Confounding double standard of beauty standards

Fantasy is all about immersion and it pretty much immediately took me out when the pretty Park Bo Young is the face of the supposedly downgrade version of the soul make over for the physical body where as for the male lead there is a clear difference between regular person and an archetypal idol looking guy. From the story standpoint there needed to be way more flashbacks of Se Yeon's point of view about Cha Min throughout their teen years and their adulthood before their transformations to back up her claims that she has always had a crush on him and not just after he got a new face and body. The measly few that they gave were too ambiguous. They also needed to show Cha Min being the fantastic business leader while in his original body, even if it's just a brief flashback to start off or bookend the current day scenes of his new face at the business meeting. It leaves a bad taste that they never show Cha Min being savvy and smart when it came to his work as his original self even though he clearly was, only ever showing his desperate for Se Yeon's attention side for comic relief. His fear as he was about to die was literally played for laughs.

Who gets what kind of soul transformation through Abyss is really arbitrary, like taking an existing ex-worker's visage. As is the usage of it in the finale to turn Cha Min into a ghost and to bring him back are all done at the convenience of the writers to move the plot along as needed. The real Lee Mi Do's random and conveniently drastic plastic surgery was really nonsensical and the show made no attempt to explain it. I enjoyed seeing Seo In Guk and Jung So Min's cameos as the aliens that accidentally knocked a already falling Cha Min off the building and bribed him to forgive them with the Abyss resurrection sphere. Seo In Guk was in the preceding drama of the same writer and next stars with Park Bo Young in Doom At Your Service. The threat of Ji Wook and the ticking clock of the leads trying to outsmart him was believable. It was truly horrendous when he pushed Hee Jin's mom's body that was in the suit case into the ocean, a woman that genuinely cared for him and tried to protect him. He's a way more effective villain than his cartoony step dad/fellow serial killer.

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Service: Four out of Five Stars

Nothing like a genuine wish to destroy the world to kick start an epic romance between the embodiment of doom and a writing editor. One of the series' strong suits is the romantic/domestic bantering between Dong Kyung and Sa Ram, and also the funny work/life bantering between Dong Kyung and Joo Ik. Her relationship with everyone in her life, from Sa Ram, to her family, friends, and colleagues are nice too. The set design where Dong Kyung cozy apartment splits a wall with Sa Ram's cave vibes mansion is pretty cool.

There are a couple scenes that really stood out to me. One is when Dong Kyung wants to get the last bag in stock for her aunt and tells the other customer and the cashier that she only has a few months to live so they let her have it. She does it in a way that sounds like she's using a trick, but it's true. It's like a morbid imposter syndrome. The other scene is when Dong Kyung steps up to block a stab to Sa Ram just by instinct of wanting to protect him from pain, because even if he won't die, he'll still bleed. That's so swoony of Dong Kyung. The amnesia section was pretty well done. They inevitably meet again and I like how the drama plays with the similarity and differences from their initial meeting to now.

Even though he brought doom to the world, he always cared about humans even before he fell in love with one, doing little things like avenging victims by torturing their murderers. When he embraces his own destruction over the end of everything Dong Kyung loves, it's heart wrenching and impactful in the quiet way that he fades away. It's lovely that he became a doctor for real after cosplaying one for so long. I do like how the final episode is spent bringing everyone together and letting Sa Ram settle into his new human life. It's good he has a creator who can set everything all nice for him. He keeps his mansion, car, and is a doctor though he really needs to work for it as emergency services is really demanding. The running gag of him being a ghost doctor and people seeing him in different visages is pretty funny too. He gets to finally end the handsome ghost doctor hauntings by being a real handsome doctor.

The weakest part of the story is how it bisects into two different dramas, like a whole spin off within the same show. It's the same characters, but there wasn't anything about the journey of that second story the reflected or related to the main one. I would rather the screen time have been used to expand more of Sa Ram's psychology, experiences, and worldviews and also once he's become human. They could have even gotten to Sa Ram and Dong Kyung's marriage and Dong Kyung's budding career as a writer instead of the siphoning to screentime off so drastically. I did like Joo Ik and Hyun Gyu brotherly relationship, their genuine rapport with each other. Joo Ik is pretty shady for kissing his bro's girlfriend or at the very least someone he's in a complicated relationship status with at the time and also deserved to be slapped by her for doing so without consent.

The supporting characters are otherwise pretty well used when they aren't in that whole separate storyline. Dong Kyung's new uncle Kevin immediately already loves his new niece and nephew, and nephew in law. He's an English speaking character that's actually played by a actor that really acts rather than some random person that can speak English that kdramas used to hire, so that's already very nice. I was concerned for a while there since Kevin was only speaking in English and everyone else was only speaking Korean to him how he was actually communicating with his wife, but Kevin actually speaks some Korean. You go Kevin. The show should have had him have an actual conversation with his wife at some point to show their connection and to show why he's so excited to have more family.

Overall it's a nice parable about choosing to live while enjoying both the little and the big things in life, to appreciate the people in your life in this very moment. To not give up and to keep trying.

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Mostly serviceable ending after a drag of a journey

Jang Nara does a great job as Seo Jae Won, bringing sympathy for a character who makes a lot of frustrating decisions. They're not all explained away by her condition like others try to posit, which is a pretty ableist view. The only times it's applicable is when she's having episodes, other times it's really her own variable decisions. As to whether it's good representation of the particular mental health issues that her character experiences, it's up to those of that community.

The strongest parts of the series is Jae Won's relationship with her loving father who the show indirectly reveals in flashback when she calls him ahjusshi and directly much later at the court and Te Oh's ride or die unconditional life long love for her. As soon as he took a whole car hit for her to save her that's LOVE. He's happy to see her happy with her family, always supports her, has fairly good smarts, and gives her space as needed. They aren't officially together at the end, but they've been flirting every day, and she cleared the air about how he feels about her condition. She says she needs time and it's portrayed in the way that things have settled in a way that she's about ready to open her heart again. Jae Won and Te Oh get along well, have chemistry, and look good together.

Her daughter Ah Rin is one of those uncannily precocious kids that act like little adults, which is not cute at all. (The only exception is Evan from Fresh Off The Boat.) The fact that Soon Young's reaction to finding out Ah Rin is not biologically his daughter is not directly confronting Jae Won, but immediately hatching a ridiculously convoluted fan of seducing his wife's best friend and playing mind games with Jae Won and ultimately taking full custody of Ah Rin is really unhinged and evil. Yoon Jin is the worst though, she projects her entire life's insecurities into blind hatred for Jae Won, even to the point of twisting Jae Won's sexual assault by her rapist ex-boyfriend as Jae Won seducing him and causing her miscarriage and a happy life with him. Her character's story ending with sudden death by truck sama in the last episode was extremely anti-climactic. She deserved to face the consequences of her actions, especially for her ruthless murder of Seung Kyu. It's also weird that Tae Joo basically gets away with a slap on the wrist and a happy ending with Soo Jin as a potential love interest, he was literally involved in murder.

I'm glad I didn't have to watch the drama a week at a time because it just drags and drags before the cheap sudden ending with the aforementioned truck sama and awkward product placements in the final episode. Another really dumb thing was Te Oh not warning his sister Rachael that there is an unhinged woman obsessed with Ah Rin and to not publicly broadcast the itinerary of this child traveling alone and Jae Won not warning Ah Rin not to go with anyone that's a designated adult like herself, grandpa, Te Oh, or Soo Kyung. Grandpa didn't warn Ah Rin that Yoon Jin doesn't have good intentions and not to talk to her hat time she appeared either. It's such a fail to not teach Ah Rin to recognize danger. Aside from all that, it's nice that Jae Won gets a fresh start with her dad and Te Oh in her life.

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Heartwarming Couple and Community

It's so lovely that Suzu and Issei's friends/coworkers learned sign to communicate with him and I really love how the main couple match each other in both maturity, kindness, and sense of fun regardless of one being in their mid twenties and the other in their mid thirties. It's so beautiful they both become close friends with the other guy who was also interested in her. He's also really nice, as is their whole community. They are going through their respective hardships, but they all help each other out. They showcase some different aspects and attitudes regarding pregnancy with the setting being a gynecologist office. It might not be the message the show is sending directly, but it really is always potentially life threatening for women to give birth even up to today. The stalker storyline felt very abruptly finished. It was missing that transition point where Ban realized he was projecting all his grief and anger onto Suzu. I understand the show wants to portray compassion for someone who is in continual mental distress from grief, but he was clearly a danger to himself or others. It would have been good to see a better way to handle the situation other than let him physically assault the entire clinic staff. The ending of him finally letting go and properly paying attention to raising his daughter is nice though. There are random little moments of sudden humor throughout the show that is fun. The balance of the couple being with each other and their respective jobs, friendships, and family and themselves and some of the other characters getting their own storylines are pretty good. The ending of Suzu and Issei living together at a beautiful seaside home is so sweet.

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Interesting spots but lacks romantic chemistry

Thiu the mafia guy and Guy the college students have interesting storylines separately, but the romance as written just doesn't click and the acting is not strong enough to override the lack of romantic chemistry either. It's more fun to see them with the gaming squad than it is just the two of them, which being the core of the story is pretty detrimental.

Thiu's story going from an happy go-lucky engineering major gamer living in a loving household with his sickly father who straight up shoots a guy who shot him and joins the mafia after his dad dies and is good at it, is very intriguing. As soon as he starts being into Guy though, he no longer thinks with his big brain and making really dumb decisions including not coming up with a plausible reason to placate his boss who he JUST told that he bought the restaurant for to claim more mafia territory and now is saying he wants to quit the mafia to run. The actor who plays the mafia boss has good gravitas to be believably menacing and the 5 bullet Russian roulette is also plausible exit as is the beatdown, even though the beatdown was way too light, but I'll take it as he was a pretty good guy to them so they took it easier on him. I also really enjoyed Thiu's friendship with his underling Tul, who is really his only friend. Thiu talking about his relationship woes with Tul was so funny and cute and it was a badass moment when Tul showed up injured to the restaurant. He went through the roulette and beatdown to quit and run the restaurant with Thiu. I think he probably had just one bullet, but that's still pretty horrific to experience. Thiu should have let Tul nap behind the register, especially if his comfy napping chair is still there instead of cleaning the graffitied and trashed store. Kinda silly they didn't destroy those giant glass doors, but I guess the production didn't want to spend on that lol. It would have been nice to see at least one more scene of their friendship at the end.

Guy's toxic friendship with his best friend Wal and guy who he was obsessed with for years was frustrating but interesting to see where it led. Wal want Guy's full attention all to himself even while he has a whole girlfriend and gets jealous when Guy branches out to pursue his own interests and friends of his own, which good for Guy. It's revealed that Wal had been attracted to Guy from the beginning but never made a move, taking Guy for granted to be mooning after him forever. He still doesn't make a move toward the end of the story when he had TWO chances to kiss Guy and Guy was ready for it, only trying to kiss Guy when they've both drank and Guy is not into it. He failed hard at every step of the way. Guy was already learning to distance himself from this bad situation. His game friends are pretty fun, equal game and shabuholics. It's too bad they didn't get more development individually with Guy and basically just used to move certain plot points along.

Kenji really brought the soap opera energy to drama and unfortunately not in a fun way. Thiu never taking him out properly when he had the chance over and over and over again was ridiculous when Thiu has gunned down a guy before and probably taken a lot of people out in his years as a higher up in the mafia. Kenji not so surprisingly keeps going after Guy over and over again. It was so dumb when in the final battle Guy just walks up into the enemy's clutches without even a weapon. He didn't even have a plan as to how he was going to help Thiu except get in Thiu's way and distract him from survival. He called Phai over, but she didn't show up with the rest of the cops until everything was long over. It was so unnecessarily useless. He ends up being a whiny child when he's with Thiu, their maturity/serious levels never matches up at any point to match what is necessary to make their pairing cohesive.

I think Meen was the better actor of the two leads in this drama, but even he's missing a lot of pathos as a mafia guy. This drama is another in the billionth examples of how I wish Thai bl dramas were cast based on who fits and can actually act the roles rather than ship pairings. Just because they had chemistry and ability to portray certain characters in one production does not mean it will come across for every character and productions.

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Less than Middling

I really do like Yim and Tutor as actors and their commitment to their parts, but the direction of the show and the characters leaves much to be desired. Jade's over the top cartoonish over reactions to everything needs to be taken down at least 5 notches. It's grating more than cute, which is disappointing since Yim has the natural cute look. Everything just drags and drags until the only development nearly towards the end where Jade rejects Mai because of his insecurity from being dumped by his first boyfriend. Mai rightfully puts some distance between the two, but the show doesn't do anything with it. The only result is Jade finally sorts out his feelings for Mai without showing any change in any significant way. Mai's family is very lovely though and models loving supportive family behavior. While Jade is a whole cartoon caricature, Mai is really flat as a character as well, just moony eyes and willing to enable Jade's every whim without anything else to his personality. The supporting couples have their petty misunderstanding plots. The intimate scenes are somehow both try hard and directionless secondhand cringe, but a step less cringey than Bed Friends with the lowest bar. This director is capable of filming competent intimate scenes, I don't know why he massively fluctuates in his direction of both those particular scenes and the overall series in every project. There is no consistency.

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Romance of the extrovert cool nerd and introvert neural divergent coded nerd

This review is after a rewatch and my consensus is still the same from the first watch at the time of airing. It starts off slow with JaeYoung's petty revenge antics honestly pretty grating to both SangWoo and as a viewer, but once he finally stands up for SangWoo and the status quo shifts, their developing closeness and romance is a compelling watch all the way to the end.

I like how JaeYoung goes from making SangWoo uncomfortable in daily school life to trying his best to respect and broach SangWoo's boundaries in a way that SangWoo would be comfortable with, which allows SangWoo to feel comfortable enough to be the one making the first move to be physically intimate.

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Shaky start but blossoms sweetly

I enjoy how HaeBom grew and changed as a characters, starting with a doormat personality, but grew to stand up for himself and take the initiative to do things that will make himself happy rather than defer to other people's will. I really like how the costume department very subtly changed up his styling and wardrobe as he matured and got more confident.

I feel the worst for HaeBom who lost his family and was so thoroughly rejected and given a cold shoulder by his only friend for 12 years while living in the same house. TaeSung is partly to blame for HaeBom becoming like this although he rejected HaeBom becoming his brother because he already knew he loved him in a different way even as a child, 12 years of not being friends with him left HaeBom isolated.

Even though HaeBom is the one with the most changes, kudos to TaeSung's steadfast love and support once he snaps out of his 12 years of frosty coldness when he realizes he may forever separate from HaeBom once they go into university. He really is the one that loves HaeBom the most in this world. He did learn that he enjoy baking too, good for him.

EunSun is a single mom who works hard and loves both her kids and even though she had a hard time accepting them as a couple immediately, it came from fearing that they will have a hard time in society rather from hatred within herself. TaeSung's besties are great, it's nice to see his guy friend YoungHee so accepting and encouraging.

I was happy to see HaeBom be the one proposing even though TaeSung was the first to say he would later, there is no binary separation of roles for them. It's also sweet that this couple gets that far whereas most k bl/lgbt dramas are loves pretty much end the story of when the couple has just gotten together.

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Gay characters from the gay community

It's so refreshing to see queer characters that already know their sexuality, SeungHyun being in the Rainbow Rice cake club during university and Jong Chang having had several relationships already, and SeungHyun's university friend Jiyeon is the implied lesbian rep. It's nice to see veteran actress Ye Ji Won play the CEO in this drama, she always brings a fun quirky vibe to her characters. It's nice that there aren't any spoiler filled previews at the end of the episodes and has a manwha type illustration of the ending shot instead.

Jong Chang moves fast to confess and to apologize, which is good because the episodes runtime and number are short. SeungHyun may be a late bloomer in life, but he catches up quick once he gets a boyfriend. Good for Jong Chang for not moving up in position in the company when he doesn't feel like it, quitting that company where the workplace bully can get their way, for have a funny cat that sends nonsensical texts, finding a boyfriend that loves creating ads as much as he does, and establishing a queer owned ad firm with the excellent interns and employees he poached. The little internship summary video that SeungHyun and KangHae makes is cute.

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Indecisive male lead causing strife to himself and others the series

There is angst and pining and then there is prolonged misery, the later of which the meat of the drama falls into. One person that is the cause of so many nice people's pain. Night is selfish and only concerned with himself and doesn't consider the pain of his best friends.

It was terrible enough that Night dragged things on for YEARS with Namwan who also has her weakness with hiding the necklace and knows Dream's feelings towards Night but still asks him for help with Night, but she finally makes things clear for herself and for her friends too. The flashback reveal that he and Dream already kissed before during high school and he still kept his ambiguous relationship with Namwan made the whole situation even worse, it's understandable that Dream who is already in so much pain from losing both his parents cut off communication and left. This also explains why Dream is so nonchalant about Night drunk making out with and feeling him up, it ultimately doesn't mean anything. The show needed to show where and when Dream met Day within those five years, it was so random for him to show up as Dream's close friend and also Night's brother, but none of the three knew the three of them have been in a love tangle the whole time.

I really enjoyed seeing Dream stand up to the former high school and current adult homophobic bully all on his own and as terrible as Night is, I did like his confrontation speech with his father, finally doing something that he's unable to for so many years, which was saying exactly how he feels, the reasoning he's too dumb for engineering and can't help his father business so he chose a major he himself likes, he loves a guy but won't be with him because his dad won't approve and now that guy has left him just like his mom. I also liked how Night's bad behavior led to his confession to Dream not working out with Dream thinking that Night is just using Dream's feelings for him to beat Day. Good on Dream for not agreeing to be with Night until Night pulled his own messy self together.

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Jun's harem

It's funny that Lee Jun of all people has multiple guys gaga for him, including his main love interest/estranged childhood friend who is maxed out character powers personified: handsome, tall, generational wealth, business savvy, young and accomplished, great kisser, etc, that only has eyes for him. Lee Jun himself doesn't have anything outstanding in his personality outside of the first episode where he boldly asks a stranger for a lift to work, the reveal he tried being an idol, and the childhood flashback . The show forgets to actually to establish a interesting personality for him and he was mostly just the object of the three guy's affections. The drama spent a bit too much time on the three guys pining for Lee Jun and not enough Lee Jun actually dating Choi Jun, but when they finally at last do, I like that Lee Jun goes from 0 to 1000000 with his extremely attractive boyfriend, as he should.

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Sweet former besties to romance story

I really enjoy the cozy look of the show from the color grading, cinematography, sets, and costume. The show utilizes the short run time well with the supporting cast being used in just the right amount to build the world, while most of it is rightly focused on the main leads. I like the recurring funny bit of artists finding their reason to draw being Ahn PD's enemy to his goal of filling the webtoon development abroad trip program. The characters are lovely and gentle hearted, particularly Ki Tae, who has good reason to be angry at Wan, but doesn't lash out, partly because he tries to shut it down on the inside like he had for the past seven years. I do like that show delved a bit into the mental trauma that resulted from Wan suddenly cutting off all contact. It's especially cruel after each cute high school flashback segment showing how close they actually already were before Wan confessed/kissed and ran assuming the feeling wasn't mutual when Ki Tae pulled back from shock. It would have been good if they had a conversation about Wan's offer to go abroad rather than Wan just deciding all by himself that he'll ditch that opportunity to tie up that part of the storyline more neatly. It also seems like a missing scene at the end when he suddenly announces the company counteroffered to make a webtoon of the game he's been working on instead. I like how Ki Tae was absolutely prepared to kiss Wan properly when he gets the chance to and how Wan and Ki Tae are mutually affectionate and genuinely enjoy each other's presence and time. The high school ending flashbacks at the end of every episode is a brilliant way of the show to give context of their past within their limited runtime and I love how they use it to show an alternate path if their high school selves were able to confess to each other sooner, they already had mutual feelings that whole time.

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Seaside town romance

The development of Wonyoung and Taejoon's romance is pretty well done. Wonyoung being his bright and hardworking genuine self and melting Taejoon's hardened exterior bit by bit and Taejoon's attentive caring nature melting Wonyoung's heart is enjoyable to see. As is Taejoon and Dong Hee's friendship, the way they drag each other by the collars like puppies is so funny, especially when Dong Hee does it to the serious Taejoon.

Wonyoung not revealing the truth sooner was a coward move, but his fear at least is not unsubstantiated, and the fall out angst is dealt with in a satisfying way, giving Taejoon a chance to close and heal the festering wounds of the trauma that was inflicted on him from his ex, and with Wonyoung doing his best his way to make up for it. The foundation that was set up was strong enough that I can still root for their relationship.

Some of the kissing are stilted, but I blame the director. It's not an exclusive bl issue, but an issue in asian dramas in general where the actors are told not to move and it makes no sense. There's a kissing scene later that shows the actors can do normal screen kisses just fine and are committed to portraying gay characters in an intimate relationship.

Dong Hee gives me major Thai drama actor in terms of styling and storyline. The flashback that shows Ho Tae's mom showing the abused Dong Hee the warmth, kindness, and acceptance to his sexuality explains so much why treasures her so much and can't reciprocate Ho Tae's romantic intentions. He's getting a spin-off, good for him.

All in all a pleasant watch.

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Slow burn that abruptly fizzles out

The pacing of the story is that it's a lot of set up that ends right where it's finally going to pay off. Soo Hyuk and Yoon Dae uniquely understand the family baggage and trauma they each have. Soo Hyuk bears so much pain and hurt with his hard earned money just feeding endlessly into his father's vices. Yoon Dae keeps looking for someone to offer him stability and care. Even though the pair are mutually attracted to each other, it's hard to root for them without some meaningful change from Yoon Dae other than a confession. I want to see him step up for Soo Hyuk. There is a little set up that Soo Hyuk's co-worker might potentially be interested in him too, but everything just suddenly ends.

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Romance with a side of realistic work stress

Dohoon and Yoonsoo have separate work lives that are well illustrated which allows for interesting contrasts of when they're together and how they intersect. All the work woes and utter exhaustion from both are very relatable. The show also shows well how Sangwoo could be a legitimate possible love interest for Dohoon, they would have been the leads of a different kind of workplace romcom had they met before reuniting with Yoonsoo. Good on him for helping out Dohoon even when Dohoon does not reciprocate his feelings. It's nice that for the most part they are all mature people who get into spats when they get stressed out, but they work things out. Dohoon eating all the kimbap that fell on the asphalt deserves some pity points. If I were Yoonsoo, I would be very concerned he did that lol. The kimbap does look very delicious. The subjective memories of the university days is nicely done to show how hilarious unaware Dohoon is, a point that he himself is aware that he's unaware at least. I like that Yoonsoo lived his own life and dated other people between university and running into Dohoon again. All in all the drama was an interesting watch.

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