gbrd1

This is the best drama that I have seen in YEARS. It was just so perfectly plotted out and the ensemble cast was superb. I guess I am an oddball in that I came for the behind the scenes reality show shenanigans and was only mildly invested in the main couple, so I really enjoyed it from start to finish. I love that John and Ji Wan got to have such a beautiful romance in the short time given to them. I love that the second female lead got to keep her dignity. I love that Kang Chae Ri got to be nasty and vulnerable and messy without being a villain. In fact, Kang Chae Ri turned out to be the most interesting character and I desperately want a sequel where we get to see her grow and heal and actually put together a reality show that Yoo Reum would approve of.

I fell in love with Korean dramas back in... 2010, I think? I actually started with Taiwanese dramas (namely Meteor Garden) but then I watched Goong and fell in mad love and eventually had to consume every single rom-com kdrama that existed, and back then rom-coms were plentiful, so this obsession basically consumed me. Staying up till 4am to binge a drama despite having to be at work by 6:30am, skipping lunch because I was too busy watching dramas, freaking out about said dramas online and analyzing every little glorious moment between my OTP... I miss that. I miss that so much. I used to watch just about every drama from the big 3 that came out between 2011-2014, but then the cable selections started growing and those shows were new and quirky and just what I needed since the big 3 were starting to veer entirely towards sageuks (I think the only sageuks that I've ever fully completed are Sungkyungkwan Scandal and Painter of the Wind). Once the cable shows started pulling in double digit ratings I feel like everything got more serious. Every channel wanted their next drama to be bigger and flashier and more star-studded and hey, let's throw in a serial killer! I mean, seriously, there was a period there were every single drama I was watching had a serial killer in it. And while I am sometimes dazzled by the big and flashy, it's the little moments that draw me into a drama. It's the interactions between the characters: a look, a brief brush of the fingers, the banter, the yearning, the pain, the laughter. Goblin is probably my #1 favorite drama of all time (and the last drama that I had a crazy insane obsession over), and while it is big and flashy and star-studded, it also took the time to focus on all the little nuances between the characters. I knew those characters like I had been living with them for years. Dramas today seem to lack that intimacy between the audience and the characters. I haven't watched a single k-drama in about 9 months and that kills me. Just reading the summary for a kdrama these days exhausts me.

On a side note, I also miss the really cracky dramas. I miss those dramas that are just out of this world crazy but the chemistry between the leads keeps bringing you back and making you salivate for more. Like Mr Baek, which probably no one remembers. It was a mess, but ooooooh was I addicted to it. Or Mary Stayed Out All Night, another absolute mess that I remember fondly. Sometimes I just crave a train-wreck of a drama that relies entirely on its great character moments.

"Where the realization crashed down on him that the pain he was feeling in that moment of vulnerability was something he himself had caused others to feel."

Yes! That was my favorite part about Baek Jin Sang's growth. It took him awhile, but he was finally able to reflect on himself through the lens of other people. He was previously so self-absorbed that he could only see a situation through his own eyes, and so he just didn't get that he had a negative impact on people because in his mind he was being helpful. But once he was put in similar situations himself he was able to stop and realize the consequences of his sharp words. To see him come to so fully empathize with people was amazing.

As for the webtoon, it was a really fun read, but the drama basically just used it for its general trajectory. I was actually surprised at how well the drama followed the situations that happened in the webtoon, so it's fun to simply compare the scenes between the two and see how the drama writer tweaked things. Luckily she changed the ending! I liked the ending of the webtoon in the webtoon's world, but it just wouldn't have worked in the drama version because Baek Jin Sang was too darn lovable.

I definitely prefer the drama over the webtoon. The characters are more fleshed out and it's more about the potential of humanity. The webtoon's main goal was to break us of our expectations for the rom-com genre, and while I found the webtoon hilarious, it didn't own my heart like the drama did. I wasn't invested in either romance in the webtoon, while here I was super crazy obsessed with Roo Da/Jin Sang. And, quite frankly, none of the characters in the webtoon were all that likable, whereas here I adored everyone, even the baddies ended up gaining my affection in the end. In the webtoon, I came to really like Chief Baek, but I never really felt like he changed a whole lot. He started minding his words and figured out that he wanted people to like him, but that's about it. He wasn't nearly as admirable as Baek Jin Sang even before Baek Jin Sang went through his transformation.

Thank you so much for giving this show some well-deserved love! It was my favorite show of the year, and considering how many times I keep rewatching the episodes, it is very possible that it's now my favorite kdrama of all time. While the love triangle drove me bonkers, it was mostly because I had read the webtoon beforehand and was terrified that the show would try to honor the lovelines even though they had so drastically changed the characters. Had I not read the webtoon, I probably wouldn't have seen Kang Jun Ho as a threat to the OTP. I think the biggest flaw was in having Roo Da suddenly fall for him out of nowhere after 100% of her attention had been on Jin Sang. I feel like this happened purely to bring us to the amusement park scene and the epic time loop revenge fight, but also to honor the one-sided love theme from the webtoon. I have to admit, Jin Sang being so devoted to his one-sided love really endeared him even more to me, so I guess it was just something he had to go through to complete his transformation. It was just frustrating that Roo Da was so slow to see her true feelings for Jin Sang, but as you said, it made their relationship more realistic. She had to appreciate him as a man before she could see that she liked him. Anyhow, while I would have liked a touch more romance for the OTP, this show was first and foremost a comedy, and their scenes were definitely hilarious, which I appreciated. And even when the show got heavy, it didn't let us dwell too long in tragedy. It was just a really wonderful show from start to finish.

It's a story about redemption. Once Baek Jin Sang became aware of how he is actually perceived, he started becoming sympathetic. He was suddenly able to experience humility and he slowly but surely came to the realization that he was at fault for not understanding people. Now he is genuinely feeling guilty for his past actions because he has the ability to see beyond himself. Instead of writing people off, he is now constantly trying to understand them. This isn't for Roo Da's sake, this is for his own sake. Roo Da was the impetus for this change, but he was only able to come this far because he truly does not want to hurt people. The show has painstakingly made sure that we root for Jin Sang's transformation, so it's only natural that we wish for his happiness. Aside from that, all of the onscreen chemistry in this show is between Kang Ji Hwan and Baek Jin Hee. Their every interaction is nuanced and electric. The scenes between Roo Da and Kang are quite bland and leave the majority of the audience cold. Again, it's only natural for us to gravitate to Roo Da and Jin Sang, especially when Roo Da is constantly abandoning Kang for Jin Sang.

Yes, but not quite to the extent that he is in the drama. In the webtoon it took Roo Da dying for him to realize his love for her, whereas in the drama he realizes it much sooner and it just feels more genuine.

She ends up with Kang, but in the webtoon she is in love with Kang from the very beginning and never shows any feelings for Baek, so the drama is telling the story in quite a different manner. In the webtoon she would never willingly spend extra time with Baek or make an excuse to spend more time with him. She just wanted the time loop to end so that she could happily marry Kang. So I think it's still a toss up as to who she ends up with in the drama. The webtoon was expressly trying to play with our expectations about the rom-com genre, but I feel like the drama is more about noticing the struggles of the people around you and the potential of humanity.

I watched a slap-kiss Thai drama awhile back out of pure curiosity and I was mostly horrified but I also could not stop watching. There is just something so deliciously addictive about a horribly unhealthy relationship. I spent most of my time screaming at my computer screen because all these characters kept talking about what a catch the male lead was while he's over there tormenting the poor female lead and making her feel worthless, and I just... ugh, I kept watching. And then shortly after that I watched Sealed with a Kiss which did the whole slap-kiss romance in a much more palatable way. Still horrifying, but it at least acknowledged how unhealthy the relationship was. But that one was odd in that it would give us these really sweet moments that illustrated how perfect they could be and just when you started swooning over them, the show would immediately switch back to super dark and violent just in case you forgot how awful Hawick's character was for a second. SWAK worked for me I think simply because the hero was so utterly tortured and it was as much about punishing himself as it was about punishing her. That drama had me so torn because I was so wrapped up in their toxic romance and how perfect they actually were for each other that I really wanted a happy ending, but I also really wanted the hero to be alone and tortured forever over all the awful things that he did to the heroine. It's complicated.