Nice, but no cigar. Chunks of borrowed storyline?

So.

The hype all indicated that KTL was going to be a really great watch. And LJH is definitely worth waiting for. I duly waited for this drama to finish airing so that I could watch at my leisure without the need to wait for next episodes to arrive.

In all...........I'm sorry, but when I had finished watching, I was quite disappointed. The lead characters were good but somewhat two-dimensional. The scripts were also fairly flat most of the time, and the storyline left little opportunity for the actors to put across any real depth of character. The two girlfriends of the female lead took forever to pull themselves together enough to stand up to their respective bullies - which was neither helpful to, nor reflective of, most women in such situations these days. There were enough k-drama cliches to feed the entire cast and crew cliche cake for a year, and enough tedious PP to make a profit after paying their wages for the duration of their next shoots. I did watch to the end, but only because romcom is my guilty pleasure, and kdramas generally do that SO well. There was definitely some rom and some com in here, and those swoon and chuckle moments kept me ticking along.

Now here's the thing I can't get past. All the webinfo (Google, Rakuten Viki, Netflix and MDL) tells me that this is a 2023 release, and nothing shows that it's a renamed or remade series. Also, I began watching only three days after the last episode aired. Therefore it's highly unlikely that I am REwatching KTL itself , right? However - I have seen substantial sections of this storyline before. Some kdrama I saw before this (possibly six months to a year ago) definitely had amazingly similar situations within its storyline. I don't think the following will be spoilers....

1. The rise of the female lead through the ranks quickly through competence, while her colleagues are mean/jealous. This is probably a situation in dozens of kdramas so I can let it go. But then..

2. At the BigBoss house dinner, an incident happens to her which is pretty much identical in setting, activity, dialogue, action and reaction to the one in KTL. Here it starts to bug me more but I carry on.....and then....

3. The child's lost toy. All details are the same here as in the drama I saw before. A) when everyone else gave up the search, she won't. B) She has the same out-of-the-box idea to look in the same specific place for it. C) She must hurry because the family has to leave shortly. D) When found, the toy even turns out to be the the same type of animal AND the same colour as that used in the drama I saw before.

There are more similarities too, but the toy incident served as a full confirmation to me that I was indeed watching regurgitated drama lumps.

I've searched my extensive watched list and the internet, but I'm unable to name the drama I originally saw that contained these storyline lumps. The similarities are substantial enough and numerous enough, though, that I came out of it feeling quite cheated. It feels like I was served reheated waste food instead of the freshly-cooked meal promised by the hype. It's fortunate for me that the child's toy incident came late because if it had arrived earlier I would have been tempted to quit and move on. I might have missed LJH in the kitchen, and that wouldn't have been good.... :)

Bias aside, I really think highly of LJH as an actor and like what I see of him as an individual too, so I hate leaving a negative review for a drama of his. Unfortunately there was little in this storyline to showcase his remarkable acting skills, so this time even his charismatic presence as lead didn't camouflage the numerous and blatant shortcomings this series has. That really saddens me.

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Very little to say.....

...both from me and from this drama.

I reached the end of Ep4 of this drama and completely lost any kind of enthusiasm to continue. Ep1 was slow and quiet with lots of food and some alcohol but little happening in the story. Ep2 was the same. Ep3, same again. It's almost like a food programme with a fake half-hearted attempt at an office story to fill in between meals. I watched to the end of Ep4 because I am very aware that the start of a drama does not always indicate its overall quality. From the start of Ep1 to the end of Ep4 I think I saw four very short and semi-meaningful but boring conversations and six or seven detailed cooking/looking/eating of meals. They looked nice. By Ep4 though....the Nothing had continued relentlessly at the speed of a dying snail...and heck...If you really need to fall asleep, this is just the thing for you.

It's a shame because both the ML and FL have far more talent to them than this flaccid story allowed them to show.

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High promises, dire results

I hate to leave bad reviews....so let's start positively.

First, I love the two main leads. Seen them both in several dramas, and have always enjoyed the performances, particularly Ji Sung's. His performance in 'Kill Me, Heal Me' was truly spectacular. They are just as good here and the chemistry between them is great. The supporting cast is also good.

The story covers a sensitive subject quite thoroughly and lots of philosophical questions, issues and viewpoints are raised and discussed. I love that too.

However. Oh dear. However, having watched well over 150 dramas in the past year, this is one of the very few (less than 10) that I have given up on before the end. I'm a real fan of kdramas. I like their quirkiness, their corniness, their fun, their cleverness. I really admire the ability that actors, directors, scriptwriters and producers of kdramas have to consistently give us high-quality entertaining, thought-provoking dramas which charm us into full forgiveness for their cliches. I am frequently charmed into forgiving those horribly-done trip-ups so the lead lady can fall into the lead guy's arms, and all that cheese. I'm frequently brought to tears by the more real and emotional dramas, and I frequently laugh loudly at the comedy. I honestly love kdramas. But not this one. I have watched up to Episode 6 and I feel so completely dispirited that I have to stop. Not even these two great leads nor their potential as a possible future couple can keep me here. Why?

The series thus far has had a number of medical life-or-death "emergency" situations. What happens during those situations in this drama? One or other of the main leads is needed but not around, there follows a ridiculous amount of running by one lead to go find the missing lead...then the two leads have a nice calm little philosophical discussion. The "eureka" moments at these times were more like "hm, okay" moments. They are followed by some very painfully extended meaningful gazes and a totally unrealistic 180-degree change of mood and motivation once the right thing has been said. Only then can our two leads 'rush' to go and successfully help the patient when all the other doctors (who have now spent the last 'critical' 6 or 7 minutes at the patient's bedside) have failed to do. And if that isn't stretching reality enough, there is one point in the drama where a hospital VIP has a resus emergency....where no less than 22 doctors (that's twenty-two, and yes, I counted them) are stood spectating outside the patient's room while five more are carrying out the resus attempt. And our lovely leading lady arrives AFTER all those other white coats because she's been philosophising elsewhere. I know, I know, it's a kdrama. But really??

Just four minutes into Episode 1 it really had me hooked. The setting and basic character intro was just oozing potential. I really thought this was going to be amazing. Fast forward to the end of Episode 2. A couple of slow-moving situations didn't bother me at this point - those I can forgive. But honestly, from there.....most of that grand promise just dribbled away like the scriptwriter's sleepdrool. When Episode 3 finished, my interest was really fading but sometimes that happens with kdramas and things pick up.....so I still watched on. By the end of Ep 4 I found myself wondering how many Episodes there were - always a bad sign - and (key point) before I checked, found myself hoping it would be only 12. Not 16. I found out there are 20 episodes.

I did try. I managed to push through two more episodes hoping something might improve and keep me here, but absolutely nothing improved. Nothing. Really.

Sadly, the horribly random script-writing, patchy direction and the ridiculously long periods between the moments of emergency and their required actions is (to Ep 6 at least) an ongoing formula for the show.

I think this high-quality cast was badly let down by this drama. Ironically, it's almost painful to watch. For me this is a DNR.

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