I love the fact that she's not scared to take roles other actresses might hesitate to get (violence, nudity, etc). That's going to make her resume full of iconic pieces. :)
It is cute. But boy, it is all k-drama tropes married to all Hallmark tropes. Big city clueless meets heart of…
You are right about the tropes, it doesn't break any particular cliché in my opinion. I think the biggest appeal is being heartwarming with that hint of drama that hits you from time to time. I'm watching for the cast and for the feel-good moments but I don't find it groundbreaking in any aspect.
Are you talking about the scene where Biryeom wanted to drop her? I really don't get her acting, why is she screaming…
I'm sorry, but she was literally coughing as if she was drowning from the >rain< while turning around in circles, which was ridiculous. Being scared that he might break the bridge makes sense, but the whole execution did not. It was a very mediocre and poorly written scene with very subpar acting (considering the show doesn't even have a bad cast to justify that).
like as much as i enjoyed this show, i feel there were a lot of elements that did not really have a purpose in…
By the cheating thing, do you mean Joon Hwi and Ye Seul? Its purpose was to discredit Ye Seul's character, as it is a common tactic used by the attorney in trials of ab*se and s*x assaul* to make her look untrustworthy as a woman. Which is truly sad but an accurate representation of what happens in a real-life scenario. The questioning of the doctor that did her exam (Hyun Woo's wife) served the same purpose.
Regarding Hyun Woo's plot, it was there to prove Yang's alibi, which was a major plot point and what connected his character to the main storyline. He went to his office during the class trial hoping to hack his computer but wasn't expecting him to return in the middle of everything. The character's development also served to show a particular type of student that is found in law schools: someone trying a total career change in his late-20s / mid-30s. The fact that he was a doctor before (of all things) characterized him as a person that needed to live up to the expectations of someone already established in a successful and prestigious career by being nothing less than an A student. His plot was there to show when that expectation gets completely out of control and its unavoidable consequences as even the "good guys" of the story can commit crimes and need to be judged and punished by law and not by their peers (his teacher, for instance, knew she should and could only be by his side to a certain extent.). The show's main theme is justice only by law. Joon Hwi questioning him as a prosecutor was an illustration of that. His story was of course overdramatized as it was everyone else's really (Sol B's crazy mother threatening to kill herself for example) but at the end of the day we are talking about kdramas, which is to be expected. lol
But I totally agree with you that not everything was as thoroughly developed as it could have been (my biggest pet peeve was the twin thing) and I blame that on the fact that we had too many storylines happening at the same time for a 16 episode series. Maybe a 20 episode series like Vincenzo could have helped the story tremendously.
After a few episodes, I started calling this the Korean "How To Get Away With Murder", but better. I liked most of the episodes but got turned off by some things like Joon Hwi always being one step ahead of everyone. I get it, he is smart. But can you have him be a normal 20-something-year-old guy that doesn't know everything about the law for like 5 seconds? Like the rest of the study group? The character lacked flaws on several occasions. But that's fine since I watched the whole thing for Yang and he was also a character that was too good at everything. But for him, it always made sense to me. I guess I liked the character so much (and his voice) that I ended up forgiving him for things I criticized Joon Hwi for. There's some bias here.
The whole twin thing was unnecessary for me. You could still have essentially the same plot without giving Sol A a sister since it was never properly developed. She didn't need any direct connection to Hyeong Soo to get her involved in the main storyline. The character was already empathetic enough that she would help regardless (especially because of her friend Ye Seul). I also hated that wig. lol
That being said, I think the cast was great and the plot was super interesting from beginning to end. It was a solid 9 for me (even with the twin situation that I really hated) until the last episode that in my opinion was the worst of the show. It was somehow slow-paced but rushed at the same time. It felt sloppy. Because of that, I gave it a solid 8.5.
I'm stuck at episode 4 for 3 days now. Ugh, I don't know what exactly is my problem with the show. I like IU's acting (I've seen My Mister and was impressed with her), but the idea that some tiny petite princess-like girl like her can be this great dangerous fighter, killing men with her sword alone, is just laughable for me. The Hotel scenes are good but the flashbacks are so cheesy. It pains my heart to say that but I feel she wasn't the best choice for the role. :(
This had so much potential. And it goes nowhere. Laugh tracks alongside the most boring scenes (the actual funny ones had none whatsoever). Characters changing the way of speaking out of nowhere (I'm looking at you, Carson). Some of them have almost no development, no interesting arc, nothing. And some characters are just low effort and overall lackluster (ahem... Minnie and Sam). Seriously, were these two really necessary at any given moment? I couldn't tell. You know... poop jokes can only get you hooked for like 5 minutes. Tops.
Hyun Min was a great character that suffered from being part of an overall unorganized series. The same goes for Se Wan, Jamie and, to be fair, all of them. Hans was completely misused, so did Terris, which, just like Hyun Min, had a lot of potential in a show full of wasted narratives (or should I say at times nonexistent). Carson's most interesting moments were when she simply wasn't acting like herself. If this isn't a sign that there's something not completely functioning within the narrative, then what is?
And there were moments in this show that simply made no sense. Without giving any major spoilers, a good example would be when they visit Hyun Min's mom. The way they handled that Se Wan scene during this mini-arc was atrocious, to say the least. What the hell was that?
I paid almost no attention in the last episode. I just couldn't. The few glimpses I gave were enough to tell me that it was simply so not worth it (ba dum tss). Sorry, I had to do it. lol
I wanted to like this so bad. The premise of having characters from multiple countries caught my attention and I was dying to see a kdrama with actors from different races (and I still want to see more of that in the future... but not like this). This one is a big NO for me.
I'm still trying to understand how this show currently has a score of 8.0. I guess I just wasn't feeling what everyone else was when watching this. Well, luckily we can all agree to disagree, right?
Let's just stay with this ugly photo then :( doesn't do her justice
Regarding Hyun Woo's plot, it was there to prove Yang's alibi, which was a major plot point and what connected his character to the main storyline. He went to his office during the class trial hoping to hack his computer but wasn't expecting him to return in the middle of everything. The character's development also served to show a particular type of student that is found in law schools: someone trying a total career change in his late-20s / mid-30s. The fact that he was a doctor before (of all things) characterized him as a person that needed to live up to the expectations of someone already established in a successful and prestigious career by being nothing less than an A student. His plot was there to show when that expectation gets completely out of control and its unavoidable consequences as even the "good guys" of the story can commit crimes and need to be judged and punished by law and not by their peers (his teacher, for instance, knew she should and could only be by his side to a certain extent.). The show's main theme is justice only by law. Joon Hwi questioning him as a prosecutor was an illustration of that.
His story was of course overdramatized as it was everyone else's really (Sol B's crazy mother threatening to kill herself for example) but at the end of the day we are talking about kdramas, which is to be expected. lol
But I totally agree with you that not everything was as thoroughly developed as it could have been (my biggest pet peeve was the twin thing) and I blame that on the fact that we had too many storylines happening at the same time for a 16 episode series. Maybe a 20 episode series like Vincenzo could have helped the story tremendously.
But that's fine since I watched the whole thing for Yang and he was also a character that was too good at everything. But for him, it always made sense to me. I guess I liked the character so much (and his voice) that I ended up forgiving him for things I criticized Joon Hwi for. There's some bias here.
The whole twin thing was unnecessary for me. You could still have essentially the same plot without giving Sol A a sister since it was never properly developed. She didn't need any direct connection to Hyeong Soo to get her involved in the main storyline. The character was already empathetic enough that she would help regardless (especially because of her friend Ye Seul). I also hated that wig. lol
That being said, I think the cast was great and the plot was super interesting from beginning to end. It was a solid 9 for me (even with the twin situation that I really hated) until the last episode that in my opinion was the worst of the show. It was somehow slow-paced but rushed at the same time. It felt sloppy. Because of that, I gave it a solid 8.5.
Also: that scene when it starts to "rain" over her and she's, ahn, trapped (or something)? You know, THAT one? Yeah. No more words needed.
Laugh tracks alongside the most boring scenes (the actual funny ones had none whatsoever). Characters changing the way of speaking out of nowhere (I'm looking at you, Carson). Some of them have almost no development, no interesting arc, nothing. And some characters are just low effort and overall lackluster (ahem... Minnie and Sam). Seriously, were these two really necessary at any given moment? I couldn't tell.
You know... poop jokes can only get you hooked for like 5 minutes. Tops.
Hyun Min was a great character that suffered from being part of an overall unorganized series. The same goes for Se Wan, Jamie and, to be fair, all of them. Hans was completely misused, so did Terris, which, just like Hyun Min, had a lot of potential in a show full of wasted narratives (or should I say at times nonexistent). Carson's most interesting moments were when she simply wasn't acting like herself. If this isn't a sign that there's something not completely functioning within the narrative, then what is?
And there were moments in this show that simply made no sense. Without giving any major spoilers, a good example would be when they visit Hyun Min's mom. The way they handled that Se Wan scene during this mini-arc was atrocious, to say the least. What the hell was that?
I paid almost no attention in the last episode. I just couldn't. The few glimpses I gave were enough to tell me that it was simply so not worth it (ba dum tss). Sorry, I had to do it. lol
I wanted to like this so bad. The premise of having characters from multiple countries caught my attention and I was dying to see a kdrama with actors from different races (and I still want to see more of that in the future... but not like this). This one is a big NO for me.
I'm still trying to understand how this show currently has a score of 8.0. I guess I just wasn't feeling what everyone else was when watching this. Well, luckily we can all agree to disagree, right?