darkmaggus

I love that you compared this to Buffy! Maybe that's why I liked this so much. I've always been attracted to characters and relationships that are a little messed up. It makes the dynamics so much more interesting.

To take a break from my third rewatching, I may have stalked Yagi Yusei last night. Let me just say I'm delighted that someone took a chance on this guy because there was nothing in his previous work that would have made me think him capable of acting like this lol. He came out punching way above his weight. I really hope this is the beginning of a successful acting career for him!

Thank you for your comment. I was so sucked into this show so immediately that I stayed up until 3:30 in the morning watching it. And now I'm up again after only a few hours of sleep, thinking about it once again. I will likely end up rewatching it today. Yay. Healthy choices.

I enjoyed your comparison to Heathcliff. Insane and passionate characters often make the best characters. Kiyoi is just a hardworking, sexually confused teenager with some mild abandonment issues by comparison, problems that he will likely leave behind as he grows and finds his place in the world.

I also agree with your comment that Hira seems to be on the spectrum. Indeed. I had that same thought this morning. I am now much more worried about Kiyoi's emotional wellbeing in this relationship. Seeing Kiyoi's perspective in the last episode turned all of my dreamy little inklings about his motivations to beautiful, heart-wrenching reality. Really hoping that Hira's obsession with him will develop into something that is more than skin deep and that Kiyoi's tender little heart will be emotionally supported by the oblivious Hira as their relationship matures. Sigh.

I am fortunately a bit late to this party and have only seen largely positive comments. I have been on MDL for a very long time, but mostly use it for tracking my watching. Within the last couple of years, I've seen an uptick in discussions sometimes devolving into compulsive show-bashing if a fictional character is seen by the majority as somehow morally degenerate. But people are typically nice on here. Glad you are here!

Oh geez, you might be right. Maybe she got drunk and spilled her wine on herself and he had to change her clothes and put her to bed lol. I will actually accept it if that's the case. I'm having such a hard time liking this ML that I assumed the worst.....I hope it's not that. I'll give it one more shot.

End of Ep. 3. I know that jdramas can sort of be like this, but in this case I guess it was just too much for me. He knew she was really upset with him and, as far as I could see, did not like him. He had repeatedly manipulated her, ruining employment opportunities, all in an effort to control her and keep her near him. Then it seemed very much like he got her drunk and slept with her. It just seems very unlikely that she was in her right mind, sober, and consented to sleep with him.

Yikes. I am going to have to drop this one. Apparently the ML is a rapist in addition to being a horrible, lying shit of a human being. I'm drawing the line there.

This show is so cute, genuinely funny, and surprisingly sexy! It feels refreshing and effortless. Many dramas start to lag for me about midway through, but this one gets better and better as the plot and characters keep developing. Loving it!

Inane.

Thank you for sharing this review! Reading through the vitriolic comments on this show makes me feel crazy and alone, but you said all of the same things I've been thinking. I find Do San refreshing, relatable, and adorable. I think all of the characters have nicely defined arcs, showing growth and development. I don't understand the level of hate that swirls around this cute show. It is almost like people feel the need to invent a villain if none exists.

Lots of JiDal love here! I get it. I am generally a hopeless sucker for the second leads, but strangely not this time. What I like best about this drama is that each lead has their own defined arc.

I consider HJP's relationship with Grandma as his central arc. He doesn't need a girlfriend right now, he needs to work through his abandonment issues, his guilt, and his complicated relationship with money, which sometimes comes at the expense of human relationships. I'm totally supporting a conclusion that gives him emotional growth and solace via his bond with Grandma, not SDM. I love those two together, and I think he will ultimately, through some unequivocally selfless act, become the good boy she has always seen in him.

Is anyone else struggling with the abrupt transitions/editing/direction on this show? I am so often rewinding to see if I missed something. The characters are repeatedly in new situations with no transition or explanation.

For instance, that fight with her demon coworker in ep 2 kinda came out of nowhere. When they were struggling over the well in ep 3, they didn't actually show her getting pushed over, but suddenly she was hanging by her fingers (I get it, it just seems like an exciting moment you wouldn't cut away from). In ep 4 they are deep into investigating the missing people and the baby on the island. Then, bam! Inexplicably back in Seoul buying cell phones. No transition. It feels really jarring and non sequitur to me.

I loved this one too! My favorite drama of 2018. For reasons I don't understand, Japanese shows tend to have lower ratings on this site. If a Japanese show rates above an 8, it often means it's fantastic.

Exactly! I love cute, perfect little love stories with emotionally undamaged leads sometimes too, but the entertainment value of this trainwreck is keeping me engaged. :D

This show is trashy and addictive. I kinda love the ridiculousness and angst and over-the-top drama. It may not be for everyone and people complain about the toxic relationships, but crazy, toxic relationships can be sometimes be diverting.

As some other MDL'ers have noted, this show seemed suspect. I know that voting can be all over the place because we don't know who is at risk from week to week. (To fix this, they could have simply shared the running tally of votes, live every week.) I also know that the producers can edit the episodes to manipulate votes toward their desired outcome.

But still, these results were pretty crazy. Never mind the fact that this show gave me absolutely no clue who can sing or rap.

I also feel like the producers had pre-decided certain things, namely that only certain foreign members were going to make it -- only one Japanese (which is sad because I think Niki and K were the two best dancers), only one English-speaker (poor Daniel).

I don't know why I punish myself with these idol competitions. I may be done with them.

Thank you for your feedback! This drama is so well-loved that I'm really going to try to stay with it.

I wasn't tried to shoehorn it into a category with that comment. I was just being silly. I grew up in a time when there were essentially no non-hetero representations on tv or in any mainstream films , so I'm still just excited to see more diversity of relationships in media.

Thank you so much! I really wanted to hear from people like you who had a similar experience. I will try to keep going.

Yeah. I noticed that other version last night. I'll keep that as my backup plan.

Thank you! I am already excited about the two leads, but whenever the camera shifts away from them, I get a little bored.

I noticed that there is another version that is shorter and supposedly more focused on the primary characters. I'm wondering if I should move to that version.

Thanks so much for sharing your perspective. I really wanted to hear that there were people who weren't onboard from ep. 1, but grew to love it. I think part of my issue might also be that I've never watched a Chinese drama before. I'm mostly into Korean and Japanese shows, so this has a very different feel for me. But I am going to stick with it!