In the early weeks of this drama, this drama had so many positive comments and episode reviews, and so many of my friends kept telling me how awesome it was. It got to the point where I was dying to watch it, but I refuse to watch airing shows, so I waited. The wait brought on quite a bit of negative comments about the show, and I was really not sure what to expect when I went into watching this drama. After having watched 20 episodes, I can safely say I wasted my time with this and I want that time back!
Potential would be the word I'd use to describe this show. This show had so much potential and it squandered it horribly. I think the problem is, the writers only knew one thing - comedy. I'm not saying they knew it well, since it wasn't all that funny, but they certainly didn't know anything else well either. Not women, not spy work, not friendship, not family. All of the elements that these ambitious writers tried to bring together failed on a spectacular level.
There was ZERO chemistry between the two leads. I wanted so much to like this drama just because I loved the lead girl in Protect The Boss. But she was so wooden, so poorly written that I never once found myself caring about her. Or about the lead male. Or the second lead male. Or the parents. Or the friends. Or their coworkers. The two shining bright spots in this show would be the two trainers, Young Soon and Won Suk. They had more chemistry (as in friendship, not romantic) than any of the other characters combined, and I found that their scenes were the only ones I truly enjoyed.
Do Ha was such a laughably ridiculous character, as was Sun Mi. Why spend time making either of them characters if you are just going to change their personalities with each episode? The first several episodes was devoted to showing how hard you have to work to become a civil servant, are we then supposed to believe that that hard work to become educated enough suddenly flew out the window, leaving all of the spies with the IQ of fourth graders? This show just kept coming to an impasse, and then repeatedly took the wrong turn trying to dig itself out of the mess it had made for itself. Nothing about this show made sense. The spy work was so ridiculously bad, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the actual Korean spy network was suing them for how dumb they made spies look. Or giving them an award for it, for making anyone who watched this believe their spies couldn't find their way out of a paper bag, much less into covert operations.
I'm at the point where if a review has been overly positive or negative, I try to bring it back around and point out some things that were good or bad, depending on the tone of the review. I'd love to say something here that would illustrate some redeeming qualities this show had. There are so many good reviews up here for it already, I am sure I am going to get so many not helpful votes for this. But there isn't anything I can say that would make these 20 hours worth it. If you don't have the patience of a saint, and you can't stand story lines that make zero sense in terms of characterization, don't watch this drama. I want my 20 hours back!
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This drama definitely had potential. The actors were quite good, the plotline grabbed my attention, it had a solid beginning... WHAT WENT WRONG?
Story: Generally, it was opposite of what most dramas are like. Most dramas have a pretty slow beginning, and the episodes build up exponentially to a grand finale, with twists and sub-plots in between. This drama had a good, fast-paced beginning, which then FLATLINED before spiking an ultimate climax in the last two episodes.
Episodes 1-3: The first few episodes were interesting enough to hook me in. There was a good mix of action, romance, and comedy. However, there was little to no creation of the main plot, which I could have overlooked, had it not been for the next dozen or so episodes.
Episodes 4-18: The writers/producers filled up the gas tank but forgot how to start the car. Honestly, I was on episode 16 or so when I looked back and asked myself what the heck I had been watching for the last dozen episodes. It was like I figured out something, but then had to watch the next 5 episodes as every single other character had their own "Eureka!". Not only did the plot deviate quite a bit from the main storyline (which was very repetitive/draggy), the sub-plots also did little to help push the actual story forward (scenes of Seo Won's parents etc.).
Episodes 19-20: AND... we finally see some action happening over here. The revenge that the "bad" people had planned for 18 episodes is finally executed. What the drama lacked for 16 excruciatingly long episodes is all cramped together into these last two episodes, which were full of action, drama and the true bond of friendship/love. I was so satisfied with the ending, that my initial review of 4.5 went up to a 7. It's one of the endings I've longed to see in all my favourite dramas (usually resulting in my disappointment), where most, if not all, the loose ends/sub-plots are tied up and concluded, and there is solid proof of a happy ending.
*Note: The different names of both lead characters was also quite confusing at first.
Acting/Cast: Ok, I have to admit the cast was pretty good... it's just the characters that frustrate me. First off, there was little to no loyalty between the characters! There was just one betrayal after another, which frustrates me to no end! The only characters which stayed by each other's side throughout the entire drama were the "bad guys". By the end of the drama, I found myself rooting for their side because they were always there for each other, protecting each other, TRUSTING each other, something which the good characters completely lacked. There was barely a bond between families... the two main characters were always fighting with their parents and vice versa, while the two "bad guys" spent the entire drama attempting to get revenge for their families. I'm sorry. How can I sympathize with the good characters if you completely mask their good qualities with numerous, huge flaws (which, by the way, the characters never managed to fix).
Music: It was actually really good. I loved the music in this drama, and am currently searching for all the OST's and adding them to my playlist. There was really nice, soothing, romantic music to go with the romantic scenes (which were not as romantic as one might think). It's almost like the music was there to lure you into a false sense of romanticism to mask the fact that there was barely any chemistry between the characters.
Rewatch value: Ah... let's not get me started on this one. I'm 99% sure I won't be rewatching this anytime soon. (Ok, MAYBE I'll rewatch some of Joo Won's adorable goofy moments~).
Overall: A perfectly healthy drama went into cardiac arrest, died on the operating table, then miraculously came back to life in the morgue. It was decent. Not my first choice when recommending a drama to somebody, but if you're dead bored and have absolutely no dramas to watch, and are a fan of Joo Won or one of the other actors, then go ahead and give it a shot. But... before that, drop me a message and I might be able to recommend some other better ones for you :) Last but not least, I think this drama would have done much better had it split off into 2 completely separate dramas: an action drama with a spy/revenge storyline, and a romantic drama where the two leads have to overcome troubles with their to-be in-laws. The writers tried to group the two together and it didn't work out very well. If you're looking for the former, you're definitely in the wrong place. If you're looking for the latter, you're probably in the right one.
P.S. Just one last small note: my two favourite episodes were episode 6 and 19 if memory serves me right ^^
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I loved Joo Won and his character, and though I did get annoyed at Kang Hee's character a lot, I thought she played it well - it was a story problem more than an actress problem. The chemistry between the two was hit and miss. Some times it was there, others there was nothing.
The story line with her parents was silly and unnecessary, though it did provide comedy. The brother annoyed me.
His parents got just as annoying at times too, even if they were a bit more relevant.
The music was ok, but nothing special, and I did get annoyed at the same songs being played over and over.
Overall, I think the casting was good, but the story had some major issues, it dragged too much in places, (there was like 3 episodes where it felt like nothing much had changed/happened) and felt rushed in other places. Also, the ending could have been so much better.
Not the drama I was expecting, or thought it would be from the start, but not bad, and I wouldn't say not to watch, just don't expect a masterpiece.
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However, I couldn't ignore all the butterflies it gave me when I thought the chemistry would not work between the two main leads given the decade of age difference between them! I really thought Choi Kang Hee was too old for Joo Won! But it somehow made me ignore the age difference and just fall in love with those two!
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During the first 5 episodes, I really thought this drama was going to be great. The story was interesting, and the cast seemed fitting. It was funny, and sweet with some suspens...until the whole thing drowned into melotramatic clichés.
At some point, the actors stopped talking to each other, and instead began to just speak their lines with an affected manner, giving the audience the impression that they are philosophizing all episodes long, talking about "where they are in their relationship", and trying to convince us that they are about to kill each other, when actually there is not enought tension between them to generate so much as a slap.
I think the story also needed a strong opponent. Instead we got the evilness "because we are so evil and beautiful and cool and with a dark past it makes us even more evil".
It wasn't so bad that I would go as far as saying it would be a waste of time to watch it (come on, there IS Joo Won), but to me this really wasn't a good spy drama.
No, to all those who like spy dramas, I'd recommend the awesome Time Between Dog and Wolf, but not 7th Grade Civil Servant.
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As every one knows this is a drama-remake of a very popular and high grossing Korean Movie of the same title, of course the story is a whole lot different than the original movie's of course because we're talking about a 20-episodes-long drama compared to a 2-hour-movie.
This Drama had potential, the story's layout is quite interesting by most standards, bit of a "Mr & Mr's Smith" with all the spy Vs Spy missions and the romantic line involved causing the dilemma. But despite all that it would be fair to say that this drama didn't make the utmost use of all these weapons it had at hand, and sent most of them down the drain.
The first few episodes (to be specific until they got assigned to the NIS) weren't interesting enough to keep me hooked, but as an old K-Drama fan I know how most Korean dramas are a bit hard to warm up to at the beginning. To be honest with you, one of the main reasons why I couldn't get myself to warm up to the show quickly was my annoyance at the female lead's choice. I don't want to keep talking about how old she looks comparing to Joo Won (he should just call her "Noona" lol)coz I guess many people must have already killed this issue discussing, but also her acting wasn't that great and to add insult to injury the character she played had so many nasty points to it, in a nutshell it was mostly hard to sympathize with anything she said or did.
The romance developed quite fast, too fast that it made the watcher go all anticipating as to just how much we'll be getting busy through out the rest of the drama, and no argue we REALLY did get busy!! but not with the romantic or comedy plot, but rather with the plot that the writer just simply sucked at; "The Spy Game"
If this drama was a spoof for spy movies it would have made sense, I mean why the hell did nothing those NIS agents did that made any sense whatsoever. Let's say that this is a Rom-Com in the first place and that it shouldn't be judged on the whole spy line. OK even if I manage to agree with that, let's be honest, the whole idea behind the drama is that they are both agents who fall in love but have to keep hiding their identities from each other, so ultimately the two lines; romance and spy, have to end up getting tangled. And this is where it all felt so frustrating.
I enjoyed the first half of the drama, to say before the Baddies made their first appearance. I enjoyed it because it was full of cuteness and funny silliness not the type that frustrates you though. At the beginning I could to a certain extent feel empathy towards Seo-Won's character and even sometimes feel bad for her, but later the more the plot developed and all cards got revealed, her insistence on not sharing everything with him and acting all mighty made me just hate her and wish he would just do the same.
I know I said the plot evolving around the NIS' missions and spy work should not be my main point in reviewing this drama but I still can't hold back some of my comments concerning that one.
The whole baddie guys' revenge was stupid and badly written so I on purpose tried my best to ignore it so even if some parts didn't make any sense i wouldn't linger and wonder a lot.
The NIS itself and all of it's agents felt like a bunch of dummies playing 007 and not even managing to make it close. The mere idea that they get to cover such missions after only one year of training (which I bet involved basically drinking and dancing and gambling classes) felt so unbelievable. But I must congratulate the writer on one thing, the agents did seem like a bunch of rookies who just didn't have any idea what they were supposed to be doing.
Starting with the supposedly strongest and most experienced of them all; Do-Ha with all his spilling and tripping and pink-panther-sneaking during a mission! to Sun-Mi who fires a gun at headquarters by mistake, and instead of feeling any remorse just goes butterfly on her crush covering her!! (she should have been told to hand her resignation just there) To Seo-Won who can't even drive properly but can still snowboard and use a sniper even while shaking and sobbing!!!
Even the baddies most of the time seemed they just had no idea what they were doing, going around in circles not even reaching an agreement on the meaning of taking revenge.
Let all these plot-holes aside and concentrate on the romantic story line and you might enjoy the drama more (like I can say I managed to).
Putting the action aside and concentrating on the characters and their relations, you will still notice some irritating flaws with the characters:
(as I previously mentioned) Seo-Won with her meaningless wish that Gil-Ro believes her although she does absolutely nothing to gain his trust but rather act all the more suspicious.
Do-Ha, who says that he can even do bad things if it's for the good of his country but later on with the drama ends up conniving a crime that of course has nothing to do with anyone's good.
Sun-Mi, was by far the most childish character and should have never been an agent in the first place. So although I really liked her tomboyish character at the beginning I ended up hating her bad-loser clinging puppy personality.
The big guys (Won-Suk and Director Oh) with all their "if anyone finds about what we did we will be dead" bullshi*
(Needless to say) the Bad guys!!!!!!!!!!!! GO TO HELL!!!
So the writer nearly sucked badly at the spy parts which covered most of the drama, but somehow I still managed to enjoy this one, but only for the laughs. So the serious emotional parts I watched with one eye closed, and the action spy parts I watched looking elsewhere. lol
So why did I give it 7 and not less? it's because I loved the silly/funny/cute comedy scenes a lot, and also found some heartwarming plots to cling to (like Gil-Ro and father conflict).
one last advice, if you're going to watch this one through, better skip seo-won's parents' scenes, these are simply a waste of time and energy.
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I agree that the first 5-6 episodes are more entertaining, but the rest wasn't that bad either. Their meeting and the training were super, but after being trained and becoming an agent,they started their operation, which is logical (so i don't understand those who were disappointed...)
There was only one thing that was annoying me, the scenes of Seo Won's parents (it had nothing to do with the story, so i went through those parts..., besides that everything was okay.
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During the middle the story kind of became stagnant and nothing much was happening, but even then it was not a bad watch, and was addictive enough to carry on.
During the end it again started to pick up and had a nice complete ending.
The second lead couple was really cute and I liked their story a lot.
Now the thing I didnt like....Many might think me wrong but the choice of the female lead was totally a disaster. I think she did not suit Joo Won at all, even though they make her out to be younger and him older, it just did not look convincing. Even though both acted well in their own rights, their chemistry looked quite forced. Although I liked Gil Ro's parents parts, Kyung Ja's parents scenes were quite boring and mostly I ff those parts.
As for the rewatch value, probably not as nothing was that good that I would want to watch it again.
Overall, it was an entertaining drama with some cute moments especially Joo Wons parts. The story was mildly addicting but not that you would want to drop it.
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date check: 02/05/2013
There are sooooooo many who hates this drama,the story especially the main girl and I know that it will give you doubts to watch it. I hope my edited review would be helpful for you :)
story? This drama started soo good, I was hooked from the very beggining, the sweetness of the guy, the funny scenes..XD it's not boring at all but when you get to the middle of it the story becomes a little bit slow, no thrilling moments, I got bored with some of the scenes. when you get to the end? it's cute and funny :)
acting? all of them are greatl!!! ~kyaaaaaa!! Once you watch this one you''l get to love all the cast especially Joo won oppa, Kyung ja, sun mi, do ha and their discipline officer!!^^
what about the ost? ~omoooooooo!!! it's one of the strong points of this drama, the songs never fails to match the emotion!:> it makes you want to asked for mooooooooooore!!!!:))
Rewatch value I gave 10 from the start, in the middle? hmm 8 at the end? 9 :)
If your looking for action scenes it's not for you..XD
PS: Though the story becomes weak at the middle I still like it and it's WORTH WATCHING :) why don't you give this drama a chance? :>
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The Story : at the beginning it felt like it wasn't going anywhere, which is why the first time I tried watching this I stopped because it was making me feel uncomfortable what with the excessive comedy (which is not really my thing). But then since I really wanted to try watching it whole because the plot seemed so promising I started again.
I started getting interested during episode three, since the plot thickened. But around episode 8 to 10 I was relying more and more on recaps to relieve my frustration of the slow pace of this drama. It had unnecessary scenes that dragged on waaaay too long while only getting to the point at the very end of the scene (I just skipped forward). And not to mention the fact that the person watching knows very early on everything there is to know about the plot and just watches the characters scrambling around trying to find the answers, and you're basically yelling at them through your screen even though you perfectly know they can't hear you. From episode 10 I decided to finish the story with recaps, and could not be-lieve the turn out this drama had. I thought if the drama had a good ending I could probably be more motivated to watch it over, but NO! it convinced me I did not want to watch it ever again. As much as I love Joo Won and his adorable character, I could not bear the slow pace and unreasonable plot and ending.
Furthermore, Choi Kang Hee's character was annoying, I did not like her, and I could not feel any sympathy for her by the end of the drama, I couldn't stand her character. No offense to her specifically, but the way the character was painted just wasn't for me.
So overall the story was okay-ish, with a rather slow progression and barely any ups and downs (if any) and a very dissatisfying ending (for me at least).
The cast : the acting... was okay, though I don't know whether the awkwardness I felt was due to the actors's lack of chemistry or bad acting or a bad plot, or if it was meant to be that way, but I just didn't feel moved by the characters (either blame the acting or the plot, you choose). I don't know whether the acting was bad, though Joo Won's rendition of his character was cute at times (kind of stupid at others), I didn't feel very comfortable watching the couple, except for a few cute moments. I have a few issues with Choi Kang Hee, again not sure whether it's the acting or the character since I never saw her in any other drama. Overall the acting was okay, a few pluses but that's it. Didn't pay much attention to the rest of the cast.
The music : it was nice, not very moving either, didn't grab me in any way (maybe because I didn't watch to the end, I don't know), I didn't end up replaying it again and again after hearing it (which I usually do when I like it).
Rewatch value... you already know what I think, I wouldn't want to watch it again, I want to spare myself any more angst and frustration watching these characters go about in random directions.
Overall, a 6, as much as I would have liked to give it more, it is as high as I can go. I wouldn't recommend this unless you like cute rom-com that doesn't have much plot to it.
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It is really a funny, loveable, psychological intelligent written story, acts are amazing, i give it only a 9,5 because it can't reach the extraordinary greatness of a full ten like other brilliant series.
I will do quickly a pro and con, and also the reasons i think, which leads to other people don't liking this drama. (and i want to apologize - my english is not the best, but i have to give it a try for this series!)
The reasons why other people may dont like 7th Grade Civil Servant:
* Main Actress Kim Min Seo is (also for me) not the prettiest actress. At first i was kinda surprised she would play the main actress, because... of her face (i am sorry, but its true that this is selfishly important on love romance shows). Didn't hit my taste/sympathy ... and i am one of many - according to comments here...
BUT i am someone, who gives everything a chance. And she is indeed sweet and also a great actress, i love her now! You will come to like her a lot, if you only give her a chance to catch your sympathy. Also her character is indeed not 100% perfect (thats realistic ;P), but loveable, manlike and .. yeah, i like her and her actions are understandable ;)
* Expectation from an "Agent"-Series
Many people complained about the lack of agent style in this series - but seriously, this is nothing like James Bond, Fringe or Alias - it stands alone with his own level of "being agents". It has a lot of agents elements added, but - of course - not so much "action" scenes. I think, people who are watching this series because of the expectation of great action scenes, will actually fail. I prefer the meaning, "how is life being an agent", other complications of being an agent (for example: within a partnership) and so on to action. (For example: You don't compare "Gravity" or "Star Trek", altough they are "movies about the universe", they have their own severity fitting the special atmosphere/storyline, which is intended to create [for the audience])
* Skip Seo Won's parents scenes, don't lower your excitement watching them ... - and then you don't have to complain about any boring moments in the show! ;)
Pro:
+ Wonderful, heartwarming chemistry and love story between the main chars
+ The humour is exactly my taste - a little bit insane/crazy (hits my beloved korean nature :D)
+ Psychological realistic (nothing is overdosed or too "typical movie", more to comment would be a spoiler i guess - but thats very important for me to be so)
+ There were a lot of scenes i had to immediately rewatch, because they were so good, loughed and cried, etc.
+ For me it was exciting until the very end - didn't onhold the series (which happens a lot other times :'))
+ Characters are all really unique and after series has ended, i am now so sad that i cant see "all" of them anymore, because i enjoyed the time with them really much.
+ The music gets a lot better until it is catchy and rememberable
+ No disturbing side stories, focus on main story - sth. i appreciate.
Con:
- Again: As it has already been said in former comments: you have to skip the 1-2 Minutes scenes with Seo Won's parents.... Alltough Kim Mi Kyung is one of my favourite actors, i really had to skip them (you won't miss any information regarding to the main story, so i would recommend to skip it, if you are not interested in being a farmer ;P)
- For me the "agent story" somehow starts "in the middle of" and lacks a little bit of deepness. After a while it gets better, but this is to mention as negative.
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