Jeana's Unpopular Opinion: Bad Romances

As the title suggests, this is a UO = unpopular opinion. If I have unfortunately fired shots at your favourite drama, I apologise but I gotta tell it as I feel it is. If you disagree with something try to state your opinion in a civil manner. Enjoy! :D

WARNING: MINOR SPOILERS!

5) Pinocchio

Okay, so this is a drama that I'm absolutely certain that almost all of you will disagree with. Pitchforks will be ready. Eyes and mouths will be wide open in rage and fingers will run rampant on the keyboard in utter fury. For how can Pinocchio, an extremely enjoyable and beloved drama, be classified as a bad romance?

Well, I'll tell you how. See, that's precisely it. Pinocchio is a very good production with a great cast and storyline. It keeps you at the edge of your seat and both the main leads are extremely likeable. But that's the problem. Individually, they are perfect but together it becomes a little rocky. They do the right things, say the right words, have a perfectly logical and realistic relationship and yet, something seems off. Ultimately, Choi In Ha's (Park Shin Hye) affection for Dal Po (Lee Jong Suk) is not equally reciprocated. There's an unbalance in power between the two. Throughout the drama, I felt as if Dal Po was slightly indifferent and far less invested in the relationship than In Ha and for me personally, that led to the couple lacking the strong emotional connection they should've had. 

In conclusion, the love story in Pinocchio leaves something more to be desired which is why, in order to fully enjoy this drama - the romance needs to be thought of as a subplot only and the main story should be focused on instead.

4) City Hunter

Yeah yeah, I know. I'm pretty sure I've brought the shovel, dug my own grave and am currently twerking my way 69 feet under the ground by putting City Hunter on this list. City Hunter is, by all means, a classic. And I am well aware that it is almost a crime to go after them classics, for they are fiercely protected by drama watchers all over the world. But oh well - here's to masochism.

Kim Na Na (Park Ming Young) and Lee Yoon Sung (Lee Min Ho) do not deserve to be together. Why, you ask? Because, despite him being a superhero, king of righteousness and deliverer of a 24/7 martyr service, Yoon Sung is not at all best boyfriend material. I don't understand a simple reason as to why Na Na would fall in love with him and be ready to sacrifice herself for him in a moment's notice. His behaviour is often immature, he hurts her time and time again, and don't even get me started on the push and pull. All in all, Yoon Sung plays Na Na like a yo-yo. He demands her to stay away but then proceeds to follow her around like a hound. He tells her one thing and does another, and realistically speaking that is the definition of an unhealthy relationship.

Nana, being the kind saint she has unlimited forgiveness passes to dole out and of course, Yoon Sung conveniently always redeems himself by playing the grand saviour at the very last moment. But, sorry that just ain't enough for me, I want a mutually beneficial and entirely functional relationship in order to get them feels.

Now, don't get me wrong, I do admit that there are some scenes where the two of them have electric chemistry (the sofa scene for example) but then again, all the messed up relations contain more heat and less heart. So in conclusion, City Hunter is again one of those exciting thrillers that sadly, fall short in the romance factor.

3)  Full House

Now, this drama has an 8.7 rating on drama list and I really don't understand why and how. A'ight, a'ight - I know I'm only deteriorating my case with this but now, it's already too late to go back.

Full house, to put it simply, is an utterly boring drama. It has episodes on episodes filled with filler material and unnecessary bullshit. Which is why, when the actually cute and steamy moments between the couple do come up, they seem very anti-climatic to the frustrated watcher. Mike (D'Angelo Mike) and Aom (Manaying Sushar) are beautiful people and who doesn't like to watch beautiful people do beautiful things? Except their beautiful things compromise solely of constant bickering, having petty screaming matches, fighting like toddlers and being complete juveniles. Sure, at first it's adorable and endearing but when it happens again and again and again - it not only becomes monotonous but also, severely aggravating.

It doesn't help matters that they are not fully developed personalities with a detailed background and unique character traits individually. So how could they possibly amount to much together? Yes, they look gorgeous, yes they have the trademark teen angst and yes, they have their heart-warming moments- but so does every other romance drama ever made. What sets them apart? Nothing.

To make it worse, the couple does not evolve and strengthen through real hardships, instead, they have stupid and childish problems that are exaggerated and made more dramatic for emotional impact. Hint: It doesn't work.

2)  Playful Kiss

If you ask drama watchers which drama was their first, which drama got them into Dramaland, what was the beginning of it all? 8/10 watchers will grudgingly mumble Playful Kiss. Sadly, I am one of those 8, too. To think of it, if it was the first drama that got us into the whole scene, it surely means that we must've liked it. And I admit, when I watched it, I really did think it was good-ish. But now that I think about it, and I think about it a lot, I've come to the realisation that the message this drama portrays (in terms of romance) is probably the most ridiculous one out there.

The heroine Oh Ha Ni (Jung So Min) is an unrelenting stalker (and a bad one at that, since she always gets caught) and the hero Baek Seung Jo (Kim Hyun Joong) is a walking talking block of stone. I mean, if a guy did the same thing to a girl he'd be slapped with a trillion restraining orders and even a few assault attempt charges at that but of course here, it turns into a jolly good love story. Since when did NO not mean NO for girls? Of course, the dude comes with his own brand of assholery to even the odds. Good thing, that Oh Hani does not give a damn about her self-respect and conveniently offers it up as a shoe mat for Baek Seung Jo to trample on otherwise this epic romance would have never worked.

One-dimensional characters, brain-dead heroines and lifeless heroes do not a good romance make. Need I say more?

1)  Love 020

Ah, look at these two absolutely stunning people. No wonder, they modelled their way through the entire show. Who needs acting when you've got good looks? I've never seen a more cold, stiff and unnatural union in my life. Their whole relationship seems like a formality. Pretty and supposedly smart girl hitches with the pretty and very smart boy. There's no intimacy or emotional connection. I know y'all adore Yang Yang but honestly, he was the equivalent of a robot in this show. His unrealistic perfection and lack of emotions were laughably annoying. At least, he knew how to kiss but of course, that was effectively ruined by his highly unresponsive counterpart. Bei Wei Wei (Zheng Shuang) stands there like an animate pole people use to improve their smooching techniques. If she didn't giggle and fawn afterwards, I'd have thought the whole thing was non-consensual.

To give evidence of Xiao Nai's amazing comforting skills, I'll quote a favourite incidence of mine:

The heroine has a fight with her best friend (one she can't live without) so she's really upset and teary. And our hero looks at her with his beautiful brown eyes and says:

She's a very small part of your life, while I'm your everything. From now on, you're not allowed to shed tears for anyone else.

Bravo Boy.

The show brags about surface beauty and a wholly patriarchal society. Not my romantic cup of tea, I tell you.

Special Shout Out:  Love Me If You Dare

It literally pains me to put this drama up here, because I personally enjoyed it so much. I love Wallace Huo and I think that he has excellent acting skills to back his good looks. Unfortunately for LMIYD, its romance is fairly lackluster. Like I said, a balance of power is important in any relationship and here even though at first Jian (Sandra Ma) seems like a strong woman who can hold her own, it soon becomes apparent that she's nothing more than a damsel in distress. 

As the drama progresses, her value reduces to that of a beauty prop. And in the two most important episodes of the drama her scenes are shortened to about five to ten minutes and in those scenes she is -shocker- helplessly bawling her eyes out.

It had so much potential to be something great but alas, it settled for mediocrity.

That's about it! We're all friends here guys. ^_^ Go easy on your keyboards a'ight?

Toodles~