Figgo

A Simple and Slow Life Drama

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

I’ve been wanting to watch this drama for a while now. I went in blind. For some reason I thought it would be a bit more exciting than it was.

Acting/Cast: The cast is good as well as the acting. I guess my big issue here is just that the main character played by Bae Suzy [배수지] is a stoic character. I usually don’t like those types of leads. It’s rare that an actor can pull off a stoic character well, as it’s difficult to play it in a way that keeps the stoicism from boring me. I would say that this stoicism was more on the boring side for my taste. I had a hard time connecting with her character; she felt distant and robotic. I watched this drama after watching Genie, Make A Wish (another drama in which Bae Suzy plays a stoic character). I much more preferred her performance in Genie, Make A Wish. 5.5/10

Writing: The message behind this drama seems to be about the problems regarding nepotism and classism in South Korean society. Although I understand that, the story itself isn’t very interesting. Nothing really crazy happens except maybe at the end, but even that wasn’t too dramatic. Whenever I thought the drama was going to go in an interesting direction, it didn’t. It’s just a story about a girl’s life...a really depressing life where nothing ever goes her way. The side characters weren’t fleshed out, especially the real Anna. I was surprised by how little she actually appeared in the drama. The main villain of the drama arrived a little late to the party. I didn’t feel as though I knew him well enough to fully appreciate his ultimate fate. 2.5/10         

Direction/SFX/Music: Something exciting was finally happening at the end of the drama. It was as though the build up throughout the entire drama was about to explode. But my anticipation was met with bad CGI. Even worse, it was completely unnecessary CGI. Why? Why was The Hunchback of Notre Dame suddenly being used as an allegory for the drama? It seemed to come out of nowhere. From what I understand, The Hunchback of Notre Dame has more religious connotations—gypsies and witchcraft versus a corrupt government/church. This drama has no religious connotations or even lust towards the female lead (aside from the very beginning). The story seems pretty simple to me, so trying to attach a deep meaning felt futile. 5/10       

Entertainment Value: This drama had a hard time holding my attention. I was hoping for a twist or a dramatic climax, but the drama just kind of fizzled out. 1.5/10

Overall, I gave this drama a 3.5/10 which puts it in the “Probably a waste of time” category on my scale. It’s a very simple story of an unfortunate woman’s life. Even though the drama centers around her, I still felt like I wasn’t able to really get to know her. Also, the ending wasn’t cathartic enough for the long build up.

Read More

Some of The Worst Writing and PPL I’ve Ever Seen

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

Am I in the Twilight Zone? This drama was one of the worst I’ve ever seen, but how are so many people are saying it's their favorite? I’m flabbergasted…I was trying to avoid using that word because it sounds weird, but it’s the only way I can describe my feelings right now.

Acting/Cast: I like Kim Seon Ho (김선호), who plays the male lead. I know him from Catch Yoo Ryung, which is a drama I really enjoyed. His character is probably the only okay thing about this drama and he’s not even a well-written character. All the acting is bad from nearly everyone. Even the child actors weren’t great, aside from maybe Kim Min Seo (김민서). However, I think this is probably due to bad writing and directing; even the actors had no idea how to deliver these terrible lines. 1.5/10

Writing: The first half of the drama is decent. Although, the male lead literally is a Gary Stu, which is a clear indicator of bad writing. He’s good at everything, he went to a good college, he has a perfect personality, everyone loves him, blah blah blah. The female lead is a little better because she starts off very flawed. This was a nice surprise as drama writers tend to be afraid of writing flawed female leads. However, her character growth isn’t written well and when episode 11 hits (more on this later), any hopes for more character growth goes out the window. This drama has no message and it could have had one if the male lead wasn’t a Gary Stu. Then the female lead could learn to value people for their hearts and not for their schooling and designer clothes. One of the flaws that the female lead has is that she’s materialistic. Apparently this isn’t a bad thing because they use her materialism for all kinds of product placement and she never stops being materialistic. Ugh...the PPL in this drama is so bad that calling it PPL doesn’t even feel right. It should be called shameless advertising or infomercials or something. If the PPL interrupts the flow of a drama, then it’s a problem, and this happens multiple times. I think what happened was, they didn’t fulfill enough of the PPL requirement in the first half of the drama, so the second half was jam-packed with it to make up for it. Poor planning on their part. They even have a long Domino’s pizza commercial in the last episode where the actors have to pretend like they’ve never tasted pizza before. It’s so cringey. And the PPL isn’t the only thing that’s cringey about this drama...as I’ve mentioned earlier, the dialogue – particularly the dialogue between the two leads – it’s so bad. It’s so bad that I can swear the actors were cringing just as much as I was. There are multiple instances where the female lead simply tells the male lead how her personality is. That’s not how that works...we’re supposed to be shown a character’s personality, not told. Now let’s talk about episode 11. This is when the drama really imploded. The leads are now dating, but of course they got to put in the ‘secret relationship’ trope for the sole reason of trying to pack as many tropes as possible into this drama. In an attempt to keep their relationship secret (which is already super disrespectful and why I hate this trope), she physically abuses the male lead. It’s even to the point where she makes him bleed. It was not cute, it was not funny, it had nothing to do with the story, it was alarming. This chick is supposed to have feelings for him and she can still do all that to him! Imagine if the roles were reversed and it was the male lead who was slapping, kicking, and head-butting the female lead out of “reflex”. But no, it’s okay because it’s a man being abused by a woman. This is when I wanted to drop the drama. I was disturbed by the female lead’s behavior (and by the drama writers thinking that this is perfectly fine and funny). It was no longer cute or romantic by any means. However, I decided to keep going mostly because I wanted to type up this review. Unfortunately, since that point in the drama, it was a painful watch through to the end. The physical abuse stops, but the female lead’s crazy does not. Her personality in the first half of the drama and her personality in the second half of the drama are two completely different characters. She is so vastly different that I was expecting the male lead to fall out of love with her since she’s not who he fell in love with anymore. She is so cringey, constantly talking with a baby voice trying to act “cute”. If you thought Welcome to Samdal-ri and Doctor Slump was bad, hold my beer. The leads had decent chemistry in the first half of the drama, but since the female lead has now become some sort of baby-talking sleep paralysis demon, the chemistry has left the building. By this point in the drama, I’m well aware of how terrible the writing is, so when the male lead’s mystery gets uncovered, I’m already 100 steps ahead. I won’t “spoil” it, but think of the most cliché thing that it could be and you’ll be correct. I really hate this trope, too; it’s so lazy and makes no sense. Around this time, the female lead starts to blatantly emotionally manipulate the male lead into revealing his past to her (something that he has kept private from everyone). Excuse me bitch, how long have you known him?? And you think you have the right to know all his secrets?? And what makes matters worse is that there are no interesting side stories to keep me from wanting to drop this drama either. All the side relationships are also kind of annoying and/or weird. To be completely honest, I thought almost all of the characters themselves were annoying. 1/10

Direction/SFX/Music: The best thing about this drama is the filming location. The production value looks decent. The OST is decent. The directing...I don’t know who to blame. With such a bad script, can you really do anything to make it better? It's also as if the last half of the drama is a completely different drama. 4/10

Entertainment Value: The first half was decently entertaining. I liked the frenemies vibe that the leads had. I liked watching her befriend the townspeople (although it could have been done much better). However, the second half is so bad (from episode 11 and on) that I was actually angry. I would have dropped this at episode 11, but I was so freaked out by all the positive reviews that I wanted to finish this drama so that I could write one. 1/10

Overall, I gave this drama a 1/10. I have to give it a 1 because I would have dropped it at episode 11. There's only one drama I've seen so far that has worse writing than this one and that's The Third Charm (and that's even debatable). If you didn’t like Welcome to Samdal-ri, you won’t like this. There are no good characters, no chemistry, no message, and every cliché in the book is thrown into this drama. It ends up turning into a series of PPL commercials.

Read More

How Not To Stretch Out a 5 Hour Drama

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

I think this is the worst directing I’ve ever seen regarding pacing and story telling. I’m awestruck.

Acting/Cast: It’s okay. This drama is really slow with a focus on aesthetics. There isn’t much ‘acting’ going on. The female lead is the emotionless, stoic one. The male lead’s character is a little different than what I’ve seen before. He’s super nerdy but also really happy and energetic. It felt forced, though, as if he’s playing it up to lift the moods of those around him. I don’t know if this was the director’s intention or not. Well...maybe it is a problem with his acting. There’s a scene where he gets angry and that felt forced, too. The second male lead is also a stoic character with a small role. The second female lead actually has to do some acting. She does well. Her personality doesn’t feel forced. I like the male lead’s mom played by Jang Hye Jin (장혜진), but she’s not in the drama much. 4.5/10

Writing: The concept of this drama is really interesting. I like the idea of approaching something supernatural with scientific experimentation. However, it takes a bit of time to actually get to that part of the story. Unfortunately, this is the only good aspect of the writing…Let’s start at the beginning...After 3 hours, barely anything has happened. It shouldn’t have taken 3 hours to set up such a simple drama. That’s not the worst part though...every other episode seems to be a replay of the episode before it, but from another character’s perspective...sort of. I say ‘sort of’ because these new perspectives actually don’t add any new information to the story...so what’s the point? The set up takes 3 hours because episode 2 is episode 1 all over again. It’s the strangest shit I’ve seen in a long time. Literally, at least half of this drama is just replaying scenes we’ve already seen and have gotten thorough information from. But that’s not all...It gets even dumber at the end. We spend the entire drama following the male lead around and seeing everything that he’s doing and hearing everything he’s thinking. Then, suddenly at the end, we follow a different character who has no idea what the male lead has been doing. So this character has to do some detective work to figure it out. But the audience already knows everything, so there’s no mystery here for us. We are then made to suffer through a rewatch of the entire drama in flashback fashion as this character is learning everything that we already know. I’m just completely dumbfounded…Also, why was the male lead going back and forth about whether or not the female lead is a witch? That was really confusing. Was he lying to her to encourage her to live her life and not care about who gets hurt? Anyway, the ending is okay. It’s not the worst I’ve seen but it’s definitely not good. There’s not enough relationship development for any of the characters for the ending to be satisfying. It felt like it wasn’t over, as if an episode is missing. Also, I have to talk about the male lead being a stalker. It actually is mentioned in the drama, which surprised me. But, the male lead really is a legit stalker and it’s pretty scary at times. If someone has been a victim of stalking, I would not recommend watching this drama. The male lead can get away with it because he’s doing it to save people who are cursed as well as save the people around them. However, there is still the fact that he’s in love with the female lead to an obsessive point. From what I gather, witches seem to have something mystical about them that draws people to them (they’re basically all Mary Sues). So, guys fall in love with the female lead for no reason and that seems to be the case with the male lead, too. So does he genuinely love her or is he just drawn to her because she’s a witch? His stalking/data collection on her is extremely detailed. Why does he need to record that she takes a break from working and stretches at 2 pm? He has all the books that she’s translated just because she translated them. It’s things that have nothing to do with trying to free her from her curse and it feels like it’s going way too far. 1.5/10

Direction/SFX/Music: The pacing is terrible. The first 3 episodes barely set up the plot. A lot of this drama is just replaying previous scenes without even adding anything important to the plot. I feel like most of the issues with this drama could be fixed by shortening it to 5 or 6 episodes and changing the point-of-view to be strictly from the male lead throughout the entire drama. If we are only able to see things from his perspective, the story would be a much more engaging mystery for the audience. The cinematography style is actually pretty nice. I could tell they were trying to be artsy with this drama. Although I do hate the intro that plays at the beginning of every episode. It was just random scenes from various episodes put together in a montage. It felt low-effort. The OST is nothing special, but the music scores are decent. 1.5/10

Entertainment Value: Despite the very slow start, all of the flashbacks, boring characters, and terrible story telling, I actually enjoyed watching this drama. The mystery aspect was interesting. There was a style change up midway through the drama where it felt more like a suspense/thriller drama. That was cool. I wish they really leaned into that though. 5/10

Overall, I gave this drama a 3/10. Although I liked The Witch a lot more than The Trunk I gave them both the same overall score (both dramas suffer from pacing issues). Even though I wanted to drop it, The Trunk earned a 3 from me for its cast and production value. The Witch, although the execution was terrible, earned a 3 for its interesting premise and entertainment value.

Read More

Accidentally Developed An Obsession

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

I was excited for this one. Lee Dong Wook (이동욱) is one of my favorite Korean actors because of his ability to play all kinds of characters. I loved his role as a villain in Strangers From Hell. In A Shop For Killers, he's playing a darker role too, although not exactly a villain.

Acting/Cast: I love the cast and their acting. I think Ji An, the main character, has become one of my all time favorite K-drama characters. Min Hye is badass, too. I also like Brother, Pasin, and of course Jin Man. The only casting I didn't like was Ji An's childhood friend. I'm glad he didn't have much screen time. 9/10

Writing: I love the plot and the characters. I like the way that the story unfolded using the "잘 들어 정지안" (Listen well, Jeong Ji An) pattern. It gave the drama a certain kind of charm. I normally hate flashbacks, but these flashbacks were done in a way that felt artistic -at least the Ji An flashbacks did. There was a portion of the drama that had long flashbacks that I felt were unnecessary. They were scenes that the audience had already experienced, but more detail was being added in. I didn't need the extra detail. I liked the mysterious vibe that the scenes originally had. It was as though we were in the same boat with Ji An not knowing what the hell was going on and we were uncovering the mystery with her. But, because of these 'retracing our steps' scenes, I felt like I was watching the same scenes twice and I got bored. 8/10

Direction/SFX/Music: The best thing about the drama... This is how I accidentally developed an obsession. The camera work, the production value, the weapons, the choreography, the MUSIC - it's all so good. It was a bit reminiscent of John Wick (and John Wick is one of the greatest things to exist in the world of artful cinematography). I finally got all the songs I wanted from this drama on my mp3 player. I haven't been this into a soundtrack since...maybe Strangers From Hell? Well, the Doona! soundtrack was pretty good, too. By the way, the music played during the gas mask scene is called Minhye Action. I was looking for that one for a while. 10/10

Entertainment Value: This obsession really snuck up on me. I didn't think I was enjoying it that much. It was because of those repeated scenes that I mentioned earlier. I just wanted to get back to the action with everyone at the house. Don't keep me holding my breath. After the drama ended, I couldn't get it out of my head. I liked it more and more as time passed. This is the same thing that happened to me years back with Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. I gave it a 6 or a 7 upon finishing the drama, but I missed it so much once it was gone that I ended up putting that drama in my top 10 and increasing its score to 9.5. Anyway, I'm not usually one for sequels, but this drama needs one. I actually think that not having a second season will hurt this drama in the long run (unless the second season is terrible of course...Sweet Home...Strong Girl...send help. 8/10

Overall, I ended up increasing this drama's score from a 7.5 to a 9/10.
See, this is why I don't write reviews immediately after completing a drama. I have to give it some time to sink in so I can sort out my feelings.

By the way, I made 3 YouTube Shorts related to this drama - one features Ji An, one features Jin Man, and one features Min Hye. The titles are "Ji An | A Shop For Killers | Little Girl Gone", "Jin Man | A Shop For Killers | YUNGBLUD", "Min Hye | A Shop For Killers | Black Betty" and my channel name is The Enablers (@theenablers3846).

murthehelp

Read More

Great Story, Weak Female Lead

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

Its unpredictability due to its unconventionality saved this drama. As I watched this drama, I negatively assumed a lot about how the plot would unfold, which caused me to lose interest at times. Thankfully, I was wrong.

Acting/Cast: I decided to watch this because I know the two male leads are good actors. They did well, as expected. There were some side characters that also did well. In particular, the casting for the umbrella murderer was perfect - very crazy and scary facial expressions. My main issue in this category is the female lead. The only drama I had seen her in before was Bridal Mask, wherein she also played a damsel in distress. Simply put, her acting skills were just not up to par with the males leads'. She would often go into these monologues where it seemed as though she would change her voice, as if she were trying to lull me to sleep. It annoyed me every time; It was grating on my ears. This could be more of a directing issue though. Her two uncles were over-the-top with their acting. They literally acted like cartoon characters. Actually, most of the characters felt more like manga characters than actual, realistic people. That comic book type vibe is a legitimate directing style, but it's not for me. I prefer watching more realistic characters on screen. 4/10

Writing: For me, the plot saved this drama. It didn't go where I expected it to. It ended up being very different to what I've seen before in Korean dramas. I like how the redemption arcs played out. However, the terrible female lead really dragged it down. I can't even say that it would have been better with a different female lead because the character itself was so poorly written. She was simply a damsel in distress. She was constantly confused, constantly fainting, giving random unsolicited opinions, and doing stupid things. Just because a girl has a weak heart, doesn't mean she needs to have a weak personality, too. She was an extremely one dimensional character. Even after finishing the drama, I still don't know who she is and why these guys are so in love with her. She may just be a Mary Sue. On a positive note, however, the other characters were well done (aside from some minor side characters) and I liked the ending. It showed that all the seemingly random things the female lead would say was actually meaningful to the story, even though the way she would say it made me cringe. 8/10

Direction/SFX/Music: The music annoyed me. I take notes when I watch dramas and I wrote "this music needs to CHILL". It was loud, repetitive, and sometimes didn't really fit the scene. This makes me think the issues I had with the lead female's voice was a directing issue as well. It was as if she had too much gain? The mic was too close to her? I'm not sure. Like I've stated previously, the characters also had more of a manga style to them, which I'm personally not a fan of. Also, I got secondhand embarrassment watching prosecutor Kim Soo Hyuk miming in public for such a long period of time (pretending to be hit, shot, stabbed to death). I was thinking "is anyone seeing this?" I get it, it's part of the story, but why did it have to go on for so long? Flashbacks are part of the story, too, but it wastes so much time. 1/10

Entertainment Value: The beginning was great. Very fast-paced. A lot happened in just the first 2 episodes. I feel the first half of the drama was better that the 2nd half in this regard. I would lose a bit of interest here and there when I would get too frustrated with the female lead or when I was worried the plot was going in a cliché direction. 5.5/10

Overall, I gave this drama a 4.5/10. For me, a weak female lead can do a lot of damage to a drama.
By the way, does Jang Ki Yong play a main role in anything where he's not the son of a murderer?

Read More

Terrible Character Writing, Dull

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

I'm a fan of the School series, with School 2013 being my favorite. That's why I watched this one even though I didn't have high hopes for it.

Acting/Cast: A big reason why I figured this drama wouldn't be good is because of the cast. I haven't heard of most of the actors. The second male lead plays in The Tale of Lady Ok, but in that drama, he seems much more experienced. Jeon Seok Ho (전석호) plays support characters in a ton of dramas, so I knew he'd be good at least. In any case, I was right. The acting wasn't good for the most part. The two leads didn't have chemistry together, but to be fair, I can't see either of them having chemistry with anyone. This drama gave me Sweet Revenge vibes in regards to acting ability and overall quality, but both seasons of that drama are immensely better than School 2021 because it has charm. There's a really annoying character in this drama, too (the best friend of the male lead). He gets worse over the course of the drama. I literally felt like I was purposefully being tortured. 1/10

Writing: So boring...pretty much everything about this drama is incredibly boring. The character writing is terrible...the worst set of characters I've ever seen. Although, I did kind of like Kang Seo Young (the 2nd female lead), but she wasn't developed enough. The female lead is obsessed with the male lead for no reason. The male lead doesn't even seem like he likes her. Well, most of the characters aren't likeable anyway. The only decently written character is the woodshop teacher played by Jeon Seok Ho (전석호). The only plot point of the drama that has a shred of entertainment value is the court case surrounding the workplace injury. Other plot points are really weird and not fleshed out properly...like the random baby? That's actually when I would have dropped drama if it wasn't a part of the School series. 1/10

Direction/SFX/Music: This drama seems like it has a low production quality. At times, I got School 2013 vibes...but 95% of the time the drama just seemed like it was low budget. Dream on~ Dream on~ Dream on~ it's annoying at first, but it starts to become funny. The rest of the OST is a bunch of slow romance type songs. There is a good, upbeat musical score that plays when they're banding together to protest. That's about it. 1/10

Entertainment Value: I forced myself to watch this drama because it's part of the School series. It was torturous to watch this at times, it was cringey at other times, and it nearly puts you to sleep the rest of the time. 1/10

Overall, I gave this drama a 1/10. This drama takes the prize as being one of the worst dramas I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot. I think this is the only time I've given a drama a 1-star rating in every category. It's just watching a bunch of annoying children (and amateur actors) do very uninteresting things.

Read More

Not My Style, But Has Good Moments

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

I don’t think I’m the targeted demographic for this drama. It seems to be more suited for teen boys. I watched it anyway.

Acting/Cast: I like the cast. This drama does have some good characters. There wasn’t enough time to really develop any of them though. The male lead was probably the worst along with the main villain. The male lead is that stoic type that I can’t stand, but I’ve seen worse...he did have a hint of personality. The main villain is scary but not developed at all. It really ruined that aspect of the story for me. My favorite character was Strawberry/Lee Jun. He was fun. I liked the student with the white hair, too. He was probably one of the more developed characters, which is sad because he’s hardly even in the drama. 7/10

Writing: This drama has a good start - the humor, the action scenes, the dilemmas that they had to overcome. Even though the plot is kind of dumb (kids that want to study but can’t because...I don’t really know why), I was still entertained. However, once the male lead stops pretending to be oblivious or whatever was going on with him, the drama becomes focused on fight scenes. When I think that the story is going to get some more development, it doesn’t...it just turns into another fight scene. I got bored. This drama does have some good quotes though. I like what the old man in the hospital said about why he continues to study - "When I stop learning, that’s when my life stops.” I could relate. This drama has a positive message about the importance of education, which I appreciated. I also like how violence wasn’t treated as being evil, but necessary for self-defense and to protect others. 4/10

Direction/SFX/Music: This drama is basically a live action anime, so it’s very crazy. It’s production value looks high. The SFX is well done. The soundtrack is memorable and fit the vibe of the drama well (although not my style). The injuries and blood looked good. 7.5/10

Entertainment Value: The first half of the drama seemed promising. It felt like it was going in a good direction where we’d get a developed story and characters. I’m not going to lie though...even then I wasn’t too interested in continuing to watch this drama. Like I said, I’m not the demographic and I don’t like anime. Also, the stoic male lead trope is not my thing. I stuck with it though, which rewarded me with some characters that I did end up liking. The story line with the old man in the hospital was nice, too. Those things got me through the drama. I was bored with all the anime fighting though. Don't get me wrong - I normally love action and well done action choreography...just not this type of action.4/10

Overall, I gave this drama a 5.5/10. There just isn’t enough story for me and not nearly enough character development. I would recommend this drama to those who enjoy anime style fight scenes. That’s about it.

Read More

Great Leads, Disappointing Writing

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

I decided to watch this drama because I saw a clip from the opening scene. Dramas that start with a “jumper” scene get me hooked. Don’t ask...I like depressing shit.

Acting/Cast: A solid cast with good acting. Too bad most of the characters aren't likable at all. Easily, the best thing about this drama is the leads. Actually, it may be the only thing I liked about this drama. Uh oh... Well, there were two other characters that I really liked...but apparently the writers didn’t. Their stories didn’t play out so well… 7.5/10

Writing: This isn’t really a zombie plot. They’re more like vampires. And the story is more about the psychology of the people in the apartment building rather than the infected, vampire people. So this drama is not very scary and the infected people aren’t much of a threat. I was only scared once, which was during “The Thing” scene (if you know, you know). I did like that they were more like vampires that struggle to curb their thirst for blood and are able to stay human if their willpower is strong enough. I thought that was an interesting concept because there’s still a chance for that character to survive and continue to interact with healthy characters while creating different dynamics between characters. I also like how the relationship between the two leads developed. They had a really sweet best friendship that slowly turns into something more. Seriously, it is relationship goals for me…I’m jealous. Okay, now for the bad, which is everything else. I really like “trapped in a building” plots and “hostage plots” because I like seeing a group of various characters develop through the course of the drama and learn to work together to survive (My favorite K-drama is White Christmas if that tells you anything.) This drama has that kind of plot, but instead of getting well-developed characters that grow on me as I watch, I got mostly unlikable characters that get worse over time and a couple likable characters that get neglected or completely ruined. It was so disappointing for me. The two leads are the only decently written characters that stay that way throughout the entire drama. The “villains” in this drama aren’t typical either. Is there really a true villain? There’s so many characters in the drama that are terrible people. It’s to the point where I really don’t give a shit about the security of the building. Let them all get infected. They deserve it. It reminded me of that movie The Mist (I hated that movie). There’s this stupid twist toward the end of the drama...that’s when the drama really lost me. We already have so many “everyday people” turning into murderers, we don’t need any more thrown into the mix. Just...why?? I guess you would call that an “overkill”. The writers killed the story with that stupidity. I mean, the cops letting a known murderer run loose around the building from the beginning was stupid enough. Oh yeah, they also kept referencing COVID in the drama, which really annoyed me. As if COVID is anywhere near comparable to this infection. 2/10

Direction/SFX/Music: This drama is well-produced. The SFX is well done. I was also pleasantly surprised to see some cool actions scenes from the male lead, Park Young Sik (박형식). The soundtrack is so good. It’s rare for me to say that. It has a fun, action-y vibe to it. Maybe the soundtrack is the reason why I enjoyed this drama as much as I did. 8/10

Entertainment Value: Despite the lack of likable characters, it was entertaining. I binged this drama. I got pissed off by the end though, which drastically lowered its score for me. It was like a beam that broke the camel’s back, so to speak. After all that work I did overlooking a lot of smaller irritations here and there, the writers rewarded me by punching me in the face. Thanks for that… 5/10

Overall, I gave this drama a 5.5/10. Even though the writing was bad, I really liked the leads and their chemistry together. Their relationship was so sweet. But, are the leads alone enough for me to recommend this drama? I don’t think so.

Read More

Stress-Free Watch But It's Missing Something

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

I had been putting this one off, but I finally got around to watching it. I needed something calm to watch while I was sick.

Acting/Cast: The little kids were perfectly cast. They were great. The little girl in particular is such a good actress (Oh Eun Seo; 오은서). It's kind of embarrassing that the child actors outshined their older counterparts... Really, I would have preferred to watch the entire drama with just them. It's not that the older actors were terrible...it's that the younger ones were just so much better and more enjoyable to watch. Well, I really didn't like Kim San Ha's actor, Hwang In Youp (황인엽). He was great in True Beauty, but anything I've seen him in since, I haven't like him at all. In this drama, he had this odd way of speaking...like a certain cadence to his voice as if he's constantly trying to be soothing. It's annoying and real people don't talk like that. The female lead was okay...not as bad as I thought she might be. The brother was a little much. The chemistry was lacking between everyone (except the child actors of course). The dad was likeable most of the time, but he had reactions sometimes that didn't make sense. His blank stare face is too still, by the way. Whenever he would do that, I would think the video had frozen. 4.5/10

Writing: I wish they would have gone back and forth between the present and the past throughout the course of the drama. I thought they were going to do that since the child actors were so good. Apparently, that's done in the original...at least that's what I've heard. The writing keeps the characters as angelic as possible, which makes them feel inauthentic. It makes for a stress-free watch, however. The storyline is interesting, it's just that it feels like something is missing. Someone had said that this version has been stripped of the charm that the original has. Maybe that is what's missing - the charm. On a positive note, I'm glad that the writers didn't try to redeem all of the "antagonists". That was nice. I have an issue with feel-good dramas giving redemption arcs to people that don't deserve it. This drama handled it well. 5/10

Direction/SFX/Music: The OST is actually pretty decent. There is a song on it by Kim Feel that I like. The pacing of the drama is good. The vibe of the drama felt nice in the beginning, but it quickly lost that along the way. 5/10

Entertainment Value: I was kept entertained throughout the entire drama and the ending was satisfying. However, I've found that the drama is not memorable for me. Maybe it's because the characters didn't feel genuine or maybe it's because the drama was too smooth-sailing - no crazy conflicts. The beginning of the drama, though, was really good because of the child actors. I love the scene of them getting into a street brawl. That was the best scene in the drama. I'm sad because the rest of the drama wasn't like that. It was a bit when the female lead was trying to get people to think she was crazy in high school, but it was short-lived. 4/10

Overall, I gave this drama a 4.5/10. I compared it with Welcome To Samdal-Ri, which I had scored a 5.5/10. Both dramas are family dramas with so-so conflicts. However, I really loved Welcome to Samdal-Ri's cast of characters. They had a ton of charm and chemistry. Therefore, Family By Choice has scored a little bit lower for me.

Read More

Different Than Expected, Entertaining, Light

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

I was in the mood to watch some marital drama. I was hoping for abusive husbands. I just like depressing shit.

Acting/Cast: A decent cast with decent acting. Actually, I'm only familiar with three of the actors. The ones that I'm not familiar with did a great job. I would say that Lee Sang Yeob (이상엽 - the male lead who is a teacher), Park Ha Sun (박하선 - the female lead), Choi Byung Mo (최병모 - the husband of the second female lead), and Shim Hye Yun (심혜연 - the little girl) were the actors that stood out to me the most. The two leads in particular, had really good chemistry together. 7.5/10

Writing: Contrary to the drama's title, this drama isn't very risqué...at all. This is either a good or bad depending on the reason for watching. This drama was less about the cheating and more about the psychology behind the reasons for ending up in an affair, losing themselves, and trying to find freedom. I liked the use of the birds and the bird cage as symbols throughout the drama. Right when I saw birds in cages I knew what was going on. I had some issues with the writing, however. I don't like how horrible they made the female lead's husband seem in the beginning. I would have been fine with it if they had kept him horrible, but he becomes a nice, normal person very quickly. They kind of did the same thing with the second female lead's husband, but at least he was horrible for a longer period of time. Also, the male lead's story bothered me a bit. I think he has the least justification for cheating. He could have easily left his "wife". So, it just made him look really bad. Another issue I had was with the second female lead's affair. I didn't understand how they fell in love. It was left ambiguous from what I could gather. Also, the second female lead seemed to change pretty drastically because she fell in love with this guy, but I don't understand why. She's a morally gray character (maybe even more of a villain) who proudly and regularly cheats and encourages the female lead (and even manipulates her) to cheat on her husband as well. Suddenly, it's like she becomes a hero and I guess we're supposed to just forgive her. Despite all of these issues, I think I enjoyed this drama as much as I did because of the dialogue writing and the pacing. The ending is also good. 4/10

Direction/SFX/Music: The SFX and the music is fine; nothing special. The direction, however, was very well done. I liked the vibe of the drama, the pacing, the shots. It had a nice feel to it that made it easy to watch. 5.5/10

Entertainment Value: I binged this drama. I would say that none of the relationships in this drama are enviable or desirable in any capacity, but it was still entertaining to watch. I was scared for the women because in the beginning there's a house fire that was started due to an affair. I was rooting for them to find freedom without any bloodshed because none of the characters really deserve that. They all just seem like relatively normal people that found themselves in depressing situations. Another reason I found this drama so entertaining was because of the focus on the psychology of the characters. I was interested to see how each of the spouses would react once they found out about the affairs. 7/10

Overall, I gave this drama a 6/10. A 6 or higher is in my recommended zone. I was really surprised I liked this as much as I did. No abusive husbands though. I would compare this drama to My Liberation Notes (which I had also rated a 6/10). Although, this drama isn't as dialogue heavy, which was nice. If you like life dramas and aren't looking for something too adult, then you might like this.

Read More

Surprisingly Cute and Wholesome

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

I picked this drama up while waiting for more episodes of The Judge From Hell to air. They’re pretty similar in style and both involve supernatural concepts such as demons. Actually, Kim Ah Young (김아영) who plays Gremory in The Judge From Hell is also in this drama. I usually try to avoid watching similar dramas simultaneously so that I won’t get confused...woops...

Acting/Cast: I had my doubts, especially in the very beginning, but they all did great. They created charming and memorable characters. The leads were both well done and likable. They also had chemistry together. The male lead’s strong, quirky personality remained consistent throughout the entire drama. I’m highly impressed. Usually, when you have a lead with an over-the-top personality, they fizzle out half-way through and become very basic. I think the cast and the acting was by far the best thing about this drama. I have to give a shout out to Ye Ji Won (예지원) as well; she did a great job. She only had a small role in this drama, but I really liked her character. 10/10

Writing: The acting and the characters really made this drama because the plot is pretty ridiculous. But, I can say that this plot still makes more sense than The Judge From Hell. The character development in My Heavenly Idol was well done. This drama really is like a family healing drama except it’s a k-pop idol group healing drama. It’s actually pretty sweet and wholesome. It’s funny as well. It pokes fun at the whole k-pop idol industry without being too offensive for fans. This drama also doesn’t drag; there’s always something crazy going on from beginning to end. Speaking of the end...it was well done. Fantasy dramas can be really hit or miss with endings and I think they pulled it off nicely. The lowest score will be in the writing category, but it's only because of the craziness of the plot. I think the character writing was very well done. 3.5/10

Direction/SFX/Music: The music isn’t my style. I prefer The Judge From Hell’s soundtrack much more than this one. The special effects are well done. The pacing is good. 5.5/10

Entertainment Value: Entertaining from beginning to end. I watched this at the same time as The Judge From Hell and I found this drama to be much more entertaining. Some may find this drama too cutesy or too crazy or even too religious/sacrilegious, but for me, it worked. 7/10

Overall, I gave this drama a 6/10. A 6 or higher is in my recommended zone. I was so surprised at how much I liked this drama. Great characters and never a dull moment.

Read More

A Waste of Time...Not Cute

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

It was only 10 episodes, so why not? I tend to be draw to sci-fi k-dramas, but I usually don’t end up liking them very much.

Acting/Cast: Not terrible. I did like the three main girls. I didn’t have a problem with them or their acting. The male lead on the other hand…so boring and unlikeable. Also, the doctor love interest is super boring. The male lead’s firefighter friend is really the only male character that has some personality. 4/10

Writing: I don’t know what is happening with this story/character writing. It doesn’t make any sense. All the male characters are terrible, but it’s okay?? No character growth. No consequences for bad behavior. And even though I didn’t have a problem with three female friends as characters, they really weren’t much better than the men regarding maturity or morality. The male lead pissed me off the most as a character. He’s very self-righteous and wimpy…and that doesn’t really make sense for a firefighter. The way his story line played out was just so lame…Actually, I’m reminded of how I felt watching the second half of Marry My Husband. The drama became super cheesy and dumb. What they did with the ex boyfriend also pissed me off. He was committing crimes against the female lead -- really bad crimes…disgusting crimes…and what? We’re supposed to just laugh it off? Well, that’s what the writers did. The conflicts that persist throughout the drama are all lame. You can’t have storylines with bad people doing horrible, repulsive things, but then the main conflict is that the female lead is bad because she looked at some loser’s DMs. WHO CARES. My FBI guy does that shit in his sleep. 1/10

Direction/SFX/Music: Nothing special. Very basic. I can’t say that this drama has anything special or charming about it. The pacing is messed up. The Noble Idiocy happens too late and too random and is resolved so fast that I don’t even know how it happened. Noble Idiocy is a bad trope anyway. 1.5/10

Entertainment Value: The first half of the drama was interesting to me. The evil ex / stalker plot quickly drew me in. Everything fell apart in the second half of the drama. It’s as though the writers weren’t sure what they wanted to say with this drama. It’s just all over the place. Toxic characters are basically redeemed or brushed over for no reason. It left such a bad taste in my mouth. As entertained as I was in the first half, by the end of the drama I was left rolling my eyes. Apparently, people thought this drama was funny and that’s where a lot of its charm comes from. I don’t remember laughing once. Actually, it has very serious subject matter (stalking, sexual harassment, extreme dating violence, death, trauma, infidelity, infertility), so I didn’t find anything funny about it. 1/10

Overall, I gave this drama a 2/10. I wish I didn’t waste my time watching it. Some of the actors were decent and the first half was entertaining enough, but that’s about it.

Read More

A Fun Ride With A Likeable Cast

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

I normally don't like heist plots , but I love hostage plots. I finally decided to give this one a shot. By the way, I haven't seen the original, so I can't compare them. Also, I'm reviewing both parts of this drama as a whole.

Acting/Cast: Overall, I love the casting choices. Park Hae Soo (박해수), who plays Berlin, is an especially strong actor. I've seen him previously as the lead role in Prison Playbook and I loved him in that, so I knew he'd kill this role, too. Right when Berlin was introduced, I knew he'd be my favorite character; he has such a powerful presence about him. The rest of the crew was great, as well. Even the team members that didn't get as much screen time really grew on me. I'd say the only character I really had an issue with was the main female hostage, Yun Mi Seon played by Lee Joo Bin (이주빈). She has this "deer in headlights" look the entire time. Her character was pretty badass technically, but I don't think the actress conveyed that very well. 9/10

Writing: The plot was engaging. I liked the way that they laid the story out so that the audience wouldn't be sure as to what was really going on until it was revealed. I'd say the narration was unnecessary though. Maybe that's just me - I tend to dislike narration. The first half of the drama had red herrings that I think worked very well for the story and made it more exciting. However, in the second half of the drama, the red herrings came to be expected. In consequence, they lost their effectiveness in garnering strong emotions from the audience. Again, the hostage Yun Mi Seon played by Lee Joo Bin (이주빈) nagged at me in this category, too. Her character was strange - it just didn't make sense to me how she was so hung up on gross ass Peter Pettigrew and then she quickly screws another guy she just met. In my opinion, sex scenes never help a drama (and by sex scene, I mean the full-bodied, lingering sex scenes) and that's what happened in this drama. It came across as trashy, not romantic, and it just made me dislike her character even more. Actually, her entire plotline was annoying to me. There's one more sex scene in this drama, but it's not quite as risqué (although I still think it goes on for a little too long). The ending was good - I just wish there was a bit more closure for some of the characters. Throughout the drama, there were some scenes and dialogue that felt a bit cheesy, but whatever, I had fun. That being said, I couldn't help but compare this drama to Snowdrop. There are plot points that are eerily similar. However, Snowdrop has a much more dark and serious tone. I will say that overall, Snowdrop is the stronger drama out of the two and it was able to leave a lasting impression on me as opposed to Money Heist: Korea. 7/10

Direction/SFX/Music: I love the music, the costumes, the mask designs. The drama looks well-produced - good special effects, good camera work. The 'director of the mint' hostage...they did him so dirty with the camera angles. It was hilarious. I will bring up the cheese factor again in this category: There were some really cheesy and unrealistic scenes. I'm particularly referring to the scenes with a lot of gunfire and nobody is getting shot. Then, there was one scene where someone was shot, but instead of dragging the person away from the firefight, they just stayed there and cried. It caused a bit of disconnect for me because it was so contrary to how someone would actually react in a situation like that. 7.5/10

Entertainment Value: Binge worthy for sure. I stopped watching my other dramas so I could binge this one. To be fair though, the other dramas that I was watching aren't an exciting genre like this one. In any case, with this drama, I was dialed in the entire time and I did have a smile on my face a lot while watching. I definitely had fun. However, like I said previously, I would have liked less of an open ending for some of the characters. 9/10

Overall, I gave this drama an 8/10 mainly due to some cheesiness, my issue with the sex scenes, and my issues with the Yun Mi Seon character in general.

Read More

Thank You For the Scary Villains

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

It was a suspenseful story that had me hooked until the end. Although, after it was over, it didn't stick with me like other dramas I've really enjoyed. I've spent some time thinking about why that is before writing this review.

Acting/Cast: This category is going to be where my biggest issue with the drama lies. I held off watching this drama because I really dislike the actor that plays the male lead. He seems very stiff and emotionless in everything I've seen him in. I even dropped Hotel Del Luna because of him. Let's just say, after watching this drama, I still feel the same way. However, there were times in this drama where he showed a little bit of emotional range that surprised me, but that's not saying much. The female lead actress is fine, but when comparing her character with other female leads in dramas that I fell in love with, I realize she is lacking the charm that those characters have. It kept me from really connecting with her. Similarly, with the male lead, I didn't even care to try to connect with him. I think that if just the male lead was switched out, this could really have been a top tier drama. It's a shame... That being said, the rest of the cast was great. I think the highlight of the drama is Shin Jae Hwi who plays Lee Jin Geun (the stalker). I smiled every time I saw him on screen. He played an unhinged psycho so well. It's been a while since I've seen such a good villain. 6/10

Writing: Very well done, suspenseful mystery that kept me guessing. Satisfying ending as well. While watching, I did get vibes here and there of Kill Me, Heal Me -- definitely a top tier drama -- which is why I say that Link had the potential. But, in regards to the writing, my only gripe in this area would be the Noble Idiocy...which became even more annoying when they kept going back and forth with it. Oh, and now that I think about it...there were multiple times where the female lead thought, for some reason, that it was perfectly ok to walk alone at night in dark alleys when there's a stalker on the loose. That didn't make sense to me, especially since the female lead has trauma after being attacked in the recent past. 8/10

Direction/SFX/Music: My only complaint here would be a particularly severe case of "frozen-in-time staring contest". The OST is decent, too. 8/10

Entertainment Value: Once the characters were established and the main mystery with the refrigerator started playing out, I was hooked. 9.5/10

Overall, I gave this drama an 8/10 mainly due to my issue with the casting.

Read More

Enjoy the Downward Spiral

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

After reading the synopsis, I was hesitant to watch this drama because I didn't want to see minors in sexual situations and engaged in very serious criminal activity. I was worried it may glamorize these kinds of lifestyles. Once I finally decided to give it a try, I almost dropped the drama after the 1st episode. It just didn't grab my attention and I felt the male lead's character and his motivations were boring and typical. Eventually, I gave it another shot and watched episode 2 and from then on, I was hooked.

Acting/Cast: I think this is my 1st time seeing most of these actors... at least in major roles (except for 남윤수 Nam Yoon Su). They all did a great job. Watching the male lead's personality unfold, stood out to me the most. I also liked watching the interactions between the female lead and her mother. 9.5/10

Writing: This category can be broken into 2 parts - character writing/dialogue and story writing. I feel that the character development was the strongest aspect of this drama. The psychological genre is my favorite when it comes to Korean dramas because of their ability to write compelling characters that grow or change in realistic ways during the course of their experiences. This drama is great example of that, especially in regards to the male lead's character. Unfortunately, with how great the character writing is, I felt the actual story writing was lacking in comparison. There were storylines that I was really interested in learning more about (mainly more about the female lead's mom and that industry and about Mr. Lee's background), but they were left unexplored. The ending was also done in a way that seems as though they were setting it up for a 2nd season, which would make sense as to why some major details of the story felt unfinished. Regardless, I'm typically not a fan of endings like that. It feels incomplete and I'm left wanting more. If they're not doing a 2nd season, then 10 episodes weren't enough to really flesh out this story. On a positive note, the things that I was worried about before even beginning the drama, turned out not to be an issue. However, I could see some potential for criminal activity/prostitution being glamorized (for instance, prostitution didn't seem like a big deal until it was an underage girl doing it.) But every time the characters started to seem "cool" or too much like protagonists, something horrible would happen that would put everyone back where they belong. That reminds me, It was difficult watching a drama with no real protagonist. I felt bad rooting for anyone. I would just feel resigned and I would say "well...that's what you get for engaging in criminal activity." I'm not going to feel bad rooting for Mr. Lee though. 7/10

Direction/SFX/Music: The production was great; it felt very high quality. There were some clever dream sequence scenes that I really enjoyed. They didn't feel like your typical dream sequence. I usually can't stand them. The music really added to these strange scenes, as well. I don't care about music so much, but I do take notice when it heightens the experience for me (or worsens it). I think the OST played a huge part in giving this drama a very captivating vibe. 8/10

Entertainment Value: After I got past that 1st episode, it was a crazy ride. It was like watching a train wreck (but in a good way?) So much anxiety...very unpredictable. A fun but scary, stress-inducing ride. I don't want to say anything more about it because I don't want to give anything away. 8/10

It was difficult to give a final rating for this drama - it's either an 8/10 or an 8.5/10. I chose 8 more for personal preferences, which I don't want to expand on because it may be a bit of a spoiler.

Read More