I feel like once you get out of the romcom territory, most females leads exist for the male, even if they are by themselves cool and strong. Byun Ji Sook/Eun Ha, whether she was strong or weak (I thought she was pretty darn awesome), was of the few fleshed out females that existed for herself (now try saying "fleshed out female" 3 times as fast as you can).
To add to everything (sorry, too many comments), I feel like this was not LJS's best role. I know he is a good actor based off IHYV, but I felt like he had ONE tone throughout this entire drama, and it was a "let me show that I'm a very serious guy with this soft-spoken monotone" tone.
On the other hand, with a drama that critizes character set-ups at its core, it sure showed a fair amount of hypocrisy:
1. If in the story, the characters can change the reasons for their own existence (like Kang Chul did, and later, So Hee), why couldn't the villains? Why couldn't Dad-villian change his reason so he could have this own happy ending?
2. What happend to poor Yeon Joo? She started off so cool, so smart, and so funny (I nevere knew HHJ had such excellent comedic timing), and ended up a 1D character who didn't have her own ideas (toward the end, EVERYTHING was a "hypothesis" created by the suddenly-a-genius Kang Chul), her own actions (she exists to look bug-eyed or to draw whatever Kang Chul tells her to draw) or her own story. I'm really pissed they reduced her character so to what they did, like really really reallllllyyyyyy pissed. As a side note, I'm also miffed they didn't explore the fact that W is really HERS, and she made it as kid when her parents were figthing all the time.
On one hand, this drama starts out GREAT and thruout its run, it does the suspence part right. Despite certian frustrations, I still marathoned it back-to-back.
Contrary to popular opinion, I really liked Kim So Yeon in this. I'm not sure if she was supposed to be written as a typical candy girl but KSY's natural maturity gave the female sort of a refined vibe. I think this helps balance the males nuttiness. Plus, (imho) the two had so so so much chemistry!
erm, tbh, I'm not sure if these are spoilers or not, so read with caution.
The one thing that keeps me from loving this drama is the treatmetn of Park Ha. I loved how strong and smart she was at the beginning 1/3. Poor girl, the writers (IMHO) had such potential with her. As soon as the plot picked up, she went from a smart lead to a naive female to almost a side character. I mean, she was working at the company too--why couldn't she be involved in the corportate espionage, and play a role in stopping the baddies? She knew Se Na's secrets, why couldn't she be more involved in the whole whodunit mystery? Why couldn't there be a separate plot line where she has a battle of wits with Se Na? Why was the essentially written out of the main plot line as soon as she confessed? Why, why, why? Sigh, SO much potential.
I feel like once you get out of the romcom territory, most females leads exist for the male, even if they are by themselves cool and strong. Byun Ji Sook/Eun Ha, whether she was strong or weak (I thought she was pretty darn awesome), was of the few fleshed out females that existed for herself (now try saying "fleshed out female" 3 times as fast as you can).
1. If in the story, the characters can change the reasons for their own existence (like Kang Chul did, and later, So Hee), why couldn't the villains? Why couldn't Dad-villian change his reason so he could have this own happy ending?
2. What happend to poor Yeon Joo? She started off so cool, so smart, and so funny (I nevere knew HHJ had such excellent comedic timing), and ended up a 1D character who didn't have her own ideas (toward the end, EVERYTHING was a "hypothesis" created by the suddenly-a-genius Kang Chul), her own actions (she exists to look bug-eyed or to draw whatever Kang Chul tells her to draw) or her own story. I'm really pissed they reduced her character so to what they did, like really really reallllllyyyyyy pissed. As a side note, I'm also miffed they didn't explore the fact that W is really HERS, and she made it as kid when her parents were figthing all the time.
The one thing that keeps me from loving this drama is the treatmetn of Park Ha. I loved how strong and smart she was at the beginning 1/3. Poor girl, the writers (IMHO) had such potential with her. As soon as the plot picked up, she went from a smart lead to a naive female to almost a side character. I mean, she was working at the company too--why couldn't she be involved in the corportate espionage, and play a role in stopping the baddies? She knew Se Na's secrets, why couldn't she be more involved in the whole whodunit mystery? Why couldn't there be a separate plot line where she has a battle of wits with Se Na? Why was the essentially written out of the main plot line as soon as she confessed? Why, why, why? Sigh, SO much potential.