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For idol dramas lasting longer than 3 hrs ... seek immediate medical help.
A Familiar Stranger is a historical costume drama revolving around 2 FLs and 2 MLs. One of the pair is the good couple, the other, not so much. And due to some ancient Chinese face swapping magic, the identities get all twisted for the FLs, and we get a romance-thriller type of story as audience try to figure out what's the goal, motivation, and the real identities behind all this plotting. Along the way, we get a story packed with plenty of dramatic moments, skinships, and heady tropes orchestrated without the filler.
**Full disclosure: this was my first mini-drama and one of the few idol costume romance shows that I've attempted. Idol romance is not an offering that I can normally stomach, but I pulled the trigger because of its short length‒18 x 10min episodes for 3 hours of total runtime. Compared to the standard bloated 40 episode 45 minute ordeal, this was doing penitence at 90% off.
Despite seeing decent ratings and good reviews, I was not expecting much. I was already wary of big budget idol dramas, and was prepared for worse given the nature of mini-dramas‒tiny budget, hastily shot, and inexperienced actors. To my surprise, this show actually packed enough story content to rival full length dramas and offered decent production quality and acting to match. That's not to say the story is a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination. But for its intended audience and aim, A Familiar Stranger offered plenty of romantic moments, heady tropes, a lively plot, and plenty of eye-candy. It also answered an important scientific question that had been puzzling me‒how much idol romance drama can I stomach before the vomit just ejects out of me? Turns out, I'm definitely strong enough to go 180 minutes. And at 10% runtime, it also answered an important corollary, which is that 80-90% of the story in idol dramas are mostly brainless fodder and fluff.
Now if you are into the fluff and like the full-length ones, more power to you. Different strokes for different folks. But for those who dread the fillers, slow-pacing, and length of cdramas, these quality mini-dramas may just be your thing. And as an added bonus, these often feature a lot more chemistry, passionate scenes, and skinship than the standard dramas that face tougher censorship scrutiny.
As an aside, the business aspect of this show was one of the most interesting aspects. By having the 2 FLs face swap with each other, the script allowed both to showcase their acting chops for the 2 most common roles in cdrama‒the innocent girl and the evil girl.
**Notes and Musings**
1) ML has the most gossipy and useless military advisor.
2) The fearsome ML general also has the most porous mansion security, bad guys and unwelcomed guests roam around undetected, while the maids keep catching ML/FL at the most inconvenient moments.
3) A lot more skinship and intimate scenes compared to the usual dramas, must be laxer censorship around mini-dramas.
**Category Ratings**
Overall - 7 (+.5 MDL inflation)
Plot - 7.5
Theme/Message/Impact - 7
Acting - 7.5 The leads did a decent job for the purpose of the show
Visuals/Production - 8 looks pretty good for the budget
Audio/Music - 7.5 Sound gets muted occasionally for the YouTube version
Rewatch - 7
Accessibility - 8 Easy to understand plot and tropes
Subtitle - 8.5 Surprisingly polished subs that delivered the meaning and dialog quite well. Even the OST lyrics had decent translations.
**Full disclosure: this was my first mini-drama and one of the few idol costume romance shows that I've attempted. Idol romance is not an offering that I can normally stomach, but I pulled the trigger because of its short length‒18 x 10min episodes for 3 hours of total runtime. Compared to the standard bloated 40 episode 45 minute ordeal, this was doing penitence at 90% off.
Despite seeing decent ratings and good reviews, I was not expecting much. I was already wary of big budget idol dramas, and was prepared for worse given the nature of mini-dramas‒tiny budget, hastily shot, and inexperienced actors. To my surprise, this show actually packed enough story content to rival full length dramas and offered decent production quality and acting to match. That's not to say the story is a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination. But for its intended audience and aim, A Familiar Stranger offered plenty of romantic moments, heady tropes, a lively plot, and plenty of eye-candy. It also answered an important scientific question that had been puzzling me‒how much idol romance drama can I stomach before the vomit just ejects out of me? Turns out, I'm definitely strong enough to go 180 minutes. And at 10% runtime, it also answered an important corollary, which is that 80-90% of the story in idol dramas are mostly brainless fodder and fluff.
Now if you are into the fluff and like the full-length ones, more power to you. Different strokes for different folks. But for those who dread the fillers, slow-pacing, and length of cdramas, these quality mini-dramas may just be your thing. And as an added bonus, these often feature a lot more chemistry, passionate scenes, and skinship than the standard dramas that face tougher censorship scrutiny.
As an aside, the business aspect of this show was one of the most interesting aspects. By having the 2 FLs face swap with each other, the script allowed both to showcase their acting chops for the 2 most common roles in cdrama‒the innocent girl and the evil girl.
**Notes and Musings**
1) ML has the most gossipy and useless military advisor.
2) The fearsome ML general also has the most porous mansion security, bad guys and unwelcomed guests roam around undetected, while the maids keep catching ML/FL at the most inconvenient moments.
3) A lot more skinship and intimate scenes compared to the usual dramas, must be laxer censorship around mini-dramas.
**Category Ratings**
Overall - 7 (+.5 MDL inflation)
Plot - 7.5
Theme/Message/Impact - 7
Acting - 7.5 The leads did a decent job for the purpose of the show
Visuals/Production - 8 looks pretty good for the budget
Audio/Music - 7.5 Sound gets muted occasionally for the YouTube version
Rewatch - 7
Accessibility - 8 Easy to understand plot and tropes
Subtitle - 8.5 Surprisingly polished subs that delivered the meaning and dialog quite well. Even the OST lyrics had decent translations.
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