ItsAMe

I fast-forwarded a lot in the last episodes because there wasn't any story left. I also didn't like that they ended up mixing business and private life again, even though they had the perfect chance to become a "private couple". Apart from that, it was a decent watch. I really enjoyed FL's character development.

For the main leads? Yes, there is. :)

Dramas like Squid Game don't surprise me. I remember the Battle Royal hype in the early 2000s. Oh, and Bollywood movies. Everybody watched Bollywood movies for a couple of weeks in the mid 2000s. But the majority of people quickly lost interest in those movies. I also know lots of people who enjoyed "Squid Games" but who told me that they don't like Asian dramas because it was difficult for them to tell the actors apart. Especially sageuk are a big problem because the whole court sports the same hairstyle, beard and similar clothes. A face such as Kwon Hae-hyo's is really helpful.

I read a couple of years ago that Kdramas seem to be more popular outside Asia than other Asian dramas because unlike other Asian countries, Korea tries to cater to an international audience. Last year or so, I cringed so hard because I stumbled over a Netflix(?) drama where some white US-American girl got some Korean boyfriend. I ran so fast that I forgot to check if it was a real series or a joke.

I think "Oh My Venus" would be very offensive in the West because, thanks to HAES and the increasing obesity crisis, a significant number of non-Asian viewers are overweight or even obese themselves. Unlike in Asia, it is common in the West to feel offended if somebody claims that somebody should lose weight to become healthier. It's immediately "personal". Back in the 90s, when I was a child (in Europe), I knew only one fat kid in my elementary school. His parents were fat too. I felt sad for him because he was such a nice boy and really wanted to play soccers with us but he was constantly out of breath if he ran a few metres. Nowadays, he'd be considered average weight. If "we" watched "Oh My Venus" nowadays, most of us would probably think: Why does this healthy woman even need to lose weight? In a couple of years, she's probably considered "skinny".

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Thank you for your recommendation. I watched "My Happy Ending a couple of weeks ago. It was interesting. I've just put "Love Affairs in the Afternoon" on my watchlist. I'm not that into romance dramas, though, unless they are funny or crazy or both. "Secret" was awesome because I loooooooooooooove the enemies to lovers trope. (Unsurprisingly, I was very disappointed in "Love your Enemy".)

I recently installed a tool named "Video Speed Controller". With 2-3x speed, skipping and captions, filler episodes are not a waste of time anymore. ^^

You definitely won't miss anything if you skip the 2ML parts. The drama will probably way more enjoyable for you than it was for me. The 2ML felt like an annoying filler not contributing to the story in any way.

"When you say kdramas are trying to copy western dramas, what do you mean exactly?"

I'm currently watching older Kdramas, and I feel they were "crazier" and more creative/daring than the expensive, awesome looking ones that we see on platforms such as Netflix or Disney+ nowadays. I forgot which drama it was but I recently watched a new Kdrama which almost didn't feature any Korean culture. It was like watching some random story with Asians in a fancy location. Nothing that might offend or confuse the Westeners or Korea's latest darlings in the Middle East.

In "Oh My Ghost" (2015), white people entered a Korean restaurant, and the Korean characters started to complain about white people in Korea expecting them to speak English while not bothering to learn a few simple Korean sentences to order their food in Korean. I'm wondering if they would have cropped that scene out due to hurt feelings like they did with the Arab prince parts in "King the Land".

Would something like "Oh My Venus" (2015) get produced nowadays with _popular_ actors? Probably not because that would offend the Western equivalent of toxic Korean netizens.

I'm not saying that older dramas were automatically better or that there were no good dramas nowadays but I miss crazy romance stuff like "Secret", "Jealousy Incarnate", or "Fated to Love You".

The filler episodes 10-14 are true for many dramas with 16 episodes, not just romance. I don't mind as long as the overall story is interesting.

Yeah, episode 7 was very well done. They built up the tension, and I really expected that they pull out the truck of doom when ML crossed the street. The kiss was a surprise and a relief. XD

To be honest, I love that this drama is so predictable and normal. ML and FL are adults, the same age, successful, competent, behave like adults with responsibilities. It's one of the few dramas I find relatable. The reverse tropes are fun because it is very clear that the writers added them on purpose BECAUSE it's fun not because they believed that those tropes were totally new and unpredictable.

I hope the remaining episodes will be as enjoyable (for me) as episodes 2-7. (Episode 1 was okay.)

Yeah, the camera and lighting is excellent in this drama. They make both ML and FL beautiful, and special moments feel intimate. FL was so cute in episode 7.

Thanks for writing such detailed comments. I, too, find this topic interesting, and I'm always glad to read other people's opinion. I'm really looking forward to the next few years, and I hope that Kdrama will become a bit crazier again soon and remain "Asian"/Korean instead of trying to copy Western series. Personally, I don't care if the ML is a walking green flag or full of red flags as long as there are conflicts I'm interested in.

Hope dies last.

I too hope they'll address this problem soon. Since ML is a single father, and since the drama made a big deal of it in the first few episodes, it would be nice to see some problems. The daughter just feels like a cute accessory or roommate that randomly pops up.

At the moment, I just pretend that ML just occasionally works late, and that we do not see the scenes where he goes home ealier.

"Exceptional" in comparison to the many, many rather poorly written romcoms out there. Just like anime fans, Kdrama fans have a fairly low standard. Nobody here expects a Kdrama to be some highbrow watch.

We are happy if writers put effort into character development. And the writers did put effort into the character development here. In ep. 1 FL was rather cold-hearted, then she became nicer to ML, now she's even smiling around him and others. For a romcom Kdrama, that's exceptional.

Complaining about ML being a "green flag" cliche is like complaining about big tiddies in anime. Neither green flags nor tiddies make the writing better or worse.

How old? Like 40 years old?

Huh? Hasn't he always looked fine? I don't remember any drama where he hasn't.

I had to use a different browser. Viki stopped working on Firefox for me, so I switched to Chrome.

Thanks a lot for your detailed reply. I have to admit that I forgot half the nonsense scenes you mentioned, for example, the animal ML's brother buried. Now that you mentioned it, I remember, of course. Yeah, a stupid filler scene. I can ignore that one.

However, now I'm remembering one scene that really upsets me in hindsight: when the psychopath sent ML's brother the cute pictures ML's brother took together with Yu-na, and basically threatened him. However, afterwards nothing really happened. I would have expected the psycho to target ML or someone else in ML's brother's life but noooo. The whole Yu-na story felt like a filler because it didn't add anything relevant to the overall story nor did it tell us anything new about the characters. In the last (or 2nd last) episode, in the flashback scene with psycho cutie, ML's brother also emphasised that he didn't want to harm any children but Yu-na's death hadn't particularily affect him in earlier episodes even though she was completely innocent and didn't have anything to do with the orphanage.

And so on ...

I completely agree with you regarding the writing but after watching lots of dramas, I have to admit that my expectations are super low, so I happily ignore a looot of things as long as the drama is somewhat entertaining. This drama still one of the better crime dramas out there, in my opinion. Despite the silly scenes, the story was more or less straight-forward.

Make-up. In almost all scenes, I'm just thinking: Can they please make him a bit less perfect, so he looks more relateable?

I'm afraid nobody knows if you'll enjoy this. Just give it a try and decide for yourself. :)

I didn't want to spoil anything. ^^

Isn't this the whole point of this story? Cold-hearted woman warming up to warm-hearted man?