me either, but that’s more personal preference.

Having said that, there was plenty to like about the solid centre of it. It successfully played with your allegiances and refused to neatly categorise good and bad. The direction gave the script space to breathe and Han So Hee’s performance relied a lot on effective silences. Time and care was also given to underlying emotional arcs, fleshing out the main characters a little more than is usual in this genre.

Han So Hee’s performance was mixed for me. I really liked her at the beginning and the end, but in the middle I think it lost the edge. Full credit though for pulling off the action scenes and physicality of the role. Park Hee Soon’s performance as Moo Jin was both convincing and persuasive. His time on screen was always compulsive viewing.

What my rating means: 8+ A great drama with interesting content and good writing, direction, acting, OST, cinematography. But didn’t quite have the requisite sparkle to bump it into my all-time fave list. Worth watching.

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A beautiful start that fails to deliver.

It’s always interesting for someone who comes from a notionally egalitarian society (no society actually IS egalitarian!) to watch how hierarchy (an overt aspect of Korean society) is undermined in stories such as this one, whilst also being lauded by the very existence of so many chaebol dramas.

The opening of the drama asks the question, can a gifted student from a lower class background trump a hardworking, corruptly privileged student from a high class background, who was born to lead and must therefore learn how to do so and shine as a leading light in the process. The mention of Eton School is not accidental. Meritocracy versus aristocracy. Both systems have their pluses and minuses, but this drama’s sympathies are firmly in the meritocracy camp.

The drama addresses the underlying attitudes that govern education and thereby society. It is reflected in the perception of mathematics as either a humanity at the service of people’s dreams and creative aspirations (aligned with the meritocracy) or as a science, a descriptor of the world that can carry technology forward and be at the service of those that need to preserve power, sustain order and create wealth (aligned with the aristocracy).

These two approaches mirror the attitudes found in the characters. The two leads consider the experience of living a fulfilling and unscripted emotional life—which may be challenging—is more important than achieving goals and upholding societal structures, as it can open doors onto new worlds and ways forward. Whereas, for the characters at the school, education is there to maintain the status quo and prepare children for the life already set out for them by moulding their attitudes and controlling their emotions. Does the world serve a human being, or does a human being serve the world?

Rigid structures provide boundaries for behaviour and many of the characters have clear plans and justifications for their actions. We may or may not agree with their reasons, but they are clear and logical. Whereas the boundaries for behaviour when governed by the murky world of freedom of emotion, are blurred. And the relationship between the two leads lives in a place of ambiguity, where professional boundaries and personal boundaries are often confused and misinterpreted, providing the viewer with plenty to reflect on.

I loved the first 6 Episodes of this show which were set in 2017. They explored ways of viewing the world, both conceptually and politically, and were filled with subtle interactions between the characters. But after the time jump to the present day these things were, in the main, sacrificed for a somewhat predictable and plodding plot. Revenge, justice and retribution took centre stage and the elements that made the drama distinctive and individual were swallowed up in a story with far too many characters complicating the direction of the narrative.

Needless to say, I found it most convincing when the drama emphasised the cost to the characters rather than the machinations of the plot. If it had focused on fewer characters and tried to say less it would have been far more effective.

There was still plenty to praise in some of the performances.

ISJ brought a sweetness and vulnerability to the character of Yoon Soo which was really appealing. And later managed to convey a strength of character with very little fuss, which I found convincing. I was struck by how she inhabited this character, rather than wore it like a coat, which was my impression of her in Search WWW. I did have my doubts about whether she could express emotion well and this drama has dispelled that. However, by the end I was wondering if she might fly in with angel's wings and a halo.

LDH was convincing as a young Seung Yoo. He managed to show the change between the adolescent and adult very clearly, but as an adult failed to impress me as much. I was not quite sure how he had arrived at his new persona.

Wu Da Vi as Sung Ye Rin, the victim of the system, had a beautifully written part that she played well, and I found her story one of the most interesting. Another performance to note was Choi Day Hoon, who gave a sensitive rendering of the financé.

In stark contrast, Jin kyung’s performance as Noh Jung Ah sprang from a world of mega-melodrama, an unnecessary hurricane leaving only devastation in its wake. Some of the responsibility for it must lie with the writer and director who can only have egged her on.

It was difficult for me to rate this drama, as I really loved the beginning but felt lukewarm about the rest of it, so I have compromised with a 7.5.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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How much pouty petulant can you take?

This is the first time for me to watch a quasi-historical Korean fantasy and to be honest I was totally underwhelmed. Which is a pity because there are probably some really good ones out there. There is a simplistic naivety about this one that perfectly defines the phrase, dumbed down. It starts with a script that has zero sophistication, explains even the most self evident motivation in words and never passes over an opportunity to state the obvious. It offers bland, predictable, two dimensional characters and a direction so wooden that any dynamism the actors might have produced is squashed by a requirement to stand still and spout. And just to round it out nicely the editing in the early stages is unbelievably bad, hacking off chunks of story and throwing them roughly together. But to be fair it does have a plus side in the production values—great costumes, beautiful sets/locations and credible CGI.

The rigid division between good and evil does not help. In order to create interesting tension there needs to be ambiguity and the central character, Naksu, simply doesn’t have enough real-world edge to her. Assassin? Pouty, petulant tweenager more like. And that’s the irony of it. In a story all about power, the power has been sucked out of everything: her, the story and all the characters.

It’s all far too nice with the result that nothing is too far from that bland (and to be honest, boring) middle ground. Very little light and shade, zero depth and no emotional impact. Safe, safe, safe. A let’s pretend world that has about as much tension as a teddy bears picnic.

Okay, it’s not Game of Thrones and is aimed at a totally different and much less emotionally resilient audience, but does it really have to be quite so impotent? So concerned to keep the viewer safe inside a bubble watching on from the sidelines. So scared of itself that it pulls back from every opportunity to have some balls and make an impact? Everywhere it pulls punches, particularly by not following through on the consequences of actions, either emotionally or physically.

I like Jung So Min as an actress, I thought she was very good in “Because this is my first life”, but I think she was miscast here. She lacked the necessary edge to make her character believable. The actress who plays the original form of Naksu (Go Yoon Jung), did a better job of delivering credibility to the part. Even if Naksu lost her magical power she would not have lost her attitude or her edge and this could have been an opportunity for great character development and depth. But Jung So Min’s scripted lines did nothing towards this, often being subservient when they should have been authoritative, victim when they should have been master and bland when they should have been vulnerable.

It also puzzled me why, in a world which is quasi-historical fantasy and not reality, there should be so few women occupying decision making roles. In the main it utilised boringly predictable stereotypes and missed a huge opportunity to be creative. The relationship between the M and F lead was not master/pupil but something out of a fluffy romcom with a dominant, emotionally stunted male and a petulant, subservient female. There’s nothing ostensibly wrong with writing fluffy romcom relationship dynamics, but why pretend to set it up as master/pupil and then make it unbelievable?

Ok enough, I got half way through and then had to wait for the next episode. It will be an eternal wait...

What my rating means: 5+ Meh! Don't bother, it's full of platitudes and clichés with boring characters and plots.

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Unbelievable in all the worst ways

Unbelievable crap. The start of it is bad enough. The usual Japanese penchant for men forcing themselves on women and then backing off so that they can be portrayed as caring and considerate. This is the very first scene, so no spoilers here. But then later it's so clear that the writer has zero experience of how a clinic would operate in the circumstances of the plot. Not reporting to the police? Work procedures and regulations anyone? If you have even an ounce of professional work experience this will be so ridiculous as to be unwatchable. Let alone the childish and annoying ML and the token weird characters. I struggled through to Episode 7, before finally drowning in incredulity.

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When it was good it was very very good, when it was bad ...

A mortal sin for any writer is to undermine the credibility of their characters. But that becomes a cardinal sin when they do it just to try and raise a cheap laugh or serve the demands of the plot. There was so much to like about Fiery Priest and also Vincenzo (same writer), but in the end I couldn’t finish Vincenzo because I refused to watch a great character destroyed by its creator in collaboration with the director and I struggled with Fiery Priest.

In both dramas, the problem really kicked in for me about a third of the way through, when the stakes become increasingly serious. I felt that early in the drama, I had been invited to believe that Kim Hae Il was a bona fide professional, operating in a world where ruthlessness and violence are central. But a little later on, he repeatedly behaved like an amateur, and a stupid amateur at that. This attempt to marry comedy with hard core action failed because the comedy felt forced at the expense of both credibility and (worse) character integrity. The result was to destroy my connection to the main character and leave me confused about how to view him. Instead of being the cool dude that many characters in the drama thought he was, in key scenes, Kim Hae Il was presented to the viewer as an incompetent idiot to be laughed at, not with. To be honest, I was so pissed early on with the writer and director for spoiling what had the potential to be a really good drama that I nearly stopped watching.

But not being someone who wants to give up easily, I found there was enough merit in the cast to keep me going. Around two thirds of the way through, the drama had been reduced to farce. And yes, it is very funny. So I just gave up and went with the flow and enjoyed the comedy and suspended my disbelief when things got serious and his character flipped. However, Kim Hae Il is simply not credible as any sort of cohesive character and I think it would have been much better if I had never been asked to take him seriously. I felt that Kim Nam Gil was as confused about the character as I was, but did his best to convince me.

If you are prepared for your hero to exhibit multiple, contradictory personalities, encompassing super cool action hero, ruthless killer, sexy priest, tortured soul, fluffy bunny, goofy adolescent, angry man, and a totally cringeworthy imitation of Johnny English, then this is absolutely a good drama for you. As many before me have said, it offers up in spades in so many other departments, with some wonderful performances, great characters and inventive fight choreography. A shout out to Lee Ha Nee and Go Jun, who were exceptionally good.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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Almost really good—but not quite…

I’d really like to give this drama more than the 7.5 I settled on because there is a lot on offer. But for me, the last four episodes lost their way when the main arc of the plot ended and felt much more like introductory episodes trying to establish a story where there wasn’t a thread. This left an overall feeling of blandness and added to the other things against it, I could only drop the rating.

So what would have garnered it an 8. Well, the performances. They were good overall but Jang Na Ra really delivered a standout performance here, and it is worth watching just to see her. The other leads were also good, but with less complex characters also had less of a chance to reveal their talents. Having said that Nam Ji Hyun and P.O stepped up to the plate and I enjoyed their scenes together.

The relationship between the two FLs was well developed, moving from seonbae/hoobae to encompass a well rounded appreciation and friendship. The steps to achieve this were credible too.

The script was informed—the writer has done the job of a divorce attorney, so probably cherry picked from the cases that landed on her desk.They were varied and sometimes had interesting twists, but their resolutions were often trite and rushed.

Which brings me to some of the negatives. I’m not a fan of wailing melo, or saccharine sentimentality in order to create an unrealistically simple happy ending. And there was quite a bit of both. Now this is a personal preference, and I know that there are a lot of people out there who appreciate this approach, so judge for yourselves here. This was particularly apparent to me around some of the interactions with children and spouses.

The forward thrust of the lives of the leads petered out around episode eleven, with Cha Eun Gyeong’s (JNR) main plot line all but resolving. The other characters did not really have a strong enough plot focus to carry through. The result was that the sequential cases continued without a continuing main thread to support them A bit like a steak and onion pie without the pastry, as a result things slopped around the plate with the last few remaining crumbs of piecrust floating in them. Leaving a very unsatisfactory aftertaste.

Overall, this is not a bad watch at all. It has some excellent stuff to offer, but may leave you wishing it was more.

Just editing this to backup unterwegsimkoreanischenD's warning not to watch episode 0 if its available on the platform you watch. It's a weird spoiler filled mish-mash.

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Just a little too bland to be thought provoking.

This slice of life film explores the nature of social connections and the difference between aloneness and loneliness. The protagonist, Chihiro, understands how to make attachments and bring people together, but ultimately shies away from the community she enables. Everyone is trying to escape from something and is brought into connection through her, but what else connects them is questionable. Even in the midst of people, Chihiro experiences her separateness and alienation.

It is well observed but not beautifully observed. I didn’t find the insight I was looking for here. Perhaps it was the sanitised personalities of the characters, many of whom had lived difficult lives but didn’t seem to have the resultant rough edges. They didn’t come across as affected or moulded by their experiences, just as mild people unable to find an acceptable social place. We are all moulded by our experiences and this film felt afraid to show that just in case the characters might turn unsympathetic. Chihiro has experienced tough times as a child and young woman, but how or whether that has contributed to her emotional distance, or is perhaps just her personality is never fully explored.

It is the sort of film that asks questions, but doesn’t offer too many answers, which is fine as long as the questions reveal some new perspective or path to travel. For me, that wasn’t really the case.

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Underrated and undervalued

I wanted to write a review for this drama because I think it is vastly underrated. Reading the comments it was clear that the toxic elements in the main relationship were a serious problem for a lot of people. As far as I’m concerned, showing toxic relationships is not a problem as long as the consequences are also honestly shown. And for me, this drama does that. There is a beautiful moment of show-not-tell in the very last scene which I will write at at the bottom as a spoiler. And that moment spoke volumes to me.

I thought it a beautifully insightful show about the types of relationships that happen in your inexperienced early twenties, when you are trying to live the fantasy of your adolescence and start to realise that a great deal more is required of you than you had expected. That however much you assumed it was going to be possible, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Love it seems, is not some magical thing that waves its wand over you and suddenly Cinderella is dressed for the ball. Excitement is not the only necessary ingredient or even the main ingredient. Trust, not manipulation, must be there and that is something that you need to work out how to build and then maintain.

Song Kang did a masterful job as the fb Park Jae Eon. So good in fact that there were many times I just wanted to slap him (metaphorically speaking). His character’s arc is about reliance on sex as the answer to all problems and what it takes for him to realise it is not the only answer and sometimes absolutely the wrong answer. A criticism would be that not enough time was spent on Park Jae Eon. His character transitions were there, but I could have done with a little more help, especially towards the end, in recognising them and understanding them. Time could have been stolen for it by omitting the somewhat bland relationship taking place in the office. As a viewer you need to work a bit, don’t just notice Jae Eon’s jealousy or his domesticity, but realise what those things mean.

Similarly, Han So Hee was also very good as the conflicted and self-doubting Yoo Na Bi. Again her reasoning was not always explicitly stated but hinted at all the time. Of the leads, only Chae Jong Heop as Yang Do Hyuk had a straightforward role which was because there was no significant character development. He played the nice guy nicely, what more can be said. It was not a demanding role. There was lots to like in the relationships of the supporting characters, which looked at different hurdles to be crossed in the relationship game. In particular Lee Ho Jung as Yoon Sol stood out.

This drama is not a romance about getting love right and living happily ever after. It’s about getting love wrong. It invites the viewer to observe the mess that we make of things with each other and what might be required to muddle along in a better way.

It is a good script, with credible dialogue, brought convincingly to life by an able female director and good actors. It showcased some great artworks (Na Bi’s sculpture at the end was stunning) and some beautiful cinematography. And for once, because it was a Netflix original, the sex scenes were realistic and believable.

This drama does not lay it all out for you, but requires your attention to detail and some thought. To really get the most from it I would recommend that you watch it twice (it’s only 10 episodes long, so not too onerous to do that) and track the development the second time round. You will see and understand much more once you know where it’s headed. If you are prepared to put in a little effort, it will not disappoint.

Spoiler ahead…



Spoiler ahead…



In the last scene, Na Bi almost drops Jae Eon’s hand when she sees Do Hyuk in a cafe with another girl. The look of naked panic and vulnerability on Song Kang’s face is what spoke volumes to me. Na Bi will leave Jae Eon behind quite quickly and he knows it. It is not Na Bi who will be hurt by this relationship. On the contrary she will gain confidence. He is the one who will be licking his wounds. I just hope to any sort of god that he doesn’t go to Paris with her, that would be just too painful!

What my rating means: 8+ A great drama with interesting content and good writing, direction, acting, OST, cinematography. But didn’t quite have the requisite sparkle to bump it into my all-time fave list. Worth watching.

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Been there, seen it, done it all before... and better

There’s a strange contradiction in the first part of this drama. It centres around sexual abuse and the trauma caused by it, but signally fails to reflect the distress caused from nasty situations created by the plot. In similar situations of threat and vulnerability, the abuse victims experience fear and trauma, whereas the lead characters treat it almost as a joke, particularly Ma Yi Deum, and walk away unmarked. If the viewer accepts the experience of the lead characters, which is technically where their allegiance should lie, then their only option is to belittle the experience of the “victim” characters. It is an uncomfortable marriage of the serious and the trivial, of drama and romance tropes which initially made uncomfortable viewing for me.

I’m not sure what the intention was, to lighten up a heavy topic or to show the character Ma Yi Deum in an unfavourable light so that character development was more pronounced, perhaps. If so, it did itself no favours and the overall impression was that abuse is something that a determined personality can sail through without being seriously affected. Dream on.

Having said that, the tone of the drama changed towards the mid section and I found it easier to warm to the character Ma Yi Deum. Jung Ryeo Wan did a great job and I found her convincing in the part and wonder if this was why she was chosen for “Diary of a Prosecutor/War of Prosecutors”, where she also did a great job in a far superior drama.

Heo Sung Tae as Baek Sang Ho is good in this, and when you look at his filmography you can see he knows how to pick a good drama. He’s an actor that doesn’t bask in the limelight but always turns in a good performance. He completely out-acted Joon Kang Ryul in every scene where they were together. Joon had three facial expressions and thoroughly worked them all into overtime.

The other actors got the job done and to be honest there was little to be explored in the mundane script.

Once the main theme of the drama kicked in it changed into fairly standard thriller in terms of the plot which was predictable and clunky. However there is one moment of ridiculous plotting which defies all credibility and other stupid moments that pissed me off and in the end I just got too bored and gave up. There’s only so many times you can watch this plot when there is nothing original or really engaging in the production to keep you going.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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The show didn’t deserve the quality of its actors

I write my reviews as I watch a show and often most of it is written by episode 8 and I tweak it where necessary as I finish watching. So I wrote something for this show, then found that I was watching a totally different drama in the second half.

The start of the show is a touchy-feel of romance, a pinch of mystery, a spoonful of trauma, a litre of tears and absolutely no spice. Mix all ingredients in the bowl and bake for 8 long hours to create a MacDonalds style bun - bland and inflated with not a lot of substance and awash with OTT sentimentality.

Then, about two thirds of the way through it changes completely. I could see the plot twist coming from four episodes previously and was thinking, please don’t go down that route, that’s just way too obvious and cliché. But it ignored my advice and blundered on with a totally predictable and off the wall plot involving a complete psycho with murder, mayhem, memory loss and every other cliche in the book.

Then in the last couple of episodes it found a balance and ended on its best effort.

But somehow through all of that it was watchable and what made it so was the acting. This show really does not deserve its leads. Ji Chang Wook and Choi Soo Young put in really good performances that were way better than the sentimental script and ridiculous plot deserved. They have very believable chemistry, but Ji Chang Wook always manages to have good chemistry and being such a likeable person in RL I’m sure he makes it very easy for actresses to be relaxed around him.

Not only them but the raft of experienced supporting actors really kept it afloat when it was in danger of going under. Especially Nam Tae Hoon (Jang Seok Joon) who put in a sensitive, believable and moving performance. According to his bio on MDL he has only had very small parts in the past, let’s hope this launches his career and he gets better parts in the future.

I criticise thrillers for not doing the psychology right, so now I’m going to do it here because this one really bugged me.

Censorship and taste are strange bedfellows. You can have as much gory, vicious, annihilating, sick and twisted violence as you like, but whatever you do, don’t show the real impact of the trauma which violence begets. And in the first half of this show we had another sanitised version. The sentimentalisation can be just as sick as the gory violence. It pretends that a sickly smile and a nicey-nicey attitude can paper over all woes, and healing from them just needs someone “nice” to smile at you so you can learn how to behave “nicely” in public. I really wish it was that easy…

OK rant over.

So this one is a mixed bag and I’m finding it difficult to know how to remember it and rate it. I think I’m just going to have to give the credit to the actors for pulling it off.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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Bad copy of bad originals

You can clearly see the American influence in this production and to be honest it doesn’t sit well. This is the Korean version of CSI/NCIS and it has all the same weaknesses as the originals. Instead of the more usual focus on the machinations of internal politics, the slow unfolding of a crime, the in-depth character interactions (imo the strengths of Korean crime dramas), we have a series of crimes dealt with in one or two episodes and some two dimensional characters whose personalities have been clearly modelled on the American versions. Everything skims along the surface, with no depth and no character deviation or development.

Crimes are solved in superficial and ridiculous ways in double quick-time and there’s a load of spurious criminal psychology. The convenient plot devices stack up and all credibility is trampled. The young female prosecutor seems to have inordinate amounts of time to hang around watching autopsies and never has to do anything boring like sit at her desk and work. She has a penchant for doing stupid things that get her into life-threatening situations from which she always miraculously escapes. Horrendous experiences abound with zero effect on characters who bounce back to what they were in as much time as it takes to run to the next scene. And just to increase the air of unreality, the director requires the actors to really ham it up…

If you like the style of CSI then you’ll probably like this. Personally I think it’s a really bad imitation of a bad American original.

What my rating means: 1 - 3+ Totally unbearable, but often compulsively watchable as you really can’t believe that it can be this bad.

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Lots to like but ultimately failed to convince

There was so much to like in this drama, the performances were good, the script was tight and the characters well drawn. The plot really held your interest and it managed some good twists, even if you could see some of them coming. But right at the heart of it was a major flaw as far as I was concerned, that undermined the whole thing. And no, it wasn’t the perceived immorality of forbidden love.

The fact that Edward Chen makes such an excellent job of being an immature, bratty teenager and the writing for him is spot on, makes the romantic relationship all the more difficult to understand and believe. I simply couldn’t credit that the character of the FL would be at all interested in him as a lover. Their relationship simply did not gel for me and I had to just suck it up and move on.

Plus, it’s really hard to get past the unprofessional attitude of the FL in the drama. She behaves so badly, so often, that I ended up really not liking or respecting her at all. I don’t have to like the characters to rate the show, but when it’s a romance, it’s sort of necessary to at least warm to the lead couple.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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The sentiments are worthy, the drama is is not

I was hoping for more from this drama with an MDL rating of 8.5 (at Feb 2023), but it failed to deliver, mainly because the writer has little grasp of how people actually talk and interact with each other—and it’s nothing to do with the subs. The script is occasionally insightful but mostly a clumsy, preachy, info-dump with totally non-credible convenient coincidences and unfathomable leaps of logic. The characters are strange, half-baked affairs that don’t have much depth to them. The overall result is chicken stock with some minuscule bits of interesting stuff floating around in it.

I wasn’t that impressed by the acting either. Although with this script it’s going to be a challenge delivering the lines and nothing is helped by the stilted directing. The supporting cast were not given enough of the story line and they felt like spare parts just wheeled in to lubricate the plot when necessary. I think Hoshino Get as Shima did the most creditable job.

The writer has chosen to highlight some current social issues, and yes, they are worth highlighting. But… There is little room for the viewer to form their own opinion from what they see. Instead of sympathetic emotions arising naturally, we are told (as if we are attending a sociology lecture) in strangely manufactured voice-overs and unnatural conversations what the problem is and how we should feel about it. All too common an approach at the moment, I’m afraid. As though I can’t be trusted to come up with an appropriate empathetic response all by myself, but need to be forcibly spoon-fed a sanitised, acceptable attitude. So instead of a natural compassion flowing from me, there was just a somewhat cold, cerebral understanding. As though I’d been provided with the correct answers so that I could pass the exam.

What my rating means: 5+Meh! Don't bother, it's full of platitudes and clichés with boring characters and plots.

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Wholesome apple pie

OK it’s no secret that I’m not fond of romcoms, but this one is good enough to win me over. (Thanks to Zogitt for the recommend.)

There are absolutely no surprises and it follows the tropes and clichés to the letter. You can tick them off as they come up: random football, pretend boyfriend, mistaken identity, accidental kiss etc, etc… But that doesn’t really matter with this one because the courtship is so sweetly done, with lashings of delightful flirtatious banter.

It’s full of gentle humour and is such an easy watch to chill out to. No adrenaline rushes or cringeworthy moments, no whiny manipulation or cold arrogance—just wholesome apple pie. The two leads pull it off admirably as two people finding their way to being together as they bump over the minor speed humps placed in their way. They did the psychology right for the FL which led to some beautifully touching exchanges between the lovers.

The secondary couple are a little more stilted and less easy to ship, but engaging enough. Though I’m wondering if their scenes might have been written by an assistant writer as they have more of a pedestrian quality to them.

Basically, the script is a 12 step instructional program on how to negotiate a relationship like a grown-up. And I’m being literal here, there is quite an educational tone to it and after we’ve done the obligatory PP, it does get a bit medical education for the masses and lost me somewhat in the process. But it’s way more palatable than its companion drama, “Meet Yourself” which is basically a glacial-pace (fictional) docusoap, whitewashed nicely.

Unfortunately, about three quarters of the way through it runs out of plot and the problems get solved in the background, which was pretty unsatisfying. The script lost its edge and became very ordinary and the pace really dropped off as it bumbled along to the end.

The opening titles tell you everything you need to know about the story in bite size, so if you don’t like what you see in the first one and a half minutes, then you can duck out without wasting any more time.

Be warned, the soundtrack is not just bad, it’s abysmal. There’s an inexplicable cocktail of operatic arias, from Traviata (drinking song) through to Carmen (habanera) that don’t seem to have any relevance to the action they accompany (with a splash of Beethoven and Mozart thrown in for good measure) or, you can suffer some unbelievably naff lyrics (maybe something got lost in translation) set to hotel lobby style arrangements. And my taste in clothing is just a tad different to the ML, who gets totally swoony over an absolute shocker of a dress worn by the FL and as for her shoes, well they were just plain ugly. I suppose there’s no accounting for taste.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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A bit all over the place, but really hit the spot on occasion

We all know the romcom/romantic drama plot beforehand, but just have to be willing to forget that episode 7 means that they will hug, episode 10 means they will kiss, episode 14 means they will be breaking up etc etc and "The Master’s Sun" is no different. Perhaps it is worth remembering, as I write this in 2022, that it is 9 years old and still watchable, which is worth a great deal and should therefore be forgiven if some of it seems hackneyed. It was probably not so when it first came out.

The towering strength of this drama is So Ji Sub as The Master, Joo Joong Won. Yes he plays the standard rich, cold, arrogant ML, but he does it with a believeability rating of 10+ which outshone the Sun (Gong Hyo Jin as Tae Gong Shil) and all the other little moons and asteroids circling around it. For once, the writers gave the character a credible reason for his attitude and So Ji Sub revealed it in every scene. For the first half of the drama he was the compelling watch. Not to say that Gong Hyo Jin and other cast members gave a bad performance, but it was standard fare.

The plot was a bit all over the place. It introduced short story lines for individual episodes, particularly at the start, but that eventually became annoying as it fragmented the main thrust of the story. There were also other threads and backstory to fill out the time. Joo Joong Won’s was the best of them. The backstory for Tae Gong Shil was very badly handled.

Although the Hong sisters wrote some really enjoyable interactions, especially around the love triangle, they really did scrape the barrel regarding reasons why the leads shouldn’t really be together. Some of them were understandable, but at other times, they seemed convoluted to the point of complete confusion and I had no idea what motives the writers wanted me to pick up on. The whole of episode 16 was an annoying waste of time as we went around that loop yet again.

I wanted to give this a better rating than I eventually did because it really tried to get there, but just kept not quite reaching it. I don’t think the writing was sufficiently tight to get the dynamics right over seventeen episodes. It would have worked better with the modern tendency on platforms to commission a shorter length of 12 episodes. I will say that this drama was a far superior watch to the other offering of theirs that I have ventured into—"Alchemy of Souls," which was so badly written and directed that I dropped it!

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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