Engine Breakdown
I procrastinated for a while to see this drama. After running out of K-Dramas to watch, I finally decided to give it a try after seeing so many high scores.To my disappointment, WWW did not work for me. For the FIRST time ever, I dropped a show on Episode 9.
The fight between two website companies for better search engine, throwing in some politicians' corrupted ways was far from exciting and did not create the anticipation needed for 16 Episodes as there was quite a bit of dialogue. But then again, how else to compete in the world wide web.
Therefore, I was hoping that the main lead's romance would keep us satisfied. Except for the mind-blowing 1st episode, everything was lagging behind when it comes to their love development. The hesitation from a 38 year old, Ta Mi (Im Soo Jung) to get involved with a 28 year old Park Morgan (Jang Ki Yong) was not only slow and torturous, it went to the point of being ridiculous. The way she treated him was more like a boy, than a man, even though Park Morgan was a well rounded, mature 28 year old, who was sure of his love. It was obvious she is very attracted to him but why it had to drag on so long for her to accept his heart? I would understand the fear coming from a younger lady (no pun intended), but for a 38 year old? Even after Episode 8 where she accepted him, their relationship chemistry was not there, though they kissed well. After watching so many romantic K-dramas, I am quite certain there will be more hesitation and fear of hurting the heart happening from Ta Mi, lots of emotional roller coaster in the coming episodes which I am not keen to go through. So bye bye for me on Episode 9.
I am apologetic if I come off like a 'love' maniac, but I truly wanted to like this drama. As the website companies fight failed to keep me interested, I was looking forward to the romance to save the day. Unfortunately.....the search engine there also broke down for me :(
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This review may contain spoilers
This drama indeed has some amazing characters, but the story feels aimless and unfinished. I loved the two noona romances, although Tami's in the last 1/3rd of the drama was quite annoying. The interactions of the 3 main women were also quite entertaining, it's quality bromance. Having binged this in 3 days I feel that writers did some pretty obvious character personality adjustments in between episodes, which seemed to have made the flow of the story inconsistent. Also there is quite a bit of repetition, some scenes and issues are brought up & discussed in a way that reminded me of time travel dramas. This show is first and foremost a procedural drama, but the happenings in the Search Engine industry were not all that interesting, especially in the second half. Had they've given me a proper happy ending, or at least an open ended ending that shows some hope I would have rated this a point higher. To reiterate on the ending, none of the 3 women have a real hope to keep their current partner. Tami reconciles with Morgan in the last episode, but realistically nothing is resolved and they are doomed to fall apart again. Song Gagyeong's happy ending is a successful divorce with a husband she clearly had a strong bond with..
As for Scarlett, what are the odds that after one month of being together her relationship can survive another 18 or so months of being apart. I guess the Melodrama tag on Wiki is completely justified. :)
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Simple, yet entertaining
search: WWW offers everything a drama needs: tension, comedy, romance and above all, an engaging plot carried out by a reliable, entertaining cast. The women in this drama stand out ( special mention: Ye Soo Jung! Outstanding!) with men portraying rather side characters but nonetheless, well-rounded and utterly charming ones. Even though the focus is set on the female characters the drama does not scream WOMEN EMPOWERMENT in your face. Yes, the female leads are bold, but in a realistic way with flaws, worries and weaknesses of their own.The story is simple, but doesn't get boring at any point. The drama has a a grand start, an according continuation and a proper conclusion. I really had hoped for an ending which wouldn't seem too rushed and luckily that was the case.
The three female leads have an equal amount of screen time and each of their stories has enough content about the struggle and perks of a successful woman in modern times to keep you interested in their lives. The work life in the web business, which all three have in common, offers interesting aspects about the huge impact of the internet and search engines on our daily lives and depicts how the internet forms and affects today's society and vice versa.
I could go on an on praising this drama, its plot and the cast, but I'd rather you see (watch) for yourself what makes this drama great. The drama's strength lays in its cast and the realistic portrayal of the internet business and a self-made woman's life; minor flaws may be the tacky intro song in the beginning of each episode (apart from that the OST offers some lovely songs!) and the melodramatic moments between the lead couple in the last two episodes.
Definitely one of my favourite dramas of 2019!
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The romance for all three women was so weak. The main couple had no chemistry at all and their conversations were exhaustingly dull and trite. I literally skipped all of their scenes from episode 5 and onward.
The topic of how search engines are run and the influence of users and politics was what kept me hooked to the end, but how did I get there? By skipping so much in each episode that I was actually viewing 30-40 mins worth of an episode.
The two things I enjoyed in this drama was the plot of politics and search engines, and the spunky woman who literally kicked ass... except her love story was meh, but the best out of the women.
The advertisements in this show was disgustingly blatant. I hate shows that essentially become a commercial. I get that advertising sponsors are needed and I'm used to the weird interruptions in a scene to include product placement, but this show is nearly on Goblin's level of advertising, except this show sucked because it tried SO HARD to look beautiful.
I highly recommend skipping this show. Unless you enjoy watching 80% of scenes filmed in a weird angle, with a diffused and soft look, and fashion-like commercials.
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This review may contain spoilers
The premise had so much potential but the story did not deliver enough
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD.Sub par at best. And I say this with a heavy heart because the premise was so intriguing, female-centered plot with strong successful female leads is exactly what I signed up for, but they managed to waste their potential. I feel like the writers did not have enough material to create a full 16-episode story in the first place. Making a drama about the business behind the two biggest search engines in Korea is a door for endless possibilities. They could’ve done so much but they ended up reducing it to cliché events that everybody has seen already. It became boring in the middle so I fast forwarded many of the business talks, it didn’t really matter much anyway.
Tami and Morgan’s romance bored me to death. I ended up watching their scenes on either 1.25x faster or fast forwarding it. Tami did so much push and pull, it’s agitating. She always find reasons to push him away but he keeps crawling back to her like a lost puppy. If we’re being realistic, nobody with a brain is gonna be patient and pursue you while you repeatedly push them out like Tami did. Now that I think about it, Morgan deserves better than that. The age gap play a huge issue and their relationship is never gonna work out. It makes more sense for them to break up but they made them come back together just for the sake of a “happy ending”. They could’ve given Tami a permanent love interest who shares the same belief as her because, news flash, you can be in a healthy loving relationship with somebody and never have to get married, you just both have to be up for it. But I guess they would run out of story to tell. Tami’s progressiveness was just wasted away by giving her a love interest who does not share her views. And Morgan deserved somebody who can give him more than Tami can.
Song Ga Gyeong is okay. I like her character arc. She’s a morally grey character that is executed to still be likable and I ended up actually rooting for her and her ex-husband. It’s fascinating to see how their relationship started to develop much better when they were in the brink of divorce.
I found Scarlet to be the most redeeming factor of this drama. Without her, I would’ve dropped this and never pick it back up. She’s the most likable character among all. She’s impatient and aggressive, she does have anger management issues and violent tendencies but she also has a strong sense of justice and cares very deeply. She’s not afraid to speak her mind and stand up for what she thinks is right. She’s competent and flawed and I so dearly love how complex yet so simple she is. Cha Hyeon and Seol Ji Hwan’s relationship was adorable. It did drag a bit, because again, I feel like they don’t have enough story planned to tell so they need to drag it out instead of just letting them know how they feel about each other in the first place. But the development is still rewarding nonetheless.
All in all, I feel very hot and cold about this drama. It had a lot of potential and I just wish they brought out more.
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This COULD have been a banger….
This series could have gotten 10 points from me if Park Morgan's character had been written out.Search WWW is about two major Internet portals Unicorn and Barro, like Google or Firefox (only more interactive), competing for first place.
In the center are three women, one employee of Barro, one employee of Unicorn and one employee who was fired from Unicorn for an unfair reason and is now hired in a Barro task force. Their mission: to increase the market value of Barro and the amount of users.
All 3 women know each other from school and have a history with each other. Song Gakyung (Unicorn) lives in an arranged marriage, her difficult mother in law has great influence and uses her for her own purposes.
Chahyun (Barro) is a woman who had to give up fighting sports and transforms her energy into sports and series. She has a crush on an actor, whom she even meets later.
Lastly, Bae Tami. She switches to Barro, is super smart and tough and full of ideas.
Chahyun and Tami form a great team at Barro. The people are nice and the atmosphere is reminiscent of a start-up. Most of the scenes are super funny and I really enjoyed watching the team.
So far so good. Unfortunately, these scenes are severely limited due to another character. I thought it was super exciting to watch Gakyung's sheer difficulty and power struggle and Chahyun's actress makes you just want to watch her. The stroy-lines in this field were very notable.
Right in the first episode, however, Tami meets Park Morgan, who is 10 years younger (very important info) and develops music for games.
The relationship starts off with a one night stand, so I thought it would take a new tone as well. Unfortunately, false report.
Park Morgan isn't the problem per se, but how Tami's character acts when she's with him. It's super annoying. The music, the lighting, the filters, everything is set up for romance. Don't get me wrong. I love rom-coms. But this relationship is just boring and frustrating. That's why I recommend just fast forwarding scenes of these two. They can take up to 50% of the episode, though.
SPOILERS AHEAD (resp. More Details)
The first problem that is brought up again and again is the age difference, after that is cleared up, the next 10 episodes are still about that, but also about the fact that Tami doesn't want to get married, but Morgan does. Their solution for everything at first: it doesn't matter, we will live in the here and now and not in the future. But then one episode later it becomes the center of attention again and yawn... The dialogues are endless, the words empty and the thematic tiring. The kickass Tami becomes an expressionless and washed out creature. They managed to make me absolutely bored and as soon as they both show up together I try to occupy myself elsewhere.
The cast was good, I was not a fan of Tamis actress though, she always had the same expressions. I don’t really see why she was chosen.
The styling was often pretty weird, but that’s still okay.
I loved the OST, very catchy and diverse in sound.
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"Make it wow"
Wow, such an amazing production surrounding women empowerment. I think this is one of my all-time favorites emphasizing the power of women in the IT industry.All three female leads are such power houses in their jobs and I'm glad that their male counterparts constantly supported and uplifted them. Even though the main couple wasn't my favorite, I respected how they communicated and even though their ending was ambiguous, I'm glad they showed up their break-up. It just wouldn't make sense for them to be together with such a big difference in opinions of marriage. I'm glad that Tami's character was consistent in her feelings against marriage and that she wasn't phased after being with Morgan.
CHA HYEON aka Scarlett aka my favorite character possibly in kdrama history? I loved her so, so, so much and her relationship with Seol Ji Hwan was cute and adorable. I just loved her so much. She is badass and loving and sweet. She always sensed when Tami was off, and supported and protected her. Scarlett is my new role model. I'm actually in love.
Song Ga Kyung was an amazing character. There was so much internal struggle, and she's so determined to be on top. I really liked her interactions with her husband, and a part of me wished that they could be together, but it makes sense for her to be apart from that family. She's an absolute badass, and everything she did in the last episode gave me chills. I really wished that we could've seen more of the 3 female leads being happy together because that ending scene gave me so many feels and I just wanted them to all be happy.
Overall, this drama should be on everyone's watch-list because I was genuinely blown away. Although there are some slow parts in the drama, seeing how everything played out was rewarding. If you like strong female leads, amazing dialogue, cute romance, business and marketing, unwavering friendship, and/or the tech industry - you need to watch this right now. I don't think words can properly do this drama justice so do yourself a favor and enjoy this wild roller coaster.
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This is literally one of the best shows that anyone can ever grace their lives with.
THIS SHOW CHANGED MY PERSPECTIVE ON LIFE. It made me believe in myself, it made me believe that no matter what stage of life I'm going through, I will never have everything figured out, and that's okay. In fact, that's LIFE because life is complicated, messy, unpredictable, harsh, rewarding, and beautiful.Starting with my favourite character, Bae Ta Mi. She was the one that I have resonated with THE MOST in all my Kdrama history of female leads. She was devoted to her job, devoted to her sunbae (and the second main lead of the show), and had her life mostly figured out.
All until the day when she finds herself unemployed. Her life changes drastically there on, and through a new job and a new relationship, she has to constantly reinvent herself, and watching her clumsily and messily and gracefully handle life taught me that being strong is not about having all the answers, it's about working hard to be true to yourself and follow your heart and staying true to your goals and dreams and being honest and being stubborn.
She doesn't want to get married and have kids, but her partner does, and despite their strong feelings for each other, they struggle to find a balance between living in the moment, or being worried about the future. Her boyfriend was so spot on with the way he always challenged and also accommodated her, loved her, and wanted to be with her without any reservations. He was so damn sweet, honest and simply perfect for this role which is Jang Ki Young's best role without a doubt.
This relationship of him with her and her thought process was something I could STRONGLY relate too, because I feel the same as she does and I can picture myself to be in her shoes, where I find myself constantly having to explain why I don't want to get married, but someone who does never has to explain anything. She survives her life smartly, and despite being extremely emotional, she is brave and adamant in achieving her goals and she learns through her mistakes. She acknowledges that even though she thought she'd have her life figured out by 38, the fact that she doesn't surprises her, but she takes it in stride and marches on.
I could go on and on but I simply loved her and her sense of fashion was my FAVOURITE.
Secondly, the sunbae of the trio, who was ruthless and manipulative, but somehow found her way through til the end through a horribly abusive mother in law. Thirdly, the maknae of the group, who was bright and fierce in her anger and her love, and was super DUPER cute with Lee Jae Wook.
I also LOVED BRIAN HE IS LITERALLY THE BEST BOSS IN THE WHOLE DAMN WORLD.
I also loved all the other characters in the show, there was hardly anyone I disliked tbh.
TLDR: Loved it, EASY 100/10.
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This review may contain spoilers
I was initially struck by the stylish direction and videography, reminiscent of a tv commercial, but not as obnoxious in that respect as some dramas and movies I’ve seen. That, plus the premise of the IT world reimagined as the fashion industry (not a single nerd works for the two biggest “search engine” companies) was enough to keep me watching in the beginning.Two of the leads, the Ta Mi and Cha Heon characters, were well-acted and likable, as were their boyfriends (although it took me several episodes to stop thinking of Park Morgan as the sadistic violent scary guy from Na Ajushi).
Unfortunately, the third couple, Ga Geong and Jin Woo, were not only poorly acted with no charisma whatsoever, their characters were poorly written as well, with uninteresting back stories and actions and motivation that lacked credibility. Every time they came onscreen, they dragged down the story and I wanted to fast-forward. Also, they were miscast. Did some powerful chaebol owner pressure the studio into casting some of these actors? Ga Geong is clearly at least a decade older than Cha Heon, so how could they have gone to high school together? Also, their high school versions looked absolutely nothing like the adult actors, so I always felt like I was watching different people and that helped to weaken the emotional resonance of the back story between those two. Also, the significant history between Ta Mi and Ga Geong was told to us but not shown (the one brief flashback to the early startup days didn’t cut it), so again that just sucked all the emotional depth out of that relationship.
I wish they had added more screen time to some of the secondary team members like Ellie, Jennie, and Matthew and reduced the tedious time devoted to Ga Geong and her hubby. Those secondary characters were very likable but we didn’t really get to know them. Jennie in the brief karaoke scene totally lit the screen on fire when she was shown singing and dancing for a split second. The chaebol granny was good too, and she was by far the best part of that whole Ga Geong side of the story.
Ta Mi was very charming and relatable and made a strong anchor for the entire drama. However, there were a few things that I would tweak about her. Her emotional hang-ups about relationships got really tiresome, and their origins weren’t explained well. So the fact that you had this perfect, strong, smart, and totally competent woman who had this weird flaw seemed a little off. And she did that eye widening trick a little too often. Also, this isn’t necessarily a problem, but when she would get that emotionally dead inside look staring off into space, it reminded me of Tale of Two Sisters. And do most Koreans wait such an annoyingly long time to stare at their ringing phone before answering it? If I waited that long, it would go to voicemail. And I think they made Park Morgan into too perfect a boyfriend, so he seemed too good to be true. I wish they had made him more like a real person.
The depiction of the IT world and search engines was cartoonish and almost entirely made up. If they had done more research and portrayed it more realistically, that would have been nice, but it would have been more of a pleasant surprise than an expectation, since these types of dramas are usually pure fantasies.
Some random thoughts: Did anyone else keep thinking of the Korean word for vitamin every time they heard Bae Ta Mi’s name? Why are western actors who appear in Kdramas so terrible? Why would Bae Ta Mi and Cha Heon ever go out with that slimy guy who works in the video game group? Did Maserati just provide their cars for free or did they pay a hefty product placement fee?
Overall though, I enjoyed it.
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Two Words: Girl Power ! This is one of the best dramas that really lasted a strong impression on me this year. There were so many aspects of it I loved but even more so for its interesting plot about the issues surrounding the internet and portal sites in South Korea. The three main female leads were great together in their interactions, that their relationships with their male partners seemed lackluster. The couple that stuck out to me however, was Lee Da Hee and Lee Jae Wook. (Scarlett and Seol Ji Hwan FTW!) They were honestly the saving grace for the romance in this drama, and I feel like I'm not the only one with that opinion. To put it simply I agree with the others that the main lead couple sucked or rather did not have enough chemistry to keep me entertained. I just found myself skipping their scenes and looked much forward to the other characters, especially the Barro Team workers, yet they were a bit underutilized. OST's were also phenomenal, it set up the mood for whichever scene nicely. If I had to pick a favorite it would be Mamamoo's "Wow", which is stuck in my head at the moment as I write this review lol.
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The main action centers around work-place strategy and political intrigue. These plots move fast with lots of suspenseful tension. I was 100% addicted. It's very dramatic while still keeping a touch of realism.
The secondary action is around relationships. The main romance does drag on with 'will they' or 'won't they?', HOWEVER, I loved seeing a fully realized romantic relationship on screen (instead of just tension, tension, tension - kiss! over). They also have a more at ease, physical relationship than in many K-dramas.
The music was the best I'd ever heard in a K-drama set in the present day.
I'm not sure I'd re-watch, since it's set up as a mystery/suspense.
I grade on other criteria ...
Complex Themes - 7
There actually isn't much there, there. Some themes around karma, treating people as how you will want to be treated. How to deal with cruelty, corruption and power through concrete action.
Character Growth - 7.5
The characters are fairly fixed. The one BIG exception : Song Ga Kyung (Jeon Hye Jin). She goes from being weak, petty and cruel to rediscovering an inner strength that was inspirational to watch.
Complex Women/Female Relationships - 10
The show centers around female protagonists AND female antagonists. The men have a secondary role . Not only are women front and center, but they have very complex feelings and relationships with each other. It was incredibly refreshing.
Cinematography/Production Values - 10
Lots of creative cinematic camera angles, lighting, and staging. The clothes and sets are great, realistic with a touch of fantasy. There is a ton of product placement, but that also allowed for the wealthy characters to look and act believably wealthy.
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Absolutely need to watch kind of drama!
First, a warn: be careful, because I’ve never been this addicted to a drama like this time, I just can’t fully enjoy (or better saying, can’t watch) any other 'cause Search www has my entire heart. You can easily suffer from the same disease!Now... this is an absolutely need to watch kind of drama!
We’re talking about three strong, independent and assertive f. characters that will converte (in a very natural way!) many stereotypes between men/women in society. Btw, not only them, but every supporting character has its own strength and will equally collaborate to it. There’s no filling here, our good, not so good and bad ladies will do it all!
To show that the girl power is not limited to work, we have also different romances with one thing in common, our guys here are the puppies that will bring the cuteness usually represented by f. characters. They’ll give us the sweetness, they'll give us the mental support.
As a strong Tammy and Morgan stan, I highly appreciate each of their conversations, they always bring us something to reflect on about ourselves or to learn about other’s opinion.
Knowing the many conflicts in the audience about Morgan’s character, I ask you to put your (generally speaking please) trust issues aside for a moment, he’s the purest creature out there. A mature and composed man to the world, but an innocent child who’s just looking for love in front of Tammy.
The cinematography is different and will catch you attention in every scene, really beautifully done. OST is perfect, Scent, Milk way between us and Millennial love will always give me goosebumps.
Worth saying that not only the plot is interesting but the writer was able to keep plot and characters consistent to their roles untill the very end. Kwon Eun Sol, I’ll make sure to follow your every work from now on!
Now, if you’re still reading this… enough wasting time, time to start watching already ! (:
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