Alaskan

I enjoyed the exposition of each major character's story, particularly that of Kim Bong Seok's and his mother's. Han Hyo Joo is one of my favorite actors and I thought that Lee Jung Ha did a great job. I loved the way that the writer teased out the connections and tensions with the more minor characters, which made me care about the minor characters almost as much as the major ones. So far so good. But the drama went downhill for me during the climactic battle scenes between the superheroes. The battle seemed like just the usual over-the-top but predictable superheroes battle. The "surprise" plot twists were emphatically not. Argh.

Perhaps I would not have been as disappointed had my expectations not been raised sky high as a result of the earlier episodes as well as by praise from reviewers everywhere? I kept hoping for one of those "I did not see that coming" moments. Maybe it will come in the sequel, in which case, I might reevaluate this review.

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In order to enjoy this drama, one should just go with the flow because it IS a fun and addictive watch. But it is also fairly cheesy (perhaps that’s what made it such fun) and often illogical. I liked the FL’s and ML’s acting as well as both of their characters but there didn't seem to be that magical spark between them. Plus the ML did things that seemed out of character for somebody who was supposed to be cool and calculating (e.g., the way he dealt with the fish token, ran off to deal with an entire army by himself, and volunteered himself for a final battle). There were some beautifully filmed scenes, such as at the very end. I think though that they overdid the thunder and lightning, which inevitably came rolling in when something ominous was about to happen. Ditto the wind, which always seemed to come out of nowhere to set clothes and hair prettily swirling.

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Undercover High School was a mess.

As the high school’s Chairwoman became more and more unhinged, the plot paralleled her arc and became more and more bonkers. I had suspected that there would be a lot of logical problems throughout the drama because the writer began with a head scratching setup: An NIS agent pretends to be a high school student in order to find an illegal stash of gold based on clues derived from the school’s urban legends. ????? The secret agent Hae Song approached each legend in numerical order (why) and in the most unnecessarily complicated manner. In the meantime, he did a lot of drinking in public for someone trying to pass himself off as a high school student as well as showing his face everywhere for someone on a super secret mission. (Because all of the people from his past life could not possibly recognize him after he adopted a fake name and put on a school uniform.) His fellow NIS agents were exaggerated slapstick figures, while the students/teacher side plot descended into sentimentality. And that is not all. Every episode exceeded my Korean drama implausibility allowance. I grade it A for Audacity.

But the actor Seo Kang Jun was charming and funny so I kept watching to the end! I have low standards and a Fast Forward button.

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This drama drew me in because the first few episodes were pretty funny. I think I would have enjoyed the drama more had it continued with the silly but funny video game plot. Instead, it turned into a standard, and maybe too long, wuxia fantasy before abruptly switching tone again toward the end. Esther Yu’s character did not develop much throughout the drama and between her expressions, makeup, and hairstyle, including too much debris in her hair, she kept coming off as baby panda. I assume that that was a deliberate directing choice. The male lead Mu Sheng (Ding Yuxi) and second female lead Mu Yao (Zhu Xudan) were fine. But every Chinese drama lately seems to have one major character who appears frozen and this time it was the the second male lead, Liu Fuyi (Yang Shi Ze). It didn’t help that he often wore light blue outfits, which accentuated his resemblence to an icicle.

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This is a charming drama that is better than its title implies. Choi Hyun Wook steals every scene he is in. He’s also a pretty good singer (assuming that was really him singing in the drama). The drama has a Back To the Future vibe to it and it doesn’t quite stick the landing but it comes close enough.

One thing I always wonder when I see dramas where the protagonist time travels to the past then returns to a changed present is what supposedly happens to all of the memories the protagonist had from his life before he time traveled. As a result of the changes he made noone else in his present life would have those same memories, right? And he would have no memory of his revised past.

I need to know in case I ever time travel.

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What just happened. The story and acting were compelling but the ending just wiped out everything. Okay, I'll admit that the ending was more logical and realistic than the whole "one more chance to do over" storyline but...what? (sputters to oneself.)

Because the ending wiped out most of what happened before (ironic since the initial premise was to wipe out one's past mistakes and start over), it felt as if all of the emotions developed over the course of the story became empty. But I don't hate this drama because it completely fooled me and I have a grudging admiration for that. Plus the ride was fun while it lasted.

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The biggest problem with this drama was that it was formulaic with many tropes, such as the coincidental childhood connection and the father-son chaebol family conflict, to name just a couple in a drama replete with many. Compounding the problem is that the resolution for each conflict was predictable and seemed pat and somewhat perfunctory. All of the stock characters were present, including perky best friends, adorable precocious children, and the evil sneering rival. The writer attempted to create the perfect man in Yu Eun Ho and succeeded to a large extent but that also made him seem somewhat cliched. Kang Ji Yun fared better as the frosty CEO who thawed as she found love (yet another trope), but even she was little more than a caricature. On the plus side, the acting was good, everything was very prettily filmed, and Kang Ji Yung had the best outfits.

Okay, I have a question. The Viki translation for the song during the opening credit says, "So just test me, I'll tell you." But that doesn't seem to fit with the story. Do you think the singer really sang, "So just TEXT me, I'll tell you?" They were constantly texting each other.

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I probably would not recommend this drama. Part of the problem is Deng En Xi's acting. She plays the Female Lead, who is supposed to be a brilliant detective, but there’s something about Deng En Xi’s wide eyes and static face that seem to undercut the supposedly brilliant deductions she makes. She also sometimes comes across as pouty, particularly towards the end. Ding Yu Xi fares better as male lead Shen Du, although his character’s noble idiocy is particularly idiotic in this drama and the resolution is also idiotic, thus coming full circle. The drama trundles along improbably but adequately up until around Episode 34, when the wheels finally come off the train and the drama goes off the rails. I had some hope for Mao Zi Jun’s evil character until he caught the crazy (derailing) train. The costumes are great but everybody’s excessive makeup and hairstyles are distracting.

Was there anything of note about the drama? Well, Ding Yu Xi has one of those faces that glows with an almost ethereal beauty in one scene then looks doughy and pudgy in another. How does he do that.

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This is basically a romance set during the 1980 Gwanju protests. I thought that the Romeo and Juliet couple, beautifully acted by Lee Do Hyun and Go Min Si, pulled all of the appropriate heartstrings. But the characters surrounding them leaned melodramatic and simplistic. The evil villains, for example, were simply evil, whose evil acts were motivated by evilness. The troubled relationship between Kim Myung Hee and her father did not resonate with me because the whole thing seemed kind of over the top but, at the same time, petty. The Lee siblings’ characters had little depth or complexity. And the Gwanju protests and why and how everything went horribly wrong seemed to be simply background noise, albeit terrible background noise, to move the love story along.

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ugh. First, I think that the women should have concentrated on setting up their businesses and dumping their respective boyfriends who regressed to middle school with each other. All sorts of sniping and glaring and hurt feelings. I kept expecting the boys to start pulling each other’s hair and slapping each other.

As for, Yoon Ha, she comes across as inept (everything she accomplished at Tae Jin was a result of work Joon Gi, Chang Soo or Yi Ji did for her) and somewhat hypocritical (e.g., criticizing the privileged for abusing their power then using her brother’s power to take revenge on those who offended her). And when the first male lead declared that he fell in love with Yoon Ha the first time they met, I wondered what the prior 15 episodes had been all about.

Finally, after all of the fuss about the brother’s disappearance, the “resolution” seemed to be almost an afterthought.

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One of the best dramas I've watched. This drama has a lot of complicated political intrigue and beautiful cinematography, and, importantly, a lot of very smart characters, including plenty of smart women. There was some romance but it paled in comparison to the wonderful heartfelt bromances. And, unlike most Korean dramas, everything wasn’t neatly tied up into one big happy pill, which made Nirvana’s ending much more meaningful and satisfying. I nearly gave up after the first episode because it was confusing with too many characters being introduced too quickly and too briefly (hint: learn their names!) but I’m glad I stuck with it. I would recommend this drama to people who like complex plots and who like to watch smart people behaving intelligently.

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I strongly recommend Teasing Master Takagi-san (aka Karakai Jozu no Takagi-san), if you’re looking for a lovely, slice of life, Japanese drama. The story explores a boy’s conflicting emotions as he interacts with a girl who constantly but gently teases him and usually gets the better of him. The two students’ interactions are treated with sensitivity and sympathy. I thought that both young actors were outstanding, particularly the boy. The whole thing takes place in a beautiful town on an island off the coast of Japan and the setting adds to the dreamy, idyllic tone of the drama.

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I’m puzzled by this drama's popularity as well as the number of times it makes it on to people’s top ten lists. Perhaps because the body swapping incidences were pretty funny? But this is another one that I had trouble getting through, mostly because Kim Joo-Won was creepy and I hated the way that he didn’t respect Kil Ra-Im’s wish that he leave her alone. The message seems to be that it's swoony to show that your love is true by stalking that poor person no matter how many times they ask you to back off. That is not okay. That is not romantic. That is not what any drama should be promoting.

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