Jack & Joker: U Steal My Heart! (Uncut Ver.) (2024)

tried something different

Overall: though it was cool how they tried something different, the tonal shifts and writing didn't work for me. 12 episodes about 1 hour each. Aired uncut on iQIYI https://www.iq.com/play/jack-joker-u-steal-my-heart-episode-1-l2dlqwi91c?lang=en_us (I watched the uncut version which originally was the only MDL listing, if there is a cut version released at a later date that I can watch, I'll try to update this with the differences)

Content Warnings: past suicide, suicide, attempted suicide, theft, violence/beaten up, blood, bullying, attempted kidnapping, coercion, manipulation, punch, kidnapping, blood

Watch Suggestions starting at ep 5 (uncut timings) (to take out nonsense plot, brutality and focus on the leads' relationship, I might go back thru earlier episodes for suggested timings later)
- episode 5 watch 5:30-9:30 and 16-50:50 if you want to see a caper, otherwise watch 9:30-12:40 and 50:50-56:55 for 2 hurt care scenes
- episode 6 watch the beginning to 9:10, 16-21:40, 24:45-29:30 and 38-1hr2m30s
- skip episode 7
- episode 8 watch 1hr10m45s to the end
- episode 9 watch 1hr4min to the end
- episode 10 watch beginning to 5 and then 12-12:45
- skip episode 11
- episode 12 watch 53:30-54:20 and 1hr 24 to the end

What I Liked
- best grandma ever
- unique premise
- sweet/flirty/caring moments
- fight/action sequences
- grey protagonists
- how Jack called out his coach and then the coach apologized and got his karma
- non cliche female character

Room For Improvement
- tonal shifts between inept comedy caper and brutality/action
- the romance took a backseat to the nonsense plot
- characters were stupid and inept
- because 2 characters relished in violence at the beginning of episode 5, it made me uninterested in any romantic pairings with them involved
- ep 1 started with a flash forward
- I didn't laugh at most of the jokes including the food poisoning/farting
- there were a ton of nonsense things, one example being it didn't make any sense why a character was so angry at another character when the result would have been exactly the same
- failed redemption arcs
- the character acting like someone with less money and then having fake dirt on him was in bad taste and the knock off Squid Game video game thing was completely uninteresting
- a character's insistence on something in the NC scene in ep 10 felt dated
- characters just stood around while a character was hauled off by very shifty looking dudes
- lack of trust between romantic partners
- lack of consequences for several characters

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I had so much hope, but I'm disappointed af

I thought we will get a nice action show with some romance inbetween. But we got some action and often with excessive brutality and not much romance at all.
I thought we will get a good script, but we did get a really bad script.
I thought we will get good acting, but with such a crap script, they did the best they could.

The finale was especially painful to watch and for me the worst episode of all.
I can ask myself only, why do so many people like this show?
The characters are comically, especially the bad ones, one-dimensional with no growth, abnoxious or bland. The plot is from a $1 trash-novel and there is not much of romance at all, just egos clashing with each other, without meaningful conversations. They only did try with Joker and his father, but it was not as deep as it should be. The solution was lazily written and done in 5 minutes and that was the highlight of the series. A series with a runtime per episode of ~80 minutes is too long if they do not tell a story, develop the side characters. There is no feeling at all that the pairs grow together except Tattoo & Hoy who are together before the sereis started. :) It just gets boring . There were lots of time to develop a deeper partnership, more cuddles, more kisses between all pairs but instead it was wasted with a meaningless plot.

The only believable person of course was granny :) She had me from the beginning. But the rest is too forgetful. The best thing was the soundtrack, but it was wasted on this series, because there was no suspense in the story only in the music. I can't even say the direction is bad with the script which was given.

As with most shows, it starts with a strong first episode and then it goes down the drain.
I will not watch this again and I hope you have not wasted your time with it too :)

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