Amazing Villain Who Stole The Show

This is already my second review titled "Amazing Villain Who Stole The Show" and it's even more true in this case. I was not a fan of this show, I'll be upfront about it. Let's break down some pros and cons, shall we?

PRO
- Gwi was an amazing villain and Lee Soo Hyuk stole the f*cking show with him. His scenes are so consistently beautiful to look at and his arc is so good that I was wondering sometimes if the whole show was written around him.
- I love the idea of a vampire story set in Joseon. I love vampires, I'm onboard with everything having to do with vampires.
- Quite enjoyable side characters. And there's a lot of them. And they all give decent performances. Special shout out to my girl Soo Hyang (played by Jang Hee Jin), and Lee Yoon (played by Changmin, who did a surprisingly solid job).
- I liked how this show looked overall. Great costumes, lots of night time scenes (which I like) and, again, Gwi looks great in every scene he's in. I know I'm repeating myself but I cannot overstate to you how sexy Lee Soo Hyuk is in this drama. There's a scene where he's splattered in blood, staring sadly into the middle distance, if you need anymore convincing to do what I did and skip through everything else and just watch his parts.

CON
- If it hadn't been for Gwi I would not have been able to finish this show. I couldn't have done this without him. And for that I'll be forever grateful to my president, vampire overlord Gwi.
- Everyone spoke incredibly slow and the shots lingered a little too long in almost every scene. To fill screentime I presume?? It was weird and awkward.
- The main couple was completely miscast, had no chemistry and were outshone by about every side character. I don't think Lee Yoo Bi was very good in this, I felt like she was phoning it in, but I've never seen her in anything else, so I don't know whether she's a more competent actor usually. Lee Joon Ki was better, but not by much. But at least he gave a decent performance. You could tell he was trying but no trying in the world would lead to these two people having any kind of chemistry and I was left wondering what the casting director was thinking putting these two together. It didn't help that Lee Joon Ki looks like he's 40 and Lee Yoo Bi looks like she could 15 and that he was constantly scolding her and ordering her around like your mom's new boyfriend drunk on power.
- The romance was terrible. I hated seeing the two leads together. And yes, this point is different from the last because this time I'm talking about the writing. By the end Lee Yoo Bi's character had barely any relevance and up until that point all they had been in together were incredibly clichéd romance scenes which you've seen a hundred times in other dramas.
- By the end it was so convoluted and I was wondering whether the screenwriters had any idea where they were going anymore. They seemed to have about four post-it notes with vague scene ideas in front of them that they kept cycling through several times per episode: "Someone gets hurt and has to be nursed back to health in a romantic way", "Gwi looking sexy and menacing (let's put effort into this guys!!)", "someone's scheming inside the palace", "the peasants are dissatisfied" and "side characters explaining what's going on and how everybody feels about that." It got very boring very quickly.

Conclusion: Watch this if you're into the vampire master brand of evil sexiness and skip everything else.

But that's just my two cents.

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I got pretty far into this before I dropped it. Just a head's up.

Here are my observations along the way:

PRO
- This was the first drama with Nam Joo Hyuk in it that I ever watched, and I have to admit that I didn't expect much, but he was really great it it. He really shone as an actor, very enjoyable performance. I'll be watching more of his stuff.
- The main couple had really good chemistry. In a lot of kdramas the main couple often feels stiff and distant around each other (mainly bc skinship and kissing shown on romcom kdramas is very limited for reasons I don't quite understand. Maybe it's culturally, and Korean couples really don't touch as much as I'm used to? I genuinely don't know.) But those two felt very close and comfortable with each other and they touch each other in more ways than just the occassional hand-holding or the typical parrallel parking hugging routine. I liked that.
- I quite enjoyed the subject matter. Bok Joo struggling between her love for weightlifting and the damper that this interest puts on her dating life (or life in general) was believable and interesting.
- I really liked Bok Joo's friends and the relationship that these three have with each other.
- Finally a main character who doesn't get bullied and stands up for herself and other people!! Yay!!

CON:
- I just hate when movie or shows try to sell me some obviously gorgeous woman as ugly or otherwise undesirable. In this case they put an incredibly pretty, naturally very thin actress in oversized clothes and gave her an unflattering haircut and told me to believe that that's not still a very thin, very attractive woman?
- I was honestly kinda bored after the main couple got together. I felt like their arc (and thus the story) was kinda done after that. They tried to introduce some new conflict with the mother showing back up, but it felt contrived to me and that's where I ended up dropping the show.

Overall very cute, very enjoyable show that would benefit from being a few episodes shorter.

And that's my two cents!

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Amazing Family and Career Drama

Upfront: I do not understand why this doesn't have a higher rating... I stayed up until 7am to finish this! Let me give you the rundown as to why:

PRO
- This was the first kdrama I've watched (admittedly, I haven't watched a ton) where the story and the characters felt emotionally and psychologically realistic. It's amazingly written and acted and there was no drama for the sake of drama, everything happens for good reasons and all the characters react to problems in individual and believable ways. They felt like real people, not like cardboard cutouts, which is always something I'm looking for in a drama.
- Park Bogum is an amazing actor and he does a fantastic job. Period.
- All the family relationships (Hyejung's, Jeongha's and Haehyo's) were really interesting and realistic. I could especially relate to Hyejung's situation and I cried several times seeing his sweet relationship with his grandpa. I was so happy that most of their family difficulties could be put to rest by the end. It felt really earned, too.
- There were several amazing quotes in this and I might rewatch this drama just to write them down.
- I'm curious about the realities of the acting/modelling life so I found all the behind the scenes stuff really cool. I also liked how seemlessly they wove the scenes from the movies/dramas they shot into this drama. It's a bit overused, but I like this joke where you watch some really intense action scene and then someone yells "cut!" and you realize that action scene was just that: a scene, and in reality everybody is at a movie set. They did that a few times. On the same note, I liked that they actually put in the effort to shoot some real scenes for movies and shows that the characters are in and used that to further the story instead of going the cheap route and omitting those things. (My favorite of those being the first movie that Hyejung is in, where he gets to beat up Park Doha. He had such a menacing aura, I would've watched the whole movie but alas.)

Now for the stuff I didn't enjoy 100%, but keep in mind these were minor things (tho I write a lot about them, but that's down to me being able to talk forever about very small things that annoy me, so take that as you will).

CON
- They did my boy Haehyo so dirty. That guy was really nothing but soft and nice and supportive and encouraging and he got jackshit for that. It's not like he didn't have a character arc, bc there was definitely something satisfying about his development. I just felt like he kinda got the short end of the stick in the end. Not even mentioning Jeongha... He was so in love with her and she was so damn rude to him all the time... It got kinda infuriating towards the end and after a cople times I really started wondering why he even liked her.
- Speaking of which: I wasn't super happy with Jeongha. Park Sodam is incredibly cute and pretty (I was in love with her hair in this drama btw), and obviously a great actress, but for me she gave too much of a dead-pan performance. I got almost nothing from her, which stood out because both both Park Bogum and Byeon Wooseok gave really emotional performances (and that's not even mentioning the amazing supporting actors like Park Sooyung who plays Hyejung's dad and Han Jinhee who plays Hyejung's grandpa). I saw her in a state of normalcy, frustration, or happiness. Those were all the emotions I could identify. It's not that her portrayal of the character wasn't realistic, bc Jeonha definitely felt like a real person, it's just that the way she played the character was a bit unlikable bc of the lack of emotions. For example, when she delivered her breakup speech, it felt like a kindergarten teacher explaining something to her students instead of a girlfriend making an incredibly emotionally difficult decision and trying to tell her boyfriend about it.
- Like so many others I also didn't really understand why Jeongha broke up with Hyejung in the end. I empathised with the crushing weight of his immense popularity, I totally understand how that would put a relationship through the ringer, but that wasn't mentioned at all when she broke up with him. So why did she do it? I sure couldn't tell you.

In conclusion: The family drama aspects, career aspects and friendship aspects of this drama are amazing and some of the best written and acted stuff I've ever seen. The romance on the other hand... Gave me very little. You should still watch it for the other stuff.

But that's just my two cents.

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Amazing Villain Who Stole The Show

I quite enjoyed this, and it was even the best drama I've seen so far in SOME aspects. So let's dissect all my feelings I have about this:

PRO
- Ji Chan Wook is very charming and I loved looking at his face and listening to his voice. When he was wearing glasses and had his hair styled out of his face he was almost too good-looking and I kinda lost focus of what's going on. Should that be a con...?
- The villain in this was AMAZING. To me the actor gave the best performance, but also the script was just very solid. Super good writing throughout the whole crime/investigation portion of the show. Very solid arc for the villain as well.
- All the character relationships come to really satisfying conclusions. I was quite happy with where everybody ended up, especially in relation to each other.
- Very likable side characters. By the end I loved all of them, even the ones who were a little hard to digest in the beginning.

CON
- Bong Hui's personality swayed quite a lot from my initial impression of the character. Just the fact that she talks about s*x in a kdrama made me wanna see more of her. A female lead acknowleding that s*x exists?!!? Unbelievable. (Do I even have to censor s*x? I don't know what the guidelines are and don't want my review to get taken down, so, sorry if this looks silly to you.) Unfortunately she kinda turns into your standard fare female lead after a few episodes. Bubbly, easily upset, a bit childish and naive when it comes to romance. My main complain was kinda towards the end of the drama when Bong Hui and Ji Uk have more time to spend together and go on dates and such. Her body language around Ji Uk makes her seem very uncomfortable. I almost can't believe this was intentional. She leans away when he leans in, she takes a step back when he comes closer, she makes a really frightened face when he makes advances towards her... That's not the behavior of someone who's attracted to that person and it detracted from the believability of their relationship. Their steamy kiss that led to s*x also came kinda out of nowhere to me? They spend the whole day barely holding hands. What made them so h*rny??
Anyway, this might seem nitpicky, but this is really something I look for in romcoms, so, yeah, I'm gonna be nitpicky about it. I don't need steamy scenes or anything, but at least make me believe these people are attracted to each other for real for real.

In conclusion: Amazing villain who stole the show for me. I'm not a rewatcher, but I might even rewatch this eventually...

And that concludes my two cents.

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Couldn't Get Past Episode 2

I'll be frank: I watched this because I love looking at Lee Soo Hyuk. Unfortunately I didn't get very far despite him looking divine. Let's dissect some pros and cons.

PRO
- I really liked the female lead. I liked how she stood up to her cheating fiancé and her co-worker. The actress has a very soft look which I really liked as well.
- Hot ex fiancé.
- Lee Soo Hyuk does look as great as ever in this.
- I didn't hate the premise at all. I've seen that people found it icky that the female lead is basically gonna fall in love with her mom's boyfriend/husband, but they didn't even know each other when the mom was still alive and never had any kind of stepchild/step-parent relationship, so I don't care. On top of that the male lead is younger than the female lead? I think? It's true for the actors but it's unclear in regards to the characters but the FL definitely looks older than the ML.

CON
- My main problem with this drama really was the male lead. The writing made him seem like an asshole (I'm sure it gets better, but so far I found the guy's behavior nothing but infuriating), the styling made him look quite unattractive, and unfortunately Kim Young Kwang's performance didn't add an ounce of charme. I was just so incredibly turned off by this guy and had no interest seeing him fall in love, especially with two extremely hot actors playing more likable characters RIGHT THERE. (And yes, I found the cheating ex more likable than the male lead. Let that sink in. Seriously, why did they make Hong Na Ri's ex so hot? There was no reason other than hurting me, I'm convinced.) So yeah, in the two short episodes I watched, nothing endeared me to the male lead, on the contrary, I grew more and more annoyed with every scene he was in.

And that's the end of that.

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I dropped this after an episode or two, so this is less of a review and more of a "why I dropped this" type of commentary.

Right off the bat his drama fell into several of my all time most disliked tropes, which is the main reason I didn't bother continuing eventhough I'm really interested in topics of plastic surgery and beauty and I was curious to see Cha Eun Woo act.
I'll number this for your convenience:

1) First of all, the main character was painfully shy and insecure. She could barely talk to her classmates, eventhough they were nothing but encouraging and appreciative of her (so far at least). That's because the main character, Kang Mirae, had been bullied throughout middle and high school because of her looks. So far so good, that makes sense. What doesn't make sense was that she, after a bit of initial hesitation has no problem putting on a dance show in front of her newly minted peers during uni orientation? She was selected as the representative of her group in a talent show and (after a pep talk from her best friend over the phone) just went up there and bodied that assignment. Like??? Just a second ago she could barely look the others in her group in the face. This dance sequence came so out of nowhere for me that I thought it was a dream sequence at first, á la "if I was brave enough this is how I'd impress them..." but it wasn't. It actually happened and then she went back to being shy and insecure. Very jarring.

2) Secondly, there was a lot of talk about beauty and judginess surrounding beauty, esp since Kang Mirae (the MC) has had plastic surgery herself between finishing high school and starting university. She is obsessed with looks and analyzes other women's faces and gives them grades in her head. I thought this was really interesting, it makes a lot of sense for her character, since she is very insecure. What I thought was really over the top was that all her new peers at uni seemed to be just as obsessed with beauty as her. I felt like every second sentence in this show was either "You're so pretty!" or "I'm not pretty enough." or "Have you seen that pretty girl over there?" It just was a bit much for me. I know that SK is a bit more straight forward about expressing their opinion on other ppl's looks, but to me it felt excessive and I was very quickly annoyed by this.

3) Bullying. That's a personal thing, but I just don't really like seeing people get bullied. I know it's a common thing for children and teens to experience and there's nothing wrong with depicting that experience in fiction. I personally just don't like seeing it, bc the bullying is always the same and the characters always react in the same way to it. Directors/writers rarely use this plot point to tell anything unique or interesting. It was the same here.

That's it!

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For ppl who love gossip girl and riverdale probably not bad

I didn't get super far into it before I dropped this. (I am very picky tho, and drop a lot of things quickly, so take that as you will.)

Here are some of my observations along the way.

Pro:
- I really liked Moon Gayoung and Joy in this.
- I liked how much of a b*tch Suji was, but not only in a bad way. She stood up for her friends and for classmates. There was an altruism to he bitchiness. I liked it.
- I love the source material. I'm a big fan of Dangerous Liasons (the book) and I'm always happy to see new adaptations of it.

Con:
- After the fifth rich kid main character had a fight with their parents I thought it really was a bit much. Not a single one of them has a decent parent? Come on... Also, the reasons for which Suji hates her mother are unclear to me (maybe they're gonna be explained later on, but since for the others reasons were given immediately, I wasn't betting on it.)
- What happened between Suji and the art teacher was not quite clear to me. I seemed like he reciprocated her feelings (yikes) but then was found out and fired? That's how that scene read to me. But in that case I don't understand why Suji held a grudge against him for four years to the point where she wanted to humiliate him at the graduation ceremony...
- Taehee's fight with her mother was unrealistic to me. She seemed like a nice girl, so for her to confront her mother and kick her out of her life when she was clearly trying to make amends because her mother didn't much call when Taehee and her dad lived in Europe? It just felt psychologically unrealistic to me since Taehee wasn't otherwise shown as confrontational and also, that's just not how most children behave towards distant (but obviously well-meaning) parents. It felt like drama for the sake of drama.
- The mother who's a model seemed to have extremely low self-esteem for what she is. She looked really good, I didn't have a problem believing she was actually a model bc of that but instead to me the problem was her body language. She was slouching all the time, she cried in public, she was a doormat when others talked down to her. I just felt a supermodel (who's prob been in the industry for over 20 years at that point) would know better. But instead she was standing in front of a 20 year old, twiddling her thumbs, looking down at her own feet, slouching, while whining to him how her daughter doesn't love her. Just very weird acting choice. Or maybe directorial vision? I don't know.
- Speaking of the model mama: All the age gap relationships (and non-relationships) made me a little uncomfy. Especially since so far into the story nobody even acknowledged that they're weird.

Neutral:
- It felt kinda steamy for a kdrama, which in turn made it feel kinda like an american show like gossip girl or riverdale (hence the comparison in the title). I don't think this is neither good nor bad so I gave it it's own category :)

Overall I did enjoy this show, but the drama felt too unrealistic and forced for me to continue. Would love to see Suji take revenge on even more people tho, so who knows, I might actually pick it up again at some point.

And that's my two cents!

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