Reviews

Chaotic, Illogical, and Somehow Still Fun

*Disclaimer: This review contains major spoilers for the entire series, including plot twists and the ending. Read at your own risk.

This drama is so dumb — ridiculously bad. So bad that I can’t even be mad about it. What’s worse is that I think I might have actually enjoyed it at times. I didn’t know it was possible for a show to move this fast-paced while also going absolutely nowhere.

The setup was nice, and I liked the first episode, but overall the story made no sense. It felt like the writers just threw all logic out the window. The plot twist came out of nowhere and didn’t make any logical sense whatsoever. It was very clearly added purely for shock value, with no real thought behind it.

Like, you’re telling me Arisa dedicated her entire life to avenging her dead parents and somehow never realized her mother was alive, yet Lalin and King figured it out in a single day? Her mother must have just done a terrible job faking her own death because what even was that?

Mek being secretly evil was very obvious — I think most people guessed that from the trailer alone. It’s a very common trope in revenge stories like this, so it didn’t feel original at all.

The writers also couldn’t even commit to giving Mek an actual redemption arc. Instead, they just had him appear out of nowhere and take a bullet for Arisa in the last episode like that was supposed to magically undo everything. I literally didn’t even know he was there until he got shot. How did he even know where they were? Was he just stalking Arisa the whole time?

The characters were barely developed. I couldn’t tell you a single thing about either Arisa’s or Lalin’s personalities outside of the revenge plot, aside from Arisa being resentful and emotionally closed off. Lalin especially felt underwritten at times. She kind of only exists so Arisa can love her. The show briefly mentions the struggles in Lalin’s own life, but they’re rarely explored deeply enough to actually matter. As a result, Lalin mostly ends up serving as the person who helps heal Arisa and teaches her how to love again. Which is cute, don’t get me wrong — I just wish we had gotten to know Lalin a bit more as her own character.

The romance was also rushed (though that’s somewhat understandable considering the show is only eight episodes long), and for most of the series, not much of real importance actually happens.

I also think a story that tries to combine revenge and romance like this needs a decent amount of emotional angst for both aspects to really work together, and Broken of Love surprisingly had very little of it. Considering the drama is built around betrayal, trauma, and revenge, the emotional tension felt oddly low most of the time, which made a lot of the drama feel underwhelming instead of intense.

I think the best episodes were Episodes 1 and 7. Even though all logic disappears after Episode 6, that’s also when the plot finally starts moving. The earlier episodes mostly just felt like buildup.

Of course, the show wasn’t completely bad. The acting was decent overall, and Faye and Atom had enough chemistry to make the romance one of the more enjoyable parts of the series. Even when the writing lost me, their scenes together still worked. The love scenes were also shot really well and felt surprisingly tasteful and intimate compared to other GLs.

I also liked the dynamic between Wei Ling and Arisa. Their rivalry had a fun push-and-pull tension that kept their interactions interesting, and I found that aspect more engaging than rest of the revenge plot. Visually, the show looked great too. The cinematography, lighting, and overall aesthetic were very polished and satisfying to watch, which definitely helped make the drama more entertaining despite all its flaws.

Overall, this is one of those dramas that’s objectively a mess but still somehow entertaining enough to keep watching. It had potential, but the weak writing and lack of logic held it back from being anything memorable.

Read More

It Should Have Been 16 Episodes | How Story-telling Can Cheapen Acting Performances

Hear me out— Perfect Crown ’suffers’ from two completely contradicting ‘issues’: The premise of the story is actually extremely deep yet the storytelling is strikingly shallow.

Disclaimer: At the point of writing this review, I haven’t yet watched the last two episodes.


At the beginning of the episodes I felt like something was missing from the two main lead’s acting. It felt like there was a backstory that was never told. Seong Hui-ju has a kind of “chip on her shoulder” personality that is a little off-putting and uhh…well, a bit exasperating. It’s actually obvious over the course of the series that, in the earlier episodes, she is putting on a front, yet we are supposed to pretend like we understand the character and sympathise with the character from episode 1 even though we know nothing about her.

The few snapshots of her past just weren’t enough to have me hooked to her character, and I probably only continued watching because I felt like IU would have picked a more nuanced character than the earlier episodes depicted. In reality, Song Hui Ju is a scared little girl who just wanted to be loved by and a part of her father’s family, and sought to get there by being the best at everything—essentially buying her family’s love through perfectionism.

The reality of Song Hui-ju is that she isn’t as much of a sociopath as the earlier episodes lead us to believe, and I know that this is the point, but by adding 4 more episodes (16 eps total) there would have been time to understand her backstory or even show the first moments she first began trying on that sociopath-type mask. They could have shown us the loneliness she felt after feeling abandoned by her mother, and her obsessive need for love from her father from such a young age by really digging into the backstory. And then shown us Song Hui-Ju’s first devolvement into her sociopathic front and how it WORKED FOR HER as the reason why she kept putting up that front. But all we get is jumping right into a female lead who we have little reason to like. The only clue that Hui Ju may not be crazy is how loyal her secretary is to her—meaning she must be a pretty good boss. There is basically no context for IU’s performance in the earlier episodes, which kinds of makes watching the character of Hui-Ju a little uncomfortable. IMO, I think IU nails the portrayal and the “mask” Hui Ju wears. I saw some characters saying IU’s acting felt fake because it felt like she was pretending to be Hui Ju--but i think that’s the point! “Mean” Hui Ju is an exaggerated persona of the real Hui Ju. When the mask starts to slip in the later episodes we get a glimpses of her true nuances. Think about:

........Sp0iler: the car scene and how the immediately pushed the car to the side to protect the young king, therefore putting herself in more harm. A sacrificial nature in Hui Ju is not depicted in the earlier episodes at all, but it IS in her. I feel like they could have told a better story by letting the mask slip at least a little bit to foreshadow that more nuances to the character is coming


It’s the same thing with I-AN’s characterisation. I-AN is characterised by restraint but there’s no full backstory to really understand what he is restraining from. We get bits and pieces of backstory that he’s a “spare,” but how are us real-world commoners supposed to understand the weight of existing as a back-up who—conceptually—will likely never be needed. That kind of backstory is incredibly deep, but its storytelling portrayal is surprisingly so much lighter than the premise behind the character.

.........SP0ILER alert: the layered performance of BWS in the earlier episodes makes so much more sense after finding out that he knew all along that his sister-in-law denied his late brother’s request to abdicate the throne, meaning every interaction they had she was lying to his face and HE KNEW IT.

BWS’ performance in earlier episodes gives restraint, disgust, and most importantly a numbness that is difficult to understand without story. The earlier episodes force us to dive right into a backstory that we could never relate to, which I actually feel like cheapens the performance.


I am a fan of both BWS and IU, so seeing their acting be criticised made me do some real thought digging, because, when watching the earlier episodes, I actually AGREED—I was off-put by both performances and couldn’t figure out why. In the earlier episodes it’s not that the acting was bad, it was that their acting was much too layered for characters we know nothing about and can’t sympathise with because we just don’t know them like that. It’s funny because I have a tendency to think longer historical dramas can be quite boring, but there was so much room to show everyone’s backstory in more than just a few high school snapshots. Like for the evil queen instead of them saying “she comes from 3 generations of queens,” they could have shown us the generational pressure on both Inpyong (aka Jin Mu) and the Queen Mother to upkeep their own family honor and the greed it birthed within them. That would have been so cool to see, and then it would have made the Queen Mother’s devolvement into wickedness so much more conflicting for the audience. That kind of storytelling would have been incredible.

I do think the little snapshots are cute, but they had so much potential to actually be potent, not just cute.

I know the drama is trying to follow fluff trends and that in regular dramas we complain because we don’t usually get enough time spent on fluff between the leads. I do think that the drama delivers on the fluff the audience enjoys; however, again, it took me 10 episodes before I was able to intellectually peel back the acting-tone layers of the first 5-8 episodes. There is so much material for the story to work with but instead it hops right over excavating the real depth that is fundamental to the series’ premises, in favour of just delivering fluff. I think this actually ends up confusing the audience on the main lead’s acting performances.

The queen mother has been delivering at a high level; however, if you think about it it is easier to understand the angst behind her rage and evil because we are so used to evil mother characters and especially evil queen mother characters from other dramas (let’s be real, almost all queen mother/mother in law characters are evil in historical dramas). So we RELATE to her performance because she is the mother of a young king and her power depends on a child. Who wouldn’t be a little crazy under that circumstance?

Even the Prime Minister…the actor is a great actor, but all we really get in the earlier episodes from his acting is a numbness that is supposed to be validated by “his religion” but we have no idea what that religion means to him. If we had been given more backstory as to why he fell in love with Hui-Ju and what his religion means to him and why he interpreted his faith as meaning he needed to have restrained himself for literally decades from confessing to his love? Like how are we as the audience supposed to relate to that? That’s why:


.........SP0ILER: the later episodes where the gloves come off with the PM, the actor is doing such a phenomenal job because we now understand his anger and the darkness it entails…but it took 10 episodes to get there

On the Main Lead’s Chemistry:
I think “chemistry” is a subjective consideration; however, typically in dramas there is buildup between the main leads through the story and their meet-cute story that delivers a sense of angst between them, only to be relieved when they finally get together. Instead, the chemistry of Perfect Crown’s main leads is characterised by restraint and ***consent. Prince IAN wouldn’t make and moves on Hui-Joo without her consent, and Hui-Joo has a tendency to build up a personality armour to protect herself and “isn’t supposed to” allow herself to fall for a guy she has a business contract with that’s supposed to lead her to the perfectionism that is supposed to gain her the love and approval of her father— this leads to a relationship characterised by restraint. So even though the series delivers on their marriage fairly early, we don’t get the satisfaction of angst and buildup BECAUSE they already knew each other AND have to cordially respect each other. That’s why I feel like episode 10 really delivered…because.

.........SP0ILER: After all her attempts to have done everything to gain the love of her father, she kneels before her father to protect the guy she loves…meaning she has abandoned her desire to be loved by her father to instead serve her partner by giving him love instead.

Anyways I haven’t watched the last 2 episodes yet but I don’t think my take will change. I think it’s a neat little show but the earlier episodes are surprisingly shallow (story) and deep (acting). I personally think both IU & BWS did a great job overall and encapsulated the true nature of both characters. I also think that ironically, if they had actually had less layered performances (meaning technically worse acting), that might have actually gone over better with the audiences, but only because we have no ida what the story is trying to do until we get to the latter episodes.


But who knows, maybe i’m just giving preferential treatment!!! 🤪

Read More

I genuinely think the first season was better than this one and it was not because this cast was bad or they are bad actors. it's because there was no commitment to the characters, either from the actors themselves or the director. this show is meant to be messy and to showcase these new adults relationships and behavior in the situations they were put in. It looked like they were scared to kiss people outside of their fixed couple when it made total sense for their character to do so. I feel like stuff was cut that was meant to make us care for certain characters that did these big things or were from the past, in the end it didn't have the desired effect.
AouBoom is what made me come back and catch up with the show, because I was bored halfway thru. it was kind of stuck.

Read More

Nothing Burger

The entire series kind of felt like it was the ascent of a roller coaster that never reached the drop. The buildup at the beginning really hooked me and then as the episodes went on it gave the sense that nothing ever actually happened. Once I got to episode 10 it almost felt pointless to finish it off because everything was either predictable or just not worth it watching. In the first season even the final episode had twists and things still kept you sitting up but by episode 5 in this one I was already losing interest.

We’d get these over reactions by the characters but then you’d think about what caused the over reaction and it just didn’t add up to the feeling they wanted you to feel. For example in season 1 it made so much sense for Mew to get mad at Top and Boston for what they did and even you as the viewer felt mad with him but the “climax” of the show being a slow dance and an almost kiss made everything feel like a huge outburst for no reason.

The most annoying part of them all was all the fake outs. Why try to constantly build this moment of “omg what will they do???” for absolutely nothing to occur? By the time I got to the halfway point I couldn’t ever feel like I was on the edge of my seat because I knew exactly what was coming. Two characters would get really close and then one would pull back or they’d get interrupted and this HAPPENED every single time. By the third time you sit there with a straight face and just think “yeah they won’t even kiss anyways”. And it’s true. They didn’t.

The beauty of the first season was that I genuinely had no clue what was going to happen next but in this season it all felt like by the time the “climax” happened I knew where we were headed without even having seen the previews. You could already sense what would happen between each couple and each character before you even watched the next episode.

They even made Boston lacklustre. The one character everyone wanted to shake things up ended up being the level headed one that just did nothing at all the entire season? Next time just don’t even add him in.

I will however say that the cast did a great job with the slop they were given. They acted so well and really tried their best but even their great performances could not save the atrocities and snooze fest this entire scriptwriting had . Don’t use the only friends name if you’re not going to commit. If I did not have the expectations I felt I was given at the beginning maybe it would’ve been enjoyable but this was just a miss entirely for me.

Read More

I've seen this in 2005 when I was 10 years old and I haven't really paid attention, but I remember the entire premise.

I dunno what has gotten into me recently but I found myself revisiting these old K-dramas I've seen in the past on free TV that I haven't watched in full. Boy was it worth my time!

The story is simple. The characters aren't really that complicated but I love the romance! Han Ji Hye and Lee Dong Gun are just so good on screen! In this age, the entire premise might be off but it's their dynamic as a married couple is what I liked the most. It's not iffy, guys. There's no power manipulation or dominance, just cute romance. And I love that. The conflicts are also not that serious, and they get resolved easily.

If anything, I really love the sweetness of the couple; it's so adorable!

Read More

Nao develops a pair

This second season of Liar Game is just as entertaining as the first season in terms of mind games and being cunning. This is why I don't mind if it diverged from the source material, which at that time was still publishing. (Round 4 is Revival II in the manga. What follows this is changed in the jdorama)

Despite my not liking Nao's character and what she represents, she has grown as a character and was able to make her belief in people somehow work.

If there's an added reason to watch the second season, it's the antagonist Katsuragi Ryou, who reminds me a bit of Classroom of the Elite's Sakayanagi Arisu in terms of her demeanour. Unfortunately, she is only a jdorama original. The jdorama did dirty on Yokoya Norihiko's characterisation, and his good qualities had to be put into Katsuragi.

Read More

It had it's moments

Disclaimer

What I am writing here are my views and thoughts about this series. Some of you may not like it. That does not give you the right to try to come at me with your opinions on why this series should get a higher or lower score and why it is better/worse than I think it is. You have your own opinions, and I have mine. Kindly respect that.

I felt like if I was waiting forever for this series from when it was first announced. And I had high hopes for it as i thoroughly enjoyed the thai parent story 'Only Friends' for the drama and the messiness that it served to us viewers on a weekly basis. And this series did start off in the same way, with me enjoying Dean, Rome and Raffy to the fullest as these respective actors truly brought their role to life on the screen.

I felt that after the series progressed, the messiness was still there but was not as strong as I would have liked it to be. I felt that their issues were handled quickly, making me feel like if I was watching the other BL dramas with the way that they handled their issues. I am a fan of Earth/ Mixx with a small crush on Joss/Gawin and I will tell you here that the star main couple who stole the scenes every time that they were on was Aou/ Boom. They did a terrific job and was one of the main reasons why I wanted to continue watching this series.

It was nice catching up with some of the previous characters from 'Only Friends', especially Boston, as it seems that he has turned over a new leaf and is no longer the bitch who we know and loved from the first season. And I felt that the person who was really the bad person for this season wasn't really dealt with to my liking. Yes, the situation was dealt with, but the person should have suffered more. All in all, it was a good watch that needed to be more messy like it's previous one.

Read More