Korean Drama

Review – Just Between Lovers / Rain or Shine

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Review – Just Between Lovers

Tragedy can change a person.  Forever.  An unexpected death, a crime, a war, a disaster.  This show focuses on the tragedy of a building collapse – and those who died as well as those whose lives were left shattered in the wreckage.  Each of our three principle characters was there the day it happened – but each experienced a different aftermath.  And each of them is profoundly, irrevocably altered by the experience.

I loved the characters in this show.   All of them.  I especially loved their personality flaws: their anger, their survivor’s guilt, their irrational thinking- which I’ll go into below.  The romance was slow and steady and gorgeous.  Their secrets unraveled with precision as the show moved through its various points, heavy with emotion.  It had a relaxed paced, but wasn’t at all boring.  It wanted us to get a feel of these people’s every day lives, and how much they were impacting each other, and you can’t really show that if you’re rushing from one action scene to another.

Just Between Lovers was moving and unique.  I was fully invested from the first episode to the last.  There was such a delicate push and pull in the main love story – both wounded creatures, their instinct was to run and hide when someone got close – and so they ran and slowly came back together, ran away and came back together.  Getting closer every time, inching towards real trust and recovery.  The writing in this show left me speechless… so many lines worthy of quoting, so much wisdom… it was top tier stuff.

Overall Rating – 10/10.  A Story of Love Built Over Ruins.

More about the characters, spoilers, and thoughts follow…

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Review – Whisper

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Review – Whisper

Oh, my my.  Hello dark examination of the soul, eh?  They say everyone has a limit.  Everyone.  A breaking point that will make them turn away from everything they thought they were – their principles, their convictions, their conscience.   Do most of us ever find that line?  Probably not, thankfully.  We don’t live in Korean dramas.

This drama is all about people being pushed to their limits.  About good people finding themselves turning into bad people.  Just helplessly watching the layers and layers of their goodness fall down around them as they scramble to keep from drowning in a sinking pit that started with bad luck or a bad choice and just spiraled out of control.  I LOVED IT (for about eight or nine hours, then it lost serious steam).  I love shows that explore the complexities of human nature.  I also love a show that gives the lead female room to kick ass!  Holy Moses, did she ever, too.  Three cheers for having a strong female lead for once…. can we please share this memo with the rest of the action/thriller drama writers?

Unfortunately, I felt this drama sort of lost a lot of steam after 10 episodes or so… with its endless evidence gathering and court proceedings… but it by no means stopped.  It’s more like it started at 120 mph and relaxed comfortably into a breezy 65 mph the rest of the way.  Still good enough for interstate driving.  But honestly, if it kept up the blazing pace and wrapped up the show in 12 episodes, it would have been perfect.  10/10.   A magnificent joy ride of suspense and danger! As it was… eh.  Great then good then okay.

Overall Rating 8/10 – Being Bad Can Be So Freakin’ Easy.

MORE, more, more… including, of course, some spoilers…

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Review – I’m Not A Robot

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Review – I’m Not A Robot

A syrupy sweet show – with zero substance and great flavor.  Like a stack of pancakes.  You know it’s not a well balanced meal… but who cares?  It’s cheap, it’s fluffy, it’s yummy and it required very little preparation time or monetary investment.

Basic plot – young uber rich guy has an allergy to humans, so he’s locked himself away in his mansion and helped fund A.I. research, in the hope of having some companionship.  The A.I. research team runs into some trouble and ends up having to substitute the actual robot they created for the girl the robot was modeled after.  So the billionaire ends up completely fooled and falls in love with his “machine”… all the while overcoming his “allergy” and making friends along the way.  It’s super cheesy.  And honestly, that’s about all there is to the plot.  Like a cutesy shojo manga.

Yoo Seung-Ho is handsome and amusing as the neurotic rich guy with no social skills.  Chae Soo-Bin is endearing as the human disguised as a robot, comically attempting to manage her new “master,” her ex-boyfriend, her failing business ideas and her life.  The research team is full of lovable, goofy nerds.  There are other characters, but they’re not exactly needed – they’re just an assortment of jellies on the table.  Everyone has lots of heart-to-heart moments, some sappy tears and group hugs.  It’s just a feel good dessert disguised as an entree.

Seriously.  This sums up the whole show better than any written review:

Any why not have some pancakes?  Who doesn’t love ’em?

Overall Rating:  7.5/10.  Sticky Sweet.

Review – Nightmare High

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Review – Nightmare High / Nightmare Teacher

What a fun little slice of a dark morality play!  This show reminds of me of an anime, in a way, as anime’s have always been more eager to jump into the horror genre.  It also reminded me of an anime in that it was fairly simplistic.  You won’t get the usual character development, home life, tropes and heightened emotions generally found in a Korean drama.  This show stays pretty even layered in its thin but satisfying story about a classroom of high school students who end up with a new teacher… who grants them their wishes and watches as they sabotage themselves with their desires.  The kids start out with good intentions, but greed and revenge and personal gain always get the best of them… and things go sour.  One after the other, they start to disappear, trapped in a nightmare of their own making.

Nightmare Teacher was exactly what it said it was going to be and delivered fun little examinations into the darker side of young adulthood.  Kids can be cruel.  Just like a prison system, a high school has its own rules and regulations and inmate behaviors that are common and often “overlooked” by adults and even other kids.  That’s just the way things are, they shrug.  And kids can also be kind, and watch each others backs and do the right thing and step up when needed.  This show examines the balance between good and evil, and how both sides of the coin are apart of us all.

Uhm Ki-Joon was delightful as the unassuming face of evil (or was he?).  And Kim So-Hyun was wonderful as his antagonist, the bright student who plays it safe.  It’s not deep, mind you.  Just a quick and simple little exploratory adventure into a dark fairy tale that’s a short and pleasant way to pass the time.

Overall Rating – 7.5/10.  What Happens To Nightmares When We Wake Up?

Review – Witch’s Court

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Review – Witch’s Court

God, I hated this show.  I’m usually a big fan of characters that break that mold – and our leading female certainly did – but unfortunately all that emerged from the mold was a jerk.  I found the lead female to be annoying and groan inducing.  I’ve read a lot of praise for this show for having a strong female protagonist… and I feel like they were watching a different show than I was.  This is exactly the kind of person I can’t stand in real life, so it’s no wonder I didn’t care for this show.  Even with the handsome Yoon Hyun Min playing the altruistic shrink turned prosecutor.  Even with the much needed social commentary on sexual assault, misogyny, and personal responsibilities.  Even with the pretty compelling mini-plots, aka the cases that were being solved as we waited for the “big case” to be solved.  Even with all this going for it… I just couldn’t get past episode six.

Hey, not every show is for everyone.  That’s why there’s so many of them.  Something for everyone.  This one just wasn’t for me.

ugh…

You wanna see a show with a strong female protagonist?  They’re out there.  Remember.  City Hall.  Let’s Eat.  Queen Seon Duk.  Healer.  It’s Okay, That’s Love.  Sungkyunkwan Scandal.   Signal.  The K2 (the evil queen, not the princess).  There are plenty!  I usually don’t even bother writing “reviews” for shows I’ve abandoned, but this one compelled me to complain.

Witch’s Court final verdict:  Abandoned to the Graveyard.

Review – The Gang Doctor / Young Pal

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Review – Young Pal

What was this show, exactly?  A bit of a Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, a bit of a medical mystery, a bit of a mystery thriller and a bit of a mess.  The concept was interesting: a struggling young doctor takes side gigs patching up the mob to help pay off the debts he’s accrued keeping his dying sister alive.  So, an honorable guy doing dishonorable things – everyone’s favorite gray scale hero.  We have the cops tracking him down and his constant struggle to stay out of reach of the law, which was fun while it lasted (the first couple of episodes were very exciting).  On the other end of this, we have Sleeping Beauty, a corporate heiress who was severely injured in an automobile accident/suicide attempt and has been kept in a medically induced coma for years by her family.  First by her father, who kept her asleep so he wouldn’t have to deal with her, basically.  And then by her brother, who kept her asleep so he could take over the corporation.

Gangster doctor wakes up Sleeping Beauty… and we have some sibling showdowns, some elaborate backstabbing, and some corporate evil maneuvers as secrets are revealed, sickly sisters are tossed about for ransom, and attractive people with very little chemistry fall in love.

sleeping beauty

It was a decent show.  It felt a bit disorganized, as if the writers couldn’t agree on certain points.  Characters would disappear for long chunks of time then reappear randomly.  I felt there were quite a few tangents in the plotline.  And the whole thing could have been chopped down to 12 episodes easily.   The last four or five episodes in particular were boring and convoluted.

Personally, I kept thinking of The K2 while watching it – and how that show is superior.  They have a strangely similar vibe… with the fairy tale angle and the nasty family politics and the anti-hero thrown in the middle of it all.  They both also managed to make some fairly simplistic sets seem convincingly “futuristic” and high-tech.  But The K2 was thrilling, whereas this show just managed to be “okay.”  I recommend Super Wook instead (Review of The K2).

Overall Rating – 6.5/10.  Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.

Best Korean Drama of 2017

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The new year is approaching and with it, lots of lists are popping up everywhere… best dramas, best couples, best kisses, and so on.  It’s hard to get into a new drama right now when instinct propels you into “year in review” mode.  So I find myself rewatching some of my favorite dramas instead of investing in new ones.  The new year will pull me back into new dramas, but for now… let’s savor the last few minutes of 2017.

I’ve sat around and attempted to compile a few  “Best of 2017 Lists” of my own – my journal is a mess of notes about bromances and genres and kissing and whatnot.  I honestly put some time into it, but in the end it was all futile.  There’s only one show that completely won me over this year.

GOBLIN.

I have rewatched this show at least a dozen times.  It’s funny, it’s romantic, it’s supernatural and melodramatic and interesting and totally unique.  Though other shows may have had better elements – this is the show that stands above them all for combined effort.  Goblin got me back into the swing of watching K-Dramas after a long hiatus.  If I had to recommend one show this year… it would be this one.

So… thank you, Goblin, for being the bright light in a rather dim year.  There were other great shows (quite a few, honestly… lots of great dramas came out in 2017), but you reigned supreme.

Full Review of Goblin.

Review – Lookout / The Guardian

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Review – Lookout

Sigh.  The first few episodes were promising.  Secret vigilante hackers with a secret boss directing them.  A heinous crime committed by a cold-blooded psychopathic teenager.  A badass detective leading female and swarmy, egocentric prosecutor leading male.  There were promising elements at work in Lookout.  And yet… I could tell there was a disconnect somewhere.  I actually finished this drama awhile ago and have been sitting on this review, wondering what it was exactly that caused me to shrug this mystery-thriller off.  Honestly, I’m still not sure.  Somewhere around episode six, I started to lose interest.  I stuck around… but I was never fully committed.  I caught a few eps here and there.  The ending came, with its dramatic finale, and I was underwhelmed.

If I had to guess what ingredient it was missing… I would say heart.  There was no love (not romantic, not bromantic, not friendsies, nothing) between these characters.  Their relationships were tenuous at best.  Even their relationships with their families and coworkers seemed lukewarm.  Hell, even the show Bad Guys managed to have more heart than this drama – and it threw together a bunch of ex cons in a violent stew.  A similar show that nailed it with camaraderie and love between the underdogs fighting together to defeat corruption would be Mad Dog.  That show had everything this show lacks.

I guess there was a bit of something between the hackers, but eh… not enough.  And other than the initial murder of the detective’s daughter, I never felt a sense of danger or actual threat in Lookout.  Which is probably why the ending was so confusing, cause it literally just fell over into it… almost as if on accident.  Oops!  We forgot to make this climax, uh… climatic.  Let’s just kill someone off.  That’s dramatic, right?  Wrong.

I do give snaps for the sexy priest (cause… let’s just have a sexy priest in every show… I would be fine with that) and the creepster factor of our young psychopath miming “I Killed Her!” to our grieving mother, just after she’s surrendered her gun… cops and witnesses everywhere and he’s just shamelessly dogging her!  That’s good stuff.

 

Anyways, you want to see “crazy-mom” done right, watch God’s Gift: 14 Days.  You want to see criminals working outside the system for justice, watch Bad Guys.  You want to see a multi-layered prosecutor(s) or a scarier psychopath, watch Remember.  You want to see a hacker at work (not teenage stereotypes, either), check out Healer or Phantom.  If you want to see what this genre can really do – watch Mad Dog.  All of these are better dramas, in my opinion.  Not that Lookout was terrible, mind you.  It wasn’t bad.  It just wasn’t very good, either.

Overall Rating – 6/10.  The Hackers Stole The Show… But Not My Heart.

Review – Black

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Review – Black

Black was a giant twisted MESS of a show.  Honestly, it’s like the writers were suffering from schizophrenia.  It’s a show about… rape?  Corruption?  Lost souls?  Grim Reapers?  Death?  First loves?  Child murder?  Familial problems?  Romance? Revenge?  Cop stuff?  Who knows!  It just stuck its hand in a big bag of ideas, grabbed as many as it could get its fingers around, then scattered them across the table and said, “Perfect!  That’s our show!”  And everyone else looked down and said, “Wait, what?” I am hard pressed to think of a more chaotic show than Black.  Despite the great actors and the cool fantasy aspects of the afterlife, it failed in coherence and theme.  For 20 freakin’ episodes… it was like untangling Christmas lights, except when the whole thing unraveled you discover half the bulbs are dead.

And Black, Grim Reaper 444… or is it 420?,  was a disastrous character.  What exactly happens to you when you die that makes your personality turn into a cartoon character?  His behavior was so hammy, so on the nose, so “Ha, Ha, Ha, I Don’t Like Humans Thus I Must Act Like A Childish Moron.”  It was groan inducing.

I have nothing else to say about this show.  If you want to throw away 20 hours of your life one day, like I did this Saturday, then feel free to watch this mess.

THE REAL MYSTERY OF THIS SHOW (besides trying to figure out why I watched the entire thing) is the conundrum of Kim Dong Jun… and how he’s the male mirror image of Han Ga In.  Seriously.  I thought, “they must be twins…  It’s uncanny!”  But nope.  They’re not related.  Maybe they have the same plastic surgeon, I don’t know, but geepers… it’s unnerving!

Overall Rating – 4/10.  The Afterlife Is Full Of Plot Holes.

Review – Because This Is My First Life

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Review – Because This Is My First Life

Loved it.  Even loved the voice overs… which is rare for me.  And there were a lot of voice overs.  But they were perfect.  I loved the characters and their personalities and how they all hooked up.  It was a simple yet slightly different love story, just enough to make it feel fresh but not enough to inspire some philosophical debate or severe attachment.  This was a show you can watch, be engrossed in, and then happily let go… like birthday balloons after the party is over.  I really loved it, but somehow I don’t think I’ll be obsessively re-watching this one.

Overall Rating – 8.5/10.  Demisexuals in Love.

Discussions of my Ace Relationship with This Show… and spoilers follow

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