Fanfic Junk!

Oh dear! How could a full production team, crew and cast members be this damn oblivious to what they're making! The drama was the apotheosis of human failure, an insidious plague upon the landscape of television, a wretched abomination birthed from the depths of creative bankruptcy and soulless commercialism, a festering wound that infects the very essence of storytelling with its repulsive presence. Its premise was a nauseating blend of techno-narcissism and romantic idiocy, an affront to the intelligence of any sentient being unfortunate enough to bear witness to its abomination, a grotesque mutation of what once passed for entertainment. Characters were grotesque caricatures of humanity, mere vessels for the perpetuation of vapid romantic fantasies and insipid melodrama and their interactions were a cacophony of soulless platitudes and contrived emotional manipulation, each scene got progressively worse than the last. The writing was an insult to the very concept of coherent narrative structure, a labyrinth of a garbled mess and mind numbingly banal dialogue that defies comprehension. In fact, this drama wasn't just bad television, it was an abomination of the highest order, a blight upon the collective consciousness of humanity and the very fabric of reality itself that must be expunged from existence with extreme prejudice. Anyone who dares to defend this abhorrent monstrosity deserves nothing less than eternal damnation, condemned to spend eternity in the deepest, darkest depths of cinematic purgatory, tormented by the ceaseless repetition of its insipid drivel until the end of time itself. Anyway, it could've been worse, I guess.

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Flamin Hot Cheetos

Being a drama that came out around the late 90s I can see how it might be drawing flak for its take on relationships and societal norms. Deep down, it was all about love, loss, and redemption, painting a vivid picture of intertwined lives against a turbulent backdrop, however, it failed to create a healthy structure to contain the story. The most important first step was to create a convincing scenario and story to sell their flaming torturous love, but what we got was only brief montages during the first episode. Every time they met they were filled the screen with displays of passion but there was no bases for it to carry a good impact, let alone, a lasting one. A core part of the story was the dynamic between the four leads, however, the second couple became much less relevant in the second half which made the new trajectory boring. Initially, the drama was heading somewhere while making a statement with how it dealt with gender roles and societal expectations but suddenly it gave up completely on the idea and resulted to the same old same old, reinforcing stereotypes from the 90s instead of shaking them up. I wonder if the broadcast received criticism from the public? On an unrelated note, most female leads from the 90s speak excessively timid and subdued most of the time for some reason, even when their colleagues of female supporting cast are speaking normally. Anyway, the drama was somewhat alright for its time.

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Theft At Dawn

While I appreciate its shorter runtime of 10 episodes but I wish it was even shorter for a tighter package. Some side plots didn't fit the narrative and were a mere distraction, such as the female lead's friends personal affairs, not even a good filler. The middle parts were filled with padded sequences. It took a long time before actually getting into what the synopsis describes. From this kind of plot around embezzlement, I would expect somewhat a smarter play and a deeper plot but the drama kept things mostly at a surface-level and borderline making stupid mistakes intentionally to create some tension and invoke a reaction from the viewers. I really like what Kim Seo Hyung has been doing in the past few years, leading projects of characters that fit her are infinitely better than older supporting roles. Anyway, the drama may not rank high but still offers a decent viewing experience for those willing to explore something different.

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Aged Like Milk

There's an obvious case to be made around the exploration of the ups and downs of being a young adult, but this drama was an excruciating exercise in superficiality, offering nothing but a hollow shell of what could have been a worthy experience. From its cardboard characters to its cringe-worthy dialogue and moments, the drama failed to maintain an attractive hook, opting instead for a glossy, saccharine portrayal that felt more like a caricature than a digestible imitation. The stories were equally pretty shallow as well, its attempts at drama fell flat, overshadowed by its overwhelming lack of substance, conviction and commitment between most of the characters, relationships and dynamics. Its surface-level approach with everything left no room for any proper investment to be had. By every metric possible, the 2nd season was a significant downgrade to what was an already struggling piece. Yoo Eun Jae was undeniably the weakest link in season 1, recasting her actress to someone who's struggling to play it, made things 10 folds worse. The replacement was trying really hard to mimic the original while the actress facial expressions, fluency and intonations were the polar opposite. It doesn't take a blind man to be appalled by the comparison, not like the original was any better. Unfortunately, things got even worse, her continuous story, background, conflicts, motives, and character writing were a nauseating concoction of utter literary incompetence and creative bankruptcy, a slap in the face to anyone with even a modicum of taste. To be fair, both Ye Ri & Eun Bin brought a much needed improved performances into the 2nd season, their characters as well had a better fit. Overall, the drama was a disappointingly bland and forgettable entry that failed to leave any lasting positive impact. If you care, streaming services like Netflix cut off any inner songs/tunes/humming/reading-lyrics-out-loud, the first episode is +3 minutes shorter than TV.

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Brainless Behaviour

This drama was a constant coin toss for me, swinging between great and bad throughout, this included the story, characters, jokes, and, in particular, cases. Every case related to one or multiple subjects around neuroscience for the doctor to talk about, however, some subjects were poorly executed and questionable. These ones were totally forced and stretched thin just for the sake of including them. Other cases were actually interesting. The humor as well was a big hit or miss, especially with the male leads. The drama placed too much focus on the male leads while neglecting the remainder of the cast dynamic. On the other hand, the detective wife didn't fit quite well and it took until the last few episodes for her character to finally blend. The drama had its good moments with its witty humor but it lacked in many areas to be a solid drama.

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Actually Deceitful

The drama fell short of its promising premise, stumbling through a maze of poorly executed plotlines and lackluster character development. It didn't take more than a few episodes, after the first couple of cases, to show its cracks, the narrative was disjointed, as if the writers couldn't decide which direction to take. Once the main case with Kyung Ja & Jay was brought to the front, the story went haywire. The drama failed to maintain a cohesive storyline after that. The main antagonists motivations were a total joke of a writing, let alone, the unhinged obsession of an adult over a little girl. While it's clear the creators aimed for a clever blend of mystery and drama, the execution fell flat, leaving more frustration than entertainment.

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Cityless Behaviour

Initially, the drama was captivating with its picturesque setting, charming characters, vibrant village life, and delightful slice-of-life moments. The dynamic between the village people created a lively and heartwarming atmosphere. Each character brought something unique to the table with lots potentials and the slow burn romance between the leads was a highlight, initially. However, as the focus shifted to the romance between the leads around episode 11, the vibrancy of the village dynamics began to fade and the the drama lost some of its spark. At that point, the drama turned into a very long compilation of cheesy uneventful dates sequences while neglecting the small-town dynamics and community interactions that initially drew me in. Their interactions became more unbearable as the drama went on and the male leads supposed problems were an additional let down. Anyway, it wasn't perfect to begin with, Yeong Guk & Hwa Jeong triangle and story was the weakest link in the village and borderline ruined many scenes. The drama could've definitely used more people in the village and more stories, even if it were to add more sidekicks. Moreover, many of the stories from the village started and ended within a few scenes/episodes. I really wanted to see more investment in the Pub owner rather than Yeong Guk triangle. Eventually, the resolution turned out to be just acceptable. While the drama remained enjoyable overall, the overall decline in quality after the leads got together was a really big disappointment.

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Who Thought A "Main Character Syndrome" Drama Is A Good Idea?

The female lead is probably one of the most insufferable characters you might encounter in a drama. Despicable and repulsive through and through. Props to the actress for putting in the effort to sell it as such. The drama was destined to fail with how they adapted it. It suffered from the same problems most long-running webtoons suffer from, by over bloating the material with events, abandoning plotlines and threads along the way and lacking coherent structure as it progresses. Unfortunately, they forgot to accommodate to what a live action format might mandate. The leads, Joo Da and her love interest, were an example, they were used to kick start the series of events just to be worth less than a background white noise later on, despite their core involvement in the concept early on. The concept had a lot of potentials but the end product barely serviced a story, let alone, something watchable.

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Raw Proposal

I can assure you, it wasn't a delicious proposal. The romance in general was really not good here. The drama was a bit of a mixed bag. At a first glance, the cast was undeniably stacked, Son Ye Jin, So Ji Sub, Ji Sung, and Kwon Sang Woo, however, everyone except the male lead Jung Joon was a side character, he was the main focus throughout. Even Son Ye Jin didn't do much in this drama despite being the female lead. The story could use some spice and maybe other ingredients as well, something was always missing, it didn't feel complete. The male lead character was kinda bland and didn't fit a lead's mold for a drama. There were some nice moments that remind you of the good old raw kdrama days, but they weren't enough to make up for the overall lack of taste.

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Heat Death of The Universe

Well, the drama certainly failed to cheer me up. The entire show was manufactured to be a spectacular disaster. There was no one major issue that held it back but rather a complete systematic failure. Starting from the top of the pyramid, about 80% of the cast members were barely surviving to remain functional. In equal terms, about 80% of the characters were generic youth NPCs from a modern lens. Speaking of characters, how did the writer think that writing the female lead this way was appealing in the slightest? It's baffling! That's also applicable to her cheap copy-cat, Joo Sun Ja, sharing the same revolting DNA. Moving on to relationships, pairs, ex-lovers, triangles, and squares, all of which can be tagged as insufferable spectacles. The reason why the drama added the mystery side plot is because it was unbelievably dry and was in desperate need for something supplementary to help creating the illusion that something is actually happening. It wouldn't have been bad if it served a functional purpose with the overarching narrative. Now, this is a drama about cheering and dancing but this had the worst moves I've ever seen in this context. It was nothing more than choreographed performances by PE teacher for elementary kids. It's seriously bad and embarrassing! Especially when it's coming from Kpop-land. Obviously, there were a lot more to be said but these were some of the highlights. The writer worked on both V.I.P (2019) and this drama, a solid bad track record so far, should be very cautious with future projects.

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This Is So Sad Alexa Play Lonely By Akon

Unfortunately, the drama took the least favorable route for a makjang drama. What makes a good makjang is having a reasonable push and pull balance for its conflicts, however, this drama tipped the scale all the way to the other side. The result is having an utterly doormat female lead which led to a miserable experience for the viewers. Throughout its runtime, everyone was pushing her around with all kinds of abuse, but there was never a real push back. Waiting in desperation to see her bite back but the drama didn't allow it. The attempt to show her standing up for herself resulted in a successful failure, as expected. There were other problems relating to balance all over the drama. The ending as well followed the same pattern, denying the viewers a reasonable amount of satisfaction after all the preceding events. God bless the ML's aunt, Jung Eun suk, for keeping the drama tolerable and watchable. One more thing, the drama definitely feels like it was cut short, hence, why the last 3-4 episodes were scrambled together really quick. There were even some obvious signs like attempting to introduce a new character/side plot at episode 41.

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Jinxed By Design

Sucked at first sight, actually. It certainly failed to leave a good first impression. The first episode was horrendous in all regards, especially when you get some context later on. Subsequently, this led to all kinds of problems with the narrative. At first, the story presented a big predicament to overcome, as described in the synopsis, what would ML do once he meet her again, but the drama decided to nullify the tension in a record time and turn the drama into a mindless slice of life with bubbly visuals. The unusual romance was never justified, the drama also attempted to play the same scenario for their romance at the end but it only made things worse by creating an unnecessary new diversion that came with it more problems, it just doesn't work unless one of them was mentally challenged. One of the drama's genres is mystery, but there was barely any and what was present was surface level cheap addition.

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WHERE'S THE MONEY LEBOWSKI?

Reading the plot alone seemed like it's going to be a lot of fun and it didn't take more than the first scene to convey the same thing. That first scene also had the drama's signature soundtrack running along with it, which totally sold me upon hearing it. It played dozens of times throughout the drama and it was always a banger for its scenes. The story was chaotic in the right way and the added light comedy and suspense created an enjoyable mix. A good selection of cast was present with a varied dynamic between them. Each had a small part with a side story running in parallel, although some of them I wish they had more time especially when considering its relaxed runtime. Otherwise, it could've benefited from a shorter runtime. Despite some shortcomings, it was quite an enjoyable watch.

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Macaroni Noodle

To put it simply, the drama was not good. Selling a love story between an android and a human is a tough task on its own but the lack of chemistry and a functional dynamic between the two made it an impossible task to achieve. Not only the female lead was bad as a character but her inconsistencies pilled up more problems. Allegedly, she was his bodyguard and a strong headed ex-UFC fighter but she always ended up being the weakling princess who needed saving. I thought the drama might do an interesting play between the real guy and his duplicate android but the drama didn't put in the slightest of efforts in that regard. In fact, the entire narrative the drama went for was a load of crap sucking out any possible merits that might arise.

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The Bad Sequel

In season 1: The introduction threw a wild scenario with a big stretch which helped attracting the viewers but the drama didn't return to the main case until the last 1/4. Meanwhile, it added fillers in the middle with okay cases but nothing interesting or outstanding like the initial jolt of rush, however, these middle parts helped connecting the characters together and form their relationships. The male lead character played out well with the setting and Park Shin Yang did a good job with his portrayal. The female lead was the most useless character in the drama. She had no role to play in anything other than being an insignificant side character. The return to the main case was good but unfortunately the drama went a bit soft in the punishment of the culprits.

Moving to season 2, I'm sure that season 2 is the worst non-consecutive sequel I've seen in any drama series ever. It's truly impressive how these seasons were in stark contrast to one another. Season 2 had a bad introduction and setup right away. There was a big disconnect between the male lead and his struggles. Which couldn't achieve the same impact as season 1. Everything the drama built, developed and achieved in season 1 was neglected in season 2. All cases were random generated garbage with little to no coherency to its theme, story and character. The male lead character was almost nothing like season 1. They went as far as erasing his past. He became a new character played by the same actor. It's a good example for how a character can change with a different director/writer even when hiring the same actor. Other than the 2 main lead, the drama had a full list of immemorable selection of cast members, completely blending into the background and turning into a white noise mush. Right from the beginning the female lead was the antagonist here but the drama built her story and character in a comical cheesy wronged by society kind of way. Her character had no real weight and ended up falling flat despite being played by a veteran actress Go Hyun Jung. The drama's attempt to make the viewers sympathize with her case and struggles at the end with an emotional climax was unsuccessful. If you really want to watch season 2 then don't watch it immediately after season 1, come back to it a month later because otherwise it will ruin your experience with season 1.

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