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

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 wish I could rate this higher

It's fun if you want to watch, but don't take the plot seriously and be patient that's my advice.

The ratings on this site have been wackier than ever these days. I waited patiently for the whole series to be out before starting it while peeking at the ratings every now and then so you must guess how excited I was seeing it with such great ratings.

I started and immediately saw the problem with it, the plot makes absolutely no sense every single character is stupid to a fault. It's so unbelievably ridiculous that it's funny. While watching I kept switching between being so bored my brain would shut down for a few minutes and so amused with the ridiculousness that I couldn't stop watching. I wish they had leaned in to the absurdity of it more, if so it would've been a solid 10, but unfortunately they were serious about it so it's not.

The romance plot was put in the back burner for far to long and when it finally took off it was rushed, like they'd been boyfriends for what 10-12 hours a day or two maybe and they had already decided to adopt a child??!!! whn!!?? How??!!

Anyway it's a happy ending, it's cute and funny and I love Yin and War, but I'm not going to rate this a 10 when it clearly not just because of that, I hope they continue to work together and get better scripts going foward.

I'm going to go bawl my eyes out with the best story and then watch Love mechanics to bring the mood back up while laughing at how dumb Vee is.

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