What a disappointment this drama was for me. Lee Min Ki was given no space to develop his character further than repeatedly begging the FL “don’t do it again, I’ll catch you”, there was nothing special or interesting about him. The emotional scenes between the sick and their close ones were given extensive time at the same time as the writer / director kept several (sub)plots running in the remaining time, which resulted into rushed hopping between short scenes. In the second half of the series and especially towards the end the story was kind of dragging without much development overall.
The trailer does not show much more than cars speeding, cars flying, cars rolling and cars exploding :)
No. I am not really a fan of American movies and series. Sometimes I give something on Netflix a chance but 99% of the time I cannot make it through the first 10 minutes :).
Looked like fun until I saw the ML - I have never enjoyed watching him and I'm stuck on "Because this is My First…
The first time I watched BTIMFL, I too struggled with LMK at the beginning. This was the first time I've ever seen both LMK and JSM. I though how come this brilliant FM (JSM) is in the same thing as this guy (LMK), she was phenomenal right from the start, and he was just... dull. I did not want to give up, the drama seemed to be too good, and I did not believe they would put a bad actor in the good mix. Therefore, I "paused" watching the drama and tried these three things:
1) I watched his other works, mainly Spellbound, Monster, Very Ordinary Couple. I got to understand he was actually an exceptionally good and accomplished actor. 2) I watched the drama on other streaming service (Viki), not on Netflix - Netflix had quite bad translations, for example ignoring the meaning Korean idioms ("touch the water"....) Viki translations provided context and meaning of the phrases so suddenly many conversations made much more sense. 3) I started to focus more on details of his acting.
What happened next was that I started to notice small but very important nuances in his acting which I totally overlooked before. I found out that it was the deliberate stiffness of the character, not of his acting. I actually started to like him a lot and my opinion on him turned completely around.
Not gonna lie the trailers are kind of weak but can't imagine that the FL and ML would choose a weak script. Talking…
I also thought LMK would not pick a bad script, however, "Oh! My Ladylord" or whatever it was called, where he was ML with Nana as FL, that one was absolutely terrible. The script was a total mess.
I could not believe LMK chose to be in something like that after Monster, Spellbound, Very Ordinary Couple or BTIMFL, but well, he did. So I would not hold my breath.
The one drama that totally deserves season two is Because This Is My First Life. The drama was really good and the cast was excellent. The lead actors - Lee Min Ki and Jung So Min - had fantastic chemistry. They were absolutely compatible not only as characters but also behind the scenes.
No chaebols, no toxic relationship between the leads, no boys from stars... Just two ordinary people struggling with their lives who coincidentally found each other and grew an unbreakable bond of love between them. I miss this realistic, mature, and intelligent drama.
Pros: The main group of actors. Both Nana and LMK did an excellent job, the same goes for their mothers and the "friend" from the record shop.
Cons: The plot is a mess, things happen for no real reason, sub-plots and characters randomly appear and then disappear. The male lead flips between being sweet and being a**hole to the female lead for no reason (there is actually no reason for any man to behave like that to any woman), but I guess this is something typical for k-dramas to "make things spicy". I personally hate it.
I watched this drama because of LMK. He typically choses good scripts. For example, Because This Is My First Life is my most favorite k-drama ever. It's exactly because of things this one lacks - lead male RESPECTING the lead female - no yelling, not being a complete douchebag just because... reasons; logical plot, natural development of relationship, intelligent humor...
1) I watched his other works, mainly Spellbound, Monster, Very Ordinary Couple. I got to understand he was actually an exceptionally good and accomplished actor.
2) I watched the drama on other streaming service (Viki), not on Netflix - Netflix had quite bad translations, for example ignoring the meaning Korean idioms ("touch the water"....) Viki translations provided context and meaning of the phrases so suddenly many conversations made much more sense.
3) I started to focus more on details of his acting.
What happened next was that I started to notice small but very important nuances in his acting which I totally overlooked before. I found out that it was the deliberate stiffness of the character, not of his acting. I actually started to like him a lot and my opinion on him turned completely around.
I could not believe LMK chose to be in something like that after Monster, Spellbound, Very Ordinary Couple or BTIMFL, but well, he did. So I would not hold my breath.
EDIT: Oh well, it is actually stated right here on this site that it will indeed be on Netflix :) I should learn to read :)
No chaebols, no toxic relationship between the leads, no boys from stars... Just two ordinary people struggling with their lives who coincidentally found each other and grew an unbreakable bond of love between them. I miss this realistic, mature, and intelligent drama.
Pros: The main group of actors. Both Nana and LMK did an excellent job, the same goes for their mothers and the "friend" from the record shop.
Cons: The plot is a mess, things happen for no real reason, sub-plots and characters randomly appear and then disappear. The male lead flips between being sweet and being a**hole to the female lead for no reason (there is actually no reason for any man to behave like that to any woman), but I guess this is something typical for k-dramas to "make things spicy". I personally hate it.
I watched this drama because of LMK. He typically choses good scripts. For example, Because This Is My First Life is my most favorite k-drama ever. It's exactly because of things this one lacks - lead male RESPECTING the lead female - no yelling, not being a complete douchebag just because... reasons; logical plot, natural development of relationship, intelligent humor...
Overall: Disappointing.
Never mind, let's see what LMK does next.