YazQuan
Atlanta GA US
Everything in this series works!
"Lovestruck in the City" is a rarity of a romantic comedy -- one that's actually funny. I was still laughing about the drunken palm blast even while writing this review.PROS
1. Kim Ji Won is the reason I picked up this series and she really showcased her chops playing two very different aspects of a single character. I wanted to spend a week at the beach with one of them and hug the other. The candle lighting scene was so raw I felt all the feels. Her realistic portrayal of a woman who feels so much, yet shows a flat, cold front when overwhelmed rang true.
2. So Ju Yeon was pitch perfect and may have impressed me so much simply because I adored how she presented her character - a woman who is who she wants to be and makes no apologies, nor tolerates disrespect.
3. Ryu Kyung Soo did a marvelous job making a low key, taciturn character multi-dimensional. I was really rooting for his character and...
4. Han Ji Eun's shallow-at-first-glance, yet terrifying teacher character had the most interesting and surprising character journey of the series. Han Ji Eun took a tough, intimidating persona and made her 90% of why the comedy worked, and still delivered one of the most touching scenes of the show.
5. Kim Min Sook brought gravity to a character that could easily have been relegated to comic relief otherwise.
6. Park Jae Won wasn't my favorite character, his tenacity bordered on obsession, but Ji Chang Wook put all his emotions on the line to make it work.
7. Breaking the fourth wall - well, almost: by using a reality show interview style we got a view inside the heads of the characters and their perceptions of the story. It was fascinating to contrast what they claimed was their persona versus what they showed us through the action.
8. The scriptwriter crafted an original, nuanced, touching, and witty show that held enough turns to keep it interesting for 17 episodes. It's really, really hard to tell so many stories and be fair to all the characters; this is the most successful effort I've seen.
9. The director gave the cast room to develop their characters. The result of that is why my rating is so high. Also, that long shot of Oh Sun Young after her final meeting with Kang Gun was a heart punch.
CONS
1. Unlike some other reviewers I wasn't bothered by a pop-up romance in the 17th episode. It had been teased in the 16th, so it wasn't a total surprise, plus it showcased a previously underutilized character. What did bother me was the zero backgrounding of who these two characters were to each other and what was behind their familiarity.
2. Obviously the two leads are going to get together in the end, but it felt abrupt when it happened, a 180 from where the FL's character was previously. Maybe I just needed a little more transition on how the FL's character leapt to that point from her adamant push back until then. Perhaps even one brief shot showing her reluctance crumble.
So many things worked so well in this series that it deserves an 8+ rating overall and I'm baffled by the lower scores. I enjoyed every episode and would definitely rewatch the series.
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Yay!, OK, Meh, and Boo
My theory, based on doctors I have known: medical students spend so much time in school and internships that they miss normal adult social interactions, and consequently suffer from arrested emotional development. I submit "Doctor Slump" as a case study. The maturity of the main characters wasn't what one would expect of people their age.This series suffers from trying to be too many things: drama, romance, and comedy; the first two worked well, if inconsistently, but the third came off as juvenile and misplaced. Whether the attempted comedy was a script choice or a directing choice, it was so off pitch and over-acted that it made me want to throw things at my TV, and is primarily why I didn't rate the show higher.
A couple of things I found baffling:
1) Ha Neul's wardrobe seemed chosen to have her fade into the wallpaper - neutral on neutral. For a while I thought it was a visual reflection of the character and would perk up as her personality evolved, but nope, stayed boring and unflattering throughout.
2) How did these characters last 16 episodes without dying of cirrhosis? I'm honestly worried about the health of the script writer if she thinks this level of consumption is normal or healthy.
On the pro side: based on my personal experience, the script's treatment of depression, it's manifestations, effects, and recovery hit all the right notes, particularly in presenting Ha Neul's unresolved anger from the violence and mistreatment at work as manifesting as helplessness, defeat, and demoralization. The development of her character and behavioral responses during treatment was also realistic and well handled. The development and clarity of Yeo Jeong Woo's character was a little more murky to me, but I did like that solving his business problem didn't magically solve his personal problems.
In contrast to other viewers, I thought the story was sluggish in the beginning but really picked up in the last eight episodes. The plot lines and character arcs set up in the first half of the series began playing out and resolving and that was a lot more satisfying for me than the build up. I also liked that we finally got to see a more holistic picture of Nam Ha Neul after eight episodes of more than I ever wanted to know about Yeo Jeong Woo.
I loved the gradual reveal of the family dynamics and IMO the characters were perfectly cast. Park Shin Hye is compelling in everything she does, Jang Hye Jin was the perfect Mom for this story, Yoon Sang Hyeon really grew on me as the series progressed, and I want Hyun Bong Sik's Tae Seon as my real life uncle and Kong Seong Ha's Lee Hong Ran as my real life best friend.
I won't rewatch it, but I mostly enjoyed it the first time around.
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Club Friday 8: True Love…or Hope
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Bait and switch
Who do I call to get a refund on the time I wasted watching this? The drama starts as a promising "toaster oven" sort of girl romance before it screeches into a parade of biphobic / homophobic stereotypes with a cringe factor of Warp 10. Watch this only if you are self hating lesbian or a lesbian hating psycho.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Memories of the Alhambra
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Compelling from start to finish
I watched this drama because I was captivated by Park Shin Hye's performance in "The Heirs." In both dramas, her eyes tell the story in a way that sets her talent apart even in a field rich with talented leading women. That, coupled with her "girl next door" charm and looks, plus that undefinable Q factor, makes her compelling in a way that sneaks up on you.To avoid spoilers, I won't say much about the ending except that I prefer that final episodes do a little more overt work toward the happy ever after. Instead, the ending felt like the set up to a Season 2 that didn't happen. Still, the writer gave us enough to know all was well and and that love and creative programming would win.
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Something a bit different
The biggest plusses for me with The Greatest Love are that it doesn't follow the standard tropes of lesbian romance and while one of the outcomes was predictable, the other was definitely not. The script and the characters reactions to tough situations was natural and believable; and the fear and anguish of the lead characters at the plot climax was palpable. The ultimate outcome was more hopeful than I expected, given the plot set-up.I'm going to leave this review a little light on substance because I don't want to risk spoiling the experience of finding something new and different in the genre. Suffice to say, I've already watched it twice and I'll likely revisit it again. Well worth your time
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Multi episode promo for Miss Grand Thailand
After a promising beginning with two likeable and engaging leads, what was billed as a romance devolved into a 9 episode paean to the Miss Grand Thailand (MGT) pageant. The upside is I learned a lot about MGT, the downside is I'm not particularly interested in MGT, and that isn't what I tuned in for.The two mostly inexperienced actresses, Charlotte Austin and Engfa Wahara, did a credible job of slogging through the script. Of course, they excelled at the pageant portions of the series, an accomplishment that was largely lost on me. Aside from the focus on pageant life dragging the plot to a near standstill, the creators of this series exhibited a profound aversion to the characters being even remotely physically intimate, including kissing, to the point of employing thoroughly ridiculous avoidance mechanisms up until the final episodes, resulting in the considerable chemistry between Austin and Wahara being largely squandered.
Any popularity of Show Me Love is a testament to said chemistry and how starved for content the GL public is. The bar, it seems, is very low, and SML tripped over it anyway.
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