This is an extremely flawed, but still enjoyable, drama. There were a lot of things that I would have done completely differently, but when everything is said and done it wasn't the worst drama I have seen.
The actors were fair to middlin' as my nana would say. There wasn't really anything spectacular here, nothing extraordinary. In fact, as I am writing this, I can't think of a single scene that really blew me away or left me dying for more. I did finish all but the last part of episode 32 in two days, so that's not say that this drama isn't somewhat compelling.
I think my main point of contention with this drama was just how many dropped story points there were. There were so many people and situations introduced that we just never heard from again. And even with the main characters, it was like they were only used when it was convenient for the storyline. During the whole basement period where no one knew where Kang Hwi was, it was like he had never existed with any of the characters other than Man Ok. And why do we never find out what happened to Tae Ik's parents? Or more of what happened with Kang Hwi's? Though, we did get more of Kang Hwi's than Tae Ik's at least. And the whole consequences of the gambling thing are never brought up again either after that one episode.
The whole thing ended up feeling a little schizophrenic and all over the place. I was extremely disappointed in the lack of friendship between Kang Hwi and Tae Ik. We are supposed to believe that these people were best friends, to the point that Se Ryung was jealous she tried to destroy it. But that's what I don't get. If it was that strong a relationship, how was it that all she had to do was kiss him and it was irrevocably destroyed? I just refuse to believe that a friendship that is supposedly so strong could be destroyed so easily and so permanently and that Tae Ik would never stop and think that maybe he was misunderstanding his very best friend.
As for villains, LJ was just a ridiculous one. I have a really hard time believing someone in his position woul continuously make as many poor choices as he did. If there was a wrong or dumb move to make, he was going to make it. It didn't come across as evil, just as if the writers expected their viewers to not care that all of it was just dumb.
All in all, it was just poorly executed. The first Full House was my very first Asian drama, but even so I came into this with low expectations. I just feel really sad that with as low as they were, they still couldn't be met. I would say if you have free time and nothing else to watch, then give this a shot. Otherwise there are much better love triangle dramas, and way way better kpop dramas out there. I mean, seriously, you are going to make a drama about a kpop duo and only give them ONEFREAKINGSONG to sing and dance on stage? I can understand it may be difficult to write your own songs for a show, I don't really know what goes into something like that. But if you know you only have ONE SONG, why oh why do you make them perform at least once every little half episode for the first 10 parts? You can touch, be my girl, you can fly, let me love love you tonight. It will never get out of my head!
As an aside, seriously, I think these boys were absolutely insane for hiring anyone with hair that awful and who dressed that poorly as their stylist. She wore a shirt with a collar made of stuffed cats for Christ's sake. My brain just kepy repeating "Did that really just happen?" over and over again.
I'd really like to come up with a list of positive things about this show to explain why I actually liked it. But honestly, I think I liked it because I just have really awful taste! And I'm OK with that :p
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