cwinterbrisk

My Overly-Sweet Mobster

I pushed through but I think I regret it. A bit of an unintentionally frustrating show.

The comedy is definitely the main point of this show, despite the fact that it's not really that funny. The humor is very silly to the point of it being cringe, and many of the side characters (like the mobsters) are so obviously supposed to fill a specific comedic role, but the character development and execution is so poor that it just comes off as cringe and completely see-through when it comes to the writers' need to include every single rom-com trope. So many scenes with the side mobsters felt completely unnecessary simply because I wasn't given any real reason to care for them as characters. Sure, they were given brief backstories and introductions, but none of it felt genuine or realistic given the comedic nature of the show, so we're just left with empty surface-level characters and are still expected to care about what happens to them and their relationships with the leads.

The ML is an interesting character being a mobster and all, but is portrayed as child-like to the point that I couldn't imagine any realistic scenario where someone would be in a relationship with him and not be put off by his exaggerated reactions and fear of human contact. There’s a scene where he’s sitting on a bench next to the FL as she tries to scoot closer to him and he reacts so over-the-top to the point that he’s literally shaking out of even the thought of making physical contact. This made me completely disconnect from the romance. The FL spends too much time lingering on feelings for a boy she knew as a small child (yet another "destiny/fate" trope), which to me feels like a simple way for writers to create drama and "emotional" scenes without having to actually put in much effort, because the trope writes the narrative for them. On top of this, the ML does the typical ML thing of not being able to communicate properly which leads to misunderstandings and angry FL scenes, which ultimately leads to him having to apologize.

The FL is not much better to be honest. She’s silly just the like other characters and does not act her age, has trouble communicating like the ML and instead gets upset but doesn’t try to talk it out at first, and continuously jumps back and forth between the ML and 2ML despite “rejecting” the 2ML. Not really in a romantic way, but definitely feels off when the 2ML is already so head over heels for no reason and doesn’t know when to give up even after being rejected.

The 2ML is rather annoying, but I guess I just don’t like love triangles. It’s your typical love triangle you’ll see in like 90% of rom-com dramas. And of course his name is coincidentally the exact same name as the boy the FL has been looking for. I feel like his devotion and lowkey obsession with the FL doesn’t really make sense. We’re not really given a solid explanation as to why he’s so committed to winning her love despite being rejected. The constant jealous ML vs. 2ML scenes throughout the show got boring and annoying very quickly. Sometimes it felt like the writers were trying to find any reason or opportunity to insert the 2ML into the scene, even if the scene would have been better off without him in it. The ML even expressed in a scene with the FL that he didn’t like how she was hanging out with the 2ML all the time, yet this didn’t really change the large amount of screentime the FL & 2ML have together throughout the show. I nearly dropped the show after the scene where the FL is in danger (as usual) and the 2ML swoops in and takes the blow for her. I really didn’t want to have to sit through an entire episode where the characters have to take care of and feel guilty for the injured 2ML, especially when the ML was already going through so much with the conflict in his company. They should have focused on the ML’s conflict instead in order to give the ML & FL an opportunity to develop their relationship instead of shifting the focus on to the 2ML again. There’s also a 2FL, but she’s barely in the show and honestly doesn’t contribute much to the story or the love triangle.

The side relationship between Ju Il Yeong & Koo Mi Ho was admittingly pretty cute despite its flaws. Sometimes I felt more excited to see them together than the leads. Still not really enough to overlook the basic plot and tropes. There’s also a villain played by Im Chul Soo who does a good job in acting, but his character is so intentionally evil that I can’t really take him seriously. It seems like the writers wanted him to be a Joker type villain with all his mannerisms, even down to the “why so serious?” line in one of the episodes.

Overall, almost everything about the show just felt uninspired and recycled. Like the writers had a formula for rom-coms that worked in the past, so they decided to just switch out the characters and call it a day. The plot progression always felt like it was playing out exactly the way the writers wanted it to play out, but in an unnatural way. It’s like watching the script unfold scene by scene without any real emotion or excitement behind it. Maybe I’m just experiencing drama burn-out considering the amount of positive reviews for this show, but there are definitely plenty of flaws nonetheless.

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Maybe a waste of time? Maybe not...

Starts off strong, keeps you watching just to see what happens next but not necessarily in a "this is a really good drama" way. More like "wait... who is she going to end up with?" Keep in mind I did not watch the first season since the reviews weren't too great and I have not read the webtoon/comic it's based off of, but I decided to give this season a chance since I wanted to see Jinyoung and Kim Go-eun together. I was still able to understand and pick things up pretty quickly despite not having seen the first season.

Positives:
- The cells were interesting and mostly fun to watch, although they can be a bit "in the way" when you just want to see what happens next to Yumi and Babi. Fun to see how they visually represent emotions and feelings mostly everyone has gone through. It does make typically short scenes drag on though.
- Acting is great, whole cast played their roles well.
- Nice to see Jinyoung and Shin Ye-eun together again, even if it wasn't the best of circumstances.
- Cute moments, heart fluttering moments, funny moments, dramatic moments
- Keeps you engaged for the most part
- The soundtrack for this show is great and fits well

Negatives:
- Some scenes drag on for a while since they have to show how the cells react to the situations
- Can obviously tell it's based on a webtoon given the way things play out. Ending is a set-up for another season?
- The show makes you go through two whole seasons with two different guys, only to have both of them discarded at the end in order to set up another love interest for the next season.
- By the end of the show, Babi and Woong are still not over Yumi, yet she's already off trying to find another guy. I wish they could've at least had Babi and/or Woong move on or find another love interest. Just seems weird to go through entire seasons with these characters and their relationships only to have them tossed to the side anyway (other than being swayed for a moment, Babi was such a great guy, and Woong seemed okay too despite being kind of stalkerish and overly-obsessed with Yumi, yet neither of them get a real happy ending).
- Some unrealistic moments that scream "webtoon plot progression" and unnecessary side plots. Woong suddenly becoming successful and rich, Ruby and Control Z's sudden relationship that I didn't really care for, editor Ahn Dae-young's plotline that was admittedly funny but not really necessary.

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Interesting concept, though nothing groundbreaking

Was interested in the concept of the game when I decided to watch even though I'm more of a rom-com guy. Definitely an entertaining watch. The cast did a fantastic job portraying their roles. Lee Jung-jae did a great job playing his character, although it took a little getting used to his character given his personality at the beginning of the show. Heo Sung-tae did a great job as the thug guy as I wanted him to die a very gruesome death very early on. Jung Ho-yeon as Kang Sae-byeok was definitely my favorite out of all of them. Her character was intriguing and I found myself rooting for her the most.

The show focuses on the greed of individuals and the power money can have over a person. The motivations behind the creation of the game and the leaders who control it didn't really stick with me, and there really isn't any clear punishment for those running the game by the end of the show (probably setting up for a season two). A lot of gruesome deaths, annoying people making stupid choices, and some heartfelt moments where I actually teared up a few times. The game itself is rather straightforward and isn't anything particularly interesting or thrilling to watch, although it is enough to make you continue watching to see what happens next. The main "game" is really the relationships between the characters and their greed versus morality.

Overall, an fun and exciting show that's worth a watch. You may need to look past the absurdity of the game itself, as it could never happen in real life, but the show still provides entertaining situations and characters who you'll be rooting for.

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Entertaining but lacking

Overall, a pretty entertaining show with some good visuals and action. Love the premise of the show, just wish it was executed differently. I haven't read the webtoon, so I'm reviewing solely the show itself.

First off, I agree with many other people who think that adding the Imagine Dragons song to dramatic scenes was a little unfitting to say the least. Ruined some of the dramatic moments, but still, not that big of a deal for me. My problem was with the way they develop Song Kang's character, Hyun-su.

I was under the impression that Hyun-su was going to be the main character and have a lot of scenes. Unfortunately, with such a large ensemble cast, he was often pushed to the side in order to focus on the other 10 main characters (not to mention the side character's screentime). They gave Hyun-su a very sad and dramatic backstory that looked like it was going to develop as the show progressed, allowing him to overcome his demons and possibly utilize it to help others. Although he does help others intermittently throughout the show, he rarely gets any satisfying scenes where he saves the others and is often the one who is needing saving in the first place. Most of the main cast were given strong characters who are capable and have their moments to showcase their strengths, whereas Hyun-su didn't really get any satisfying moments (except at the very end).

Even at the end of the show (spoiler warning), I was expecting Hyun-su to do something dramatic and possibly sacrifice himself to save the others, showing them that he was a good person even if he was labeled a "monster". This doesn't really happen, and his climactic ending moments are overshadowed with the "sacrifice" of the other main character, Eun-hyeok. Speaking of, I don't understand the need for Eun-hyeok to even sacrifice himself in the first place. He could of gone with the others to safety, but instead he decided to sit in a room and die for no reason? I don't know, maybe I'm missing something (I was often confused by the plot). This just overshadowed Hyun-su's part that could have been so much more impactful.

In general, that is my biggest complaint about this show. I understand the need to showcase all of the characters in this large cast, but I feel like they could have done so much more with Song Kang's character. There was so much potential to develop him into something great, like having him transform at the end and sacrifice himself to save the others as a clear indication of him accepting himself and having grown as a person, but instead he just leaves. Not really a sacrifice, no recognition or satisfying ending, and doesn't even get to prove to the others who judged him that he was truly a good person and could control his inner demons. Even the whole relationship between Hyun-su and Eun-yu could have been more impactful at the very end if they didn't unnecessarily throw in Eun-hyeok's death.

Overall, decent story with some hard to follow plot progression and plotholes, great acting, questionable music choices, good effects and animations, good action, but with the unrecognized potential of the character of Hyun-su.

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promising start, lackluster writing

I went into this with basically no expectations and yet I was still kind of let down. It's not all bad, and the beginning definitely had potential to turn into something unique and entertaining, but the drama declines very quickly after the characters are fully introduced.

For some positives... the acting is good. Shin Hae Sun & Gong Myoung fit their roles well, and Kim Jae Uck & Hong Hwa Yeon do a good job with what they were given as well. The ML wasn't your typical lifeless & emotionless ML like so many other dramas, so that was fun. Shin Hae Sun is a great actress, although I feel like I've seen her in this type of aggressive/unapologetic role before so it didn't really feel like anything new. The 2FL was surprisingly a breath of fresh air when it comes to 2FLs for the first part of the series, up until they completely ruin her character in the later part. The 2ML was tolerable for a little bit until the love triangle started and quickly went downhill from there. The side characters were relatively entertaining despite being the cliche office team surrounding the leads that you'll see in so many of these dramas.

When it comes to the story, I wasn't really that invested in the workplace drama going on with the audit team, which is unfortunate considering it takes up quite a bit of the screentime (as expected since it's the main concept). The segmented audit storylines following different employees and their affairs was interesting at times, but got tiring pretty quickly and honestly was frustrating to watch sometimes as someone who despises cheating and misunderstandings. The FL is the typical capable headstrong leader who comes across as cold and arrogant at the start, but slowly opens up throughout the story. I do feel like she didn't really change as much as I expected up until I stopped watching, and really stayed pretty stagnant in terms of attitude and bluntness, except for when she was with the ML. But even the more lighthearted "romantic" scenes with the ML didn't feel as genuine or real to me, most likely because the FL was so unrealistically headstrong for the majority of the show that it was hard to convince myself that she was actually in love. The ML's character was kind of fun, although very frustrating in the first few episodes. I feel like they kind of sidelined him near the end and gave way too much screentime/story to the 2ML & FL, but maybe it would have turned around if I kept watching to the end.

The 2ML started off okay, but as soon as the love triangle started it all went downhill. I was hoping they wouldn't go the love triangle route with him, but of course they had to. A very talented and good looking actor, but his character became progressively more annoying and frustrating to watch as the series progressed. His one-sided love for the FL was overbearing at times, and completely ruined the vibe and caused so much unnecessary drama that could have instead been used to further the relationship between the two leads and create a more convincing love story. I also couldn't really care less about the relationship between the 2ML & 2FL, even though I did like the 2FL for a bit at the start of the series. They didn't get nearly enough meaningful screentime for me to feel invested at all, and often times the two together just brought down the mood.

As for the 2FL, I admit she had a very promising start. She wasn't your typical 2FL, and the unconventional role and ML/2FL dynamic was interesting. Then they completely ruin her character in the later part of the series by turning her into the cliche revenge-focused 2FL who crosses way too many lines for a guy who is so unlikeable for the majority of the story. What happened to the fun, unconventional, friend dynamic at the start? They manage to forcefully "redeem" the 2ML near the end, and yet the writers completely throw the 2FL under the bus and turn her into a villain. I don't know if her character gets better in the last episode since I stopped watching part-way through episode 11, but incredibly disappointing nonetheless.

I just feel like overall the series had so much potential, but the story started to feel more and more cliche as it progressed, and as soon as the love triangle kicked in and the messy corporate plot started to take up more screentime, it just became such a drag to keep watching. So many of the interactions between characters and the dialogue started to feel forced, the comedy bits weren't really landing, and the corporate drama involving the FL & 2ML was frustrating to watch to say the least. Near the end, it felt like the writers were trying so hard to bring a climactic drama-filled final push, but it mostly centered around the FL & 2ML, and at this point the 2ML was so annoying for most of the series I just couldn't bring myself to care about what happened to him. On top of that, switching up the 2FL into a jealous revengeful villain felt like too much of a dramatic transition that wasn't really hinted at enough or developed enough throughout the series.

Maybe some of my frustrations with this drama would have been resolved in the final episode, but I unfortunately couldn't make it that far. Definitely not a terrible show, despite my lengthy essay of complaints! Just very disappointed considering the promising start.

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