Yuljesobgynresident07

You had all the right cards, WHY DID YOU NOT PUT THEM DOWN!

I usually love watching an on-going drama, especially counting down the hours for an episode to be released, but it was honestly a miracle I was hooked until the end of this drama. Like srsly, THEY PLAYED IN OUR FACES!!!! They had all the elements to make a hit rom com: An interesting premise, great costuming, lovely soundtrack, and most importantly A KILLER CAST (pun intended). But god, did it fall short towards the end. I mean, they had Park Eunbin and Yang Se-jong for gods sake, acting power houses within their own rights, who had the most freaking amazing chemistry EVER. When they were in a scene together, it just felt easy and believable, and my god were they lovely behind the scenes too. They are single handedly the ONLY reason I stayed on watching this drama, because despite an incredibly shitty last 5 episodes, their acting was so gripping, I sat through some horrible plot lines and directing.

Before I get onto all the things I disliked, I'll start with my praises. Obviously I've gone on my rant about the acting, but once again Eunbin and Sejong- it was absolutely wonderful you were cast together, and god I beg and pray that you will reunite in another project with a much better script. I also really enjoyed the ensemble. Both Grandmas were believable and frustrating in their own way, and it was so interesting having them be dichotomies of each other: The traditionalist vs the progressive chairwoman. Also, I think the prosecutors office was lovely, Gang-uk's colleagues were funny and their scenes together were a nice breath of fresh air. Yeori's family were funny at times but had WAY TOO MUCH screen time towards the end of the drama. I mean come on, that scene of them at the prison with the aunt went on for too long, I was screaming at my screen to MOVE ON. I think Hari's brother was an entirely unnecessary character that did not serve any purpose, at least Hari was directly butting heads and causing trouble for Yeori, I wish they'd explored their relationship as strained cousins much more. I also think Seong wu did a great job as the main antagonist, especially at the start when his obsession and possesiveness over Yeori was first show-cased. Moving on, I think the costuming was fabulous in the show and it had some of the best pieces I've seen Eunbin in- the tailoring of her suits were gorgeous and her dark burgundy hair was sooo pretty. I also thing Sejong got some lovely suits and great styling, so again the costume department were great. I also really liked 'Love + Ghost' in the soundtrack, it immediately put a smile on my face, and 'Tunnel' by Liz was hauntingly beautiful as well.

Now onto dislikes. WHAT THE HELL WAS UP WITH THE DIRECTING???? So many poor poor choices. An excessive number of zooms out, weird angles, and slo mos. So much wasted potential, especially when Eunbin and Sejong were acting their asses off. The kiss scenes were so disappointing, especially considering the chemistry of the duo, like what was up with the weirdly long kiss during the engagement and the strange drone shot (I mean, in the behind the scenes video, Sejong literally ran out of air for a FISH KISS). And what started off as an interesting script with complex characters, just fell into disarray as we got to the end which was so disappointing. There should of been much more focus on the ghosts and solving cases, rather than the silly company takeover plot line that lasted SO MANY EPISODES. It really felt like the writers room had loads of ideas that they needed to shove into 12 episodes and so the drama lost focus and more interesting plot lines were kept at bay. Every Kdrama cliche was thrown into the show at the end, i was surprised we didn't get a meeting as children plot line! This was such a let down, especially with the set up of the show. At the start I found Yeori's character so interesting, because I thought with the outfits and the demeanour, Yeori would be a character more akin to Man-wol from HDL or Moon-young from IOTNBO, but instead Eunbin brought a charm and a restrain to her character that really highlighted her loneliness and self-sacrificing nature. Gang-uk was also such a well written character of this equally self-sacrificing character, willing to do things for the greater good whilst also being deeply empathetic. I saw a lot of commentary where people could not understand why Gang-uk fell in love with Yeori, and once again-entirely the directing's FAULT! All of their romantic progression was over that one montage of their facetime calls, besides the few very lovely scenes of them teasing each other. They had so much to work with and clearly just gave up towards the end and just wanted to messily tie everything up together. The issues within the show also resolved themselves far too easily and often did not make sense with previous scenes or characterisation. I understand they didn't want to delve into the legal side too much, but it would have been so interesting to see Gang-uk working on the aftermath of cases more deeply. Also, a lot of people thought the break up was unnecessary but honeslty it felt very justified in the grand scheme of things and the way Yeori has always been cautious and witholding, especially before the couple got together. They sacrificed exploring interesting reactions to certain situations (like Gang-uk catching Yeori sneaking out to investigate) and underutilised the strength of their actors to instead prioritise a shit ton of useless story lines.

Despite all of this, I'm glad I tuned it because I am now more endeared towards Eunbin and Sejong and desparately am hoping for a reunion in another BETTER project. This drama barely classifies as a rom-com, but it's def a com- that they did well. I wished they'd given the audience more of the romance we had been promised but this also calls to a bigger issue current kdramas, where writers are recycling ludicrous cliche plots to move the story along whilst putting the romance on the back burner. The one thing I will end with is is at least everyone looked like they were having a lot of fun. The behind the scenes videos were delightful and clearly a great work environment was fostered. I just wish this wasn't at the expense of what could of been a phenomenal rom-com. Sigh.

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