Knavery

Bai Lu is amazing but her character gets walked over constantly in the first half. I'm on the edge of giving this up.

Like most Japanese TV it's based on absurdity and would have played better as a movie. 10 episodes feels long even with it being a comedy. It's alright mainly because Yuko Araki is amazing.

I liked the theme song. The show is okay but it felt like highschool drama in a strange setting for a highschool drama.

It's one thing to have drama, rule breaking in an office setting but this is a police academy. It's not Police Academy - a comedy from the 80s. With all the rule breaking and shenanigans I felt this would have been better as a comedy and not a serious drama.

Despite the ending of the original... I think I prefer the journey of the original.

I like the supporting cast but I think I tend to agree with people saying it's relatively simple and I'm bordering on being 'bored' as others have stated. I'll probably take it slow and we'll see if I make it to the end or give up.

She was the bright spot in Eternal King or whatever it was called. Too bad she's going to be the victim turned antagonist for the female lead. I want to see her in some leading roles with complex characters. I believe she can pull it off.

I think they're cute. The ending is a bit abrupt but I think the ending is obvious. Like a simpler version of Proud of Love in terms of the ending surrounding fate.

I liked the leads, they were good. Masterpiece? Nah. Something to watch? Yeah.

The female lead is beautiful. The story is good enough but it's not a masterpiece and it suffers from a lot of tropes especially with the villains.

The ending - does it have an ending? It really feels like it doesn't have an ending. And to be clear - I don't dislike how things ended. I'm wondering why the writer and director choose that final scene... because it did not feel like an ending.

It has its moments for sure and it had potential but it probably should have been 24 episodes and not 47 given the substance here. Too much repetition throughout the show.

A lot of people found the female lead annoying and I can see that but I didn't mind her quite as much. There are a lot of possessive male leads out there, why not a possessive female lead?

The ending for the majority of characters just felt super dumb and contrived. I can't really recommend anyone stick through watching this but give it a go I guess... just expect a lot of repetition for nearly every character.

If there weren't 18 episodes available already I might have given it a pass but I really like Jing Yi as an actress and while the story is messy I do like the contrast of her bubbly personality next to the more timid and mopey male lead.

Doubt it will pay off. The first episode was a drag. I don't need a full hour and 16 minutes to set up that the leads are unhappy with their lives. Filler in the first episode is a bad first impression.

Second thing is the characters make no sense and aren't consistent after the first episode. Given how consistent the episode was at setting an atmosphere... you would have hoped the characters wouldn't perform 180s by episode 1.

A considerable amount of the soundtrack sounds like it's straight out of the Soviet Union and I can imagine this drama being just as compelling (that is to say - not at all).

The preview for next episode seals the deal that this is a dropped show for me. It's going to be the same slap kiss makjang stuff but with camera effects, soundtracks and underacting by the leads so that there's this mopey-depressed feel. There is nothing groundbreaking in terms of substance here. It's like slapping lipstick on a pig.

Yeah it was more for myself because I tend to be critical of most Japanese live action dramas as being surreal. Even the more serious stuff something usually feels 'off' and it can be hard to complete.

You named one of the few I really enjoyed - Nobunaga Concerto. I think it did a good job of managing moments and telling a complete story despite lack of romance. But by in large I think Japanese dramas are nowhere near as compelling as Korean dramas and the numbers show it.

I don't think shows need a romance but a romance helps mask poor storytelling, over-acting and many other problems. There's a reason most shows from any region of the world contains romance.

Hell the domestic Japanese numbers show it as well. Netflix Japan it's anime and Korean dramas that are the most popular. If it's not compelling to a Japanese audience... I'm not sure making Japanese dramas more widely available would make them much more popular if they're struggling to maintain domestic audiences.

This isn't a criticism or competition. I really like The IT Crowd. It has that same surreal feel as a lot of Japanese TV. And people have strong feelings about that show. It has a small but vocal fanbase. But if I polled people where I lived I bet you almost no one would have heard of it, and of the people who gave it a chance.... most would have dropped it.

I don't really get the appeal of the male lead. Seems like he's better suited as a model. Strong case of RBF.

I just couldn't get into it, oh well. Give it a chance and see if it's for you.

The production values are high except for the awful beards and mustaches but for whatever reason I can't get into it. I'll put it on hold and come back later to see if my opinion has changed.

I haven't watched that one yet but the one I'm referring to aired in 2021. It might have been Maid Escort but I can't be sure about that.

Still, we're now up to at least 3.

It's just weird because the situations are so similar. "Drink this poison for me and I'll save your love interest". What happened to doctors just trying to help?

Is this the new trope? The genius doctor with a cure for everything will only help the female lead (or a high profile female character) cure her love interest if she drinks a deadly poison?

I feel like I just watched this subplot on another recent period drama out of China.

I don't even understand what is going on? How does it work?

The story/plot is far from great but the chemistry between Ginny and Tet is so strong that the story didn't have to be a masterpiece. It just had to set up moments/fun between Ginny and Tet. And it managed that.

I think the actress playing Ginny (Namtarn?) always does a great job but she pairs particularly well with the the guy named Alek. It's really something watching them interact in the episodes following the body switch.

The actress playing the female lead did a good job. This was her first major starring role I think and she's definitely shown enough to me that I hope she is signed again for more leading roles.