My Favorite Bromance of 2021

Ok so...yes, the story isn't super complex. And yes, some of the side character story arcs are beyond superficial. But dudes, this drama was so much fun to watch I didn't care. Obviously, the star of the show is the relationship between the two male leads. They had great bro charisma together and I loved them both as enemies and as allies. Literally anything could have happened in the story and as long as that relationship was still the main plot point I would have loved it. So yes, the story is perfunctory to the drama, but who cares when it's just the platform the comedy rebounds off of.

Several of the side characters were really done as well, like the shady shrink dude and the rookie cop. Mostly the side characters were just random drop-ins, well played across the board, but not a lot of material for most of them to work with. Some of the side characters were pretty random, like the prosecutor turned lawyer and his mother...that was a weird addition, though they played their roles really well.

The drama did give me a scare toward the end when I thought...oh shit, they gonna Mouse me and ima be so pissed. But in the end they sorted everything out in their own fashion. I even cried at the end, which was super silly so I'm going with it wasn't a "story made me sad" cry but more of a "don't go cause you're the best part of this drama" cry.

I should say, I'm generally not a Lee Dong Wook superfan ...Don't egg my house. I mean, little dude is mega pretty, like too pretty with really nice hair...but I can't deal with him in romances at all, like obv the chick is gonna dig him, look at his hair yo. I mean he's had some brooding roles that he plays super well, but I think comedy is where he really stands out. Either that, or I just like comedy more than "Edward Scissorshoulders" type dramas. I definitely liked the dude in this drama, but can we get him to play some variation of the Joker at some point, cause little buddy has a massive mouth just begging for an evil villain treatment.

Anyhow, overall I'd say watch this drama (if you can find it) because it's definitely good for a few hundred laughs without forcing you to think too hard about a detailed plot that doesn't really exist. Watch it like you read a one-and-done comic book, it's great entertainment.

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Lots of pretty adults with the emotional maturity of toddlers

Before I start I should say, my rating of this drama as a 5 is probably not entirely fair, but I’m so pissed off at the story that it was a struggle to even go as high as a 5. The entire plot and every character centers around petty asinine lies. Everyone lies in this drama, and certainly every single character lies to the FL. I guess when you live in a world where everyone lies, staying in a relationship filled with lies from minute one must seem normal. But it pissed me off a lot.

This could have been a great story about overcoming odds and striving to succeed despite every roadblock. Or idk, literally any other storyline that wasn’t about the lies someone told the FL every five minutes. This story probably should have gone with a strong FL approach and just abandoned the whole romance story arc. Instead it’s all like, yo these two dudes are mega liars but since they’re the only two dudes in the entire world, pick one. Mega gross.

I don’t even dislike lying and dishonesty as a concept, but what I can’t forgive is clumsy, trite, petty lies with legit zero cleverness. I btw also dislike dudes that sob like babies while staring at a scrunchy instead of respecting their chick enough to trust she didn’t….idk even know what….screw her mentor in the back seat? Like, can we please be reasonable you immature man child?

All that hate aside, there were some good comedy moments. That’s about all this drama has going for it. The actors did well, but that unfortunately is not near enough to redeem the garbage heap of a script.

Overall l, I wouldn’t watch it again and I wouldn’t recommend it. The dude on the scooter thing was hot though, so I guess there’s that.

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Worth the dirty bloody ride.

I generally get sad about shorter format kdramas, because I'm always disappointed when they end because it feels like losing all my friends whose lives I was super invested in. My Name, however, was exactly the perfect length for the story. They could have made it a 16 episode drama, expanded on the cops' lives, expanded on the romance, played with our emotions more...but that would have detracted from the core story they were trying to tell. I appreciate that they chose to do this in fewer episodes, and I think they accomplished the storytelling in those 8 episodes very well.

That said, the story isn't exactly original or unique, it's interesting enough that it doesn't feel super derivative, but overall it's a pretty pedestrian story we've all seen retold many many times. The actors were exceptional though, especially the female lead. The determination and desperation she baked into every interaction the character had was expertly done.

I can't say I expected parts of the ending, it was pretty dark, but I think it was also appropriate for the story. The overall ending and twists you could guess from episode 1, but some of the ways it played out were unexpected. The OST was also really well put together and timed perfectly for the scenes and events.

Overall, it's definitely worth a watch. It's excellent...it didn't resonate with me on an epic level, but it was still quite exceptional.

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The only redeeming quality of this drama is Kim Seon Ho's laugh talking.

I was pretty hopeful going into this drama, and it started off ok, but for me the entire script was weighed down by really gross and unclean feeling behavior by almost every character. That's no reflection on the actors, who clearly tried their best...but the script is actual trash. I will say though, Kim Seon Ho is really fun to watch in almost every show. Little dude does this really pleasant laugh/talk combination that just makes him super likeable even when he's playing a dick or, like in this drama, a whiny entitled little crybaby.

My biggest issue with this drama, apart from the arguably weak plot hooks, is the cringe behavior of most of the characters. You've got the rich whiny dude, the rich rapey hyper-agressive immature chick (probably the best character in the show tbh, from a comedy perspective), the physically abusive FL, and the domineering-under-the-guise-of-being-helpful ML. Of them all the ML got the worst character in the script. It was gross how he forced his own personal beliefs on how people should live onto literally everyone he met. It was gross when his interactions with the FL lead turned from sweet to controlling. It was gross when he forced people to behave in ways he deemed appropriate, even when they asked him to stop. It was gross when he was allowed to behave poorly and get mad but chastised the FL lead for doing the same. The whole thing got super cringe super fast, which was disappointing because the interactions in the first part of the show seemed so healthy.

I couldn't get into this show...I almost stopped multiple times, but I have a disease where I want to finish whatever I've started...so I dropped several more hours into the frustrating and honestly offensive world these poor characters had to exist in. And I'm not talking about oppression and poverty, I'm talking about unhealthy, unsustainable behaviors that are morally questionable but try to force viewers to accept these same behaviors as some sort of pinnacle of humanity.

In the end, I regret wasting my time a little bit. I can appreciate the effort from the cast and crew, but the script was pretty banal and cringe, so what's the even point.

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Modern social concepts meet old fashioned values, making for some fun easy comedy

Man, this drama started out SO GOOD. It was fun and funny and engaging, I loved every interaction and every scene…It’s very break the 4th wall modern despite the setting. …and then they went back to the castle, and things dipped so far into boring that it was honestly difficult to slog through. The end picks up ok, but gosh that middle is almost like an entirely different drama.

A lot of kdrama comedies are like this though, they start off fun and then try to get too serious for themselves and turn the comedy from a 10 down to a 1. Normally something like this would get a much lower rating from me, but the good parts were too good to discount. If I were to try to put my finger on exactly what went wrong, I think the FL and ML were exceptional when they were playing off each other. In many episodes toward the middle they get comparatively small amounts of time together, which sucks because they had great chemistry together and that chemistry spread to the entire side character group and created something fun and magical.

The pop culture references were really well executed by both the director and the cast. The music was pretty good, and the sets were gorgeous. All of the actors were fully engaged and invested in their roles. I enjoyed having a strong female lead outsmart all of the overtly sexist men. The production team really cleverly and unobtrusively plays with current social issues without impacting your immersion in the story and without being too preachy. That part was exceptionally well conceived.

Overall it’s worth a watch, I might even watch it again some day.

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Boring endless loop of the same inane plot device

Dude, you know that annoying thing some dramas do where they make up some obscure random reason why two people can’t be together, but they overcome it in the end and hook up anyhow? This drama does that like 8 times. It’s so obnoxious. “You love me but I’m not good enough for you so I’ll run away”, “Omg you love me even though I’m trash, it’s fate!”, “except now I love you but you don’t love me cause it’s your turn to be not good enough”. For flying F sake.

Apart from that constant rehash of the same inane plot hook, the drama was ok. The acting was good, the side characters were engaging, the architectural theme was interesting.

What mostly drove me crazy is that this drama suffered from bad writing. I get it, you need to fill 16 episodes but your story only has 8 episodes of content, but dang bro at least toss in some flipping variety here and there rather than repeat the same one theme over and over and over and over. Also how flipping lazy was the ending. I really want to rage about the ending but ima hold back cause it’s too dick for me to spoiler it. Let’s just say, it’s cliche beyond words and really poorly executed.

Overall, this drama was a huge disappointment to me. I got so pissed off halfway through the last episode that I turned on a phone game out of spite and only halfway paid attention. If it had been a book I would have thrown it across the room in disgust. The actors deserved better.

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Featuring Baek Hyun Jin's insanely dramatic shrieks

Before I talk about the show, let's talk about Baek Hyun Jin and his screams/hollers/shrieks... that little dude is part Velociraptor, right? He makes noises I have never heard a human make on screen or off. It's massively entertaining and only sometimes obnoxious. I've seen him do it a few times in other dramas, but Happiness provided him with a great many opportunities to implement his raptor shriek, and it fit very well with his character's cowardly evil personality.

Happiness was ok. It was, for me, just a tad over acceptable but not epic. As other reviewers have pointed out, there are a lot of minor inconsistencies, plot holes, and confusing logic leaps. There are some elements I just cannot wrap my head around the logic of....like why was this apparently government boss dude the literally only guy in charge of the whole outbreak. I can't think of any government that would work that way, there would be lots of officials involved in an operation of this scale. Also why did the relationship develop between the detective and this military boss dude, that part really seemed to stretch the bounds of logic for me. Why too, if the side character brother also had antibodies was his wound purple and diseased looking where the FL's wound was not, where they multiple times in the script bring up the color of the wound's surrounding area as an indicator of infection.

The direction crew did a really terrible job with consistency, so many shots will have the actors holding a prop in their hand from on angle, but when it cuts over to the next angle the prop is gone or in the wrong hand or different. It's pretty jarring and there are multiple examples of this in every single episode. The attention to detail in this Kdrama was pretty bad, and those things break immersion which definitely reduces my impression of a drama.

The acting was pretty good, there were a few sort of one-note bland characters and it was a little disappointing that they didn't delve into any of the backstory on side characters at all, which made it difficult to connect with them emotionally. The ML and FL had good synergy. The FL especially did an awesome job representing her character's personality consistently, so you truly believed her as a character. The action scenes were pretty well done for the most part, though there seemed to be some inconsistency around when a lead could attack a gun holding person vs when they just stood there at gun/knife point. There was a really awesome scene the ML does (or his stunt double probably) where he in one swift move drops to the ground and grapples the preacher zombie's leg, spinning around it to take him down, it was pretty badass.

Overall, it was a pretty good show, though the lack of consistency in the script and directing limited the potential of the actors. Even so, 90% of this drama takes place in hallways, and it's pretty impressive that you can keep people immersed well enough that they remain watching with such dull scenery.

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Can someone help me understand how Lee Sang Yoon's face works?

Can someone help me understand how Lee Sang Yoon's face works? Seriously...it's the strangest thing I've ever seen. Dude smiles a ton, but the corners of his mouth like...never move. His entire face smiles while his lips are busy frowning like they haven't got the memo. And sometimes...the universe basically flips over and the little guy seriously smiles upside down. Like in most people, that's a frown. How is it even possible to smile upside down?? 100% my brain is like, this dude is smiling. Like it's unmistakable dude is for sure smiling...why his mouth corners point down when he smiles idk. Some strange metaphysics BS going on here.

Don't take this as hate though, like definitely the guy can do a range of emotions and is a good actor. Just playfully negging on his smile because it legit breaks my actual brain to look at.

This drama was so much fun to watch. Anything with Honey Lee in it is honestly fun to watch, she has such a fun personality. It always impresses me that someone so beautiful can pull off slapstick humor the way she does. She brightens up the screen the moment she's in the shot and you can't wait to see what she'll do next. They definitely cast her perfectly in this role and played up every advantage she had to offer. From the first minute to the last second of the epilogue the entire thing was impressively well done.

The side characters were phenomenal as well...although to be fair I absolutely adore Na Young Hee and Kim Won Hae in everything they've pretty much ever been in. They have such a broad range, the both of them. Although I was a tiny tiny bit disappointed they didn't ham up Kim Won Hae's character a little more. His character, as written, was a little too shallowly portrayed to really take advantage of the actor's innate skills. The household director was great, the gang members were super funny, the prosecutor sidekick little dude was insanely handsome and did great with his role as well.

The OST was pretty banal, which was disappointing, but not a show stopper. The sets and costumes were colorful and expertly meshed with the various personalities (like come on, the widow of the eldest son and those constant massive puffy sleeves fit her timid-but-trying personality very well). I wish there had been more fight scenes though, like I really wanted to see the FL rescue the ML in a 1 vs 17 fight and watch his expression of amazement.

Overall, this drama is definitely worth a watch! It's engaging and fun and breaks out of serious moments with the sweetest interactions while constantly promoting one of the most supportive and healthy romance relationships I've seen in a kdrama. I think this style of "never mind about the tropes" romance suits both the characters and lead actors very well.

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Let's play "count the flies"...there were a LOT.

First of all, regardless of what the inspiration for this Kdrama was, do not expect anything like (or remotely close to) Killing Eve. For me, that wasn't a bad thing at all. This drama is expertly done, the characters are so well written and the interactions between all the characters are packed with so much chemistry. I've seen some less than positive reviews, but I honestly don't know what left field they came from because this drama is so engaging and well done.

The main villain was really appealing, I totally bought her 100% as the bad guy, she was absolutely insane but in the most pleasant way to watch. The music that played whenever she was going crazy was so memorable and felt exactly what her head must have felt like while she was high on the darkness within. The entire OST was really expertly crafted and matched the scenes perfectly.

The main and side characters were all interesting, there was a lot of humor, and the evil darkness of the plot was so colorfully presented with such rich character interactions. But above everything else, the FL was spectacular. Out of every single minute of the drama there was only one tiny scene at the end where I didn't buy her performance, and it was super super minor. In every other moment of this drama her character is so expertly depicted, I never once felt like her behavior was unrealistic at all. Her interactions with every single character in the drama absolutely made the show successful.

To the dude who scoffed at the dirty gamer chick aspect of things, it isn't just guilt that makes someone like this, it's depression. Living in filth, obsessing over an intricate hobby, failing to bathe, drinking, generally not caring about the world around you, these are all massive signs of depression and I thought the drama did a great job of portraying them. 500% better than dragging someone out of the gutter and having them be suddenly competent and successful. This was, in my mind, completely realistic and very much mirrors how some people deal with grief. Something like the suicide of a spouse destroys most people left behind, and I think it would have been disingenuous to represent it otherwise.

I rated this drama really highly not just because it impressed me so much while watching it, but also because the stories and OST stuck with me long after the drama had ended. I really hope there's a season 2 so we can figure out Santa's whole deal. I'm really glad the show didn't focus on "fixing the broken person" but instead molded itself around her like a blanket, allowing her to retain her eccentricities without trying to force her into some societal mold of what a functional human being should be.

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"De-puff your cheeks or I'll pop them"

The whole premise for this show is bonkers. So many super wrong behaviors just get written off with light comedy. But whatever, it was ok for a quick light watch. It was not, however, clever or sensical. So many leaps were made with so little justification. The chemistry wasn't terrible, except the male lead. I don't know if he was trying to come off as aloof and misinterpreted that as being above emotion as well, but I just didn't get any sort of good feeling from him in this drama compared to the other dramas he's been in...his emotion for everything was listless, whether rage, love, or annoyance, same face for them all. He had a lot of good dry one-liners though, which provided a nice platform for the FL to rebound off of.

The female lead was cute and engaging with massive eyes...but they stole too much of her character from Strong Woman Do Bong Soon....except the entire show she's tossing dudes around like they're nothing but in the end she can't defend herself at all suddenly? Still, her character was good and the execution was pretty well done, she had a lot of great comedy moments.

All in all, I don't regret watching it, but it fell pretty flat for me.

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A Must Watch for the Ear Wiggles

This show was very well done, a little violent but if you can get past that it's a great drama. There is lots of suspense and some huge mysteries for the viewer to mull over and some really great action scenes. The acting was ok, it weirded me out a little at first that the ML, unlike in other action Kdramas, spends so much time looking around mid conversation. It fits, however, with his PTSD and occupation, constantly scanning for threats. So even though it was distracting to watch as a viewer, I think it was a very tastefully done addition to the character's personality portrayal.

The other thing that was a little uncomfortable to watch was the ML trying to walk. Poor little dude bulked up so much it looks actually difficult to move around. He still manages agility and precision with the action scenes, but the tight suits he wore seemed to be especially restrictive with all that bulk. He ends up with a walking posture that reminds me of hardcore cowboys who spend their days on horses and end up walking with their legs spread as though an invisible horse back is keeping them spread apart.

I'm glad they branched off after the show and made a special with the Seo Soo Yeon character, because she felt a little unjustly served in this drama. All the women in this drama were badass except for fight scenes, which annoyed me a little. I would have liked to see some female characters competent in fighting, but I get that the main showcase was the ML and his aggressively bulky body. Instead of having the ML and FL anything close to equals, they went with a mouse and a lion strategy. It plays out ok, since in the end the mouse saves the lion, just like in the fairy tale...but I'm not sure it would have detracted from the story to have it be a lioness and a lion instead.

All in all, this was a very well done show with very clean and smooth visuals, decent acting, and a really well thought out storyline. The conundrum at the end was very emotionally engaging and really brought the whole psychological overtones of the story full circle. It's definitely worth a watch.

Oh and the ear wiggles...the ML, especially toward the end, does some insane acrobatics with his ears. It was fascinating to watch. I didn't even know human ears could move like that.

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Clean the darn phones please.

This is a pretty good drama for just casual entertainment that doesn't require a lot of concentration or reasoning. The actors were good enough, the sets were pretty, the costumes of the leads were some of the best I've seen in a kdrama. There wasn't a lot of annoying love triangle or "we can't be together because of xyz" plot hooks, so that was refreshing. The male lead was funny and engaging without being overbearing and controlling.

Aside from being a fairly shallow storyline, it was a worthwhile watch...not epic, not great, but not terrible and good enough to pass the time enjoyably. There were some dark themes and a lot of the typical kdrama life wisdom lines. The relationship between the two main leads was fun to watch and it was nice to see them support each other through hardships. The chemistry was pretty good, though it clashed a lot with the female lead's overall stiff and wounded personality, so it was hard sometimes to see the chemsitry. When they got it right though, it was pretty fun to watch them interact.

There isn't a lot else to say. My only real issue with this drama were the landline phones. The phone handset in the gallery offices were always covered in weird slimy looking grime that really detracted from the clean set visuals for me. A lot of the windows were needlessly grimy too. Apart from that, the rooftop window had some weird visual effect on its crossbars that seemed to have been pulled straight from 1980s powerpoint.

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Watch it like a long movie, not like a short Kdrama.

Wow there sure are a lot of bad reviews here. It's true that is this an awfully short format for a Kdrama, and that impacted the sort of character development we're used to. What you get here is longer than a movie, but shorter than the vast majority of Kdramas, and for that shortened format I thought it was exceptionally well done. In movies, you often see unexplained plot points and less developed characters, this is more like a long movie than a short Kdrama. The CG heavy baby was a little weird to watch, but the overall story was pretty impressive. Maybe it's the world we live in these days, but it seemed super realistic to me that people would just blindly accept a new faith because they are so desperate for any answer, regardless of whether or not that answer makes logical sense.

The part of this that seemed unrealistic to me was not having the military getting involved at all. Like weird alien assholes saying they're from god show up and melt people and no one even tries to nuke them? For sure if something like this happened IRL it would be more like the people who were given the decree would be taken to a military base and all sorts of testing would be done to see whether the decree can be thwarted or the fat ropey alien golem things killed. Mostly because if this were a decree from god against bad people, all the wealthy people in power would find themselves first on the chopping block and thus eager to learn how to protect themselves. That part of it I really had to suspend logic to get through. Maybe that's coming in season 2 idk.

The acting was pretty good, the visuals were good, and the story was compelling and would have been probably more appropriately set either in the distant future post-apocalypse or in the distant past....someplace with out technology. If it were set in modern day you'd have every scientist in the global community trying to snip off a piece of the aliens to see what they're made of and how they might be destroyed.

If you suspend your belief through all that and just take the story as it is, I think it's pretty compelling to watch how quickly people turn on each other, even their own friends and family, if they believe it will afford them more personal safety. That, I think, is the real message of this show. People are sheep and will flock to whatever group or religion that affords them the highest level of safety. People will greedily grasp at power to achieve some illusion of control. People will judge and condemn others in a heartbeat, if it means not ending up on the losing side.

Overall, this is entertaining, has a poignant message, and is worth a watch. If the plot seems confused, it's because you are watching a world in which all the participants are also confused. You don't have a single main lead guide who stays with you the entire show to fit the pieces together for you, you're abandoned and alone and trying to make sense of it all just like every character in this drama. And I think that's pretty poetic.

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Nose whistles, bird chirps, this drama has it all!

Dude....the emotional parlor tricks at the end of the last episode...why do kdrama directors hate us so much. Like dude, I've already watched 31.5 episodes, do you really need to plant your hook so deep to ensure I watch the last 15 minutes? IDK, it was a dark but reasonably well done drama. The actors were all so pretty, so it was fun to watch. There was nothing super innovative about it, it's a pretty cliche topic. But I guess that's not a bad thing, it felt familiar while still being just different enough that it was worth watching.

The acting was decent, although some of the bad guys were pretty one-note stoic, which was a little weird. The Police Team Leader chick was pretty killer. Her emotional range is really broad and her brisk but assertive tonality in her line delivery really makes me believe the character she's trying to sell. They did an exceptional job with the casting, outside of those few I mentioned before.

Some parts genuinely bother me. Like if you spend 29 episodes making these heroes seem like geniuses, how in the last 3 episodes do they suddenly become ineffective half-waits that suddenly can't solve simple problems. Did they all take idiot pills at the end of episode 29 and I just missed it? Lazy lazy writing to end a story using an easy excuse. Really annoyed with that. The other thing that bothered me is that some of the soundscape noises just aren't right. The birds outside from inside the church were one of the worst offenders. They did, however, manage to catch every inhale, exhale, and nose whistle. This is probably the only show I've ever seen where I hear one of the main leads nose whistle faintly a lot when they breathe. I think I should have used less sensitive speaker settings.

One thing that stood out impressively in this drama was the OST. Some of those songs really stick in your head and the action scene songs really set the stage and pull you into the excitement.

Overall, it's pretty good, worth a watch, not excellent but not every drama needs to be excellent.

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The Main Character of This Story is...THAT HORRIBLE BEARD

I'm gonna be straight with you people...I almost didn't watch this show because of the beard. Like...it's not even a normal beard it's a weird flat clump of sparse bristles stuck to the underside of dude's chin. I dig a good beard, but the style of this one is pretty repulsive. So imagine my surprise and delight when the beard became the focus of so many episodes! I felt righteously justified when Yumi hated it too, and was super happy whenever it got axed.

It's sort of a weird dichotomy to be rooting for the removal of something that was clearly important to the dude, when in my own life I strive to almost never force my own preferences on another person (except long nose hairs, like IDC who you are if you're coming at me with spider legs sliding along the outside edge of your nostrils you gonna hear about it). Like normally I would be annoyed at the female character for wanting to force the dude to change himself to fit her preference...but that beard was so unflattering.

ANYHOW, beard aside, going into this I was also pretty skeptical of the cartoon and live action combination. There's something probably broken in my brain, I really don't enjoy cartoons. However, now that it's over I have to say they did a pretty good job. They really made the little cartoon cells part of the story in a way that amplified the messages they were trying to get across. It was nice to see the cells so accurately depict the inner struggles we all go through, and it was interesting how differently the two leads' cells were represented. Some of the maddening choices people make in these dramas (and often IRL too) are difficult for me to accept and understand, but the cells helped bridge that gap and made it so I could understand where each person was coming from and why they made the choices they made. I definitely think the inclusion of the cartoon cells benefitted this production immensely.

One other thing I should note...the OST and the sound team did an exceptional job in this show. The scene at the end with almost every sound muted but the fountain was so well done. Other scenes had similar effects, the audio choices really resonated with the emotions in the scene in a way I've rarely seen anyone pull off successfully. The DRAMA in a soundscape isn't an easy thing to pull off, but they put so much care and effort into making the background sounds a part of the story that it was noticeably masterful.

All of that said, I think this is an exceptionally well done show and definitely worth a watch. There was comedy, feels, and just enough mystery to keep the thing going episode after episode. It wasn't epic, but it was pretty darn good. To be fair, relationship struggle dramas rate generally pretty low for me, so 7.5 is actually a really good score!

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