Brogana Sunfrog

The mysteries are interesting

I watched one episode & thought it was Ok but I then dropped it . A long time later I pricked it up again & used it as a filler in between historical dramas. The mysteries seem a little reused but overall rather interesting. I found the repeated tropes of the male lead writing his ideas on anything at hand to be over used as was the off putting camera zooming into his ear then onto his brain synapsis. The acting was fine, & the chemistry between the 2 leads was fine as well, but the female detective is shrill, loud & annoying (to make sure that we know that they aren't going to have the two of them get romantically involved?) .
Season 2 they give us a new female detective that is even more rude & abrasive

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Long speeches, teased romance Machiavellian male lead

Though I rated it rather highly, it's not a rewatch for me.
I would have liked it better if Each episode didn't have a dramatic 3-4 min passionate speech shouted (or though a megaphone) addressing corruption, uncaring teachers, bullying & inequality.
22 year old Ex student in wheel chair mentors yet also constantly yells at girl & calls her an idiot (though we are not sure if he actually might like her?)


important Spoilers:
He's planning public suicide in order to ruin the principle's reputation & to get the school shut down, He is thwarted by school girl who she kisses him, confronts the principle who didn't let wheel chair guy graduate. In the end he does AND he is able to over come the mental block to rehabilitation(the lack of which kept him from walking)it ends with them bickering platonically

The subtitles are excellent.

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Getting to the happy ending is drudgery

Harsh lead female's character that I never could warm up to. Lead male was attractive but his character is not someone to root for. The demon/evil spirt is traumatizingly over the top scary . They catch the "bad guy" &then they brought him back 4 episodes (or so) before the end! (what!!??)
The characters had already gone through ALOT so I just felt it was cheap & unnecessary to have them sacrifice , give it their all & it ends up not being enough. The romances were all pretty much settled by then so I felt it had lost the fun & was draining to watch. I dropped this for a few weeks then finished it. Yes there are happy endings for some, but getting there was a bit of drudgery. The pizazz that you got excited about in the first few episodes was long gone

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cringingly saccharine sweet. Unforgivable betrayal ,nonsensical English subs

When I first watched this (early in my drama watching years) it was a completely new thing to me & so I gave it a 10/10 . It was sweet with elements of sacrificial love that wins out. Perseverance in life, career, friendship & love is extolled. True character is held in high esteem, Genuine love is displayed as really knowing & having a true appreciation of significant other, not just a physical attraction.
That said, many years & 50+ dramas later now that I re watch it and find it cringingly saccharine sweet. The jumping back & forth from Korean to Mandarin, was super annoying. The sometimes backwards nonsensical, translations/English subtitles with thier wrong gender, bad spelling made watching like a challenge of charades ! To make matters worse, everything that is written (that we are supposed to see ; letters, notes, titles, buildings are not translated! The male lead's wide mouthed grin & sparkling eyes are in stark contrast to the female lead's vacant constant state of confusion .While I still hold that the characters evolve well, the betrayal by the second leads is impossible to forgive.

More in depth spoilers:

The ending, while happy for both couples, it's weird because of the former love triangle. You can plainly see why the couples are best in thier own coupling, but having them all be friends & related at the end is just unpalatable.
Used the amnesia trope twice !!

Kimberley Chen's song "I love you" & the theme song Da Mouth's "Maybe" was played to ad nauseum .

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SO much introspection that it's depressing . Female lead is not likeable

Be prepared, this series suffers from the greatest guy is the second lead syndrome .And Ignore the artwork & the intro, this is NOT a light hearted romance. It deals with deep hurts: parental & friend abandonment ,jealousy, betrayal, slander, suicidal thoughts , social anxiety, deep depression. On the other hand the theme is every woman's fantasy : no matter how dull , depressed or lacking in charm you are, men will want to rescue you, fix you, fix your life & be doggedly devoted no matter how much you push them away. Ugh! The love matches are inexplicable and there's an odd love triangle (that's really a 6 sided love) which isn't as complicated as it is just dumb because it's all due to lack of communication.
Let's be honest: the main girl is not loveable. The guys attracted to her are idiots as she's a broken extreme introvert who doesn't want human interaction. She is constantly pushing people away from her & yet also is very needy . She, herself admits that she does not know how to love. Every interaction with her is hard & she doesn't want to expend the energy to even accept love. Still, there are happy endings for many of the characters. I never warmed up to any of the women in the series. The men , though attractive, would need alot of stamina to maintain a relationship with any of the women as they are all prickly & pretty selfish, even in their selflessness.



Spoiler
why would a socially fearful, highly introverted girl even be interested in an effervescent, puppy like guy who is cringingly stuck in constant Aegyo mode over an understanding ,patient & quietly supporting. guy who's been around a long time, proving himself in small but meaningful ways ?

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A tedious drawn out search for "the one"

First: the promo picture (on this site) is not in the movie. I watched this solely due to the good reviews & found it Disappointing. It did feel a bit dated, but I've watched series from mid the 2000's & enjoyed them. The beginning is very confusing & with no dialogue or voice over you just don't know what's going on. Then you flip flop between the lead's stories, which are not interesting . Finally, we are led into a tedious drawn out search for "the one". The last 5 minutes were the most interesting, but the resolution falls flat because we are never given a satisfying conversation between the 2 people that the whole plot revolved around. The lead female (Im Soo-jung) was made unattractive & written unlikeable. Her issues with not seeing things through to the end aren't given a reason (childhood trauma due to some issue with her mother, who is absent & never mentioned, would have worked !). And for having no reason, she comes across as selfish, paranoid, but mostly uncaring. She has no chemistry with the male lead & there is no reason the two come into attraction. The female lead's forwardness to the men she turns her attention to is just badly done. I just didn't find much about this to like, though I wanted to see Gong Yoo in a lead romantic role, but this was not a good vehicle for him.

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Badly written characters with no chemistry & a what the heck ending

A very annoying drama, because really it had potential !
They really made the time loop plot device work ,BUT, the way the characters are written just overshadows it. Grating Female lead, and an UN forgivable, loathsome male lead . Will we be will be relieved if he changes? Yes ! But that doesn't change the fact that he's completely un acceptable as a love interest. 2 episodes before the end Female lead does a 180 degree personality change, which nullifies the whole reason the 1st & 2nd male leads like her . As for the ending, they got it all wrong .

More detailed spoilers:

male lead just can't be redeemed to the point where he's romantic partner material (with this female lead or really any female he works with). When the idea is introduced, it's a great gag- until it isn't. Plus, He & the female lead have no chemistry . The thought of them together is ridiculous. Right from the start the 2nd male lead has shown support for the Female lead & they get along well. That they make him forget his love for her in the last time loop is infuriating, but even more maddening is that the female lead doesn't care enough about him to maintain a friendship with him (though they were dating!) Her caring about the male lead is more her wanting the time loop gone & she doesn't want to be responsible for anyone's death . There's nothing romantic in her motivation as she uses both male leads as tools to get her agenda -which is all about making her work life the way she wants it.

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Lackluster & forgettable. The leads have no chemistry

lackluster & forgettable. the leads didn't have any chemistry that made them a compatible romantic couple. The plot device that first separates the young lovers is not something a westerner would understand & it came across as cruel. Later when they are reunited- they have a near death experience, the guy ,( in a fit of passion) is forceful in his kiss & it's NOT romantic because it's so aggressive (& she seems to not be receptive). Then he's so heated he pushes to have her stay overnight . Does anyone who lives in a city leave their curtains open at night, in their bedroom ? Really the whole bedroom scene just wasn't romantic . Over all there wasn't enough believable moments of liking the characters or the characters liking each other to make this what you want it to be.

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Winsome Woo

Very enjoyable -Lead actors did really well & there's a good balance of humor & solemnity. This is a mostly lighthearted drama with many characters showing character growth by the end.
The romance is a bit of a hard sell because of Woo's condition, but it builds at a leisurely thoughtful pace, that felt just right.
I didn't give it a perfect score because
1) some of the court cases were not that interesting.
2) I kept waiting for there to be a reveal of WHY the male lead was attracted & so understanding of Woo (perhaps his sister or mother or aunt was autistic ?) but , no ,we never get any reason.

It ended well & did not leave an obvious opening for a second season .
[But I hope there is one!]

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Disappointing & Forgettable

Just for the record, I did not binge watch this, but sadly, one week after finishing it, all I can say is that it was OK. I was disappointed in it & wasn't something that I'd rewatch but I was a bit conflicted & so I was unsure how to rate it...... so I put off commenting, thinking that if I gave it a day more to settle in my head I might feel more certain how to rate it (in order to be fair to it) . My hesitation should be a red flag ! That one more day lasted a week ! Which will now drive me crazy not knowing exactly what I didn't like, so I will now feel compelled to rewatch it so that I can update my review. Feeling stupid, but that's how some weeks go (especially when you are watching multiple dramas in a certain time frame)

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Good music & Handsome guys, but bad ending

They really didn't put much effort into the writing of this. They must have thought that there were enough handsome men in it that the audience wouldn't notice the plot was lacking ? It's appeal is completely & only because of the music and the guys.
Thin storyline of high school girl living on her own with no money because her mother died & her aunt took her money.
She has some anime dolls of some (5 ? )pop stars that she's had since she was young. Do you want to guess whether or not those dolls come to life ?
bad ending , but then how can you have a happy ending when a fan & idols are involved ?

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Had so much potential , with stellar cast but frustrating ending

I thought it would feel dated & be a waste of time, but it's aged surprisingly well & I almost fell in love with it. [the ending ruined it ]
Jang Woo Young & IU were incredible.
Kim Soo Hyun surprised me. (though His acting was not as good as he is in It's OK not to be OK , but considering the years in-between, it's totally understandable! ) Ok Taec Yeon did a great job in this too ! Sadly the same can't be said for Bae Suzy. The way she was directed (?) the way her character was written (?) whichever, She was wooden and her character was completely unlikeable. Ditto for her nemesis Ham Eun Jung. Un surprisingly, Park Jin Young was cringingly embarrassing . What really disappointed me was the anti climatic end. after making such a splash,
******spoiler Alert*******
the members go off in different directions ! there is a time skip and you see that One couple has ended up together that should have, but another coupling is all wrong. This is always the dilemma when you have a love triangle with an impossible choice because the 2 vying for their love, are equally great choices. However this was a relationship no brainer and they still got it wrong!!! Plus, they weren't even able to be together so what was the point!? really frustrating.

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