strawgal

Whew, I finished it. I do not watch at plus speeds but if you did you wouldn't miss much.
I watched out of curiosity because I had seen the ML in something else. The script and story were terrible, I honestly think if you watched the first five eps ad the last five you wouldn't have missed much. There was a lot repetition, and reuse of the same plot device.
The over use of fake white fur, the white faced make up and the obvious direction the the FL should have a blank expressionless face 99% of the time didn't help. For comparison I found another drama the FL was in and she is capable.
It left me thinking that actor playing the 'bad mad' daughter got the best shake of the stick acting wise, although it was completely OTT.

It was a couples watch and I think if you are expecting an plot that has some social commentary and common sense its a fail. If you what some fairly good fight scenes and special effects it ticks that box just put the critical thinking part of your brain in neutral, because some of it makes no sense at all.
Its not The Boys, which pushes the idea of super heroes their effect on society and themselves to the point of look away distaste.
Its more like a live action cartoon, with two very annoying female main characters as the stock antagonists.

I would agree she has an emotional deficit, by having known friends and worked who have had MH issues, unless they are seriously depressed to the point they are not washing and neglecting themselves most have some insight in to what they are doing and what they need to do something, if they still functioning at that level.
The only reason I can find for their mutual attraction, if that is what it is, is they are both on the neuro divergent spectrum, and the ML thinks that is what a relationship should look like, a bit like the ML in Itaewon Class.
The solution from the script writers POV will be they will fall in love and everything will be OK.

I suppose what really bugs me is she spends her time going poor me, when really she has choices, she just doesn't want to make them. This is not some twenty something, she is in her thirties, with no children and even if she hasn't got cash she has resources, and she is intelligent, but she wallows.
I have lived around wealthy people and there is support system that most people do not have, because your friends support you at no real cost to themselves
The ML is just something else to prop her up, so she doesn't have to make a choices. She spends her time not making real plans, and she takes no thought about what she did to him and why he cares. He sister is not much better, have a problem, pass it on to someone else. She has left to when she can be perhaps least effective to tell her mother not be abusive to her own daughter, when a golden child she had some power.

I think the ML is just a prop, he has the worst times without her and as a parent you know you can not stop them, but I would be sick to my stomach.
He has never been the FL's choice, treated as a convenience, nice to have but not essential. My worry as a parent is who would save him, because she is paddling her own boat, and has only been with him when times were good, and still didn't chose him. He will always be an alcoholic and may have liver disease in the future, which is not pleasant.

I think the idea of loving someone and being essentially selfless for someone is a bad idea to promote , most of the people I have know who have had bad relationships have tied themselves in knots trying to make someone care, and been treated really badly, left with no money and children to look after. Sometimes life is more extreme than any C drama with no neat ending.

This reminds me of Call It Love, adults stuck in the past and a muddle of their own making, very well made but depressing. The redeeming feature of Call It Love that they were all characters you could sympathise with even if they need a damn good shove.
The ML in this perhaps worth the time in another situation but the FL is just a waste of screen time, and manipulative, not even in a good way.

Its more realistic than most drama plots,The idea that you do not date multiple people when you are young, hopefully not at the same time, is just a fantasy and really part of normal emotional development,
When you look at some of the experiences from dating apps, and its a war out there and the sooner you learn to protect yourself the better, The only place you get to try out relationships face to face now is when you are young, what ever your sexuality.
Three of these are playing by the same rules, and one doesn't even know he is even part of a game, and with the brother he has is that realistic?

Not sure I buy the detective story part, it may be it's how it has been directed. I know they have tried because the at least in pathology they are all covered, down the disposable hat. If you have ever been in a mortuary/pathology department if its not the smell from the occupants that get you its the stuff that use to cover up that smell that clings to you.
The flirting is so funny, I think they work best at comedy.

I do hope they keep this dark and real and not sugar coat the reality of the Korean entertainment industry. It takes courage to bite the hand that feeds you.
Too many have been lost to it, to make the subject candy floss.

The two things that almost revolutionary are her make up, flawless but it looks like a real person not a white balloon face. The fact that women can be childlish in their enthusiasm for some things, but its doesn't mean they are childlike or not capable of serious thought or behaving professionally. Her suits are just amazing.

I started watching this mainly to see the actors who I had seen in old urban romance drama, and I love a detective story.
All the acting is amazing especially the FL, I found her reactions very relatable and human . Its beautifully filmed with a real sense of place, and set dressing that makes every thing looked live it, like to old computors and chairs that are bit battered in the office. The make up minimal so they look like real people
What spoiled for me is they division of the story, the why was given two much time in flashbacks. Now I know they had a top tier ML who was being cast against type but that story took up too much time, and just basically giving a reason for him being an awful human being on many levels. It was a bit like a lecture. If they had halved that part in would have been an 8.5 , but I have given it a 7,5, just because it was structured poorly so it meant there was no dramatic tension.
The dog and the baby stole every scene.

Good spot.

The men I know follow sport or gaming, they support a team or join a group to go to matches or game over the internet. They can be a bit geeky about merch, cards and character toys but never really about personalities. The nearest they get IME is going to the big gamer/comicon events. I just can not imagine any of them obsessing like women do. Most are just too glued to their chairs.
My husband likes to fall a sleep in front of F1, although we have been to the GP races in the past.

What age are people supposed to act like adults now, because I can not even begin to understand why someone over the age of sixteen being obsessed over any entertainer of any sort.
I have met some very famous people in passing, its like looking at someone you know vaguely, then it clicks, ah that is why they are in films. The most funny thing was being stood behind a member of a super group at an event and thinking he gets dragged to things he has no interest in by his wife like anyone else.

The thing I like most about this drama was nearly all the female characters were not portrayed as brainless selfish idiots, but not saints either.
Jiang Yi Di has to be one of my favourite characters because she seems to me more like the women I know, just trying to do their best, but flawed.
I liked the fact they discussed fertility and gynae issues for women realistically, that its painful and it effs up your body.
I got bored towards the end, just a plot line I lost interest in. I not sure I like how all the man were portrayed, yes men do tend to get tunnel vision about work and life in general, but they are not all aholes and unfortunately the pressure for success and status is even greater in Asian countries.

I think the only person FX lied to was himself. He didn't know what love looked like, and because he couldn't appear weak he needed a tough shell and something to hide behind to explain his actions.He lives in a pecking order and he has to maintain an image.
When he was confronted he froze because, suddenly he realised the game he was playing was not a game. He was literally speechless under a tide of recriminations. Its a common trait in men when they are confronted IME.
I think he not deliberately bad, and dangerous to know, just a product of an environment where if he seen as weak prey, he can see no other alternative.

SL spends time worries about what other people think, he is 'kind' and consolatory because he gains peoples approval, even if its grudgingly, he is a dog waiting to be kicked. I think his whole reaction was about losing control, he picks partners who are convenient and where he is in control, where his goodness is a trade. FX he thinks he has no control over, because FX needs nothing from him The relationship is a risk, because FX is young, rich and very smart. So when he thinks he has been tricked he reacts blindly, When he beats FX and is cruel to him FX never retaliates, what SL sees as control is a misguided attempt to help. He doesn’t the actual effect, only that he doesn't want it even if it's of actual benefit to him, cutting off his nose to spite his face.
I do wonder if SL after a while gets a bit of a kick from it, after the initial anger.Everyone admires his ex and he dumped him first, he didn't actually get dumped. he can be as mean as he likes and FX comes back for more. He only gets upset again when FX says he will not contact him and he knows he means it. I think at that point he is actually realising truly what he losing because FX is
completely on his side. unconditionally, someone he doesn't need to trade care for respect if not love.
As a drama I find the writing and direction is complex and layered. I know my interpretation is perhaps different from other peoples, but that's the beauty of good writing and characters that are three dimensional.

I think its actually in the story, as I read it. Going the whole way with any preparation is enough to make anyone anxious.

I agree the end was a bit forced in more ways than one.

Well that was more serious than I thought it was going to be.
Love the cut of the suits.

I do not think I can stand this level of syrup, I'll drop. Shame.

I have decided that the ML need to eat more pies and sausage rolls. https://www.ginsters.co.uk/
And WTF is going on with the eye brows and make up, a ghost has more facial definition.

This was my pre Christmas gift to myself, and I tried not to binge but failed at the end
.
I grew up in this time, and I am used to most drama taking the pee out of that hippy dippy time, but this took seriously the wash of change that started in the sixties, and how it spread and formed in different places in different ways. Where standing up for change, accepting difference was starting to become normal and not elite thinking. That if you had an idea, you argued and debated , but for some it ended in damage. In many ways I think thinking has become more fixed now because people can filter out what they do not like, where as then you grew up quickly to the realities of life, and you had little choice in filtering out reality and other peoples opinions.
It was a time when everything felt possible, that normal workers could talk to the rich a poweful, because there was less social barrier. My out of the norm experience was at sixteen talking to the ex ambassador to China in his music room that was bigger than my home listening to Joni Mitchell, and then a few weeks later missing a bombing because friends decided to go to a different club.

My normal gripe about drama is the script, but this was so layered, no character was a stereotype, and side characters added to the layering and was not just an add on.
It was like a modern Shakespearean tragedy/history play where happy endings are not for all characters, but that made but the sweet things when won more poignant.
The performances, direction, camera work and seem a cohesive, with no flaws, apart from the dodgy French,

Special mention for the OST.
We live in a time when although there is more choice in music but you have to make an effort to break out of the homogenous chart music that is pushed. The soundtrack depicted that time where just about every genre rubbed along together, you would be exposed to alt rock, folk, pop tunes, jazz style on any radio play list, and it managed to produce music from that inspiration rather than the
cheap way out.

Thai productions this year have surpassed themselves in making great accessible drama, with original story telling. Being able to make a drama that makes you care about characters but also have commentary on society is a hard task to pull off well and this did it.