The definition of mediocre
This drama is so mediocre it is impressive!The dialog- mediocre
The chemistry- mediocre
The kisses- mediocre
The acting- mediocre
The scenery- mediocre...
EVERY SINGLE DETAIL SCREAMS MEDIOCRE
With one exception Song Han Hee who played Yoo Sin Bi / Mikael was actually pretty good and impressed me in her role, she reminded me a bit of IU....
But I guess that is the exception that reinforces the rule... But there really is nothing bad about this drama but nothing good either.... it just is...
So all on all... Mediocre... did I mention it is mediocre?
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Why did I watch this? I do not know...
This drama has some good moments, and times that kept me interested, especially the historical versions of the leads who at first offered great balancce between the old and the new until the villain started getting exposed and it pretty much went down hill from there... as the drama goes a bit like this:Bam a lot going on Meeh... confusion flashback... sloow....confusion m nothing to see here cliffhanger... meeh... flasback to cliffhanger... meeh cliffhanger... flashback... cliffhanger... wtf... meh oh come on... cliffhanger... confusion , oh well... so you are going with that trope... flashbak meh... cliffhanger...flashbak confusion.
Our male lead has several interesting personalities but is mostly a look I can say a lot of words with a tone of old autoraty meets wimpey,..
our female lead has 0 self esteem and has more changes of heart than a top thorax surgeon in a transplant centre preforms...
At times I wonder if the actors smiles are acting or if they are smiles of shame... the type born out of the feeling of "do I really have to say these cringy lines"
The kisses and chemestry between the leads are as explosive as a matchbox cought in the rain.
Her friend is annoying as ***** *** ****
But the ex girlfriend has some kind of crazy charm I guess.
The villain has this horrible supposed to be creepy voice that is just ridiculous in every single way possible... But I made it all the way through this. And for that I deserve a badge, pat on the back or an intervention telling me to drop stuff more frequently.
The high score is for the past and the slightly interesting story... that could have been good if only they made the characters more interesting.. and cut out a bunch of stuff... Also these actors can do better, I have seen them do a lot better!
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Someone will probably Die in Spring
This drama is one of those that has a lot of potential but is dragged down by some kind of preachy life lesson inspirational crap and a never ending dialog that is inconsistent and just boring...It also has a lot of death, crying, screaming, agony, people taking out thir anger at the wrong person and wrong time. giving us such great scenes as man attacking doctor at the hospital screaming save my mother.... mmmm yep attaking the doctor is sure to make it easier to operate...
Our leads have some fun banter, at times lovely characters, great chemistry and sp, so, so much potential... most of the characters are okay too and the siblings are just adorable. It also offered a lot of other things that could have made me give this a 8,5 or 9, I really wanted to rate this higher but I just could not as there is just so much that makes 0 sense and to top it off episodes 20 and 21 happened, and made me just go why? what? seriously are you taking this path? is this a drama or a click bait?
Other things worth mentioning that it is impressive how C-s can turn any occupation in to heroes as well as the abilaty to compete in pretty much anything so hats off, I am indeed impressed, slightly mortified but indeed impressed.
So if you are the type who loves romance, bantering, fun family, and can handle annoying twists and some kind of carpe diem, do not loose sight of what is important and praise the mortician you may actually enjoy this.
As for me I wish I could have plucked out the good parts and ignored the other 75% of the show.
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Skip it till they make it.. or just watch the main couple
To little good to make up for the bad but oh what a romance... as this is another one of those dramas that is just so hard to rate as it offers some of dramalands greatest pebbles of romance while boring the viewers by giving away the couples screen time to boring workplace plots...9⭐️ for it's main couple who have great chemistry, fun interactions that balance the line of depth and playfulness. Watching these two flirt is a pleasure for the eye and soul. Watching them communicate and use underlining meanings is pure magic and joy... They are human, they are fun, they have issues and we the viewers get to watch them grow and so on.
7⭐️ For to the friendships, and the way they show issues with other men, offering us some good and important lessons but then ruining them by not really seeing them through and making them fall flat. No to mention how gold diggers are portrayed and the whole conversation there it feels like they wanted to say something progressive but ended up making a mess and shaming a bunch of women...
4 ⭐️ For the workplace whatever plots, not very interesting and wasting my time... between the parts that I actually did want to watch.
So what can I say watch it for the romance but feel free to skip all the stuff in between it really just takes up space and is a waist of time.
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A lot of Our´s and a whole buch of blues...
This is a drama that deals with a whole bunch of relationships, a true exploration of relations, regret, sorrow, pain... anger and so on. As they gather some of South Koreas greatest actors and actresses to deliver characters and stories far beyond how we are used to seeing them.The first 3 episodes where kind of meh though they lay some of the ground work to understanding the characters they may put people off this show which would be a shame. As episode 4 was really good, 5 great and then it goes a bit back and fourth with how good, powerful and interesting the episodes/stories are. While some of the episodes could easily score a 6 , others 10 and well more or less anything in-between. However the way this is intwined and the way things progress, the way the writer keeps us on our toes at times, as well as those really good stories ultimately made me give this a 9.
The acting was spot on, the OST may not always have suited my personal taste but it was well fitted with the story and cinematography all there to make people feel things. Well balanced, well made and yes they did make me cry once or twice towards the end.
What I liked most about this drama was how the characters are shown as real human beings, while some indeed needed to be sent to anger management and got on my nerves more than once none of the characters or relationships where made flat, no one was just whatever typecast one would think they could be. No matter gender, age, disability, and hardships the people in this village meet they are shown to be more than just that story. This is done with the use of flashbacks, scenes where they meet prejudice, monologues... We get to see their hopes, struggles, solutions, and what not all shown all in a lovely mix. At times giving the viewers the blues, other times giving us hope... Some times plain pissing us off.
While I am a sucker for romance the romance in this drama is definitely secondary, do not get me wrong the romance here is lovely and gives us a break from the heavy and painful life parts. But the stars of this show are the friendships, family ties and relationships over generations.
There are a few stories I would have wanted to see less of, other stories that left me wanting more. There where several parts of this show that did not sit right with me at all and had me questioning the writers motives. However The fact that this writer makes place for all these different stories wins over the bad.
This is not a romcom, or a feel good drama, the few comic relief parts felt pretty unnecessary. So if you are looking for inspiration or feel good this is definitely not it. But if you want some good cinematography, human nature, painful and honest dialog this is a pretty decent place to find it.
Heart-flutter medium
Pain: high
Bingabilaty: medim
Anger: medium (with high spikes here and there)
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Watered down tea...
Tea that look like cocktails brighten up this otherwise bland, and I mean really bland Altdif commercial, yes I checked there is such a brand and they have a tea house you can visit and probably try all the tea you see in this show if you ever go to Seoul.The tea house is as sterile as sterile gets feeling more like a lab than a cozy place to drink tea.
However being completely starved by lack of GL it is nice to see girls interact, and slightly awkwardly flirt in what I would not go as far as call enemies to lovers as it is more of a slightly disagreement to flirt kind of deal.
The 3 characters seem to do what they are supposed to do without much drama, as the supporting character truly is there to support the leads to get closer and does not really do much more.
There are no annoying elements here, but then again there is not much of anything here... having the highlight of the show include some foam on the lips and an indirect kiss...
It is not bad, it is not good, it truly just is a cup of water someone dipped a tea bag in for like 2 seconds leaving some colour but not much taste...
Still since it takes about 30 minutes to complete this, I will say go watch it support the little GL we get, as there is nothing wrong with it, nothing annoying and it is a pretty smooth watch. Just do not expect much of anything and all will be fine!
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Dark, Darker, Darkest...
This is the type of drama that will make you (or me) feel a lot of rage and kind of loose all hope for humanity... It is dark, bloody as... making me want to cover my eyes...The first couple of episodes had me feeling completely lost not knowing where this was going at all but as the plot unraveled, the twists became easier and easier to guess, it was still interesting well done and had me yelling what the ***** + why would you do such a thing!
It has some pretty interesting symbolism and bible references here and there, and does teach the audience a lesson or ten about all kinds of stuff that would be considered spoilers so I will let you figure those out on your own. This is not for the faint hearted but definitely worth a watch.
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Not as confusing as it seams, and brilliant just brilliant
This drama is like an extremely entangled ball of yarn that turns in to a gorgeous sweater.... Okay maybe not but it is probably as entangled as the ball of yarn yet surprisingly easy to follow.This drama sounded very confusing and to be honest it started of surprisingly light and easy to follow. Portraying loss and sorrow in the most beautiful and honest way. Showing a person trying to keep it together holding up a facade but completely broken inside of longing. Those episodes offered comic relief by introducing some very cheap jokes and annoying side characters. Luckily, they did not take away from the main story. I could have done without them but they are such a small and insignificant part of this drama that I decided not to let them affect my overall impression of it but I will warn you about them here.
As the story progresses, we are invited in to this extremely complicated suspenseful murder mystery romance braking the time space continuum. Showing how complicated time travel really is and how every single persons choices have consequences on both others and both the past and the future.
The female leads characters are extremely well written and executed, it can not have been easy to portray so different characters but the female lead did it in a way that made it easy to see who she was at any given time while allowing character growth and showing a complex range of emotions and thoughts.
The male leads characters where not as complex but showed a verity of emotions and where just the most adorable characters ever making it easy to fall in love with both of them.
The main couple is one of the sweetest and I dare to say healthiest couples I have seen in dramaland and though there is a slight love angel it is not overbearing and is portrayed in a very mature and loving way.
I like that this drama touches important issues such as sexuell harassment, stalking, bullying, homophobia, ableisem, self-hate and self-harm. All are done really well but I would have loved it if they had gotten in deeper in to these issues. I also wish for another season (rare for me seeing I hate extra seasons) where they dig deeper in to some of the side characters. There is one more thing I really want to write about but since I fear it might be a spoiler I have decided to add it as a spoiler tagged comment to this review.
I do not think this dram made me laugh but other than that I experienced a wide range of emotions, it kept me interested threw out the hole drama the twists where very unpredictable and I found myself truly curious about what would happen next as well as how on earth are they going to end this. I am not really sure about how I feel about the ending but it had one, I think I would have preferred another one but this one was okay too.
All in all definitely one of my new favorite dramas.
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80s nostalgia at its worst meets suspence and 80 nostalgia at its best
This movies starts off all colorfull as it ooses of 1980's refrenses making me wonder if the writers/stylists started this movie by just googling the 80's-1990's USA and then copy pasted whatever words they could find.As The Fast and The Furious/ Oceans goes to Seoul, the view of tiers burning to the sound of disco is actually not that bad. What is however a ceime against humanity is how they could take some of koreas most good looking men and make them look unatractive as no one and I mean no one not even Go Kyung Pyo can look good fake gold chains, 1988 or not.
While I get that the point of this show was action and nostalgia, it could have been achieved without ruining the boys images. As the sight of Yoo Ah In in gold chains is now forever loged in my brain. However Park Ju Hyun won the styling lotteri in this as she got to wear the best if the 80s and came off bad ass and cool unlike the boys who just look silly most of the time. Jokes aside this drama does have some ok stayling for the boys here and there too, as well some good car roaring vibes, not to mention raging lunatics, some beloved old characters without a pulse and beautiful use of colors and PPL that shows the evolution of popular brands combining nostalgia with modern day product placement. All light... And to be honest not that interesting/slightly annoying.
But once the first hiest is over the movie turns dark (not only the lighting) and becomes more and more bloody, nailbiting and interesting (styling gets better too), thus making pretty good use of colors, light and contrasts working perfectly together enhance whatever they are trying to enhance, and creating a situation where dark/light, betraial/loyalty, comedy/suspense, friendship/rivery, issues/nonsense... work together pretty well. And though Ill admit most of the comedy is not really my bottle of vintage coca cola the twists and my appreciation for these contrasts did end up making me go from thinking this is meeh lets just get thrue it to see what happens to thinkig oooo now this is interesting.
So in numbers:
Suspence: 8
Nostalgia: 10
Friendship: 9
Cinematography: 8,5
Emotional: 7
Annoying elaments: yes
Twists: 9
PPL:10
Styling: -10
Explosions: 8
Use of cars/trucks/skatebords: 10
So deffenetly an ok watch once you get passed the first half of second hand imberrisment and meehness
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Left me lost and wanting more
This is one of those dramas that lives up to it´s name delivering the feeling of loss to the fullest, showing a beautiful completion of loss without overcomplicating or overthinking things. A true feel lost, feel sad, feel real... Without hope and unnecessary positiveness.The drama started of a bit weak, but wheeled me in and actually did manage to touch every part of your soul with it´s imperfections, portrayals of depression, loss and relationships.
It also had me wanting to strangle the mother in law over, and over again letting me feel the aggravation as a contrast to the rest of the characters who where mostly lovable, complex, interesting , no one was perfect, no one was pure good, all made mistakes. though I may not always agree with the characters dissuasions I could clearly understand what lead them to make the choices they made. I honestly fell in love with the way this drama portrayed all these different perspectives with stories that need to be told. Ironically enough this drama feels honest in a way though it portrays a whole web of lies and secrets that have been kept for a very long time.
I can not stress enough the slightly subtle but realistic and important portrayals of domestic abuse, depression, power abuse, power relations, poverty, and all round issues that effect women, elderly and the less wealthy in modern society.
Though the mother in law brought out my violent side the way she talked about her daughter in law was extremely spot on, full of prejudice and blaming her for her situation.
The way the father portrays hid deteriorating health, while trying to stay strong is just heart wrenching. I loved the conversations he had with his daughter as well as seeing him interact with the people around him.
The husbands first love almost double life, was also really well done, sometimes I hated her some times I loved her but most importantly I could relate to her and really appreciated the way she showed the perspective of a loved one slowly watching someone disappear, saying something like: To others it may seem like he is just lying there, but there are days when he smiles more,he gets sad when something bad happens in the ward... '
I also got a full blown crush on Ryu Joon Yeols character, the way he handled the situations around him, I loved all the bits where we got to hear his voice telling us his inner thoughts and then seeing what is shown to the outside. This guy was very subtle and good at reading the room and though he was not the typical male lead. He does have a charm it was hard not to fall for him, and that beautiful smile.
There is also something special about the way this drama portrays intimacy, with extreme attention to detail.Somehow even simple situations could get really intense and had my heart race...
So to sum it up this is may not be a feel good drama, but it is beautiful, intense and is sure to make you feel things...
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The Cringe You Give Me
This is a story about a bunch of women who at first try to come off as independent, smart and in no need of a man what so ever, and the men who are there to prove them wrong.As it starts off all women can do it but quickly turns in to women can't do it... just to go back to woman should be able to do it but most men suck, society sucks and it is damn hard to be a women so while they do not want a knight they will need a soldier to do the legwork... Or something like that. Some of this was good, some of this was made so bad I felt like throwing a bunch of books at the writers and other parts where just meeh. As they do make an honest attempt to show the struggles many women (especially single mothers) face, but ends up becoming a celebration of the nuclear family... So if you are in to that stuff this drama is great.
The characters in this drama are pretty interesting, those who are supposed to be lovable are lovable those who are supposed to be despicable are indeed easy to hate. All have good moments, but most lovable characters also have moments of adolescent, nonsensical inconsistent annoyance except for our female lead and the kid who both are a lot more mature than the rest of the characters.
The main couple also share a bunch of bickering fun moments as well as good chemistry and great kisses. No dead fish in sight which is indeed lovely but can get to be too much at times.
The interactions with the kid are just so cute they will make you cringe. But the kid is indeed lovable and the father- son moments/outfits are some of the best in all of dramaland. The kid actually got to have a scar after his surgery unlike his father who has this AMAZING healing ability, not a scar in sight 5 years post surgery.
There is a great glass shattering scene, not very necessary but indeed lovely to watch.
Part of me loves the fact that two of the leads have an hereditary heart condition yet are portrayed as more than just a condition... competent, lovable... but the conversation and way things around the heart condition where handled brought out my inner anger, making me want to visit the glass shattering space shown in the drama.
So what can I say there is some good, a lot of bad and a whole lot of cringe... but the acting is decent, chemistry good and the story it self could have been better.
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It is al about the dynamics and try not to mind the details
My only 12% is a sweet story about life, family, youth and friendship as we watch these two boys who grew up together figure out what they are for each other in a not overly dramatic more evolvement kind of way...What I love about this show is the dynamics between all of the cast, the dialog the playfulness and the characters themselves as most of the characters are lovable, supportive and I guess human in a way. I will admit that there were 2 side characters that I could have done without and would have wished could have stayed out of the story, I was also really annoyed y the turn the drama took in the last 2 episodes, it was kind of predictable and the sole reason this is not a 9. The drama also deals with a bunch of issues facing young gay teens that are rarely shown this way. Including the importance of representation in media as well as the risk of being taken advantage of without letting those parts become too big of a deal and outshine the friendships, the family ties and the over all support that takes up most of the screen time in this drama.
If you are the type to pay attention to details, you will most probably be bothered by quite a lot as there are signs of the 2020s, oddly collected signs of the 90s here and there, plus a bunch of small details that just feel out of place. So you may want to accept them or laugh at them but if you are bothered by this, it may not fully be your cup of coffee/tea...
If you ara looking for some intense emotions, thrilling twists and drama you may want to skip this as it is more of a slice of life type of youth.
While I personally would have loved to see more of this drama, and follow the different characters longer, I found the two last episodes a bit rushed and as mentioned in a direction that just felt meeh to me... So i am hoping for a special episode or two or a spin off to get to see more of these characters and do reccomend it to all those who appreciate a friends to lovers slice of life drama with great dynamics...
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A sweet preview
This little short two episode series/short ilm feels like a great preview ro what could have been a decent drama, short sweet a series that offers lovely chemistry and probably one of the best kissing schenes I have seen in a long time.Yes I wish this had a bigger budget, more episodes and just more of everything but considering how short this is they did a pretty impressive job. So hats off, and if you have about 20 minutes that you are not sure what to do with, watching this would be a pretty good use of that time.
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Half of a really good cupcake
Indeed this is a cupcake for two, a little to little to satisfy you but sweet, pretty and lovely as it has lots and lots of sweet moments (literally) .Had it been a bit longer it may have gotten a 9, the characters are lovable, fun to watch and aware of both issues concerning power relations and consent. That said they do show that awareness of these issues does not always mean actually practicing the awareness... but that is a different story.This very short series, is otherwise a pretty typical office romance with the twist of a mid life crisis, not a lot of drama, some fluffy icing that does a pretty decent job showing the very sad reality that gender conventions hinder men from enjoying most of the good and sweet in the world. But I would have wanted more of everything.Definitely worth a watch, and a show i highly recommend to all rom-com lovers out there, just do not expect to get a full dose of sugar.
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Lust, Love and this pain engraved here in....
This movie depicts one of those moments in time, and it does it painfully, bruttally and beautifully. The story is that of a boy who is struggling with himself, his surroundings and living in a world that treats people like him like dirt. Can he dare to love? Will the one he loves love him back? If So will ha dare to love him back in a world where men who love men are beaten, arrested and not oney treated like***** but also taught that they will go to hell.The pain in this movie is so powerfully conveyed that it went straight to my gut:
As this boy finds himself in so much pain that he practically beggs the "father" to be sent to hell:
"Don't all homosexuals deserve to go to hell? Maybe more people would understand me in hell"
These lines are accompanied by beautiful cinematography, well thought of accompaniment music and a variety of shots of happiness, youth, pain, insanity, hope, violence, pain, more pain. As well as a very clear depiction of the difference between Lust and Love as well as people crossing, no crushing other peoples boundaries.
The intense way of showing this boys struggles is very well made but I must warn you that some of the scenes here do cross the line between acceptable longing/loss of control and what should be seen as non consensual behaviour/assult, actually this movie has what one could understand as several scenes with different shades of sexual assult . So beware!
As you may guess this movie will probably make you feel something, it will not make you feel good, or have your heart fluttering but it will probably make you feel something...
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