mopalia
This review may contain spoilers
Not dreadful
Dramas that are 50 or more episodes have to be judged differently from shorter dramas. I like them because there;s more room for story development and character development, but they rarely take full advantage of this. So usually they fall into two categories - dreadful and not dreadful. this one was god but like so many deteriorated rapidly at the end, especially the bit about the hospitalized father and all that business. It would have been a stronger story of he'd just gotten hit by a bus years ago (where was the ubiquitous K-drama dump truck that takes out almost everyone in there stories: Just when we needed it!)It's important to note that this was a drama trying to make a point, albeit very heavy handed at the end - you have to live for yourself, no matter what Korean family custom dictates. This seems obvious to Westerners, but it is still a new concept in Confucian societies. So I give it a pass - including the truly awful mother - and give it points for trying to make a sicial statement. Would I watch it again?
No way!
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This drama hasn't heard of "Me,too!"
The problem here is a lack of taste and respect.. It's a good enough story, the acting is passable, but the entire premise is based on the female lead putting her hand on people's buttocks to read what they have seen in the past. So most of the episodes revolve around figuring out how o get her hand one someone's butt long enough to do a reading. Male, female, animal - any buttocks will do.Now think, for a minute, how offensive it would be if the lead who was reading people's butts was male and getting his hand on women. Pretty bad, right? Well, it's really no less offensive with the female lead. There are the bones of a good story here, but it ends up tasteless and it all seems forced.
I'm still watching it simply because I adore Lee Min Ki (I fell in love with him in Romantic Island) and I think he's a better actor than he gets credit for. I was sorry to see that he'd landed in this offensive piece. You may be more (or is it less? ) liberated than I am, just be warned that this isn't going to elevate the relationship between the sexes at all.
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Violent, excellent, not for the faint of heart
I kept thinking, at the end, that the school district was going to have a really big expense line in facilities after this. Fortunately South Korea has a lot of unused schools where people have moved away from smaller towns, so I imagine some can be re-purposed.Seriously, I am really sorry this is as good as it is. I hate the recent increase in violence in K-dramas, and this was violent in the extreme. But the story is great, the acting is awesome, and the characters are extremely well developed. I ended up watching some sections with one hand on the 10-seconds-forward button, because really, you can watch people being pummeled only so long.
And oddly, the ending did not disappoint, although I could have done without the coda after the credits at the end. All in all, a surprisingly excellent drama if you have the stomach for violence, so be warned. Once you start, you'll find it hard to turn off.
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Not bad, great acting
I don't see any point in writing a long review: dragynfaerie said pretty much what I thought. The cast was outstanding. I think Ra Mi Ran is one of the best actors currently active - you could search out everything she has been in and not go wrong. Her comic turns in Please Come Back, Mister, made the show. She was heartbreaking in The Good Bad Mother, and Avengers Social Club is one I've re-watched a few times. So this show is good, but the ending is a bit meh. It deserved a few more episodes to wrap up everything neatly. Obviously I'm just writing this to rave about Ra Mi Ran.Was this review helpful to you?
Goes downhill fast
Started pretty good, but by the end, it felt like someone had a jar of suggestions for subplots and they were randomly digging through it to find something for the next episode. The interconnections between the characters became absurd, and they insisted on tying up every loose end in a hurry. Just like your shoelaces, badly tied means a lot of unraveling. By the last 10 episode I was pretty disgusted by it all.Mostly, the acting ranged from adequate to dreadful. The male lead (Ahn Jae Hyun) looked stoned and zombie like much of the series, but especially at the end. If I'd had to use that dialog, I'd get stoned, too. The second male lead (Jung Eui Jae) played it all very flat, going from nasty to depressing with not much in between - but if the transition in his personality wasn't well written, there really wasn't much he could do with it.
I don't usually pan something this badly, but this was a stinker. Watch something else or read a book.
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Rarely has so much been promised, so little delivered.
I don't like Vampire stories, but Ok Taec Yeon is such a superior actor that he's always worth watching. PLus he had the backup of two of the funniest supporting actors, Go Gyu Pil and Yoon Byung Hee. There had to be some redeeming moments, vampires or not.And there were, at the beginning. I've never considered Oh Taec Yeon to be eye candy (just awesome talent), but as he ages and loses some of his teenage sort of gangliness, he's getting quite handsome. He certainly was a gorgeous vampire. FRom the start, though, I didn't care much for the female lead, Won Ji An. Her character was remote, cold, and vapid. I see this in a lot of K-kramas with strong male leads; the female lead is passive, retiring and uninteresting, and I always wonder what on earth the ML sees in her. I wonder if this is cultural: are submissive, fade-into-the-woodwork females necessary to show off the ML? Sure, there are exceptions, but it's the case more often than not. It really made the story unconvincing, especially since Yoon So Hee had a lot more spirit.
The story lost its way somewhere along, and the plot became convoluted while being badly explained and poorly written. The ending was dreadful, it dragged on far too long and was missing any resolution that could have been satisfying. Rather than ending, it became a lame set-up for a second season.
I do have to give a shout out to Baek Seo Hoo, who embodied the evilness and general gorgeousness that I like in a vampire.
Overall, a waste of a brilliant (mostly) cast. My rating is mostly for the cast, with one exception. As for the rest, give it a miss.
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Classic Rom-com style
This was a nice, old-fashioned Korean rom-com – no vengeance, no torture, no zombies, just two people trying to live their best lives and almost accidentally falling in love. Of course, you have to have either the evil mother, mother-in-law, or evil stepsister, and we had an supremely evil sister. There were two side romances, one featuring an rotten boss who needs a come-uppance, and the other a lazy husband who needs a reality check. Ahn Se Na lent comic relief very nicely.And because this is a classic style, it all ends very satisfactorily, and it’s just feeling good at the end. Absolutely don’t turn off the last episode too soon – you don’t want to miss the Epilogue, which is a delightful gender reversal of one of the most tired rom-com tropes. Probably lovely to binge watch on a rainy day, or when it’s just too hot to do anything else.
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A show with little direction
It never seemed to know where it was going. Not really a comedy. Not really serious. The lead female was annoying by the end, I was tired of her whiny approach to everything. A doctor from America showed up, handsome and brilliant, but there was never any clear reason why he fell for her. The end was predictable. Not the worst drama ever made, but not worth the time it took to watch it. Starts strong, peters out. A waste of Kim Byung Chul, one of my favorite actors. Go watch Pegasus Market instead, it's a riot!Was this review helpful to you?
Just rewatched this and it holds up well.
I thought this was delightful the first time I watched it, so I tried a re-watch, Usually stories aren't gripping the second time, or there's some other problem, but this was as much fun as the first time. I almost passed on watching it because I find revenge dramas depressing and dark, but this is just the opposite. Great cast, and the writing moves right along. It never hit a slow spot for me. Warning, though - it's hard to stop watching and it turned into a binge watch. Loved every minute.Was this review helpful to you?
The stand-out drama of the season
I doubt that anything will come along this year that matches this drama for overall quality. I cried through so many of the early episodes. It was riveting. I won't bother to write a long synopsis, plenty of other people will do that. For me, the best part was seeing Ra Mi Ran (the mother) given such a great role. She's a fantastic actress, both in comedy and drama, but too often gets cast in the same old fish-wife type roles. She always delivers the best performances. She's hilarious in Come Back Mister as the overworked guardian of passage into the afterlife, and she's heart wrenching in this drama. She never misses. Make sure you watch this one!Was this review helpful to you?
Started strong, identity crisis midway
This was very promising at the beginning, with interesting characters, a good story line, and entertaining writing. But midway, when the ML decides he actually loves the FL, it becomes mawkishly saccharine and the writing loses its crispness in favor of predictable sentiment. The story them morphs into a "Me,Too" polemic, with a lot of added drama and conflict that seems tacked on as an afterthought in an attempt to spice it up. By the last episodes I found I no longer cared about the characters, with the FL's indecision and the ML's family issues. Seems popular to make the MLs weak and simpering characters these days, led around by the FLs and basically becoming so sympathetic and understanding that they are doormats. It's still not awful, but overall it seemed a bit of a mess to me. YMMV.Was this review helpful to you?
Pleasant and underrated
This drama is populated by interesting characters, most of whom have well developed backstories. This is a nice contrast to the usual fare of superficial and boring people who are marched through a plot. They want better lives, make stupid decisions, get in trouble. But you can't help liking them, because really, don't we all want better lives? If you've ever bought a lottery ticket, you know what it's like to want to be a billionaire when you know there's no hope for it. So trouble comes, but everything works out well in te end. A simple drama with a good story, excellent character development, and a mostly happy ending. Really, what more could you want?Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Disappointing
When it became obvious near the end, that this was just turning into a set-up for a sequel, I lost al patience with it. It is not nearly as charming as the first one was. This included a lot more violence - yes, the cells got violent and it didn't add much to the story. BaBi struck me as a nice guy but boring - he's a company man with not much personality of his own. I loved Woong's quirkiness, his ambition, his creativity. Babi was smooth and dull. And at the end, neither won Yumi, whom I decided was as boring as BaBi. I don't get why these guys are falling for here, there doesn't seem to be much to her other than - well, the cells. Another series that should have quit while it was ahead.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Not worth the bother
Weak plot, sloppy writing, shallow acting. You can find it all here. The plot bounced around as if it couldn't figure out where the suspense was. The scene in the candy store was sloppy - bad direction and/or writing, but it lingered over too much wailing and crying while no one did anything useful. It was loose and sloppy, not tight and crisp - how many times can you knock a guy out and still fail to tir him or subdue him so that he comes back again and again? Good grief. And I found Yeo Jin Goo's acting to be shallow and one-note - same for the female lead. I did enjoy the older women wandering around with their "weapons" but that got lost after a few episodes. The only real standout performance wasShin Jae Hwi, the stalker, who did a lovely job with evil. I'd like to see him in more things, there may be a good actor in there. Overall, give this a miss unless you are besotted with Yeo Jon Goo.
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DoctorLawyer is another one of those dramas full of scheming, subterfuge, and unpleasant, self-centered characters whom you are bound to dislike. The plot is appropriately convoluted, with an ending that gives everyone their comeuppance. I actually dislike dramas like this, and half the time I end up rooting for the bad guys, because the good guys are so impossibly goody-two-shoes. I definitely did not care for Im Soo Hyang, who was still screening as Woori the Virgin when she showed up here as a lawyer - with not much difference of character. Well, I watched it to the end. If this is your cup of tea, you might enjoy it. But you should probably read someone else.s review, I obviously have a jaundiced view.
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