Tom Zoeller

I'm very disappointed by the writer, as he had written a number of great series in the past.
This drama is nothing more than a hardcore left-wing propaganda with juvenile sense of justice.
It's like watching Hollywood superhero movies, making everyone villains just to promote
the superhero protagonists; but really nothing more than an abrasive zero-sum game.

Besides all too many convenient plot holes, I can see that the director is the main culprit who ruined this otherwise brilliantly conceived drama. I have a feeling she's the one who interjected her own communist idea of proletarianism on the original script, as they tend to conveniently alter scripts as they see fit in Korea and as I've seen these left-wing nutcases ruining many other kdramas in such a fashion. (For example, "Revolutionary Love" was so wonderful at the beginning, but later it got distorted into anti-corporate & labor-union propaganda narratives. You can tell that the director altered the scripts about half way through.)

If this show were grounded in reality, there would not have been so many plot holes. You can tell that the writer has been forcing so many narratives here and there uncomfortably to cover the plot-holes, because he knows that this juvenile sense of justice stems from very shaky grounds.

I hope the production studio knows that it is when these left-wing directors try to interject their own juvenile sense of justice inside audiences heads, people feel very uncomfortable watching the show and leave their seats. It is not just uncomfortable, it is very rude.

Who are you trying to teach? Who the heck are you?
This ugly director only leaves the audience very offended.

You really need to stop making replies to anyone who doesn't agree with your idea of hating the writer. This is terrorism and bullying. Do you live in this forum 24/7 while surveillance-monitoring if someone put positive comments on this drama or not? You really need to stop. If this website doesn't do anything, I will find some other ways to address your cyberbully-ism.

It really should be 9.2 ~ 9.4.
By the way, I reported this user Sunyeong. Apparently, she's putting replies to every comment of mine just because she didn't like my comments and I didn't support her idea of hating the writer. This is bullying. I've seen this kind of behavior from many Koreans, but they don't think anything of it.

So it is not about HJP not getting the girl, not any more?? LMAO.

But, there was no love triangle. He never cared for Dalmi as a love interest, besides occasional sidesteps. (But he usually came back to his own sense.) And Dalmi never ever felt for him. He was a good SL in the drama. And the writer did her best to bring out the best for his role as the intended character that he was supposed to be. His younger years living with grandma was important in him later changing his mind and investing in Samsan Tech.

The only complaints I had about HJP, is that KSH was working for 2 jobs at the same time. One as the HJP role in Startup, and the other as a regular member of "Infinite Challenge(무한도전)."

When I found out about this, it totally made sense why at times it felt like KSH was out of it, aloof from the story, not having enough air times. He was shooting Infinite Challenge episodes at times, while other main characters gave their 100% in this drama. I'm sure the writer had to rewrite some parts here and there to make sure his occasional absence would not negatively affect the overall story too much.

But such seems to be the norm for entertainment industry in South Korea. (I see that even from Chayoung character, Jeon Yeobin, in Vincenzo. She was shooting a movie simultaneously.)
If you are a Korean actor/actress, just do one show at a time. When you work for 2 shows at a time, it shows very clearly that you're not giving 100% in either show. And the quality of the show goes down. That's very un-professional.

Where in the drama did he ever hint you that he wanted a family so bad?
As soon as he got money, he ran away from grandma who gave him a family, no?

When it comes to Dalmi choosing Dosan, not HJP, instead of trying to understand from HJP's p.o.v., it is best understood if you're coming from Dalmi's p.o.v.

Remember, Dalmi has this big trauma in the past: When her dad wanted to do a startup, she lost her mom and older sister, although she herself did not leave him. She stuck around helping him out instead. She also knew very well what difficult time it was for her dad not having a wife beside him.

This is what motivated her to stick around with Dosan at all cost. She did not want to be like her mom, who damaged her emotionally so much. No, not to someone like Dosan. She knew very well that her sticking with Dosan was very important to him. (When he was "ac-hired" by 2STOR though, she knew her presence would only mean burden to his future. It is only then she decided to leave him.)

So, if you follow Dalmi's emotional development, you can clearly understand why she did such and such... and eventually sticking with Dosan.

Her presence meant nothing to HJP, on the other hand.

It's true. The FL does not end up with the rich & handsome supporting ML. Instead, she ends up with the ML, who is an insecure computer nerd who wants to startup his own company.

Just be open-minded, and you will enjoy & appreciate this drama so much.
(Haters going to hate this drama, no matter how well it is written and made. But don't let them bother you, no matter what bitter & vicious remarks they come up with every time.)

And if you're like me who enjoyed English Literature during college years (and I often do literary analysis as a hobby), you'll enjoy it 10 times more. I went to a private liberal arts college that used to be among the top 10, well... years ago.

It's a Masterpiece, really! And there are tons to learn. Thank you, Lord God!

As a member of male species, I think I know what bromance means, at least much better than you do. Sunyeong is a Korean female name, right?

Heck, if you don't like the term, perhaps love-hate relationship may sound better to you??

HJP clearly embraced Dosan. He even let him keep his expensive clothings.
Such development was clearly long before ch. 16. Even when he was harsh toward Dosan, and the other 2 san's for that matter, he was actually helping them behind the scene.

It was all about HJP growing up to see how trusting someone like Dosan can be of great help to him, as much as Dosan growing up to appreciating HJP's presence. It is a beautiful reconciliation story.

I feel sorry that all you saw from this drama is the shipper issue; HJP not ending up with Dalmi. (For crying out loud, in which drama does a supporting cast gets the FL anyway??) I really feel sorry for people like you, whose happiness is only when watching a girl gets the rich and handsome guy in a drama.

Also, I don't know why you sound so bitter and vicious, as there is nothing really for you to hate in this drama. But probably as a member of the haters species, you feel very uncomfortable, I can see that. Then, just don't watch it. Don't come in this comment section. Everyone is entitled to his/her opinion. Just because some people have different opinion than you do doesn't entitle you to spew out bitter remarks here and there. That's very rude. Don't you think?

So now you are accusing me of being a liar? What part did I lie?? Can you elaborate?

@porridge I do sincerely thank you for your reply.

You maybe annoyed at my words, but NDS really did not compete with HJP as to who had more abject beginning. No such a thing was ever hinted during the course of this drama. This is why I say you are imagining things that are not there.

Even for NDS saying "I only have Dalmi but you have everything," of course he was unaware of HJP's humble beginning. NDS has only known wealthy side of HJP. Of course, you have omnipotent perspective as the audience, but not NDS in this drama.

As to the bromance, you can't say the bromance only started near the end. You can't really pinpoint it, because it was a gradual development. Men develop bromance even during fist-fights. So I don't think your assessment is fair.

Thank you for the reply, but I really don't see where the following came from:
"young HJP had close to nothing while NDS just believed he had nothing."

NDS never competed with HJP as to who started off with less resources. It's just a figment of your imagination that really wasn't there in the drama. NDS was just reckless, because he was really cornered in his life.

As for the bromance you're looking for, it is there. I think you're just refusing to see it in order not to feel guilty about giving this drama low-rating. Their brawl really did developed into bromance, and later NDS finally appreciated HJP's advises. They even slept together and shared T-shirts together.

What are you talking about?

By the way, here is a fun fact about HJP.

In Korea, there is a credit bureau that oversees and scores all businesses out there. It is called "한국신용평가(Hanguk Shinyong PyeongGa)," Korean Credit Bureau. Koreans just call it as a shortened name, Han-Shin-Pyeong(한신평), which sounds SUSPICIOUSLY SIMILAR to HJP(Han-Ji-Pyeong).

But the similarity does not end there. What HJP does in the drama is exactly what HSP(Korean Credit Bureau) is doing, evaluating businesses and giving scores as to whether a company is investment-worthy or not.

So, is HJP a personification of HSP in the drama?

Well, you judge it for youself. :)

As someone who enjoyed English Literature courses (almost majored it) during my college years, I'd like to share my insights about NDS vs. HJP.

So here comes my tiny Literary Analysis.

NDS was not just a mirror image of Dalmi's late father, he was also the very mirror image of HJP's younger self, played by actor Nam Dareum.

HJP was a very insecure orphan boy and never trusted grandma's true heart. (It took grandma very long time for her to develop this trust relationship with the young boy.) As you know well, it was because of the grandma's HESED(חֶסֶד, extension of grace), he really transformed into a very steady person with great success.

She basically took all kinds of crap coming from him, but never once abandoned him. In other words, HJP found a person who always believed & supported in him no matter what.

But now once he got successful, he found this young man NDS who reminded so much of his younger self: young, stupid, and very insecure. He sees that NDS only got this one useless thing going for his life (winning math competition), but that's how HJP himself once was (winning jr. mock investment competition). Other than that, basically a very insecure loser.

It is only after HJP's rediscovery & reunion with grandma during her foodtruck years, that he realized that the trust that grandma gave him was a great help to his future success.

This was the turning point, when HJP changed his mind and decided to support NDS.
All the harsh words he spoke to NDS, he was really talking to his younger stupid self.

NDS also gave all kinds of crap to HJP, much like how a whining baby would.
HJP took it, because he also was once the very insecure whining boy to the overbearing grandma.

So, I hope people understand the character development of HJP had a lot more to do with NDS.
Even in the literary analysis sense, HJP's character development has very little to do with Dalmi's presence in the story.

I hope this clarified many people's anger here.

P.S. Kudos to the great writer. Thank you for this masterpiece!

Very true. Dalmi was always visibly uncomfortable with HJP. She knew herself very well, and she knew that she did not belong high up there with him.

Dalmi ending up with Dosan is deliberately her choice, despite HJP being more competent.
Many people made slanderous remarks and cursed the writer for this, but if you really think about it,
it is not that hard to understand why; the reason is hinted and implied in many places instead of being explicitly stated (which made the drama all the more engaging to watch.)

Please, remember.
Dalmi's late father was just like Dosan. He died while trying to launch his own startup. Dalmi worked so hard to help out her dad, unlike her older sister InJae, who did not give a d*mn about her father's passion.

For Dalmi, it was almost a fate and natural inclination that she found Dosan more appealing.
Helping Dosan to succeed was for her nothing short of a redemption for her dad.

At the same time, she's never felt comfortable with HJP, as there was a clear class-gap between the two. (One being a very high-profile elite with tons of money, and the other high-school graduate with uninspiring resume.) This is why she felt more comfortable being with Dosan.

I am not making this up. From the getgo, Dalmi's path was set in such a way.

Illuminati and the left-wing think beheading & killing of thousands during the French Revolution, including Marie Antoinette, was a good thing. So, it is debatable whether those killings by then the Cuban government were justified or not, let alone finding out who really did it.

For example, South Korea had a similar incident during 1980. The crowd attacked and stole weapons from military facilities and cruised down the main streets of Kwangju. So the government had to take action and neutralize hundreds of them. But they are now called as "democracy fighters" persecuted by South Korean dictators.

Interestingly, do you know who got really upset at then the South Korean government? It was the US ambassador Gleistein to South Korea (a person from Jimmy Carter, the left-wing nutcase). It is telling that the crowd was secretly funded by CIA, and the riot was instigated by the US (CIA and the deepstate globalist cabbals.)

If you hear things like "dictator" and stuff on the news - that nobody really knows exactly what the definition is (equivalent to calling someone "bastard") - you know these are political publicity games they play, and we don't really know the whole truth.

I can agree with you only about 50% here. Aside from Soros being a globalist kabbal, he and Warren Buffet are generally known as "gods of investment" in South Korea. Che Guavera was a communist on paper, but he really did some amazing stuff. (It is more like he was forcefully labelled as a "communist" by CIA(the US government), much like how the US government is trying to paint Putin as a "dictator.")

So those are benign references, IMO.

What concerns me more were the illuminati hand-gestures and Frensh Revolution theme. These are hard-core illuminati stuff; patently and proudly the works of illuminati.

I've been a fan of this drama's the writer. But I think these illuminati stuff are not his doing. I think it is the Netflix, while putting tons of investment money in Korean drama producers, theymade them sign the contracts for incorporating those illuminati stuff in.

How do I know this? Because, prior to Netflix investment in Korea, kdramas never had anything illuminati or freemason stuff.

I see this concurring with other dramas as well, such as Sisyphus, and several zombie movies. To me, those are not from Kdrama DNA. they rather look like American illuminati scriptwriters just asking the Korean script writers to translate illuminati scripts into Korean and Korean cultural setting. In other words, while abandning Hollywood, the illuminati found new nest to dwell in South Korea to influence the world for their own agenda.

Those kdrama producers cannot help but to accept the terms from Netflix, because Netflix invested so much money in Kdrama these days.

To me, this is why these days Kdrama tasted like American remakes, which I don't like.
Kdramas have DNA and narratives of its own that made it very successful.

Netflix doing these ugly things behind the scene will only hurt its own business.

Not just an Asian thing. Even in the Proverbs in the Bible, you can read something like "chastising your foolish son's back will make him wise one day." Different from being physically abusive. It is the American culture that not conventional. In fact, even 30 years ago, parents beating children was allowed even in America. America tends to go extreme in anything.

In Korea, having potatoes (sweet or not) is kind of a slang for one's frustration or testing one's patience. (mainly among youngsters)
So, it is opposite to "Sweet Justice being served,"
or something like "Sweet potatoes being served without a drink to quench the thirst."

Incidentally, I am compelled to share my own experiences in Korea.
I've recently visited Seoul, the city I love. But then, something has changed.

It's the demonic spirit. It can possess a person, and it can possess a nation.
Judging from my own assessment, I think Illuminati has at least penetrated into
South Korea's own CDC and FDA, and some parts of KPOP world. Uh oh!

The demonic spirit of Illuminati has left Hollywood and found a new nest in South Korea, it seems. This is why this drama having numerous illuminati signs is such a big concern for me.

Let's hope South Koreans would fight against this demonic spirit, because I want to continue watching all the good kdrama's I've enjoyed over many years, which have been so refreshing because they were absolutely kabbala-free and illuminati-free.

I'm sure many Christians in South Korea will manage to repel this demonic spirit in the end.
I know Korean people. They can do this well, even though the US failed at it.