Turtle Stomper
Seattle (USA)
This review may contain spoilers
DO NOT PUT YOUR GLASSES LENS-DOWN ON THE PAVEMENT YOU MONSTERS!
TBH, I skipped over this one many many times before I decided to watch it. The plot sounded weird and I wasn't sure what sort of drama it would be. After having watched it...the plot is definitely weird and sparse and it probably would have been a really bad drama, but the actors and the director for sure took this thin weak plot and turned it into something entertaining. The dialog is written pretty well at various points, so that helped. The music was well timed and themed to the drama's events, which is always nice.
By far, the best written and acted role was Yi Do's secretary (played by Kim Ki Doo). That little dude, I liked him so much. He was never judgy or overbearing, he listened when he needed to listen and always asked the right questions or made the right comments with genuine concern. Usually these side roles in dramas end up being overbearing and annoying because they are designed to keep the leads from accomplishing their goals to create...well...drama. But that little dude was 100% of the time the friend all of us wish we had. He didn't get much of his own character development or back story, but somehow every scene he was in was outstanding.
The other actors/actresses were good as well. They did a great job with their emotional responses and chemistry with each other. The villain was appropriately evil, that dude always plays a great villain. He's got a sort of wobble in his voice that just makes him sound so greedy and spiteful and mean. Most of the fashion in the show was decent as well...except...why the literal crap did they keep dressing the main lead like he was the child of Herman Munster?? Like...ok, dude has massive cheekbones and always looks a little gaunt anyhow, and he's beastly massive, so your plan is to dress him in obscenely oversized clothes with chin to waist ruffles?? TWICE...he wore that god awful ruffle shirt TWICE. Or harsh lined weird full box box clothes?? When he wasn't cosplaying as an Amazon box painted black, he was cosplaying as a vampire from the 1500s. It was SUCH a weird choice. Like...imagine a cute anime goth boy with an oversized hoodie that has arms so long they drag the floor...but then stick that outfit on an 8 foot living gargoyle...that's what his outfits were like. Dude is super hot, it's like they went out of their way to make him look freakish.
The film effects were a little weird. Like intentional shaking and unsteady camera at times that seemed a little extreme for the scene, or these massive screen spreading lens flares. Initially I thought, oh the weird diffused light and lens flares are comedy for whenever the idol dude comes on the screen, and so I was fine with them. Like lol it's the hot guy again. But then they started doing them all the time and it got a little painful to watch. Not like painful-ugly but like actually physically painful from having bright lights glaring at you while you're trying to watch the actors speak.
Aside from those few small complaints, the one thing that really rubbed me the wrong way in this drama...like made me cringe and want to just shut the whole thing off... was the scene that played a few times where the child version of the lead dude falls onto the ground, takes his glasses of, PUTS THEM LENS DOWN ON THE FLIPPING CEMENT, and cries. Look. I'ma be honest with you here. I've been wearing glasses my whole life, and at no point in my life ever have I not cringed when accidentally setting them lens down. The pure unbridled rage I feel watching those lenses, which are for sure scratched to hell now, being set roughly onto pavement almost ruined the entire drama for me. Mr. Director, do you have ANY idea how ANNOYING it is to look through scratched lenses? People who wear glasses take GREAT CARE, even while having a tantrum on the ground, to not scratch their MF GD lenses. That alone should have put this drama in the horror category.
I should also say, I thought they did a decent job dealing with the whole fat person vs thin person social issues. Sure, they could have done better, but they could have done a lot worse too. Mostly they came out on the winning side of the equation though. They handled things respectfully but realistically without trying to stuff social justice down your throat or fat shaming the characters.
All in all, it was a much better drama than I anticipated. I wouldn't watch it again because it's a one-and-done sort of drama, but I do not regret watching it.
By far, the best written and acted role was Yi Do's secretary (played by Kim Ki Doo). That little dude, I liked him so much. He was never judgy or overbearing, he listened when he needed to listen and always asked the right questions or made the right comments with genuine concern. Usually these side roles in dramas end up being overbearing and annoying because they are designed to keep the leads from accomplishing their goals to create...well...drama. But that little dude was 100% of the time the friend all of us wish we had. He didn't get much of his own character development or back story, but somehow every scene he was in was outstanding.
The other actors/actresses were good as well. They did a great job with their emotional responses and chemistry with each other. The villain was appropriately evil, that dude always plays a great villain. He's got a sort of wobble in his voice that just makes him sound so greedy and spiteful and mean. Most of the fashion in the show was decent as well...except...why the literal crap did they keep dressing the main lead like he was the child of Herman Munster?? Like...ok, dude has massive cheekbones and always looks a little gaunt anyhow, and he's beastly massive, so your plan is to dress him in obscenely oversized clothes with chin to waist ruffles?? TWICE...he wore that god awful ruffle shirt TWICE. Or harsh lined weird full box box clothes?? When he wasn't cosplaying as an Amazon box painted black, he was cosplaying as a vampire from the 1500s. It was SUCH a weird choice. Like...imagine a cute anime goth boy with an oversized hoodie that has arms so long they drag the floor...but then stick that outfit on an 8 foot living gargoyle...that's what his outfits were like. Dude is super hot, it's like they went out of their way to make him look freakish.
The film effects were a little weird. Like intentional shaking and unsteady camera at times that seemed a little extreme for the scene, or these massive screen spreading lens flares. Initially I thought, oh the weird diffused light and lens flares are comedy for whenever the idol dude comes on the screen, and so I was fine with them. Like lol it's the hot guy again. But then they started doing them all the time and it got a little painful to watch. Not like painful-ugly but like actually physically painful from having bright lights glaring at you while you're trying to watch the actors speak.
Aside from those few small complaints, the one thing that really rubbed me the wrong way in this drama...like made me cringe and want to just shut the whole thing off... was the scene that played a few times where the child version of the lead dude falls onto the ground, takes his glasses of, PUTS THEM LENS DOWN ON THE FLIPPING CEMENT, and cries. Look. I'ma be honest with you here. I've been wearing glasses my whole life, and at no point in my life ever have I not cringed when accidentally setting them lens down. The pure unbridled rage I feel watching those lenses, which are for sure scratched to hell now, being set roughly onto pavement almost ruined the entire drama for me. Mr. Director, do you have ANY idea how ANNOYING it is to look through scratched lenses? People who wear glasses take GREAT CARE, even while having a tantrum on the ground, to not scratch their MF GD lenses. That alone should have put this drama in the horror category.
I should also say, I thought they did a decent job dealing with the whole fat person vs thin person social issues. Sure, they could have done better, but they could have done a lot worse too. Mostly they came out on the winning side of the equation though. They handled things respectfully but realistically without trying to stuff social justice down your throat or fat shaming the characters.
All in all, it was a much better drama than I anticipated. I wouldn't watch it again because it's a one-and-done sort of drama, but I do not regret watching it.
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