My ID is Gangnam Beauty (2018)

What A Waste of Time.

Umm ... wow! That's really all I can say to start this review off because there's just so much to talk about. To start things off, I will say there's no logical explanation for why this show had a college setting. Absolutely none. Granted, I prefer college-aged characters because it's more interesting in my opinion. However, the things these characters talked about and the things they did felt more juvenile. It didn't fit with the vibe of college students. Sure, college students are young and wild but they're not this juvenile. Maybe it's a cultural thing but most college students don't care that much about their looks. Here, in the States, most college students don't care enough about their appearance to constantly talk about who and what is good-looking 24/7. There are far more pressing matters to worry about rather than nitpicking someone's looks. These characters spent an unnecessarily unusual time discussing people's appearance, which I understand. That's the whole point of the show, right? Yeah, but that gets old.

I want to talk about the thing that truly made me drop this show. Rapey McRaperson. I don't know the character's name but I know he's the Little Guy. Now, Little Guy (or Mr. McRaperson) had way more screen time than he deserved. I don't understand why he was allowed to be apart of the primary friend group of the main characters. In the very first episode, we watched this man attempt to sexually assault and coerce the main female lead by trying to trap her in a room alone with him before the male lead saved the day. Not just that, but he continued being an absolute creeper. He never stopped being a creeper. I didn't make it past the second episode, so I don't know if he ever got better or if he finally received his comeuppance but I would rather not deal with him. Now, I know you're wondering - why would you drop this show for a side character that's awful but is still very much a side character? The unfortunate part about this is that Little Guy isn't the only character in this show that gave me strange, sexual assault-y, rape-y -like vibes. Even some of the women in this show were giving me these strange vibes that told me they clearly don't understand the word "no." There was this one woman who hit on the male lead a few times, even though he'd already told her that he wasn't interested. He was very direct about it, and yet .. she didn't get the memo. What the fuck is that about?

Now, Soo Ah is interesting but I've never been the type of person to stay and watch a show for the antagonist/villain. It just doesn't make any sense to me to do so. While she is interesting, she is awful and I honestly didn't like her. I had second thoughts about possibly sticking around to watch her manipulate these awful guys in the show, but she intentionally lied to Rapey McRaperson, which caused him to lash out at the female lead and I bounced! That was it for me. I didn't want to have to deal with situations like that happening over and over again for the remainder of this show because I get the feeling that would be a running theme. I already saw the forest for the trees.

It's finally time to talk about our lovely main couple, yeah? The female lead in this show was awful. Just completely and utterly awful. She's not awful in the sense that her character does awful and irredeemable things. She's awful in the sense that she's absolutely dull. There's nothing compelling or interesting about her. She has no personality. She doesn't have anything that makes her more dynamic than the other characters and that's troubling because she's the fucking lead. Sure, she got plastic surgery to deal with her self-esteem woes but it clearly didn't help because she's still the same pathetic person she was before. One of my biggest pet peeves is watching a show with a promising story go down the drain because they write a weak, pitiful female lead. I don't even care enough to write her name here because I don't even remember it honestly. Her love interest is .. alright? He was more interesting than her, but that's not saying much because it's pretty easy to be more compelling than she was. I don't have much to say about the actor because I watched True Beauty and he played the exact same character in that show too, so ...

Which brings me to my final point - if you want to watch a show that has a similar concept to this, just watch True Beauty. It's essentially the same plot and it even has some of the same actors in it. I kid you not, The male lead in this show is the male lead in that one, plus a couple of the other actors. (ETA: Also, the male lead in BOTH shows is the only person who knew and saw the female lead before she undergoes her great "transformation," which speaks volumes about the lack of creativity and originality within this market of drama.) The only difference is that the female lead/actress in True Beauty is actually a lot more animated and interesting. You would enjoy watching her on-screen a lot more. Now, don't get me wrong. I hated True Beauty and I dropped that one too, but I hate TB a LOT less than I hate this show. Not only is it slow and there's copious amounts of sexual harassment, but the female lead isn't enough to make you stick around. Which defeats the purpose of watching the show because no one goes out of their way to watch a show for the supporting characters, and I'm definitely not one to continue on with a show knowing that I have to skip through the entire main plot just to get to the interesting parts that don't include the primary cast.

Would I recommend this show? No. Did I enjoy it? Also, no. Don't waste your time. Pass on this one and find something better.

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