1
Super DUMB FL and Kardashiams-like plot after ep 87 ruined the drama
This drama started promising, and then was TOTALLY RUINED bc NOTHING CHANGED - all the characters stayed the same... I WAS happy with this drama until about half, ep 60, and then it started going stale BECAUSE NOTHING CHANGED.... and by ep 87, I was feeling cheated bc the drama was totally off the deep end, no growth of character, and some super dumb ridiculous plot....
and so I skipped maybe 30 episodes? didnt miss anything.... then fast forwarded through most of the rest all the way to 140. The comments started to be super humorous making fun of the drama lmao and we all wanted to see if it will improve and if it is possible for it to get worse. IT WAS... . it did get worse...
the main character JM was nicknamed DumbMi, a VERY DUMB UNEDUCATED IGNORANT PROUD ARROGANT NAIVE WOMAN, AND SHE STAYS LIKE THAT UNTIL THE VERY END. By the end, she became slightly more wordly and smarter, but not enough, and all plot - from ep 1 to ep 140 - is created by her stupidly dumb ignorant actions. The bad guys are smarter and keep winning all the way to ep 135 and even the last scenes....
The FL actress just could not relate to the most dumb parts of DumbMi role, so until maybe ep 120, her acting was quite fake. Plus, this actress has some major issues with acting romance with her male lead, and that just throws the drama into the dumps.
The same actress who acted JM also acted SR, the twin sister of JM. SR was so fun and the actress was PERFECT in that role. However, SR's presence on the screen was minimal. That is such a waste of acting talent.
DumbMi's darling BH was portrayed like a robot, permanently calm, loyal, and not questioning, which was such a pity... The actor was so good and made his role quite real but bc the script did not allow any growth, he was essentially wasted as a character. At the end, his role was to serve as a filler. That is totally tragic waste of actor talent.
The villain HJ was perfect and unstoppable and got more and more evil as the drama progressed - and that actress was perfect at that role.
All characters were so one-dimensional like that and NEVER grew. So all those good actors were wasted.
On the other hand, the ONLY complex role of JH was given to a very very very bad stiff fake-acting actor, who ruined it.
So you can imagine!!!! what the drama is like!!!!
This is the screenwriter of this drama, i.e. the screenwriter to avoid: Seo Hyun Joo
https://kisskh.at/people/22125-seo-hyun-joo
The script writer is a moron who never listened to the audience feedback. So - RUN AWAY if you see a script by this person.
OVERALL SUGGESTIONS TO TURN THIS DRAMA INTO WATCHABLE:
==========================================
1. Fix the pacing!!!! DumbMi is kept dumb forever to the very last episode!!!!! omg that makes the drama as thick and slow as molasses... Make her smarter faster, and then have back and forth between her team and HY team, so that both teams win and lose many times
2. Fix the pacing!!!! Seo Rim is kept on the screen in minimal quantities. But she is the spunkiest funniest character in the whole drama!!!! So ... if it is too tough to film SR and JM in the same scene, then send DumbMi to a cooking school in the USA and focus the drama on Seo Rim for a while... Make SR a lot bigger participant in the drama
3. Dont keep it too cartoon-like simple! Add the complexity! Make characters more layered. Every character here is so one-dimensional. Make them more complex.
Baek Ho has to be made more complex. OK the dude is educated, smart, honest, loyal, and good hearted, and a nice person overall. Fantastic. But then he was made into a robot that blindly serves JM.
WTH, BH IS NOT A SUPERMAN. Make him more human. Make him stand up to JM, have doubts, self reflect, etc. The way BH is written, he is incredibly simple and dumb, cartoon caricature "good guy", and that is the waste of character and waste of plot.
4. Use adequate actors for key roles! JH role was THE ONLY COMPLEX CHARACTER and the drama messed it up and gave the role to a very very very unskilled actor. That was a fatal flaw. It killed the drama.
5. Dont make it too dumb!!!! Dont make the plot out of total dumbness of the characters. Make them a little smarter. Then you can create a LOT more plot out of that, bc those smarter characters will be doing more interesting and varied things.
6. Make the dialogue count! make the monologues on self reflection! SHOW SOME CHARACTER GROWTH AND SELF REFLECTION!
7. Add some romance! BH and JM are supposedly a pair, but we never saw them even talk as a pair. Every real couple has get-togethers where they talk about their day, where they share about themselves and their thoughts, gossip about others, make plans, listen to each other, and show each other love. At least call each other honey and say I love you and hold hands. This drama had ZERO of that. BH kept kissing JM's as# and she stayed as cold as ice.
I WROTE THIS AFTER EP 88:
========================
The FL is the same stupid in ep 88 as in ep 1!!!!!! By now the FL should transformed enough to know that one photo of SR is not a proof that SR is safe, and that the villain has no intentions to keep any promises to keep FL's family and BH safe. The villain plans to kill them all and WILL.
I do not mind that in ep 88 she thinks about dumping BH and marrying his brother. That is normal. She SHOULD be considering that as one option. But she SHOULD be rejecting it, based on some solid logic and previous experiences and information. BUT I AM SURE SHE WILL ACT ON IT and so I am gonna drop this drama.
BC FL HAS NO ABILITY TO SELF REFLECT. Runing the life of her love and his brother just so that she can get revenge by seeing the villain suffer - how DUMB is that???
Wow JM is cesspool. Her idea of love - to destroy the man she "loves" and his brother.... so that she could revenge and make HY suffer .... That is the situation in ep 87/88 when FL becomes evil and STAYS AS DUMB AS EVER
She makes the deal to marry ML's brother so that she would "save him" - whch is completely DUMB as the main villain has no intentions of keeping any promise and will kill everyone anyways.
Until ep 87/88, the drama was great for me and made perfect sense to me... Except that JM was too stupidly dumb, like The Woman Who Swallowed the Sun... seems like MCB loves creating dramas with REALLY DUMB LOW IQ FL.... Wow what a suicidal slant.
And seems like everyone wants to try Graceful Liar villain FL ... wow what a stupid slant. To appease the western audience, which is used to watching Kardashian kind cesspools...
YUCK THE REAL KDRAMAS ARE DEAD ALREADY
Some ppl complained that the drama doesnt make sense to them and wanted a bloody revenge - and they got it!!!! In ep 87, the drama turns into Kardashians. Western audience is so used to watching Kardashian-like stories based on s.x violence and evil, they just want it slightly dilluted in kdramas, and so they keep asking for it in kdramas, and they got it.... So I am out of this Kardashian story.
SO THIS IS MY REVIEW FOR EPISODES 1-86:
====================================
I love the particular feel of this drama where family people try to navigate revenge without losing track of family and love, and LIVE THEIR LIFE while doing a revenge.
I think it is super limiting to expect revenge in one particular flavor. I notice some audience wants some all obsessed bloody revenge. I say - there are a million ways to do revenge, this drama is just one way...
I like the plot and the acting of this drama, it all makes sense to me. I think it is a high quality production with a reasonably realistic plot, and with excellent acting. I LOVE the underlying cozy lovey dovey family feel of this drama. It is truly a family drama with revenge, instead of a drama focusing on revenge and using family as the props. In this drama, a loving family deals with the misfortune that has befallen them, and they do their best - while thrown into a chaos of various entities moving against them.
The drama is an amazing thriller as there are SO MANY IRONS IN THE FIRE, so many "teams" of people competing to gain some info and upper hand on the opponent and then make a move... it is actually nerve wrecking :) :) :)
Quite a combo of lovey dovey and a nerve wrecking thriller.
Imo FL is an excellent actress, I saw her for the first time in Queen's house and became a fan. That was a quality production with many excellent actors, so I learned to follow the actress and ended up watching First Man too.
First Man is even better, the start of the story was fast, and things are rolling.... ML-FL pair is a good team in this drama, and they are GREAT. ML actor is fantastic.
The villain is super effective, her slimey flippant voice makes me growl any time I hear it LOL
and there are other good actors in here. GoldDigger duo is really fun, and their flirting with Tae Puyng allowed us to see how good looking they are and he is... The Chairmain is a great mystery card... the Adjuma is great too... Overall, the acting is great (except Jun Ho but he improved and is still improving.)
FL Jang Mi and ML Baek Ho come from very warm loving families, so their world is based on kindness and trust - and makes then naive and slow to understand when they are being swindled... makes them less cautious... and yes perfectly capable of having a lovey dovey romance while doing the revenge. Their whole life they have been a "sheltered kid" so yeah dealing with criminals is new to them. They are comfortble, stable, slow people who take family and love first. So of course they are having a lovey dovey romance while doing revenge!!! LOVE IS THE ONLY WAY THEY KNOW HOW TO LIVE :) and they live it!!!! no matter what :) JM also needs help for the revenge, the job is too big for one person...
It doesnt help that JM is not terribly smart :( and tends to make rash arrogant (and false) conclusions, fails to connect the dots, and witholds critical information from teammates "because she does not want to shock them" - that is seriously dumb way of thinking - and it is all a detriment to the drama...
Luckily JM was slowly getting better.... the organic slow progress made sense as it was "day to day" dramatime...
and episode 77 shows JM changed and got a LOT smarter and wiser and street smart... That's cool.
I love the character of Baek Ho bc he is that loyal doggy stable reliable loving caring guy. You know that guy, the nice neighbor, the good friend guy? He is not the smartest either but he is honest and keeps trying.
FL and ML actors really convey their characters. It is fun to watch Jang Mi and Baek Ho grow and change. By ep 66, they are getting more and more skilled in working together to overcome the crime, and they are getting more and more skilled in their romance too :) BH from a quiet "stable" shy guy turned out to be quite a charmer LOL It is possible bc BH actor is very talented and nailed down his character. In fact, I do not see the actor, it seems REAL, like BH was a REAL person.
Jun Ho is the most complex character of them all, and also Seo Rin. They both survived extreme hostile environments from birth on, and survived on their intelligence and creativity. They are crazy risk takers, have crazy high difficult-to-reach goals, they are shakers and players. When SR was the leading character, the drama was moving a lot faster!
JH has a mean streak as well as abandoned child in grief and needing his mommy streak, so it will be fun to see how his character develops.
Jun Ho actor was such a piece of cement at the start but luckily his acting is now more lively and expressive. It is fun to watch that.
Overall, this is the quality of a good weekend family drama, but with more drama - like murders and villains - and revenge and makkang, just spread into 120 episodes 30 mins each, with great cliffhangers.
Great to watch when you have some time in your breaks.
Around ep 66, about half of the drama, started getting more "faster and complicated" as more players are into the game, and the core players are smarter :) and JM and BH got foxy :)
The twin sisters SR and JM are soooo different... JM is not educated, from poor family, and slow... SR is witty, smart, fast, creative... and ends up in coma, so JM has to grow up fast...
Both sisters are acted by the same actress, the FL actress.
FL actress is very talented and she really nails down both characters.
It is harder to find good actresses, esp bc their script is typically NOT in their favor and makes them too dumb. Queen't house started with super dumb FL and finally let her be smart and successful. The FL is same there and here, and she nailed both roles. To act twin sisters at the same time, even in the same scenes, is some impressive acting skillZ. RESPECT!!!!
and so I skipped maybe 30 episodes? didnt miss anything.... then fast forwarded through most of the rest all the way to 140. The comments started to be super humorous making fun of the drama lmao and we all wanted to see if it will improve and if it is possible for it to get worse. IT WAS... . it did get worse...
the main character JM was nicknamed DumbMi, a VERY DUMB UNEDUCATED IGNORANT PROUD ARROGANT NAIVE WOMAN, AND SHE STAYS LIKE THAT UNTIL THE VERY END. By the end, she became slightly more wordly and smarter, but not enough, and all plot - from ep 1 to ep 140 - is created by her stupidly dumb ignorant actions. The bad guys are smarter and keep winning all the way to ep 135 and even the last scenes....
The FL actress just could not relate to the most dumb parts of DumbMi role, so until maybe ep 120, her acting was quite fake. Plus, this actress has some major issues with acting romance with her male lead, and that just throws the drama into the dumps.
The same actress who acted JM also acted SR, the twin sister of JM. SR was so fun and the actress was PERFECT in that role. However, SR's presence on the screen was minimal. That is such a waste of acting talent.
DumbMi's darling BH was portrayed like a robot, permanently calm, loyal, and not questioning, which was such a pity... The actor was so good and made his role quite real but bc the script did not allow any growth, he was essentially wasted as a character. At the end, his role was to serve as a filler. That is totally tragic waste of actor talent.
The villain HJ was perfect and unstoppable and got more and more evil as the drama progressed - and that actress was perfect at that role.
All characters were so one-dimensional like that and NEVER grew. So all those good actors were wasted.
On the other hand, the ONLY complex role of JH was given to a very very very bad stiff fake-acting actor, who ruined it.
So you can imagine!!!! what the drama is like!!!!
This is the screenwriter of this drama, i.e. the screenwriter to avoid: Seo Hyun Joo
https://kisskh.at/people/22125-seo-hyun-joo
The script writer is a moron who never listened to the audience feedback. So - RUN AWAY if you see a script by this person.
OVERALL SUGGESTIONS TO TURN THIS DRAMA INTO WATCHABLE:
==========================================
1. Fix the pacing!!!! DumbMi is kept dumb forever to the very last episode!!!!! omg that makes the drama as thick and slow as molasses... Make her smarter faster, and then have back and forth between her team and HY team, so that both teams win and lose many times
2. Fix the pacing!!!! Seo Rim is kept on the screen in minimal quantities. But she is the spunkiest funniest character in the whole drama!!!! So ... if it is too tough to film SR and JM in the same scene, then send DumbMi to a cooking school in the USA and focus the drama on Seo Rim for a while... Make SR a lot bigger participant in the drama
3. Dont keep it too cartoon-like simple! Add the complexity! Make characters more layered. Every character here is so one-dimensional. Make them more complex.
Baek Ho has to be made more complex. OK the dude is educated, smart, honest, loyal, and good hearted, and a nice person overall. Fantastic. But then he was made into a robot that blindly serves JM.
WTH, BH IS NOT A SUPERMAN. Make him more human. Make him stand up to JM, have doubts, self reflect, etc. The way BH is written, he is incredibly simple and dumb, cartoon caricature "good guy", and that is the waste of character and waste of plot.
4. Use adequate actors for key roles! JH role was THE ONLY COMPLEX CHARACTER and the drama messed it up and gave the role to a very very very unskilled actor. That was a fatal flaw. It killed the drama.
5. Dont make it too dumb!!!! Dont make the plot out of total dumbness of the characters. Make them a little smarter. Then you can create a LOT more plot out of that, bc those smarter characters will be doing more interesting and varied things.
6. Make the dialogue count! make the monologues on self reflection! SHOW SOME CHARACTER GROWTH AND SELF REFLECTION!
7. Add some romance! BH and JM are supposedly a pair, but we never saw them even talk as a pair. Every real couple has get-togethers where they talk about their day, where they share about themselves and their thoughts, gossip about others, make plans, listen to each other, and show each other love. At least call each other honey and say I love you and hold hands. This drama had ZERO of that. BH kept kissing JM's as# and she stayed as cold as ice.
I WROTE THIS AFTER EP 88:
========================
The FL is the same stupid in ep 88 as in ep 1!!!!!! By now the FL should transformed enough to know that one photo of SR is not a proof that SR is safe, and that the villain has no intentions to keep any promises to keep FL's family and BH safe. The villain plans to kill them all and WILL.
I do not mind that in ep 88 she thinks about dumping BH and marrying his brother. That is normal. She SHOULD be considering that as one option. But she SHOULD be rejecting it, based on some solid logic and previous experiences and information. BUT I AM SURE SHE WILL ACT ON IT and so I am gonna drop this drama.
BC FL HAS NO ABILITY TO SELF REFLECT. Runing the life of her love and his brother just so that she can get revenge by seeing the villain suffer - how DUMB is that???
Wow JM is cesspool. Her idea of love - to destroy the man she "loves" and his brother.... so that she could revenge and make HY suffer .... That is the situation in ep 87/88 when FL becomes evil and STAYS AS DUMB AS EVER
She makes the deal to marry ML's brother so that she would "save him" - whch is completely DUMB as the main villain has no intentions of keeping any promise and will kill everyone anyways.
Until ep 87/88, the drama was great for me and made perfect sense to me... Except that JM was too stupidly dumb, like The Woman Who Swallowed the Sun... seems like MCB loves creating dramas with REALLY DUMB LOW IQ FL.... Wow what a suicidal slant.
And seems like everyone wants to try Graceful Liar villain FL ... wow what a stupid slant. To appease the western audience, which is used to watching Kardashian kind cesspools...
YUCK THE REAL KDRAMAS ARE DEAD ALREADY
Some ppl complained that the drama doesnt make sense to them and wanted a bloody revenge - and they got it!!!! In ep 87, the drama turns into Kardashians. Western audience is so used to watching Kardashian-like stories based on s.x violence and evil, they just want it slightly dilluted in kdramas, and so they keep asking for it in kdramas, and they got it.... So I am out of this Kardashian story.
SO THIS IS MY REVIEW FOR EPISODES 1-86:
====================================
I love the particular feel of this drama where family people try to navigate revenge without losing track of family and love, and LIVE THEIR LIFE while doing a revenge.
I think it is super limiting to expect revenge in one particular flavor. I notice some audience wants some all obsessed bloody revenge. I say - there are a million ways to do revenge, this drama is just one way...
I like the plot and the acting of this drama, it all makes sense to me. I think it is a high quality production with a reasonably realistic plot, and with excellent acting. I LOVE the underlying cozy lovey dovey family feel of this drama. It is truly a family drama with revenge, instead of a drama focusing on revenge and using family as the props. In this drama, a loving family deals with the misfortune that has befallen them, and they do their best - while thrown into a chaos of various entities moving against them.
The drama is an amazing thriller as there are SO MANY IRONS IN THE FIRE, so many "teams" of people competing to gain some info and upper hand on the opponent and then make a move... it is actually nerve wrecking :) :) :)
Quite a combo of lovey dovey and a nerve wrecking thriller.
Imo FL is an excellent actress, I saw her for the first time in Queen's house and became a fan. That was a quality production with many excellent actors, so I learned to follow the actress and ended up watching First Man too.
First Man is even better, the start of the story was fast, and things are rolling.... ML-FL pair is a good team in this drama, and they are GREAT. ML actor is fantastic.
The villain is super effective, her slimey flippant voice makes me growl any time I hear it LOL
and there are other good actors in here. GoldDigger duo is really fun, and their flirting with Tae Puyng allowed us to see how good looking they are and he is... The Chairmain is a great mystery card... the Adjuma is great too... Overall, the acting is great (except Jun Ho but he improved and is still improving.)
FL Jang Mi and ML Baek Ho come from very warm loving families, so their world is based on kindness and trust - and makes then naive and slow to understand when they are being swindled... makes them less cautious... and yes perfectly capable of having a lovey dovey romance while doing the revenge. Their whole life they have been a "sheltered kid" so yeah dealing with criminals is new to them. They are comfortble, stable, slow people who take family and love first. So of course they are having a lovey dovey romance while doing revenge!!! LOVE IS THE ONLY WAY THEY KNOW HOW TO LIVE :) and they live it!!!! no matter what :) JM also needs help for the revenge, the job is too big for one person...
It doesnt help that JM is not terribly smart :( and tends to make rash arrogant (and false) conclusions, fails to connect the dots, and witholds critical information from teammates "because she does not want to shock them" - that is seriously dumb way of thinking - and it is all a detriment to the drama...
Luckily JM was slowly getting better.... the organic slow progress made sense as it was "day to day" dramatime...
and episode 77 shows JM changed and got a LOT smarter and wiser and street smart... That's cool.
I love the character of Baek Ho bc he is that loyal doggy stable reliable loving caring guy. You know that guy, the nice neighbor, the good friend guy? He is not the smartest either but he is honest and keeps trying.
FL and ML actors really convey their characters. It is fun to watch Jang Mi and Baek Ho grow and change. By ep 66, they are getting more and more skilled in working together to overcome the crime, and they are getting more and more skilled in their romance too :) BH from a quiet "stable" shy guy turned out to be quite a charmer LOL It is possible bc BH actor is very talented and nailed down his character. In fact, I do not see the actor, it seems REAL, like BH was a REAL person.
Jun Ho is the most complex character of them all, and also Seo Rin. They both survived extreme hostile environments from birth on, and survived on their intelligence and creativity. They are crazy risk takers, have crazy high difficult-to-reach goals, they are shakers and players. When SR was the leading character, the drama was moving a lot faster!
JH has a mean streak as well as abandoned child in grief and needing his mommy streak, so it will be fun to see how his character develops.
Jun Ho actor was such a piece of cement at the start but luckily his acting is now more lively and expressive. It is fun to watch that.
Overall, this is the quality of a good weekend family drama, but with more drama - like murders and villains - and revenge and makkang, just spread into 120 episodes 30 mins each, with great cliffhangers.
Great to watch when you have some time in your breaks.
Around ep 66, about half of the drama, started getting more "faster and complicated" as more players are into the game, and the core players are smarter :) and JM and BH got foxy :)
The twin sisters SR and JM are soooo different... JM is not educated, from poor family, and slow... SR is witty, smart, fast, creative... and ends up in coma, so JM has to grow up fast...
Both sisters are acted by the same actress, the FL actress.
FL actress is very talented and she really nails down both characters.
It is harder to find good actresses, esp bc their script is typically NOT in their favor and makes them too dumb. Queen't house started with super dumb FL and finally let her be smart and successful. The FL is same there and here, and she nailed both roles. To act twin sisters at the same time, even in the same scenes, is some impressive acting skillZ. RESPECT!!!!
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