brokenendings
Nexus of Life
(Mostly) Accurate Adaptation with Satisfying Characters:
Watching Semantic Error After Reading It.
This is my 2nd BL Drama, and 1st Korean Drama, but I’ve been reading BL for 8 years now. I don’t know if my perception of the show is heavily influenced by the fact that I read the source material first, but I feel like I managed to keep an unbiased perspective.
1 TECHIE NITPICK:
The one non story related element that bugged me was the high frame-rate of a lot of the shots. That’s what causes movement to look weird and sharp, like cheaply produced daytime soap operas. If every shot was like that I might not have been able to watch, but it was only obvious in outdoor shots, super wide shots, and tracking shots on a dolly or jib. Sometimes I swear the frame rate was lower in shots because they felt more cinematic, but it might have just been there was little movement or low lighting. The fact that it wasn’t constant was a relief, but it took me out of the show every time I noticed it. Perhaps this is simply the style in all K Dramas that I'll have to get used to.
THE SHOW:
Honestly, story-wise and acting-wise, the first 7 episodes were true quality. I’d even say almost perfect in execution as far as the building tension between our lead characters. Both actors' attitudes felt like the characters had walked out of the pages of the webtoon. The OST also really leant itself to Jaeyoung’s characterization which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Obviously an 8 episode story can’t exactly follow its source material when it’s already 50+ chapters long without an ending in sight. But it picked and chose combinations of elements that made the show feel natural on its own without losing the essence of everything from the original. It felt like an honest adaptation, in the first 7 episodes.
I thought I might only take issue with episode 8 because of its divergence from the original, but that’s not the real problem. The problem is the source of conflict episode 8 relied on. After 7 episodes of character driven conflict, the final episode relied on plot driven conflict which felt out of place, like an interruption to the series.
***
VAGUE SLIGHT FINALE SPOILERS:
All the conflict in the original Semantic Error relies on character driven elements that come from within our protagonists, and that remains true in episodes 1 through 7. But in episode 8, the invitation and the conflict it caused is the opposite of character driven. The fact that they used plot to control the characters’ decisions for the first time is what felt off and foreign to me. It didn’t flow with the story or the characters.
It’s a shame that the writers could not craft a finale that suited the rest of the series, but considering the webtoon Semantic Error is one of the best ongoing BL out there, that’s a tall order. The ending fell flat but everything until then was extremely good.
This is my 2nd BL Drama, and 1st Korean Drama, but I’ve been reading BL for 8 years now. I don’t know if my perception of the show is heavily influenced by the fact that I read the source material first, but I feel like I managed to keep an unbiased perspective.
1 TECHIE NITPICK:
The one non story related element that bugged me was the high frame-rate of a lot of the shots. That’s what causes movement to look weird and sharp, like cheaply produced daytime soap operas. If every shot was like that I might not have been able to watch, but it was only obvious in outdoor shots, super wide shots, and tracking shots on a dolly or jib. Sometimes I swear the frame rate was lower in shots because they felt more cinematic, but it might have just been there was little movement or low lighting. The fact that it wasn’t constant was a relief, but it took me out of the show every time I noticed it. Perhaps this is simply the style in all K Dramas that I'll have to get used to.
THE SHOW:
Honestly, story-wise and acting-wise, the first 7 episodes were true quality. I’d even say almost perfect in execution as far as the building tension between our lead characters. Both actors' attitudes felt like the characters had walked out of the pages of the webtoon. The OST also really leant itself to Jaeyoung’s characterization which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Obviously an 8 episode story can’t exactly follow its source material when it’s already 50+ chapters long without an ending in sight. But it picked and chose combinations of elements that made the show feel natural on its own without losing the essence of everything from the original. It felt like an honest adaptation, in the first 7 episodes.
I thought I might only take issue with episode 8 because of its divergence from the original, but that’s not the real problem. The problem is the source of conflict episode 8 relied on. After 7 episodes of character driven conflict, the final episode relied on plot driven conflict which felt out of place, like an interruption to the series.
***
VAGUE SLIGHT FINALE SPOILERS:
All the conflict in the original Semantic Error relies on character driven elements that come from within our protagonists, and that remains true in episodes 1 through 7. But in episode 8, the invitation and the conflict it caused is the opposite of character driven. The fact that they used plot to control the characters’ decisions for the first time is what felt off and foreign to me. It didn’t flow with the story or the characters.
It’s a shame that the writers could not craft a finale that suited the rest of the series, but considering the webtoon Semantic Error is one of the best ongoing BL out there, that’s a tall order. The ending fell flat but everything until then was extremely good.
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