alexhendrix
Disclaimer: This review reflects my personal views. I did not like the first episode and wrote a review accordingly. If you enjoyed the show, that's great! but this review will likely not be for you.Let's start off by saying that yes, I had some expectations for this show, coming off Lee Jong Won's spectacular Knight Flower and Kim Se Young's fantastic Business Proposal. Going by the show's description, a standard, feel-good rom-com does not seem to be too tall an order, and that was what I was looking for.It does not deliver.The show doesn't seem to know where it's going. It starts off immediately with a fight sequence that features a caricature villain being reprimanded by our female lead, Chae Yong Ju, and immediately it feels disorienting. Yong Ju is spitting brewery adjacent facts -- I personally do not care -- and her whole conduct and getup looks more compatible with some military personnel somehow being stuck with managing a state-run brewery than anything else. The whole scene is infused with forced comedic undertones and establishes next to nothing about our main cast besides the physical capability of Yong Ju. In general, the direction is all over the place. There are attempts at self-awareness with over-the-top gestures and breaking the fourth wall, much like A Business Proposal, but most are jarring and unfunny. Visual effects and sound effects that feel vaguely tongue-in-cheek are planted in a haphazard fashion. There is no clear storyline, or rather, there is no flow to the cinematography, and the story is disjointed as a result, with no sense of direction. Characters are cardboard cutouts with no personality beyond a single descriptive (eg. "happy-go-lucky" new employee, "girlboss" executive) or unestablished like the main characters. No, having a randomly inserted sad past does not equate good characterization. I genuinely have no idea what the male lead, Min Ju, is like. He's playful one moment, brooding the next. His introduction is one of the most egregiously constructed, unbalanced scenes I have ever watched. Happy-go-lucky Chan Hwi greets Min Ju with excessive happy-go-lucky, and Chan Hwi first stands still like a statue, wrapped in brewery equipment-armor, looking standoffish and weary. It seems like we're off to a solid start in the portrayal of an outwardly aloof male lead, possibly socially awkward, who knows? It's a direction, at least. But literal seconds later, there is a head-scratching, BL-evoking sequence of slow-mo, sounds effects (actual heart beat sound effects, no less!), and visual effects, and suddenly, the male lead accepts Chan Hwi and employs him. The dialogue that follows is nondescript and reactionary to Chan Hwi's quirkiness. We're left with a quirky employee and his employer the main character -- *as defined by "his employer"* , as if a main character with a quirky best friend wasn't bad enough.In short, this was as disastrous as a first episode can be. Nothing was achieved outside of the bare bones groundwork of the main leads and secondary characters' professions, and perhaps an off-putting illustration of Min Ju's "mindreading" capabilities that feels misplaced in a show that was not touted as supernatural/fantasy. There is no clear story. There are tonnes of unwitty dialogues and uninteresting monologues on brewing. I am not sure if I will find the capacity to watch a second episode, and I am sorely disappointed that this is my follow-up to two of my recent favourites.Update: So I'm seeing that Brewing Love shared the same director as A Business Proposal? That makes a lot of sense, with the over-the-top comedy and cheeky special effects. It's a shame that the same approach hasn't quite translated to onscreen coherence, let alone emulate the same brilliance.
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- there's a way with dark humor. this is not the way.- this series was touted as a rom-com. this is already headed towards makjang-land. - the tropes. god, the tropes. for a show presented as subversive (reversed ml/fl roles, the abundance of dark humor), how many tropes is the scriptwriter going to cram into the story? we've got a terminal illness (a terminal illness in a rom-com? are we being serious right now?), something that smells like it'll develop into amnesia, a nascent love triangle with bad blood brewing, conniving side character who is constantly picking on fl for no ostensible reason, and fl being blamed for causing a family member's death hence her cold disposition and tense relations with her family. please for the love of god, pick a few elements and make the most of them instead of biting off more than you can chew. case in point: crash course in romance.- and on an additional note, a minor complaint: resorting to lazy directing -- introducing 'english speaking' businesses as elite and grounds for proving your company's worth. - the dark comedy is honestly off-putting at times. the direction did not pull this off. you're only left wondering why the hell the bgm was all playful when fl announced her terminal illness (and thinking it was a gimmick she pulled to make the ml stay -- which would've been a far better way to take the show imo), how the ml is actually rejoicing over the fl's 3-month countdown to death and what in the world is funny about it. the family conflicts are portrayed 'humorously' but again, it falls on its face with how none of it feels really funny. the wayward aunt angle is supremely out of place with the rest of the comedy, too, and feels like it serves no real purpose. - the marriage angle. it definitely feels like the scriptwriter/director wants to showcase different marriages and their different dynamics, but most are hastily built and none feel established, not even our main couples'. perhaps not yet, but as of now, there is still no insight as to how the mains got to where they are right now. as such, it doesn't feel like there is a point to showing all the non-main couple relationships, because we're not even into marriage #1 and can't be bothered with the rest. there is zero nuance in the show's attempt to open up discussion about the concept of marriage.- the characters. everyone except the mains are cardboard cutouts so far, or just not important or memorable enough. and for the fl -- she's set up as this cold, abrasive, super-capable CEO, but she has shown so many instances of unreasonable, ill-advised, or straight-up sloppy decision-making. (1) the demand in ep1 for her husband to disregard the threat of lawsuits to terminate contracts with underperforming contractors -- at least explain why the pros outweigh the cons? (2) the surprise when she learns her ex is a super important representative for the company she's hellbent on getting her hands on. and let's not talk about how she needed saving twice already in ep2? (1) in ep2 when she's meeting with important people from international businesses, she needed a husband to impress the dude (also lazy writing. why not have her defy expectations and prove herself without conforming to the company representative's wishes? that'd be great for character development ; and (2) the convenient onset of misty disease-caused disorientation and ml's timely save??i liked ep1 somewhat, but ep2 dived straight off a cliff and got me rethinking everything good about ep1.
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When the Phone Rings Episode 1
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this episode sets the tone of a romance thriller perfectly. you have distinct character settings, a great deal of twists and turns, and red-hot, sizzling chemistry. you know you're in for a makjang, and the show's not going to win any excellence awards in logical engineering, but HELL if it's not going to be cracktastically fun. speaking of, this drama is INTENSE. i'll have to attribute a good deal of that intensity to the yoo yeon-sook's superb portrayal of the good old smoldering asshole ml. beneath that cold, hard exterior, you can just FEEL the passion bubbling beneath and threatening to burst at any given moment. let's also give kudos to the excellent theme music that's always epic sounding and evokes the dramatic atmosphere SO well. bottom line: this drama is immediately addictive and tells you what to expect straight away. it is DRAMATIC and it KNOWS it and OWNS it. you're going to ignore the nitty gritty and sit back and enjoy the drama, mystery, romance, and CHEMISTRY.
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