When the Stars Gossip

When viewers gossip about a bad script

This drama should be a case study of how bad writing destroys an entire program, which even big stars and a huge budget cannot save.

I haven't seen such a bad script in a long time, I can't believe that it could have been written by a real person, and not Al. The script flew into space and stayed there.

Lack of logic, sense, absurdities, which increased with each episode, insulting the intelligence of the viewer (at least mine) drama, which supposedly deals with scientific topics, but has as much to do with science as our politicians have to do with politics. If any astronaut watched it, they would most likely have a stroke at the sight of this parody.

16 episodes, where in reality it could have been shortened to 10, because they had no idea for the plot. The lottery ticket plotline, which dragged on for the entire drama to the point of vomiting, just to fill time and give the secondary characters something to play...
Of all the characters, I think that in this mediocre script, the best written roles were played by LMH and Oh Jung Se, the only ones who were not indifferent to me and I cared about their fates and feelings. The plus is that I could see them in a different version than the one I was used to. It wasn't LMH's best role, but decent.

I am disappointed with FL's character, her character wasn't given the attention she deserved, I didn't really know anything about her until halfway through the drama.

Some kind of rehabilitation occurred in the last episodes in the case of her family history, but honestly it didn't move me, again I have the impression that they added this plotline just to stuff the story with something.
The romance itself was so-so. They skipped the stage where they gradually fall in love and went straight to the point where he already loves her, they slept together, then she didn't want him, but later they did, they went on a few dates, then broke up, got pregnant because they got back together and in the end it was one big FAILURE. Is this supposed to be a romantic comedy??

If I remember anything positive from this drama, it's the OSTs, and the space scenography put in some effort in at least these two areas. I wish I never had to watch anything written by this scriptwriter again.

And for you, LMH, read the next script from cover to cover.

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Not it! The lowest rating I ever gave a KDRAMA!

When the Stars Gossip had such an intriguing setup—a romance set in space, promising something fresh and emotional. But what should have been a heartfelt, imaginative love story ended up feeling frustrating and messy.

The biggest issue by far was how the relationships were handled. There was so much potential for connection and tension, especially given the isolated setting, but instead, we got forced drama, miscommunication, and a storyline that leaned heavily into cheating, emotional betrayal, and toxic choices—without ever really resolving them in a meaningful way. It made it hard to root for any of the characters, and honestly, it made watching some scenes feel more exhausting than enjoyable.

The tone tried to juggle comedy and seriousness, but it didn’t land. Some moments felt completely disconnected from the emotional weight of what the characters were going through. The space station setting was underused, and by the end, it felt like they wasted a truly unique concept.

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Don't waste your time

I don't consider myself a "hater", I really like the cast generally (some really great actors in this in fact including the leads). I also don't subscribe to the complaints that were raised about the show and the cast having no chemistry or some really unpleasant things set about Gong Hyo Jin. I'm also not going to mention (beyond this) potential agendas the show might have had about pro-birth and such. I don't think it's necessary to get a view of the show tbh.

Putting all that aside.

The story is absolute trash, in my view, of course.

I feel the actors did the best they could but the story was a confused mess, with the most bonkers ending.

It played with sequences and events to create drama and then dispose of it just as quickly. One minute he's yelling at her that she's a murderer - which was a scene I thought played actually *really* well - and within the same episode they're lovey dovey. Not just once, but *twice* in two different episodes.

The crew of the space station treat it like a frat house.

One time they need to get a rescue rocket up - it'll take weeks to get one ready. Another time, same day or so it seems!

In one bit, there's no health implications for being on the space station. Later, any more than a few days will be fatal, because suddenly he hasn't had the training (which he presumably hadn't had before). Then one says to him that his condition is now fatal - so come home. Why? To die? "fatal" is a word that has quite a specific meaning. But, let's just use it to mean "rather bad".

ARGH!

The ending is just completely abstract. When compared with some other things shown in the course of the ending that are then implied to be false you're kinda left wondering - so how did this *actually* end then?

The cast did they best they could, they're top tier actors, the production had one of, if not the, biggest budget in a KDrama to date. Turns out - you need a good story to make all that worthwhile, but this wasn't even a mediocre one.

I don't know what went so wrong in a production for it to end up this way.

Just ignore it, please, save your time. I watched all 16 episodes because I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt until the end but honestly if I could wipe it from my memory and un-watch it, I would cheerfully do-so. I have not said that about any other KDrama ever and don't do so lightly here.

I hate saying something bad about a KDrama. :(

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Not Much You Can Do With A Bad Script

Sooooooo this was a failure in the writing. I honestly feel bad for the actors. What’s going on with kdrama writers these days? This could have been a stellar (hehehe) drama. They had an amazing cast, the plot was interesting, and a whopping budget. Testament that if the writing ain’t it, not much can save the story.

This is just a little sad and frustrating since it’s been a while that Lee Min Ho did a drama. I was really looking forward to it. This was a new role that I hadn’t seen him in previously and I reveled in that. The first few episodes weren’t bad then it just fell apart as the series went on. Suspension of belief is a thing buuuut I feel like they were asking too much in this case.

Also, I would just like to add Ryong broke his engagement off with his fiancé before he slept with the captain. Now, I will fault him for having a crush on her and telling her he had a crush on her before he broke it off (he was drunk). However, he was no longer with the fiancé when romance started. Also, if anyone was paying attention, he never really loved the fiancé and she forced a lot of the relationship on him. He agreed to it, true, but his life was basically ruined thanks to her father.

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Absolutely terrible, one of the worst k-dramas I've ever watched

There are plenty of reviews here about this drama that will tell you more or less the same that I'm going to write, and yet I feel the need to write my own review to get it out of my system, it's the least I deserve after enduring 16 hours of whatever this sh*t was trying to be.
You can make food mixing any ingredients you want sure, it doesn't mean it's going to taste good. Here they just started mixing anything they could think of in a bowl and still wanted people to think it tasted nice because *BABIES*.

Science fiction? More like kick the science into the sun. This is fiction only, and terrible one at that. If you actually think about watching this just forget any science you know.
It could have been interesting really, reproduction in zero gravity/space is actually an interesting topic, but this is not it at all.

I'm not going to lie they got me interested in the beginning with the nice space shots and station and a plot that had certain level of potential as a sci-fi fan. Until around episode 5 I thought it was not very good but somehow watchable and I could excuse certain things if they went in the right direction. But oh boy, they didn't.
By that point I was already very over the side characters (Santi being the most passable one) because they were so unprofessional and I was wondering what the hell were they doing in there, how are they qualified astronauts? The lottery subplot was so astronomically lame that I spent the whole time face-palming very hard. It's only there so ML can use them for his purpose. You'll see a pattern in this show, ML is the centre of the universe and everything changes or works for him no matter what.
By episode six the purpose of this drama was clear, pro-life propaganda galore.
Eve was interesting in the beginning before they decided it was only a tool to be used by ML as needed to prove the point. They changed her from professional and capable to weak and very subjugated to patriarchal ML. It's just such bad writing of a character, who changes to the opposite personality because of some guy seriously. It was such a terrible writing I feel insulted.
Once they have sex in space the plot was extremely predictable and followed the presented agenda.

I can't even start to explain how much I despise ML in this show!!!!! He's a massively egocentric piece of man-child, and his tantrums were so pathetic and such an embarrassment to see (and at points they dwell on it so much... what a drag...). How this guy qualified as a gynecologist is a mystery to me and it's not someone that I would want to have as a doctor for sure. The plot with trying to create a viable morula in space for the the rich was already a plot that I was not going to enjoy at all (and the rich suffer zero consequences in the end, I gotta laugh...), but the fact he would put himself on the line like that for a bunch of cells for a rich family he didn't technically even like had me actually disgusted. What is even the plot here? it was pathetic. Oh, some rich woman that wants to have a kid from the sperm of the dead husband like if she was that desperate to have a child she could have had one on her own or adopted but blood, right? UGH. She wanted to get away from that family but at the same time wanted to have a kid tied to that family? What?
ML getting that ballistic and risking the lives of so many already alive people for a bunch of cells when he provokes the fire (for starters) was rage inducing. And he just goes worse from there.
Anyone that tells me that I'm a "murderer" because I discarded some cells going by the laws and rules of my job and position would be dead to me, zero chances of friendship or anything else (especially when he's not frigging qualified, he spent his time mansplanning her job to her, it was absolutely DISGUSTING). As mentioned, they just changed Eve to his level so the plot could work, it was so weak and sexist.

We're never told why he's so damn obsessed with that morula anyway. I could have understood it if he was going to be paid billions or some sentimental reason that made him forced to do it but he just did it because he passionately loves cells I guess. Thing is that not even his character was consistent because he cared more about that morula that he did for the miscarried baby of Go Eun at the beginning of the show and then later he's way more composed when he asks Eve to go back to earth even though it actually means the death of his precious baby. So which one is it? And the fact that at that point they reversed personalities with Eve being the stubborn one, I can't even!!!! Terrible writing!!
I started despising every moment ML appeared on screen, so you can imagine how difficult it was to finish this thing.
He should have gone to jail, but obviously he didn't, and everything worked out fine for him in the end. I mean, considering how he treats Eve most of the time and how obsessed he's with babies I think the ending was perfect for him. He got the baby he wanted and doesn't have to compromise in any way with Eve. Please, let's not forget he shook her by the collar as well when the morula he was trying to implant was confiscated and destroyed. He showed physical violence towards her and yet they want you to try and sympathise with him? Are you serious? So he has verbally insulted her multiple times and been physically violent towards her as well and somehow he's still the hero and the centre of the story and they want us to understand his point of view. Everyone around him is wrong, he's right! Narcissist much? He doesn't even think two seconds about if what he's doing is right, he only thinks about himself. His ego is the size of a star, that for sure.

I feel like I need to point out that I have no problem with morally questionable characters, grey characters and even evil characters, what I don't want is having them pushed down my throat like they're actually good when it's clear they're not. Here obviously there was a political agenda at the core of the story so I guess they really needed to make people sympathise with him and convince viewers that if those are the laws and rules then they're wrong and need to be changed (I mean, I saw so many people already siding with him when Eve discarded the first morulas). But obviously without much actual explanation of the realities of space reproduction or even pregnancy in general because keeping people ignorant enough stirs the agenda in the direction you want.

Most of the side characters were pretty useless and only added padding there. Dong A cheats on Eve and it's pretty much never brought up. Gang Su had a more interesting character but ultimately not much is done with him other than having him walking from one side to another and small talking. Go Eun was interesting in the beginning only to fall into useless background character that panics when something happens. That scene when ML is supposed to put the morula in the pediatrician and when the people from the space agency appears to stop it she starts screaming and "what should we do" like her whole character and persona were thrown down the trash there.

ML's mothers don't add much to the story and what are the chances one of them would be FL's mother? Plot said so. The way she treated FL when went to visit her, so the show could teach us how bad mothers that abandon their children are. Zero nuances and a crazy level of bad taste, she's just pure evil, but also the show couldn't commit to something more with that so by the end is just forgotten, I imagine because OBVIOUSLY you're going to forgive your precious blood related biological mother.

Acting might be good? Can't really tell when the characters and plot are so bad really. None of the acting matters because good or bad acting the story is so bad they can't save it.

The ending is the cherry on top of bad, I thought it couldn't get worse but somehow they managed. They also obviously brushed off the more science-y problems of everything shown in the end because otherwise it wouldn't work. Not sure why they didn't just do it from the beginning, just go full on crazy fantasy sci-fi and call it a day. Them "trying" in the beginning is absurd considering how the story follows. I'm sure it would have also been cheaper than trying to make a more realistic environment and whatnot. They keep telling ML how he's risking his life but he of course does it anyway, and because he's the centre of the universe he doesn't die soon no, he's still lucky to be able to rise the kid and be happy he sacrificed his legs and eyes for her daughter even though it could have been prevented.

Kudos to the writer for getting paid for this level of bad writing, that's really an achievement.
The only recommendation I'll be making to people about this show is to avoid it like the plague.

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Disappointment

Great cast, perfect idea, amazing setting, and that’s where it ends. Unnecessary parts, unnecessary characters (three mothers). The ending was sad, but since there was no chemistry between the actors, it didn’t affect me at all.The best part was how they dragged it out for three episodes and then tried to cram everything into the last two.
They could have gotten at least something right-the lottery, the morula, Eve. Instead, they just kept ruining everything.
I'm not saying there weren't a few nice moments, but this drama definitely didn't leave an impression on me.

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A Disappointing Watch Indeed!

This show had so many random twists and turns that I literally don’t know where it went awry!

And this was supposedly tvN’s costliest project till date. I get it, I mean all that trivia about space and the equipments must have cost a fortune; and yet they delivered the biggest flop of the year. Even Lee Min Ho’s charisma couldn’t save it. There were so many loopholes in the storyline that I can’t defend it anymore-

1) Honestly, not a fan of cheating trope. Going Ryong did travel to space as a tourist for his patient’s sake, but if he didn’t have feelings for Go Eun, he should have made it clear before he left; or atleast in the thousand other occasions he got while he was in space.

2) I fail to understand how the main leads fell in love within a week, given Eve’s tough personality and disciplined character. Also, despite being veteran actors, their chemistry didn’t serve.

3) The last four episodes made zero sense, I understand sharing body heat, but is it really possible to have sex in zero gravity? Even if they couldn’t detect Eve’s pregnancy in the hundreds of tests they did before she left for the space station, how did the morula survive the space travel? Also, Gong Ryong didn’t finish his training and yet managed to sustain for 6 months in outer space, how?

4) The ending was preposterous, I didn’t quite understand the purpose behind it. Are they trying to propagate their agenda of giving birth in space?

Read the complete article here-

https://kcdramamusings.wordpress.com/2025/02/25/when-the-stars-gossip-series-review/#more-1612

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A drama about Astronauts falling in love, but not executed well.

Hey everyone, welcome back to the K-drama study. It's been a long time since I last did one, but I'm back and ready to review more dramas. The last drama I reviewed was Lovely Runner, which was a great show. I watched Brewing Love, but family stuff came in the way, and I didn't get to review it. Today, I'll review When The Stars Gossip, which aired from January 4th to February 23rd. Now, let's jump into the show and see what I thought of the show.

This drama had a great cast, but the actors were poorly used. First, let's jump into Lee Min Ho's character, Gong Ryung. I was too fond of Gong Ryung cheating on his fiancee with Go-Eun. I also thought Gong Ryung's character was a little bland to my liking, even though Lee Min Ho tried his best to make it work. Another thing I didn't like is how all the couples had zero chemistry, making me not interested in them at all. A lot of this drama talks about the birth and having s*x in space, which fails to connect with the overall story. I was so uninterested in a couple of the episodes that I stopped paying attention to what was happening in the show. I didn't like the ending, as it felt incomplete. I'm so disappointed with this show. I was excited to see what the show would offer with this astronaut theme, but they didn't do the topic that well.

The OSTs were the best part of the show, as they brought emotion to the table. Big Naughty started the OSTs and released the first one, which I've been repeatedly listening to. BTS member Jin had an OST for this show, and if you're going to have Jin make a song for your drama, please make the drama good, not disappointing. Lee Suhyun of AKMU had a beautiful track to which I kept returning. The only song I wasn't a big fan of but still liked was Sion's Life is tricky as that tune felt a little strange. I'm happy we got excellent OSTs that were much more enjoyable than what the show brought to the table.

I will give When the Stars Gossip and Low F for not having a great story and characters that felt bland and uninteresting during each episode I watched. I will say the OSTs for this drama were the best part and something I've been listening to a lot. I'm so sad this drama failed to impress me. I was hoping for another great Lee Min Ho drama but didn't get what I expected. I hope the next show I watch is better than When the Stars Gossip.

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The most controversial drama of the decade

I was a defender of When the Stars Gossip until... well, things went off the rails. I genuinely loved the beginning of the drama. The concept was fresh, and I found myself laughing a lot. The idea of setting a K-drama in space was unique and exciting — something I hadn’t seen before. I also thought the casting was solid (as someone who does not like Lee Min-ho) ; the main leads had great chemistry, which added to the charm of the early episodes.

The fact that the entire mission was morally questionable was obvious, so I was curious to see how the show would handle that. Ryong breaking up with his girlfriend in space (still a major L move) was at least somewhat resolved and through the other guy’s cheating, clearing up that particular love triangle. And even though the CGI was mediocre and the storyline was absurdly over the top, I could still laugh at Ryong’s ridiculous plot armor that let him jump into space and survive. It was silly, but in a fun way.

However, once the show left space and returned to Earth, everything just became utterly ridiculous. The writers opened way too many plot lines: everyone was suddenly a cheater, the illegal aspects of the mission were exposed, long-lost mothers reunited with their daughters, and someone was even sent to space while pregnant. It was just too much, all while the show continuously ignored basic SCIENCE principles.

The ending was the final blow — a complete train wreck that left me feeling uninspired. This experience is a perfect example of why I don’t like watching dramas while they’re airing. The week-long wait between episodes leaves too much time to think about where the story is going, and more often than not, my own theories turn out to be more satisfying than what actually happens.

In short, When the Stars Gossip had a promising start, but its descent back to Earth was a chaotic mess that failed to stick the landing.

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Tried mixing Romance with Sci-fi only to screw up in both

It's not just about LMH but also about the drama itself. Removing the space and research part, the story is mediocre and characters are frustrating. There is little chemistry between not just the leads but even with second leads it just looks forced plus this love quadruple just makes it worse.

This drama could have even done without adding romance to it and keeping it mostly about all the other things that are going on in characters lives be it their goals or secrets. Also instead of making it 16 eps simply keep it upto 12eps. It would have made it more engaging and enjoyable to watch. Look how good "The Trauma Code" did with its engaging storyline.

Actors like LMH, GHJ, HJE are decent enough to get the job done but simply miscast together when it comes to romance genre. For an amazing actor like Oh Jung Se, this drama and his role simply don't do justice to his acting abilities.

The drama makers wanted to mix both the sci-fi and romance genre together but ended up screwing up in both.

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