Lauren F

tumblr fanfic in cdrama form in the best way

the setup of this drama is pretty clunky, but considering the premise is an authors fanfic character comes to life i didnt feel taken out of the experience. the best things about this drama was the humor, but it also really tugged at the heartstrings with later parts that really sweetly fleshed oit important details.

this is kitchy and corny but also funny and sweet so if you are someone that isnt into romcoms as a genre then it might be best to skip this one, but i loved it.

i decided to watch this drama after watching hidden love and being super impressed by the male lead and that experience. its better than thos overall for me, but truly this actor is great and the more comedic spin on his acting has been super fun.

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I will say before I get into the pitfalls of the plot, that I thought the actors were all really great. They are what kept me going through this show. I can't tell you how many frustrated tears I cried about how the plot was developing mostly because Seo Kang Joon especially kept me supremely emotionally invested in the plot. I thought all of the actors were really great. I believed them. I felt their pain in their eyes. The problem inherently to me lies in the writing. The main lead and female leads characters are just the worst. For the male lead, there is Tsundere...and there is sociopath. And the amount of red flag behavior that the female lead justified and brushed off was such a concern for me as a woman. If I'm watching a romantic plot and the male lead is someone I would warn my friends about or even have an intervention because that gives me a pretty large cause of concern. I just couldn't really enjoy this show. It stressed me out and made me unhappy and Im pretty relieved I managed to get through it.

It's nice to see some early roles that are well acted from actors I really enjoy, but if you aren't here for a purpose like that I would honestly avoid this drama unless you like being frustrated and upset and the end of a drama.

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a thesis statement on everything wrong with 12 episode dramas

I was so excited about this drama and very much looking forward to it. So maybe because my expectations were so high, I was particularly disappointed in the things that kept this drama from being anything more than like a B rating for me. i enjoyed the costuming (though whoever put IU in those awful press ons...) the cinematography, The acting the ost, but I just think the writing fell flat. And I think a large part of it is partially due to the shorter length that k dramas have started to go towards on netflix and other international streamers. this just felt so shallowly written that I had a hard time really caring about anything that was going on but I have a hard time articulating how the writing could do better for everyone without a longer show length and more time to dig into the substantive reasons and explain people's motivations better. it's really a shame to see all of the pieces be there but the writing really disappoint the whole project.

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aa typical sweet cheesy cdrama...but with improvements

is this your absolutely typical sweet cdrama featuring cold hero and bubbly heroine? yes. but Mary Jane she is not!!! she is beautiful, famous, and has a Ph.D?! hell yes. also lots of great commentary about beauty as a construct and makeup as a tool for empowerment not because of shame...like honestly mind blown a bit there for this being a chinese drama.

a lot of corny and unnecessary drama, particularly a whole couple episodes worth of the leads working undercover and a very annoying "villian" character that i think the show could have done without so plot wise sometimes felt clumsy towards the end, but overall a nice refreshing watch.

also 10/10 to the writer who kept making very self aware rom-com drama jokes and references

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