A Makjang that features Park Hyung Sik as a grey character? Okay I'm in!
All hail Park Hyung Sik for single-handedly carrying this drama through. I saw this immediately after Bong Soon, so you can understand why I absolutely fell head over heels in love with a long, black-haired PHS.
I saw the first episode, and I thought this was another version of Song Joong Ki's Reborn Rich. The vibe of both dramas is similar, but this is a little different. The first couple of episodes, when the context is being set up, are absolutely brilliant. It seems like the drama was bogged down by its own expectations. It built a plan so huge and vast that, as the story proceeded, it wasn't able to achieve the scale that it wanted to. The characters are essentially all sad characters; everyone is powerless, but everyone is also a schemer, and at the end, no one really gets to have the last laugh. The battle between Seo Dongju and Yeom Jangseon was brilliant, and it made me want to root for Seo Dongju, even though I knew that he wasn't the nicest guy out there. So points to the writer for making a flawed character memorable enough that you want to see what stunt he's going to pull next. Apart from them, there wasn't any character memorable enough. The chairman was a cunning character, but again, not a nice guy. He had his preferences and biases, gave no shit to the women in the house, and was only interested in using people to his interests. I really did not understand the logic behind why Seo Dongju (who is so particular about whom to support and how to do it) decided to stick to Chairman Cha even after all the mistreatment. The writers portrayed it as if SDJ REEAAALLLYYY wanted to work for the chairman, because the Chairman is the best boss ever. That just made no sense at all.
The second tiff that I have with the drama is with Heo Ildo's character. I kinda understand where his intentions were coming from, but still, the way they portrayed him as this villainous character in the beginning, the redemption arc towards the end felt forced.
The final tiff that I have with this series is the romance part of it. For two people who are shown to be SO PASSIONATE in the beginning, they shouldn't be able to keep their hands away from each other, especially if both are living in the same house. But their romance just fizzles away, and the FL just becomes a cardboard cutout emotional support therapist for the ML.
The series had the potential to write many powerful female characters, but they all ended up receiving cardboard cutout treatments... such a wasted opportunity. Furthermore, several characters like the Administrator, the Hacker girl, Cheon Guho, or even Madam Pi, were just random people thrown here and there without any backstory or explanations. I would've personally loved a backstory of Cheon Guho and why he chose to stick by Yeom Jangseon through everything.
But the OST was good, and so was Park Hyung Sik. He was the reason why I watched the whole thing in 2 days straight and persevered through the dragging episodes from 8-12 (didn't see the point of dragging out a subplot for so long, they could've just ended it quicker). His hairstyle deserves another essay, and so does his wardrobe. His stylist needs a raise. And his acting was both cute and evil, the 미친놈 (mi-chin-nom) smile with the demented eyes was ON POINT.
Overall, it was quite an interesting take on the makjang genre (based on the few that I've watched) in the first couple of episodes. But it suffered the curse of the mid-series boredom and picked up pace only at the 11-12th episode or so. But by then, it was too trope-y to be excited over anything. The treatment of the series was also VERY manhwa-inspired. I actually thought that this was an adaptation of a manhwa, but it apparently is not. Either way, its a decent one time watch. Watch it for our Hyungsik-a <3
I saw the first episode, and I thought this was another version of Song Joong Ki's Reborn Rich. The vibe of both dramas is similar, but this is a little different. The first couple of episodes, when the context is being set up, are absolutely brilliant. It seems like the drama was bogged down by its own expectations. It built a plan so huge and vast that, as the story proceeded, it wasn't able to achieve the scale that it wanted to. The characters are essentially all sad characters; everyone is powerless, but everyone is also a schemer, and at the end, no one really gets to have the last laugh. The battle between Seo Dongju and Yeom Jangseon was brilliant, and it made me want to root for Seo Dongju, even though I knew that he wasn't the nicest guy out there. So points to the writer for making a flawed character memorable enough that you want to see what stunt he's going to pull next. Apart from them, there wasn't any character memorable enough. The chairman was a cunning character, but again, not a nice guy. He had his preferences and biases, gave no shit to the women in the house, and was only interested in using people to his interests. I really did not understand the logic behind why Seo Dongju (who is so particular about whom to support and how to do it) decided to stick to Chairman Cha even after all the mistreatment. The writers portrayed it as if SDJ REEAAALLLYYY wanted to work for the chairman, because the Chairman is the best boss ever. That just made no sense at all.
The second tiff that I have with the drama is with Heo Ildo's character. I kinda understand where his intentions were coming from, but still, the way they portrayed him as this villainous character in the beginning, the redemption arc towards the end felt forced.
The final tiff that I have with this series is the romance part of it. For two people who are shown to be SO PASSIONATE in the beginning, they shouldn't be able to keep their hands away from each other, especially if both are living in the same house. But their romance just fizzles away, and the FL just becomes a cardboard cutout emotional support therapist for the ML.
The series had the potential to write many powerful female characters, but they all ended up receiving cardboard cutout treatments... such a wasted opportunity. Furthermore, several characters like the Administrator, the Hacker girl, Cheon Guho, or even Madam Pi, were just random people thrown here and there without any backstory or explanations. I would've personally loved a backstory of Cheon Guho and why he chose to stick by Yeom Jangseon through everything.
But the OST was good, and so was Park Hyung Sik. He was the reason why I watched the whole thing in 2 days straight and persevered through the dragging episodes from 8-12 (didn't see the point of dragging out a subplot for so long, they could've just ended it quicker). His hairstyle deserves another essay, and so does his wardrobe. His stylist needs a raise. And his acting was both cute and evil, the 미친놈 (mi-chin-nom) smile with the demented eyes was ON POINT.
Overall, it was quite an interesting take on the makjang genre (based on the few that I've watched) in the first couple of episodes. But it suffered the curse of the mid-series boredom and picked up pace only at the 11-12th episode or so. But by then, it was too trope-y to be excited over anything. The treatment of the series was also VERY manhwa-inspired. I actually thought that this was an adaptation of a manhwa, but it apparently is not. Either way, its a decent one time watch. Watch it for our Hyungsik-a <3
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