A Beautiful Mind (2016)

Qué difícil me resulta reseñar A Beautiful Mind. Los dramas médicos nunca han sido lo mío; de hecho, quizá, junto con los históricos, son los que peor se me dan. Sin embargo, estuve dispuesta a darle una oportunidad, y no me arrepiento, aunque dudo mucho que alguna vez lo vuela a visualizar.

La premisa de la criatura del doctor Frankestein no es nueva, salvo que el personaje de Shelley no era ajeno al dolor emocional (más bien, se ahogaba en él de una manera que no sabía procesar). Pero no deja de ser "una monstruosidad" el no poder expresar los sentimientos más básicos. En ese aspecto, Jang Hyuk brilla demasiado: se necesita una versatilidad actoral única para interpretar a un personaje inexpresivo y él lo hace a la perfección.

Poner a personajes así de pétreos y fríos frente a la pantalla, convertirlos en protagonistas y pretender que empatizemos con ellos, puede ser un arma de doble filo. Generalmente, para que eso suceda necesitamos a otro personaje que le haga un peso contrario en la balanza. Alguien que sea todo lo contrario a lo que éste es. Alguien jovial y carismático. Alguien que pueda comprender y que sirva como brújula moral ante cualquier escenario. Tanto para el personaje como para el público. Park So-dam es maravillosa en ese papel a pesar de su juventud.

Y a pesar de todo (un guión a la altura, una buena dirección, un desarrollo de personajes bastante aceptable), el drama nunca me atrapó. Por momentos se me hacía sumamente lentísimo y en otros más se aceleraba a un ritmo frenético. Los personajes jamás consiguieron ganarme, a pesar de que tuvieron sus momentos y su relación siempre fue de menos a más. Aun así, pienso que todos deberían darle una oportunidad, por lo menos a los primeros dos episodios. Después de eso, si la curiosidad continúa, seguramente será un drama que será de su agrado.

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Overall this was a very interesting drama. Never would I have thought that someone would end up making a medical mystery drama that would be this well written. The concept really drew me in. One thing that I really enjoyed about this show was that it was never predictable. I never knew what was going to happen next in Beautiful Mind. It was really a shame that this show ended up airing at the same time as Doctors. As the ratings ended up being lower than Doctors. I believe 2 episodes were cut from this series as a result of low ratings. It went from being 16 episodes to 14 episodes. This caused the pacing at the very end of the story to be a fast-paced, but it was still well written nonetheless. One of the few Korean dramas that I wished was a few episodes longer.

Story: [9/10] I really liked the concept of a medical mystery. As it really adds another layer to what may be a typical medical show. You are seeing the doctors take care of patients in a stressful situation as in most other medical dramas. At the same time you have a group of murders going on that continues to keep you curious. These murders add a layer of complexity to the drama. The surgeries and the mystery together pretty much keeps you on the edge of your seat for most of the drama. The main characters are also very well written. The characters do not stay flat and act the same the whole time. The characters learn from the events in the series and some of them grow more as a person. I didn't give this show a 10 for two reasons. The first is because the shows pace ended up being sped up because of 2 episodes getting axed. I feel like the extra episodes could have answered a lot more questions and made the show and the pacing better. The second reason is because I feel like the ending was slightly flat. The show had so much action that each and every single episode (okay maybe not every single one) seemed like the climax. However at the same time, it also made me feel like the ending didn't have much as an impact as I would see in other endings. Hence I couldn't really give it a 10 for the story. Of course that's just my own opinion though. Although I did give the show a 9 for being very action-packed and having good character development.

Acting/Cast: [8.5/10] There's nothing much that I can say about the acting and cast. For the most part no one really stood out to me other the Dr. Lee Yeong Oh. I thought that his acting was really good and that he portrayed his character really well.

Music: [8.5/10] Music is pretty likable. It uses an array of different tunes for different situations.

Overall I recommend you watch the series. This season was very good in general. Beautiful Mind was definitely the dark horse of this season and it ended up proving that it was worth my time. It was a 14 hour well spent :)! I suggest you watch it too if you haven't already.

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