ItsAMe

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?

Which plot twists do you mean? Ryu Sung-hoon was carving statues, and we saw those at the crime scenes in the early episodes, so it wasn't that much of a surprise to me that he was involved in the murders.

I also don't remember any particularily dumb moments from the detectives. I just wondered if the whole police department consisted of 5(?) guys only.

The only thing that reeeeeally bothered me was how they portrayed ML (Ryu Sung-joon) as a psycho in the first episodes where he threatened the forensic pathologist(?) with the scalpel, just to drop this disturbing behaviour and make him a normal guy.

Oh, and they somehow seem to have forgotten to mention how the kidnapped people escaped the dungeon(?). Or I accidentally skipped an episode.

In my opinion, it was a good watch. One of the few Kdramas that doesn't end end after 13 episodes and bores us with 3 filler episodes. If you like crime stories, you might like it.

Regarding the "happy ending", that depends on your definition. The children's suffering doesn't magically get undone but the bad guys get punished.

While there aren't any relevant gore or overly disturbing scenes for thriller or sageuk fans, it might be too much for people who mainly watch fluffy romcoms.

Ji Sung is a phenomenal actor. Even if I didn't like a drama, I've never been disappointed by his performance. Secret is my favourite drama. Crazy Ji Sung is best Ji Sung. XD