1
1
1
1
Slaps then crashes out.
Starts off strong. JKY has gone his entire career needing a Ferrari of an ML role, and although this isn't it, it's a choice role that gives him the sexiness, charm, style, and charisma he deserves from a script. There are metajokes about romcom k-drama cliches, and those jokes land hard and had me laughing til i was crying.
The FL has natural comedic talent, and can turn on the sexy when her role corners her into it. She's clearly not wanting to cultivate a public persona as a sexpot female actress, kind of the way Jennifer Aniston never really goes full sexy, but is charming and CAN be sexy under limited situations.
The chemistry between them was there at first. Some scenes were really fiery and wrapped you up in the story and the relationship. There's a "forbidden love" flavor to the magnetism that really works, and ratchets up the sexual tension.
The plot was trite, nominal, and served well as a backdrop for the jokes and the romance.
But as soon as the relationship began in earnest, which happens about 2/3 of the way through the drama, they suddenly pull a rather severe 180 in a few different and imo unwelcome ways:
1) What started as a pretty powerful dopamine-romance suddenly turns into a sicky sweet oxytocin romance. First they were in the dark shivering with hormones and adrenaline, fighting their urge to attack eachother right then and there, and then without any transition or warning, they're shopping for houseplants at the store, making heart hands, wearing loose shaker-knit sweaters and reading glasses, and doing babytalk. The kiss scenes become just pass-through scenes. The music goes from bad to truly atrocious and tonedeaf, and trivializes the actor's performances with music that sounds like a k-pop monster gorged itself on indie folk and rainbows and 80's chewing gum commercials and then walked into a recording studio and barfed all over the mixer.
2) The metajokes about k-drama cliches suddenly vanished, and the drama turned unironically into all the things it joked about at the beginning of the show? Which is weird...? Lessee, we got ML Has Tragic Accent And Is Rushed To Hospital.... The Future In Laws Already Know Eachother.... Jealous Sibling Tries To Take Over Company... One Leaves The Other By Making Up A Lie For Their Own Good.... and what k-drama would be complete without Amnesia?! All this, mind you, suddenly with NO sense of humor about itself, delivered deadpan. Come ON. No. Just no.
And other weaknesses come in at about the 2/3 mark.... there is now a heavy reliance on Montages. Montage this and montage that. This is the ultimate in lazy storytelling. It insults the viewers, it's a waste of everyone's time. The story begins to suffer from pacing inconsistency, speeding up too fast in some spots, slowing down too slow in others. Opportunities to give side characters more depth are passed up. Opportunities to take the story/dialogue in wickedly funny or smart directions are passed up to continue this unending parade of cliches delivered like a butler presenting a tin of spam on a sliver tray like it was caviar. Which reduces the entire last third of the drama to an experience akin to flipping through a fashion magazine in the doctor's office waiting room.
Although the drama pretty decisively faceplants towards the end, and the music director should be FIRED post-haste and never work in the industry again unless it is to make hi-fiber breakfast cereal commercials, JKY is SEXSHI AF in it, ML and FL are giving solid charismatic performances, and it DID start off really strong and the first half was worth the watch all the way.
AIGOO
7.5/10 (5 points for the story, and +2.5 points for JKY just being JKY really really well)
The FL has natural comedic talent, and can turn on the sexy when her role corners her into it. She's clearly not wanting to cultivate a public persona as a sexpot female actress, kind of the way Jennifer Aniston never really goes full sexy, but is charming and CAN be sexy under limited situations.
The chemistry between them was there at first. Some scenes were really fiery and wrapped you up in the story and the relationship. There's a "forbidden love" flavor to the magnetism that really works, and ratchets up the sexual tension.
The plot was trite, nominal, and served well as a backdrop for the jokes and the romance.
But as soon as the relationship began in earnest, which happens about 2/3 of the way through the drama, they suddenly pull a rather severe 180 in a few different and imo unwelcome ways:
1) What started as a pretty powerful dopamine-romance suddenly turns into a sicky sweet oxytocin romance. First they were in the dark shivering with hormones and adrenaline, fighting their urge to attack eachother right then and there, and then without any transition or warning, they're shopping for houseplants at the store, making heart hands, wearing loose shaker-knit sweaters and reading glasses, and doing babytalk. The kiss scenes become just pass-through scenes. The music goes from bad to truly atrocious and tonedeaf, and trivializes the actor's performances with music that sounds like a k-pop monster gorged itself on indie folk and rainbows and 80's chewing gum commercials and then walked into a recording studio and barfed all over the mixer.
2) The metajokes about k-drama cliches suddenly vanished, and the drama turned unironically into all the things it joked about at the beginning of the show? Which is weird...? Lessee, we got ML Has Tragic Accent And Is Rushed To Hospital.... The Future In Laws Already Know Eachother.... Jealous Sibling Tries To Take Over Company... One Leaves The Other By Making Up A Lie For Their Own Good.... and what k-drama would be complete without Amnesia?! All this, mind you, suddenly with NO sense of humor about itself, delivered deadpan. Come ON. No. Just no.
And other weaknesses come in at about the 2/3 mark.... there is now a heavy reliance on Montages. Montage this and montage that. This is the ultimate in lazy storytelling. It insults the viewers, it's a waste of everyone's time. The story begins to suffer from pacing inconsistency, speeding up too fast in some spots, slowing down too slow in others. Opportunities to give side characters more depth are passed up. Opportunities to take the story/dialogue in wickedly funny or smart directions are passed up to continue this unending parade of cliches delivered like a butler presenting a tin of spam on a sliver tray like it was caviar. Which reduces the entire last third of the drama to an experience akin to flipping through a fashion magazine in the doctor's office waiting room.
Although the drama pretty decisively faceplants towards the end, and the music director should be FIRED post-haste and never work in the industry again unless it is to make hi-fiber breakfast cereal commercials, JKY is SEXSHI AF in it, ML and FL are giving solid charismatic performances, and it DID start off really strong and the first half was worth the watch all the way.
AIGOO
7.5/10 (5 points for the story, and +2.5 points for JKY just being JKY really really well)
Was this review helpful to you?
