Promising black comedy became a poorly written serious drama

This show began as a relatively enjoyable black comedy about a woman who kills someone and then proceeds to do a lousy job covering up her crime. It managed to blend mystery, suspense and comedy pretty well and the central characters were likeable enough. It was slight but entertaining. However it took a sharp turn about half way through and became a very different show with a serious tone, without developing the characters enough for me to care much about what happened to them.

The acting was pretty good throughout. The leads were called upon to cry prettily in about half their scenes and they did a fine job. However the characters never developed as the story progressed and both the leads were increasingly defined merely by the bad things that happened to them. The FL started as an endearingly fickle, rather ditsy, compulsive liar but by the second half she mostly stared blankly, wept, or walked alone through dark alleys. The ML became primarily stoic and sad by the later episodes, despite the strong performance by Yeo Jin Goo. I never grew to care about these characters, and I grew less invested in what happened to them as the show went on and they became more passive and one dimensional. My favourite performance was probably Lee Suk Hyeong as Jin Hoo, the ML's side kick who served as light relief and a rare voice of reason, and stole every scene he was in for me. I also enjoyed the FL's mum and grandma played by Kim Ji Young and Ye Soo Jung, especially in the first half when they were either plotting to kill people, wandering around armed and ready for battle, or smiling terrifyingly in an attempt to be friendly.

The central romance was unnecessary and felt forced; the characters fell for each other via montage rather than conversation and they seemed unsuited. The show only managed to put them together in the second half by removing almost all noticeable aspects of their characters. Pretty people staring at each other does not constitute a convincing romance.

Plot wise, I was enjoying the silly supernatural connection between the main characters and the creepy Schrodinger's Cat stalker of the first half, but the latter half of the show focused on much more serious plot elements and I missed the days when everyone was staring at a fridge in horror. The absence of comedy and character development left me with far too much time to focus on the many plot holes. And there were many indeed. The final nail in the coffin of my enjoyment was the levels of stupidity and disregard for their own safety displayed by the leads. They spent half the show walking alone through dark alleys at night. They never once thought to lock their doors (okay grandma did, but not the leads!) The fact that they did this in full knowledge of the fact that they were being targeted by a dangerous murderer did occasionally leave me thinking maybe they just wanted to die. I don't think I'd have cared too much if they did.

This show would have been an enjoyable watch if it maintained the darkly funny tone of the first half and developed the characters along the way. Alas, it did neither.

Read More

Light hearted blend of genres and likable central performances... but I just didn't enjoy it

I really wanted to like this show but it just wasn't for me. The blend of romance, comedy, melodrama and mystery didn't work very well and I felt pretty uninvested in the outcome of the story. If you like silly comedy, a blend of genres, and introverted, passive female leads this show might have more appeal for you. Give the first episode a try, it's a pretty good indication of the overall tone and quality of the show so if you enjoy it you may well like the rest of this drama.

Things I Liked
The performances of both the leads are great and they have good chemistry together. The characters of the FL and ML are both a bit different from the norm. The ML starts out brash, cocky, ignorant and money obsessed and I expected the show would give him a story arc where he would change for love, but instead they basically said he was just fine as he was. I quite liked that it subverted my expectations on this. The ML was shown to be a decent man who was pretty likable despite his flaws. The ML is consistently interested in and open about his affection for the FL and treats her well. I quite liked the bratty, spoiled politicians daughter SFL. The pacing is pretty good- the story generally progresses at a reasonable pace. The show tries to blend lots of genres, with mystery, melodrama, romance, comedy etc. whilst keeping an overall fairly light tone.

Things I didn't like
I didn't really like the character of the female lead Kim Da Li. This is partly a writing issue and partly personal preference. I just found the character exasperating. She responds to seemingly everything by walking around silently and crying a bit. I was pretty sympathetic to her not knowing what to do in the earlier episodes, but by the time she showed that she was incapable of washing dishes and taking a bus successfully I longed to slap her in the face. She is an introvert who knows nothing about anything but art and is almost entirely passive as her world crashes down around her. This will not bother all viewers, but I found the character as written hard to enjoy, despite the likeable performance by Park Gyu Young (who I think is an incredibly talented actress).

The romance also didn't really work that well for me, partly because in the scenes where their relationship evolved I felt the FLs words or actions were often fairly odd. The moment where they first kissed seemed like such a strange time to choose to kiss someone. Once they got together, the ML immediately became pathetically sappy in a way I found nauseating. Overall, the writing meant I never felt very invested in this relationship and my interest in it was pretty much just because the two central performances were quite charming and the leads had good chemistry.

The rest of the cast are mostly either comic relief or part of the villainous, melodramatic sub plots. None of the comedy was my cup of tea, but I suspect the show would be much more enjoyable for those who do enjoy this type of humour. The villains are never very threatening so the conspiracy sub plot doesn't really lead to much tension and it gets resolved with a whimper rather than a bang which isn't exactly satisfying. Many of the minor characters performances are over the top and clearly intended to be funny but I found several of them grating. The blend of genres gives the show a fairly light tone, but tended to neutralise the tension in more serious moments and left me struggling to care about what was happening.

I remember disliking the first episode but quite liking the performances of the two leads so I persevered. This was basically how I felt at the end of the show too. I didn't really like the writing and felt there were many issues with the production, but the central performances were the best part about this show. If you like the first episode, I think you'll enjoy this drama much more than I did.

Read More

Very silly dark comedy

This is an absurd show that requires you to switch your brain off, lower your expectations, and not take anything too seriously. I found about 50% of it fairly entertaining. This show is at its best when it's a dark comedy and the earlier episodes are genuinely amusing at times. However it then introduces a murderous plot and a love triangle and sadly takes them both vaguely seriously and moves away from dark humour to more conventional silliness, casting aside the show's main strength. It continued to amuse me, but often unintentionally.

Things I liked
This show was very funny at times. Intentionally at first, then mostly unintentionally. The concept was bonkers. She doesn't just accidentally kidnap someone; she preps an acid bath to dissolve his corpse. She nearly buries him alive at one point. If you're thinking there's no way you could find humour in such situations then this is almost certainly not the show for you. I was amused. Everyone in the show is very stupid. This was the catalyst for most of the shows plot and humour and I found it best just to accept that I was watching incredibly stupid people doing incredibly stupid things and allow myself to be entertained by it.

The ML is a spoiled, self absorbed jerk. This means that you probably won't feel any sympathy for him despite the fact that he's been kidnapped by an idiotic lunatic who keeps him chained up in her apartment for weeks on end. I feel this was key to the tone of the show and trying to make us like him later on was a mistake. The FL and SML are both pretty charming and handle the comedic aspects well. Kim Ga Eun did a great job as the FL, somehow managing to make a character who has repeatedly tried to kill someone fairly likeable. Kim Jong Hoon was also endearing and funny as Nak Goo- the oddball neighbour who accidentally becomes an accomplice to the kidnapping. They are both only marginally likable idiots but because the ML is such an obnoxious douchecanoe, you'll probably be rooting for them over him.

The romance between SML and FL was pretty sweet. They’re both complete idiots so they’re perfect for each other. The romance between ML and FL was so ridiculous and underdeveloped that I actually found it funny. I don't think I was meant to though. He mostly fell for her through scenes of romantic music playing whilst they looked at each other. Similarly, the murder mystery plot in the second half was pretty funny at times, but calling this entirely intentional would be giving the show too much credit, other than in the final showdown. I think it’s meant to be a bit silly, but I don’t think I was meant to laugh whenever they played dramatic music or the leads were in danger. I still did though.

Both the FL and the ML’s bad singing made me laugh.
There were a lot of montages. This made me feel nostalgic for 80s movie montages so I’m calling them a positive.

Things I didn't Like
The humorous moments were too sporadic and interspersed with too much drama. They should have thrown way more dark comedy in there and stopped trying to make us care about what was happening to these people. I didn’t care. I just found their stupidity entertaining. The show's tone veered away from black humour in the later episodes despite not having any other strengths.

They tried to redeem the ML. This was a mistake. He's a selfish arse who goes through no character development. Much of the earlier humour hinged on the viewer not liking him; they should never have tried to change that. We could have had humour to the very end of the show at his expense but the writers somehow decided that we should instead care about silly things like his career and his life. Fools.

The love triangle was handled poorly. The writer seemed to actually take it seriously, when they should have played it for laughs. Have the famous bellend fall for his kidnapper and have his overconfidence leave him stunned as he realises the FL doesn't like him and SML wins her heart. That would have been funny. Sung Hoon was amusing as a hateful arse, but he wasn’t up to the wider range of acting required of him in the latter half. Another reason they should have stuck to comedy at the MLs expense.

The pacing was off. The story takes a while to crank into black comedy territory and we get at least an episode of plot build up before we get to any jokes. Then they veer off into a different plot in the latter half of the show and everything changes pace once again before accelerating in the final episode to the extent that the main plot wraps up with about 2 minutes to go.

I don't think the stylist liked the female lead. Her lounging around at home clothes were suitably comfy but whenever she left the home she looked like a crazy person had dressed her. Which I suppose is technically true given the character, but probably not what they were going for.


TLDR: This is an occasionally funny black comedy that should have leaned further into the crazy, but lost its nerve and tried to be something a bit more conventional, losing its main charm in the process. It still made me laugh though.

Read More

Poorly written waste of a fun idea and a good cast

I did not enjoy this. It could so easily been a fun drama, but the writing let it down badly. The storyline and the dialogue were poor, and the whole drama was very heavy handed. That being said, I did find about two thirds of this somewhat watchable (exceptions apply) and that was entirely down to the two leads, who are by far the best thing about the show. It's potentially worth a watch if you really like the leads, and you're not put off by the idea of absurdly illogical plots and lots of serious scenes of people crying. Just set your expectations to low and remember that no matter how it begins, things will get worse.

I'll start with the positives. I've seen Seo in Guk in three dramas now and he's seemed like an entirely different people in each. I'm really impressed by his acting and want to see him in something more deserving of his talents. He makes the best of the bad dialogue and puts in a convincing performance as the miserable, cold Doom and as his character develops throughout the show. Park Bo Young puts in her usual good performance, though I found her less convincingly in love here but the writing really wasn't doing her many favours either. Poor girl spends half the show crying. I don't think the leads had good chemistry, but it was hard to tell if that was a casting issue, or just due to the poor writing choices they had to content with, because the chemistry seemed better earlier on before the show drowned under the weight of its own pretensions. I also thought Shin Do Hyun was good as Ji Na, which is impressive because I hated nearly every scene in her storyline so it's a miracle she managed to make that character remotely likable.

Onto the writing, and I do actually have something positive to say here too. It's a decent concept- miserable girl makes a deal to doom the world and then tries desperately to get out of it. You could have some fun with that. The plot also shows signs of potential near the start. The deal has an opt out clause giving the FL the chance to avoid dooming the world, but the catch is that the person she loves the most in the world dies. So the FL decides to try to love Doom, who is having none of it. Again, this is an entertaining idea. A girl trying desperately to love the miserable supernatural being who's trapped her in a contract to end the world. But... that's where the positives end.

The plot makes no sense. It is bafflingly inconsistent with itself. Now this wouldn't be such an issue if the show went for a lighter, comedic route, but it gets so serious so early on that you can't help but ponder the fact that none of it makes any sense. The contract itself is needlessly complicated. I kept trying to figure out exactly what deal they'd made so when the FL sat down to write out the contract terms a few episodes in I heaved a sigh of relief. Finally, I would understand exactly what was going on. And then I read it and went, eh? It matters little anyway, because the writer throws the terms out the window later on. To avoid spoilers I will refrain from pointing out the many ways in which the main storyline was badly handled. Instead, I will act as script doctor and say this drama would have worked much better if it had stuck to the initial storyline of girl trying to love Doom for far longer. This would have been highly amusing, enabling the drama to maintain the lighter tone it so desperately needed, but it would also have allowed their relationship to develop in a more believable way instead of them going from hate to love in the space of 2 episodes. Then they could have saved the weepy, heavy bits for the end and avoided the needless plots that made no sense at all. And they should definitely avoid having a character try to stop loving people by going to a different location. That would just be stupid. And they should get rid of God. Yes, God is a character in the show. No, it doesn't work.

Then there's the sub plot- a love triangle between three supporting characters. I found this part of the show nearly unwatchable. Girl went out with boy briefly a decade ago, boy dumped girl by ghosting her, boy's best friend then kissed girl. Ten years later this bunch of idiots are all apparently still hung up on each other. Why? Who knows. I certainly didn't care. Both the male characters are terrible romantic interests. One is an overgrown man child, and the other began the relationship with a kiss that borders perilously on sexual assault and continued it with rudeness and condescension. This plot would have been vastly improved with the following twist: Ji Na says "you're both awful and I deserve better" and never thinks of either of them again. The end.

Whilst we're on the subject of the worst romance ever, Lee Soo Hyuk's performance did not help me to understand why he's a well regarded actor in Korea. For most of the show I was convinced he couldn't emote at all, but towards the end he demonstrated a wider range of emotions in one scene than he'd shown in the entirety of the rest of the show so who knows. Maybe this performance was an acting choice. Maybe he had no idea how to perform the bafflingly poor storyline he was given. Maybe the Director just wanted him to play another cold rich man who doesn't show any emotions. At no point did I ever understand Ji Na's interest in this man, nor did he convince me that the feeling was mutual.

Finally, religious themes. This show has them. It doesn't do anything interesting with them, but it's confident that you're too stupid to understand so it will explain them to you again and again and again. Just to make sure you get the message. The message is apparently that the God loves us all and that nuance is overrated when it comes to philosophical debates about free will and determinism. Sigh.

Read More

Enjoyable but fairly forgettable rom com with a side of murder

Suspicious Partner was fun. It combined a murder plot and legal drama with a classic rom com and still maintained a light tone. It clipped along at a good pace and had likeable characters. But a week after watching it I've already forgotten a lot about it, so for me this is an enjoyable but largely forgettable show. Good for when you want to switch your brain off and just have fun with an entertaining plot.

The writing was generally good, though this drama did manage to include practically every trope in existence. The writer did a great job of weaving an ongoing serial killer storyline, weekly legal cases, romance, and side plots together and creating engaging characters. I did get frustrated with some of the writing choices every now and again, especially when they lost some of the momentum in the murder sub plot near the end, but this was a generally well written show. I liked the romance to begin with, but by the time the show neared its conclusion there had been so many obstacles placed in their way that I'd slightly lost interest. The secondary romance didn't really work, largely because they wrote the second female lead to be pretty unlikeable and attempted to remedy it too late.

The performances were great, especially that of Dong Ha and Nam Ji Hyun who played the female lead. I thought Ji Hyun was charming and was really impressed by her, and Dong Ha was so good he stole the show at times. I also really enjoyed a lot of the supporting characters; Choi Tae Joon was very engaging as the second male lead, and I particularly liked the character of Ji Hae. It was a minor part, but I wanted to see more of her, which is a credit to the performance by Kim Ye Won. I know Ji Chang Wook is incredibly popular, but his performance was one of the weaker ones for me. He's good when he's doing action scenes or serious scenes, but I found him less convincing when required to act happily with someone he loved. There was a scene with his mother where he grinned inanely at her in a seeming display of affection and I found it pretty jarring, and I felt the same in some of his scenes with the female lead. He's better at playing darker emotions than happier ones and I'd have preferred his performance if it was more restrained in those lighter moments.

Overall this is an enjoyable show and I'd recommend it, just don't set your expectations too high.

Read More