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Doomed By Design
I've never seen a drama that purposely go out of its way to avoid doing anything interesting with its scenario this hard. It took three full episodes just to do a basic introduction as stated in the synopsis, only then, the story somewhat started. Earlier in the second half, the drama reached a point where things were about to get interesting but it suddenly hard pressed the reset button on everything. The writer was genuinely not even trying, she worked on The Beauty Inside (2018) previously which was decent but what is she even doing here?Subsequently, themes of death, mortality, grief and fate were poorly injected and remained half-baked. The unusual romance was justified by using a blend of these themes but it didn't make sense or click. Even then, it created a big disconnect when it reached its highest moments. However, it wasn't as bad as the secondary couple romance, which gave us a despicable characterization of the characters Joo Ik, Hyun Gyu and Ji Na. Their relationship didn't fit the story, narrative and themes. It had no thoughts put into it and adding it was a mere useless filler. Even as a standalone independent relationship outside the context of this drama, it failed for a multitude of reasons. At least the character Ji Na served as the FL's friend.
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Pathetic Love
Given that it's a drama from 2002, you may expect it to be extra dramatic with loads of self-sabotaging moments and forgiven unhinged behavior. The entire story was driven by a combination of last minute calls, missed opportunities and unreceived information which is expected from such a drama but sometimes it just gets a bit too frustrating, and the last episode amplified that even further. The first incident described in the synopsis was plain stupid and a general poor setup of characterizing the main characters. Compared to other melodrama from late 90s to early 00s this would rank at the very bottom. The last episode was objectively bad and was designed this way to rile up the audience and stir a conversation. It's an attempt to go for the "there is no such thing as bad publicity". Anyway, the drama was a flop.Not a single character mentioned that Tak Suk was shot with a gun by Dong Hwa, not even Ji Yoon. Tak Suk and Ji Yoon couldn't be together out of guilt but choosing to marry and have a kid with the other guy is just retarded, yet she still doesn't know that Dong Hwa shot Tak Suk. They should've cut the drama 6 minutes early before the 3-years time skip where she choose neither of them, that's the only reasonable move.
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A Case Study of A Writer's Mental Decline
The drama was really something different even when compared to others of its time, well, it was so initially, I'll get into details later. The cast selection were mostly good except for Choi Jae Ho and Han Hye Sook which were an unsuccessful choice. Han Hye Sook, despite playing a critical role in the story, she always felt out of place and out of character. Ironically, she played as a famous skillful actress. Choi Jae Ho, had a small side role as the director but later on, the drama turned him into something much more and gave him a lot of attention which was an awful unsuccessful transition and a complete unplanned mismatch. At first, I found Ma Rin & Ma Joon interactions to be unbearably annoying but it ended up being quite fun. Props to Lee Jae Eun, she really got into the role of Ma Rin. On the other hand, her character became horrendous once the director got involved with her. The writer put a lot of character in these characters which allowed for a lot of possible interactions. The drama had tons of small irrelevant scenes between these characters. At first I though it was a detrimental trait that will plague its length but the drama quickly managed to turn that into its own identity.The entire revenge plotline ended within the first 100 episodes which led to the beginning of the drama's major problems. The first 120 episodes or so were great, carefully calculated, intriguing, progressed smoothly and developed naturally. However, the subsequent episodes between 130-215 things changed drastically. The drama became strange and static, the 2 leads characters became completely irrelevant and the story shifted towards Ma Joon & Ye Young. Even then, Ma Joon & Ye Young didn't get the same treatment of intrigue and natural development. Around episodes between 215 to 235 the drama was trying to build a new plotline for the long term despite its strange new direction but everything came down crashing with the last 13 episodes. It felt like they had a lot more plans but had to end the drama within a few episodes. I had to double check around the last 13 episodes to see if they changed the writer because the shift was too drastic. The writer became extremely childish and tacky with writing conflicts and tension for these few last episodes. Now, arriving to the last episode, things gotten a lot worse. Compared to its earlier pace and taking into consideration its huge length, everything was moving at a crazy rapid pace for the last episode with lots of cuts, skips and gaps. I refuse to believe there wasn't a major problem happening behind the scenes. All of that led to the most questionable choice of immature silly ending that was just trying to pull the viewers' leg and yanking any sense of satisfaction. It didn't match the overall tone of the drama. I really enjoyed everything about its earlier episodes. The drama had the perfect sweet spot around episodes 130-140 to wrap things up and end it reasonably.
Regarding the ending: According to a statement from the production team, the ending suggests a reunion as it shows Ah Ri Young, who has recovered from the shock and skipped over two years after the traffic accident, enjoying a happy moment with Joo Wang, their daughter, and the son born between them.
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The Queenless Queen
While the series set out to explore the comedic possibilities of a modern soul trapped in a historical queen's body, the formula turned out to be very limited to spin it for a very long 20 episodes. I enjoyed its earlier episodes but it kept repeating the exact same gags with every single episode. How many times they repeated the same kitchen/cooking gags? I don't understand how they thought that would work. The cast size was limited as well, it could've definitely helped in coming up with new material. However, its biggest flaw was trying to add plot to its bare-bone formula. It's one of the rarest sights to see this level of shameless attempts. They didn't even know how to include it so they dedicated separate episodes for it in the middle parts while reallocating the comedy to different episodes separately, again. Cutting and editing it down into an 8 episodes package could've solved most of its issues. I wouldn't have rated it this high if it weren't for its set up, characters, and some of the gags.Was this review helpful to you?
The Crowned Clown Clone
I usually dislike Yeo Jin Goo in historical roles but this was one of his better ones so that's nice for a change. While the story may have been interesting at first but it didn't quite live up to its premise. The clone needed to have a better introduction and build up. The king was useless and had no role other than to kick-start the narrative. We only had brief interactions between the clone and the king. The drama would have been infinitely more interesting and enjoyable if it wrote the king as a prominent character and had a consistent dynamic with the clone. The last episode was awful in all regards, a significant downgrade compared to any of the previous episodes. No thought or care put into it at all. An outsider must have wrote the last episode alone, there's no other way! With all that being said, I found the drama to be a decent watch with a handful of interesting elements, if you were to temper your expectations you'd find something to like about it too.Was this review helpful to you?
King Hater: The Change of Heart
This set up was just terrible— unconvincing, cartoonish, and downright ridiculous. And don't even get me started on that plot armor, it's like they thought they could get away with it. That love triangle was a mess. The guy was just plain revolting, but the real issue was how the writer tried to force us to feel sorry for him. If you're gonna have a crappy love triangle, just stick with it! Another bad habit the drama had was how often they leaned into cheesy drama tricks, killing the narrative and any potential right off the bat. One more thing to mention, I don't know how it's possible but the leads had negative chemistry. Their younger selves had a slightly better screen presence anyway.Was this review helpful to you?
The cursed, the remake
A slightly different take on Jang Hee Bin. The drama suffers from the exact same problems any profession focused historical drama attempt. Very similar to Goddess of Fire with its storytelling, transformation, progress and conclusion. The drama didn't deserve to be longer than 16 episodes at best for the amount of material it had to offer. Quickly enough, they deviated from fashion design in favor of typical bland drama antics. They kept all the details of fashion design to minimum. Looking at the cast it seemed promising but it turned out to be quite disappointing. This drama and its other remakes were all equally as problematic and disappointing. Maybe Jang Hee Bin as a historical character is cursed to be portrayed in media.Was this review helpful to you?
At least it wasn't as bad as Eun Hui
Whenever you see TV Novel in the title of a drama here, make sure to not have the slightest expectations, it's really helpful. One particular feature of these "TV Novels" dramas is having single digit IQ characters and this drama was no exception to the rule. At the end of the day, it's done purposely because it's easier to digest and provoke. The cast was barely average, however, it's hard to stomach when almost every single character was selfish and trashy without proper character building and motivation. The love square seems to be identical to most of the other TV Novel ones, two good vs two baddies. Speaking of which, the two main lead were such a bad pair with no chemistry. Lee Min Woo looks older than his real age and this only made the age gap much worse.Was this review helpful to you?
Were they even trying?
The entire drama and the main couple's relationship was built entirely around bonding over their each others trauma. Not necessarily bad but it felt it was purposely designed that way to manipulate the viewers' emotions forcefully. This was pretty obvious from the very beginning with how they portrayed and handled the female lead's boyfriend. You would fell for their trap if you were a newcomer. The music choices were odd and mostly cheap, in addition, the dubstep soundtrack was completely unfitting. Anyway, if it wasn't for the forestry scenery then the drama wouldn't have had much to offer. Throwing in two attractive leads together isn't enough anymore.Was this review helpful to you?
Weak
Good concept, nice first episode and a decent selection of cast. However, for a thriller/mystery drama, the writing was unbelievably moronic to the nth degree. Blatantly mocking the viewers every step of the way. Every minute decision was deliberately stirred away from any sense of reason for the least optimal result possible. It even failed to deliver something with its climax, the whole last few episodes were the weakest in general.Was this review helpful to you?
Good enough...
This was an enjoyable mystery-comedy drama full of character and style. The main leading actor and actress Cho Yeo Jung & Go Jun were the perfect cast for their character, completely embodying the character to bring it to its full potential. The mystery element was good and kept going for its entire runtime but this delayed a lot of things to the last episode which made it feel cramped. This also resulted in slow pacing which almost turned it stale. The last episode could've been done better, the 2nd half of the last episode was going all over the place and a bit too unfocused. Meanwhile, the ending was purely done that way to leave a stronger impression, so it's not meant to be taken serious or to be over analyzed.Was this review helpful to you?
Hot mess!
The drama's biggest problem is that it's overly ambitious with its concept. It wrote itself in a corner that was impossible to get out from. Which resulted in making the whole thing a convoluted mess. Right from the beginning within 2 episodes, you can tell this had a really poor world building, it didn't even care, shamelessly! The whole thing was unbelievable edgy especially the antagonist, he was the definition of edge lord. Let's just hope that we do NOT get a second season of this mess.Was this review helpful to you?
!
It was doing well and heading in a good direction until they decided to reveal too much and kill the mystery halfway. It also got pretty predictable at that point. Everyone got pretty sloppy and started to slip left and right, also killing any creativity it built earlier. It was a matter of waiting for it to just finish. It also tried so hard to set itself up for a season 2 which is just distasteful. First half was good, second half was bad.Was this review helpful to you?
Decent tear-jerker
It's pretty clear what you are getting yourself into and it delivers just that to a certain extent. I personally found it unnecessarily long. Which is why it took a more melodrama route than a familial/drama route. Which is also why it took some time to get to the point. It does nothing new, however, it remains a decent tear-jerker. That final scene on the motorcycle was a nice touch.Was this review helpful to you?
Yikes!
This is the worst "I fell in love with the organ recipient from my deceased lover" type of drama. They pushed the subject of "cellular memory" way too far, making the girl a clone of the donor. The fact that Kam Woo Sung looks older than his real age and Choi Soo Young looks younger than her real age, made the entire thing worse than it already was. The relationship was too iffy regardless of that. I watched four dramas from the same writer and it seems she has a consistent record in fucking up the later parts of her projects. Good to know.Was this review helpful to you?
