michelleoc

I'm apparently in the minority, not liking this one

I didn't feel an emotional connection with the characters. He was flat throughout most of the show, he felt robotic to me. His personality was the same, no matter who he was dealing with. I didn't care for the side stories much, I watch K-dramas to get away from all the sex/language that is found in American/British shows, so between one couple living together and the other girl talking about all the guys she's had sex with, that was a turn off for me.

Lack of communication really frustrates me. The breakups because they don't talk to each other (mostly her fault) were maddening. I could, to a certain degree, relate to the progression of their relationship, but unfortunately by the time that happened I really didn't care for him at all.

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One of my absolute favorites

This was an exceptional show. This is the only show that, while I was watching it, kept telling myself it was practically perfect in every way. I don't rate very many shows a '10' and one of the criteria for a 10 is my ability to re-watch the show. This is the one I keep going back to, especially after I've watch a disappointing drama that's full of all the Asian cliches. I have to admit I was somewhat disappointed with the ending, but even that couldn't lower my overall rating for this show.

Story/writing: This show was unbelievably well-written, with a unique storyline. My emotions ran the gamut throughout the series, one minute I'd be laughing, the next I was in tears. This had SO MANY of those wonderful lines that made me think, "Boy, if a man said that to me, I'd totally fall for him!" I loved the nod to Secretly/Greatly and the cameo of Kim Soo Hyun - so clever! The director/writer must have some kind of mind meld going on, because this show was so well-executed, one scene flowed wonderfully into the next. I loved how they had the extra, different scenes at the end of each episode. My favorite was in Ep 1 when he saw her in a tree and was listening to her talk. That small smile, you could tell he was already smitten. The scenery was spectacular (especially in Switzerland) and I loved how the destiny aspect of their relationship kept being revealed, a little bit at a time

Acting/Cast: Everyone owned their role. I could not imagine any actor doing a better job in any of the roles. Hyun Bin and Son Ye Jin - their chemistry was palpable! Their chemistry was so good, it's going to be hard for me to see them in shows with someone else! Hyun Bin - At the beginning, he was all about being a soldier and I liked the softening of his character once she came into the picture. Son Ye Jin - her character could have been someone completely unlikeable, but the way she played it, I could see how her family background/dynamics had colored her life and it was such a treat to watch her become more human and playful. Seo Ji Hye as Seo Dan was beautiful to watch. So cold and unapproachable, but there was something that you just had to like about her. Kim Jun Hyun did an excellent job as Alberto, another person that redeems himself as the story goes along. The soldiers in the platoon - what a treat! They each had their own personality trait and they melded so well together. I think the majority of the comic relief came from these guys and they were a hoot. The North Korean ladies - wow, between the script and their acting, they moved from being ancillary secondary characters to being pivotal to the story. Their communications with each other, their strength in adversity and their growing in closeness with each other as the show progressed was a joy to watch. I MUST give a special shout out to Jang Hye Jin, who played Seo Dan's mother - she was spectacular and brought so much humor and heart to the part.

The OST was perfect. The piano music, the songs that sometimes were just the music, sometimes with words. I've always known that music connects with our emotions, but never more so than in this show. I think we have to give a lot of credit to the music for drawing out our emotions, because without it, I don't think I would have cried nearly as much!

My only complaint about this show was that they made such a big deal about their couple rings and never taking them off, then when they found each other at the end of the show, they weren't wearing them. I realize that those scenes were shot first, but with CGI the way it is, you could have just added the rings.

I think the biggest testament to how much I liked this show, other than how many times I've watched it, is the number of times I've recommended it to others. Everyone I know is always looking for something decent to watch, and I tell them, if they are willing to read subtitles, they absolutely cannot go wrong by watching this show.

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Why did I suffer through this?

I blame myself and my inability to drop a drama. Please bear in mind that this is just my personal opinion. I'm not saying others are wrong in their reviews, but I had a very strong reaction to this drama, hence my rating. This is time I will never get back! Needless to say, I'm not going to waste my time on Season 2.

What I liked:
1) Though it's not my absolute favorite, I enjoy this genre of show, because there is usually enough going on that I don't fast forward a lot.
2) I loved the amount of screen time they gave Go Gyu Pil as one of the forensic investigators. There is something so loveably cute about him.
3) I liked the way Lee Yi Kyung's character of the policeman was toned down (except for the Stella arc, which I will address later). This actor usually plays characters that are over-the-top, so it was good to see him more serious.
4) The cases, for the most part, were interesting.
5) They didn't try to force a romance between the leads (though it felt like they were trying to go in that direction)

What I didn't like:
1) You can make a drinking game out of the number of times the line "Don't write a novel" was said. Overused is putting it mildly.
2) It's been a long time since I hated a female lead character so much. Not the acting, the character. Eun Sol is a brand-new prosecutor - early on, she looked like she was just trying too hard, but she based her decisions on "feelings" all the time. She says specifically that she became a prosecutor because she watched a lot of US tv shows (not a good reason to begin with), but she goes to a crime scene and moves the body!?! If you've only watched one crime drama in your life, you know that you don't do this. When she questioned suspects, she was always yelling at them and revealing things that you wouldn't reveal to a suspect. Then she complains that it's not like in US tv shows! She was always arguing with Baek Beom, even disagreeing with his findings. She arrested people without evidence. She took a drug cocktail (that had killed a student) to see what kind of reaction she would have, which gave her hallucinations, then asked if that would prove that the student had hallucinations! She could have died, and it's not like she didn't know what could happen! For me, this character never improved much.
3) Baek Beom - call me superficial, but I didn't find this actor attractive at all. It seemed to be that he would have been better cast as a bad guy. As for the character, he was a tortured soul, but there was absolutely nothing likeable about him and I didn't see improvement in him by the end of the series. He had no respect for anyone, was always yelling, and I don't think any self-respecting person would continue to work with him.
4) Stella and the Stella-Soo Ho arc. She was written in to be some sort of brilliant comedy relief and it didn't work at all. There have been shows when a character inserts English into a conversation periodically and it really works. Here, it sounded clunky. And her and the detective, that whole thing should have been left on the cutting room floor. It was a complete waste of time.
5) I'll put all the following under lazy writing, procedures, etc. a) My biggest problem was with the episodes concerning MERS. One of the forensic investigators runs out of the autopsy room because she's afraid. Everyone that has been in contact needs to be quarantined, I get it. So, they lock down the building to try to find her. (Leads are now locked in the autopsy room together and Eun Sol was even worse in these episodes). Many, many people wandering around, calling out her name, and no one thinks to look in the bathroom!?! Then they let her leave in an ambulance? Another prosecutor runs to the NFS to see how Eun Sol is - they were on lockdown! A group of them left the building to investigate something - but they were on lockdown. b) Putting on protective shoe booties and gloves before getting to a crime scene. These should be put on right before entering the scene itself, because you are increasing the cross-contamination the longer you wear them, plus they are a fall risk, especially if you are wearing them over four-inch heels like Eun Sol was prone to do. c) The ME was checking someone's pulse using his thumb. You never do that, there's a pulse in your thumb and you won't get an accurate reading. d) Unless things are completely different in Korea, autopsies are done using a Y incision, not a straight incision. e) Multiple cases of arresting someone without evidence, yet other times there's evidence and they don't arrest. e) Baek Beom's girlfriend that he thought died 10 years ago - Baek Beom's father had her kept alive all this time in secret. Why? Then she woke up for a minute just to die. Why? f) Baek Beom's best friend that died. He was your best friend, yet you didn't know that he had a younger brother?! I could probably continue on this for days, but if you have read this far, you get my point.

Should you watch it? Everyone else in the world seemed to like it, but for me, I can't recommend it.

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Strong comedy that fizzled out halfway through

There was a lot to like about this show:
-Over-the-top comedy. Kim Young Dae, especially, has such good comedic timing, as well as expressive eyes.
-Wonderful cast. I felt like everyone was well-cast and everyone played well off of each other. The comedic chemistry was on point with everyone. The 2ML (Kim Woo Seok) was wonderful at displaying longing for the FL, and I LOVED the friendship between the king and his trusted guard.
-The storyline. A Joseon story with a modern twist. When they re-enacted scenes from another drama, I about choked on my own saliva! The FL was a liar, liar, pants on fire, but you couldn't help but like her. It was really fun to see her get stuck in situations and how she worked her way out of them.
-Music. Beautiful and well-placed. It wasn't overpowering. I especially loved Kim Min Seok from MeloMance.
-Rewatch. No, for a couple of reasons. 1) I have too many other things to watch, and 2) I usually watch the swoon-worthy scenes if I re-watch anything, and the leads romantic chemistry was lacking for me.
-Costuming was lovely.
-I always like to see actors that I have seen in other things, and there was a lot of that here.

What I didn't care for that much, and these are all just personal preferences:
-I didn't care for all the sexual innuendo.
-The kisses were seriously lacking spark and the FL's lips were never aligned or involved.
-With each episode being over an hour long, the show was just too long. I felt there was a lot of stuff that could have been left on the cutting room floor.
-I fast forwarded through most of the storyline with the author and his cronies writing/selling the erotic books. It just seemed so out of place.
-Multitudes of bad guys (excellently played, but still). All I kept thinking about was it appears that royalty in the Joseon era was either stupid or they had absolutely no power. To have that many bad guys in the inner circle of your cabinet and not have a clue for over seven years?
-It switched from flat out comedy to full on melodrama and then never seemed to find its footing again. That may have been just me, disappointed that I finally found a good comedy and then they switched genres on me.

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Too many episodes, too much business talk

I’ve had this on my list to watch for a long time. I kept putting it off, thinking one of two things would happen: 1) either I’d love it and not be able to move on; or 2) I’d be disappointed. Unfortunately, it was the latter, for so many reasons. I know that almost everyone waxed poetic over this show, but for me it had many issues. Just my personal opinion, people. This is long and if you don't want to waste your time reading, I'd still say give the show a try. I'm one of the few that didn't like it. Actually, I probably would have rated this even lower, but I loved the leads, and we actually got a wedding and life after the wedding. I'm one of the few that didn't like it. Spoilers below.
Let’s start with what I liked:
1) The lead actors. I’ve really liked them in other projects. I’ve also seen a bunch of scenes with them and it looked like their chemistry would be off the hook.
2) I really liked how he’d liked her for a long time.
3) Good ending.
4) The FL’s parents.
5) The friendships.
6) The young uncle and his mom. They were so cute!
7) I love me a man that can cook!
Not so much:
1) 41 episodes, really? Unnecessarily long show due to…
2) Multiple couples. Why couldn’t they focus on one?
3) I really disliked that she was involved with someone else at the beginning. For me, that takes away from the love story. I know, it’s not realistic, but I watch romances for the once-in-a-lifetime love.
4) They did not even become a couple until after episode 20! And once they did, I couldn’t buy that they were a couple, because all they ever talked about was work.
5) Speaking of which, 90% of all the talk was about work. Enough about business.
6) The story was implausible. She had no clue how to run a business. She leaves her job and starts a business with a friend, and they didn’t seem to have a plan at all. Then suddenly, they have a huge, beautiful office with quite a few employees.
7) All the companies were inter-related and all I could think about was the conflict of interest.
8) There’s the cliché of the cold businessman. Not only was he cold, but even though he liked her, he talked to her terribly.
9) Her ex-fiance married one of her best friends. That didn’t sit right with me.
10) Each of the couples seemed to have a hard time deciding who they wanted to be with.
11) Her carrying her phone in her hand at all times. She had a purse, and multiple pockets in every outfit she wore, but yet carried it. It was big and clunky, especially after she added the beaded thing. Then, when someone needed to get in touch with her, the phone was dead! But then quickly charged.
12) She had no time for her boyfriend/fiancé, yet when they broke up, she was a complete mess.
13) When FL ask ML if he loved her, he asked what that meant and talked about suitability. Was it a translation problem? I hated that!
14) Didn’t get enough of her business partner and her friend (because for most of the show she was involved with someone else). She was so wishy washy and we got one hug and a phone call once he went to Germany.
15) Minor thing. Once they got married, she never wore that gorgeous ring he gave her. I had a problem with this in Crash Landing on You, but there it was a continuity issue because the end scenes were filmed first, but here, he wore a wedding ring, but she didn’t.
16) The scene of her shaving him in the bathtub. They were cute together, but there is no way he could have climbed into that tub with his back injury!
17) At the end of the show, in the epilogue episode, they were STILL mostly talking about work!

With a good editor, this show would have benefitted from being half the length that it was.

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Just my opinion...

What I liked:
1) Yamashita Tomohisa. I love his acting, and I really liked his character. Very serious, kind of dry.
2) Deguchi Watsuki. I like her. Her character started out as dumb as a box of rocks, though.
3) The "bad guys" who came around and were all in for saving lives.
4) The concept. I thought the idea of meteorology was interesting and fresh, especially after just having been through a hurricane.
5) The characters all worked well together.

Not so much:
1) I didn't think the concept was well-executed. It was a lot of telling us very technical terms.
2) Some of the characters weren't well fleshed-out, which made me not care about them too much.
3) As is the case with numerous Japanese shows, yelling and over-acting.
4) ***SPOILER***The big dramatic loss - I felt it should have been someone else, not someone with a young child. I felt like I was being emotionally manipulated. ***END OF SPOILER.

So, there is a lot to like in this show, but I just wasn't impressed enough with the end product.

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Watch it for the main couple! Seriously!

I've never seen Jing Bo Ran in anything before, but as ML Lu Chen he was excellent. He wasn't cold, he was stoic. But his heart was on his sleeve for Gui Xiao from day one! Okay, you can never go wrong with a man in uniform, so that was bonus. His stature and demeanor were such that you totally bought him as soldier/police. But being the romantic I am, I loved all of his scenes with the FL. The small gestures were a testament to his love for her. Closing his eyes when hugging her, burrowing his head into her neck like he just loved the essence of her, the kiss in her hair when they hug. Every action was butterfly-inducing.
I love Tan Song Yun and she was lovely as Gui Xiao. She is a good actress, she's so beautiful, she is a beautiful crier.
Their chemistry was amazing! Bo Ran has very expressive eyes and manages to convey so much love using just his eyes. And when he smiles, my oh my! Lots of wonderful kisses and hugs. The scene where his back is to her and asks her to take his hand - beautifully filmed and so tender. They were yin and yang. She was so bubbly and effervescent, and he was serious. I can't stress enough how much I loved this couple together.

Big bonus - thank you SO MUCH for not adding the conniving female trying to break them up, or the sad/morose male that loves her from afar. This truly was a drama about them and the strength of their love.

The second couple was cute to watch.

So why is my score so low, after waxing poetic about the strength of the leads?
1) There is SO MUCH filler in this drama!! They spent an inordinate amount of time showing the training and the missions of the SWAT team. I couldn't quite figure out if it was patriotism or propaganda. All that extra stuff took up at least half of the drama.
2) The flashbacks. There were, I think, three different years that they kept flashing back to. I didn't think that the flashbacks were used effectively, especially since the actors pretty much looked the same once they got out of school. The last episode's flashbacks finally gave us the whole history of their relationship, which was nice to see, but then the drama just ended!
3) This might be just a translation issue, but she asks if he still remembers her and he says, "I'd still remember you if you turned to ashes." They showed this a couple of times, and the wording is just a little creepy to me.

I can highly recommend this drama for the main couple. Plus, you might not be bothered by all the time spent on work stuff, but I didn't find it interesting.

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Loved it!

I didn't read anything about this ahead of time, and I'll be honest, I've no idea why I suddenly decided to watch something about traffic cops! I am so glad I did, though. I watched it on Hulu in the US.

First, there were multiple different cases in every couple of episodes, with an overarching mystery that is woven through each episode and finally solved at the end.

I LOVED the TCI team! They all made significant contributions to each of the cases, and you could tell they had a lot of respect for one another. I'm not a big fan of Lee Min Ki - he's the same character in each drama of his that I've seen. He did his usual job, and I really liked each of the other characters. They managed to make the two women smart and competent without being witchy. There were three actors that really departed from other works I've seen them in - Kang Gi Doong, Oi Eui Shik and Lee Yoo Joon. Hats off to them, especially Kang Gi Doong - wow, he was a piece of work!

I found the public service announcement at the end of each episode very interesting, with statistics about hit-and-run, drunk driving, etc.

The car chases were excellent.
No romance - thank you!
I'm not a big fan of shows that have a second season, but I'd be up for a season 2 from this show!

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Heavy on friendships, kind of light on romance

I'm just going to say that this show made me smile a lot. The FL's character was a walking, talking disaster and got into the funniest predicaments. Going into college in her 30's and realizing that it's not like she imagined, until a rag-tag group of young adults invite her into their circle. I loved watching all of them together.

Hirose Alice as Sayako was wonderful. I loved watching her character grow into herself, becoming someone she always imagined she'd be.

Michieda as Shunsuke as Tako was very good as well.

As for the romance, the two of them were so cute together and my heart cried when they broke up. I thought the breakup went on entirely too long, but they moved naturally back into their friendship/relationship after years apart.

It's only 10 episodes, and the time flew as I watched. Give it a try, I bet you'll enjoy it.

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Almost wore out my fast forward button

What I liked:

1) Cui Yi Xin as Quan Quan. What an adorable little boy!! He was absolutely the highlight of the show. I didn't like his tendency to call his parents by their first names, but his interactions with them were cute.
2) The main couple, when they weren't fighting. They were sweet together, not fire chemistry, but no fish kisses.
3) We got a wedding!

Not so much:
1) Wow! So much extraneous stuff. I didn't care for the two side couples. This one went on entirely too long
2) The sleazy sexual predator males.
3) All three women seemed like they took turns "playing" their boyfriends. Stupid reasons for breakups (2nd couple), stalker (3rd couple), the FL decides arbitrarily that she doesn't want to see the ML anymore for no apparent reason and makes him jump through hoop after hoop to try to win her over.
4) Dubbing. A couple of the ladies sounded like Minnie Mouse on helium.
5) The doctor has liked Min Hui for years, then suddenly he likes the irritating woman that has been stalking him.
6) Small, yet irritating thing. They weren't wearing their wedding rings in the scenes following the wedding.
7) He went to another country for six months to have surgery, but she didn't go?! However, their reunion was cute.
8) Way too much "we're together", "we're breaking up", we're together.

I realize I'm in the minority here, but I can't recommend this one, except for the little boy.

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So many twists and turns

I'll start by saying that I'm not big on corruption stories. Give me a romance and I'm all over it, but watching a show about many, many people being bad and doing bad? Not so much. However, for me, this show was excellent. It requires a lot of attention, and I wouldn't advise binging it. I was exhausted and my brain hurt after every episode.

ACTING: Excellent! I have to call out Cho Seung Woo especially, as prosecutor Hwang Shi Mok. He had brain surgery in the past to control his violent temper and now doesn't have the capacity to feel emotions. We've all watched actors where they have to convey emotions only with their eyes or their body language. Here, he had to display NO emotion. I was fascinated by this character. I could feel his loneliness from being out of step with absolutely everyone else. Everyone else was good as well. There were some obvious villains and some surprises as well. The relationship between Shi Mok and inspector Yeo Jin was really interesting to watch, and I liked how they worked well together and came to depend upon each other. And, I don't say this often, but THANK YOU for leaving out the romance!

MUSIC: The music was good, there was music that really brought out the tenseness of the scenes, but it didn't crowd out the dialogue or the action.

CAMERA AND MAKEUP WORK: The coloration they used was slightly blue, which really gave the impression that these people basically lived in the office and had no lives. They also showed a lot of closeups, and they didn't make much of an attempt to cover up flaws. That contributed to the gritty feel of the show.

I can highly recommend this drama. Just when you think you've figured it out, in comes someone else that's corrupt!

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Watching this I thought I was frozen in time

For me, this was so slow. I felt like I'd been watching it forever, imagine my surprise when I was only on episode 5! I stuck it out, hoping it would improve, again, I'm only speaking for myself, it didn't.

There were a couple of positives:
1) Chae Jong Hyeop. He had the great ability to go from nerdy to "spy" in a moment. He did a lot of switching back and forth. One minute he's someone that has no drive, just wants money, then the next he is standing up for the underdog.
2) I loved Im Chul Soo's scene in the last episode when the police asked him what other jobs he's had, and he referenced his characters from other dramas. That was so funny!

Otherwise, too many bad guys, a wasted and useless romance (romance is my favorite genre, but don't try to fit it in where it doesn't belong), lots of repetition, and I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending.

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That’s time I’m never getting back

The story was soooooo slow! There was so much unnecessary stuff in this drama, my fast forward button really got a workout.

I really didn’t like the FL. Always trying to be “cute”, stalking the ML, and do not even get me started on how irritating her voice was! Why do they tend to use female voices that are so high pitched and irritating? It was like she was talking baby talk through the whole thing.

I’ve seen the ML in other things, and he always plays the same type of character.

So, for me, this was one I’m sorry I wasted my time on.

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Main actor was captivating

There was a lot to like about this drama. There always seemed to be something going on (sometimes too much), yet I still felt the need to fast forward through a bit of it, mostly because of the storylines that bothered me.
Liked:
1) Fan Zhi Xin as the male lead. Cold, powerful, driven. I didn't like his bent toward physical abuse at the beginning, but luckily, they got rid of that. I enjoyed watching all of the changes he went through as he fell in love. I also appreciated that the ruthlessness that he portrayed didn't completely disappear when he met her. He still had that going on, just not with her.
2) Chemistry between the leads was excellent.
3) Awesome kisses. The Chinese dramas are starting to get better about this.
4) Interesting storyline with some twists and turns and something that I didn't see coming.
5) Redemption of the 2FL. Up until then, this is where I fast forwarded a lot. She was unbearable, she overacted, and she was more than just a little crazy.
6) Happy ending, though it was pretty flat.
7) Fight scenes were good.
Not so much:
1) FL. Well-acted, but I vacillated back and forth on whether I liked her or not. She wasn't your typical simpering female, which I loved. The song "Stand by Your Man" kept playing in the back of my mind. She believed in him throughout. But wow, did she make some stupid decisions!!! SPOILERS: going into her house when it's been broken into, following the bad guy. And the biggest thing that bothered me about her, she bit the ML, twice!! That was just so immature. END OF SPOILER.
2) Plot loopholes. There was a lot going on, but some things just didn't get wrapped up, explained well.
3) FL's friend. I am so tired of seeing clingy, stalkerish females. Trying to act cute, but they are just irritating.

So, overall, if someone asked if they should watch it, I'd say yes, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to recommend it.

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