Start-Up (2020)

The Hand that Sunk a Thousand Ships

First off, I would like to thank the community that formed over the weeks of the live airing. The resiliency and maturity that these men and women showed in the face of such great adversity is enough to make one ignore the stifling heat of burning ships, the blaring horns of hypocrisy, and the sharp needles of mediocrity.

Sorry in advance this is a long read...

When a show leaves itself vulnerable to multiple strong fan made theories and analysis. This means only one of two things: Either the show was written really smartly, and the writer in effect, created a world filled with multiple exciting possibilities. OR, lazy, lukewarm, and predictable writing has left so many large plot holes filled with nonsensical plot points, and poor characterization, that fans are forced to shore up the shows many weakness with well constructed fan theories and analysis to plug up the holes. After episode 6, it is clear that the latter happened.

The show does a great job of producing and writing the first few episodes, to the point where a majority of the audience set their emotional expectation high for what is to come. Unfortunately, all these first few episodes manages to accomplish is to set the bar so high, that the remaining episodes look so poor in comparison, and make the fall much farther and more painful for the audience. As viewers continue to watch the show, they journey through a harsh and arid desert, where they will continuously see mirages of depth and complexity that never materializes as anything more than repetitive clichés and negative stereotypes devoid of any creativity.

Prior to watching this show, I have never heard of these actors or actresses, nor have I seen any shows made by this particular writer. At the beginning, a lot of hype followed the drama, with two A-Listers, an apparently popular writer, and an interesting synopsis. With these things in mind, I sailed my tiny vessel past the gilded French doors into what I hope would be a smooth maiden voyage for my first foray into watching a Park Hye Run drama. Little did I know that what awaited me past these gilded doors, would be a tiring journey full of infinite frustrations. As my boat continually capsized in the weak waters of Park Hye Run's writing, what kept me going was the shining light of Han Ji Pyeong's character, which the writer gifted to us in the first episode.

What kept me going was HJP's shining white light, illuminating a drab, boring, and colorless plot. Wherever he shone his light, the plot sparkled, whichever character he shared the light with gained color and depth. But the minute his light left, we are reminded of how dull and boring the world Park Hye Run created really was. Under HJP's warm light, metaphors started to grow, towers of theories began to rise, and the flowers of hope started to bloom. The writer may have known this, and used HJP's light selfishly to extend a love triangle way past its expiry date, in hopes of reeling in hopeless romantics who believe being a "Good Boy" deserves a happy ending. With each passing episode though, the metaphors started to lose meaning, the towers of theories began to crumble, and the flowers of hope began to wither.

In Kdrama, the characterization of second leads tends to be selfless, self sacrificing, and overall a good guy. So to prevent strong SLS in the Kdrama, they normally present a slightly weaker ML (or sometimes someone equally strong) who may start at a lower position initially compared to the second lead, but through PROPER character growth, is able to eventually take residence in the FL's heart. PHR did not get this memo. What we get instead is a severely weak characterization of the ML who takes almost the entire 16 episodes run to exhibit any character growth, that by the time the audience realizes he has grown, it is already too late, and no amount of force feeding by the plot is enough for the audience to accept the ML for anything more than a privileged and spoiled person.

The writer falls into the trap of making the ML too powerful, too quick, robbing audience of the satisfaction of the journey. When the ML first encounters an issue, we feel the suspense and nervousness of what may lie ahead. But after he effortlessly navigates each and every one of these hurdles, the excited and nervous emotions start fading away. So when the next hurdle comes, and we see the SST boys panic like headless chickens, all the audience can do is roll their eyes as the ML comes to save the day, and effortlessly surpass another hurdle. I feel disappointed that Kdrama writers continually makes their ML's too perfect. The flaws that the ML is suppose to have, is noticed by none of the cast, as his flaws are either ignored, or only show up when no one is around.

The FL, who is initially shown to have such depth and complexity through the letters that she writes, eventually succumbs to the "Damsel in Distress" disease of which has plagued Kdrama for years. The cure for weak FL's (Independence) have been available to Kdrama writers for years now, and yet some archaic writers refuses to give their FL this medicine. So it's no surprise, after such a strong start for the FL, she eventually succumbs to this disease. Her new persona, which is as shallow as a puddle, fastidiously focuses on "Big Hands" as the source of her emotional growth. Although "Big Hands" is meant to have some deeper meaning (which the show does a poor job showing!), the ridiculousness of how something intangible like love and emotions, can be measured so easily by comparing hand sizes, makes one laugh out of pity.

The other female characters which started out as interesting, complex, and powerful in the beginning never reach their potential. Instead they are treated as fashion accessories to make the dull Male lead's lackluster characterization pop out more. In fact the whole show felt much like the Male leads personal cheering squad. And yet, with the tsunami of support from both the other characters and the writer, the Male lead fails to take advantage of any of it, instead wallowing in the insecurities that has seeped from the writer's pen.

It was hard to feel the chemistry from both FL and ML, as the FL shared the same doe-eyed Bambi look whenever she saw the ML or the SL. The ML on the other hand felt like he was trying too hard to nail the look of an angsty, cool, and tough teenage who can cry at the drop of the hat. In most Kdrama I always place an emphasis on micro-expressions as the high production values, and numerous close up shots gives the actors/actresses the perfect platform to convey so much emotions with simple subtle twitches of their faces. Thus I was quite disappointed to see the main couple not take advantage of this, and instead produce misplaced or invisible micro-expressions that failed to convey the gravity of the situation, and missed the harmonic emotions the amazing OST produced.

The gap of acting between the "adults" in the show versus the "kids" was huge, to the point where the reduced screen time of the better actors and actress are felt strongly and visibly dropped the quality of certain episodes. And in the acting, the insecurity of the writing once again rears its ugly head, as the show tried it's best to throw in every single Kdrama romantic trope in the book to justify the non-existent chemistry of Suzy and NJH. The show was so insecure of the growing SLS among viewers, that they limited HJP any happiness, as if they felt that any ounce of happiness on HJP's side would overshadow the weak main couple. As if every HJP smile, would make an already lackluster main couple, even more dull in comparison. Such was the insecurity of the showrunners.

The writer ATTEMPTS to craft a story about a young group of underdogs who start from the bottom and work their way to the top thru hard work and determination. What we get instead are people, who have the deck stacked FOR them, who bemoan how tough life is. Not only does this not illicit the intended reaction from the mature and smart audiences, but the preposterousness of seeing people who have it all, complain about not having it all, induced many doctors visit among audiences who could not stop rolling their eyes. Nay, instead of getting a story about loveable underdogs like "Dodgeball", what we get instead is the Korean version of the Breakfast Club, where YOU WANT the kids to stay in detention for the rest of the show. These characters, once they achieve their success never exhibit the humility that comes from self-directed success, but rather the arrogance and superiority complex that come from people who did not properly earn their prestige.

The show missed the great opportunity to show a true or semi-true depiction of startups in the tech world. In fact, what could have potentially been a great medium to showcase Korea's burgeoning position in the tech world, instead decided to focus 70% of the plot on a love triangle that went longer than it needed to. And the foundation of the love triangle is a dangerous moral lesson. The lesson being that dreaming without a plan is the way to achieve success, and only when you throw caution to the wind, and don't bother with the technicalities of reaching your dream will you achieve success. It's a very naïve and narrow view of a world where the sharks outweigh the sheep. The little bit of business aspect that the show provides, can be replicated by reading the first paragraph of what a start up is on Wikipedia. The shows attempt to sound smart about it's poorly researched show, just gets a incredulous reactions from people who are actually in the industry.

If you start watching the show expecting a mature story showing realistic situations, this is not that show. Instead we are "treated" to a show about kids vs adults, and the cool kids versus the squares. Where we, mature audiences, are expected to root for the clueless kids who are basically attacking principles that we adults hold dear. In fact the central theme of the show is about how experience and wisdom is no match for the power of hopes and dreams. How being a dreamer is always better than being a pragmatist. How being safe, having a back plan, and being patient are for failures. All dangerous imagery for anyone knowledgeable about business. In fact the show is so in love with their own hubris, that they make this message a one sided one, where the adults are not only humbled by the children, but humiliated. There is too much romanticization for an industry and process that at times cause people to hurt themselves.

Some of the characters who started as adults in the show, quickly lose their maturity card, as they begin to exhibit symptoms of early childhood. The short attention span, the incessant crying, and terrible tantrums. In fact a good portion of the episodes felt like adults babysitting the children until they can learn to walk. And once the children learn to walk, they ignore the adults who helped them.

Since most of the people watching this show are over the age of 20, seeing a group of "struggling" characters succeed beyond a doubt without any regards for both an exit plan or a plan B, and throw tantrums and cry when they reach artificial, invisible impasses, felt very contrived and laughable. In fact, just like children, they expect the adults to take care of the invisible impasses for them, and to make the scary monsters go away. Because of all these immature themes within the main group of characters in SST it becomes hard to relate to any of these character who are not experiencing any real difficulties. And it becomes increasingly frustrating that none of these mistakes are properly punished but instead weirdly rewarded. As mature audience, we find it difficult to mirror anything happening in the show. What is supposed to be thematically realistic, often comes out as fantasy instead. Although Kdrama is meant as escapism, there is a limit to how much fantasy the audience can tolerate; Start Up's motto of "Sailing Without A Map", went so far pass the audiences' limit of fantasy, that it became hard for audience to relate, revel, and enjoy SST's many successes.

The writer, in her hubris, has taken the audience for granted. She continually mocks and ridicules the tenets that a mature audience holds dear. In her imaginations, the audience are but sheep who will accept whatever swill she decides to feed us. But due to the many negative feedback, I am happy to see that the Kdrama audience have matured pass the cages that these arrogant writers choose to impose on us. And as the criticism mount, so does the insecurity of the show.

There is a disconnect between the show and the audiences. Because just like the audience in a theatrical play, only we are privy to the actual good and bad acts the various characters do. And just like in a play the other character are oblivious to the manipulations and ulterior motives of the supposedly pure white characters. The frustrations mount when the showboating, privileged main characters expect a parade for every good deed he does, while the silently helpful supporting characters are unsung heroes. If fact the endless praise seeking of the main characters can be distilled into the narcissistic line "What do you like about me?".

During the latter half of the show, you might as well have started a new Kdrama, as the characterizations of the different characters are destroyed, then reconstructed without proper instructions; and the show basically erases all the plot points of the previous episodes. As the show trudges along a predictable and boring road, the audience keeps hoping that somehow the writing will get smarter, but instead the audience are indurated by stupidity after stupidity. And in the world of Start Up, stupidity is equated to intelligence.

Lastly, one of my biggest gripe with the show, has been it's portrayal of parents as ATM machines, and as disposable diapers. The unhealthy relationship of the ML and his parents is very conflicting towards Asian societies and the parenting that comes from it. In fact, what is normally seen as normal in current society is vilified in the show. But instead of addressing any of the inconsistencies in the family dynamic, the show instead decides to sweep all the issues under the rug, almost like slapping a tiny band-aid on a festering wound. The show chooses to focus on what mistake the parents to do the children, but never on the mistakes the children did to their parents. As someone who values family, I was a little disappointed that Start Up chose to romanticize and normalize this type of family relationship. The closest thing to a healthy family relationship on the show actually comes from the two people who are not related by blood, HJP and Halmoni. A lovely relationship that took it's bruises and scars from the writers incessant insecurities over her ML cloying need to be loved by everyone.

I would say, one of the best thing to come out from this show has been the amazing OST. I absolutely loved the music of the show, and already have them on repeat on my playlist. Also, the saving glory of this has been the presence of KSH. I won't talk too much about this, as others have written a lot about him already :)

All in all, a below average Kdrama that isn't worth watching. But I implore you to find a supercut or montage of all of HJP and Grandma's scene if you want to experience a good cry!

Hopefully everyone enjoyed reading this as I did writing it! >.<

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