This show is an utter disappointment to the disappointments. This is like a Grandmothers Cinderella fairy Tale ; it starts interesting and all the kids are listening, immersed and invested but becomes boring quickly but you have to bear with it since you already took the treats from the grandma.
This show started out with SO much potential. It started off cute and funny with adorable leads. Then about half way through, I started to worry. This is a 20 episode show and the story was starting to flounder. Surely, they will save it and all will be well - I believed this. Honestly, I sensed early on that this show would be a disaster, but I loved the main 2 characters so much that I didn't want to believe it.
PLOT
Beautiful Gong Shim started off as a delightfully quirky rom-com, with a winning main character in Gong Shim, who was not afraid to speak her mind, but also had dreams and aspirations for her life, wanting to learn Italian and become an artist and was working towards making those dreams a reality, her unsupportive family be damned.
The two main characters are quirky and at first glance, you just expect a cute little romance that you can enjoy without much thought. I'll also point out that the first few episodes included some of the most ridiculously funny moments I've ever experienced in any drama, so my expectations were incredibly high as the rest of the episodes came out.
A little past halfway through it, though, the plot tried way too hard to be serious and suspenseful, thus losing its initial humorous merits. The feeling is somewhat like listening to your grandparents tell stories: at first, you're pretty interested, but it quickly gets boring, yet you feel an obligation to sit there until the very last word. I stopped finding things to laugh at. The romantic moments were less rewarding in the midst of the mess of the conspiracy plot the writers drew up for no apparent reason. The characters deteriorated and lost every trait that made them unique.
CAST
If there were one redeeming aspect of this drama, I'd have to say that it's Nam Koong Min. Usually a professional in makjangs, this time he's the lead male with a fair amount of goofballness. He was a joy to watch, but his character was not spared in the enormous let's-make-everyone-generic massacre. Everyone else fulfilled their roles nicely, but KoongMin's really the star of this show. (Which is interesting, as I thought the directors would give Minah more of a spotlight but she really dropped off the radar late into the drama. I could say less of the wig they made her wear though.)
I wished there was more romance in Chief Min and Doctor Prisoner but I'm glad there isn't because Nam Goong Min can't romance ; he can do serious thrillers , makjang , revenge and comedy but he cannot deliver emotions like anger , romance and sorrow.
All other characters are comedic reliefs and they work well in the beginning of the show. The rest of the cast is pretty mediocre, and stereotypical, while some have some really horrible overacting moments. I liked Gong Shim' parents, This is a love triangle but her sister is a useless character. If they wanted to make her a serious rival that we cared about, then she should have been much more involved in the story. The grandmother was another character that I honestly didn't care about, and some of her crying scenes were laughably bad. I liked the dude from the convenience store, but when a minor convenience store character outshines other major characters, you know something is very very wrong.
OST
The soundtrack is good though. I really liked a lot of the songs, but some lost their charm when the show started to. The BGM effect in the inital episodes when he can see slow motion is really stupid and annoying.
VERDICT
Overall, this is a drama of wasted potential. It didn't know if it wanted to be a romcom, or a melodrama, or a thriller, so it just tried to sloppily integrate the them all. All that did was water down what they could have done well.
As much as I want to recommend watching the 3 main leads, I have to recommend skipping this one. The story goes nowhere. It's longer than it should be, and felt like it. It desperately clings to drama clichés to fill in the time. The last two episodes are embarrassingly bad. Not only do they pretty much identical to other dramas, but the closure for the characters felt so forced that I couldn't take it seriously.
I hope someone takes the best moments between the three leads and edits this show to be the length it's supposed to be (10 episodes max!). I would recommend watching that video in a heartbeat. Otherwise watching 20 episodes of this is not worth hitting the iceberg. And if you already started it, don't listen to rose, it's ok to let go.
Although i should i agree this was a stress buster ; so if you don't mind dropping the series in the middle I recommend watching the first 10 episodes for stress relief and good laughs ; but this is not a show that ages well and I would have fairly skipped if i hadn't skipped the many scenese to complete the show.
Review by chillikunBlockedParent2020-09-01T21:46:11Z
This show started out with SO much potential. It started off cute and funny with adorable leads. Then about half way through, I started to worry. This is a 20 episode show and the story was starting to flounder. Surely, they will save it and all will be well - I believed this. Honestly, I sensed early on that this show would be a disaster, but I loved the main 2 characters so much that I didn't want to believe it.
PLOT
Beautiful Gong Shim started off as a delightfully quirky rom-com, with a winning main character in Gong Shim, who was not afraid to speak her mind, but also had dreams and aspirations for her life, wanting to learn Italian and become an artist and was working towards making those dreams a reality, her unsupportive family be damned.
The two main characters are quirky and at first glance, you just expect a cute little romance that you can enjoy without much thought. I'll also point out that the first few episodes included some of the most ridiculously funny moments I've ever experienced in any drama, so my expectations were incredibly high as the rest of the episodes came out.
A little past halfway through it, though, the plot tried way too hard to be serious and suspenseful, thus losing its initial humorous merits. The feeling is somewhat like listening to your grandparents tell stories: at first, you're pretty interested, but it quickly gets boring, yet you feel an obligation to sit there until the very last word. I stopped finding things to laugh at. The romantic moments were less rewarding in the midst of the mess of the conspiracy plot the writers drew up for no apparent reason. The characters deteriorated and lost every trait that made them unique.
CAST
If there were one redeeming aspect of this drama, I'd have to say that it's Nam Koong Min. Usually a professional in makjangs, this time he's the lead male with a fair amount of goofballness. He was a joy to watch, but his character was not spared in the enormous let's-make-everyone-generic massacre. Everyone else fulfilled their roles nicely, but KoongMin's really the star of this show. (Which is interesting, as I thought the directors would give Minah more of a spotlight but she really dropped off the radar late into the drama. I could say less of the wig they made her wear though.)
I wished there was more romance in Chief Min and Doctor Prisoner but I'm glad there isn't because Nam Goong Min can't romance ; he can do serious thrillers , makjang , revenge and comedy but he cannot deliver emotions like anger , romance and sorrow.
All other characters are comedic reliefs and they work well in the beginning of the show. The rest of the cast is pretty mediocre, and stereotypical, while some have some really horrible overacting moments. I liked Gong Shim' parents, This is a love triangle but her sister is a useless character. If they wanted to make her a serious rival that we cared about, then she should have been much more involved in the story. The grandmother was another character that I honestly didn't care about, and some of her crying scenes were laughably bad. I liked the dude from the convenience store, but when a minor convenience store character outshines other major characters, you know something is very very wrong.
OST
The soundtrack is good though. I really liked a lot of the songs, but some lost their charm when the show started to. The BGM effect in the inital episodes when he can see slow motion is really stupid and annoying.
VERDICT
Overall, this is a drama of wasted potential. It didn't know if it wanted to be a romcom, or a melodrama, or a thriller, so it just tried to sloppily integrate the them all. All that did was water down what they could have done well.
As much as I want to recommend watching the 3 main leads, I have to recommend skipping this one. The story goes nowhere. It's longer than it should be, and felt like it. It desperately clings to drama clichés to fill in the time. The last two episodes are embarrassingly bad. Not only do they pretty much identical to other dramas, but the closure for the characters felt so forced that I couldn't take it seriously.
I hope someone takes the best moments between the three leads and edits this show to be the length it's supposed to be (10 episodes max!). I would recommend watching that video in a heartbeat. Otherwise watching 20 episodes of this is not worth hitting the iceberg. And if you already started it, don't listen to rose, it's ok to let go.
Although i should i agree this was a stress buster ; so if you don't mind dropping the series in the middle I recommend watching the first 10 episodes for stress relief and good laughs ; but this is not a show that ages well and I would have fairly skipped if i hadn't skipped the many scenese to complete the show.