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I Picked Up a Star on the Road korean drama review
Completed
I Picked Up a Star on the Road
0 people found this review helpful
by manicmuse
Mar 4, 2022
10 of 10 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 5.5
Story 4.0
Acting/Cast 7.5
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 4.0

Those who fail to review a drama are doomed to repeat it!

So, long story short, I apparently watched this drama before and forgot all about it. Once I watched the first episode I knew it was vaguely familiar but I somehow completely blocked it out. Why? Is it that bad? Yes! Sure, It was good enough to struggle through for a second time. Yes, the male lead is so attractive that I willingly forgave his stupidity, but this drama is terrible. Even with its brief moments of cute chemistry, and a pretty adorable 2nd lead. Why? Because the story is too ridiculous.

This drama basically tried to somehow make Stokholm Syndrome romantic. I don't consider it a spoiler, since it's in the main synopsis, but the female lead in this drama literally holds the male lead hostage. Briefly? Nope. For the majority of this drama.
Kim Ga Eun plays Lee Yeon Seo, a young woman in crisis struggling to make ends meet, who ends up bringing an unconscious celebrity to her apt. That one poor decission leads to more crazy choices that made it hard for me to like her character at all. I think we were supposed to sympathize with her struggles and therefore forgive her actions and laugh, but I just couldn't find it cute or funny, just frustrating. But Sung Hoon held my interest as arrogant Hallyu star Kang Joon Hyuk. His character is also very ridiculous but somehow still appealing throughout. Probably because, let's be honest, he's hot as hell! He is also funny without being as frustrating as his kidnapper, just silly. They do have great chemistry in the few cheesy moments that highlight their interest in each other, but something about the hostage plot leading to romance just did not sit well with me, no matter how they tried to spin it. I think they just waited too long to change direction. Even though this drama is short (only 10 episodes) it is not until about episode 7 that things finally follow the trope filled romcom playbook, which at least picked up the story pace. I think they tried to be original with a dark comedy twist in the earlier episodes, but it just made me never want them to get together for most of the drama. Ga Eun needed some consequences not a choice between two attractive men.

Normally I would ask if I would watch it again, but I clearly did. Did I like it when it originally aired? Who knows, but it's doubtful. I thought maybe I dropped it, but it looks like instead I watched it all (or definitely most of it), and then chose to immediately forget it and move on with my life. I'm writing this review to save myself from making the same mistake again. Even if the lead is cute. Really really cute. His smile just distracted me from the awful plot... sometimes. Not enough.

Also, why are women named Se Ra always trash humans in KDramaland??!!!

Overall this is the kind of drama that would be perfect to watch in between other dramas, but the female lead is just too annoying for my recommendation. The mystery plot is terrible too, and is resolved in a rush but still dragged on until the end. It's pretty easy to guess who the bad guys are and who's just a misunderstood red herring. The characters outside of the main trio also aren't very interesting either. So 10 episodes started to drag, feel repetitive, and even boring during it's most outrageous attempts at absurd humor. If the first episodes are hilarious to you then you will probably like this drama a lot more than I did since they stick to that scenario for a while. The actors did do the best they could with the dumb plot they were given, and not taking anything too seriously, but too many things made no sense at all. I can't blame Ga Eun for her poorly written and inconsistent character (is she super strong or not?!). I don't think any actress could have done any better with the role. If you are a fan ( like saesang level fan) of any of the leads you can probably find enough moments in this drama to keep you from being too disappointed, but I would rather watch any of them in anything else. 100% of Anything Else (lol). Yes, it all gets resolved in the end, but I was just happy it was finally over. The last episode felt sooooo long (maybe that's when I dropped it initially). The comedy, the suspense, and even the romance were a miss for me. Any cute scenes were too little too late and too corny too. This drama is well beyond my silliness threshold. I would need to be held hostage and forced against my will or go through another serious case of kdrama-amnesia to ever watch this in it's entirety again.
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