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A Heteronormative Life in an Electric Car
This drama is a celebration of heterosexuality as it shows a whole bunch of heterosexual couples... young, old, age gap... And so on and so on... They seem to be trying to have a somewhat taraditional meets progressive approach, gender role reversal, Woman Can! Heterosexual Love is Love... A real man can appreciate a successful woman and so on and so on... As it is not easy to be a woman in a Mans world... where woman are pressured daily in to marriage or even worse children... this drama starts off telling the viewers that it is okay not to get married and have kids, let the women choose for them selves... while still showing that at the end of the day woman can not resist marriage and kids... But sure the pressure women meet is not ok.They will inevetebly make the decision to get married and have kids on their own.The female lead is a strong, rational woman who does not budge while facing som pretty awful sexism, gaslighting, and flat out bullying in the workforce. She keeps her calm, is strategic and has a whole bunch of qualities etc. I admit I actually liked her, she did not annoy me and had a whole bunch of rational things to say thru out the show.
The male lead is Dylan Wang, the main reason I watched this, he is the sweetest guy ever, supportive, patient does not force himself on the female lead even once, though he does make some questionable choices here and there... Id say he is 90% progressive dream guy dripping honey 10% sexist. Nobody will of course notice that since compared to the rest of the men portrayed in this drama he is pretty much a saint.
The other suiters range between toxic, to privileged but decent, to flat out abusive... and show a hole bunch of red flags... The best friend is bad ass but married to a chauvinist pig. The other friends are pretty cool, especially the second couple who shoed the biggest character growth of them all. The Male leads mom is one of the best moms in all of dramaland, I loved her so much. the female leads mom was not as bad as the female leads mom in Something in the Rain but at times she did get close...
This drama also serves as a looong commercial for "new Power" cars (electricity), the struggles of the industry against back wards striving gasoline lovers who seem to do all in their power to cut the power... While empowering women at the same time.
All in all a decent watch, not amazing but good at times. and easy to binge.
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A drama that uses weather to make a mess out of the romance...
Relationships should probably not be like the weather, but apparently forecasting love is as hard as forecasting the wether... Or in this case it seems kind of hard to forecast the twist and turns but the experienced drama watcher will probably be able to predict most of it anyway... or well we may not know exactly when it will start raining but at some point or another it will rain and the umbrellas will take over... Or something like that, this may seem like the average noona rom com with well known tropes etc but is more of a slice of life, weather Mello with some steamy romance on the side.As it deals with a lot of relationships, parenthood, fatherhood, marriage, infidelity etc.
The second couple in this drama start off as these lower than lowest, conniving, impulsive, cheaters... Painted as the lowest scum on earth in the firs episodes but then take a turn and get a lot of screen time, as a second couple there to teach us about the struggles of newly weeds. A part of me enjoyed the way these got to be more than evil stereotypes and did actually like the second female lead. However I did find it a bit hard to truly get past the way they were portrayed in the beginning making it really hard to root for them as a couple.
The third couple with the sister involved was highly predictable but kind of sweet at times annoying other times.
The FLs mother is as nosey, needs a bunch of lessons in boundaries and you do not own your kids.... and is annoying as annoying gets, well acted (so no hate to Kim Mi Kyung).
The MLs dad... is one of those you want to send to jail and hope he never comes ear his son... And while I did enjoy watching the dysfunctional parent, I was so annoyed at his character as well as how the writers felt with several situations that it did drag down the score.
The side characters struggle as well as their family situation was interesting and aded flavour to the drama but it did also take away a bit to much focus from the leads.
I was expecting a cold FL, but got a busy lovely Park Min Young, with chemistry and sunshine inter eyes... and not so much cold.
The drama does manage to convey the importance and challenges the wether service has which was at times interesting but it did get to be a bit to much... To be honest there are a little bit too many distracting elements to truly root for this couple. or get invested in the romance, which was a bit of a shame. I was debating if I should give this a 7,5 or an 8 but rounded it up to an 8 because it does show an interesting, yes distracting, but still interesting pallet of relationships and wether + great visuals to give that little extra push towards an 8.
Bingeabilaty: 9
Annoying elements: Medium
An ok drama, but could be better...
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Great male lead but to many annoying elements.
This drama has some good points but they are overshadowed by the presence of annoying side characters, annoying scenes seemingly never ending monologs... Flashbacks, montages, and the extreme over use of the words: "from this day on... " over and over and over again... Accompanied by lots and of second hand embarrassment...The female lead, is very much an overly timid scaredy cat who is supposed to be bad ass and act tough, stronger, faster than most men and what not she comes off strong as a person who does not really care much about gender, saying that the only difference between her and a man is the lack of penis...(which is kind of a problematic way of saying it). I think it is supposed to be progressive but it ends up a bit of a mess and can be interpreted as both pan, trans, bi, etc friendly but it can also come off as the opposite depending on who is watching and how the dots are connected. There are definitely ways of interpreting this as very lLGBTQ+ friendly, but also spaces that can be interpreted either way.
The Male lead is however perfect in every way sweet, lovable, charming, kind. smart and definitely stands some good pan representation. His parents are pretty lovable too and so is the female leads cousin. But there is where the lovable characters end.
So in conclusion, not very good, not very entertaining, but the ML and fighting scenes do make it an ok watch. and stand for all the stars for this drama...
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Breaking up is hard to do...
What do you get when you take a narcissistic social media addict and pair her with a spineless gal who has an affair and tries to break up with her?A whole bunch of guilt tripping, tricks and some oddly entertaining plots and personalities... The execution is not really good, but they do have their absurdly funny moments. Making you go WTF? They are both fun, lovable, flat and not very lovable at the same time. There is more or less 0 character development and it is more of a laugh at and come on kind of entertaining then relationship goals type of drama (as it was probably was intended), It does however show duality in trying to let go and difficulty moving on whole heartedly after a long and toxic relationship. That part was actually done pretty well...
The high score is more of a this is rare, and oddly entertaining kind of high score not a oooh this is good go watch it... That said it is good enough so for the sake of supporting some GL, you may just want to give it a view.
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Interesting twists and well casted
This drama start off pretty mediocre having not much interesting happen during the first episode, not really reeling in the viewers, but as the story unfolds it becomes more and more interesting and less and less predictable leaving each episode with the feeling of wanting more, and not having the slightest idea of what is to come, ok some parts where a bit predictable, like pateley order of death but the rest seemed to literally jump out of nowhere. Keeping me on my toes from episode 2 and on.The story is certainly interesting to watch and had my otherwise heard to get to watch dramas husband taking initiative to both start watching after we left off and keep going in to the night.
The cast here is plain brilliant, all do their job well, the characters are over all well written, no one is just there as comic annoying type comic relief. The main characters are complex beings allowed to show both a tough and soft side to them making them more human. There is a slight mix of issues, cuteness, ethics, politics, and dooms day feel to it mostly well balanced adding to the plot without making it too confusing (with a few side steps but they are forgivable) . The cinematography is also beautifully done. but I must warn you there are some pretty grose scenes as well...
So all in all this drama worth a watch for those who want to be kept on their toes while enjoying some pretty good acting and visuals.
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Soju wrapped up in a show...
This drama is about 50% drama, 50% soju commercial. Sometimes Soju will be fun and sweet while other times it will taste bitter and if you drink to much at once it will just not be fun... But this will not give you a hangover so it is a lot safer than actually drinking soju.While the bingabilaty is low and there are a bunch of annoying high pitched elements, and some really awful crying scenes the show is fun, has great food shots, it is fresh shows great friendships while sneaking in an issue or three to the mix of episodes without having to much depth...
All in all an enjoyable watch and I am in deed looking forward to seeing a season two of this. I hope they will talk a little bit quieter and not have to cry as much in the next season though.
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okay, painful for the ears but has a bunch of sweet moments too
Some dramas seem to be made to be watched in 1,5-2x speed and well so is this one, the story itself is a tad confusing (could be the double speed, but I do not think so) some parts are rushed others take forever and some even seem slow in double speed... The drama does however not have one single overly annoying character making you want to skip scenes, the dialog has a whole lot of great gems and the characters are mostly lovable...There is a great bromance that at times made me wonder how they got thru Chinese censorship seeing there was obviously something there even if they where in denial.
The male lead made one of those mortal sins in my eyes so he lost a whole lot of points even if even the drama has a pretty healthy take on unrequited love and does seem to be able to differentiate overly persistence from flat out stalking. The female lead is pretty cool most of the time and I did like her. And did enjoy the moments of sweetness between her and the male lead.
I also enjoyed the pets, the friendship, the grandparents and the huge amount of balloons used for this production as well as the aesthetics of the umbrellas and the stage.
A lot of this drama seems to follow other logic than human logic, can it be that it follows some kind of opera logic that I am not aware of?
The sound of the Chinese opera is part of the story, but my very sensitive ears did not appreciate the sound as much as the story... So for those of you who are like me I would like to point out that the mute button is your friend (sorry opera lovers). The other OST was actually pretty decent, so was the filming (ok it was sllllooooooowwwww) but the aesthetics in this drama are just gorgeous.
All in all not really my cup of tea but an okay drama to watch.
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Fluff meets gaming
This drama has allot of sweetness, cute animals and some interesting issues. The characters seem to grasp the notion of consent, the only toxic people are some mild side characters, fans and the media it is pretty low conflict with allot of interesting fun moments great one liners. this drama also deals with some interesting issues so why only 8 stars?I was actually debating 8,5 but decided to give it 8 stars because well it did not really excite me, do not get me wrong I found myself looking forward towards every episode something in the female leads character bothered me she is not annoying or overly stupid or anything like that but there is something about her that kept me from falling for Smiley ;) the male leads actions where at times odd, being in desperate need of a lesson in communication as well as ownership... but he did redeem himself and had this great charm to him that definitely left me wanting more of him. He also seemed to have had allot of bottled up sexuall frustration seeing once he started kissing he never seemed to want to stop,,,,
When it comes to side characters the second couple was adorable! The the male leads brother was annoying in the beginning but grew on me. A side character named Fatty was way to stereotypical and though he was very sweet there was quite a bit of fat shaming in this drama. Yes that is common in may dramas and yes it bothers me. Fat people are people too and more thaan snack eating punchlines. The teammates where allot of fun and did a great job assisting the couple as well as lighten the mood with some great singing. And then wee have thc pets! Sweet, fluffy adorable pets that definitely stole the show and where allot of fun to watch,
So all in all worth a watch but not WOOOW this is the beast thing I have ever seen...
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Like a mixtape of classic dramas with an unique lead couple
Nothing really screams romance as much as a woman in a wedding gown surrounded by a SWAT team… yes beautiful men in black and big black jeeps...At first, I thought this was a mixture of Decedents of the sun with, Love is sweet and my little happiness. Then I realized that the creators of this drama must of had allot of fun brain storming classic drama plots to call out or just twist and turn. I assume it sounded abit like this: so where can we put in an evil childhood lover and what can we do with it... and how many close to death encounters can we fit in to this drama? I don’t know if it was meant to be funny but I definitely laughed at them.
The main couple is probably one of the sweetest c-drama couples out there. They make you wonder if it may be worth being taken hostage if it means you will meet a guy like him, but then he was the only one like him in his team so I wouldn’t take the risk if I had a choice... They truly evolved as a couple and had this great awkwerdness at first that turned in to this fun and mature relationship with allot of humor such as:
Ml - my sister will skin me alive!
Fl - what are you worried about I will stitch it back on for you.
Though the male lead did have light stalking tendencies in the beginning it was more of a I want to help you without you knowing because otherwise you won’t accept my help, and not a I’m going to find out everything about you so I can own you kind of stalking so I forgive him.
The male lead actually never forced himself on the female lead not even the classic kiss her in her sleep or when she is too drunk to remember kiss. Though he did make the classic mistake of listening to his dumb friend he was otherwise a truly amazing guy who didn’t mind showing his abs…
The female lead is smart, funny, self-aware and really kind without being overly naive. A truly lovable character.
The side characters have their ups and downs some of them are awesome others mid annoying to sweet at the same time and one was truly a nuisance, a good looking nuisance but still a nuisance.
To sum this up this was a fun drama, with an adorable couple and lots of everything
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The Yakuza boss is just so... nice
I would never have thought that the Yakuza bosses would be the ones to seem to understand the meaning of consent better than any one in dramaland. But here I am starting this review with these words as Mr Yakuza boss is just sp respectful and gets it waay better then the cops seem to do.The drama has a few higly annoying, highly evil characters, they do not get to much screen time but whenever we finnaly get rid of one annoying evil another one is seen....
The rest of the cast is just so nice, fine they made a guy pee his pants, punishing the evil protecting the less evil... making me just wanna give them a big hug... who cars that they have guns....
The drama it self is however pretty bland, there are a few kind of passionate scenes but the kisses between them feel kind of awkward and lack all sence of passion, making it an okay watch but nothing really memorable...
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Good chemistry, sloppy plot
This drama started off really well, showing great chemistry interesting characters and sinner struggles.The chemstry between the two main leads is phenomenal, I would even say that this is a rare gem amoung GLs with leads who are both interesting and deliver beautiful intimate scenes with some of dramalands most beautiful kisses, touches and a true feeling of aicing and longing for each other.
But then came the twists with one part making less sense than the other. with poorly written (and casted) villains, twists I could smell miles away but hoped they wouldn't go there... (but they did) and just boring and annoying plot lines that honestly did nothing to the story more then prolong it and add episodes to the count.
The most accurate line in the whole dramas was probably "you are just as crazy as your mother" and honestly I did not know who I hated more at that point, I was like thats right man but also who are you to say anything you #€#€Q€"€"€"€#€"#€"
The acting is extremely inconsistent so I blame the director for only focusing on the intimacy parts. Basically if you skip the plot and just hop to the interactions between the brother and sister + girls + granny it could be an 8.5 or even a 9,5 but as for the rest a 6 would be a generous rating.
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Insecurely, crushes, gender conventions and sweet smiles
Nothing (okay maybe somethings) bet the smiles on these leads faces, as we are invited in to 20 shades of handling ones insecurities and finding ones own path and love on the way. The drama also offers a whole lot of great self aware lines, and a whole lot of "Ha??".Here we get to see long time crushes meet new love, as well as questions about kindness, gender conventions, and what is love? what is attraction?
Our female lead is so insecure yet blunt at the sam time I can't help but love her smile, honesty and all round awesomeness being true to herself and others.
Our gender fluid/crossdressing lead is such a sweetheart juggling armour, jealousy, expectations and shock over and over again. Can I be loved for who I am or do I have to throw away my wig and make up? For the person I love, for society or for myself?
The male lead is such a cutie too, while he may not war make up he has more or less 0 macho tendencies (honestly the gender fluid one has more macho/manly than this guy) and is such a clueless little sweetheart I just wanted to give him a hug.
Actually all the character in this play around with gender conventions, beauty, crushes, and insecurities in various ways offering us the viewers a whole palette with an added bonus of amazing dimples, smiles and people who truly smile with their whole face especially their eyes.
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Short, Sweet, Simple
This is a showcase of 4 different genres of first love youth, sch-fi, tragedy and office all of which seem to be slightly obsessed with the number seven.The delivery is simple and so are the different settings, there is a sense of longing and bubbly meets introvert in all four couples but other than that each story takes very different paths and turns. The delivery is decent for a low budget production as I could feel the emotions even if I wouldn´t count on any of these boys winning any awards any time soon.
An okay watch, but nothing really special either.
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Sweet friendships, less sweet male lead
This is a drama about the secretly kind not so kind Kou, the girls who fall for him and the friendships that they build. It is also a story about trying to find true friendships in high school while making sure no one has to sit alone.I enjoyed watching the girls interact mainly with each other but also with Kou, his brother and the other guy and a musician (that could probably give most people sls) . I also enjoyed watching the relationship between the leads unfold. However I did spend a bit to much time wanting to shake some sense in to guy and tell him to stop hurting Yoshioka Futaba, making me wish for her to break loose from her crush and go for bread, the other guy or heck why not choose Yuri?
Honestly the way Futaba interacted with bread felt a lot better than the ones with Kou most of the time... Bread is consistent, you can count on bread ...
Kou does have a sad story aura to him which is one of my favourite types of male leads but he also treated Futaba like his possession, taking her for granted and not really caring about her feelings. She could give, and give, and give and he could interact with other girls, ignore her and basically just disappear but whenever anyone dared get near his possession he would flip sides and just expect all to forget that he otherwise completely ignored her...
So for the next season I guess I am hoping either Kou or Futaba (or both) comes to their senses and either move on or or Futaba gets treated better.
It was still a good watch and I am indeed looking forward to watching season two.
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Gender rolls, oh gender rolls....
A generous 8, I should probably have rated this a 7 oe a 7,5 but the acting and characters where all portrayed pretty well but the story just did not sit well with me... having me wish for divorce over and over again... Making me wish for the female lead to end up single, with her ex, with her pregnant best friend honestly I would settle for someone who knows how to do the dishes at some point.As for the male lead I wanted to send him off to live hon his own for a while so he could grow up. learn to take care of him self and stand up agains his mom... or just stop using her as an excuse. Fine he had his sweet awkward adorable moments, and I do get why a person would fall for him (also he does look pretty decent) but people! We deserve more equal relationships.
As for the mother in law, she brought out my even less civilised side and would easily make my list of people I wish would fall of a cliff, move out in the woods, or I don´t know just loose their voice so they'd stop hurting other people...
Why I rated it an 8? besides the over all characters done well... The female lead has some really good monologs and moments 8mostly in the first half), and the female leads ex is such a sweety... Also they did show some pretty interesting issues, not always doen well... bit indeed did show soma angles we do not get to see so often.
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