michelleoc

Fate - it's funny, yet bittersweet

So, after being disappointed in the last couple of shows I tried, I saw a clip for this on Facebook and figured I'd give it a try. This show definitely showed me that you can have a truly engaging drama without the episodes going on an on. This is only 10 episodes, each about 25 minutes long. So, it's kind of got that webtoon feel. Kim Eun Sook is the producer and she's got serious writing credits to her name - Goblin, Descendants of the Sun, Secret Garden, Mr. Sunshine, The Heirs, King: The Eternal Monarch. This show definitely has the Goblin feel to it, and I'm not complaining.

The story has been told before. A god of destiny has written the female lead's destiny, wanting to make it a masterpiece. Once he gets to know her, he realized that the destiny he envisioned for her was all wrong. Personal involvement for a god of destiny is a no-no, you get eliminated and go into the ether somewhere. I love how the writers slowly revealed her past history with said god of destiny. The longer I watched it, the more I felt "If you're meant to be, you'll end up meeting in one way or another" (great line, by the way). Their lives were intertwined, and it was so interesting for us as viewers to discover that, and when the female lead makes that discovery, it's an "aha" moment, yet heartbreaking at the same time.

In this show, the K-drama cliches really worked - fate, coffee (do Koreans really love their coffee as much as it is portrayed in dramas?), rain, umbrellas, first snow.

I felt that the acting was very good. Our clues to the passage of time seemed to be driven by the hairstyle of the lead. Curly hair, straight hair. The chemistry between the leads was very good, as was the bromance between the two main gods of destiny. The lead actor's attractiveness, for me, grew as the show developed. His development of emotions was very understated and real and were always held in check, often revealed by only a small smile.

I loved the soundtrack. A lot of it was very haunting and went perfectly with the scenes. I especially liked the song Time Machine by Jeong Sewoon - he has the perfect voice for the vibe they were going for.

Special effects. Amazing! The effects they used for eliminating a god were surreal and wispy. When they went into the penthouse/book room, those effects were so good, the changing colors, the darkness, the mystery.

I had to lower my rating one point because of the ending. It was a little to ambiguous for me. It went in line with the rest of the show, but it just wasn't satisfying for me. Was he just going to keep being eliminated over and over? And what happened to the rule of it only happening three times? In my head I've written my own ending and guess I'll have to be happy with that. This show has definite re-watch value for me, though. The writing was very clever and there was more humor than I expected.

I'm so glad I watched this show!!

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The show hasn't aged well

You're beautiful is from 2009. I might have thought it was okay if I'd watched at that time, but watching it in 2021 made me see that it didn't age well. The clothes, the hairstyles, the filming - they all left a lot to be desired.

The story was okay, but the execution was lacking. There was so much repetitiveness in this show, at times I wondered if I'd accidentally not forwarded to the next episode.

As for the acting - jang Geun Suk at Tae Kyung was one-dimensional. He just looked angry throughout the whole show. There was no growth in his character. I loved him in Love Rain, so I know he can act, but it wasn't happening in this show.

By far the worst part of this whole mess was Park Shin Hye as Mi Nam and Mi Nyeo. She was extremely irritating throughout. Her character was a mess. They had her do things that I'm thinking they were hoping would come across as cute, but they didn't. From the way she walked to the way she talked, everything irked me. Shin Hye overacted her way through this - either wide-eyed, downcast, or bawling her eyes out, everything was just too over the top. I've seen her in more recent works and she's pretty good, so she has improved over the years.

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Watch this now!

I LOVED THIS DRAMA!! I loved that it was short, without all the unnecessary filler that most K-dramas have. The storyline was so complete and well fleshed out that I didn't feel that there was anything missing (other than more episodes to watch the two of them together!)So romantic. The leads were WONDERFUL together!! Their chemistry was amazing. I smiled through most of the show.
The two main actors worked so well together, and both of their characters grew from knowing the other. It was sad for me to think about living his whole life never seeing her again, fathering tons of children for the monarchy, etc., but I guess there was no other way they could have resolved the time gap. I would have liked just a few more minutes of them together at the end, but there is literally nothing not to like about this drama. I think this is my new "palate cleansing" drama to watch after I've watched a drama that was unsatisfying. Watch it, you'll be glad you did!

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Get to the point!

This show was entirely too long! The first 10 episodes were a whole lot of nothing. I had a problem with the relationship of the main leads, and here's why: First, I loved him. He was like Mr. Darcy, not suffering fools, cold on the outside, but feeling really deep emotions. And when he started to smile? OMG, I waited for those smiles! That was the high point of this show. She was cute and did a good job on the part as written, but the character was too immature. She liked him for no apparent reason, stalked him and stared at him for the first 10 or so shows, had no opinions of her own, and was perfectly happy to just follow him and his life. She was too much of a doormat. I felt that her clothes, especially, were very distracting. Too oversized, so many layers and those stupid headphones around her neck. Though I didn't find the romance necessarily believable, it was sweet. The kisses? For his part - great! For her part? Open eyes, fish lips, not believable at all. And after stalking him through most of the show, he asks her to marry him and she rejects him? No way. And I didn't get the character of Wu Bai (DT) - I didn't get that at all. He was quiet through most of the show, staring a lot at others. I didn't know if there was supposed to be something deep and hidden in him, but I didn't feel it was necessary to the show. I did like the character of Mi Shaofei and the female lead's roommate, that was cute. So, overall, I'd have to say that most of the points I gave this rating were because of the male lead.

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Not for me...

Just my opinion, move on if it bothers you.

All of the actors were excellent.
Kind of a slow, slice of life story, but it didn't work for me.
I must say I did love the last episode.

-I didn't like the FL at all. She was so self-absorbed.
-ML was a doormat.
-The haenyeo were constantly bickering and fighting, I could have done without them.
-the makeup on the leads was too brown. So show that they were tanned because it was Jeju?
-too much going back and forth in time.
-there seemed to be many characters that I didn't like, which made it difficult to stick with it.

Almost everyone else in the world loved this, so I'd say give it a try. Don't go by me!

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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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The writing of the main characters was disappointing

This show frustrated me on so many levels. I do have to say that my rating went up after seeing the last two episodes.
THE GOOD:
1) Kim Hae Sook as Dal Mi's grandmother. She was such a wonderful character throughout, never doing anything that was out of character. A strong woman, with a deep sense of caring for those she loves. I loved her interactions with the young Han Ji Pyung (played excellently by Nam Da-Reum) and the current Ji Pyung (also excellent Kim Seon Ho). Ji Pyung tried to hold her away, preferring to wallow in his loneliness, but she was able to get through that tough-guy facade to the true person. Kim Hae Sook has such a wonderful sweetness in this part, and her smiles and shining eyes made me love her, wishing she could be my grandmother.
2) Kim Seon Ho as Han Ji Pyung. This was a combined effort of good writing for this character and solid acting. I don't often have SLS but I seriously had it for Ji Pyung. As a child, you wanted to take him under your wing and care for him. As an adult, he was an astute businessman and who wouldn't love him, seeing the way he was with the grandma? He was also very protective of Dal Mi, not wanting to see her get hurt.
3) Friendships - The friendship between the three developers was outstanding. Nam Joo Hyuk, Kim Do Wan, and Yoo Soo Bin conveyed the feelings of long-standing friendships, alternating between being very supportive of one another and putting each other down, as good friends are able to get away with doing. I enjoyed the interactions between all members of the team, especially toward the end when they were finally hitting their stride.
4) Secret crush between Yoo Soo Bin and Stephanie Lee - their interactions were darling to watch. He was the typical goofy nerd and she played the part of a cold attorney so well (I loved her interspersing English into her conversations).
5) Yeo Jin Goo - having him voice the computer and then show up in a cameo at the end was a treat.
6) Cinematography - taking a page from Do San always talking about RGB, I loved the colors in this. The Sandbox building was full of bright colors, and interesting architecture.
7) The Sandbox - I liked the storyline of trying to build a company, working together, competing against one another, pulling all-nighters, etc. It's kind of how I imagine Google or someplace like that to be - a place full of creative minds, thinking outside the box, developing the "next new thing".
8) A time jump that actually made sense, for once.
9) The last two episodes were very strong, tying up all the loose ends, with a lot of emotion from everyone.
THE DISAPPOINTING:
1) The way the ML and the FL were written. I love Nam Joo Hyuk as an actor. He's got that height and build going for him, as well as that innocent face and the gift of being able to emote so well just using his eyes. Bae Suzy does a good job, except when she is playing a very emotional scene, then she tends to overact. My complaint was not with the actors, but with the characters. I can't remember the last time I watched a show with such a weak ML. This, of course, made the SLS stronger, because I, for the life of me, couldn't figure out why anyone would like this guy. He had terrible self-esteem problems, anger issues, and he seemed to spend the first three quarters of the show pouting. As for the FL, she was a hot mess. How could she be the CEO of anything (as evidenced by her sending over 400 texts with questions to be answered)? She was unable to make decisions and always relied on the help of others. She just seemed so weak to me. I do have to say that they got better after the time jump, but up until that time they were working my last nerve.
2) I didn't feel the relationship between the ML and the FL, not only because I wanted to ship the FL with the 2ML, but there just wasn't any chemistry there. I couldn't actually figure out why they supposedly liked each other, especially once she figured out that he'd been lying to her.
3) The lie went on too long and her response to the first part of the lie was totally unrealistic - she didn't have a problem with it!
4) The fist clench - it sounds funny to say, but they used the fist clench cliche so many times in this show I was ready to make a drinking game out of it - when someone clenches their fist, take a drink!
5) The very end of the show. The last two episodes were so strong, I was very disappointed that they chose to show what had happened in their lives by just showing pictures and the end is of them walking together down the hall. Very unsatisfying.

So, I'd say watch this for the business aspects, definitely not if you are looking for romance. If someone asked me my absolute favorite part of this show, I'd say the grandmother with any person that she came into contact with - especially Ji Pyung. This is the first time I've watched a show where my favorite character was the oldest one.

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hits and misses in this one

I have to say that all of the food scenes were an orgy for the senses, and they made me want to scout out the nearest good Chinese restaurant. The bromance between the two male leads was fun to watch, as their friendship developed. I didn't care for the female lead at all. I was hoping that she would kind of grow on me, but I found her smiling/smirking to show up at times that were very inappropriate. I felt like she was playing both men and that her emotions weren't totally invested in the male lead. And don't even get me started on her parents! The male lead really tried to step up, but the female lead just let the parents walk all over them. There's being respectful, and then there's being a doormat. And the mom saying that if they went to work in the restaurant, they would have to move out of the house? It wasn't even her house! Good kisses (though few and far between) and a happy, though rushed, ending, considering how many episodes I had to sit through.

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For those that like beautifully filmed food

I had to wait until it was all released, because a sad ending would have killed me. So much to like-
-Food orgy. Seriously, don't watch it if you are hungry.
-Beautifully filmed.
-ML was excellent. The diversity of his emotions was so stressful to watch, in a good way.
-Yoona did a good job. I'm not normally a big fan, but they took advantage of her beautiful, expressive eyes.
-The kitchen staff - so fun!
-This was a different take on a time slip. I found it interesting.
-The ending was good (but could have been much better with more time and chemistry.)

I scored lower because there were a few things that I didn't like-
-SOOO many bad guys! Silly hats and chin pubes made it hard to keep people straight
-Too much fighting and blood for me.
-too much palace intrigue and not enough romance for me.
-As most K dramas tend to be, I felt that the ending was really rushed.

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Not the worst I've seen, but...

I had high hopes for this one and was sadly disappointed.

Story: Did they have multiple writers working in different rooms and then just merge all their ideas together? This seriously seemed like it didn't know what it wanted to be. The murder mystery was full of red herrings, but I just didn't care. Then, when we FINALLY find out what happened, it was so anticlimactic! There was so much that made no sense - the ease of the toxic fans getting into his apartment. The leads realized they met when they were in school, but he was older than her, yet in current times, she seems so much older than him. Throw in some romance, but don't develop it properly. The ending was so flat. Yet another sow with the obligatory time jump. Why?!?!? And in that year, did they have no contact with one another?

Acting: The actors were good, except maybe for the 2FL. She was not believable. The leads are both very attractive, but he didn't seem charismatic enough to carry the lead.

Chemistry: Some good kisses, and they were cute together (in the brief times we saw them interacting with one another), but she just seemed too old for him to me

This was one of those shows that I was counting down how many episodes I had left before I was done so I could move on.

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Toxic all the way around

What I liked: ML - seriously handsome. Some of the intimate scenes were really well done.
The rest: This show could be a poster child for the kinds of relationships to avoid at all costs. ML - verbally, emotionally, and to an extent, physically abusive. He took manhandling the FL to the next level.
FL - foolish, no self-esteem, weak (she keeps telling him no, and then gets caught up in the moment. No means no, people!) Bed hopping between ML and 2 ML - I can't even describe how much I hated this. That is not romance, that is being a slut. It left a bad taste in my mouth, and at that point, all the hate I had for the ML was replaced by hate for the FL.
2ML - weak and kind of creepy.
2FL - crazy and VERY creepy.
Bartender - over acting much?

Having sex when you aren't even dating just really bothers me. I like a good romance, and this diminishes the feelings the characters have for each other.
Characters saying "I love you" when they haven't dated or spent any time together. Let's call it what it is - lust.

It was like watching a train wreck. I didn't want to watch it, I couldn't look away, then I was disgusted with myself for wasting my time on it.

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Time I'll never get back

Same female lead as the first season, which is good, because she is just precious. I like her acting, and I like her character. She's very spunky. She's down on her luck but she's no one's door mat. I always enjoy watching strong female leads that are likeable.

Different actor for ML this time, and I wasn't buying him as the ML. Expressionless and he seemed very uncomfortable. I didn't find his acting totally believable, but that may be partially due to the script.

However, the rest of the actors (other than his secretary) were really overacting. It is really hard to take people seriously when they scream and stomp and act like babies.

I watched this because I felt like I needed to finish both of them, but I can't recommend either.

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I wished they'd tightened up the writing and made it one season

I was frustrated with the way season one ended and I think that may have somewhat colored my response to this season. Sadly, it felt like more of the same, with nothing new. The village "family" was pretty much the same, but granny redeemed herself for me in episode 10. The rest of the time she was overacting.

WHAT I LIKED:
The main couple were so cute together! I got extremely tired of the 10 minutes of being together and then the rest of the episode being apart. It seemed like they took turns being noble. "I'll leave to save you." "No, I'll leave to save YOU!" It got to the point where I was just thinking, here we go again.

But the scenes where they were together were wonderful. A couple of excellent kisses, some hand holding, and an absolute plethora of longing looks. The chemistry was wonderful. Let's be honest, Kim Min Jae is gorgeous and he's got that wide-eyed, stunned look down to a science. He also cries beautifully. There was one scene where he came back to the village by himself, someone tried to talk to him, and he looked devastated. A couple of tears coursed down his cheeks and he just walked away without a single word. That was so powerful.

The last episode was cohesive and very enjoyable. I think that's the main reason my score is as high as it is (I realize I'm in the minority on this one. Remember, this is just my personal opinion.)

Cameo appearance by Woo Do Hwan. I loved him in Tempted and was thrilled so see him here, even if his scene was so brief.

WHAT I DIDN'T CARE FOR:
The gay storyline.
The princess - poorly written and cast. She looked SO young and she was just so immature, all I could think of was a teenager trying to get her own way. Thankfully, she didn't hang around long.
The 2ML. I know, I wasn't supposed to like him, but I felt that the writers waited until too late in day to explain his motivations.

I'm glad I watched this show, if only to get closure from the open ended first season. It seems like the newest trend is having multiple seasons, which makes no sense to me, because so many of the shows are draggy in just ONE season, so now they are just extending that feeling of watching paint dry.

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What is with the music!?!?!

The biggest problem with this drama was the overbearing music, dubbing, and English translation.

Music - it started out when they were playing a Christmas song and the scenes had nothing to do with Christmas. The music didn't fit the story at all and there were so many times that the music was so loud you couldn't hear the people talking. The loud music that they kept playing reminded me of circus music, it was very jarring. I don't care for the voices that they use when they dub Chinese dramas, and this had the added problem of the words not synching with the speaking. This wasn't in all the episodes, but did happen during a few episodes in the middle. Then the English translation had issues, some of the translated words didn't make any sense at all, added to the multiple times that "him" should have been "her".

The story had potential as far as I was concerned. I love me a good destiny story. I couldn't quite decide if I liked his memory loss story line, maybe it just went on too long.

This drama had a very sweet and detailed ending. I appreciated that the story lines were wrapped up nicely and not rushed.

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