Kannadin

So I flipped through the novel but from I've gathered they changed quite a lot of things... That's great. The drama is way better...

But the question is:

Do I put this drama on hold after episode 7, which would be the reasonable choice since it's a great place to pause... OR do I go watch tomorrow's episode which is bound to be STRESSFUL and go back to 2 additional weeks of torture?

There lies the question...

"so saying it was universally disliked is very unfair. "

I never wrote that. Dunno where you got this idea.

EDIT: Ah yeah, I get it. I wasn't speaking about this show in particular. That was just a general remark.

SO SO SO SO MUCH BETTER than the series it came from... Biggest and Only flaw of this show was its length. Too short. Both leads deserved better and longer...
I wish they got paired together in another drama. They were really cute together :D

Started great went downhill. Main couple had close to no chemistry whatsoever and don't let me start on the last episode which was the final nail in the coffin that definitely buried the last shreds of love I still had left for this drama. 3rd couple: Just NOPE. Second couple saved the show.
Show gets a passing grade of 6 for the first half and the Writer-CEO couple who saved the show from becoming a complete dissapointment... And it had such a good start >_<

Everything is a matter of taste. Check it out and see for yourself. Better know nothing about the plot and avoid the comment section for spoilers if you really want to enjoy it fully.
I'm liking it a lot though I would say that the beginning of the series has more "edge" to it than what we've been getting in episode 5 and 6. It's not bad per se, but some of the tension is gone due to plot reasons in my opinion. Personally I'm still loving it, but not as much as when I started the show.

Anyway, some rare comments have mentioned some potential plot holes and some things they didn't enjoy... which are things people like about the series so again, check it out.
Currently the comment section is full of people liking the show... It's probably gonna take a few more months to see a more balanced comment section.

But overall, I'd say it's pretty solid and the changes they made compared to the novel so far makes the drama better in my opinion.

That was my 2 cents.

Well thanks for your point of view... That's a very high rating there.
Really not in the mood at the moment but I hope I'll get used to her childishness once I start to watch the show.

Is it really?
Because I've watched some gender benders from China and they don't even allow the ML to fall in love with the FL UNLESS he already knows she's a girl.

I mean they're so bent of not portraying a man falling in love with another ( even if the audience knows the character is a girl) that the plot itself has to fit that agenda.
Basically whichever Chinese gender bender I saw, it was always the same drill: the ML doesn't fall in love with the FL until he knows she's a girl in disguise.

We'll see how it goes in this drama... But I honestly don't think Koreans bother with catering to the Chinese when making shows especially since they no longer let their actors act there due to the now-lifted ban on anything Korean some years back.

One of the appeal of Gender bender is the ML questioning his own sexuality and falling in love with the person behind the appearance.
Coffee Prince had a believable FL disguised as man... A "cute" man for sure, but Yoon Eun Hye fit that "grey area" pretty well.

For me it's more a matter of the actress needing to still look attractive as a man otherwise it's difficult to sell the idea that the ML is falling in love with she/her in spite of her (fake) gender.

Or maybe it's a matter of actresses not wanting to look to bad. I mean in Coffee Prince, the main actress looked better as a guy than as a girl. They gave her the worst wigs in the History of K-dramas and I'm not sure any producer would dare that these days.

Personally I've given up on the idea of these girls being believable as guys - Worst offender was Captivating the King this year... I've put it off because Shin Sae Kyeong just looks ridiculous. I can suspend my disbelief to some degree but there's a limit.

From the images we've seen the actress is a bit too cute but she gets a "passing grade"... Can't go any lower than "Captivating the King" I guess.
So I'm just gonna enjoy it hoping that the ML falls in love with the FL before he knows she's a girl. I mean that's always my favorite part.
Gender bender is my jam but it is SO SO RARE in dramaland 😥😥😥

Ok, not reading ANY comments because I'm afraid of being spoiled. I know nothing about the books (personal principle: not reading translations of languages I'm learning, so I acquired the books in Chinese but since I still can't read Chinese I'm keeping them for... a couple of years later I guess), nor have I watched the Netflix series.

But all I have to say is, this is the most intriguing first episode I've seen in like FOREVER. Like literally I'm dying of curiosity, this is gonna be hell trying to not spoil myself by 'speed-watching' a couple scenes in later episodes.... but that would be such a waste, I'm gonna try my best to control myself.

So glad I waited for all episodes to be released before starting this since I initially had planned to watch it as soon as it came out on Viki.

Yeah QoT is also tvN... I'll watch it at some point but It's also one of the reason why I still haven't started it...

The impeachment vote for the president has been delayed to this Saturday so I honestly wasn't expecting any drama to air... but given the fact that it's still on the program and based on the "arrow" thing, my guess is, it's gonna air as planned UNLESS there's some unexpected real life drama that happens the likes of what happened at the beginning of this week when almost all parliament members from the President's party left to avoid voting his impeachment.

Err... I think you spent a bit too much effort on the random nobody that I am but it's your time after all you do what you want to do with it. I don't really see the point of keeping this conversation going, so that will be my last message on this particular topic. You disagree with my opinion. I get it. I don't disagree with everything you said, but I do disagree with most of it. However your opinion about me doesn't matter, nor do negative opinions, I'm not seeking any validation from anyone, I'm just expressing my opinion. I don't ban people who disagree with me, I ban people who are insulting, hence the fact that I still see your comment.

I do tend to write reviews about shows I disliked true (though I've just checked and you're being unfair, I do insist on negative aspects but all reviewed shows are not rated badly).... But if you've really spent as much time as you said on my profile, you've seen the number of shows listed and I do have a fairly good share of shows I've liked otherwise I wouldn't be here. I don't even know why I'm writing this since I honestly don't care if you or anybody else agree or not.

Ok that's it. I'm just tired.

You know at the end of the day, it's just a matter of taste. As mentioned, I tried to watch the King: Eternal Monarch 3 times. I even went as far as episode 9 before definitely giving up. It looked amazing for sure, but the story wasn't it for me. I wouldn't say other stories got inspired by it, the parallel universe trope existed before and after. If you enjoyed it that's great for you, I'm not here to invalidate your opinion, but not enjoying a show says nothing about understanding or not understanding it ( also I'm a huge SF/Fantasy book lover so your comment is honestly a bit off the mark but ok).

It's annoying to see people are always seeking approbation for their opinion. An opinion is an opinion and everybody is entitled to it. People liking a show that is universally like doesn't necessarily mean the show is flawless or even good and liking a show most people dislike doesn't mean you're stupid/immature or whatever for liking it.
By the same token, hating a show universally disliked doesn't mean the show deserve all the backlash it got and hating a show universally liked doesn't mean people have no valid reasons for disliking it.

An opinion is just an opinion, it doesn't say anything about a person except for the fact that what resonates with you doesn't necessarily resonates with somebody else.

I personally don't care much for actors in general. I'd argue most Korean actors do a good job onscreen - though I have my favorites of course, I have only two South Korean actresses in mind that I don't watch because they suck acting wise... but both of them have literally disappeared for K-tv.

However, when actors repeatedly take on projects I dislike I tend to start being wary and Lee Min Ho fits the bill. It's not a matter of him acting well or not, its a matter of him choosing projects that I usually don't enjoy. It's a bit annoying having to always re-explain myself since people have this tendency of running away with their own ideas without bothering to READ what people write but since you're polite, I'm re-explaining. I still want to check this one out, since it's not everyday you get a series set in space, so regardless of my doubts regarding the plot, I'm still gonna give it a try.

Also, side note. I watched my first K-drama and my first J drama both in 2005... That will be exactly 20 years of Asian drama watching in a couple of months so I'm VERY aware of how the system works there having seen how the broadcast system as well as story tropes have evolved over the years.

Oh... There's a limit?
I didn't know >_< ( They should lift it) For the messages though, nope not gonna bother.
The whole point of banning people is to have a good time on this website ^^ Not to see things that don't deserve neither my attention, my time or my nerves 🙄

Thank you ^^ Well no need to feel bad for me though ^^
I saw one answer from a very rude person who I immediately banned. I'm guessing you're referring to people who commented below that person... except that since I've banned that person, I can't see neither that person's comment nor the others directly below. So I have absolutely no idea how many answers there are (nor do I care for that matter since if you've read my profile, I don't bother reading whatever's written if the person is rude. Rudeness = Automatic ban).
I'm making very good use of the ban function on this website, makes my time on MDL so much more agreeable, only interacting with civilized people :D

Hope they stick to that... Even better, they should air both episode 5 and6 on the same day because we're sure not gonna get an episode on the 14th given the impending vote.

So... I heard in a video that new episodes will resume on the 21st of December.
The impeachment vote for the President has been rescheduled to the 14 of December so I'm not really optimistic for this week as well... Does anybody has any clear information?

Can't rely on Netflix ( on one of their page they wrote When the Phone Rings wasn't not even based on a book. Seriously.) for accurate information...

Cute show... But ultimately not much is happening。 I think the story would have been better with a shorter number of episodes。
Started to really get boring once both characters got together... Most of the episodes felt like long fillers with very tiny bits of relevant things happening。
Dropped in the middle of episode 9.

There's is no such rules. The average length of a K drama is 1 hour. There are countless ORIGINAL tvN shows that remain within a normal length of 1 to 1h and 15 minutes. However tvN deliberately makes the choice of having episodes that exceed 90 minutes on its bug budget shows on a regular basis. A very bad habit they took since "Answer me 1988" for that matter which length were almost 2 hours per episodes.

Also when tvN launched years ago ( for historical context, I don't remember the exact year but private channels weren't allowed in South Korea for years, you only got the big 3 - KBS, SBS and MBC), ALL of its original series had length between 40 and 55 minutes. Same with the number of episodes. There is no rules for it except practices by channels.
Most dramas had a length of 55 to 1h on the big channels but for some unknown reason they started to lengthen the episodes to an average of 1h and 15 minutes at some point.

I suspect it's because Korean legislation changed and even public channels got allowed to air adds in the middle of a show, something that was only allowed on private channels. The transition period was pretty weird in terms of numbering the episodes but that's another story.

Having ridiculously long episodes is a deliberate choice by tvN.
From what I've seen they're the only one doing it - at the cost of tight story telling - when most other channels stick to an average length of 1h to 1h and 15 minutes for their longest episodes.
I don't mind longer episodes on occasion, but it has to be occasional, otherwise imho it's at the cost of good storytelling.

You too ^^

Yeah... I'm not really a good example for that... Personally I know that if you don't like a show you should drop it... I have a personal rule of watching a show up to a 3rd of the series, and if I still don't like it, I drop it... BUT sometimes because lots of people loved it I stick to it ( and regret it immensely) or let's say I found a very good show but the last few episodes are meh....I know I should drop it but since I'm near the end I can't bring myself to do it. I know it's stupid, but truth is... lots of people are like that no matter how illogical it is. I've gotten better though... particularly since I'm lacking time but still.

I get what you say though. Personally it really depends from show to show... Other people's opinion rarely taint the image I have of a show but I do have to admit that I tend to be muchmore cautious when shows are heavily criticized... such as this one. Ultimately you can be pleasantly surprised. 2 years ago I stumbled upon a BL that had very poor ratings on MDL... But I loved both leads so I still gave it a try. Not my favorite, but still gave a, 8.5 since I really did enjoy it when the overall ratings on MDL was just 6.XX at the time ^^

I think you've got the best attitude... Can't bring myself to do it though ^^
Also again. Personally I'm not interested in people saying "it sucks". Explain WHY you think it sucks without going into personal attacks over actors looks or whatever (except if their looks just don't fit the role... such as the actor supposedly being "ugly" and looking like a stud). Judge the performance not the person. Judge the drama not the people watching it and EXPLAIN.

"It sucks" is completely useless. On this I think we're on the same page. I don't mind people saying they love a show without necessarily explaining themselves... But I do mind when people are negative about said show and don't explain themselves. I just see it as spreading negativity uselessly though I wouldn't ban a person for that. I only ban rude people, who go into personal attacks.