flunderingchipper
This review may contain spoilers
Not a show/10
This was meandering garbage, it was an improv-exercise. I could be convinced that it's a show if you were to argue that it's supposed to be viewed as a horror series, wherein the characters seem to be trapped in psychological and social circles with no hope of escape. But it wasn't. It was supposed to be a slice of life drama.
The director seems to have identified everything that was wrong with Something in the Rain before amplifying it and omitting any and all ideas that weren't shit. I watched this whole thing with my family as each episode was released on Netflix, and we unanimously agreed it was the most aggravating Korean Drama any of us had ever seen, hitherto surpassed only by The Smile Has Left Your Eyes. At least with the latter there was some comedic value, because its premises and conclusions were so ridiculous. This one is offensively bland. Profoundly boring. Like, I'm taking it personally here.
I just want to address the music composition straight away, because whoever is in charge of timing musical cues in Ahn Pan-Seok's dramas is UTTERLY incompetent. The showrunners choose these obnoxious covers of pop and folk songs that beat you over the head with their messaging; the songs play at random - like you might get one while a character makes some food or punches someone in the face - so they're often tonally dissonant with what's actually happening on screen. Plus, these fucking things sometimes play *multiple times per episode*. By the fifteenth time Rachel Yamagata breathlessly whined, "we could still be happy" my group was just about ready to turn the t.v. off and give up on episode 4 altogether.
The editing was generally terrible, though, so maybe the decrepit state of the drama's soundscape can be chalked up to whoever was charged with editing the fucking endings. Episodes would end in silence, with Ji-ho walking towards Gi-seok, building and foreshadowing some sort of tension, only to lead to a hilariously banal opener in the next episode. We actually started laughing when episodes would start, because the only time we were ever interested was when episodes ended, and when they began we wished we hadn't bothered. The word 'cliffhanger' barely describes these endings. They were more like wet farts that get progressively quieter and increasingly smellier.
We were intensely bored and annoyed by the acting and dialogue. Some dramas have very kinetic acting, with characters moving while they talk to each other, but this one falls into the category of shows wherein the audience is challenged with the task of guessing when the showrunners have replaced the actors with cardboard cut outs. EVERYBODY JUST. STANDS. Staring at each other. It's one of my issues with J-Dramas and older Korean dramas, and when you combine that flaw with the weirdly long delays between Jeong-in and Ji-ho's sentences (seriously, count the number of seconds that pass after someone speaks to them before either of them makes a sound... it's awful when they're together) you get extremely low energy on screen at all times. The lead actors had absolutely no chemistry, either. They've both played charismatic characters in the past, but it's like they were a little high throughout the entire show. That might explain the delayed response times, actually.
Their lack of chemistry wasn't entirely the actors' faults, though. Ahn Pan-Seok has a problem with dragging out specific plot threads long after they should have been tied up. His strategy for ameliorating the inevitable fucked up shitty pacing that he produces is to have characters repeat the same conversation endlessly until the last two episodes. That's when people bend, and fight, and start acting randomly compliant where they had been obstinate for fourteen episodes.
The story line with Gi-Seok, for example, should have ended midway through the season. He stalked Jeong-in for basically the entire series, to the point where even the dads were, like, confused about how deluded he was about forcing Jeong-in to marry him. He has this weird misogynistic rivalry with Ji-ho that was so stupid and chauvenist I actually started wishing Jeong-in was just end up single by the end, but there's no resolution! The rivalry is built up for basically 16 episodes and it doesn't end with Gi-seok and Ji-ho confronting eachother to the end that Gi-seok finally relents, it ends with Gi-seok eating dinner with a rapist and going, "nah dude, because the series needs to end I'm just going to chill out now," before just, like, walking away?? Wtf
Jeong-in and Ji-ho's relationship was unbelievable too, so we couldn't get invested into the OTP vibe shit that (let's be honest) most of us watch this shit for. Since 90% of the conversations anyone has in this show are ABOUT those two, this wasn't just a minor problem. They meet and basically fall in love instantly. Ji-ho sets some clear boundaries, and then they both start acting like being apart is the WORST form of torture annnnyone could have cooked up. How about a few episodes where they get to know each other? Where they just vibe as friends, run into each other in public with their friends and family? How about SHOWING us Gi-seok joking about breaking up and hurting Jeong-in's feelings, or how his dad disapproves of her, rather than dumping that information into exposition? How about some new sideplots? I JUST NEED SOMETHING TO MAKE THIS SHIT FRESH. I need SOMETHING to suspend my disbelief when Gi-seok randomly starts suspecting Ji-ho is sliding in on his girl. He sees Ji-ho's shoes in her apartment with multiple other pairs ONCE and he's immediately convinced something is afoot. GI-SEOK IS NOT THAT SMART. None of these characters are believable! Everyone's life revolves around Jeong-in and Ji-ho! And the only side plots are Jae-in's flirtation with her buddy-bae and the eldest sister's fucking traumatizing ass story line. Basically all the dialogue is arguments!!! I can't listen to these people argue about Ji-ho and Jeong-in anymore!!!! holy fuck!!
TL;DR - all the conflict that's introduced in the first episode is basically all that you get until episode 14. It does not develop. It's completely inorganic, and it's a case study in a screenplay for a film stretched thin over 16 hours worth of content.
The delays in the acting, the dragging plot, and the illogical and inconsistent characterization feel like they're consequences of something being made up on the spot. Like, instead of giving the actors scripts, they gave them general subjects to have an argument about, so the leads are constantly pausing to figure out what the hell they're going to say next. There's no imagery as strong as the umbrellas in Something in the Rain, and the spring metaphor was shoved into random meeting scenes at Jeong-in's work. They're ALWAYS meeting up at night time, which spring night is the significant one, exactly?
This one is my new bottom. Er, of the list. Bottom of my list. OF MY LIST.
This was meandering garbage, it was an improv-exercise. I could be convinced that it's a show if you were to argue that it's supposed to be viewed as a horror series, wherein the characters seem to be trapped in psychological and social circles with no hope of escape. But it wasn't. It was supposed to be a slice of life drama.
The director seems to have identified everything that was wrong with Something in the Rain before amplifying it and omitting any and all ideas that weren't shit. I watched this whole thing with my family as each episode was released on Netflix, and we unanimously agreed it was the most aggravating Korean Drama any of us had ever seen, hitherto surpassed only by The Smile Has Left Your Eyes. At least with the latter there was some comedic value, because its premises and conclusions were so ridiculous. This one is offensively bland. Profoundly boring. Like, I'm taking it personally here.
I just want to address the music composition straight away, because whoever is in charge of timing musical cues in Ahn Pan-Seok's dramas is UTTERLY incompetent. The showrunners choose these obnoxious covers of pop and folk songs that beat you over the head with their messaging; the songs play at random - like you might get one while a character makes some food or punches someone in the face - so they're often tonally dissonant with what's actually happening on screen. Plus, these fucking things sometimes play *multiple times per episode*. By the fifteenth time Rachel Yamagata breathlessly whined, "we could still be happy" my group was just about ready to turn the t.v. off and give up on episode 4 altogether.
The editing was generally terrible, though, so maybe the decrepit state of the drama's soundscape can be chalked up to whoever was charged with editing the fucking endings. Episodes would end in silence, with Ji-ho walking towards Gi-seok, building and foreshadowing some sort of tension, only to lead to a hilariously banal opener in the next episode. We actually started laughing when episodes would start, because the only time we were ever interested was when episodes ended, and when they began we wished we hadn't bothered. The word 'cliffhanger' barely describes these endings. They were more like wet farts that get progressively quieter and increasingly smellier.
We were intensely bored and annoyed by the acting and dialogue. Some dramas have very kinetic acting, with characters moving while they talk to each other, but this one falls into the category of shows wherein the audience is challenged with the task of guessing when the showrunners have replaced the actors with cardboard cut outs. EVERYBODY JUST. STANDS. Staring at each other. It's one of my issues with J-Dramas and older Korean dramas, and when you combine that flaw with the weirdly long delays between Jeong-in and Ji-ho's sentences (seriously, count the number of seconds that pass after someone speaks to them before either of them makes a sound... it's awful when they're together) you get extremely low energy on screen at all times. The lead actors had absolutely no chemistry, either. They've both played charismatic characters in the past, but it's like they were a little high throughout the entire show. That might explain the delayed response times, actually.
Their lack of chemistry wasn't entirely the actors' faults, though. Ahn Pan-Seok has a problem with dragging out specific plot threads long after they should have been tied up. His strategy for ameliorating the inevitable fucked up shitty pacing that he produces is to have characters repeat the same conversation endlessly until the last two episodes. That's when people bend, and fight, and start acting randomly compliant where they had been obstinate for fourteen episodes.
The story line with Gi-Seok, for example, should have ended midway through the season. He stalked Jeong-in for basically the entire series, to the point where even the dads were, like, confused about how deluded he was about forcing Jeong-in to marry him. He has this weird misogynistic rivalry with Ji-ho that was so stupid and chauvenist I actually started wishing Jeong-in was just end up single by the end, but there's no resolution! The rivalry is built up for basically 16 episodes and it doesn't end with Gi-seok and Ji-ho confronting eachother to the end that Gi-seok finally relents, it ends with Gi-seok eating dinner with a rapist and going, "nah dude, because the series needs to end I'm just going to chill out now," before just, like, walking away?? Wtf
Jeong-in and Ji-ho's relationship was unbelievable too, so we couldn't get invested into the OTP vibe shit that (let's be honest) most of us watch this shit for. Since 90% of the conversations anyone has in this show are ABOUT those two, this wasn't just a minor problem. They meet and basically fall in love instantly. Ji-ho sets some clear boundaries, and then they both start acting like being apart is the WORST form of torture annnnyone could have cooked up. How about a few episodes where they get to know each other? Where they just vibe as friends, run into each other in public with their friends and family? How about SHOWING us Gi-seok joking about breaking up and hurting Jeong-in's feelings, or how his dad disapproves of her, rather than dumping that information into exposition? How about some new sideplots? I JUST NEED SOMETHING TO MAKE THIS SHIT FRESH. I need SOMETHING to suspend my disbelief when Gi-seok randomly starts suspecting Ji-ho is sliding in on his girl. He sees Ji-ho's shoes in her apartment with multiple other pairs ONCE and he's immediately convinced something is afoot. GI-SEOK IS NOT THAT SMART. None of these characters are believable! Everyone's life revolves around Jeong-in and Ji-ho! And the only side plots are Jae-in's flirtation with her buddy-bae and the eldest sister's fucking traumatizing ass story line. Basically all the dialogue is arguments!!! I can't listen to these people argue about Ji-ho and Jeong-in anymore!!!! holy fuck!!
TL;DR - all the conflict that's introduced in the first episode is basically all that you get until episode 14. It does not develop. It's completely inorganic, and it's a case study in a screenplay for a film stretched thin over 16 hours worth of content.
The delays in the acting, the dragging plot, and the illogical and inconsistent characterization feel like they're consequences of something being made up on the spot. Like, instead of giving the actors scripts, they gave them general subjects to have an argument about, so the leads are constantly pausing to figure out what the hell they're going to say next. There's no imagery as strong as the umbrellas in Something in the Rain, and the spring metaphor was shoved into random meeting scenes at Jeong-in's work. They're ALWAYS meeting up at night time, which spring night is the significant one, exactly?
This one is my new bottom. Er, of the list. Bottom of my list. OF MY LIST.
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