isang18
Maybe Indiana. Probably Greece.
The Com runs out long before the Rom
I thought I'd found something entertaining and amusing. Something that might actually be a rom com. I made it as far as episode 8 before I figured out that this script was going nowhere interesting and that I was not invested in any of the characters. Halfway through I thought I could make it work if I treated it as a farce so I tried to enjoy it as such. It devolved into a pointless, ordinary drama. This was not what I was promised. It was less about hijinks and more of a joke at the expense of my time.Maybe I could have made it until the end but I really hated what they did to the FL. I liked Jeon Jong Seo a lot in the beginning. I love that she has that touch of RBF to make her look like a woman you'd regret messing with. But then her character went from hustling underdog to being hated by everyone as she was tossed around by a pair of rich kids. It doesn't matter whether their intentions are romantic or not. She comes out of it looking like some chaebol plaything from a past that we'd like to forget.
Dropped and pass.
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A trip to the sperm bank
Let's call things by their name. This is not a romantic comedy. It's barely a romantic drama. The Netflix publicity poster that has three men following a woman like she's a bitch in heat is misleading. It's even less funny than that. There are no hijinks and no hilarious misunderstandings. The supporting cast is led by a mother who pays lip service to supporting her daughter while she channels every social prejudice.It's nothing more or less than an infertility melodrama. If that's what you were looking for, stay. Otherwise I cannot recommend it.
There are three men involved. One man looks like he lives in eternal sorrow and puts on a happy mask. One man looks like he's having a sad, incestuous fantasy. And one child doesn't even know why he's part of the conversation as we watch another woman pursue him for most of the series. It's not even a love square with three men urgently looking to deposit their seed. It's a meat market with a selection of goods about as appetizing as a Soviet supermarket shelf. In the end she buys whatever's available on any shelf and it's half a pound of ersatz mortadella.
Jang Na-ra did her reputation no harm in this role. She was given little to work with and made it look like a lot. The male leads were given crappy stories and struggled to rise above them. Park Byung-eun demonstrated his uncanny skill for looking pathetic in a role that wasn't good enough for him. The supporting roles were generic and bereft of standouts.
As another reviewer correctly said, I felt catfished.
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Queen of Tropes
Let's start by saying that I'm not a sworn enemy of tropes. Euripides and Shakespeare used them all the time to good effect in similarly dramatic works. QoT *almost* uses a million of them to good effect. The problem is that they wore out by episode 12. After that you have to get to the bottom of the barrel to keep the bad guys getting badder and the good guys, um, gooder. By the end, in which all just deserts are served and loose ends are tied up, the tropes are about as appetizing as a bar rag at 3 am.As others have said this show is carried by the acting. The leads' performance is nothing short of spectacular. I can find no fault in the acting, production, or directing, all of which maximized the middling potential of the overambitious script that they were given. I've spent enough time on sets to recognize the brilliant work of the crew in scenery, lighting, outdoor settings, everything. And I couldn't get enough of Berlin.
This is not my usual style of show. I didn't even like CLOY. But it caught my attention. The only thing that held back QoT's binge potential for me was that it was emotionally INTENSE. I rarely watch anything twice but understand why others would want to do so. For all these reasons I rate it highly.
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Largely pointless
Is this a political drama dressed as a rom com? A farce about adultery? A romantic drama about pachinko and politics? Maybe I could accept any of those answers but the truth is that this series has no identity or purpose.I don't know if it went wrong with the casting or with the script first. In the end my problem was that two thirds of the way through the series I still had found not one likable character. Every single character was too self-absorbed and irresponsible to root for or even take interest in. I felt like I was looking at people aimlessly lying, cheating, or bullying their way through life. Was the funny part supposed to be the revelation that people can't keep it in their pants?
Perhaps the show is a great, cynical ode to the lack of self control but as a comedy it leaves me cold. The ending was basically "okay, fine, good for them, why did I watch this?"
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