Marshmallow-Chocoholic

I can see where you’re coming from. One of the things which can be a little annoying on MDL at times are drama ratings that are overrated and biased rather than just being honest. I get having a personal liking or opinion upon a show, however, regardless of whether you like this show, it is truly wearing rose-tinted glasses not to accept that there are flaws either.

I can certainly see where you’re coming from, however, as you said, everyone is entitled to an opinion. Some " haters" may still be watching to see if it picks up, others may be watching because they enjoy the plot and themes whilst some can see both sides . Personally I am in the middle with this one; objectively it’s not a perfect storyline. There’s a lot of plot holes which are yet to be covered ( and certainly some better side character development) , however, it isn’t unwatchable either and there are some nice messages carried on.

Agreed.

I can see where you’re coming from, though, these sorts of stories have been popular in different formats in K-dramas before and especially long before Doom At Your Service...

It is kinda cute but “ breath of fresh air” is dependent on taste. If you grew / started with 2000s k-dramas with the same setups and genres, you’ll understand that there are some outdated problems with this show...

Agreed

I can see where you’re coming from to a certain extent, but, it’s hard a little for some watchers ( myself included) to find the drama “ cute” where there’s the level of glamorisation of abusiveness and emotional gaslighting. Don’t get me wrong. This is an old drama, however, even by 2018 standards this is just tiresome and a repeat of everything the early 2000s dramas with the " toxic but cutesy" relationships.

Agreed. It is a bit sickening how JJ pulls all the strings out of jealousy. If there’s one thing which is really annoying me about this drama, it is the relationships. I get that it is supposed to " intensify the drama" but its a tiresome trope with all the emotional gaslighting etc.

There are still other ways he could’ve comforted her when nobody was around though . ( Especially considering that they are cohabitating.)

Thank you , I’m not the only one who noticed this! I know that they’re trying to take make them " funny", but the producers are just nothing but rude and degrading and snapping every thread of patience that I have at the moment...

I know exactly where you’re coming from. It’s hard to really describe but it’s sort of a " in the middle" drama for me; not inherently " bad" per say, just not overly " good" either.

Sorry, I should have clarified. Yes, the filming was finished in 2018, but the actual production itself just couldn’t be picked up ( as you have already said). Also, I do know that it wasn’t originally Chinese in origin ( hence the webtoon), but undeniably the movie did help to launch the concept to fame and for Naver TV/ iQiyi to pick up the rights for the premise ( as well as get the original writer onboard). The biggest reason why I think a lot of people have a downer on it already isn’t really the lack of romance, but just it’s filled with textbook cliches. Sure, shows can do this and still be successful, but they tend to add something different or new. So far, Lee Geun Young just exists to dislike the ML. I agree with suddendlyisee said previously in the comments that the FL is a bit bland at the moment. Fingers crossed that they will do more with the characters as the show goes on, rather than keeping them in bland moulds.

I can see where you’re coming from , but, the biggest thing to remember is that people have been anticipating high expectations for a couple of reasons; it’s been three years in production ( and lots of hype around it), it has a good cast and it was based upon the fairly high-profile Chinese movie also. It’s sweet and fluffy but in all honesty, I can also see why people are a bit disappointed. So far, there’s been minimal development between leads, it’s cliche-filled, and even being three years old, it doesn’t reflect more modern attitudes to dramas by the textbook toxicity of the relationships. Certainly not unwatchable, but just average more than anything.

I don’t think people are entirely going on a witch hunt with the producers or actors with this one. They’re just not impressed ( myself included) with the quality of it either.

You’re not the only one. It’s not unwatchable, it’s just not exactly brilliant either. This far down the line I’m literally sticking around just to see how they try and finish it.

Hi thz89. Thank you so much for reading my review and I am glad that you are able to relate towards what I have written. I was in a lot of debate what to give ” River Where The Moon Rises" as a rating between 5.0-6.0 when I was at your point in the series when you wrote that comment. In fact, I was debating whether to drop this one due to the pacing, but I wanted to give it another chance in the second-half. Perhaps the only things which saved me from giving this drama a lower rating was that there were a couple of things which were commendable in the second-half such as the beauty of some of the cinematography, Kim So Hyun’s acting and some intriguing elements of storyline, until of course the ending hit a bit of a snag. ( Hence why it didn’t get a higher rating than 6.0 in addition to that messy first-half, with a change of actors aside.)However admittedly if the series hadn’t improved slightly in the second-half, I would probably have given this drama a much lower rating :).

Thank god I’m not the only one who seemed to notice this. When I saw how the cliches were panning out, my first thought was ” this is exactly like something from the old setups of the 2000s/10s” when both the MLS and the FL showed signs of manipulative behaviour and emotional abuse. Don’t get me wrong. It doesn’t make it right what happened in any of these drama’s with the portrayal of relationships, but it least even most screenwriters who created these programmes seem to have at least recognised the errors of their ways and moved on with the times. I get a drama tackling these themes to make a point about the problems of these types of relationships, but glamorising it or passing it off for laughs ( like you said) in dramas now just feels uncomfortable, outdated and wrong.

100 percent agreed. Its becoming a really tiresome cliche with this whole indecisiveness in dramas by either the male/ female lead manipulating people who like them for their own gain. What’s more annoying is the fact neither male lead seemed to be at all able to give an emotional reaction outside of the comical element of rivalry towards having actual feelings or being clever enough to sus out what the FL was doing.

Agreed. This drama could be shortened to maybe 8-12 eps because the way the storyline is going at the minute is just a waste of time for the actors, viewers and production value.

I’ve stopped trying to watch this drama with braincells tbh...