God fuck, Korean dramas are so fucking illogical. I started watching this under recommendation of a couple of friends, so even though I have my doubts about how good this drama is, I decided to give it a try. The first two episodes were OK. They were fast-paced enough that I could look past some of the stuff that I had problems with (e.g. the misplacement of idiotic jokes, some pacing inconsistencies etc.) But by the end of the second episode, I knew that I couldn't sit through all 11 episodes - even though they were only 11 episodes - so I skipped ahead to episode 10.
The first half of episode 10 is actually quite good. I enjoyed catching up what I had missed in the 7 episodes I skipped over, but when the second half of the episode rolled around, I just got more and more frustrated at the drama series. Why are Korean dramas so frustratingly illogical and coincidental?!
Korean dramas have a habit of prolonging even the most intense scenes and story plots, ironically making them less intense with characters staring at a point slightly off-camera. Or they'll blur out knives (!) but not guns (!) in a show about murderers. Or they'll have characters just sitting idly in cars while waiting for important phone calls. Or they'll have V.I.P. victims taking instructions from a stranger over the phone, even after he says "I can't... I can't trust any of you!" (but you're trusting a random stranger on the phone, bruh). Or they'll have a character about to shoot a guy's head off, but oh-so-conveniently, they'll have another guy enter the scene just in time to stop him, but even when that's convenient (and I look past that), when the character falls onto the ground during the attack, and the gun is still near his hand, he doesn't grab the gun to retaliate, he just gets up and allows himself to be punched again.
Stop stretching out these scenes! Stop treating audiences like dimwits and that we can't solve things by ourselves. These scriptwriters need to stop laying out the details of a murder plot line-by-line as if the audiences can't figure it out ourselves, and as if we need a constant reminder of what happened the previous episodes.
Also, I bet if Korean dramas could take this entire series and trimmed out all the camera shots of characters staring emptily slightly off camera, I bet each episode could probably be at least 10 minutes shorter. Thus, the entire drama maybe one or two episodes shorter. Instead, they could use these two episodes and fill it with actual character development and actual story development, instead of filling it with prolonged over-dramatic stares.
Nan Xiang's ex-boyfriend is a monster. Why didn't the girls go to the police? Instead, the audience is forced to watch the aftermath of a rape scene. WTF. That is utterly disgusting. I hope this psycho goes to jail. Gu Li does not deserve this; getting raped and getting shamed in front of all her friends for getting raped. What the fuck. What the fuck is this plot device. This is absolutely disgusting. So much for friendship, eh. Instead of standing up for your friends, like Gu Li did, they all embarrass her for cheating on her relationships. We spent so much time in this series discovering that Nan Xiang doesn't care for Xi Cheng anymore, so why on Earth was she angry that Gu Li "slept" with Xi Cheng? Chicks before dicks, man! WTF.
What in the world were the scriptwriters thinking? "Let's take the strongest character out of the four girls, and throw some shitty plotlines at her." This episode completely contradicts the entire goal of this drama series; this episode is completely and utterly misogynistic. Gross.
Oh god, this is one of those terribly clichéd Korean dramas where rich people fall in love with poor people, and vice versa. Cue lots of longing stares, hands slamming on tables, overdramatic rants etc. Even Uee can't save this, the script is just that bad.
So in the end:
• Yoonha's older brother stages his own disappearance with barely any consequences, because his father still welcomes him back.
• Changsoo is suddenly able to control both Jiyi and his mother, even though in 60% of the drama, he couldn't.
• Yoonha suddenly becomes VP in one year, and takes her sister's place somehow.
• Changsoo is still a flop in his own company.
• The mistress has no influence over the story line at all.
You can essentially fast forward all the scenes that don't feature the four main leads, and you'll still be able to understand the ending.
This episode is so slow, good god. It drags on and on about Rainie Yang's life in Taiwan, and how conflicted she is about her current situation. This episode is a whopping 90-minute long, and that's all it goes on about. It doesn't help either that her boyfriend - played by Kenny Yen - is legit the most naive and whiny boyfriend ever.
That entire scene where he tells the "prelude" of how he met her was so creepy. He took paparazzi-style photos of Rainie Yang eating in the convenience store in front of his office (with an actual DSLR camera!) for nearly a month before he had the courage to go up to her. Creepy as fuck. And he called his photo-taking as "romantic". How can anyone call that as romantic?! What the heck.
The editing for the fast-forward time cut is done poorly too. I didn't realize that the episode had flash-forwarded to Rainie Yang's imagination until her child suddenly appeared on screen. That episode construction was messy.
This is one of those Korean dramas that has so much potential at the start, but about five or six episodes in, it just dies out because producers restructure everything for ratings and not for story. ~Throw in all the Korean drama clichés! All of them!~ Ugh. You can pretty much go down a check list of typical Korean drama scenes, and this drama will have them all.
The best (read: only) way to watch this show is to fast forward through all the unnecessary/terrible scenes. First, all the chaebol family scenes, starting from about four or five episodes in. Second, all the Yewon or mistress scenes; they add absolutely nothing to the main plot. Third, all the Yoonha & Joongi scenes, starting from when Yoonha finally figures out Joongi's real intention. What you'll have left are all the scenes with Changsoo and Jiyi. That couple is the only reason why you should even bother with this show.
There are two major issues with this TV drama that can quickly summarize the entire show:
The premise is simple enough, but everything else is like an overly melodramatic soap opera. The script, the direction, the sounding editing, the soundtrack usage... Everything is bad. More often than not, scenes cut in and out without much connection between each other, and when the drama emphasizes important plot devices, the plot device doesn't end up being too featured or too talked about in the aftermath. It's a horribly cheesy, horribly melodramatic Taiwanese drama. I skipped 8 episodes in between (out of 14 total episodes - I watched the Taiwanese version, and not the Mainland version), and I still give this review. So all in all, watch at your own risk of wasting your precious time, lol.
Well then, that took a really awkward and sexist turn. Maybe Taiwanese TV drama producers need to take notes from Canada and be all, "Because it's 2015." Also, I advise everyone to skip all the dumb sibling scenes because they really add nothing to the main plot, and they're just there as distractions.
Annnd this is when the show gets cliché. It's only the second episode, and already we get scenes where: ugly siblings freak out over handsome guys; locals freak out over handsome guys; handsome guys lie to their parents; and handsome guys argue with ex-girlfriends without giving the audience any context beforehand.
Mandatory must-have scenes in every Korean idol romance drama: The leading men grabbing hands with the leading ladies and running down a sidewalk or pathway. (Optional: In the pouring rain.)
The wife Yuka has some serious mental health issues. No one healthy and normal throws temper tantrums like that, throwing wine glasses and dinner plates around, and then wakes up the next morning happy and cheerful as if nothing out of the ordinary happened. What a piece of shit.
Satoko is 100% gay for Miki. Wish they had written that in instead of Satoko wanting to be Miki. It'd make a lot more sense.
Man, this is such a slow-paced drama, especially for the mystery/crime genre. Not sure how much more I can sit through. The two leads have good chemistry, but it's not enough to sit through scenes that could be edited to be way shorter.
I can't tell if it's the writing or the acting, but Asian romantic comedy dramas always feel very clunky to me. They're always super over-the-top, where multiple characters in the show will ignore the actions of an obnoxious Mary Sue character while the rest of them act realistic. It's like watching two characters' completely different cinematic worlds try to merge together to form the TV show's story in the most cohesive way possible.
In this show, it's Eugenie Liu who I have problems with. She acts over-the-top, yes, but compared to other Asian shows I've seen, she acts consciously over-the-top in character, and I think it's this that takes the show away from me. There are some shows where actors exaggerate their acting, but there's a nuance to it that makes their characters still feel genuine and authentic. Eugenie doesn't do that. Comedic acting is a different skill that I find not a lot of Asian actors are good at. But hey, maybe it's a problem with the writing too. It's so tacky, maybe Eugenie just can't do much with it.
Jasper Liu is charming as always though. I'm hoping his character can balance out the annoying-ness of Eugenie's character later on in the show.
I fast forwarded all the bonding scenes between Angie and Yi-hang. They could have been edited shorter and they would still have the same effect.
Well then. That Cleganebowl was anti-climatic. Sandor Clegane would never speak to Arya that kindly/tenderly and tell her to save herself. What the fuck.
Also, Jaimie Lannister didn't get to kill Cersei, so that was a huge letdown. That soft romantic music that started playing when they were down in the Red Keep's basement was so jarring. What the fuck.
What was Arya's point in this episode besides run around King's Landing and be scared? What the fuck.
I mean, so many what-the-fuck's in this episode, I don't even. I guess I should have expected all this when I saw in the opening credits that D&D were the writers for this episode. Even good directing couldn't save it from being a complete letdown. Christ.
This drama had a lot of potential in the first half of the show, but it takes absolutely forever in getting down to the romance triangle. But when it does, the show becomes all sorts of melodramatic - hospital scenes start happening, people become super close to dying, parents disown children, people get fired at work, people get pregnant, etc. You know, the atypical Asian drama requirements. To top it all off, the TV direction becomes super lazy in the second half of the show. It's as if the director sort of gave up too. Wallace Chung does what he can with the script near the end, but even then, the show is still super tacky.
Park Hyungsik is so handsome. Like in a way where he can both be handsome yet adorable at the same time. Korean casting directors are real good at finding those kinda talent, eh.
That kiss between Tilda and the other Butterfly came out of nowhere. WTF. I'm all for showing diversity in TV shows and movies, but it's gotta be weaved into the story line better; this one just plopped in without any lead-up. The show has some killer choreography, but damn, the overall story needs some drastic improvement. Ditto with line delivery. The inexperience of actors like Ally Ioannides (Tilda), Aramis Knight (M.K.), and Eve Connolly (Ava) really shows whenever they have a long scene.
My main complaint about this first episode is the way they've introduced the two leads together for the first time. Their first face-to-face interaction was addressing Jenny's Maslow's hierarchy of needs - survival during a thunderstorm, and then their second face-to-face interaction was about the flavour and quality of homemade fried fish. That's one hell of a jump. I get that the show implied that Jenny had been in the house for weeks before these interactions, but to the audience, she had only been in that house for a couple of days. Their interaction with each other about the homemade fish was far too casual and far too genial for a relationship that's had only a couple of face-to-face moments so far. It also really took away from the mysterious aura around Simon the first episode had been trying to suggest with the torture scene cuts.
Anyway, I think this show isn't doing a good job so far at balancing the "love cute" vibe of Chinese idol dramas with the mysterious crime drama vibe they're also trying to implement. I'll still continue watching for the time being just to see if this show turns around.
Really was not expecting that LGBTQ+ plot twist! So cute.
All the side plots are more interesting than the main plot with Angie and Yi-hang. I'm more interested in the story about Sophia and her ex-husband, as well as the development between Ding Ding and Ling Gui.
The vocal acting replacement they have for Gillian Chung's character is going to drive me nuts throughout this drama series. Surely her Mandarin couldn't have been that bad that Sohu felt it needed to be replaced for mainland audiences...
I hate it when Asian dramas insert excursions to see family in the countryside. These sort of episodes are always so tacky. I'm excited to see the House & Fenni subplot progress though!
The conclusion to the teenage boy murders was so unsatisfying. We spent over three episodes learning about these murders, yet we don't get any scenes of the criminal speaking to Simon at all. No verbal confrontation of why the criminal did what he did, so there's no real validation of Simon's theories. Instead, we jump pretty quickly to its aftermath - the end of Jenny's contract, and the next steps of these characters and their relationships. I guess this is just a new type of crime drama that I'm just not used to.
Got my hopes when I saw on Netflix that they released a six-episode Taiwanese romantic comedy just four hours long because Asian dramas have a tendency to drag out their stories, but whomp whomp, the first season is just build-up for the second season. It's still a cute four-hour binge watch, and it's probably higher quality and more succinct than most Asian dramas of this genre, but man, some of the pacing and tonal switches during the show could still use some work.
The actors in this show really need to work on their line delivery. Neither Aramis Knight (M.K.) or Eve Connolly (Ava) make their scenes believable, which makes the entire 'hidden gift' Abbotts temple seem super tacky.
I can finally see why some fans rate Cole Sprouse's acting so poorly. He definitely needs to be more subtle with his angsty sequences.
This episode was way too rushed. They should have made the previous episode, 2x21, the season finale instead. I hope the showrunners does a better job at planning the next season.
