3
Zogitt
Australia
This review may contain spoilers
Spare us the schadenfreude
Let me be clear in the outset, if I were to give this show a score based on when I think the show should logically end then it would have scored a 9-9.5 but the tail end really disappointed me and I can only give it a borderline 8.
I was really enjoying this show from the start because the acting of the ML was superb. He made the younger, cooler actors look like they OD'ed on Botox. The FL was pretty good too, cute but feisty. Their chemistry was great and felt organic. The ensemble cast was above average with the bromance between the ML and his BFF a real highlight. The night market crew were real characters.
I also liked the fact that there are no psycho plot twists and the "villains" were not really evil but more meddling and driven by petty greed. Pretty harmless by dramaland standard and they even generated the occasional laughs.
Refreshingly, the 2FL was actually quite sensible and pragmatic. She lost to the FL and just moved on and even cheered the FL on. I do pity the 2ML, he was just a sad puppy for most of the show and he knew that he didn't stand a chance against the ML but he just kept needling away regardless. I know he acted his heart out but his love sick scenes were wearing thin.
As a rom-com with a cliché storyline, it was actually going nicely and there was no mid show drag so typical of t-dramas. If anything, the middle episodes were actually the highlight of the show (ones I would re-watch). I can see why some reviews wanted the show to stop at episode 17 as the story sort of peaked then. However, I think the next couple of episodes were ok. The 2OTP love story was kind of cute and it was worth the screen time. Sure, the plot about saving the night market was standard trope but it wasn't a waste of time.
Oh, before I go on to detail the big negative for me, I want to highlight the odd way time was handled by the show. The initial promise of the show was based on the FL achieving something in 7 days to win a bet. No issue with that, however, by episode 7 or 8, I was getting weird temporal vibes. Let me explain, the structure of the show meant that we were watching events happening on consecutive days but what we saw felt temporally disconnected. A case in point, quite early on, the OTP went to a swanky party, got drunk and shared a bed (no hanky-panky, thank you). They just showed up to work the next day. More major events happened. A day or two later, they ended up camping overnight in the middle of a work week, does that happen in real life? What we saw felt like it should logically spanned weeks. But the show kept telling us it was only 7 consecutive days. My brain hurts if I stop and think about it.
So .... what got me really annoyed was when the ML played the Noble Idiot card just after they saved the night market. It was so unnecessary. The OTP was riding high and totally in love. Good place to end the show on a high, right? No such luck! We ended up with 2 episodes (over 1 year in show time) of the OTP walking around in misery and longing for each other after the breakup. While the acting was fine, the plot was just convoluted and unrealistic. The FL more or less morphed into a female version of the ML and assumed his mannerism and roles. The ML became a love sick stalker, nice. I would be ok with the breakup if they get back together quickly so that we can get more happy couple time in the last episode but it just dragged on and on.
If they really must keep going after ep 20, the simple fix would be for the OTP to have a nice heart-to-heart talk at the beginning of episode 21, resolve all their misunderstandings (and it was just a misunderstanding). They then formed a partnership and conquer the corporate as well as culinary world. Job done, high five all round!
Instead we got the longest, most pointless detour to an ultimate happy ending in the literal dying minute of the show. Please, writers, stop Noble Idiocy now. Yes, a bit of emotional rollercoaster is mandated but the quota was full by episode 20. Why tack on a poorly scripted extension? Maybe the writers like a bit of schadenfreude. Just spare us.
I was really enjoying this show from the start because the acting of the ML was superb. He made the younger, cooler actors look like they OD'ed on Botox. The FL was pretty good too, cute but feisty. Their chemistry was great and felt organic. The ensemble cast was above average with the bromance between the ML and his BFF a real highlight. The night market crew were real characters.
I also liked the fact that there are no psycho plot twists and the "villains" were not really evil but more meddling and driven by petty greed. Pretty harmless by dramaland standard and they even generated the occasional laughs.
Refreshingly, the 2FL was actually quite sensible and pragmatic. She lost to the FL and just moved on and even cheered the FL on. I do pity the 2ML, he was just a sad puppy for most of the show and he knew that he didn't stand a chance against the ML but he just kept needling away regardless. I know he acted his heart out but his love sick scenes were wearing thin.
As a rom-com with a cliché storyline, it was actually going nicely and there was no mid show drag so typical of t-dramas. If anything, the middle episodes were actually the highlight of the show (ones I would re-watch). I can see why some reviews wanted the show to stop at episode 17 as the story sort of peaked then. However, I think the next couple of episodes were ok. The 2OTP love story was kind of cute and it was worth the screen time. Sure, the plot about saving the night market was standard trope but it wasn't a waste of time.
Oh, before I go on to detail the big negative for me, I want to highlight the odd way time was handled by the show. The initial promise of the show was based on the FL achieving something in 7 days to win a bet. No issue with that, however, by episode 7 or 8, I was getting weird temporal vibes. Let me explain, the structure of the show meant that we were watching events happening on consecutive days but what we saw felt temporally disconnected. A case in point, quite early on, the OTP went to a swanky party, got drunk and shared a bed (no hanky-panky, thank you). They just showed up to work the next day. More major events happened. A day or two later, they ended up camping overnight in the middle of a work week, does that happen in real life? What we saw felt like it should logically spanned weeks. But the show kept telling us it was only 7 consecutive days. My brain hurts if I stop and think about it.
So .... what got me really annoyed was when the ML played the Noble Idiot card just after they saved the night market. It was so unnecessary. The OTP was riding high and totally in love. Good place to end the show on a high, right? No such luck! We ended up with 2 episodes (over 1 year in show time) of the OTP walking around in misery and longing for each other after the breakup. While the acting was fine, the plot was just convoluted and unrealistic. The FL more or less morphed into a female version of the ML and assumed his mannerism and roles. The ML became a love sick stalker, nice. I would be ok with the breakup if they get back together quickly so that we can get more happy couple time in the last episode but it just dragged on and on.
If they really must keep going after ep 20, the simple fix would be for the OTP to have a nice heart-to-heart talk at the beginning of episode 21, resolve all their misunderstandings (and it was just a misunderstanding). They then formed a partnership and conquer the corporate as well as culinary world. Job done, high five all round!
Instead we got the longest, most pointless detour to an ultimate happy ending in the literal dying minute of the show. Please, writers, stop Noble Idiocy now. Yes, a bit of emotional rollercoaster is mandated but the quota was full by episode 20. Why tack on a poorly scripted extension? Maybe the writers like a bit of schadenfreude. Just spare us.
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