Cinderella at 2 AM Episode 1

Looks promising. I'll watch it for the maturity the ML has shown.

I was looking forward to this once since I liked the Moon Sang Min in Wedding Impossible. He is a cutie in this one as well. As for Shin Hyun Been, this is my first time watching her in any drama and so far she seems okay to me. When I first came across this drama, the first thing I thought was people are gonna drag her character for her accepting the money and I already see the comments. She doesn't seem like the type to take money to breakup with someone. She took it because she already wanted to break up with him, reasons that she already spoke about with her friend. Having said that Seo Ju Won is actually a nice guy and easily likable. Usually the guy would have gone mad or gone cold, but he decided to put her first by thinking about how she must feel about the breakup herself.

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An Introduction, But to What Exactly?

This was a cute first episode, but i don't think it was anything out of the box crazy. Nothing particularly stood out to me, and I can anticipate what the next 9 episodes will be like. I think that this mediocracy is dependent on the writers' ability to create multidimensional characters. In which, I know that the actors can portray such roles to a high degree. While they attempt to exploit overused tropes to create a captivating storyline, it seems that they miss grounding this drama in reality in order to make it relatable. These tropes will only be majorly successful if the writers add social commentary relevant to present day.

The FL's reasons for taking the money are lackluster at best. As it is right now, there is nothing separating this drama from others made in the 90s, 2000s, and 2010s. It's already revealed that she's in a good financial situation without the added money, and there's really no need for her to accept it. She has a high rank in a big company, where she actually has superiority over her peers of the same age. She also has savings for her brother's college. There is nothing hinting at any financial problems at all, which lessons the impact of her choice. If the writers had included any modern problem like housing, raising children, retirement costs, etc., their argument would've been stronger. Likewise, if they included any flashbacks of her childhood where she struggled financially, it would be greater understood that her actions are due to past trauma. Her words alone are underwhelming, and the delivery of this issue is just not interesting.

The characters have little to no depth. The FL is a career driven women who grew up in poverty and sacrifices her romantic relationship for wealth. The ML is a chaebol who is in a relationship with the FL. Besides these facts, literally stated in the trailer, there is no other information. It feels unauthentic and leaves little room for character development. How can a character develop when the depth they have at the beginning leaves them incapable of doing so? While one can say that this is the first episode and critiques may be preemptive, there are countless movies and short films that quickly make the audience empathize and relate to it's characters in 90 minutes or less, all while telling a complete narrative. What makes a great drama today is when the writers effectively do this. Take "Love Next Door" for example. In the first episode, the writers have already established the characters, the conflict, and the suspense for audience to want to continue watching the next episode just based on the characters' personalities alone. In Cinderella at 2AM, from the first episode the audience can foresee the storyline because there's literally nothing new about this drama. Every scene was a trope copy and pasted from dozen's of kdramas before it, and because the characters have no depth, it's not exciting.

The only character that was entertaining was the ML's brother. His establishment as a character as well as his relationships with others are vastly more complicated than the FL and ML combined. His character actually showed his dedication to his family and the conflict that leaves him but indirectly and discreet. Firstly, his placement in the company shows his competence in the office and at his home. His conversations with his brother and his mother further reveal his priorities as a family oriented man. The thing that makes him the most interesting is his relationship to his wife and how that affects his relationship to both his mother and his brother. At the dinner table, when his mother tells him about meeting the FL, he shows disdain and contempt towards her because of how she drove away his love. He therefore tells his brother about this, which then highlights his protective nature towards the ML and his regrets about his own situation. The use of social media in his relationship effectively emphasizes his willingness to rectify his failing marriage by breaking the rules and deceiving those he loves. His character is the only truly thought out and multifaceted character in the drama so far.

Although I said all of these negative things about this drama, that doesn't mean that I will not continue it. I just wanted to point out why it doesn't and probably won't live up to my standards and how characterization affects what makes a good kdrama and what doesn't :)

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