ammmz

the world is more vast than u realize!! the fact that one can imagine someone like that means there's someone out there (tons of em i bet) who isn't perfect but great enough ;) at least ur striving 4 the best too! dont' settle!

ok i am crossing my fingers tooo!!!! i think it will actually! 🙏🏽

i started but i might wait until it's finished so i dont have 2 miss anything. it seems like there's some decent dramas on as of late which is exciting. and ifnally park eun bin in something i can watch my god!!!

i think your assessment is totally correct and understandable. i usually have an issue with second male leads because they are only nice/better nominally. so they have 0 personality and no reason to grow but are seen as ideal by others while being forceful in their own ways (usually never accepting a woman's choice even when it comes to love that he can't accept.) that's different than being an interesting, if flawed, human being. most times in romance when writing/portraying a flawed man , usually in a cross-gender rship though by NO means not always, their horrible personality is due to some issues that can easily be fixed by another person, usually a woman, investing time and energy into them that the man depletes.

the man doesn't have to learn to not be a piece of shit, to not be controlling, to unlearn the toxic traits given to him socially and that he chooses to buy into nor does he have to accept any responsibility for his actions. he merely has to be fixed by a woman's extreme emotional labor and sacrifice. and he doesn't stop being a piece of garbage he's just a piece of garbage "in love" and the viewer/reader is somehow lulled into a false pretense that there is happiness there when it would never truly be happy no matter how much the woman convinces herself. and it's sad since so much of it is a stand in for real life. the problem is these characters, like many people, aren't forced to grow and change because they will still be handed things because they are acting in line with what is supposedly working for them and they are rewarded for it. we have to see evidence of it and we never do because the root of the problem—insecurity and instability from life and from gender expectations themselves, mental health maybe, work—is never gotten to.

the fact of the matter is that for many men, regardless of sexuality, they can't conceptualize that doing the right thing is wanting a woman/person in their lives to be HAPPY or at least to help make another life easier. because that means placing another person's comfort first or on the same level as their own. which makes it all the more interesting/refreshing when that does happen—when a man is honest about who he is and his shortcomings. but because it's out of step many times it's read simply as being uninteresting (to some) or (god forbid) more "feminine" and because love is supposed to be so grand and romantic the constant instability that is presented because of the typical MC becomes favored but imo that is much much MUCH more boring and unimaginative. and unsustainable.

this is sort of a generalization and i can't get into all the nuances but the way we interact with each other based on socialization bc of gender is so fucking complicated and in fiction it's so easy to lose all of that bc our everyday lives are so much richer and confusing. men who buy into this garbage are miserable insecure human beings and they will always be so until they actively change themselves and work on what is making them so fucking miserable and awful but it gets so obscured and oversimplified and they can't imagine that a big part of what haunts them is just how insecure they are about being a man and what that means itself. to admit that would mean that this whole category isn't something that serves them and they would have to divest from the so-called luxury of it to be happy...that's a big task and a big task for fiction, esp romance, to take up. or i shouldn't say big task it's just something different so what emerges may be something much better but i guess what is lost is the comfort of these tropes and what they signify for the viewer/reader...it would mean questioning if these categories should mean as much to us as they do and being confronted with the fact that it truly is all a construct

all this to say that i appreciate the fact that people, who are mostly girls/women, decide to settle less and less which is why we bring this stuff up more and more. life is too short and beautiful to be met with the boring but draining minutiae of a fucked up partner particularly with a man. people have to be active to be the best they want to be with the person they love and that's what's so compelling

assuming there are tons of undisclosed autists or people who have no diagnoses in tons of fields and lawyerdom including them. bizarre that people are saying this but not surprising i suppose

no they are very common but it's just more covert. it's not as bad as it used to be but those are some of the WOOOORST holy shit lmao something abt 1%...man.

2 b fair no cop is good at their job so why would she be ;)

i haven't started this yet and i will bc i love SIG and from the sound of it there's a found family element and i love ensemble shit like this like with 'special labor inspector jo' and it seems to have that vibe. love scams, hate cops, love friendship and luv!

oh yes omg hello! i love your display picture he looked fly as fuck there. i am really enjoying it—i actually got so carried away that i forgot to update abt how i felt abt it that night hahahah

also good to knooooow that he seems cool. i trust the younger ones these days so hoping that it's his real face. he's talented but on top of that he has that certain ~charm~ u cant pinpoint but he just has it!

i miss kdw and this looks interesting but i am begging SK to move away from serial killers at some point. the country is so small if they really had that many running rampant it would be extremely bad lmao. there's the violence of everyday life that's enoough!

depends on when she was born i guess BUT tbqhwy maybe that was the point in which case more power 2 her cos some sacrifices must be made!

exactly! like their typical MLs are never like this which is part of why getting through their stuff can be a slog. an actually vulnerable, emotionally open, sensitive man??! wow! and a girl that isn't a doormat?? :O

agreed with you on everything you said too re: romantic storylines. it's A LOT.

he's so young and it seems like so many people enjoy him! he's just really enjoyable to see on screen! hopefully he's a good kid IRL

yea i'm hoping she cottons on to the situation quickly and doesn't end up being actually annoying and dead weight (literally and figuratively)

in an ideal world she can meet md/nk and they can talk and exchange secrets of a sort or something and become friends. idk the show needs more female rships/female concentrated hubs imo

i didn't know about this and this sucks! i can't say if i would make the same choice or not but i hope she got a HUGE payout. i doubt it but one could hope. i'm also guessing she probably doesn't have enough $ or structure behind her for advocacy bc if she was a [popular] idol or model it would shake up differently. there's definitely a missing component here because there are SO many situations where this exact scenario would apply

that being said, that's not always true about no one quitting their first lead role; just like the industry is fucked (intentionally) many of the people drawn to it are insecure at the very least and fucked up at most (i say frm firsthand experience lmao) self-sabotage, stupidity (like randomly deciding not to do something because of your feelings), being bogged down by pressure or potentially prioritizing being able to take care of yourself is real. and not everyone has the same end goal for their career.

this is wild news!

a studio deemed it and he agreed. this makes sense bc it's just beyond unprofessional to hire people, get everything in order, and then sack them without pressure or needing someone in a more exec position to solidify the decision. this whole situation is kind of nuts to me since i am watching the show now and i didn't know half this shit went on and with the confusion with part 2 it reminds me of just how fucking sneaky people are in production...smh i picked the wrong career

hopefully she's smart and won't be sacrificed cos i love thieves lol and if MD was a thief too that would be cool as shit

for all 10s we saw of her i thought "she rox" lol

well ok i am excited for next week but the hong sisters also do that noble idiocy thing which drives me FUCKING NUTS so but i also don't think they've written an MC like uk so things could shake up differently. i really love seeing how they play out together

some more critique:

all the guys are actually cool. usually i cannot stand (like seriously cannot stand) second leads esp if they are of the nice guy variety bc usually they are "nicer" and more sensitive or feminine which makes the viewers, usually girls/women, drawn to them (under a false pretense imo) but the male characters embody those qualities which are seen as /good qualities/ because they are. with that said, i wish and hope that we get more women being able to build more solid foundations which is why i'm excited about the introduction of mu deok's friend.

and not just through ties of romance. i do think the men are also outshining the women with regards to acting save for oh na ra but that comes down to a substantial amount of the interesting parts needing them and not necessarily needing complete investment in the other female characters, even nk to an extent. this is an issue i find with the structuring and pacing/allocation of time and energy to what and to whom and introducing a bevy of characters—particularly in a romantic fashion. there's kinks to be straightened out for sure if they want to achieve a better balance. this isn't a complete negative it's just a shame that with a whole host of characters i find myself caring more about one gender because they're more concentrated one place and can form bonds and be friends even amidst competition.

luckily we have joo wol and naksu who i really enjoy watching together and i love joo wol's mind! all the stuff she's done to help her and their plans together and i want to see more of that. it's not that romance is bad or a high amount of male characters are bad per se it's that it represents a schism that persists constantly even in fantasy, even in the creative world, that should be easy to undo but are not. and yes i do think it is a gender thing and yes i do think it matters with regards to the story, the story's themes, and what the story gives meaning to and how the writers are figuring out their own views on gender and romance which can be antiquated and stifling. in an ideal world even the question of uk's birth would be handled with more intensity since that was sexual violence.


i also wish that netflix would change the translation from 'brothel' to 'bar' bc it's REALLY hard to understand the nuances of the bar itself which can be a brothel but also is not just exclusively one. i know it's for ease of understanding but it just makes less and less sense because the brothel structure in the west is exclusively sex work based we don't have concepts of like bar girls and stuff unless it's a strip club like it's just confusing lmao

i actually really enjoy this show for what it is but the length (episode wise and how many episodes are o n order) does bug me. i also am mad that i got a glimpse of entertainment news about the show as i don't feel like more eps are even necessary and that the writers are capable of doing so—though i could be wrong!

that being said it's a really enjoyable ride for the most part and i'm extremely impressed with lee jae wook! the show's strongest points are the romance i think (bc of the writers fortes in this area....or should i say experience not per se expertise since these sisters have been known to run wild with their stories and have a type of style they find difficult to break my god lol) but the plot of the story itself is interesting when they nail an episode (i think ep 8 is a great ep while ep 7 was looong) and i'm interested in uk as a character first and foremost actually which is rarer for me with male characters. i really enjoy him here so it makes me want to watch out for him!

the show is a good surprise. definitely flawed but consistent and compelling enough (for the most part) to keep me comin' back. excited for next weeeeeek..

also fuckin shout out to sojin whose voice is gorgeous. voices are really important to acting and there's something really contained and dignified about her character through her acting. every time she's on screen i'm really surprised. i haven't been into kpop in years (thank god) but i never would have expected it. i'm not too sold or fond of actor idols bc they don't usually hone their skills (or feel a need to, whatever comes first) but something about her!

edited 2 add: forgot to say that shin seung ho is fucking GREAT here. i love his vibe as the crown prince. + added more critique 2 my spoiler comments bc length

i was really bummed about it being 20 eps bc these writers have a knack for not being able to execute something completely/fully for that long and knowing there's even more coming just makes me confused lol

it's got some pacing deficits that are typical for the writers imo and it's loooooong (it will end up being 30 eps with part 2) but it's entertaining enough. when you have more free time or something i'd def recommend to pick it up! there are some eps that are stellar and some that are just there