Clinically-Insane

WTF!
Are people really fighting over celebrities? For what? I mean they are artists whose art is certainly to be scrutinized whether to be appreciated or not. That's all there is to a celebrity.
Why would people fight and abuse each other over people who know nothing about them. Like you like their work (which is a good thing) or you don't. I didn't think that liking someone's work translated to abuse anyone who feel different OR not liking an artist's work translated to having to bother to amuse yourself with petty insults.
It just doesn't have any meaning. This is a zero sum game. The actors don't need our validation for themselves and they certainly won't care for petty insults. They only care how we perceive their work. So let's calm down. It isn't even that serious.

I do agree with the point that this is purposely shallow and only because it requires less creativity from the writer with maximum benefits entailed because this apparently ticks more minds.

True in the sense that she returns with little but what I do commend her for the strength to at least try to live with what she has got. I think we can only burden a human being with so much as to have the courage to try. There's no shame in failing to succeed but there's so little in succeeding to not even try and I'm not denying that there's no real human psychology behind that. Yes, people stay stagnant and that's sometimes gratifying but I do think that the writer only exercised (not just in this case, there are multiple and increasing cases of this trope in Korean dramas) this exhausting or uninteresting approach because it simply sells better. There's no other reason for it and I think that makes the character shallow.

I don't know if this question is addressed to me because the app doesn't show the name you're replying to but I think they do mention it to be 15 years. I don't exactly remember but if it's not that than it must be somewhere around that number.

Exactly! That's what I addressed (maybe not mainly focused on) in my original comment. That consumer market decides what goes to production and what goes to the bin.
I totally understand that and can somewhat agree with consumer sovereignty but what i don't agree with is to disguise the ML character as anything but that; consumer sovereignty and I think (maybe it's a bit of generalization) consumers are driven by entertainment in the form of something fantastically imaginary that provides certain gratification to the side of the brain that relies heavily on momentary serotonin (in other word, momentary happiness).

Yes the ML can be a likely reality, but his character can be tweaked at certain angles to produce something that will likely make the character more complex that takes more to understand and requires less to be interested in but that isn't the case here because of consumer base. To be honest, the consumer base is majority female with age ranging from twenties well into their thirties. We have the stats on that. So I think it isn't surprising that I (being a male) find the character far less interesting because it isn't designed to appeal to me. Why it appeals to them and not me is somewhat apparent and that's fine.

I was talking about myself but just from the half that encapsulates me as a critique with interest in addressing the other half of myself that's just an audience with with curiosity. The "you" was just me addressing the audient half of myself.
And the wording, maybe, is a little jumbled up and that's because English is my fourth language. I try to be as clear as I can be.

It is not JUST my opinion. I mean it would have been alright too if it was only mine but the abundance of it other than myself doesn't necessarily prove my point but it certainly warrants you (not specifically you but you the audience and defenders of the criticism) to take it a little more objectively and from an argumentative perspective (not as an insult) otherwise there's only the position of accepting someone's utterance as a subjective experience only and not something objectively tangible that can viewed as more than a figment of someone's imagination and I'm not saying that you must grant me that courtesy.

Since there are only two episodes available, my opinion is only based on them but the 1 year wasted while getting drunk is just a tiny part of the paragraph long argument.
Serious cronic drinking does seem to be a probability in the real world especially when faced with something you can't come to terms with. I understand that but it, nonetheless, isn't something I can show appreciation to albeit certainly my sympathy. But that's not the whole argument. 15 years is an awfully long time to just shut off yourself and I'm not particularly concerned with the realism (even when there's very little of it here) of it but with what this revelation tells me about him. What's that supposed to add to his character except making him a caricature of imagination fueled by fantasy?

Getting himself "blackmailed" by his boss into doing something he grossly objected to shows he generally can't say no.
Him wearing decades old shirts just for the sake of it reminding him of her is mind boggling to me. Like I get it if someone safe keep a memorable but to wear it generally to remind yourself of a married woman is freaky.

Look all those can certainly be excused as being realistic if you stretch it throughout human history. I mean human beings are nothing but diverse with thier values but you, as an audience, do want to see something in the main characters that you can follow up on, if not with appreciation, than certainty with intrest. There's nothing remotely interesting about someone who can't say no when it matters, can't really allow himself to move through the bad to get to the good in life and cannot stay sober to allow courage to power his consciousness.

Holy moly, that's freaking long!
I should have been concise with my view.
Apologies if it seemed more like a rant than constructive criticism.

So the discussion that, a "selfless and infinitely patient" male lead and a "slightly unstable and bold" female lead is becoming a trope to encourage a serotonin rush rather than to ventilate fervent understanding of humane stories and the capriciousness or tenaciousness that drives those stories, is a debate that has little to offer to the market that determines success in viewership ratings.


I get both sides of the argument; one being a critique to the impracticability of a character's tale and the other being a critique of the criticism provided by the first. One side wants to be able to not see the troupe so often and the other welcomes it. Both are within their rights to express so, I think.

The problem arises, for me, when the argument strays from an expression to hateful and defensively hateful or anecdotally false conduct. The critical side sees benefit from the fulcrum of shaming someone for having different partners at different points in time and defensive side sees perseverance of thier thoughts in ignoring genuine criticisms in the favor of needless affront.

A better approach, in my opinion, should be to be specific and directed criticism from one side and graceful consideration of the criticism (if true) from the other.

I mean the point to criticise should be the ML being a saint and a hopeless romanticist and not the very normal FL going on with life. I see juvenility and misguided steadfastness in the ML's character approach from the writer and i see nothing noble or realistic (in an interesting way) or inspiring or healthy in those predicaments that drives the ML to spend one year drunk and the rest of it (15 years or so) shutting himself down to the idea of commitment and a relationship. I have issues with those predicaments being glorified as romanticism and novelty. There's nothing more unappealing and unhealthy to me. Why do the writers write their male characters that way? Because this archetype, somehow, has a better consumer response. They know who consumes their products and what ticks their imagination and so they produce what has a bigger consumer base. Their job is not to make you think or inspire you (not anymore unfortunately) with profoundness of a character or originality of a story because serotonin rush is instant gratification and people prefer everything "instantly".

That being said I have no issues with the FL seeing grace and growth in the idea of moving on, or at least trying to, (which i would have loved to see in the ML's story too) with the human endeavor to not allow one misfortune to dictate a lifetime of misery. That's noble. That's purposeful.

I like the FL (until now), as a character, far better than whatever the ML is supposed to be glorified for.

I can't believe people are upset by male lead's actor who is one of the far better performer in list of the cast represented by other fairly high quality performers. I used to think actors are known and judged by the quality of their performance to portray someone fictional with enough legitimacy and convey them to their audience with adequate authenticity and candidness. Certainly physical features and age always commanded the shallow attributes of the mind but rarely have I ever seen such disparity between the appreciation of an artist based on meritocracy (acting) and depreciation based on physicality.

Lee Jung Jae is a far better and accomplished actor that someone (with the accumen to appreciate an art for what it should be) would trust to convey a story than any other actor in that list (the cast).
Genuinely and sincerely; no blind hate or devaluation in the artistic honor and value of the other actors but LJJ has had far more time and opportunities to polish his expertise and is just a better actor from every angle possible.

P.S The man looks fantastic for his age. I'm 23 and I hope I look like that in my 50s.

I don't exactly understand the plot trajectory or the character's ploy and I don't particularly like the ML for multiple reasons. Maybe it was unwise to expect something more but at least I tried.

Anyway, try it for your self but don't expect something out of the ordinary. This is a great example of rinse and repeat in what now seems to make up the kdrama industry. So maybe with lower expectations, you'll be able to contend with whatever is portrayed. I may not be the target audience but if you enjoy the usual formula then this should be the perfect blend.

P.S. I chiefly dislike the romance aspect of it, especially with how they are going about it; the most unrealistic and dead (inside) prespective that the kdrama industry is known for and apparently liked for nowadays.

Thanks.

Thank you.

I had low expectations for this since I have seen one of the works related to the director but now my expectations are nonexistent since watching the trailer. They had one JOB and that was to remain completely faithful to the original but they had to mess it up for the juvenile need to introduce unnecessary and stupid inputs in an already top tier setup.

WTF happened?
I've been living under a rock (not a rock but under a block of cement and bricks) for the past 2 weeks to prepare for my medicine test (which BTW is pretty freaking hard a subject to comprehend) and i was thinking of rewarding myself with this show but it seems something happened with the main actor and he's getting thrashed. If it's something very sad, please don't bother to tell me as I have had my fair share of sad events going around and it's getting hard to digest.
I'll appreciate it if someone will be kind enough to inform me if this show is getting aired or canceled so that I can search for something else.

Exactly!
You articulated with precision and clarity the crux of the phenomenological debate that's been going on in the recent korean shows and that is; Everything comes down to the taste and preferences of the target audience of any cinematic experience and the writers dispense content with targeted precision of certain elements through thier story with a specific demography in mind. Those "certain elements" don't need to regale with artistic quality or honest iteration of legitimacy but with momentary "escapism" and "elevation of pleasant emotions" (as you put it) of thier audience.

I too am fine with consumers consuming what they find consumable (who am i to judge?) but it is also true that "my heart hurts a little" too (we are being overly dramatic BTW) to see honest and artistic cinema, that soothes your soul and inspires your spirit, as a dying breed especially when we can be much more diverse and versatile with storytelling as we have more resources and facilities to be cognitively innovative than at any time procurable to the human species throughout history.

May our wounded hearts heal. lol.

Immensely talented and brilliantly dedicated to his art.
One of the few who I can watch without the need to look at the subtitles and I'll still perfectly be carried through the emotions he conveys through the expressionism he oozes out.

There's this thing called human autonomy. While the term encapsulates a broad spectrum of concepts, the emotional and cognitive autonomies always stood out to me as the most vital, for me, to perceive what an individual is, in their core. That's what I was taught and that's what I judge (for the lack of a better word) people and myself based upon and fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) that also translates itself in how much of appreciation or disdain I'll be holding towards a fictional character.

That being said, I have come to realize that I have been finding myself in constant disdain to the male leads' characterization in the korean romance industry solely because of their nonexistent autonomy as fully functioning human beings. They are just reduced to the romance aspect of the story only. Like where's the rest of the aspects of their lives? It's beyond my understanding, at this point, as to why the repetitive cluster of mediocre storytelling is constantly revolving around redundant character arcs when it comes to male leads in romance genre while the other genres are doing comparatively far well when it comes to timing and explaining their characters (both male and female) while maintaining an autonomous approach.

Anyway, this story is grossly cliche, sufficiently repetitive and redundantly simplistic in it's approach towards characterization of its characters.

This plot is what I would write on a bad day and I'm a terribly horrendous writer on a good day.

Don't ever worry about MDL ratings and do not trust the ratings to watch or not watch a series.

If you like a blend of action, thrill and crime (which is rare in Korean drama industry) then this is what you'll most likely enjoy.