1
burhaa aadmi
Hic Sunt Dracones
This review may contain spoilers
I started watching this for the male lead, who impressed me in the delightful Le Coup de Foudre. In that he had to act basically expressionless, not as easy as it sounds. His acting in this one pleased me as it showed he can also display a normal range of emotions :)
I also started it because recently PRC dramas have been doing very well at turning out PURE FLUFF Dramas, sweet stories with ZERO major "drama" or conflict/tragedy. Le Coup de Foudre, Go Go Squid and Put Your Head on My Shoulder are examples of this. This Drama COULD have been, and imo SHOULD have been, but was not. For two main reasons:
1. The villain arc - introduced in the very first episode, the "villain out for revenge" is a clear foreshadowing of trouble to come. And sure enough, it arrives. Episodes 19-23 (and almost all of 24) contain effectively ZERO fluff, instead being angst, misery and tears. As the other Dramas cited prove, this was utterly unnecessary for a story of this type. Cohabitation and contract marriage Dramas CAN be made without resorting to the sort of melodrama that wasted 4 whole episodes of this Drama. And speaking of waste brings me to major flaw number
2. Not enough main lead time in the first third. This 24 episode Drama not only wasted 4 episodes on pain and tears, it spent the bulk of the first eight actively MINIMISING the time the leads spent together with no one else present. The Drama resorted to all sorts of annoying interruptions that served no purpose except to prevent the leads having time alone to grow the pairing. This was exacerbated by major flaw number
3. Three is the problem here - the number of couples the Drama featured. Go Go Squid and Put Your Head on My shoulder nicely showed how to develop a fluffy lead pairing while building ONE secondary pair. This Drama went for TWO secondary pairs. It should have picked one and stuck with it.
For the reasons outlines above, I give this Drama only 6.5. It should have been 20, not 24, with no villain revenge arc, and only one secondary couple. Had it been like that, it would have scored at least 8.5-9.0 because
THE LEADS ARE SO CUTE TOGETHER. This is a big part of why I was so annoyed by all the extra crud stuffed into this Drama - it detracted from the show's real strength, the sweet, cute, funny, HOT, and credible growth of the lead pair. The episodes from 8-18 were pure luff, and so very, very sweet and fun to watch. We saw both of them growing and developing, especially the male lead, who had so much more growing to do. That block of fluff is what the whole Drama could and should have been, with only minor conflicts and disagreements used to allow growth and development. The leads and their sweetness together are the whole reason this Drama gets as many points as it does.
As a hardcore brony, I'll almost certainly be rewatching PARTS of this Drama again, but because of the failings listed above, those parts will be fewer than they could have been. In terms of fluffy romcoms, I've seen MUCH worse (especially from SK), but I've also (recently) seen very much better, from the PRC. 10 episodes of fluff do not a 24 episode fluff fest make.
I also started it because recently PRC dramas have been doing very well at turning out PURE FLUFF Dramas, sweet stories with ZERO major "drama" or conflict/tragedy. Le Coup de Foudre, Go Go Squid and Put Your Head on My Shoulder are examples of this. This Drama COULD have been, and imo SHOULD have been, but was not. For two main reasons:
1. The villain arc - introduced in the very first episode, the "villain out for revenge" is a clear foreshadowing of trouble to come. And sure enough, it arrives. Episodes 19-23 (and almost all of 24) contain effectively ZERO fluff, instead being angst, misery and tears. As the other Dramas cited prove, this was utterly unnecessary for a story of this type. Cohabitation and contract marriage Dramas CAN be made without resorting to the sort of melodrama that wasted 4 whole episodes of this Drama. And speaking of waste brings me to major flaw number
2. Not enough main lead time in the first third. This 24 episode Drama not only wasted 4 episodes on pain and tears, it spent the bulk of the first eight actively MINIMISING the time the leads spent together with no one else present. The Drama resorted to all sorts of annoying interruptions that served no purpose except to prevent the leads having time alone to grow the pairing. This was exacerbated by major flaw number
3. Three is the problem here - the number of couples the Drama featured. Go Go Squid and Put Your Head on My shoulder nicely showed how to develop a fluffy lead pairing while building ONE secondary pair. This Drama went for TWO secondary pairs. It should have picked one and stuck with it.
For the reasons outlines above, I give this Drama only 6.5. It should have been 20, not 24, with no villain revenge arc, and only one secondary couple. Had it been like that, it would have scored at least 8.5-9.0 because
THE LEADS ARE SO CUTE TOGETHER. This is a big part of why I was so annoyed by all the extra crud stuffed into this Drama - it detracted from the show's real strength, the sweet, cute, funny, HOT, and credible growth of the lead pair. The episodes from 8-18 were pure luff, and so very, very sweet and fun to watch. We saw both of them growing and developing, especially the male lead, who had so much more growing to do. That block of fluff is what the whole Drama could and should have been, with only minor conflicts and disagreements used to allow growth and development. The leads and their sweetness together are the whole reason this Drama gets as many points as it does.
As a hardcore brony, I'll almost certainly be rewatching PARTS of this Drama again, but because of the failings listed above, those parts will be fewer than they could have been. In terms of fluffy romcoms, I've seen MUCH worse (especially from SK), but I've also (recently) seen very much better, from the PRC. 10 episodes of fluff do not a 24 episode fluff fest make.
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