This review may contain spoilers
2nd Time watching
It’s time for me to give my feedback. This is one of the first dramas I started watching. The first of Lee Min Ho’s dramas. I fell in love with his looks, acting and his great charisma. After watching THE HEIRS, I started looking for all his other shows.The Heirs is one of the reason i became addicted to watching Korean and Chinese dramas.
The Heirs is cute and funny. It has a good story line. Even though, I watched this twice I was hooked and couldn’t stop watching it was as if my first time. I cried and laugh like crazy.
Overall, if you are a romantic and has a young soul, I recommend watching.
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The show itself has a way of playing with your feelings. There are a lot of lighthearted moments, as well as dashes of comedy and each character has their own underlying development arc. It also shows us a lot of different types of relationship - romantic, family, and friend - and how they all have their own ups and downs.
To add, the cast is one of my favourites. Lee Minho, Park Shinhye, Krystal Jung and Kim Woobin especially - if you like even one of them, I'd suggest this drama solely for that. The soundtrack is also one of my favourites out of any drama (second only to The DOTS). Bite My Lower Lips by eSNa remains one of my favourites from the OST of The Heirs.
So... is it a show that will play with your heartstrings? Most likely. Is it a show that will annoy you at times, or make you cringe? Yes. Is it one full of cliches? Definitely. Does all of that make it bad? Of course not! Obviously, it has it's flaws, but it's a solid show overall and I enjoyed it a lot all 4 times I watched.
I would really recommend this drama to people who enjoyed dramas like The Master's Sun, Lie to Me and Love Rain.
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A big surprise
Hey, did I watch the same "The Heirs" that everyone talks sh*ts about? I mean, I've heard some really bad things about this kdrama that made me skip this one for a longggg time, since I started watching kdrama. So I thought this one could be like "Boys over flowers" which I really hated, but, surprising The Heirs was way much better. Although I'm not into Collegial Romance anymore, this one got me. I really enjoyed watching every episode of it. But, I can't bring myself to give this show a review more than 7.0, Here are some some points of the story I liked:1• Is the story good? > Yeah, it's, pretty enjoyable
2• Is the ML good? > Yeah, for a rich boy Kim Tan was a pretty good ML
3• Is the FL good? > Look, in my opinion she was the best collegial girl (in love) that I've met in a kdrama. Here's why: She's strong, cool, not dumb, and for a 17 years old she was kinda mature when it comes to make decisions. She wasn't the kinda collegial girl who was dumb all the time and be like [Oh! help me! I can't even make decisions by myself. I always need the ML!] She was able to defend herself and was fearless. I don't understand why ppl talks sh*t about this FL bc for me, she was amazing.
4• Do they have chemistry? > Yeah, I've seen Lee Min Ho with better actresses who looked better with him, but this one from this show was good too, as a collegial couple they had a good chemistry
Anyway, I enjoyed 98% of the story but I have my complains:
1• I like how Young Do was able to grow up and regret his actions, but still I can't understand how come he ended up falling for Chang Eun. Kim Tan and her had their moment back at Unided States but what about Young Do? I really don't like when a character doesn't have a reason at all to like other. Idk, for me it was kinda like this: "Oh we need another male lead to create conflict between the main couple so here you go Young Do, start to like her out nowhere"
Really, for me was very uncomfortable seeing Kim Tan and Young Do fighting over Chang Eun bc for me Kim Tan and Chang Eun were always the main couple, I was like: "Boy? What the f you doing? You don't even have the right!"
I don't understand why ppl wanted Chang Eun to be with Young Do at the end when Kim Tan was a really cool Male Lead right from the start?
Although I started to like Young Do, I never shipped him with our Female Lead, not even once, their scenes together would made me roll my eyes.
Anyway, there's stories where I wanted the FL to end up with the second ML, but in this case Young Do wasn't even a option from the start. Maybe if they'd made Kim Tan a boring and "not worth it" male lead than maybe I'd ship them but Kim Tan here was amazing as a man to her, so... Nhe.
2• The Older brother. I started watching this show bc I always curious about it and when I saw that Jin Hyuk would be at this kdrama I immediately started watching it since I love this actor, but wtf was this character of his? Omg! Even though I love him I couldn't stand his character at this show at all. He hated his brother for no reason at all (and I'm sorry but hating him just bc he's a son of another woman isn't a reason for me, I mean, that isn't even his fault!) I felt bad for Kim Tan, he loved his brother so much. Also, his decision at the end, he chooses the company over the woman he loves and he's gonna marry someone else that he doesn't love in order to continue as the boss of the company. Urgh! What a deception, not because he abandoned his girlfriend but bc he chose the same future as his father, living with a woman that he doesn't love. I hate how he chose marriage contract and decided to keep the company instead of leaving everything behind. I can't avoid to think about his future with a woman that he doesn't love while thinking about the other one, how dumb.
I wished that both Kim Tan and him would abandon that sick family and their stupid father.
3• Talking about their father... I NEVER HATED SO MUCH A CHARACTER AS I HATE HIM! He caused conflict between his son's, destroyed the life of THREE woman and all what he cared about was the f company! Omgggg you guys have no idea how much I hate this kinda character bc I know that ppl (sh*t parents) like this exists in real life. I'm glad I'll never see his face again bc I think I started to dislike the actor too! Hahahah. And ofc by the end he ends up sick at a hospital bed almost dying and suddenly everyone wants to forgive all the sh"t he made????? Suddenly just bc the fell sick he deserves to be forgiven for destroying others ppl life? Especially the life of his sons????? I hate this kinda thought, just bc someone is sick it doesn't me this person start to be a saint. I wish he had died at the end
5• And ofc... THAT KISS! I've see a lot of ppl taking about how horrifying was that first kiss of Kim Tan and Chang Eun but I didn't imagine that it was so so so so so BAD!!!!! What's wrong with the actress? What the f was that face of hers? The only one kiss that it felt like she wasn't disgusted to kiss Kim Tan was the last one of the last episode bc every kiss before that she seemed disgusted to kiss him. Oh! Poor girl, it's really a sad thing to kiss Lee Min Ho, I understand you girl :( poor you...
Anyway! There were some things I really enjoyed in the story but there were another things that makes me never want to watch it again, specially seeing how stupid Jin Hyuk's character was on this show.
But! The Heirs was a box of surprises for me, I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. Hands down to my new favorite collegial kdrama.
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No Complaints
I'm well aware that I give many dramas a 10/10, and the reason is, if I don't have any real complaints, and I had a good time watching it, then it's a 10/10 for me. This is one of those shows.I will say that this was the second drama I've ever seen Park Shin Hye (female lead) in and the first one left a bad taste in my mouth. So I did have to overcome comparing her with her character in Pinocchio (who drove me nuts), but she did a really good job of shaking that image for me.
I thought the whole cast was great to be honest, even the obnoxious ones. I'm well aware that Choi Young Do (Kim Woo Bin) is supposed to be especially awful and you're meant to hate him and then slowly come around and maybe even feel a bit sorry for him, but I feel like I wound up liking him before I was meant to. lol. He was just really funny and charismatic.
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Onto the actual review, this drama is not good. The plot is basically a bunch of clichés thrown together in the worst way possible. It's boring and overly dramatic at certain points, with probably the worst love triangle I've ever seen.
The characters are all terrible. The female lead is probably the worst I've watched in a drama. I get that the she goes through tough times, but I felt all she did was cry all the time as if that was her only personality trait. She had no spine and just served as everyone's doormat, it was frustrating to see.
And then we have Kim Tan. The way he was always manhandling the fl and forcing her into situations she clearly didn't like made me extremely uncomfortable when I watched them interact. The main couple had no chemistry together and honestly their kiss scenes were pure cringe. I don't think Park Shin-Hye is necessarily a bad actress, but sis can't act a proper kiss scene to save her life. The first time it happened it looked like Lee Min Ho was kissing a wall or something which just makes it weird to watch. The only reason I accepted them together is because the second lead is literally a psychopath, bullying the fl and trying to make her life a living hell, I still can't believe people shipped them.
The only good thing about it was the fact that young Park Hyung-Sik is in it, but this definitely doesn't make this show worth to watch.
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The Heirs stars Lee Min Ho as another extremely wealthy student, like a Boys over Flowers flashback, but honestly, he seemed way too mature to be a student this time. Maybe it's because his character was so passive, but even with his usual charm, he seemed out of place as Kim Tan. He is matched with Park Shin Hye as Cha Eun Sang, in a standard poor girl role that has definitely been overdone but can still work if there is great chemistry... Spoiler Alert: There is no great chemistry! Initially, I was kinda entertained by the first few episodes, even if it was full of tropes and way too many coincidences and seemed to escalate to romance way too unrealistically. If the show kept up the same energy as the beginning then this drama could have been decent. Instead, it became so painfully dull I had to force myself to watch it till the end. It didn't help that most of that dullness came from Park Shin Hye's acting (and this isn't the first time I thought she was boring in a drama). Other than successfully crying on cue, I thought she was a bad choice for this role. Her character was supposed to inspire all this attention and admiration, but I couldn't understand what everyone saw in her since she was so boring and uninteresting. That brings me to the bad@ss third-wheel Kim Woo Bin as Choi Yeong Do. He is definitely the most interesting of the three main characters, and a great 2nd lead to secretly root for, but his storyline just didn't make the most of his performance. That can also be said about most of the performances, and that brings me to the writing which is this show's biggest flaw.
I don't always need a drama to make complete sense if it's entertaining. I also understand that melodramas tend to be over the top, which can be fun to watch if done right. I kept waiting for something entertaining or over the top to happen but it never did. Most of the show is the same unequal social status romance trope over and over again mixed in with school scenes of students being catty and bullying each other. How they are kept apart isn't even interesting, neither are the random moments of corporate infighting, featuring Choi Jin Hyu in a forgettable role. Please don't make the same mistake I did and expect the story to eventually pick up or end with a bang. It never does. Even if they condensed this drama into a two-hour movie I still don't think there'd be enough drama to keep the story from dragging, so 20 episodes seemed painfully long.
If I had to choose the best parts of the show it would be the relationship between the leads' moms. Kim Mi Kyung is a favorite of mine and the best performance in this whole drama, and she doesn't even speak, which says A LOT.
Would I watch this again? Never. I'm still surprised I didn't drop it the first time.
Overall, don't be fooled by the cast. This drama really is as bad as people say. Watching characters do the same things over and over again was like watching a drama that is 90% flashbacks. What's the point of a romance with a boring couple that mostly cries over being apart, and anytime they do get together you don't even care (Don't even get me started on the awful kissing scenes). This drama tried to rely on repeating what has already been done in countless other popular dramas and failed. This is the kind of drama you can take several naps through and not miss anything. If you do watch and you start getting bored just skip to the final episode, I promise you that you won't miss anything that important and you will save yourself from wasting hours of your life like I did. Yes, there are worse dramas than this one, but there are too many good dramas with these cast members to watch 20 hours of this.
I guess the point of The Heirs was to feel sorry for these characters who seemed to have everything, but by the end, I just felt sorry for myself for giving this drama a chance. Please don't be like me, believe these bad reviews and skip this drama.
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All the best to you if you're going to watch this series
There's so much to say about the plot (and it isn't positive) so instead of typing paragraphs and paragraphs, I'll say three things. One, Cha Eung San should've asked both Choi Young Do and Kim Tan to FUCK OFF and should've focused on her studies, Kim Tan and Choi Young Do should've left her the FUCK ALONE (seriously man wtf was up with them, following her around, basically harassing her till the point of submission), and, although I don't like bullies in TV shows or otherwise, Choi Young Do was fucking hot and even if you wanted a good story, Cha Eung San should've ended up with HIM and NOT Kim Tan. That's all.Oh, and if you're going to watch the series anyway, be ready to pop a blood vessel or two, it's really frustrating to watch. <3
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-Kim Tan
With the best cast,the best dialuges,expressive characters,interesting relationships and beautiful and epic love-story.."The Heirs" are one show i will never forget.I watched this one with great attention,both laughed and cried with the characters.Watching Lee Min-Ho and Kim Wo-bin co-star as nemesis,their epic performances are one thing i unlikely will ever forget.Everything intruged me,and i found a lot of these characters passionate,and i rooted for them with all my heart.We get to watch them fall in love,suffer,battle,fight through obstacles and grow up in the imaginary Elite world they live in.
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The main positive thing I can say about this show is that it sure was good at ending episodes on a cliffhanger. I would be watching the show, asking myself why on earth I’m watching it, resolving to stop once I finished the episode, and then it would end on a cliffhanger. Then I, hating myself for wasting my time on a show I didn’t even like, would have to click to watch the next episode.
Can I mention my favorite cliffhanger while I’m at it? Our female protagonist is standing in the middle of the street, with her two male love interests on either side of the street, telling her to come to them. That’s the end of the episode. The next episode starts and she walks away from both of them! I laughed out loud. Despite how garbage the majority of the show was, it did have some occasionally golden moments.
Since I’m talking about the positive parts of the show, I might as well mention that quite a few characters are good. This was the first role that brought Kim Woo Bin to my attention, and rightfully so. He is a thousand times more interesting and compelling than Lee Min Ho’s character. Krystal was also great in this show, she really stood out as a very jealous spoiled brat but she morphed into our female protagonist’s friend through... spite? I think she basically became friends with her to keep her away from her boyfriend lol. I think overall the acting is fine in this, but the script is just. So. Bad. The dialogue is flat and boring. Seriously, so much of this is a snore. That’s why Kim Woo Bin’s character was the most interesting, because he at least had more dynamic motivations and managed to convey more emotion than our two main leads combined. He’s a pretty terrible person, but at least he’s interesting!
It honestly cracked me up when I came back to this show years after I had watched it, because I hadn’t realized how jam-packed of stars it was! And I couldn’t remember any of them! Like, Kang Ha Neul was in this, and I was genuinely surprised, I didn’t remember him at all. Many, many actors that I like and respect are in this, but the script is so bland and boring that none of them are interesting. Seriously, even very talented actors couldn’t bring any life to this lifeless show.
This show suffers from what I would call cliche over content. The show filled itself with all the kdrama tropes and “shocking” moments (our female lead getting pushed into a pool, that dramatic crosswalk scene, etc) so it does manage to get its hooks into you, but there is hardly anything else besides those tropes and dramatic moments so it almost feels empty. Characters hardly exist outside of their tropes and thus they aren’t very interesting. They don’t really have the opportunity to portray emotions. The dialogue is mostly in service of whatever plot stuff is happening (and in the most utilitarian way) or is just filler, so no characters really demonstrate much of a personality. There’s plenty of dialogue that I wanted to or did skip because it was either the same conversation they had had before or nothing of consequence was really happening and it was boring. The show does a lot of telling, not showing. This is particularly evident in the main romance, of which I am fairly unconvinced actually exists. The two main leads... like each other? Dunno why, but the music and cinematography tells me so so I guess it’s true. It certainly seems to underlie their motivations but when they actually interact it’s very dull and they don’t convey a lot of emotion. It’s a little hard to tell whether (a) the acting is just kinda not great (which I find a little weird, since I don’t think Park Shin Hye or Lee Min Ho are untalented), (b) the script is so bad there’s nothing even good actors can do to save it, or (c) the editing focuses more on the ~drama~ that it fails to capture any emotions that the actors portrayed. Also that closet kiss was low key assault and while some kdramas do have some sketchy kisses that one was pretty bad.
This show is an excellent case study for observing kdrama tropes, so I’d almost recommend it if you want to see all of them in one place. However, aside from that, this show is addicting but it leaves you feeling really crappy and bad about yourself afterwards, so go watch a better show instead. There’s plenty of addicting kdrama tropes in other shows.
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