It is really a bit of a different spin on Detective Di. I think you will like it.
I do like it. :) Although I pretty much guessed the essentials of the first case -- the key ingredient of the tea, the mastermind etc -- the world building and characters are great.
I had a bit of a chuckle when the sheriff said that he had gone down to the ghost market a few times with Di Renjie. It made me think of the first Tsui Hark Detective Dee movie.
Yes, yes, yes! These three sisters are so badly written it’s hard to feel anything for them. Does In Ju have…
Haha. No, I couldn't get past the first couple of episodes of Minglan. Plus Zhu Yilong not being the male lead was another factor. I've heard good things about it but the length puts me off.
Welcome to the craziness of Little Women. The best thing to do with a makjang like this is to roll with it.
She wouldn't have been annoying if she was a man and played by a hot actor.
I'm not saying that the sisters are not realistic on some level or that I'm against flawed characters having a place in a good story. That's neither here nor there. No one with a shred of common sense thinks that characters should get it right all the time in any story. However, my problem is that we are repeatedly told that the stakes here are really high and these girls are ill-equipped to deal with them. Given their situation they should be more cautious and less inclined towards risky moves. These characters have been forced into a scenario that even cops would have trouble dealing with and yet they continually revert to what they are accustomed to doing even as the stakes get higher.
Therefore it isn't surprising to me that half the people who watch this think that the female leads are acting foolishly because they are. This is a predicament that's created by the writer herself. It's not entirely the audience's fault. The perception is that the dangers are escalating while the characters are way out of their depth.
If these three women were leads in a fairly innocuous office rom com with family drama, they would come off differently. But this is a crime show with a decades long conspiracy, a cult, a very nutty antagonist with enormous resources and some political stakes. This should be a police procedural with real cops at the helm. The lead female characters just don't fit the big story all that well. That's why the show has to have a Choi Do-il... whoever we may think he is. Without him the show wouldn't work at all.
The only way I can watch this show and enjoy it is because I look at it as a fairytale. It's the only way I can make it work for me because there is very little that is realistic about it.
As far as I can see Ziyi made up her own mind to prioritise her mentor's agenda a long time ago. As soon as she did that, I knew that there was no hope for her and Hu Fei. The trajectory was clear. She's always put her mentor's counsel and agenda first. The woman did save her life after all. The fact that she never told Hu Fei the truth about her commitments was always a problem for me.
Yes, yes, yes! These three sisters are so badly written it’s hard to feel anything for them. Does In Ju have…
I don't think anyone with any common sense is looking for perfect characters in any drama. Frankly in all my years of watching K dramas I've never seen one (even the overly optimistic, cheerful, resilient female lead comes across rather silly) but my problem here is that the writer here is starting at two here while the scenario that she's put her characters in need of being somewhere closer to four or five on a scale of 1-10. This isn't exactly your garden variety rom com.
Personally I don't mind the bigger crime story (even if it's a bit over-the-top) but to have these girls trying to navigate has been painful to watch at times. For whatever it's worth I think In-joo has made some strides and I think In-hye has a good head on those shoulders.
She wouldn't have been annoying if she was a man and played by a hot actor.
I don't think you know me well enough to say I'm lying to myself. And I don't think you've done the sort of market research needed to be that confident of those claims.
I can easily make the claim that female characters often tend to be badly written more often than male ones too because they tend to be stereotypes, caricatures and tropes. That can be proven far more easily than your claim just by referring to examples -- and there are many.
And I disagree that the sisters are well-written in this show. They are written in such a way as to push the stories forward in very specific ways.
She wouldn't have been annoying if she was a man and played by a hot actor.
I suppose you're speaking for yourself and that's fine. But you'd be crossing a line if you think you knew what the vast majority of the audience are thinking. I've seen many good looking male characters get criticised heavily over the years on this platform and on others particularly if those roles are given to idol actors. I myself am extremely critical of many popular good looking actors who get by on two or three expressions.
There are many reasons as to why people don't like certain characters and not just the one you've highlighted. Just because people don't hold the same perspective as you doesn't mean that they don't have reasons beyond looks to give.
Choi Do-il happens to be a well-written character and the actor who plays him is able to pull off a nuanced performance that creates uncertainty in the minds of viewers. He's also smart and frankly if it weren't for him, In-joo would probably be dead already. The other interesting thing about him is that he never claims to be any kind of paragon of virtue.
Rather than Jong-ho being a plot twist last minute villain, I'm much more concerned that he'll end up dead or at death's door as a wake-up call for In-kyung. That conversation they had at the restaurant where he confesses feels really ominous to me.
4 
I had a bit of a chuckle when the sheriff said that he had gone down to the ghost market a few times with Di Renjie. It made me think of the first Tsui Hark Detective Dee movie.
Welcome to the craziness of Little Women. The best thing to do with a makjang like this is to roll with it.
Therefore it isn't surprising to me that half the people who watch this think that the female leads are acting foolishly because they are. This is a predicament that's created by the writer herself. It's not entirely the audience's fault. The perception is that the dangers are escalating while the characters are way out of their depth.
If these three women were leads in a fairly innocuous office rom com with family drama, they would come off differently. But this is a crime show with a decades long conspiracy, a cult, a very nutty antagonist with enormous resources and some political stakes. This should be a police procedural with real cops at the helm. The lead female characters just don't fit the big story all that well. That's why the show has to have a Choi Do-il... whoever we may think he is. Without him the show wouldn't work at all.
The only way I can watch this show and enjoy it is because I look at it as a fairytale. It's the only way I can make it work for me because there is very little that is realistic about it.
Personally I don't mind the bigger crime story (even if it's a bit over-the-top) but to have these girls trying to navigate has been painful to watch at times. For whatever it's worth I think In-joo has made some strides and I think In-hye has a good head on those shoulders.
Thanks for reading.
I can easily make the claim that female characters often tend to be badly written more often than male ones too because they tend to be stereotypes, caricatures and tropes. That can be proven far more easily than your claim just by referring to examples -- and there are many.
And I disagree that the sisters are well-written in this show. They are written in such a way as to push the stories forward in very specific ways.
There are many reasons as to why people don't like certain characters and not just the one you've highlighted. Just because people don't hold the same perspective as you doesn't mean that they don't have reasons beyond looks to give.
Choi Do-il happens to be a well-written character and the actor who plays him is able to pull off a nuanced performance that creates uncertainty in the minds of viewers. He's also smart and frankly if it weren't for him, In-joo would probably be dead already. The other interesting thing about him is that he never claims to be any kind of paragon of virtue.
Fu Kang'an seems like such a useless Mummy's boy.