Kate

I think the issue is, you are the minority of people who acknowledged the issue, and if you read the comments, most people who were vocal on it and enjoys the show says there was nothing problematic and people needs to chill out and move on.

I'm one of the people who vocally criticized the show for the Africa scene, but I will also keep watching for now, coz even tho I'm not crazy about the main couple, I'm interested in a few characters. But most people just defends the show as if their life depends on it.

I mean if the drama is based on real events or real historical figures, that's a different story - research in needed.
But with silly fun rom-com, basic google search is enough.

16 episode did not air tho. It's been two and the Africa was a part of both of them. And I did not see anyone dragging actors and actresses - only complain about the writer, director and the tv station.

But there are also people who still watch the show, enjoy everything EXCEPT from the Africa issue. It's fine to criticize and point out things we don't like in dramas that we still watch.

I mean, this comment section is quite entertaining and I have a day off work. I can find both reasonable people to discuss with, and few folks to laugh about ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

"why dont u try and relax" could also apply to your initial comment, again it goes both ways.

go to other comment section under different drama if you are not happy with comments here ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
it goes both ways.

I call out issues surrounding my country on platforms that have people from my country - this way they hit the people that should read them.

I never claimed to be educated about East Asia based on watching dramas. I am criticising a behavior that has nothing to do with the specific culture. All countries have ignorant people, all countries should try to educate each other and themselves.

Oh. You are this type of a person. Ok.
Have a nice day 🙂

I only saw people calling out the ignorant scene in the drama, no racism, obsession and for sure no fetishization nor sexualizing East Asians. Definitely no BL fans being vocal under non-BL drama 🤣

I mean, you can link me some comments, if it's true, I will more than gladly have a chat with them about their problematic behavior.

I saw a lot of people calling each other names, but no one directly attacking any nationality.

why this comment under this drama and not a BL drama tho 🤣

To be fair, I would not compare an entertainment show to a paper research. I am not expecting writers for dramas to do excessive research on every issue they include, but damn the basic check and few google searches should be a minimum effort put in.

Probably more popular so more people watch it type of a deal. I think it's also the case that it's such a simple thing to google and check and it's not like it would require extensive research on complex socio-political issues - literally google countries in Africa. So it's more annoying and frustrating that they don't care enough to do such a simple thing...

not tvn as far as I know, but overall this is reoccurring issue of racist/ignorant scenes in kdramas, that's why I said tv stations don't learn from each other's mistakes.

Why I am bothered by the Africa scene? Coz it's not the first time a Korean drama made a similar "mistake" and got called out by the audience. So by continuously putting 💩 like that in dramas they give me an idea how much they "care" and how sincere the previous apologies were. And the T V stations do not learn from each other's mistakes at all.

It also shows how lazy the writing is. Good writer educated themselves on topics they write about. If you pick up a good book and read the "acknowledgments" part, you can see how authors thank people from different occupations and profession for giving them advice and correcting their mistakes about the topics included.

I can't talk for people affected by the scene, but based on the comments on the page i think it's fair to assume if the writer googled specific impoverished region, put into writing even something alone the lines "Despite wealthy and developed countries like Seychelles or Mauritius, there are still countries like Burundi who struggle with the poverty and in some areas even access to fresh water" < add line like that to a news report about the actor doing on the charity trip - it's what, 5 seconds of screen time? And it literally takes 2 google searches to find out what are the most developed and most impoverishes countries and regions in Africa. Since when expecting writers to do BASIC GOOGLE SEARCH on the topic they include in the drama is controversial and too much to ask?

as sony_t said, accounts can be deleted. Also someone's comments might be deleted by admins. Sometimes people get "warning" aka they are banned for 24h.

Yeah, I enjoyed first few episodes. It was still a silly over the top story, but it was a lot more chill than previous version. But then they started to get more and more dramatic and ridiculous and I lost hope hahaha

The younger cast deserves a shoutout because holy moly they can act < I KNOW RIGHT! Kids acting in shows with such a heavy topics can make or break a drama, coz if I don't believe the delivery on their end, I don't feel anything in the present times is justified. But here they just aced their roles

After reading your review I thought about one think the drama was missing - the parents.
" South Korea and one of the main reason for that is because of the inefficiency of schools to come up with a system to eradicate such problem." < this part made me think of it. Realistically speaking teachers cannot do that much against bullying, especially when parents come to the rescue for their "angel kids who can do no wrong". While the school takes a lot of blame, I think the biggest fault lies on the parents, and that perspective was missing here. But then, the show was focusing on the victims' perspective, and looking at it like that, they would not have the inside of that homes of bullies. + adding the parents might be a bit too much for the show like that, too many elements make it impossible to well present any.

Kim Cheol, the character, is something that all of us unaskingly fell in love with, no? < 10000% yes. By the end of the show he was my favorite character. The complexity behind him was just amazing.

I actually liked the arc of Jong Suk. I think it brings an interesting aspect to the discussion and it showcases the flaw in Kyung Min's thinking. He thought he is ringing justice, when in fact he created more victims (like the family of the first dead bully). If his actions that hurt innocent people were justified for him coz of his goal, Jong Suk's action as a teen should also be justified (not in real life, but by Kyung Min's logic). Also without him it's a bit too back and white. Yes, Kyung Min is just a serial killer by the end of the day, but as viewers many of us still rooted for him, coz we saw him as a victim. At the same time, Jong Suk was as much of the victim, yet by the end many of us saw him more as a perpetrator. So I think it was just interesting to see all the different takes and views on it from different viewers - I think his character made the discussion more complex.

As for the investigation 100% yes. I feel like overall Jin Ah was more or less useless character add to make sure the drama is not 100% male cast. She lacked the same level of raw presentation and complexity as other main characters, and seemed like a scene filler more often than not. Easy way out to dump some important info on the viewers here and there.

Anyway, as always, great review :)

Jin Ah feels like a last minute afterthought tbh 🙃 As you said it seems like they did not want to have all male drama, so they just added her without much thought put into making her actually important part of the plot and as detailed and well written character are the rest...