MattPeddlesden
Kent, UK
Short: Production issues, a story that is just so unbelievably predictable in every way, a relationship that borders on abusive, and bits that drag on far too long. I mean, it's not *bad*, and I am happy with the ending, it worked, but, it was a drag to get here. Music was quite fun. Actors themselves were great.
Detailed:
I honestly struggled to finish this one, what kept me going was the music, the actors that I was enjoying watching, and a desire to see the relationship find its feet. But it was a struggle.
This was the version on Netflix, called My Secret Romance, 14 episodes around 45 minutes each - just to be clear.
Ok so...
Production issues - the audio is a mess. Some times you've got studio clean audio and clear actors voices. Moments later, possibly even in he same room, you've got raw echoey audio like they had to use it straight from the mics on-set. Another time you've got background music playing that's quite "busy" - but they've set the volume around the same as the actors so they're virtually drowned out. In another scene I noticed the waves were rolling backwards into the sea, clearly a bit of reversed footage, it looked really unnatural. Noneof this happens a a *lot* but it happens enough to keep it in your mind throughout.
Predictable story - I mean just about every cliche romance comedy trope is in here, and the timing of them is almost like this drama is a parody of romcom's. It's just *too* predictable :) One that comes up over, and over, and over (multiple times in one episode in at least one case!) is that deer-in-the-eyes look when she stumbles and he catches her, or she's knocked and ... he catches her, and... you get it. That doesn't make them all bad, but I just felt there were too many. Let' not forget the obligatory double love-triangle too of course!
Abusive Relationship - bit controversial perhaps, and maybe i'm just a bit oversensitive but... you know how when young lads like a girl one of their outlets is to pull their hair - which makes the girl miserable and hate the boy, that kinda thing. Well, now do that with a grown up guy who can't express himself in a sensible way, likes the girl a lot, so orders her around, is generally rude and abrupt to her, makes her feel bad a lot of the time, keeps her late at work, forces her to go out to places with him, fakes a seizure to get attention.... i mean in drama world that's one thing but let's not kid ourselves, in the real world that's a problem... and before you say "well, she could just leave" you have to remember he's her boss, and jobs are not the easiest thing to come by, and that's the rub. If this was brief, i'd have glossed over it, but it was 10 out of 14 episodes. This is not acceptable behaviour! Once he gets past it, it's all fine, but... isn't that how it is in real life too, until things go bad again? Let's just not make this acceptable. Maybe i'm just oversensitive, but I found this difficult.
Dragging on - the last 2 or 3 episodes, the last one or two in particular, really lay the flashbacks on thick.
So what did I *like*, why did I not make this my first drop?
I liked the music. I liked the actors, I thought they both worked well together and wanted to see their relationship to its pinnacle moment. I thought the relationship between the secondary leads Hyeon-Tae and Hye-Ri was nice and warm and was happy with how this progressed. I thought that the reconnection of Jin-Wook with his mother was by far the most tender and emotional moment of the story. The funny relationship between somewhat extreme characters of Assistant Kim and Je-Ni were amusing and well played.
There were good moments, the story DOES get somewhere, but it's built on a framework of flaws and issues. That said, it's also quite short - so if you're looking for that romcom fix and you've haven't seen it yet, well, if I haven't put you off so far then why not give it a shot and then please do come back and tell me if my review is unfair or wrong!
Detailed:
I honestly struggled to finish this one, what kept me going was the music, the actors that I was enjoying watching, and a desire to see the relationship find its feet. But it was a struggle.
This was the version on Netflix, called My Secret Romance, 14 episodes around 45 minutes each - just to be clear.
Ok so...
Production issues - the audio is a mess. Some times you've got studio clean audio and clear actors voices. Moments later, possibly even in he same room, you've got raw echoey audio like they had to use it straight from the mics on-set. Another time you've got background music playing that's quite "busy" - but they've set the volume around the same as the actors so they're virtually drowned out. In another scene I noticed the waves were rolling backwards into the sea, clearly a bit of reversed footage, it looked really unnatural. Noneof this happens a a *lot* but it happens enough to keep it in your mind throughout.
Predictable story - I mean just about every cliche romance comedy trope is in here, and the timing of them is almost like this drama is a parody of romcom's. It's just *too* predictable :) One that comes up over, and over, and over (multiple times in one episode in at least one case!) is that deer-in-the-eyes look when she stumbles and he catches her, or she's knocked and ... he catches her, and... you get it. That doesn't make them all bad, but I just felt there were too many. Let' not forget the obligatory double love-triangle too of course!
Abusive Relationship - bit controversial perhaps, and maybe i'm just a bit oversensitive but... you know how when young lads like a girl one of their outlets is to pull their hair - which makes the girl miserable and hate the boy, that kinda thing. Well, now do that with a grown up guy who can't express himself in a sensible way, likes the girl a lot, so orders her around, is generally rude and abrupt to her, makes her feel bad a lot of the time, keeps her late at work, forces her to go out to places with him, fakes a seizure to get attention.... i mean in drama world that's one thing but let's not kid ourselves, in the real world that's a problem... and before you say "well, she could just leave" you have to remember he's her boss, and jobs are not the easiest thing to come by, and that's the rub. If this was brief, i'd have glossed over it, but it was 10 out of 14 episodes. This is not acceptable behaviour! Once he gets past it, it's all fine, but... isn't that how it is in real life too, until things go bad again? Let's just not make this acceptable. Maybe i'm just oversensitive, but I found this difficult.
Dragging on - the last 2 or 3 episodes, the last one or two in particular, really lay the flashbacks on thick.
So what did I *like*, why did I not make this my first drop?
I liked the music. I liked the actors, I thought they both worked well together and wanted to see their relationship to its pinnacle moment. I thought the relationship between the secondary leads Hyeon-Tae and Hye-Ri was nice and warm and was happy with how this progressed. I thought that the reconnection of Jin-Wook with his mother was by far the most tender and emotional moment of the story. The funny relationship between somewhat extreme characters of Assistant Kim and Je-Ni were amusing and well played.
There were good moments, the story DOES get somewhere, but it's built on a framework of flaws and issues. That said, it's also quite short - so if you're looking for that romcom fix and you've haven't seen it yet, well, if I haven't put you off so far then why not give it a shot and then please do come back and tell me if my review is unfair or wrong!
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