manicmuse

Why I think other people also didn't like it, or why I didn't like it?

I understand that for you personally but what I love about MDL is that reviews aren't just people raving about dramas they love but it's people giving a broad view of dramas from different perspectives. I try to review any show I complete just to give a perspective for someone who may be like me and wondering what to watch and wanting to hear some opinions first. Same with the comment section. I'm not looking to argue or rant but since a lot of of the site is to discuss dramas I was wondering about seeing mostly praise for a drama that many didn't like. that's why I asked.

You misunderstood my point. I don’t need people to agree but I’m wondering based on the score and yes my own opinion how this drama has barely any negative reviews. Even the most loved dramas have negative reviews. Some people like it, I get that. But if I never watched this drama, going just by reviews, I would have super high expectations. I know others didn’t like it. I’m just wondering if they didn’t also write reviews because they gave up on it all together.

I see a lot of great reviews but I thought this drama was awful. I'm wondering if more people who didn't like it just dropped it and moved on because I'm really surprised that the majority of the reviews so far are so good.

To me those scenes seemed one-sided. The more he revealed, the more she empathized with him, but there was never anything about her that he seemed to fall in love with or even connect with besides her ability to run the business well and work really hard when she was determined. He also never seemed attracted to her at all. I just didn't see those moments the way you did.

He needed her to make the company run... that’s not a love story to me.

I didn’t see that as him leaning on her. Maybe that’s a fault of the acting but I saw it as Yi Seo learning what Soo ah already knew. Also, if those moments were supposed to be him being vulnerable or them getting closer it was either a bad performance or badly written. To me those moments between all of them solidified them as a team but never came across as romantic. He seemed to lean on her because she was competent but that’s not the same thing. Even Hyeon yi and Seung Kwon had more of a romantic build up and that story didn’t ever really develop. At the very least there should have been a spark but there was nothing.

And the appeal to the character of Sae ro yi was that he was always true to himself, so a fault even, and maybe he was less self assured at some moments but to have a character so sure suddenly be in denial about a love that seemed obvious to everyone but the audience seemed super far fetched to me.

The issue I have with that and scenes that skipped ahead to romance is that Sae Ro Yi knew that Yo Seo liked him for the majority of the drama. She made it obvious. I understood why she had a crush on him. They make that clear in the first episode. Everyone knew that she liked him pretty early on to the point that eventually Sae Ro Yi had to bluntly tell her to stop acting like that towards him. He says this more than once. All of her moments of falling for him to me felt borderline creepy and at times immature.

Yi Seo continues on completely one sided for most of the drama. She does mature as far as learning to be more empathetic towards other people besides him but to me defending Sae Ro Yi and sticking up for him felt more like an obsessive crush of a kid than mutual love.

With So ah we see the moments where he likes her, the moments where he didn’t take how she treated him to heart, and throughout that he looks at her with devotion because he wants to see her do well and to eventually win her over. That was him
for the majority of the drama, from high school to adulthood and we see it. Unlike with Yi Seo it’s also clear that they have feelings for each other. The way his eyes lit up when he saw her no matter what was also met with how she still always wanted to be around him too. How she always felt pain for going against him met with his understanding her and loving her despite her actions to destroy his business. Even the fun they had together when he first found her in Itaewon. He couldn’t win her over totally but his feelings were definitely not one sided.

With Yi Seo I saw no such development. He looked at her with concern and sometimes like a little sister but never with a longing that made sense. It’s as if the drama wanted to reward Da Mi fans for Yi Seo‘s blind devotion but there was no moment where I saw him show any of the kind of affection he had for So Ah. Even if he finally got over So Ah and was ready to move on there was nothing realistic about him suddenly seeing Yi Seo as a love interest just because she was so persistent and devoted to him. I also didn’t believe it was just an age difference thing either because even then some form of romantic interest should be shown not just resistance or admiration for how hard she works or business savvy she is.

Suddenly the romantic storyline is about how you can eventually win someone over if you devote yourself to them and are persistent enough which didn’t feel realistic and was a hard thing for me to root for. Then they threw in a few kisses that honestly made me uncomfortable because they lacked any chemistry.

So this drama gave certain fans what they wanted, but they didn’t take the time needed to develop a story to support that and on top of that the actors didn’t have enough on screen chemistry to make up for that. I would have rather seen him end up alone.

For the record, I'm not a stranger to film study or screenwriting (I've studied both), and again I made my critique clear. As a character, Yo Seoi is written as a sociopath with not a lot of empathy until she suddenly becomes obsessed with Sae Ro Yi. Sae Ro Yi is a single-minded person who has a long-lasting crush on Soo Ah. Jo Yi Seoi knows this yet still obsessively devotes herself to Sae Ro Yi to the point of even getting sick. Suddenly after working closely together, Sae Ro Yi realizes he loved Yo Seo all along??! Based on what?? Her blind devotion? Her overworking? Suddenly we flash forward and apparently missed their significant relationship because the two of them never had any moment between them that suggested anything romantic, or any deep connection beyond work, which is usually where chemistry grows, but even without that, chemistry is also the energy two actors have when working off of each other (I studied acting as well), and they didn't have much of it. They tried to say he was just using her age as an excuse and being distant but really I don't see or understand how, when, or why he would suddenly like her romantically. To me, the story forced romance with a weak and rushed fast-forwarded "love story" between two actors with no romantic chemistry. Zero. Nada. I can't make it any clearer than that. I don't say this to try to convince you to like them less, I say this to assure you that I don't need "cinema" explained to me in order to convey where this drama misses the mark.

Cinema also doesn't have "rules" either, it may have structure but even that can be changed or adjusted. The intention behind Sae Ro Yi's sudden "Oh, I didn't realize I really liked her" shift just felt like lazy writing. It did not work for me. It did not work for many viewers. I also don't have to analyze the story to know that whenever they even kissed I felt absolutely nothing. Again, that's a failure in conveying the emotion they were going for.

I made this a spoiler because I don't feel like I need to spoil details for folks who still want to watch, but I stand by opinion, "cinematically"... this drama missed the mark.

Seems you have a disconnect with what reasoning vs personal bias means. What you presented was your personal opinion of what happened in the drama... nothing more. Art isn’t based on equations it is based on audience interpretation and even if the writer and director line up everything according to a formula that doesn’t make that formula automatically valid or effective. Also, note I could disagree with you without tearing down your argument because how you feel is your business. I do not agree and for those interested in my opinions on this drama I have offered them with reasons and examples that don’t need your validation .

Get over trying to “shame” people into agreeing with you because that approach will backfire. Stop trying to judge people for having a different opinion than yours. That would be like me assuming your immaturity makes you defend this love story so fiercely, but I don’t know you at all, just like you don’t know me. Instead I will invite you once again to write your own review instead of working so hard to discredit mine. That would be the “right” thing.

Just because YOU don't like it doesn't mean it's not suitable. I just scrolled up and see that 63 people found my review helpful, and no one on the site flagged me for anything "inappropriate", so forgive me for not taking your one opinion to heart. You should write your own review instead of worrying about mine. I said what I said.

I actually started rewatching it already ( I have plenty of time lol) and the beginning drags less when you actually know what's going on.

Exactly! And as for Park Seo Jun, I still look forward to whatever he's in next!

I see what the story tried to do but it felt forced and unrealistic. I understood that they wanted to create a romance between two characters that just didn't convey any chemistry or anything that felt like a romantic connection to me, so for me it did not work. I also think that people who liked her character more than I did liked the idea of her winning the man she was so obsessed with, but that doesn't make it a good storyline.

I’m sure that makes a huge difference. I’m not a big fan of medical dramas, unless the story is really good, but if you’re interested it makes sense that you’d be way more into this than I was. Good luck becoming a doctor! They are very appreciated, especially these days!

I feel the same! We’re on the same ship/team! lol

I knew I would be in the minority with that opinion, but I definitely agree!

Thank you, and I'm glad you liked it too!

Lee Min Ho looks... different. And I don’t mean older either.

Ugh! How did this become so awful when I was so into it in the beginning.
I'm struggling to make it through this last episode.