Zogitt

Totally irrelevant but enjoyable romp

As a 2 eps bonus extra I'm not sure the rationale behind its production. It is set in the No Gain, No Love universe but it is a branching subplot that has no impact on the original storyline. Maybe they just have all the people standing around and the B-listers are on the clock so they just throw something together. Seeing the original series was only 12 eps long, the production team needs to get their money's worth. Of course, it would be nice if these 2 extra eps are focused on our OTP but it is a first world problem. ;)

The production is definitely more cheeky and fanciful. It is modelled on a saucy web novel so anything goes. I think what I enjoyed the most is the self awareness and 4th wall breaking bits. I loved the bed scene where the FL shouts "Again! Again!" because she can't remember the actual sex act! Then we hear the voiceover saying they have to bump the show down from R to PG. That's why we ended up with the ubiquitous blanket over the head and the fade to the next morning scene. So meta. ROFL That is worth the price of admission. There are several other references to tropey plots and other silly devices. It is almost a satire on itself and the genre as a whole. I appreciate the candour.

In the end, It is a bit of irrelevant, fluffy romp which brought a smile to my face. There is no point in judging it too harshly. It is what it is. BTW, I'm sure they had a blast making it. I wish I was a fly on the wall. ;)

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It is blooming good! Serious

The title of this show basically summed up the drama. It is all about one girl and her family's rise above terrible adversity and the many challenges they faced. It starts simple enough. All the main characters are introduced and the world building begins. Once the show hits its stride, calamity hits. The FL's family literally went from a position of power and influence to object poverty overnight.

Rather than just accepting her fate, the FL comes to the fore and takes charge of the situation and changed her family's fortune. Along the way, she found love and changed the lives of many people she touched.

The series is full of positive messages, and they are delivered quite effectively by an engaging storyline. Yes, the plots are tropey but the way they unfolded is well scripted and its pacing is good. You won’t feel bored nor confused.

It is a good drama overall and quite enjoyable. A large part is attributed to the solid FL character. She faces every challenge head on and uses her initiative and intelligence to overcome them. Of course, the ML is there to do the heavy lifting and lend a sharp sword. In that sense, the show is a bumpy ride, but the trajectory is always upwards. We are never left in utter despair. This is a double-edged sword as we are almost conditioned to see a silver lining around every storm cloud. The show does go dark from time to time, with death and suffering just around the corner. It is just our leads who are mostly Teflon coated.

There is a good deal of fan service in the second half of the last EP before the HEA ending arrives on cue. All the main threads are tied up with pink bows and most characters have their arc concluded satisfactory.

I am pleasantly surprised by the acting abilities of the large support cast. It would not be an exaggeration to use terms like cast of a thousand. There are so many actors with speaking parts! It ranges from highly regarded veterans to young green actors. There are the odd hit and miss but, overall, they lifted the series and provide able support to the leads when the going gets tough. The production value is good but not quite S rank. They didn't cheap out on the sets and costumes.

I believe this is the FL’s first historical drama. I have seen her in contemporary dramas. I not a real fan before this show. I find her other performances to be a bit stilted. However, she is good in this drama. The style suits her and the low-key makeup as well.

While the ML is handsome and the fight scenes are decent, his performance did feels oddly detached at times. To be honest, a bit wooden. All the actors are dubbed but his dialogue just feels too measured and flat. It is as if the lines are recorded in a vacuum. It is odd when almost every other aspect of the series is solid.

I started with low expectations but I was pleasantly surprised. It is tropey and a bit cheesy. A guilty pleasure for me. That’s entertainment!

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Not impossible but they need to try harder

The FL has a breakout role in the film Burning. I jumped at the chance to see her in a proper drama series.

The initial set up of her character was encouraging. Her character is hard working, resourceful and has a laser focus on her career. She might be down on her luck, but she has a backbone of steel. The potential for growth is writ large. So much so that I can overlook the tropey contract marriage/cohabitation plot if she is allowed to play to her strengths. Unfortunately, it is where the engine kinda stalled.

To wit, once the show simple premise is lay out for us, the FL's role actually diminished. She has flashes of brilliance but soon her role is overshadowed by the male lead aka Moon Sang-min. For half the series, she is the "meek" fiancée of the 2ML. At one stage, her character was forced to go into hiding and lay low. Not exactly the ideal setting for scene stealing performances.

To be fair, I don't have a problem with the acting of Moon. He is handsome and charismatic as ever. The show is pretty much his starrer. Our leads do have good chemistry and their on/off romance is what sustained my interest. However, the paper-thin plot needs more to make it work. So far, it is not much more than a cavalcade of tired tropes.

Alas, that memo didn't land on the right desk. Most characters are straight out of central casting. Side plots are tropey and boring. Antagonists are more meddling than evil. It is all so samey and predictable. Even the writer-nim recognised this. There are multiple references to "trashy drama” plots in dialogues. Self awareness . . I get it! Ha ha . . indeed.

Even when we are served a sugar hit just after the 3/4 mark. It was immediately followed by the ubiquitous breakup with not 1, not 2 but 3 lots of Noble Idiocy. Predictably, that send our leads straight to purgatory but served little other purpose.

This is further confirmed in the last EP when after a mandatory 1-year time skip, our leads threw themselves at each other within hours of a chance meeting. What is the point of the breakup? This leads to 15 mins of decent fan service and HEA endings for all concerned whether they are good, bad or just silly.

I am not saying the show is bad. It is quite watchable and entertaining at times but the wasted potentials just irks me.

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A do-over done right . . With caveats

I think I shall call 2023/24 the Year of Do-overs. Quite a few shows have the lead(s) shuffle off the mortal coil only to come back as the much improved Lead(s) 2.0.

To be fair, if anyone deserves a do-over and right some serious wrongs, our beloved PMY should be at the head of the queue. We are left with no doubt that her life has spiralled out of control and death is a blessed relief.

With her demise out of the way, the show completely changed tone. The FL was confused and stressed for the moment but once she accepted her situation and got her little grey cells working overtimes, she was on fire! She re-evaluated her life from high school onwards and noticed all the red flags she never noticed before. It was obvious in hindsight that she was manipulated and gaslighted constantly by someone with a singular purpose.

The middle section is the highlight for me. It was gratifying to see our OTP join hands and outsmart the antagonists at every turn. Everything seems to be going swimmingly. If you think there is a BUT coming then you have obviously watched too many k-dramas. ;)

Within a few scenes around episode 12, our writer-nim turned all the best made plans of our OTP into dumpster fires. It was makjang with a capital M. Every tropey subplots are dusted off and threw into the witches brew.

I know most viewers will feel aggrieved at this point. The show giveth and the show taketh away. It was as if a switch was flipped. The drama was injecting angst just for angst’s sake.

However, I do see some method to this madness. It largely comes down to the plot getting out of control as more and more characters are introduced which stretched the simple idea of diverting your worse fate to others difficult to sustain without creating a small singularity. I'm sure our writer-nim planned it all along but it was not a good look when the proverbial hits the fan.

With this in mind, the writer-nim basically did a hard reset, allowing her to set the stage for the final confrontation. It might feel like a hack job but the show gets away with it because it is a dark fantasy. Paring back the modern trimmings, it could have been a tale told by the OG Brothers Grimm. Gruesome deaths are far more likely than singing woodland creatures.

Thankfully, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and there is much rejoicing when the inevitable all happened on cue. This leads us to one of the most detailed and sweetest fan service episode for many moons. It is not brilliant writing but the little lumps of sugar just kept coming and we stop caring.

In terms of acting, I’m happy to report that PMY has got her mojo back. As a fan, it pains me to say that her last few dramas were (cough) patchy. It certainly was not on par with earlier shows like Secretary Kim or Her Private Life. While this show is still not up there, they definitely share some DNA.

This is further helped by the acting of the ML and their chemistry. He might not be the classic handsome lead but he more than made up for it with other attributes. He complimented her evolving character well. On the other hand, the antagonists are one dimensional and predictable. That's ok because this is not a convoluted mystery drama, their actions are all laid bare from the start. They are there as focus of our ire, this they managed to do with single minded efficiency.

In the end, I had high hopes and the series mostly delivered. However, it did stumble in the last 1/4 of its run. It almost stole defeat from the jaws of victory. I’m glad that the show recovers and ends well. It was a close call. I gave it an extra ½ point because of PMY. Fight me. :)

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Who said only bad girls have all the fun

Do-over seems to be the plot du jour at the moment. While most shows in this genre would focus on righting wrongs and get revenge on antagonists, this one took a different approach.

In this case, the FL was a cruel and ruthless Queen in her past life. Her path to the top was awash with the blood of both friends and foes. In that sense, she is trying to stop herself going down the same path again and right her own wrongs! This is certainly a more novel take on this genre. I’m excited to see how will the writer spin this yarn.

This review will look at this drama from two different angles. On one hand, the series is very entertaining, full of engaging characters and it is gratifying to watch the progress of the FL in her “new” life. However, if we look at the series with more critical eyes then we can see issues with the pacing, narrative and acting.

There is no doubt that this is a S class production. Sets are lush (love to see their Hengdian bill), costumes are beautiful if a tad generic. There is a big cast so important scenes are well populated with extras.

Bai Lu has the titular role and she owns it. She plays both the evil and good roles with aplomb. My only reservation is that while she is supposed to be a maiden about 18 years old in Life 2.0, she can look and feel a lot older. I suppose that is because in Life 1.0, she did and saw things that would age any mortals. It does make her character a little out of focus in earlier episodes as she dances between an innocent teenager and the ghost of an evil Queen. The question of whether she would flip to the dark side cannot be ignored.

This highlights one of the major issues for me. The show is filled with flashbacks of Life 1.0. This is particularly true during earlier episodes where it is almost like watching a mashup of two dramas. The drama tries to distinguish them by dulling the colour palette of the L1.0 scenes. Nevertheless, this can be quite jarring as the trigger for a lengthy flashback might be a simple chance meeting and suddenly, we are watching an epic battle. Even if we don’t get a flashback, she might pause and have an internal monologue about what she did wrong and what she should do now.

These sudden scene changes can give you a whiplash and it slows the forward momentum. It is also confusing when we try to decipher the significance of each event based on snippets of dialogues and jumbled recollections. What is worse is that Life 1.0 is actually more intriguing and exciting compared to the early part of Life 2.0. She is trying so hard to be good, she is boring. I almost want to watch L1.0 more than L2.0 until about the 1/3 mark. I understand why they did it but by making Life 1.0 so dramatic and impactful, it takes the wind out of Life 2.0's sails.

What I have to say next is not going to be popular. The ML is tall and handsome but his acting left me cold. Most of the time he is stoic and occasionally he gets angry. That’s about it. His dialogue delivery feels flat. Another issue is his approach to romance is quite caveman like. It makes him looks brutish when he isn't. The sad fact is that the two other 2ML's radiate serious second lead syndrome.

On the other hand, acting from the ensemble cast is good. There are the odd weaker links, but the more senior members have certainly earn their keep.

To be honest, the series is much more enjoyable in the second half. By then, the FL's plan to change her destiny is finally in place and she surrounds herself with a group of fast friends. The last few episodes are the best. Packed with epic battles, court intrigues and swoon worthy moments. What more can you ask? The ending is satisfying with all the loose ends tired up nicely.

I commend the writer for being innovative and I did enjoy this drama. However, I was distracted by issues which I can't ignore. It lost a point because of that.

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A glorious blend of the good, the meh and synchronised flag-waving

This is a very watchable show, but its plots and tone change so often that you feel exhilarated and exhausted in equal parts. This makes it hard to give a concise rating. When it is good, it is heartfelt and stirring. But it can also get cheesy with a side order of jingoistic flag-waving. I suppose my rating is between 8 and 8.5.

At its core, this is about the aborted love story of a pair of teenagers who met towards the end of high school. Their budding relationship was torn apart by the FL’s domineering mother. They met by chance ten years later and things develop from there. If the plot sounds tropey then here's your gold star. This show walks on familiar paths but it does set a cracking pace.

During early episodes, our leads would "chance" upon each other repeatedly. When you realise one is a firefighter and the other is an ER doctor it means they only meet at emergencies. Consider even a small city in China can house millions, that’s a very small but dangerous corner they live in! It feels so contrived and is almost farcical.

All these entanglements finally brought them back together and this is essentially the glue that held the show together. Once we get past the push-pulls and denials, we have a very romantic pairing. Our leads have good chemistry, and they are certainly photogenic. It was gratifying to see the FL grows a spine and stands up to her controlling mum once she is all in. Amore trionfa sempre!

While both stars are beautiful people, Yang Yang is the face of this show, and he is everywhere. This can cut both ways. Fans of YY will rejoice but someone who is less enamoured might start to notice some flaws in his acting.

The other star of the show is the firefighters and their daily grind provides most of the subplots. A shoutout to the ensemble cast who filled the ranks. They must have trained hard for their roles. Some of the action/training scenes look very challenging. They are ably supported by the staff of the ER department where the FL works. However, these plots are a mixed bag. It can go from inspiring and exciting to banal. I appreciate the work of first responders, and I'll not begrudge their moments in the sun. However, some of the dramatisations are over the top. Plots and pacing is uneven. There are a lot of nationalistic messages aimed at the local audiences. Your mileage will differ.

The mother of the FL is straight out of central casting. She is the personification of a rich, immoral, domineering matriarch. She can probably trace her matrilineal line to a Tang Empress. She is a force of nature and rules with an iron fist. The only problem is that her role is very one dimensional. Her only goal is to obtain power, wealth and a total control over her serfdom. She never has a moment of self doubt or regret. It is tiring to watch her do the same thing over and over. Her “Death Bed” conversion feels particularly contrived.

In the end, fans of the leads will be happy, the production value is high, particularly some of the action set pieces. There are impactful and poignant moments that will stay with you. The romance is sweet and swoon worthy. Once the OTP get together, they skipped the handholding and went straight to home base which is rare in a c-drama. However, it is an inconsistent grab-bag of highs and lows, original ideas and contrivances. This annoys me because I really wanted to recommend this show unreservedly, but I can’t.

I can certainly rewatch some of the romantic scenes (repeatedly) but not the whole 40 eps. OST is very nice.

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It is not always about the OTP

This show is a rewarding watch with a nice positive message and a fluffy, easy going style.

Ok, now that the review is over, let’s talk about something else.

There is a well-thumbed rom-com playbook that is passed between writers with reverence. On page 2 of the sacred text is this rule. “A second male or female lead must be unlikeable and possibly despicable. He or she shall do all within their power to break up the OTP.” I don’t know how many shows have followed this golden rule to the letter, but I have ran out of fingers and toes a long time ago. Once in a long while, a show will break this rule.

The characters in this show feels real. They are far from perfect, and they will act selfishly when the need arises. They are just normal people who are reacting to circumstances. Both the second leads are in love with the respective leads so they gave it a red-hot go in their pursuit of happiness. However, once they knew the race is lost, they bow out gracefully. It is sad and the scene where the SFL proclaimed that she just threw away her own happiness is gut retching. However, you have to give them their dues and respect their honesty and dignity. It might sound trite but that is a lot closer to reality than the same-y win-at-all-cost type being dished up nowadays. I won’t go as far as saying that I have 2nd lead syndrome, but they are worthy contenders. Speaking of which, a good example of second lead syndrome can be found in She Was Pretty. Salute!

BTW, the side characters in this show are all nice, decent people. Solid friends and co-workers whom you would be proud to associate with. Even in that sense, the show is refreshingly different.

I can’t give this a perfect score because it is just an unpretentious, fluffy little rom-com but it has a special place in my rewatch list. This show will recharge your emotional battery and make you swoon. Peace out.

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Sharing IS caring

This show is unabashedly sentimental with the focus on the overwhelming grief suffered by the college age FL. She recently lost her grandmother who is more like a mother to her after the sudden death of her father through misadventure 5 years previous. It is a blow she is ill prepared to handle. Her life grinds to a halt at that point.

Sharing meals is a common device used to signify a bond between friends and family members. We see flashbacks of meals happily shared in her humble abode with her closest friends and small family unit. It contrasted starkly with the scenes in the present where she ate bento boxes bought from convenience stores in silence with the TV providing nothing but background noise. The loneliness and heartache are palatable.

However, her seemingly unrelenting despair began to lift once she started to work at a cafe called Finland Papa. The whole raison d'etre of the establishment seems to be the healing of those who work there. The writer-nim certainly took some liberty with the narrative here. Just don't ask too many questions. ;)

FL is the focal point of the show, and she has to display the broadest range of emotions. I think she did well, and she was ably assisted by the ensemble cast. Speaking of the ensemble, I'm not going to spoil their stories. The writer-nim doesn’t have time to paint with a fine brush, so we have to settle for some broad strokes surrounding their tropey backstories. Nothing untoward and certainly within the realm of plausibility. I almost forgot to mention, the grandma character is the underpinning of the main plot. She dispenses wisdom and bonhomie to all who would accepts her hospitality.

This leads us to the other key motif of the show. The found family trope is a favourite for a good reason and it is used to good effect here. The motley crew working at the cafe started with a love-hate relationship. Their growing bond is what gave them strength to heal through their various wounded psyches. While the process is a foregone conclusion, its steady progress is nice to watch, nevertheless.

The show will hit you with the feels as long as you are not too critical about the simple story and straightforward delivery. There are no high dramas nor funny gags. But sometimes you just need a show like this to give you an excuse to step away from our crazy world for just a moment. I'd like to think of this show as is a soothing salve to the soul. It won't appeal to everyone but that's ok too. That just means there are more Xmas parfait for me. :)

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If Xianxia rom-com is a legit sub genre then this is a very good example

I don't watch many Xianxia nowadays because a lot of them, in recent years, relies too much on (questionable) CGI and lazy scripts that have tropey paper thin plots and are devoid of fresh ideas. Hence, it is with some trepidation that I started to watch this show solely based on personal recommendations. I'm happy to report that this Show is good, very good.

The basic story is nothing new. Multiple realms exist between heaven and the underworld. They alternate between warring with each other to an unstable truce. Enter the human emperor who decided to buy time for us weaklings by marrying one of his beautiful and smart daughters to the empyrean prince while farm off the unloved one to the crown prince of the underworld. So far, so tropey.

Forsooth, not exactly LOL material, right? Well, hats off to the writer. She managed to inject a lot of fun and comedy into this show. It is a revelation. It runs the full spectrum of jokes, innuendos, slapstick and sight gags. All this hijinx is integrated right through more than 3/4 of the Show. Of course, there are serious moments, but it is just as likely the next scene will drop you straight into an elaborate sight gag that will makes you LOL.

This includes a very long and elaborate mid show story arc that have the ML play three completely different roles. Forget second wind. This is third and fourth. The audacity! Naturally, not every moment is golden but it kept the momentum going long after similar show would have suffered serious mid show drag. Bravo!

Acting is great from our leads. It was a revelation that the stoic Xuan Shang has a comedic side which is well matched by the minx like Li Guang Ye Tan. Their love-hate relationship is worth the price of admission. The second pairing of Chao Feng and Li Guang Qing Kui pales a little by comparison. It is largely due to their story is being set in the dark and oppressive underworld. Their characters are also a bit more traditional Xianxia compared to the OTP. Both CP have swoon worthy love lines and decent amount of skinship.

The big ensemble of side characters is a bit of a mixed bag. Some have real depth like Man Man and Wu Dai while others are just punchline for the many gags. It is an above average ensemble and they helped to move the plot along and entertain us with their antics.

Is the Show perfect? Not quite. The setting of heaven and the underworld is very cliché. Empyrean realm is quite artificial. Lighting is too bright, and colours are washed out. It might look “ethereal”, but it is also boring. On the other hand, the underworld is too dark, and the theme is confusing. It swings from gothic grandeur to dank subterranean without a strong sense of coherence. It is supposed to be oppressive and foreboding but does look a bit cheap at times.

CGI is the bread and butter of Xianxia dramas, and this show doesn’t disappoint. There are a good variety of effects to signify different types of powers. There are also some practical effects and stunt work. Overall, it is a respectable effort and complemented the story well.

While the general screenplay is a cut above, it is still a Xianxia drama at its core and some of the plot holes are hereditary. It really comes down to “ask no questions and you’ll get no illogical answers”. As long as you don’t hate Xianxia dramas, the engaging plots, swoon worthy love lines and abundant humour will carry you to the end.

Speaking of the end. The ending and the several episodes preceding it are probably the closest the Show got to high drama. It is impactful and emotionally charged. I won’t give the plot away other than to say that the ending is generally considered a happy one, but I would prefer to call it encouraging rather than HEA. Its interpretation will be up to the individual.

40 episodes is too long for a rewatch and the jokes will be stale by then but I’d have no problem watching a highlight reel. The OST is nice but some songs are on high rotation and it can get a bit repetitive.

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I don't think I'll see you again

This show's plot is paper thin and it is quite predictable. It pretty much played in one sandpit for the whole show with passable production values. There is little nuance or growth to the characters and their romantic developments are on rails.

All the usual youth romantic drama tropes are present; love at first sight, crushes, envy and fated meeting as kids. The plot regarding the FL's Prosopagnosia is poorly represented and not really explored. It is just used as a device for minor gags or token angst until the ML shows up as her knight in shining armour.

As expected, the plots are factory standard issue and the pairing of the protagonists are obvious from the start. It is just a matter of getting over the meet-cutes, push-pulls and failed confessions. Sadly, there is scant chemistry between the three CP's which netted a token amount of skinship. I get the OTP pairing (fated and all) but the other two pairs are hardly match made in heaven. What is more concerning are the weird editing, disjointed narrative and phantom side plots that literally appears for a few scenes and then forgotten. Choppy is a good way to describe this show.

Acting from the young leads are passable. They are energic but prone to overact. I have seen worse and they do try. The support cast is another story. Most are no better than extras handed a couple of lines of dialogue and it shows. I do wonder if the production company approached a local college to do a collaboration and held an open call for extras and bit parts. There is certainly no shortage of extras for many scenes.

The plot twist towards the end was totally contrived and unnecessary. It did manage to pad out the runtime significantly so job done. The HEA ending rolls in as expected. The final scenes after the big time skip feel amateurish and rushed.
If you are interested in a drama about Prosopagnosia, try The Secret Life of My Secretary. So, so much better.

This is a messy and unengaging filler. One time watch for me. Peace out.

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Need a few more special herbs in this guggling brew

I have high hopes for this drama (why do I feel like I just cursed the show? ;) ). It has a good cast and I like the ML when he stars in other shows. The FL is quite good at playing a sassy girl as well. It should be a sure fire hit, right?

The answer is a bit more complicated. The Show starts strongly. The opening scenes are impactful with some quite confronting. We have two leads who are hurt and damaged by the machinations of others. Both lives are derailed, and their future seems to be full of uncertainties and trials.

The Show is patently a healing drama with a strong dose of romance. The chemistry between the leads is unmistakeable from the start. The show largely delivers on its premise, but it is not without caveats.

Part of the problem is that the Show drifts from one motif to another without fully committing to any of them. There is palace intrigue which is full-on at the beginning but faded mid show. Comedic elements pop up from time to time but you can hardly call it a comedy. Medical dramas run right down the centre. Some cases are interesting but most are just fillers.

The whole Joseon psychiatrist thing is a bit of a deception. The ML still based his diagnosis on checking the parent's pulse and countenance. Treatments are centred on acupuncture and herbal tonics. He does think more about the circumstances of his patients, but I'd call him mindful, insightful rather than a neophyte psychiatrist.

The love line is oddly nebulous as well. Not that the leads are confused about their feelings. If anything, they knew exactly how they feel about each other, but the show just won’t let them take the leap.

I don't want to use the word draggy to describe this show and it is not, at least not in the classical sense. It feels more like a lack of resolve. It is as if the show is buying time, rather than wasting time. This might well be because the show is renewed for a second season before the first season is even over so the writer-nims might be under pressure to keep a few tricks up their collective sleeves for S2.

Characterisation is a mixed bag. The leads have clear identities, and their portrayals are largely on point. The support cast is more one dimensional with most of them employed as comedic relieves. The antagonists are a tropey mix of local pompous bully and power-hungry grand vizier type. They brought forth death and destruction, but the intrigue is more pedestrian than Byzantine.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the Show. All the ingredients are in the pot, but it just simmers and guggles. Never quite come to a boil. It is good but not great. To be fair, the Show concluded satisfactorily at the end of S1 with retribution and redemption dished out appropriately. It didn’t quite end in a cliff-hanger but more like a ridge-hanger.

Bring on season 2! Hwaiting!

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A healing drama is just like a donkey . . . I mean onion

On the surface it is a short, slow burn romance with low angst. We need to peel back some layers to find the deeper meanings.
The ML is a tortured soul whose near perfect world collapsed in short order due to his gradual loss of hearing. He doesn’t know how to deal with it, so he became withdrawn and pushed everyone away. He tried to join the deaf community but finds that he is still on the outer because he was not born deaf. He came to the sad conclusion that EVERYONE sees him as being different and there is nowhere he truly belongs.

I believe that one of the motifs of the Show is how society divide people based on many assumed and perceived criteria into different groupings. Both real and invisible barriers are here to segregate and isolate them into smaller cliques.

Our need to belong creates pressure points in our social interactions. It can be exhausting and debasing when we run into unyielding barriers. How horrible it is when you are yanked from a comfortable reality into a new one where you are confused and lost.

It was fortuitous that the ML met a kind deaf girl. She befriended him and helped him to learn the sign language. It is not acceptance but at least he can function again. Their relationship is ambiguous. The girl is clearly interested in him, but he is afraid of commitment and shows no inclination to take their relationship to the next level. The girl is happy to stay in the friend zone as she has him all to herself. However, all that changed when the ML's ex-girlfriend ran into him by accident and started a chain reaction that changes several lives.

For me, the Show is a beautifully crafted story about rediscovering love, friendship, sacrifice and the need to compromise. I don’t want to give away the plots regarding the SML and SFL but let's just say that I'm getting serious second leads syndromes by the end of the Show.

From my perspective, the first half of the Show is very well done. There are lots of backstories, raw emotions and misunderstanding before the fateful reunion. The show took its time to explore all this. It was never going to be a joyride but the writer-san skilfully weave the story back and fore along the timeline so that we know how each character arrives at their current circumstances. There were plenty of broken psyche that needs healing. They get patched up enough to keep functioning but not completely healed. The amount of baggage carried by the ensemble cast will keep a caravan of camels fully loaded.

Unfortunately, while the Show start to untie the knots and salve the troubled souls in the second half, it is a slow process. The pacing of the show becomes almost meditative.

The healing and exploring requires a lot of dialogues between the OTP and sometimes side characters. I think the writer-san wants to show how difficult communication can be even though it is based on a common language. We ended up with a mix of sign language, written words, phone apps and normal conversations. It can be slow going as the ML has to keep the signing slow and simple so that the FL can keep up. It is like watching two primary school kids trying to communicate. They do resort to writing sentences on paper when it got too complicated.

In the end, the bulk of the breakthrough came in the last episode. All the affirmations and compromises are nutted out then. Some of the best scenes are also found there.

The FL worked hard to live in his world and she cajoled the ML into compromising his unyielding stand. It is a fragile middle ground but one they can call their own.

The acting is great with a lot of depth. Without spoken words, they need to emote with their facial expression, posture and their eyes. That requires real skills.

The loveline of the OTP is sweet-bitter-sweet. It is ashame that there is almost no skinship.

I can recommend this show but you have to be in the right frame of mind to appreciate it.

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There is no escape from the mundane

I'm a bit late to this party as I binged the whole series a few months ago and I was a little OD on the characters when this special came out.

I finally got around to watch it and it is nice but it lacked the original's freshness. The quirky relationship of the leads have mellowed into domesticity. They still have this partnership arrangement but is now more relaxed and accommodating. The growth is nice to see but this is dramaland so it can't be all smooth sailing.

To stir things up we are going to have a baby! Hooray! Cue all the tropey stressors and complications that goes with a pregnancy. It ticked all the boxes and they covered a lot of work and societal issues but it wasn't anything new nor particularly egregious. Most are bullet points that are instantly recognisable. There are few hard and fast answers as their options are limited.

The addition of the covid lockdown was topical. It is done with a light touch as none of their family nor friends got sick so the Show mostly dealt with the initial shock, prolonged isolation and longing as the whole country went through a painful period of apprehension and uncertainty.

The acting is par for the course with few surprises.

The Show is largely fan service and a satisfying watch for their fanbase. We got more antics from the leads and their friends with minor updates. For some, this is perfection. However, with only two hours to play with, there are a lot of assumed knowledge about the backstories of the ensemble cast. If you haven't seen the first series then you should start there or it will be quite baffling.

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A dodgy script is also a crime

The first few episodes are tracking fine as far as a tropey romance/melodrama goes. Affairs, crushes and a complex web of lies are on full display.

I have a feeling that the Show is banking on the visuals and chemistry between the leads to hook the viewers. It would have worked ok if they give the leads room to grow and the plot to develop some complexity. Unfortunately, it took a different turn and wasted a lot of potentials and time.

Problem stems from the Show’s decision to replay multiple scenes from different characters’ POV. This means instead of moving forwards, we went back and forth extensively for several episodes, replaying scenes from a slightly different angle or composition and sometimes adding a bit of inner monologue. Time and again, we are presented with pieces of information that we already know while other times, the information is actually contradictory.

This extends to other characters watching each other watching the leads so it is like a relay race without ends. I can accept it if it is a major revelation, but it is mostly along the line of “you like her but not me”, “she like him but not you”. We get it . . . we get it the first time.

It is also a surprise to see a 2019 show that objectifies female characters to such a degree. They are seen as objects of desire and targets for seduction. There are not a lot of rules, married woman, co-workers, anything goes. The flip side is that the female characters are willing to do anything in the name of “love”. Love in this case is a loose term. It is more like a hunger for attention and affection rather than the classic definition of love. Of course, the Show will tell us true love is most important but it also throws shade at itself. The Show is not short of mixed and contrary messages.

The logic behind the ML’s action is quite obtuse. He loves someone who is married to a man who is having an affair. He wants his crush to be happy so he steals the man’s mistress, not necessarily for revenge (it is a source of some confusion), but so that the man will go back to his wife and live HEA. What? How? If the husband have had one love affair, he can have three. Not to mention what is the ML going to do with that woman he just seduced. The plot didn't thicken, it congealed.

In the end, the Show is “saved” by the happy endings. It is hardly a surprise as the Show has no where else to go.
Acting is ok. There is quite a bit of skinship and more than the usual quota of bed scenes. Some are replayed several times for our titillation.

The repetitive nature of this Show means that only about 50% are truly original content. So if we were to extrapolate this to its logical conclusion then the Show would have worked much better if it is only half its current length. That works for me. Peace out.

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Jack of all trades, master of none

This Show starts well enough. There is a lot of energy, and it promised some interesting characters and novel mesh-up of genres. Unfortunately, after that initial burst of creativity, it quickly lost the momentum and settled on a plodding meh-ddle ground that felt more cliché than creative.

Let us dive deeper. The leads includes a crime fighting chaebol with a hint of Batman including a secret lair (their words). Of course, that means he is paired with a trusted sidekick who is both a lawyer and a hacker/tech guru. To amp up the odd pairing, the FL has superpower but has a difficult childhood. Yet she is always righteous and hardworking. The 2FL can bake yummy bread (….).

Yes, that is an eclectic mix but the writer-nims thrown in enough chemistry and fast paced action from the get-go to keep your interest for long enough to get over the initial hump. Unfortunately, problems soon start to surface.

For starters, this Show has so many plot holes and inconsistencies. It is almost as if the writer-nims brainstormed ideas and settled on a handful of good ones and then try to tie them together with bits of string.

There is also little character development. It is more like character regression. The detective/crime fighting ML solves almost no cases except for one personal one that has been ongoing for 20 years. Yet all the ducklings begin to line up as soon as the FL joins the team. The lawyer sidekick practices no law, he does the usual techno babble, and everything magically appear on his screen. BTW, he drives a van that Scooby-Doo will be proud of. The FL barely ever uses her superpower, and the impact is marginal and contrived. The 2FL is there purely as comic relief and the love interest of the 2ML. Everyone just seems to settle into cliché roles.

This means the tone and direction of the show is all over the place. One minute it is slapstick comedy, next scene can be sickly sweet romance and then it becomes deadly serious. Some shows can pull this off like the Law Café but this show just feels scatty and manic. Maybe this is because of the writer-nims’ inexperience. Both credited script writers have little writing experience prior to this show and sadly, it shows.

Acting wise, it is a real mixed bag too. With the plot and tone going all over the place, the actors are prone to overact or just look a bit lost without clear directions. Most of them gamely soldiers on but it is a tough gig. There are lots of one-note characters which doesn’t help the the show's cause.

In the end, I was thankful that it is only 12 episodes long as I was wondering where the show is going at the end of ep.9. It is watchable, it has its moments, but it is like looking at a storyboard of hand picked scenes and a matching checklist from Script Writing 101. Could a more experienced writer-nim deliver a better script or would it be better to leave this sleeping dog alone?

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