1
SKITC
Probably within reach of a coffee
What if there were Drama Bars like Sports Bars but for drama fans?
There may not be a large cross section of rabid professional sports fans and diehard Korean drama fans so this metaphor may not work. But for those that haven’t, imagine being in a sports bar with the vast array of screens, each showing different sporting events. This one has baseball. That one has MMA. Over there is basketball. And viewers are trying to assimilate all of them at once. All of them have a common element of athletic competition but there’s different objectives and strategies and rules.
Watching “Kiss Sixth Sense” is somewhat like this somewhat disorienting, many-things-happening-at-once where there’s some commonality but no synchronicity.
The only interpretation of how and why the pieces of “Kiss Sixth Sense” don’t sync up is that each character and actor seem to be acting in a different genre of drama. It’s like if multiple users across the planet on Tik Tok dueted the same script but each had a unique take and approach and someone spliced them all together into twelve episodes of hour long Korean drama television. It sounds like a viable plan for a social media account, but how did it go for this program? Let’s break it down by cast member and character…
Hwang Bo Ra as Um Ji: Genre - slapstick comedy. Does it work? Intermittently, as the character is a minor character and there are occasions where the show has gone into a more manic comic mode for a few moments. When it works, however, it only works in the immediate context of that particular scene and not within the show in general.
Kim Ga Eun as Ha Woo - office mockumentary. Does it work? For a few episodes, it’s passable. She’s a little bit of a wild card. But the interesting elements of the character are written out less than halfway through the run and the production staff seemed to realize they didn’t have any plausible direction for the character so she appears less and less. It was probably the right call but a better call would have been to have a compelling direction for the whole subplot to go.
Tae In Ho as Seung Tak - medical dramedy. He’s a part comic, part stock drama character. Does it work? No. The actor can’t muster even mediocre comedy skills and the dramatic parts are so poorly written, which might work for his skills, he doesn’t have even a shred of credible material. As referenced with Ha Woo, storyline was unnecessary and reeks of “We need to fill time and just put anything in there that can eat up 6-8 minutes per episode. We’re desperate. Anything. ANYTHING.”
Lee Joo Yeon as Ji Young - makjang parody. Frankly, this character was so thinly sketched out, that it’s a struggle to identify any characteristic other than coming from a family with money. She’s barely on screen enough to evaluate if it works or not.
Kim Ji Suk as Pil Yo - coming of age melodrama. Does it work? Not even a little and this flop of a performance is almost entirely the fault of the casting office. Kim Ji Suk is a talented actor but he’s not blessed with enormous range. This character is completely outside where his strengths lie. Need a wild and crazy and frenetic and heart on his sleeve kind of guy? Kim Ji Suk will kill that role. But Pil Yo is wistful and emotionally lost and needy and none of these traits are in Kim Ji Suk’s wheelhouse.
Seo Ji Hye as Ye Sul - romantic comedy. This is the singular pairing of cast member and character that works. Seo Ji Hye is dynamite at comedy and while Ye Sul has scenes where she’s serious and dramatic, it’s nothing that Seo Ji Hye can’t handle.With the right context around Ye Sul, she’d be a fine centerpiece of a terrifically entertaining production. Even if there was simply a good scene partner opposite her on a regular basis, “Kiss Sixth Sense” would at least be a worthwhile investment of leisure time. However…
Yoon Kye Sang as Min Hoo - supernatural crime thriller. Does it work? OMG not even close. The character is meant to be a prickly and rough exterior but kind softie on the inside roguish type. The portrayal needs an actor to be able to convincingly transition from the tough boss to kind mentor to brilliant business mind to caring boyfriend. Yoon Kye Sang delivers every line like each word is a railroad spike and he’s swinging a 20 pound sledgehammer looking to bury it in a single strike. Nuance? More like nuclear.
As for other issues, the sound has some glaring editing problems. There’s but a shred of a plot which is to put Min Hoo and Ye Sul together. Once it happens, there’s nowhere to go. The storytelling within each episode is barely stitched together and, over the course of twelve episodes, is completely incoherent. Characters that seem important in early episodes vanish entirely. Or they continue but are entirely different individuals and there’s no explanation why they’ve changed.
It’s getting close to a year since Disney+ ventured into broadcasting Korean dramas. In that time, they’ve distributed only one show (“Snowdrop”) on a wide international basis. As for the quality of their other shows, it’s been far more “miss” than “hit”. This is not to say that the Big Mouse should bail on the genre, but at this point, there’s scant evidence that they had any idea how to approach this market and nothing to indicate that they’ve learned anything since they entered.
Not recommended. But should someone pull the trigger on a Drama Bar so it possible to watch eight different dramas at once? That sounds totes awesome.
Watching “Kiss Sixth Sense” is somewhat like this somewhat disorienting, many-things-happening-at-once where there’s some commonality but no synchronicity.
The only interpretation of how and why the pieces of “Kiss Sixth Sense” don’t sync up is that each character and actor seem to be acting in a different genre of drama. It’s like if multiple users across the planet on Tik Tok dueted the same script but each had a unique take and approach and someone spliced them all together into twelve episodes of hour long Korean drama television. It sounds like a viable plan for a social media account, but how did it go for this program? Let’s break it down by cast member and character…
Hwang Bo Ra as Um Ji: Genre - slapstick comedy. Does it work? Intermittently, as the character is a minor character and there are occasions where the show has gone into a more manic comic mode for a few moments. When it works, however, it only works in the immediate context of that particular scene and not within the show in general.
Kim Ga Eun as Ha Woo - office mockumentary. Does it work? For a few episodes, it’s passable. She’s a little bit of a wild card. But the interesting elements of the character are written out less than halfway through the run and the production staff seemed to realize they didn’t have any plausible direction for the character so she appears less and less. It was probably the right call but a better call would have been to have a compelling direction for the whole subplot to go.
Tae In Ho as Seung Tak - medical dramedy. He’s a part comic, part stock drama character. Does it work? No. The actor can’t muster even mediocre comedy skills and the dramatic parts are so poorly written, which might work for his skills, he doesn’t have even a shred of credible material. As referenced with Ha Woo, storyline was unnecessary and reeks of “We need to fill time and just put anything in there that can eat up 6-8 minutes per episode. We’re desperate. Anything. ANYTHING.”
Lee Joo Yeon as Ji Young - makjang parody. Frankly, this character was so thinly sketched out, that it’s a struggle to identify any characteristic other than coming from a family with money. She’s barely on screen enough to evaluate if it works or not.
Kim Ji Suk as Pil Yo - coming of age melodrama. Does it work? Not even a little and this flop of a performance is almost entirely the fault of the casting office. Kim Ji Suk is a talented actor but he’s not blessed with enormous range. This character is completely outside where his strengths lie. Need a wild and crazy and frenetic and heart on his sleeve kind of guy? Kim Ji Suk will kill that role. But Pil Yo is wistful and emotionally lost and needy and none of these traits are in Kim Ji Suk’s wheelhouse.
Seo Ji Hye as Ye Sul - romantic comedy. This is the singular pairing of cast member and character that works. Seo Ji Hye is dynamite at comedy and while Ye Sul has scenes where she’s serious and dramatic, it’s nothing that Seo Ji Hye can’t handle.With the right context around Ye Sul, she’d be a fine centerpiece of a terrifically entertaining production. Even if there was simply a good scene partner opposite her on a regular basis, “Kiss Sixth Sense” would at least be a worthwhile investment of leisure time. However…
Yoon Kye Sang as Min Hoo - supernatural crime thriller. Does it work? OMG not even close. The character is meant to be a prickly and rough exterior but kind softie on the inside roguish type. The portrayal needs an actor to be able to convincingly transition from the tough boss to kind mentor to brilliant business mind to caring boyfriend. Yoon Kye Sang delivers every line like each word is a railroad spike and he’s swinging a 20 pound sledgehammer looking to bury it in a single strike. Nuance? More like nuclear.
As for other issues, the sound has some glaring editing problems. There’s but a shred of a plot which is to put Min Hoo and Ye Sul together. Once it happens, there’s nowhere to go. The storytelling within each episode is barely stitched together and, over the course of twelve episodes, is completely incoherent. Characters that seem important in early episodes vanish entirely. Or they continue but are entirely different individuals and there’s no explanation why they’ve changed.
It’s getting close to a year since Disney+ ventured into broadcasting Korean dramas. In that time, they’ve distributed only one show (“Snowdrop”) on a wide international basis. As for the quality of their other shows, it’s been far more “miss” than “hit”. This is not to say that the Big Mouse should bail on the genre, but at this point, there’s scant evidence that they had any idea how to approach this market and nothing to indicate that they’ve learned anything since they entered.
Not recommended. But should someone pull the trigger on a Drama Bar so it possible to watch eight different dramas at once? That sounds totes awesome.
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