This review may contain spoilers
Is WTSG an Allegory?
Perhaps WTSG is an allegory, where events and characters represented specific ideas or abstractions. (Also, farce can be an important component of allegory, as was on ample display in WTSG).
I think allegory is lost on us inhabitants of the 21st century. Allegory is complex and uncomfortable. We like quick and easy. Instagram, TikTok - all types of social media - cannot begin to understand allegory.
A Kdrama like WTSG can try to use allegory as the narrative arc, but in doing so gets roundly booed and robustly hated. Especially when we all went into this drama thinking it was going to a feel good, HEA romcom.
The story was full of plot holes and inconsistencies, but I'm not sure if it was a script problem or an editing room problem. Dialog and footage that ended up on the cutting room floor might have actually helped viewers better understand the characters' goals, motivations, conflicts, etc.
For example, I would have preferred that the Lee Min Ho character went on the mission under different circumstances, secretive, yes, but not outright illegal or unethical. The fact that he was doing something illegal made him immediately less sympathetic. But maybe the intent was that his character especially was meant to make us, as viewers, think a little more deeply about ethics, by that I mean what people ought to do, or which behavior is morally right. Ethics is not a scientific in nature, it is philosophical.
All in all, though, I 100% enjoyed the drama.
P.S. I think the OST (the 8 songs) is one of the best examples of songs and lyrics that match the overall themes and ideas of the drama.
I think allegory is lost on us inhabitants of the 21st century. Allegory is complex and uncomfortable. We like quick and easy. Instagram, TikTok - all types of social media - cannot begin to understand allegory.
A Kdrama like WTSG can try to use allegory as the narrative arc, but in doing so gets roundly booed and robustly hated. Especially when we all went into this drama thinking it was going to a feel good, HEA romcom.
The story was full of plot holes and inconsistencies, but I'm not sure if it was a script problem or an editing room problem. Dialog and footage that ended up on the cutting room floor might have actually helped viewers better understand the characters' goals, motivations, conflicts, etc.
For example, I would have preferred that the Lee Min Ho character went on the mission under different circumstances, secretive, yes, but not outright illegal or unethical. The fact that he was doing something illegal made him immediately less sympathetic. But maybe the intent was that his character especially was meant to make us, as viewers, think a little more deeply about ethics, by that I mean what people ought to do, or which behavior is morally right. Ethics is not a scientific in nature, it is philosophical.
All in all, though, I 100% enjoyed the drama.
P.S. I think the OST (the 8 songs) is one of the best examples of songs and lyrics that match the overall themes and ideas of the drama.
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