amusedbush
This review may contain spoilers
Recipe For Disappointment: 1x Good OST, 1x Attractive People, 1x Bad Editing, 1x Bad Acting
I. The Ugly
You know it's bad when I start with the ugly. The ending is ugly because (a) no happy ending and (b) did they run out of memory card space? At least let the FL bawl over the ML's body for a bit. Maybe this was the production team's way of baiting for another season, since previous series with good potential failed to get signed for one. There were lavish uses of dog-blood tropes but for what purpose, I do not know because I do not know what were they cooking.
II. The Bad
Where do I start? This series had all the ingredients for a hit, but it's like a 5-year-old was given top-quality ingredients to cook in their little battery-operated play kitchen--the dish served was barely warm, over-flavouring in some parts, and under-flavouring in others.
Again, I'm no stranger to angsty dog-blood melodrama and in fact, I will eat bowls of it. This series dropped steaming piles of it in random places (episode 1 opens with the FL witnessing her father dying/ dead at the ML's feet before the ML carries her off, episode 2 shows how the ML protects the side chick because she supposedly save him and how the FL is betrayed by her father's trusted friend, episode 3 ends with a 'cliffhanger' of the ML potentially sexually assaulting the FL under the influence of drugged incense, etc., etc.). The problem was the lack of commitment to it: Unlike Circle of Love (my go-to platinum-standard angsty dog-blood melodrama), the scenes lacked the hate and passion. I'm not sure if it is due to the editing or acting. Instead of letting the angst build, there were interspersed placid scenes. Even the build up to the ending, where the ML is supposedly not as irredeemable as he appears or how the villainess is more iniquitous than a cockroach that refuses to die, was lacklustre and lacked conviction.
Coming to conviction, I'm more convinced of the chemistry between the ML and the side chick than I was of the ML and FL's. Their acting with each other was atrocious. It was as if they both recognised that the other was an objectively attractive person and... that's it. No sparks. No magnetic force. Not even during the skin-ship scenes. Not even a fart of a fizz.
All 4 of them (CZJ as the ML, JYYR as the FL, YZM as the 2ML, CHY as the 2FL) delivered their lines with as minimal emotion as they could get away with. It was like I had four slices of wild Alaskan salmon flopping around on my lukewarm countertop. The production team tried to use many tropes that only work with full-length dramas because the actors had built chemistry with each other (even between rivals) and background stories. Throwing these cliches out to an underdeveloped story is like burying your tuna poke bowl under sesame seeds when the ahi tuna is missing.
III. The Good
Well, they're good-looking. CZJ reminds me of Aarif Rahman, and he was paid more to bare his chest than he was to act. I'm glad to see that YZM finally has a non-villainous role (he's been so stereotyped, I kept expecting him to do something evil).
The theme songs, costumes, and set were top notch, worthy of a full-length drama. I'm quite amazed at the quality of the theme songs actually. Maybe if they'd taken half the fees for the songs and paid the actors or editing team more, we'd have a much better drama to watch.
IV. Conclusion
Watch if you like sexy skin and chopped up slices of angsty dog-blood melodrama scenes that are so incongruous, fan edits can take those out and nobody would realise the dish is missing anything.
You know it's bad when I start with the ugly. The ending is ugly because (a) no happy ending and (b) did they run out of memory card space? At least let the FL bawl over the ML's body for a bit. Maybe this was the production team's way of baiting for another season, since previous series with good potential failed to get signed for one. There were lavish uses of dog-blood tropes but for what purpose, I do not know because I do not know what were they cooking.
II. The Bad
Where do I start? This series had all the ingredients for a hit, but it's like a 5-year-old was given top-quality ingredients to cook in their little battery-operated play kitchen--the dish served was barely warm, over-flavouring in some parts, and under-flavouring in others.
Again, I'm no stranger to angsty dog-blood melodrama and in fact, I will eat bowls of it. This series dropped steaming piles of it in random places (episode 1 opens with the FL witnessing her father dying/ dead at the ML's feet before the ML carries her off, episode 2 shows how the ML protects the side chick because she supposedly save him and how the FL is betrayed by her father's trusted friend, episode 3 ends with a 'cliffhanger' of the ML potentially sexually assaulting the FL under the influence of drugged incense, etc., etc.). The problem was the lack of commitment to it: Unlike Circle of Love (my go-to platinum-standard angsty dog-blood melodrama), the scenes lacked the hate and passion. I'm not sure if it is due to the editing or acting. Instead of letting the angst build, there were interspersed placid scenes. Even the build up to the ending, where the ML is supposedly not as irredeemable as he appears or how the villainess is more iniquitous than a cockroach that refuses to die, was lacklustre and lacked conviction.
Coming to conviction, I'm more convinced of the chemistry between the ML and the side chick than I was of the ML and FL's. Their acting with each other was atrocious. It was as if they both recognised that the other was an objectively attractive person and... that's it. No sparks. No magnetic force. Not even during the skin-ship scenes. Not even a fart of a fizz.
All 4 of them (CZJ as the ML, JYYR as the FL, YZM as the 2ML, CHY as the 2FL) delivered their lines with as minimal emotion as they could get away with. It was like I had four slices of wild Alaskan salmon flopping around on my lukewarm countertop. The production team tried to use many tropes that only work with full-length dramas because the actors had built chemistry with each other (even between rivals) and background stories. Throwing these cliches out to an underdeveloped story is like burying your tuna poke bowl under sesame seeds when the ahi tuna is missing.
III. The Good
Well, they're good-looking. CZJ reminds me of Aarif Rahman, and he was paid more to bare his chest than he was to act. I'm glad to see that YZM finally has a non-villainous role (he's been so stereotyped, I kept expecting him to do something evil).
The theme songs, costumes, and set were top notch, worthy of a full-length drama. I'm quite amazed at the quality of the theme songs actually. Maybe if they'd taken half the fees for the songs and paid the actors or editing team more, we'd have a much better drama to watch.
IV. Conclusion
Watch if you like sexy skin and chopped up slices of angsty dog-blood melodrama scenes that are so incongruous, fan edits can take those out and nobody would realise the dish is missing anything.
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