Worst script, underdeveloped plot and characters
Mr Queen is a light and funny romantic comedy with a good story, great characterisation and well written roles, and a well developed plot supplemented by strong acting performances.So is Gaus Electronics.
King the Land? It’s the worst writing I’ve come across for a kdrama and I’ve seen some bad ones. It’s for when you’re in a vegetative coma state and don’t have a functioning brain. Your brain has to be broken to not see how bad it is.
It’s sad that this is scriptwriter Choi Rom’s first script because it’s embarrassingly bad. It’s incoherent, there’s an absence of plot with tropes strung together to form a plot for the main characters. What do we know about them? Only that Gu Won’s mother went MIA and that he went to business school. As for Cheon Sarang, she lives and breathes customer service and is an orphan raised by her restaurant owning grandmother. That’s it. That’s also all they know about each other after 10 episodes and yet they’re declaring their love for each other.
The incoherent script is backed up by poor editing/directing choices with scenes strung together without any coherence. The script features non-sequiturs like Gu Won suddenly telling Sa-rang that he and his sister have different mothers after the writer-nim finally remembered she has to tend to a storyline. Also, Gu Won spends 5% of his working hours actually working but somehow he’s capable after six months of employment and will take over the hotel and company!
As for acting: Lee Junho is superb but I hope he selects a better script/drama next time. He’s backed up by reliably good performances of Kim Gaeun (though I’ve seen her in a few roles and they’re all of similar range) and Go Wonhee. Child actor Lee Yejoo is the other star.
Yoona’s performance is terrible, but I hear this is an improvement on her past roles.
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starts strong, but the story flops
another formulaic drama from Lee Junho… I was hoping for an excellent drama after the abysmal King the Land and this didn’t deliver.the premise is interesting at first - a workplace rivals, adult coming-of-age, romance - story set during the financial crisis.
however, the storyline becomes progressively weaker, repetitive (“case of the day” legal/medical drama style episodic formula), with underdeveloped characters by the end. there are so many side characters and zero reasons to be invested in them until the writer gives you a big storyline around them but you’re still uninterested because they’re merely a plot device by then.
the acting - from almost the entire cast (i’m not a huge fan of the grandmother actress though, thankfully she comes in small doses) - was excellent. the casting director did a great job. it’s a shame the scriptwriter didn’t give them enough material to make their performances have some tooth to it.
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great first few episodes, downhill ever after
- great acting, let down by a terrible script (plot and character development) in the second half of the series.- i was unsure whether to watch this because i didn’t want another disappointingly mediocre drama after King the Land, but I was surprised by how strong the first episode was. sadly, every subsequent episode gets weaker. it becomes like king the land where the scriptwriter uses a string of cliches-for-plot at the cost of character development and tension
- FL: in what world would a crop top and a mini skirt be suitable attire for the workplace? the styling was so off.
- the cast of mums are boring af. there’s so little character development that when they do have a plot line or dialogue, they end up being complete caricatures even though the premise - that mothers should have a career path too - is interesting
- the 2ML has a haircut that looks like the 1980s black american aunty haircut. get a haircut, my guy
- 2FL was fun & refreshing as a character - not jealous, not overly attached, confident & self assured, but also slightly obnoxious in pushing herself on to the 2ML & meddling
- ML’s mum was kind of interesting, but my interest fizzled out
- the swimming pool scene: why the hell is it presented as romantic that the ML dived in to save the FL, when the ML dropping her hard work into the pool is why she was there in the first place given he already knew she can’t swim?! get out of here.
it’s a better version of king the land (which was shite) for the first half at least and then it’s as shite as it for the second half.
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Both ML are green flags and along with the secondary characters/best friends carry the series. ML’s character is better than the FL as is his acting.
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