Heartbeat

don’t watch if you like satisfying/happy endings

don’t waste your time on this drama unless you like sad, unsatisfactory endings… I literally finished it and sat for 5min staring at the screen saying “W. T. F. …” like forreal what was that ending!?! even during the show like it was amazing and hilarious first couple of episodes I was SO excited but then it kept declining more and more and it was the same thing every episode from like 9-16 no progress at all and all for it to end sad and unsatisfying… this could’ve been an amazing drama I don’t understand why they went this route… if you like sad endings then watch it but I on the other hand like watching happy/funny shows with satisfying endings to make me happy and distract me from how stressful real life is… so if you’re like that—skip this one! :(

Read More

I wish I had a girlfriend like Joo In Hae who can bite a vampire.

Such a shame not to make a sunscreen product placement. Everybody knows vampires and Koreans are suckers for sunscreen. And me too. They literally ducked a golden mine.

🔸They ducked so many more things in this drama, including believable character development. Shin Do Shik starts as a softie, then he is suddenly obsessed by murder, and then he ends up helping poor sick kids. His character was unsuccessfully begging for a moral choice. Director Na is even more messed up.

Yet the actor Park Kang Hyun performs very well despite this unfortunate TV debut. He has both gentle and evil vibes. As far as I know, he acted in musicals before, and he sings one of the soundtracks here. I'd like to see him in a better project next time.

🔸The screenwriters successfully traded all the charm and quirkiness of the first episodes for cheesy tropes and cliches and an intense "dramatic" La Crimosa remix. How come a guesthouse doesn't have a washing machine? It's just because the two leads need to splash in a basin together and make cute expressions for the camera. With such weak writing In Hae would never love so deeply to be ready to sacrifice her life for the boyfriend. No wonder she never offered.

And what's with that craven ending? Why are we supposed to decide the very last minute what the hell is going on if you can't sum up the story well?

Read More

comedy aside, it's laughable

you might find this title confusing, but I mean exactly what I said.

I went into this drama knowing I'm not very fond of the supernatural genre, willing to give it a chance as there haven't been a lot of romcoms out this year (at least, in comparison to previous ones) and because the FL, Woo Jian, did a phenomenal job in If You Wish Upon Me (2022), which easily became one of my favourite kdramas of all time, I was curious to see her in a different role, as well as co-staring with Taecyeon, which I believe to be one of, if not the only reason so many people concluded this drama.

this drama is not a "vampire drama", it is simply a drama... with vampires in it. things happen because they are vampires, but in
any way, shape or form, there is any lore created other than "good vampire bad vampire".
the story is weak. the whole drama surrounds around him wanting a love that makes his heart beat, yet there is no heart at all... ever.
there was an insane amount of filler episodes, that added nothing to the story, probably because there wasn't much story to tell, to begin with. many weird things happen with no explanation from start to finish, other than acknowledging it is abnormal (well... no shit!).
the romance is meh, the actors did their best with what they were given, but it was all a bit too formal for my liking.
the most positive thing about this drama is that the side characters are genuinely funny, but they were given no story (which I'm still trying to figure out if for the best or the worst). this does not include SML and SFL, who are possibly the most annoying duo I have had the unfortunate fate to watch in a very long time, with whom I would love to sit down with and simply ask... is it that serious? you barely know these people!

overall... I just knew not to take this seriously midway through, I laughed at how bad it was multiple times and I enjoyed myself doing that, so in a way... it was fun? for me. would I do it again though? absolutely not. I genuinely believe I just kept watching because I had a lot of free time in my hands while it was airing.
initially, I was going to give it a 6.5/10 as giving lower ratings usually come with deep hatred and dropping the show for me, but as the suggested rating is 4.5, which is solely riding on the acting, I'm taking it down to a 5.

oh! and ML dies at the very end? in the weirdest, least impactful way possible? aaand FL shows up with no explanation to how she found out his location whatsoever, obviously...

Read More

Bad ending

I’m a big fan of taecyeon but I have to say that this drama is very poorly executed. I tried to watch the first few episodes and it was a great drama until the next few episodes. The cast is a bit off especially the first female lead? The first male lead suited very well the second female lead and literally has no chemistry with the first female lead

The plot is so bad and the ending is even worse. I don’t know whether it’s a trend to not do a happy ending in drama these days but I’m sure this is not a good ending at all. The ideas of hunting vampire heart is so weird, knowing “the hunter” is first female lead friend?? it’s so weird ….

The only good thing in this drama is the ost and the fact it’s a little bit funny ln the few scenes.
The ideas of the story is great and you got taecyeon as your male lead, could’ve done better.

Read More

Started Great, Ended Terribly!

I so rarely leave an actual review, but this drama made me so mad that I had to... This drama had so much potential, I thought it was great. About halfway through it started to get a bit boring, but I pushed through expecting a happy ending. This drama has basically been pretty comedic, so I thought no way we would get a sad ending... And then we don't even get a proper sad ending?!?! His death was so rushed and their was so little time spent on it... He just died and then we rush through a tiny funeral, and that's it. We end on a daydream that I think was supposed to be hopeful? Anyways very disappointed in drama, and I wouldn't recommend it.

Read More

A SAD ENDING DONT WATCH IT YOU DONT LIKE SAD ENDINGS (IT WAS A GOOD SAD ENDING)

it started off good with the taecyeon comedy and all,but the chemistry between the leads just wasn't enough I didn't ship them hard or even normally,I feel like most of the PPL expected the sad ending but yeah it was a good sad ending not much of a disaster. it was rlly boring in middle of the episodes I wish that they improved the story. LOVED TAECYEON, it was a pretty okay KDRAMA. Some people might actually hate ig because of the ending but it was a heartfelt drama it was good, the theme of love and hope was good. And I loved how she waited for him, it was an pretty open ending no need to get angry about it.
And yeah I agree the story was a bit off and had its rough patches but it was an beautiful open end and a rlly hopeful and a heartful one.

Read More

I love it

I don’t care what people have said about it. My own opinion is that I love it. So so much. It is beautiful and sensational. I hope there’s a season 2 to be honest. This cliffhanger is intense but worth it. Everybody learned a thing or two and more. I’ll watch it again given the chance frfr ❤️❤️ I love you all for making it worthwhile. The movie was not what I expected I will say and that is what made it so much better. He is such a good man and a great actor. All the characters are worth it. I love them. Got me crying and I’m about to cry because of how the storyline was. Everybody did an excellent job. Thank you to all of you.

Read More

Could not stop watching it

It's been a long time since I found a K-drama that I could just not stop watching.
I just love this drama, especially the humor and acting. I have not laughed so much watching a K-drama in I don't even remember how long its been.

It was sooo refreshing to finally watch a drama that just made me feel good, i even rewatched several parts that was just pure golden.

The current average rating is so much below what I personally rate this, if you want a "lighthearted" drama that both got drama parts but especially some of the best comedy acting In a long time, watch it.

Read More

Fang-tastic Drama

Only 2 episodes left but I don't want it to end! I have really enjoyed this drama and I have put it on my favorites list. Ok Taecyeon is so versatile in his acting and I have watched several of his dramas and he always seems to actually live the role he is playing. Won Ji An is a new actress to me as I have not seen any of her previous dramas. Her acting in this drams is extremely good and you can almost feel the absolute despair and loneliness she has endured in her life. I am sorry that some people don't find this drama interesting or funny or lacks whatever, but if you look at it, you will see how good and evil have a place in our world or in any other world for that matter.... It would be good to see Ok Taecyeon and Won Ji An together again in another drama.

Read More

Only the ending was a letdown

I don't agree with most of the people who have a kneejerk reaction with the ending. I still think HeartBeat was good, but they chose to play the story straight instead of jumping the shark. This is, frankly, one of the few series where I'd have preferred the writers jump the shark to give the leads a happy ending, because they deserve it.

This series has one of the best written leads in K-dramas. Both In-hae and Woo-hyeol are absolute green flags, and they keep proving it over the course of the series. Their romance was of a slow-burn nature, built on understanding and wonderful communication. As a template for a great romance, their relationship is truly inspirational.

I do understand that most viewers aren't masochists. One of the worst mistakes that this series made was to market itself as a romcom - and while it was so over the first few episodes, it never really went away from reality. There's always human reality peering into their romance, even though it slowly and organically developed. The fundamental problem, I think, is with that dilemma that Woo-hyeol finds himself in, there's really no easy solution aside from leaning into even more fantasy, which might be tonally inconsistent with the series, but ultimately more sensible as it was branded as a romcom in the first place.

I do think that the ending is slightly more positive than what people think, because to me, Woo-hyeol returned to In-hae as a ghost (haunting only her). It doesn't change the fact that she's still human, but I think In-hae would be smart enough to have Woo-hyeol be exorcised as she'll be nearing her death (or ask help from the other vampires).

As a medical doctor, all realistic solutions fail because In-hae's blood would have to be sucked dry, and that will definitely kill her. I was hoping for some loophole that would allow them to do an exchange transfusion of sorts, but then that would take too much time and detract to the story. A more sensible solution (in terms of writing) would be for the curse to lift from Woo-hyeol as he showed an act of sacrifice for Do-sik's sake, perhaps reordering the world for the better. However, they chose to stick to their guns, which highlighted a pretty sad ending.

I'm still looking forward to picking up more clues with re-watching Heartbeat (as I have done so), but this remains to me a good series damaged by tonal inconsistency and a sad ending.

Read More

Even a great cast could not save this failure

Aug 2023.
I was really looking forward to this , but found it so disappointing, apart from Taec-yeon and some other cast members who kept me watching, it was pretty poor.

Great idea, but such lazy writing and poor direction, ruined it.
Such childish humour, that frankly I see starting to pop up in too many K-dramas where it doesn't fit, and woeful plot failures...
No heartbeat means no breathing is necessary, so stuff getting up their nose and making them sneeze just would not happen.
Sensitivity to the sun was completely forgotten from one episode to the next, depending on what the story needed from the scene :-/

Both female characters were the most irritating of all. The FL veered from doe-eyed and mushy, to petulant, spiteful, loud (lots of shouting that was way more than necessary for the scenario) and aggressive. I get she was meant to be cold and distant as a form of protection, but her reactions were overdone. There was a mace/pepper spray incident that was like, WHAT?!!! So not funny, at least not to me.

The supporting female character was dull as dish water, not to mention psychotic/delusional, which we see far too often in poorly written K-dramas.

Inappropriate reactions, drawing out parts of the story until they were so thin they were transparent and a woefully weak baddy.
The humour this show craved was witty dialogue, subtle looks that can speak a thousand words and make us laugh, not the overreactions, characters getting hit, shouted at and generally acting stupid, which is what we got.
Also, there's a guest house that never got a guest, which would not have been a profitable business, me thinks :-/
Lots of clichés too, which again were not necessary; there was far more that could have been done with those moments.

The sets were nice.
The cast were nice to look at and did their best.
I honestly could have done without watching and not once did I shed a tear, when there were times I should have, as the story was definitely aiming for that.
I never tell anyone not to watch something, as we're all different and you might love it; many others did.

Read More

so much potential but worth it anyway

Very good but could be much better ! forget the main FL , and enjoy the show ! nice locations costumes and cast ! The music is nice too. I think i would have enjoyed more "bad vampires", and also more vampire fights ! May be a little more time in the past could have been great, it was so nice and pleasant to watch the start.
I loved the bad vampire (Baek Seo Hoo), the second main lead and the second FL. They did a compelling job.
The most incredible in this show is the "10 years old "relationship between the leads ; as example, at the end, they have very few time left together, they know it, but they sleep in separate bedrooms (no hormones at all ?)
Ok Taecyeon is very good, but the character could have been a bit more a Boss in this show, and a bit more vampire too !

Read More