Kate

Some random thoughts about the plot and characters, since we past the half way point

𝗗𝗼 𝗛𝗮𝗲 𝗬𝗶, girl I love you but you have the depth of a puddle. It was fun at first how she struggled and felt conflicted between enjoying her youth and only investing her time into things that can bring her profit. But now that she embraced cheering, there is not much left to her character. Don't get me wrong, i still like her and she is truly entertaining, but if they don't add something to the mix, that will get boring in next 7 episodes.

𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗴 𝗪𝗼𝗼 - did the writers forget he's the main lead? Even putting aside the romance, we barely know anything about this dude. There was no proper set up about him, no nothing. I love him and Hae Yi, but I always want my characters to be individuals first, and then get paired up.

𝗝𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝘂𝗻 𝗛𝗼, ma dude. He was painfully frustrating with this "not accepting no as an answer", but I actually truly liked his confession in episode 9. I think he finally accepted that whatever he feels for Hae Yi has nothing to do with her (as in it's not her responsibility to make him happy and feel validated), hence the "trying unrequited love" line. He accepts it's one sided. So I'm kind of curious how they will interact now.

𝗗𝗼 𝗝𝗮𝗲 𝗬𝗶 - to the important point, Hae Yi's bro is the best looking dude in the show ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

𝗝𝗼𝗼 𝗦𝘂𝗻 𝗝𝗮 - aka Oreo. Damn I like her a lot, but her romance is so all over the place with the grumpy dude, especially since the actor does not exactly do a good job with his acting 🙃

𝗟𝗲𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝗼 𝗠𝗶𝗻 - I hated her at first, now I like her. She seems the most normal and chill out of all the people truly involved with the mystery part 🤣

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻 - big slow mo reveal in episode 9 and my reaction was just "who?" and "why?". Like damn, this had zero impact on me. Some random dude, whatever.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘁 - I feel like this is a 10 episodes (at best) content that tries to pretend it's worthy 16 episodes. There is not enough character depth to fill it with internal growth etc fitted slow paced character driven dramas, the plot is rather... thin to call it plot driven drama... It kind of feels like 30 minutes episodes with 30 minutes fillers in.

Also, can we talk about how useless that cliffhanger at the end of episode 9 was, when we see in the preview nothing will happen, since they are going on a trip? 🤡

To be fair about yelling at her for being irresponsible - from his side she was 100% irresponsible. People who knew where she went told him they have no idea, she did not explain shit, just said: I lost track of time ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ So how he sees it? Big even is literally happening right now, everyone works hard, shit keeps coming up that they don';t know how to solve, but she id gone and "no one knows" where. Putting aside his emotional reaction coz he thought she was in danger, it is her and her friends fault he misunderstood it as her just slacking and leaving for no good reason, as the people who knew did not say shit.

As a rather rational person, it's just so wild for me how quickly Jung Woo accepted that his dead animals are not in a human form 🙃 I just truly cannot comprehend it. I'd be like: stalkers from some weird cult had tabs on me since I was a child and now are trying to emotionally manipulate me into joining by using my attachment to my dead animals, before I would be like - ah yes, Milk and Choco... my dead animals are now humans 🤡

On the side note, Milk is my fav. He is adorable and fun. Choco is too much to handle hahaha

Also:
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVE TO LEAVE? WHAT ARE YOU SAYING? NO. MA DUDES, STOP.

,fsd omg yes this! I am sorry, but Milk is so adorable how could anyone not pick him!

Truly great and detailed article. I love how it's not just personal opinions about certain dramas and characters, but there is some cultural merit and research done. I also liked the different takes on the topic from different users - even tho they seem similar at first, there are some interesting differences in the perspective.

oh o completely agree that characterization was a mess, but for me it was more on the short format, and no writing could truly fix it. The set up was so "complex" I honestly believe you need a full series to truly explore it for it to make sense.

One had to go from seeing other as a "uncle" and savior he feels a lot guilt towards, to potential friend to potential love interest.
The other had to move from seeing one as a stalker and weirdo, to potential friend to potential lover. Like damn you ain't doing that in a short show and make it make sense 🤣

slightly eccentric? what do you mean slightly? 🤣🤣 Dude was as eccentric as they get 🙂
totally agreed on villain. he was just some normal dude with no real connection, but he wass able to do all the shit in the last 2 episodes? That was just ridiculous.

Getting the viewer attached. < this! I am honestly surprised how well they crafted the characters on such a short show, that all of them were well presented and I ended up caring for them all.

It could work... it just feels like a rushed production...

well, this was entertaining read 🤣
basically people complaining without doing the work.
Realistically speaking, most shows outside of China that are propaganda do not get the tag, because people are too lazy to add it with proper links to prove it is in fact propaganda, because it's way harder to truly prove something, compared to other tags like "cold male lead" that is often part of the character description from the official site.

Don't project. I never said I dislike romance overall 🤣 I disliked this specific one. Some of my favorite romances are from dramas that don't have romance as the main genre.

people will not see the romance as the failure" SOME people won't. Some people will. You keep making statements as if it's black or white and everyone is either on one or the other side, when it's not true.

And I'm sorry, but you literally injected yourself into the middle of a conversation that was not about your personal preferences, but someone complaining why others dislike romance. I would say nothing if the OG posted about how much they loved the romance in this show. But they didn't. Instead they questioned why others dislike it.

You said you are only explaining your perspective, but you don't really say "I", from the start you said "many people"... While ignoring the fact most people who complained about the romance had different reasons for disliking it than age gap.

You do you, but don't come at me for my own preferences with "just enjoy it". (and by you, I mean generally people, not you as a specific person).

He will see the light at some point and, while still acting a bit like a dick, becomes better person 🤣
Also, somehow, with each episode he is actually more and more likeable, even tho he acts like a dick all the time

Oh it was nice at first. Nothing outstanding, but for sure the best we have seen from Mame. But then she added all her over the top bullshit problematic aspects and I was so done 🤣

It's better to actually read why people dislike the paring here, instead of projecting what you saw in comment sections under other unrelated dramas. The age gap and the fact ML is not hot young dude were not the main reasons most people dislike the idea of this romance.

A lot of people simply found it unethical and uncomfortable because of the initial dynamics of the people involved and their "starting point".

I honestly wanted a drama with deep platonic relationship between leads, so when the random last minute love on Jegal side happened, I was greatly disappointed. Especially since the writers did NOTHING to create even a possibility of this being a romance until like episode 10 if not later. After so many viewers started to love and enjoy the simply mentor/mentee dynamic. The romance here was poorly done in all aspects - from the writing, pacing, set up, ending on no romantic chemistry between the actors. But that chemistry was just cherry on top other more serious issues.

Deep platonic relationships between female and male characters barely exist in dramas, that's why when we get it I get so happy and excited... We have romance everywhere... can we get one not romantic relationship here and there? 🙃

Not really. Some people don't want romance in some dramas and it would make no difference who they cast.

This drama did not have any indication there will be romance. It's not in the genre not the tags. So it's fair for people to complain they got romance when they wanted to watch drama without it.

Mental Coach Jegal is NOT a romance drama. Not by genre and not by tags, so their reasoning was wrong in this case

If for someone one of the main reason they enjoyed the show was the mentor/mentee relationship between Jegal and Ga Eul, changing that dynamics can ruin the show overall. People also have their specific pet peeves - sometimes the smallest aspect of the show might ruin the whole experience if you are really not on board with it.

Not to mention, if someone did not like the romance, but the show ended literally on them getting together... it's like having your favorite meal, but the last bite is only stuff you hate. It just leaves bad taste in your mouth.

At the end of the day, it does not matter what was the specific reason the romance ruined it for them, it does not matter if we get it or not. The fact stays the same - the romance did ruin the show for many people, and it's not like it actually improved the quality of the show and was needed in the first place ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This is not a romantic drama tho.

It's neither in the genre, and it was not in tags when it started airing (don't know now, and don't care enough to check) so they have every right to complain about the romance in a show that they did not expect to have any romance in the first place.

I 100% agree that people complaining about the romance in a romance show is ridiculous. MCJ is NOT a romance show, so that argument does not work here.

Don't writers get tired of putting romance in every show ever because they fear they cannot attract the audience in any other manner?

Romance is great, does not mean it's needed in every show, especially if there are other plotlines that feel like they could/should be explored more - the screen time used on romance could have been used for these. And that's the issue in MCJ.

Also... in general there is nothing wrong with someone not wanting romance in the show they are watching and saying the romance ruined it for them. If someone does not want to see romance in the show, they can't just "enjoy it".

I was not as passionate about the romance here as some other people (be it in negative or positive way), but it did feel painfully unnecessary and poorly executed compared to everything else in the show. Hence it did make me enjoy the show a little bit less.