Eleison

That would be nice!

The cheesy, even cringy, humor of Korean rom-com dramas is definitely not for everyone. So yeah, I get it!

But as to the ML's voice, I thought it was affected at first, too, so I looked up interviews of the actor and discovered... it's his real voice! 😂

I didn't care for all the poor communication between the FL and ML, but to be fair, it's written into the premise in a better way than most dramas. It's clear the ML is a newb at romance, so he fails epically (and adorably) at wooing and dating his beloved. But he's so cute about it and always growing through it that you can't help but love him despite all his mistakes.

WIFTY (this drama) and Hidden Love proved to me you can do romance and slice-of-life/coming of age genres without over-the-top angst or huge dramatic setbacks to characters' relationships/life circumstances.

You CAN actually write a sweet story about sweet characters growing together (without toxic side/supporting characters to derail things) and it can still remain perfectly interesting, and manage to hold your attention. 👏👏👏

I thought Episode 4 was better than 3, but I didn't care for the long flashbacks of the MC from their high school days. Especially since the FL says she didn't remember those memories and they didn't seem to mean much to her. 🤔

I DO think the FL's friends are all gems. The way Hye Ji bounced back from losing her first love to the way she rallied all their friends to help Hu Yeong... I thought that was adorable. She's such a sweet friend!

I guess he's going to be 5th wheeling.

In the flashback scene between the 2ML and the FL In Episode 4 (I think it was in 4) I really liked him and their interactions. The actor totally sold how smitten he was. But present day 2ML... nope. He's a schmuck.

Seo Tae Pyeong to Yang Hui: "Do you know what the difference is between you and Ji Hwan? You always take and steal what you want from others, but Ji Hwan can convince his opponent to give it to him. That's why he's better than you'll ever be!" (I paraphrase)

This quote! 😧 The dad is such a manipulative gaslighter. I wondered why Ji Hwan was so intimidated by him. After seeing his father try to convince him he's really a thug deep down, and seeing how he went about trying to persuade him, I understood.

Some said that it was boring that Ji Hwan was always good-hearted and never truly a mobster, but they do imply he bought into his dad's lies for a portion of his life. And niw he's trying to make up for them. Poor Ji Hwan!

I would have loved to see more of how and why he decided to turn his back on the mobster life and go straight.

YES. I wanted to scoop him up and put him in my pocket after that scene! 😂 (I don't mean this in a creepy way, he was just so lovable that he felt like a cute little kid!)

Ah, anecdotal evidence? I see.

The only Jdrama I've seen is Hana Yori Dango (it had some good parts, though I prefer the Thai BOFs and Korean cause it was my first BOFs), and I've seen clips from some, read things about them and looked at synopses and they usually don't pique my interest. Maybe I'll try one of your gangster ones someday, though. :)

Don't have Viki? What if you do a free trial and watch it that way? I'm with you, I don't like unofficial sites either.

Ooooh, tell me your secret! How did you find out that all those who rated it high are only rating it high due to Woo Seok?! I'd love to know so I can make sure to avoid dramas rated in a similar manner moving forward.

The whole Thirsty Deer crew + the MC all have fantastic chemistry. Either they really practiced the seamless interactions to make it feel super convincing, the actors just really felt comfortable with one another, or they let the actors with comedic talent spearhead ad lib and improv to give their scenes convincing spontaneity and enthusiasm. Or all of the above, maybe!

Whoa, had no idea there were so many gangster rom-com Jdramas! 😂

Have you seen the drunk playground scene? It reminded me of Kim Soo Hyun's "I'm too cute when I'm drunk" scene from Queen of Tears, but even cuter. Ji Hwan's irresistibly adorable in this.

Yes! And he's a plot device, still, but he's not a useless character being used to create extra drama for the sake of drama and filler for a script; his character has a purpose.

And Soju has a high alcohol, content, no? Much stronger stuff than beer, I think. And it always seems to be the drink of choice, at least in Kdramas.

There's also apparently a lot of alcohol intolerance (i.e. people allergic to it) for Koreans, which I didn't know. You'd never know it was a thing from the Kdramas, though!

Episode 10 has been my favorite so far! Even the 2nd lead couple is interesting (I was dying to know what would happen with the "test" Mi Ho did and to see who would find it first 😂, and to watch how they handle the fallout of their discovery), and the little group of guys is adorable (I really enjoy Il Yeong and Hong Gi, in particular) and they're pretty well fleshed out as characters, too.

Haha, he exhibits the noble idiocy of a Victorian damsel... we're so used to seeing female characters portrayed this way, but not we've got a guy, haha.

I DO like how they show him very clumsily trying to go about liking and dating Eun Ha. It's ridiculous to think guys who have never dated would ever be able be perfect at this despite having never practiced. That's silly! If you're going to write a character who's 36 and never dated, you've got to write him at least kind of bad at it to start. The clever way of doing it was to make his mistakes and bumbling adorably cute because he's just SO earnest and true-hearted.