Brogana Sunfrog

Female lead runs hot & cold & can't convince you she's in love

The male lead is a decent actor & SO attractive that it's a shame the writers haven't given him enough of a part to save this drama. Realistically he couldn't carry the whole series but I found myself wishing they'd let him. The female lead spends 90% of the series crying as she deals with constant trouble mostly due to her stubbornness & unwillingness to trust the male lead. She runs hot & cold , being purposely coy & obtuse which makes it seem as if she is enjoys teasing & toying with the male lead. She looks good for the part but her character, no, really, it's the whole series that's written poorly.

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It's a Fight Fest that focuses on Bo Gum's character

That Park Bo Gum's character survived this drama was a miracle! Honestly, if they had him sacrificing himself in the pursuit of justice, THAT would have made him more of a noble character/hero than what he ended up as in this drama.
And since this drama revolves around his character, let me comment on my probably unpopular opinion that when Park Bo Gum is in action & being fierce : he's interesting. When he's not, he's just boring. His always hungry, puppy dog man child is totally unappealing & especially unromantic . I will give him due respect for how he got himself ready for this role & for how he put his heart & soul into the action scenes .For me, though, it's Lee Sang Yi that is more leading man material as he is increasingly interesting & appealing as he exudes depth & maturity . Unfortunately they don't flesh out his character very much, even to the point of not giving us any explanation as to why he & Kim So Hyun's character broke up! They also have given no reason as to why she is so sought after by the male leads -making the attraction feel forced (& unnecessary). They should have made this just a buddy/coworker ensemble. Ironically, as the drama progresses , the female lead's character stands back a few times, realizing that though she is the romantic interest, the guys pretty much have better rapport with each other ! yeah, the bromance is not well set up or explained but it's fun to watch. Sadly ,the drama suffers from a glut of violence & ridiculous recoveries from injuries on both sides. Also at fault is the wearying relentless & often brainless pursuit of the villain by Bo Gum' Character. I stopped & started this drama 3 times. By the last 2 episodes, I honestly just didn't care & wanted to be done. As far as the title goes, Park Bo Gum's character is NOT actually a "Good Boy" & he proves it by being a law unto himself, punching people out of anger more often than out of necessity, effectively making him just as much a thug as any of the "bad guys". Not much noble or heroic about alot of what he does. If you need to know: there is a happy ending for all the main characters.

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Food is interesting, but Not a single endearing character

Neither leads nor sidekicks are endearing. You have a grumpy female lead who is hyper focused on just food paired with a sly conman male lead who goes around stealing recipes. Female sidekick is a shrew who verbally & physically abusing male sidekick because she can ( as female he's not allowed to retaliate.) male sidekick is a clingy loud whiny dullard. Who wants to see any of these people for 10 episodes ? Male lead evolves & tries to be charming, but they base the reason for his attraction to initially be based on a memory of someone else, so it's really not valid to transfer that emotion.
The female lead does begin to be less abrasive (late in the series), I still did not find the romance (such as it is) to be something I wanted. The series takes a turn for boring after episode 5 & pulls the leads into a love triangle . It's not only depressing, it's also not really well explained. The food is interesting. The romance feels forced. (Also, DO notice that the female lead is eerily similar to the male lead's despotic mother so yeah in a few years he will be regretting this) .I only finished this because it was 10 episodes, because , honestly, I was ready to quit early on- it just wasn't fun to watch.

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convoluted, romantic, intricate & violent

I've been nonplussed by all the fuss over Lee Min-ho since Boys over Flowers so this series was way back on my maybe later list. Also, I was equally unenthusiastic for Kim Go-eun as the female lead as she came across unlikeable & manly (uncouth) in the trailer. I had some concern that the series might be darker than I would enjoy & having read the negative reviews, I was completely taken by surprise with how much I enjoyed it ! It was convoluted, romantic, intricate & violent . The romantic light fluff coupled with the political intrigue + blood spatter was something that was juxtaposed, yet was well balanced . I never did fall For Lee Min-ho completely, but he WAS very endearing & his role was not that taxing as far as acting went. I never saw that Kim Go-eun was a woman to go through so much trouble for, but at least she became more likeable as she really appreciated Lee Min-ho's extreme efforts to be with her. I secretly wished that Woo Do-hwan had played the main role, but his role here was SO much more interesting than the role of the king. It didn't hurt that his visuals were off the chart he-was definitely a scene stealer. The ending was "happy" for most characters but left the main couple with no long term solution. Instead we are encouraged to just "go with happy" & not think too hard about it. Annoying, but even though I prefer tidy endings, this one I will give a free pass to be acceptable. I will definitely watch this again

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Kim Woo Bin carries this drama & brings his A game

Kim Woo Bin has the arduous task of carrying the bulk of this drama as the plotline requires Bae Suzy to be emotionally disconnected throughout. It makes it incredibly hard to like her character & the romance between her &
Kim Woo Bin's character is problematic at best. This is a rewatchable drama that has alot of tragedy and sober plotlines that balance out the quirky amusing parts. [By the way-There is a happy ending, but it's not the kind you think you will get.]
what kept this from being a solid 10/10 is :
1) many times it seemed like a travel commercial for Dubai.
2) they muddied the story with gay characters (only)revealed later in the drama & it presented unspoken speculations that naturally come with such a reveal-such as the motivation of the steadfast loyalty of an important side character,
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Spoilers ahead
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it was also very weird that the grandmother (with no indication of having been dissatisfied in her marriage) seems to be gay once she's made young. The whole dynamic of grandmother to grandchild's best friend changing into an attraction doesn't play out well.

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Low key but satisfying. Touching not maudlin. Interesting & thought provoking

I wasn't sure what to expect from this, but even so, it took me pleasantly off guard , surprising and impressing me.
Do note that this is a slow, almost "no burn" romance for the leads, yet, the relationship is fulfilling as the leads to know each other. There are enough meaningful looks & indications of mutual respect, admiration as well as consideration for each other that ,by the end, you somehow don't feel cheated from not having more.

The strength of the drama lies in the character growth as well as how endearing the leads & second leads characters are.
The leads do a good bit of profound & stirring expounding (though it does feel a bit preachy at times)

The cases deal with sensitive social issues, bullying, abuse, illness, social norms & expectations. There were quite a few that I found very distasteful & more often than not, I found myself not siding with the victims, but still the cases were interesting.

Steller 2nd lead couple's relationship fills in the warm fuzzy romantic gap that you might be missing from the lead's relationship. FYI: Though there is adult intimacy, it is tastefully done off camera.

I was glad to see that Kim Yeo Jin (who has not only been cast as a lawyer before, but also as unpleasant characters) plays a refreshingly different character here than she has done recently (most notably in Vincenzo ).

What kept this from a higher rating :

1) male lead's romantic back story & his ex. was messy in a forced way.(wow, 5 years after the break up & his heart is still frozen in time) & really , the ex was tedious & toxic.
2) Age gaps: too many & too wide (which were a big part of the drama's romantic couple's stories).
3) Getting drunk as an excuse to sleep together. This trope is really unromantic to me.
4) An eye for an eye & doing to others what they have done to you; yet you want others to see you as the righteous victim (?)
5) women get more sympathy & a free pass on things because they are women
6) No one holds the dog daycare accountable for thier mistake AND guy uses them for his dog even after thier mistake !
7) Too lenient & emotionally motivated law that allows people to get sympathy & or free pass for violently acting out badly just because they had a sad story & were distraught at the time.
8) the "good guy" beating up bad guys ;yeah they deserve it, but it's no longer justice & it tarnishes the good guy
9) woman does not take responsibility for agreeing to abuse but puts full blame on significant other
10 )boring inter office politics
11)Times when the lawyers didn't hold to thier own high standards , or used the law as a weapon according to thier own personal world view.
12) A general consensus that allowed, (even endorsed), revenge
13) ethics & laws were broken by the characters that were more than capable of using thier legal genius to deal with the miscreants.

I never consider the OST to be mentionable unless it's annoying, but this drama deserves alot of praise for it's incredible OST. ALL the songs fit So perfectly! It was so gratifying to end each episode with a satisfyingly compatible song that totally meshed with the vibe of the drama. This is serious high praise from me & so I give it a rare 10/10 ! I especially loved KimMuseum's song "Quiet".

Though I only rated it an 8, I still thought/think it's a good worthwhile drama

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Unpleasant waste of time, why did I even give it a 5 !?

Female lead is abrasive & cluelessly unkind, then later suddenly turns into loud, pushy & thoughtful. The male lead was cast well, but he has a soft body type that was a joke when they present him as someone who eats carefully & works out alot ! His face has a mochi charm but his character was petty & needy. there was so much I did not like about this series: the girls being mean to the guys & being abusive, the intestinal issue plot device, the gay boy counter plot, the crude humor, the awkward unfunny attempts at having sex. So much of it caused me to cringe . Absolutely hated how they had the 2 male lead be an idiot over the female lead though he knew he did not have a chance .So many negatives that sucked the life & the enjoyment out that it's hard to even care about writing a coherent review ! The best acting was done by the female lead's older brothers, but thier plots were messed up too

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Nothing truly bad will happen & the only thing you need to focus on is the male lead

As I finish writing this review I want to give it a 5/5 because I almost dropped it 4 times.
It might be that with every trope I felt a :"dun-dun-dun" dread! But weirdly, everything that presented as a difficulty was rapidly resolved. Many familiar drama tropes that everyone complains about ,(especially the toxic relationship tropes) are teased here but then dissipate with pragmatic , reasonable application of-[GASP!]- communication!! Which you think would just make every viewer happy BUT ; Basically ALL the "drama" of the story is diffused", leaving nothing but blandness. The male lead has alot of charisma & does a brilliant job emoting & the camera blatantly stays trained on him, mesmerizing you with his impressive repertoire of sincere, flirty ,soulful longing looks-all of which pushes everything that's annoying about this drama to the edges of your peripheral.
He strongly reminds me of a young Jung Ji Hoon (Rain)
This drama seems interested in fulfilling the viewer's fantasy of boyfriend material/eyecandy. And yet, it didn't engage me fully or give me that " I can't wait to watch the next episode" feeling. { & I could have binge watched it.} The many positive reviews gave me really high expectations ,but It started off well & initially captured my interest, But by the end of Episode 1, I was very close to dropping it as

1) They did a TIME Skip with both characters over 3 (?) years , putting a BIG kink in the momentum.

2) And, Unforgivably, the writers have the Male lead encountering female lead ON the toilet (having intestinal distress). This kind of humor is a "nope" for me

Thankfully, the next 2 episodes are much better. But

3) by episode 8, the female lead's unflappable smug demeanor ,with her ever present smirk, REALLY grated on my nerves.

4) All of Episode 8 is one long Tedious travel advertisement for Thailand ,(that's like a youtube video of someone's vacation.)

And I can't believe that I am saying this, but

5) There is WAY too much kissing- it just stops being cute, romantic or special.

6) Episode 13 has the male lead reacting in such an unexpected way that it destroyed every positive feeling I had towards him.
[Though, like every difficulty in this drama, it's resolved in record time.]

No misunderstandings due to lack of communication here . !

All the men (but one who gets payback) step up, show up & behave the way they should (for the most part).

7) In Episode 14 the writer's suddenly decide that women want, need & must have everything on thier list of dreams for the perfect life.
8) Infuriatingly , the male lead is ,yet again, ready willing & chomping at the bit to do all the right things , BUT the female lead needs yet MORE in her life to be fulfilled.

9) The writers fake us out with a faux split with the female lead being sorry, not sorry [for being more interested in her own personal dream fulfillment than in working towards melding her life with her boyfriend} !

10) . ANY of the many sacrifices & changes the male lead has made For HER are taken for granted, & at no time does the female lead consider that she should actually care about what the male lead thinks & wants as well.

This like every other obstacle in this series, is quickly resolved, but as always,

11) it's made clear that the direction of the relationship is directed by the female lead (all of her friends likewise are alpha females in thier relationships).

There will be a happy ending for all the couples and even the semi villains . Perhaps I might have been less inclined to put off watching episodes had I known going in that nothing bad will happen and the only thing I need to focus on is the male lead (& the Male airline steward).

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Over confident female lead , Super creepy villain,

I wanted to like this & I really tried to over look the bothersome plot points, but I kept stopping & starting until it finally took me over a month to finish this! Where to start ? Male lead is great to look at but [here] it seems like his range is limited or he's directed poorly. Despite that, his character does all the things that would make him the perfect boyfriend. Then you have the female lead, who Time after Time [after Time after Time!] puts herself in harms way. If you have a stalker , WHY would you seek them out- ALONE ? Why, when you have been threatened [& the bad guy's out to get you] would you go off into the woods-ALONE ? The repeating theme is that She knowingly takes risks because she thinks she's a strong capable confident woman, when she's simply over confident.
Uninteresting Side characters are annoying space fillers .
The creepy villain was a bit too creepy
spoiler:

and it is never explained why he had a thing for her. The spell actually did not seem to have worked at all, so the whole premise seemed like bait. The happy ending was nice, but bland and really I was just glad to be done. The plot and the actors should have made for a good drama, but it just falls way short of expectations.
also at some point the Female lead thinks she's pregnant but does not want to get married.

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Takes awhile to warm up to female lead. Unromantic drunken intimacy. deflated ending

This felt like a screwball comedy , with over the top cringe worthy comedy in Episodes 1-6 -which I found incredibly irritating. It took a Long time to make the female lead likeable. The series improved after episode 6 . The last few episodes were so nice that I almost forget how much I had to push myself to get through, but I rated it low because episodes 1-6 really ruin it as a whole. Both female leads have sex with thier boyfriends and it really did not seem romantic . The drunken hook was especially unacceptable because the guy was not even remotely drunk & ,it seemed like he took advantage of the drunk girl. There was a Dumb Time skip trope ;Long distance separation where they vid chat for 1year ! wow way to deflate a happy ending, so those negatives left me feeling just blah about this.

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wouldn't recommend unless you think a man child is a cute thing

This series fell flat for me. The lead male character (Goo Dong Baek ) was supposed to be sweet & nice, but they took it too far & so he was portrayed as an idiotic simpleton, it was almost as if he had brain damage. He was just a loveable puppy & who never turned into a man. Why would a woman want to marry a man who acted like a 5 year old ? !They gave him a very unattractive hair style and never had him transform into handsome. It was really unbelievable that any girl would fall for him. Throughout the series they often had a sound effect of yodeling...it was funny once, but it became irritating & was an embarrassment to the story.

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I like the lead actor but not in this

I Barely got through episode 1- I like the actor but the plot & method of acting felt stale. Episode 2 was very very much for dog lovers and had ethics that were on the fence. Episode 3 had the lead being dragged off to an LGBTQ festival-dressing up like a rainbow sailor moon. So far I'm not only underwhelmed, but I'm also not connecting with the plot at all. The cases the team take are pointedly real issues of contention in South Korean society. By episode 8 it's obvious that this is a heavy topic landmine of a series. As a westerner, I feel a good bit of disconnect with the clients/issues. I also didn't find the case topics "entertaining" . A boy suing God for letting him be born, a "mail order" bride from another country, an idol who is suffering from oppressive & obsessive public scrutiny. Although there is lighthearted times sprinkled throughout the drama, thre is no disguising the passionate calling out of the imperfect law that feels like it's one big pitch & platform for reform-which for me, is not the entertainment escapism that I'm looking for. The heavy topics coupled with the male lead character's selfish grumpy childish demeanor is unappealing & falls flat comedically. The reason behind why the male lead is in the position that he is in, IS the only interesting thing about this drama so far (for me). I decided that instead of waiting for the rest of the episodes to be aired, I would just bail out at the end of episode 7.

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Full of plot holes/unexplained events. Bromance is fun, but sequel is better

short review: The ending of the series is a happy one. but IS he a human ? The big problem is that the eternal beings seem to treat life as one long yawner. it's all about the game to them, not about winning as soon as possible.
Long review:
I normally don't care too much about small plot holes, but I rated this lower because there are ALOT of holes in the story, & even more stupid & bad choices made by the characters.
Spoilers of things that made this less than perfect & the reason why it has no rewatch value for me:
A) Foxes can zip around super fast from here to there- but there are times when they seem to forget that.
B) ok, you're a human- you tranquilize a guy & then transport his unconscious body up to his high rise apartment all by yourself by.... ?
C) Characters constantly go into situations knowing it's stupid to do so & do it anyway-it's like they really can't hold themselves back, they just have to do the first dumb thing that pops into thier head!
D) The evil snake guy. WHY is he so lazy? He shows up to terrorize people, then backs off . Come on; He knows where they live ! Is it that he knows that once his enemies are gone he will have nothing to do ?
E) No one actually tries hard to hide from the bad guy! (Let's just stay in side our house & hope he doesn't come ?)
F) Villain can hypnotize people, but he rarely does.
G) The plague. Why are people coughing up snake eggs,.... that DON'T hatch ?? or if they did then WHERE are the baby snakes ??
H) Most people die right away, but 2 side characters linger & inexplicably survive
I) How does the decider of everyone's death date come back from bein turned to stone ?

There is alot of good story & acting. The guys ALL steal the show and are the only reason to watch this as their bond to each other is great fun.
There is a 2nd & 3rd (?) season BUT Jo Bo Ah does not return as they they change the female lead & go back to the Joseon era. Both Seasons 2 and 3 will have 10 episodes each.

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A thriller that chases it's own tail a bit but has a happy ending, ( twice)

I should rate this lower as I was disappointed in:
1) how it stalled around episode 11 by throwing in the misnomer trope "noble" break up
2) the whole police force were inept at catching the villain (over & over & over again).
3) everything is all tied up & they throw in a last minute ......yeah just see #2
4) yup there seems to be 2 happy endings, but let me just complain about how annoyed I was at the first "happy ending" that wasn't & how the second happy ending irritated me by suddenly turning into a comedy with the police force , again proving to be inept & crashing the main couple's honeymoon.
5) female lead acts like a puppy...felt miscast & her character poorly written

rating is as high as it is due to the really cool idea of seeing smells & how that worked really well with the storyline . Also , the male leads were the highlight of the drama.

Do be warned, this is a thriller with a scary (although sexy) creepy villain. violence is mostly in the first 8 or so episodes . This is one of those dramas where the bad guy is scarier because he's so cold & inscrutable.
My advice: stop watching in the middle of ep. 15

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