Gern

I find it so hard to like Hong Geum Bo. She arrogant, judgmental, jumps to conclusions too quickly and when her knee-jerk reaction turns out to be wrong, she still holds a grudge. She'd separate a mom from her child just to obey the rules. Not to mention she'd known Kang No Ra for quite a while and had to know she didn't have a mean bone in her body, yet as soon as she found out who she was she immediately kicked her friend to the curb. Not because of who she was an individual, but because of the family she was born into, a thing none of us have any control over. On the other hand Kang No Ra is saving this show for me. Her reactions are so much fun.

Best show I’ve seen in a long time. It was always entertaining, and had plenty of laughs even up to the end.

I think a lot of viewers, despite putting the show down for it, get more pleasure out of guessing and finding out they’re right. The trick is not guessing who did it, it’s thinking it through and being able to explain why it’s that person. I liked Reset more than Mobius, for sure, though both are great. I was surprised and pleased they did another show in the same vein and kept it fresh.

The K2 is one of my early favorites.Healer is fantastic and an all-time favorite, in some ways because it pulls out all the stops. The Spies Who Loved Me is solid and the romance is critical to the plot. Man to Man is another all-time favorite but mostly because as fun as the spy stuff is it is first and foremost a comedy so all the characters are over the top.

Trae important thing in all these cases is the romance is integral to the plot, meaning the plot doesn’t really work without it. When the romance doesn’t drive the plot at times then it’s going to seem gratuitous, just thrown is to grab an audience that won’t appreciate it because it seems thrown in for no reason.

There are many excellent Korean dramas that manage that blend welll.

That’s a good assessment!

I think they did an amazing job of pulling off a problematic story idea. I mean, how do you build any suspense when you know what happens in the first four time loops doesn’t matter. That’s 80% of the series that if some pivotal character dies, no problem. At midnight time will reset and they’ll pop back to life. Still they kept each loop interesting and different, surprises kept hitting you at a good clip, and it was a great watch overall.

For my money, Reset is better. It’s just really engaging on every level.

Still one of my favorites. It’s a suspense/comedy, of course and like all good comedy, the humor comes, in part, from exaggerated, over-the-top characters, and this show nailed it in spades. In that respect all the leads were brilliant, from the cold and impersonal super spy coping with falling in love, to the endearing but full of himself actor who can also kick but, to the plain and sometimes goofy fangirl female lead. In some ways, the same overblown characters that made the comedy work so well made the suspense all the more intense. Thoroughly enjoying it after not having seen it for a few years.

I liked this one overall. It was a bit overly mopey near the end of the first ten episodes, but it got less so as time went by. I also didn't have any problems with the main couples' chemistry and I found it to be on-par with the second couple. One thing I enjoy about Asian dramas in general is they aren't afraid to show strong, competent male leads, and this was no exception. However, it did get a bit lopsided with the cold detached men in this one, to the point I think it hurt the chemistry of both relationships. My biggest complaint overall would be the ending. The resolution of the main plot seemed weak and too rushed to be completely satisfying.

It was slow paced (which isn’t all bad) and there was t a ton of story there but it was entertaining enough for me. Then again, when you see a 6.2 rating your expectations are low enough that it doesn’t take a lot to meet them. Had I been anticipating it, I might have felt differently.

The third lesson is don’t forget the first two lessons 😊

Dramas from the early 2010s can sometimes look like that. From the size of the crews, it appears they are made on a much lower budget than US shows. Fortunately, in many Korean shows the storytelling, directing, pacing, and acting are all top notch, even if the cinematography looks a bit old fashioned.

Before the male lead even appeared the second male lead asks what she wanted in a boyfriend, and she said he only needed to be handsome. A few scenes later he walked into the temple upside down and he was handsome, that’s all she needed. The ML even asked her near the end when she fell in love and she remembered how handsome he was when she first saw him. It didn’t stop me from enjoying the show but it took a long time to get invested in the relationship because of how it started.

I’ve only seen four episodes, but it makes it hard to get invested in the relationship when it was started because the only thing that mattered to the girl was that the boy be good looking. It makes me want her to learn that that’s a shaky foundation for a lasting, meaningful relationship.

lol. Good point, and he seemed to have quite a lot.

This had all the ingredients for a show I should have loved. It had a paranormal premise, a cool slant on spirit photography and a decent love story. It had twists abd turns and was well put together, well paced and had all the right ingredients for a great ending. Yet, I just had trouble getting into it. I didn’t dislike it but just found it okay. I think to some degree the ML was just too flat. He never seemed to have much emotion showing on his face. On the other hand, maybe it’s just me.

Take all reviews with a grain of salt. Tastes are always highly personal. Where one person sees no chemistry another might think it was just right. One person might think the premise was unbelievable and another totally buy it. For example, I see why some might find the grandmother intolerable but I’ve seen far more evil mothers in many dramas that don’t get criticized, such as the mother in Boys Over Flowers. It all comes down to taste and expectations. Of course ratings can mislead too for the same reason.

Exactly. The history of some of the best movies ever made have women who are airheads, constantly screaming, shallow, childish and so on. Let’s face it Dorthy in the Wizard of Oz was childish, but that was the point. Men are just as bad but don’t get as much hate. Maybe women just get hated on because they aren’t ideal role models for the gender, but let’s get real, if all women in stories were perfect role models it would be quite boring. They need flaws to make them relatable and interesting..

Why did Catherine Hepburn play a ditz in Bringing Up Baby? It’s not exactly uncommon. Comedy tends to exaggerate traits like arrogance, childishness or air-headedness.