Reviews

Okay...I guess?

Okay, here`s the thing:This was just a mess from a writing standpoint and there`s no two ways around it.
We don`t have to find something realistic in order to connect with it and find it interesting. However, in my case, it should be consistent and this drama`s execution is lacking, when compared to the synopsis. And it`s not due to the lack of trying. It just feels mechanic. The girl finds herself in an absurd new world, has trouble dealing with it, a handsome savior appears, they fall in love, chaos ensues. Nope, it's not another Disney movie, it`s a supposedly gritty and ill-fated romance of two people found on opposite sides. But I just couldn`t get into it.

First the acting. This is Hyun Bin`s best acting role to this date, easily. His character is also the most likeable, albeit seen before and the chemistry between his unit is great as well. Honestly, I would`ve been fine watching their perspective of this unfolding, it would make for an interesting change. Seo Dan`s story is also mad intriguing and deserves its own show. Son Ye-jin however... I don`t know. I`ve watched her in this and in Personal Taste and I guess her acting style is just not doing it for me. In that way she reminds me of Lee Min-ho, though I did like his newest project. Se-ri is just an unfinished character. It`s like the writers wanted her to be strong and bitchy, but also a damsel in distress so from the get go, we see her be cunning and calculated, but then at the same time, she makes stupid mistakes a character with her capacity shouldn't. And through it all, it just doesn`t feel believable to me and that does fall on acting. And people will probably judge hard but here it goes: I see no chemistry between Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin. None. Zilch. They effectively feel like a brother sister duo to me, if anything. Also, and I cannot go without mentioning this but: CLICHÉS!CLICHÉS LEFT AND RIGHT!YOU GET A CLICHÉ, YOU GET A CLICHÉ, EVERYONE GETS CLICHÉS!

I have a bone to pick with the way they used these clichés, rather than them being used at all. Again with the we`ve met before. Only this time we`ve met so many times, that it`s just crazy how we haven't recognised each other already. Again with someone being shot and almost dying. Only this time, it was done twice. Again with, OH LOOK WE`RE IN A BAD SITUATION. Should we solve it and think, as we`ve been established as smart characters?Nope, let`s kiss instead. Look, my main issue is that if you have such an impressive concept and such a cast on board with it, you better use it to your best advantage. And they haven`t really. If I was to interchange North Korea with any other severe world where individualism is not accepted, it wouldn`t make a difference basically. And that`s a problem. There was potential in this:That scene when the main leads had to separate finally made me feel something. But it came too late.

And then, THE COP OUT ENDING. Maybe I misunderstood something but this just may be one of the worst endings to a drama I have ever seen. If I`ve got my facts right, Ri Jung Hyuk was accepted as a pianist in Switzerland and his position was given to Pyo Chi-soo. Meaning that he can stay in Switzerland?And Se-ri, who now has no reason to hesitate decides to stay in Seoul instead of moving in with him and they settle on 2 week-are writers on opiates? What even?I can`t even hide how much I hate the ending and I don`t even like this drama a lot.

Anyway, sometimes you should trust the percentages and sometimes...just don`t.

Leggi di Più

FL ruins EVERYTHING

I watched up until Ep2 then dropped the show , the FL completely ruined the experience for me , the way she gets in between their friendship which was the highlight of the show.

like come on she was no needed , like I physically can't stand her charater at all

so after the friendship was ruined by her I dropped the show and could no longer continue watching...






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Leggi di Più

It was worth to watch.

I think this drama is worth to watch. I instantly got super into this drama since the trailer came out. Definitely a hands up especially to the characters. I just hope that the release of episodes are early and consecutive...
Bai Lu suits the female lead really well. Her voice is natural as well as Dylan's. Her natural beauty and elegance are on point based on the description from the novel. I understand that since the story is also modern, the flow is kinda slow and careful.
I think this drama is worth to watch. I instantly got super into this drama since the trailer came out. Definitely a hands up especially to the characters. I just hope that the release of episodes are early and consecutive...
Bai Lu suits the female lead really well. Her voice is natural as well as Dylan's. Her natural beauty and elegance are on point based on the description from the novel. I understand that since the story is also modern, the flow is kinda slow and careful.

Leggi di Più

So why was Jae Pil here? - An entertaining failure...

The drama that initially presents itself as a story of female friendship, that's how it sets up the plot, that's who they introduce as main characters, that's how the synopsis is written… and yet the way they went about it and told the story got people hating either female leads and fighting who is worse of a friend. There is no real message, there is no clear vision. There are just things happening and a lot of frustration. It was fun, but at the end felt cheap. Like eating fast food - you might enjoy the taste as you eat, but later you suffer from indigestion.

Personally I think there are 3 major flaws in the show that truly could ruin a viewing experience and almost ruined it for me.

First of all - the hard cut that happened with the time jump. By all means you will basically watch 2 completely different shows. All the character development happens behind the scenes and we never witness it, hence who you saw in the first half is not who you follow in the second half. The transition was poorly planned and delivered. They needed to reintroduce all the characters since they are in a completely different point of their lives which, with how many plotlines the drama had anyway, feels like a waste of time. Even though I prefer linear storytelling, I do believe in this case mixing the two timelines throughout the show would be a better way to present the story and make it feel more balanced.

The time jump leads me to the second issue - Yeong Rae and Jae Pil’s relationship. First of all, no it’s not like I disliked them because I wanted him with Jong Hui (I was full on Jong Hui and Yeong Sik shipper). I disliked them, because the way their story was directed and presented was just trash planning that took away all the things that should make me feel something. Sadly they literally skipped all the butterflies inducing moments, all the build up, falling in love, the moments that made them appreciate each other more. We got none of that - just a short one minute flashback. This is NOT how you write romance. Romance is all about feelings. You cannot just tell me he fell in love with her, because she supported him. You need to show me that journey, I need to experience it with the characters. Otherwise I won’t give a shit. And so I did not give a shit about them. Were they cute when they started to date? Sure. Did I care? No really. I guess I didn’t even dislike them, I just did not care at all.

There was literally zero set up for their romance, at least on Jae Pil’s side. He was completely not interested in her in the first half. There were zero romantic feelings. No attraction. So for that love line the whole first half was useless. Young Rae’s story of falling in love was “love from first sight” that could be done in just one episode. And then after the time jump we are told by all the characters around Jae Pil that there is more between them. Everyone is convinced they will date. Everyone tells him to look into his feelings. And I’m sitting in front of the laptop and think: how the fuck did this happen? When? What exactly made him fall for her? Was it gradual? Was it a specific moment that made him see her in a different light? Why aren’t they showing us THAT? And the way they just wanted to cover it all up with a short flashback montage was a pathetic circus of writing.

Going back to the topic of lack of balance - what was the writer thinking when they decided to put all the pain and misfortune on Jong Hui while surrounding Young Rae with all the love and happiness? What kind of sick trauma porn was it? When yet another bad thing happened to Jong Hui, at some point I just started to laugh, because it was purely ridiculous. While for Young Rae the bad things that happened led to better outcomes long term, even if Jong Hui received something good, it then led to more pain. For example - Yeong Rae got fired from work in an unjust way? Right away she got a new better job with far more opportunities. Jong Hui saved someone from attempted suicide and thought she found a new family and home? The mother turns out to be abusive and manipulative. It was just exhausting to see her get slapped in the face by life over and over again, when by all means she did nothing wrong.

I’m just struggling to grasp and understand what this drama is about. What is the message? Because the last minute happy ending cannot erase all that happened for the remaining 11… Personally life lessons I’ve got from it were:

Life is not fair, deal with it no one cares.
Don’t help people, you get screwed in the process - whenever intentionally or not.
Be selfish - at the end of the day your needs should matter the most.
You cannot escape abuse, life be like: out of the frying pan into the fire.
Also abusers are not really bad people, they are good REALLY DEEP INSIDE and you just have to apologize to them.
Even if you find someone that cares for you, they most likely care for someone else more.
There is no real female friendship if a guy is involved as a third party - only more trauma can bring you back together, communication is overrated.
Being ignorant about other people’s suffering will make your life easier.

And here’s a thing that made me the most annoyed, frustrated and uncomfortable - I started to dislike Yeong Rae as we got closer to the end of the show. She was in fact a great character - smart, dedicated, brave, driven, caring, adorable, bubbly. She did shine bright. But with how sad and tragic Jong Hui’s life was, I sadly could not enjoy her character. When I knew she was able to lead that life, because Jong Hui protected her in the past. When I knew how bad the aftermath of it was for Jong Hui. How she ended up with no support system, thinking of dying, struggling to survive every day, just to end up in a fake doll house with an abusive adoptive mother… It was hard to be happy for Yeong Rae, when her happiness was unintentionally built on someone else’s suffering. And no, it was not Yeong Rae’s fault at all. It’s not like Jong Hui took the blame for something Yeong Rae did. It’s not like Yeong Rae asked Jong Hui to stab the manager. It was Jong Hui’s choice, but with where it led… There were moments where I wished she did not protect Yeong Rae. And for that feeling I blame the writer. Instead of making me root for both female leads, the writer made me resent one, when she did nothing wrong.

No matter what happened, the story always had to go back and focus on Yeong Rae - she was the forefront of the drama, every main plotline led to her and concluded on her. She was the main character and all the rest were just support. And this is not what I wanted to watch. I wanted to see her and Jong Hui together, as partners, and equals, as individuals with their own stories, that are connected by a close bond.

For the minor issues: unreasonable double standard in terms of abuse. Jong Hui’s mother was justifiably pained in bad light for hitting Jong Hui “and loving her when it fits her, and hitting her when things don’t go her way”, but Jae Pil’s dad was “misunderstood soul that actually cares deeply for Jae Pil and deserves apology from Jae Pil for misunderstanding him for years” - excuse me, but what the fuck? No. He was just abusive and trash. He did not deserve the ridiculous redemption and the scene of Jae Pil crying and apologizing made me feel sick.

On the redemption arc - Jong Hui’s brother gets one too. Why? He literally beat her so bad she almost died and was living in fear for years. And now he is not that bad, because he wants to save her? Nope.

What was the point of wasting screentime on Kim Jeong Sik [Bus driver] in the second half? He served his purpose as a dick and created the set-up for romance between Sang Cheol and Jeong Bu with the adorable little family they created. There was literally no real reason for him to show up in the second half - ZERO.

Go Young Sik not having more presence. We truly needed his brain and maturity more amongst that brainless land of lack of communication and stupid decision making.

I do not understand why Noh Sang Sik decided to only get revenge on Jong Hui. Yeong Rae was the one to screw him over first, Jong Hui got involved to help Yeong Rae, Yeong Rae then was the one to blackmail him with what she knew, so he could not step forward and his life got screwed. Don’t get me wrong, if we go by facts his life got screwed because of his own choices only, but from his messed up head perspective, I just do not understand how he did not blame Yeong Rae at all for any of it.

Ko Yeong Rye in the Miss Korea competition made no sense. There was nothing wrong with Ko Yeong Rye, but the girl is not a Miss Korea type. She does not have to be. Her being part of it made no sense in terms of realism.

Moving on to things I actually enjoyed. First of all, the show was somehow both predictable and unpredictable. I feel like the overall big picture was rather obvious. From episode 2 I knew what the end game was, but what the drama delivered was enough ambiguous content that made it possible to dive deep into delulu land with just enough hope for different ships to happen. They were baiting different relationships so skillfully, creating such a good chemistry between different pairings, I believe there is a fun ship for everyone, even if most of them are Titanics.

The friendship between the female leads in the first half was literally the best part of the whole show. Honestly - they were the best ship at first. The level of care and support they had for each other. The fact they both were willing to give up the guy for the other (adorable, but also dumb. Why not have a proper conversation instead of "sacrificing your feelings” when no one asked for that?). There were nice messages about standing up for yourself and your friend, amazing vibes of found family trope.

The acting was great. Kim Da Mi did a phenomenal job presenting first the truly innocent and shy young version of her character, and then more mature and confident, but just as bubbly as an adult. Shin Ye Eun aced presenting how hurt Jong Hui was, while hiding her feelings and pretending to be strong. I feel bad for Heo Nam Jun, because Jae Pil was rather a mess. The least cohesive and constant character. That said, Nam Jun did what he could with what he was given. His scene where he confronted his father in front of the mother’s grave? Amazing. All the other actors and actresses did as much of a great job as the main three. Acting wise there was honestly no real weak link.

Then we have the styling - perfection. While I loved the wardrobe of Jong Hui in the second half, I want to focus on how all the characters had their own style that fitted their personalities and their lifestyle.

Any and all drinking scenes of Jae Pil, Jeong Hyeon and Yeong Sik. You know what I need? I need them to go back in time and reshoot the show so they can add the aftercredit scenes that last for like 5 minutes of these three chilling and drinking after every episode. Or better, give me a spin off focused on their growing friendship.

Just Ko Yeong Sik. God bless him.

Overall… What a ride. Props for evoking so many feelings in me and making me care so much. Too bad they were mostly negative feelings and they made me care about the wrong things that just made the show more frustrating.

PS. Justice for Jeong Hyeon.

Leggi di Più

Not extraordinary but it's interesting.

I really enjoyed this one. It was a wholesome movie with both emotional and hilarious scenes together and it was a good blend of it. It's definitely different cause it first Korean production related to space. As its name suggests it's the story of space sweepers who do the cleaning of space debris in the year 2092. We all have wide imagination of how our future will be and actually they did a good job cause it seems like future.

As I said the story isn't extraordinary but it's entertaining. It does have many plot holes and answered questions in the last but we cannot expect to show it all in the duration of 2 hours. The actors did a good job in acting I guess the cast was good for their roles. I would really like to appreciate Park Ye Rin she's such a cute girl and did a great job portraying Dorothy.

The best part is its graphics and cinematography it's the real strength of this. The beautiful scenery and realistic graphics are really great.

Overall I really enjoyed it, don't expect too much from it but still, it's worth watching so give it one chance if you really love sci-fi and space you won't regret it watching.

Leggi di Più

My advice: don't watch this.

The FL falls for someone who doesn't deserve her. Then she humiliates herself over and over again by confessing her love endlessly. And then when the supposedly ML decides to accept her as a girlfriend, she jumps right into his arms. Sad, very sad and demeaning to women. Loving unconditionally is romantic. What is not, is obsessing over someone who doesn't give a damn. We frown upon rivals who don't give up, even when their affections are unrequited. Then why do the writer expect us to cheer for a heroine that does that and doesn't really value herself as a human. Yes she is disqualified from beginning to end for her stupidity and shallowness.

Leggi di Più

I liked it until it lost me

TRIGGER WARNINGS of this series: Infertility issues, illness, death.
Comedy is on the thinner side and there is also melodrama.

Looking at the ratings of this drama I feel like I watched a different one than everyone else.
I really wanted to like this series because the premise and the start had potential and there are things I liked in the portrayal of flawed characters that don't do the best of things, but sadly this just progressively lost me as episodes went on and things started to annoy me.

Overall my main two issues here are:
The execution of the plot is a mess at times, it wants to do too many things at the same time but none are necessarily solved or are just there for the pure chaos of it, it got kind of boring. I certainly didn't expect to find this show boring considering its length and how much I wanted to like it because the characters are not presented as perfect like in many other dramas. At points I felt kind of disappointed in myself for not finding it engaging enough but I literally fell asleep a few times, and I never fall asleep with series or movies. Funny enough is how I didn't even bother in going back and I don't feel I missed anything even though I missed in total probably about an hour and a half or a bit more of the total series.
Until the later episodes most of it it's just going and coming from places without enough of a substance to me, felt like a lot of padding. They're just looking for the potential father while he's dragging the girl around and the other two are following them, and the scenes with SML's mother and all that I still don't know what they added to the plot.

The second worst thing in this drama is once again the obsession with the bloodline. At points I thought it was presenting different ideas here because of the main characters and the plot in general, only to fall into the same silly ideas with the blood and how once you see your parents "you know" just because and unconditional love and blah blah blah. Equally silly was the expectation that some dude that might be his potential father would care about him just because he gave the sperm once, this is when they were theorising what that potential father might do or not for him as well as potential inheritance. And then only in the end to go back to a father that was a piece of s*** and abandoned him back in the time. "Oh, but he did go to the school though!!" someone might say, yeah, and after he was missing he didn't move a finger to find him, and apparently didn't care about her blood daughter either. I get ML needed the closure so to speak, but he said it more in the line of getting back some kind of relationship with him again, what falls again into this korean idea that parents don't do wrong and that at the end of the day everything needs to be forgiven because they're your parents, blood and "unconditional love" again.
The whole series revolves too much around "daddy issues" and I'm not a fan of this plot device.

I get it wanted to be comedy at some points but at times it was simply bad taste to me, like how FL wanted to take that baby in the beginning or when she takes ML from the hospital towards the end.
I also didn't appreciate much the duality of going from comedy to melodrama from one scene to another. I don't like melodrama in general either but I think that the comedy bits fell even more flat at times when straight before or after everyone was having a melodramatic moment. One second they're crying about something and the next it's like it never happened and everyone is happy to then remember and cry again.

There are quite a few side characters for such a short drama and I don't feel any of them was explored in depth what it would be fine if it wasn't because it feels they wanted me to care more about them than I did. SML is explored more but it could have been better in my opinion, his whole personality is more or less following the girl all around for most of the drama and it's progressed quickly to have his ending as it is.

I liked the ML for the mess he is, but I would have liked a tiny bit of growth, why is everyone still following him around when he's trying so hard to push everyone away? just leave him get lost then. It's funny that of all the things he did that was the worst for me, because as a viewer this dynamic got repetitive. He's a bad person but a good character, but I wish there had been some progression and that we didn't get the same dynamics of him rejecting people to then leave to then the others try and follow him, it got old quickly.
FL was ok for the most part until she started annoying me with her extremely childish tantrums, she spends half the show screaming. So she might be a good character again but in her case I didn't enjoy watching her.
Her side of the story is never explored enough anyway, we're given some pieces but there is never more exploration about it. She didn't even ask the bio mother anything either, she just spent the time screaming once again. We're also not given any other answer or even conclusion to her menopause thing, because it's not a black or white topic that it's how they presented it here, she's told, that's the end apparently. Her character in general revolves too much around ML and she's just a girl with two personality traits.

The ending was expected considering how the show starts and still was a bit anti-climactic in my opinion, even more that credits scene with the car driving, it's that FL with ML's body inside or what? It also felt a bit rushed since we got so many bits of their trip in a few scenes, I really wished this had been a good chunk of the drama instead of the thugs pursuing them in the first half for example.

Overall it's not an awful drama and it can be watched. I wouldn't rewatch it personally and I wouldn't recommend to people that wants happy endings, perfect characters nor to those that might be triggered by some of the topics.

Leggi di Più

CEW´s character was the only worth watching part of this season

I started watching this cause of KNG is Jin´s fav actor so I wanted to see his acting and I was not impressed.

I can´t think of really nothing that was memorable about this more than Johan.

The first two eps were very slow and nothing much happend there (I thought it was a kind of intruduction and 2 ep s is a lot to introduce a character but I was still trusting them) somehow they managed to keep me watching, and since it was 6ps drama I think that was a help too.

What I liked:

-As an introduction to a bigger plot it was kind of ok, still I think they could´ve put more into its short eps.
-Incredibly the character I liked the most was CEW´s. Why is that incredible for me? cause I´m not the biggest fan of his acting, BUT I must say I found myself crying along side with him in the last ep.

What I did not like:

-The absence of actual development on the main plot. We were told she has great powers that should be awaken and we spent 6 eps and her powers are still sleeping. When ep 4 ended I thought to myself "We are gonna see her on action next week" but it did not happend.
-I feel like the characters were so close and it didn´t feel believable for me. I mean you meet someone and that person is cool, and kind and all that, but you don´t trust someone that fast, You don´t become THAT close THAT fast.
-They killed some characters for not apparent reason, I mean Johan´s brother may have some repercution on the character development for s2, but the other guy. What was the reason? if that´s not going to be important for s2 there was not point on killing him. Came here again to say, they didn´t even adressed his death properly, like they showed us the funeral but that was it.
-And that leads us to another problem. During the whole season they made every murder and problem as if it didn´t happend, like the guy on the police station at the airport. Like no one ever asked what happen to those people or where they are, it was like they never existed to others.
-And talking about development, the only one with it was Johan. Van and Miho were there but what were they doing the whole season all along? Is like they were but they weren´t there.

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Overall I think this should be called "Priest Johan and his friends" I would Actually love if CEW where the only ML on this cause his story was the only thing actually being told here. If they had given more screen time to him it would´ve be perfect.

If eps 1-4 were squiched into 2 and then the las 2 it would be better, and I don´t think it was a good choice to split this cause there is not so much plot for it. I haven´t seen part 2 and I did not read the manhwa, but I´m probably not so wrong if I say it would be good as just 8 eps drama as a whole, maybe.

Just to say I´m not a fan of CEW nor I am fan of his acting, but it is what it is, he was the only worth thing on this season.

I´ll watch s2 because I want to know how they´re gonna wrap it up and if they´re gonna do better, but this trending of part 1 and part 2 is doing kdramas dirty ig.

Leggi di Più

Started off well, but lost it's way. Overrated drama, just because of famous leads

Many people will disagree, but I feel this is just so overrated, Okay, so what if the cast is renowned and they act well. There is hardly any script inn here. I mean nothing really happens. Initial few episodes, which revealed how 2 teens of very opposing nature keep bickering, and eventually fall in love, through those videos and flashbacks, were cool, and had a good thing going. The moment t hey got back together, which was no surprise, the show turned super cheesy and then there was nothing left in story at all, but still it dragged on like forever. The subplot with NJ was kinda cute but unnecessary. The side-plot with the other Woong was boring and unnecessary as well. More so was his subplot with his mother, and the love interest from his assistant. All these plot points were complete fillers for a stale drama. The subplot with the protagonist being adopted, and about his art being criticized was also unnecessary and did not contribute to the plot in any way. The female lead was shown as such a strong character in the beginning, but towards the end was insufferably cheesy and a waste of character. At the end, the leads get separated as they focus on their respective careers but immediately get back together because they just so "missed each other".. the whole thing felt forced, as if they wanted to put in some dramatic moments before they ended the drama. I was utterly bored in last few episodes. Sorry to anyone who finds this drama likeable and disagrees with my review, but I hope this will help someone save their few hours of life by skipping this drama.

Leggi di Più

Worth the watch

Idol I is a quiet, emotionally grounded drama that succeeds by choosing restraint over spectacle.

At its core, the story is less about idol glamour and more about vindication, trust, and identity. It strips fame down to its most fragile parts; solation, public judgment, and the way power distorts truth. Ra-ik’s journey is painful but human: a man forced to confront betrayal, loss, and the slow rebuilding of self-worth when the world decides he’s disposable.

Se-na is the drama’s emotional anchor. As both a fangirl and a lawyer, she could’ve easily fallen into cliché, but instead she’s written with integrity. Her belief in Ra-ik is never blind or performative; it’s principled. She chooses him not out of fantasy, but out of conviction, and that choice shapes the drama’s moral backbone.

The romance unfolds gently, built on quiet moments, shared silence, and emotional safety rather than grand declarations. When affection finally surfaces in a confession, a kiss and a compliment, it feels earned. Their relationship works because it grows alongside healing, not in spite of trauma.
What truly elevates Idol I is its refusal to simplify its characters. Even figures like Woo-seong are treated with nuance, while the reveal of Hye-joo as the killer delivers a chilling reminder that not all harm comes from misunderstanding and that some comes from entitlement without remorse.
Overall, Idol I is a slow-burn drama that rewards patience. It’s thoughtful, sincere, and emotionally resonant , a story about choosing truth, standing firm against power, and finding comfort in being truly seen.

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I don’t need a prince to save me, I need an executioner to join the hunt.

Delicious, compelling, manic, obsessive, infuriating and sensual- this drama gives you all the thrill and more. This is Song Hye Ko like you’ve never seen her before.

Yes, her robotic frozen in time acting is still there but this time it suits the role. Gone is the fluffy Mary Sue rom com female lead she always plays and in its place is a revenge driven, blood thirsty anti-heroine who’s taking no prisoners. I think she did a pretty solid job here- equal parts graceful with just enough madness to make her the right kinda crazy.

Throughout the drama, she has this internal monologue going on where she talks so very affectionately with her worst enemy as if it were a dear friend. Her voice is a mix between poetry and a pretty song if they contained thinly veiled promises of retribution and vengeance.

The acting over all is pretty smooth aside from Lee Do Hyun who is just one of those trendy actors that are cast cause of their looks/hype and nothing more. He is a glorified support role so his lack of talent stings less.

The antagonists are an absolute delight to watch. They are gorgeous on the outside and plain rot on the inside and the actors have done a great job showcasing that.

The bullying is visceral and the heroine’s revenge is 100% believable. You want every single one of these muffuckers to pay with their lives.

The best thing is that the drama doesn’t shy away from gore, sex and profanity which gives it the maturity and darkness that it needs to be convincing, all the while balancing it with a blooming sismance that warms the soul.

Beautifully shot, with incredible OST and an excellent take on your typical revenge story, “The Glory” is equal parts compelling and binge able.

Oh and we have a hot daddy in the house as well. I have one solid ship and I’ll sink with it if I have to. ⛴⛴⛴

Overall, it’s definitely Jeana approved.
I am biting my gorgeous fake nails for season 2~

Leggi di Più

Mother most foul.

I prefer to review c-dramas that are arbitrarily split in two parts to circumvent episode caps only once, after the entire story has been told. In this case, I am making an exception because Part 1 is largely a family drama that focuses on a difficult mother daughter relationship. This Part 1 review will evaluate that aspect of the story and defer a full discussion of the romance to Part 2.

Cheng Shaoshang is a grey character - a thorny, defiant, scheming and distrustful Han Dynasty fifteen year old. She is left to fend for herself while in the care of abusive but not smart relatives while her military family is away defending the country. She runs circles around them and grows up to be distrustful, cunning and unrestrained. When her parents return from the battlefront, they are appalled to discover a lovely, wild, uneducated child, shockingly unschooled in the etiquette expected of the young daughter of a newly minted marquis. Her mother, a fearless, decorated general finds in her recalcitrant daughter a greater foe than found on any battlefield. The mother daughter conflict is the guts of Part 1 and drives most of Shaoshang's actions and decisions.

As a fan of grey characters, I like Shaoshang's character design a lot and Zhao Lusi delivers a very empathetic and charismatic portrayal. While there are better actors, what makes Lusi special is she is very, very funny. Even though there is a recognizable pattern to her comedy, her timing and delivery is more refined with each drama. Underneath the humor, she shows us that Shaoshang is a sad person who refuses to weep; adroitly infusing a note of loneliness, false bravado and vulnerability. This makes the character extremely empathetic, to the fault of being overly so. Lusi seems less comfortable articulating Shaoshang's many flaws, which are glossed over hastily and in a muted tone. As a result, Yuanyi's insistence on harshly taming her daughter's "harmless mischief and high spirits" comes across as heartless and misguided. A more balanced depiction of this relationship rather than one where the mother is so unambiguously the villain would be more interesting and realistic.

One of my biggest issues with the character writing is how main characters, especially Shaoshang are elevated by diminishing other characters, particularly her mother. Their forced separation from birth and subsequent alienation and resentment deserves compassion on both sides but is written in a way that consistently only assassinates the mother's character. After suffering through many of their blood boiling disputes, I was pleased to see Shaoshang get some inkling of what her family went through after Hua City. And I thought she won her mother's grudging respect and approval in how she dealt with Lou Yao. So I was just gobsmacked and revolted by how her mother inexplicably smacks her down in front of the entire court. This is all so that Ling Buyi can gallantly come to the rescue by praising her to the skies as the best lady in the capital. Which considering how awful the other ladies in the capital are, is hardly such a great compliment. After the initial cheap thrill, it looks very high handed and coercive on Ling Buyi's part. It also undoes the hard won truce if not tentative mutual understanding between the mother and child. I don't need them to ever see eye to eye or become best friends but it is disappointing to see Shaoshang's nemesis in Part 1 reduced to a two dimensional mother most foul.

What I can praise is how Shaoshang is lifted up by her intelligence, courage, compassion and her ability to do the right thing even at great cost to herself, which we see in both the Hua City arc and Lou Yao arc. Unfortunately in the latter half, Shaoshang is propped up largely by kicking other characters down. I have never seen such a long list of repetitive, nasty and screechy female characters in a drama. They are all cardboard copies of each other - bratty, rude, stupid, arrogant and in love with Ling Buyi. The mothers are all older and uglier versions of their daughters. I don't enjoy watching women doing their worst to each other. Nor do I like that they are repeatedly dressed down by men, even when it is Ling Buyi and it is well deserved. Sure it is very satisfactory in a low way but it is also frustrating and with repetition, boring. It is very disturbing that with few exceptions (Qi Qi and third aunt), the likeable characters in this drama are all men.

Despite a few thrilling knight in shinning armor moments, the romance is only set up in Part 1 with little real development. Shaoshang's main purpose is to gain freedom and escape her mother's eagle eye and she views marriage as the means to that end. None of her suitors are that compelling and their courtship methods are so appalling they are comical. Lou Yao trails after her like a lovesick puppy, willing to wait on her hand and foot without realizing that women don't need to marry doormats or servants. Yuan Shen's retarded strategy seems to be to make her hate him and pray that hate turns into love. But Ling Buyi is the one that just takes the cake. He makes sure her parents, no, the whole kingdom, knows she has seen him nekkid and failing that, makes her an offer she can't refuse. Who ultimately prevails is pretty much a foregone conclusion with the casting of Wu Lei, which is also a bit of a shame. I'd enjoy it more if we are kept guessing for awhile and there is genuine competition among worthy suitors.

We don't get to see enough of Wu Lei or the romance as Part 1 is mostly Shaoshang's family story. However, there is enough romantic fan service that shows Wu Lei's chemistry with Lusi is promising. While Wu Lei looks incredibly hot as the cold and intimidating general Ling Buyi, initially he appears stiff, like he is trying too hard to project gravitas. He improves noticeably later on when he relaxes his face muscles and his character is humanized by his sidekicks Liang Qiuqi and Liang Qiufei or Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Tweedledum is my favorite side character; his vivid facial expressions in each of his interactions with Ling Buyi have me rolling with laughter. Indeed what really livens this drama's slow burn pace is the humor which also brilliantly amplifies character traits. It is a poignant reminder of how funny and ferocious Wu Lei's Fei Liu was. I had long forgotten how good he is at humor. I look forward to seeing more of Ling Buyi's story as well as genuine relationship development between the leads in Part 2.

If I were to rate Part 1 solely on the mother daughter relationship, I would only give this an 8.0. What makes me mad is this had a lot of potential and we really don't get that many good historical mother daughter character stories. Instead the mother is written to have so little redeeming value it just ends up being a giant waste of emotional energy. But I will throw in another 0.5 to make this 8.5 because apart from the first four episodes which were an aberration, I enjoyed the comedic moments immensely. I may have given this a 9.0 without the many nasty, noisy women.

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Lovers and Secrets

Wow!!! This short drama was a pleasant surprise!

The ML (Leo Yang aka A Sen) is a police officer assigned to infiltrate the Kuntai Group. While at a bar he meets FL (Han Le Yao aka Ling Yi) a hostess who is being harassed by one of Tai's boys. Sen intercedes and from that initial meeting the two are never parted.

Ling Yi suffers from abandonment issues by her boyfriend, being imprisoned for accidently causing a death and lastly to face the loss of her only relative – her aunt. Sen finds himself drawn to Ling Yi. Her kind heartedness and genuine nature which he hasn’t felt in so long makes him want to protect her and keep her safe with him. He tries to distance himself from her due to the life he is portraying and doesn’t want her involved. But Ling Yi keeps showing up even with Sen protesting because she needed to find out more about the cause of her aunt’s death, which was not just the only reason, Ling Yi had begun to fall for Sen.

Feelings were beginning to emerge, and lines started to blur with Sen. He could no longer keep Ling Yi in the dark due to these feeling, so he confessed to her that he was an undercover police officer who was in the Kuntai Group to get information on their criminal activities. Ling Yi, while grateful for the confession and confiding in her would not deter her to leave Sen because she told him that she reciprocated his feelings as well and sealed it with the hottest kiss. Yes, these two were so steamy, and his seductiveness, his look, his voice, and the way he continuously came onto her and she to him only intensified and enraptured their feelings for each other as lovers.

What I really like about Ling Yi is that she wasn't the weak female that you would think she was. She held her own with Sen and actually saved him several times. She thought outside the box and wasn’t pathetic like you see how some of the female leads can be. Taking the initiative with him and let him no in no uncertain terms that she wanted him not just as her protector but as her lover. Yep, she definitely showed him several times.

Kuntai's Group leader Kun dies at the hand of a deal that goes wrong leaving his wife Elena in charge. Tai, Kun’s brother knew that Sen was not to be trusted but Sen was always a step ahead and turn the tables on Tai to make him look like the guilty party ever time. In the last exchange, everything went sideways, and Tai went missing. Ling Yi confronted Elena about her aunt telling her she knew that she had killed her aunt. The video she had would incriminate her. Elena tried to appease Ling Yi, but this was all a ruse so that she could stab her. Sen knew when Elena did not show up at the exchange that something was wrong and arrived to see her stabbed Ling Yi. Sen was so enraged that he shot Elena in the arm.

Rushing her to the hospital, Sen faced the reality of losing Ling Yi and this led him to believe even more that he wanted her to be with him for the rest of her life. Of course, she survives. Sen sets up the hospital room with the help of the nurses to propose to Ling Yi who accepts. The police were still on alert because Tai was still missing. As Sen leaves Ling Yi he sees Tai and follows him to an abandon garage. Ling Yi hears an altercation in the hospital room next door and hears that Tai has set up Sen. She takes off to Sen location and begs Tai to let Sen go. But little did they know that Tai had set bombs around the parameter that he exploded. Sen is gone.

Ling Yi barely believes he is gone...3 years go by until he returns. They are reunited.

I feel that we could have another one due to the fact do we know that Tai died. Elena was only shot in the arm and went to jail. Could both of them team up for revenge on both Sen and Ling Yi. That would be an exciting to see another season.

This is really a good watch and who wouldn’t want to be this man's undercover lover. I know I would want too.

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The relationship between the leads is just the most heart-warming and sweet and tender romance i have ever seen. and kudos to Park Hae Jin who plays "Sunbae" (lol), his character is above all the best part of this show. He is the most interesting charcater, and this show does something so unique by allowing us as the viewer to see from the female leads perspective, meaning, you yourself, like her, will question him and his intentions. The show plays out so well, and paces itself so perfectly that every episode seems too short (which is super rare). It holds all its cards and reveals them to you only when time is right (again, super rare trait), and EVERYTHING YOU BELIEVE YOU KNOW IS NOT ALWAYS ALL THERE IS TO THE STORY.

Watch it for yourself, and you will quickly see that this is a gem among many other dramas. Yes, ill be the first to say (while i would not have predicted this when watching the series in the beginning) it was imperfect (but really, only in the last few episodes), HOWEVER, as i am the first to drop a show as soon as i think ill be disappointed with the end, I can say that I don't regret watching this show at all and that's primarily because of how strong the series as a whole was.

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Lovely, light & short romcom

A breath of fresh air from all the thriller kdramas we’ve seen so far this year. It's just 4 episodes long so it's fast-paced and super fun to watch! I really loved seeing Sooyoung as a top actress and Yoon Park as a single father here! The chemistry was there. Acting was spot on from all the cast. Writing and production quality were excellent. Exploration of the characters back story made the series believable and worthy of watching. It’s a cute, simple and light kdrama. The background music is pure enjoyment for the ears. If you are in need of some short romcom, then Fanletter, Please is for you!

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