Frustrated. But, maybe?

Not going to lie, I really wanted to love this. I read reviews on it and it sounded amazing. I went in thinking it was going to be everything I would love, but it just disappointed in ways that overpowered the parts I enjoyed about it.

I felt that the way Jeong-In was depicted as a character throughout this story was quite selfish. People kept on saying that Ji-Ho should be thankful that someone like her was willing to love him, a single father, that he should be basically praying to the Gods and holding on for dear life to her. But quite honestly, 1) there is nothing wrong with being a single parent, 2) Ji-Ho deserved more than what Jeong-In has to offer and that was proven to us in the later episodes when Ji-Ho got drunk and exposed one of his insecurities. During episodes 14 and 15, Ji-Ho happened to get drunk and exposed the fact that he still worries about letting a significant other into his life because of a fear of them leaving. He asks, "Will you leave us too?" Jeong-In makes this whole entire situation about herself. She gets angry, storms off, ignores calls, and then proceeds ask to meet up. When meeting up to speak about the incident, she makes it yet again about herself, she says that she knows exactly how he feels, that she also has insecurities about their relationship, and proceeds to ask for a break to take sometime to reflect on herself. But see, the insecurities are not the same, Ji-Ho has a right to these insecurities because he has a child, it is not just his heart he has to worry about, it is also Eun-u's heart he has to worry about too. This was not the only incident that I felt made Jeong-In seem selfish and less deserving.

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Hated Her, but Loved the Story

A friend and I were talking about Kdramas, and she mentioned how sometimes with dramas, it feels like we watch them knowing they will come to an end. But occasionally, you come across a drama that is so good, that you become so immersed and invested in the story, that instead of knowing the end will come, you become so focused on the fact that you need to know what happens next. Instead of you just watching to pass the time, it’s as if you are almost living in their world and need to know how things are going to finish. I knew exactly what she was talking about, I had not found a drama like this since earlier this year, but Itaewon Class was something else. There has yet to be a show that I have watched with Park Seo Joon that I did not enjoy. Though there were aspects of the show I thought it could do without, overall, I still quite enjoyed the show. I looked forward to every episode and was so invested in the characters’ lives that I needed to know how things were going to ultimately end.

Female Leads 1 & 2: To be blunt, I do not think this show needed the romance aspect, I would have enjoyed the show so much more without it. Honestly the female leads, Jo Yi Seo and Oh Soo Ah, were reasons I almost dropped the show. I thought that each one of their characters were so annoying, I don’t even know which one I liked more because of how much I disliked them both. I don’t think I have ever come across a show where I truly did not like the female leads, I hated them. Jo Yi Seo is an irresponsible sociopathic child. You could say young adult but common really? It’s mentioned the beginning of the show that Yi Seo is 10 years younger than Saeroyi, right off the bat for some people it’s a turn off because of the big age gap, personally, it did not matter to me, love is love. What bothered me about her character was (1) that she literally decided not to go to school for a man that she just met and (2) that she is said to have 70% sociopathic tendencies and that was never addressed. Sociopathic tendencies or being described as about 70% a sociopath, is not something to take lightly, yet in this show, it was. It was mentioned a few times at the beginning of the show, but never addressed again. The way that her character was depicted, the audience is let into some of her decisions and is shown how she lacks empathy, compassion, and kindness, yet about halfway through the show, she is fine. As if that was never said and she is just an angry child.

Our other female lead is none other than Oh Soo Ah. To put it simply, she was so wishy washy in the most terrible way, the type of person I would like to believe does not exist. As women, we need to remember that we are human, and we can take charge and make our own decisions. Somebody needed to remind her that. They also need to remind her that you can’t take things for granted because at some point, they’ll be gone, they’ll leave.

Another note: I did not think that Saeroyi had chemistry with either one of these women. Friendship, yes. Romantically, no.

Transgender Representation: Yes. Loved it. Love her. I did not like the way it was handled when she was exposed to literally the world by who was supposed to be her friend, because nothing was really done about it. We saw no consequences, but other than that, yes.

Villains: Old Man Jang ->10/10
Jang Junior -> a little over the top but really well done 9/10 * p.s. he gave Joker vibes, in both his character and clothing *

Saeroyi: I loved that he was a man of his principles. It was stated time and time again and he proved it over and over with actions. But see with that there needed to be a line drawn between sticking to your principles and not being walked on by other people. Because Saeroyi was a man of his principles, he had a hard time differentiating when someone was being genuine or not. He was continuously letting himself be used and abused by those he cared about because of his principles. He needed to be better

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Lack of Development

FL & ML: At times I found myself in a predicament, the male lead as a character was rude, arrogant, and selfish. I was not really sure how he even fell in love. Of course, throughout the show, they made it seem like he fell in love with her solely because he thought about her all the time. It did not seem he fell in love with her personality or who she was as a person, he just liked her because he thought about her a lot. I did not really see how he could fall in love with the female lead. It lacked chemistry. As well as from the FL’s perspective, I am unsure what he saw in him. He said some pretty rude and demining things to her over and over again, yet she accepted him anyways. No apologies given. The moments that the ML acted in a bad way, there was never any follow up. It was like it happened but then you just move on to the next thing, it was never addressed.

SFL & SML: I did not like their relationship at all, the characters were just poorly depicted. The SFL was annoying, and she was causing her own suffering, a lot. Everyone knew that she was still in love with the SML and that she wanted them to be together again. But every time the SML was trying to do better and win her over, she would continue to push him away. I understand that this type of thing adds more drama and entertainment to the story, but there was just too much, and it got old, fast. I found myself not wanting to watch the show because I did not care about their relationship. At times when they would come up on the screen, arguing yet again, I found myself disassociating from the whole thing.

Character Development: There was, but there wasn’t. The ML at the beginning vs the ML at the end, seemed like he had grown a lot as a character. He started to get along more with others and was being nicer. But this development, I am unsure where it even came from. I just…ugh…

Overall Thoughts: Honestly, I feel like I did not start to really enjoy this drama until about episode 16. That is more than halfway through, more like about to finished. I went into the show thinking that it was going to focus on the switching bodies, but it didn’t. I was ready to see more of them being in each other’s bodies as well as them trying to actually figure out why this happened. They somewhat just ignored the whole matter and they accepted it way too early on. And then magic it was gone. There was not an actual explanation as to how it happened or why it happened or even why the father was involved in this weird magic scenario. Don’t even get me started on the end! It was just too much and too far out there, that I felt it did not make sense at all. They should have just ended it with the mother giving in or them just being together. Adding in all this extra stuff made it seem unbelievable.

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What did I just watch?

When I had originally put this show on my plan to watch list, it was because the photo that's displayed, I did not even read the synopsis. I just saw a man with blades coming out of his back and thought cool, let's watch.

Now having seen the show, I just I can't. The synopsis given for the show, I felt doesn't really portray what the show is about, but at the same time, I can't really tell you what the plot of the show is either. Because quite frankly, I am not really sure. The show was all over the place, it brought up a lot of topics but never fully address anything and I was left with a lot of unanswered questions.

Would I recommend this? No.
Was I satisfied with the ending? Also, no.

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Creepy AF, but Worth It

I watched the first episode and then proceeded to watch something else, it was boring, but. BUT. Give it a chance. Once you get to about half way through episode 2 or even episode 3, you will be hooked. It's a bit slow to begin with, but totally worth it.

I was in the mood to watch something with psychopaths and murderers, this DID NOT disappoint. Half the time, I could not tell if it was reality or Jong-Woo's secret fantasies. I so badly wanted him to break free and become a true psycho.

Lastly, let me just say, I have never really thought that Lee Dong-Wook was my type, BUT I ain't never seen any other a man look so sexy while murdering people. *chefs kiss*

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It was a long. Too long.

This is probably one of the best Chinese Drama’s I have ever watched, it is not to say that this drama was amazingly good, but out of the Chinese dramas I have seen thus far, this is one of the best. It’s funny because the other Chinese drama that I quite enjoyed also stars Steven Zhang, with a love triangle concept in the drama ‘Go Ahead.’

Length: I was honestly scared to start this drama because it was 40 episodes long and I usually can’t stick it out. I found myself going fairly quickly with this drama, wanting to start the next episode as soon as this one ended, so you could say it kept my attention. But, at the same time, I do not think that this drama needed to be 40 episodes long, there were multiple times when things felt repetitive and unnecessary. Times when I felt things could have been easily avoided or even problems that arose that I felt we had just already seen in a different way. I know that these things just add to the drama itself, but it seemed like a bit much.

Character Development: A big concept of the show focuses on the fact that Tang Xue (Janice Wu) and Li Yubing (Steven Zhang) were childhood friends (using that term lightly). Because of this, you would think that there would be actual clear progress on who they were as children in comparison on who they are as college students and the path of who they are going to be in the future. I am not saying that there was no progress because there was some character development with these two, but it was not as much as I would have hoped seeing on how much this part played in the drama itself. Even towards the end of the show, there was moments when I just did not understand why they were doing the things they did and why they had not further matured, when there was so much time to do so previously. Why act childish at the last moment, when this whole time, you have been fairly mature?

Side Characters: There was quite a lot going on within the show and there was so many side stories and characters, that at times I would forget that a certain person even existed or forget what exactly was going on with a certain character. I think that side couples and characters in general really do play a part in the overall content of a drama, but having too many of them, can at times lessen the value of it all. Bian Cheng, for example, I understand why some may think that he is considered a main character because of all the problems that his character caused, but there were times when I forgot he was even in the show. It may be because he did not get as much screen time as say the hockey team or Tang Xue’s roommates, but his overall character was lacking, it was like he did not have a full story. At least characters like the hockey team brothers or Tang Xue’s roommates had some sort of actual story. Don’t get me wrong, they did still lack because there were times when I felt that things were rushed or didn’t really make sense, but at least with them, they felt more important.

Yu Yan & Mental Illness: I have mixed feelings about the depiction and storyline regarding Yu Yan and his anxiety disorder. Before it was shown as an actual diagnosis, I somewhat assumed that he would eventually breakdown and something would happen, just based on his symptoms depicted as well as my own knowledge on anxiety disorders. I don’t want to say that the way they went about this is incorrect, because quite frankly it’s different for everyone, but at the same time there was problems with it. Anxiety disorders don’t just go away, that’s not really how they work, it takes time for you to heal as a person and get better. Yu Yan’s character was pretty spot on regarding how he would feel and the actual things he would do or not do with this going on. The ringing in the ears, hearing things, yelling at the coach, not getting out of bed or eating, it was depicted well. The healing process was what threw me off a bit, not necessarily having Tang Xue come and help because that does help. It was more that, all the sudden he was magically okay. I understand that this is in fact a drama, so not everything can be done within a short span of time, but really the show was 40 episodes long. So maybe more could have been done in this aspect. Not that everyone needs therapy or medicine to heal, because they don’t, but possibly something like that, that was not just Tang Xue coming over to hang out and ultimately keep him distracted.

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It just kept on giving!

Angel’s Last Mission: Love Review

I had been really sick this past week, sick to the point where I did not want to a show I was currently watching because I was not mentally enough here to enjoy it to the fullest. So, I decided to pick a show that I would be able to just put on and watch, without the expectations of watching it full heartedly. I went into this show thinking I could half-ass watch it, but boy was I wrong.

Plot: I went into the show without really reading over the synopsis. I have previously watched “Thirty But Seventeen,” starring Shin Hae Sun as the main female lead, I remember really enjoying the show and her acting, so I figured I would give another of her shows a try. All I knew about the show going into it was that it was about a blind ballerina meeting an angel, falling in love, and live happily ever after. The show was so much more than this, as well as the blind aspect of the show, somewhat threw me off. As someone who loves to find dramas that portray people with mental or physical differences than the average, I was somewhat disappointed with the way that the drama was said to be and the actual way that it was. I thought that the physical difference of being blind, was going to be present throughout the whole show but was disappointed when it was only present within the first few episodes. And then magically, she wasn’t blind anymore. As you continue to watch the show, you do come to understand why they did this the way that they did, it was needed, but I felt that maybe it shouldn’t have been somewhat of a big deal, like they had made it out to be (in trailers, synopsis’, etc.). As the story goes on, we come to the basic premise of the show. Kim Dan, aka Kim Myung Soo, is an angel sent from above who needs to help Lee Yeon Seo (Shin Hae Sun) find love. Sounds easy right? Wrong.

Rib: The rib, aka Ji Kang Woo (Lee Dong Gun), was the aspect of the show that I felt somewhat confusing. I always found myself getting really mad at the rib, so you could say that Lee Dong Gun did a really job of portraying his character, because the goal was for the audience to be a bit heated, but I felt it was somewhat unnecessary. The rib’s character I felt was never really explained as to why it had to be him or really why he was even there. One could argue that it had to be him so that Shin Hae Sun’s character would find true love *spoiler alert: didn’t work*, but the angel’s mission was to help Lee Yeon Seo love, in general. It was never said that it had to be a love with the rib, but a love overall. The whole thing with the rib losing the one he loved and now going after Shin Hae Sun’s character just because they looked similar, I felt was just creepy. Not in the creepy sort of way that adds to the plot or storyline, but just plain creepy. There was then no explanation as to why the angel had to meet him in the first place, other than him scaring the couple. There was no closure with the whole thing.

The End: Speaking of closure, I did not get any. I went into the show thinking it would just be some mindless show I could watch, but turns out, I was hooked. I was whole heartedly watching it, it made me cry, multiple times. So, when the end came and nothing was really said, I felt so much utter disappointment. I was following and understood why the story had progressed the way that it did, God is a bitch sometimes, but the actual end, was not enough. I am going to be honest, when I was about 12 episodes in and I was scared, so I googled whether there would be a happily ever after or not. After a basic google search, I came to know that there would be, but it caused some disappointment to the audience. I did not read further so I wouldn’t get anymore spoilers, but let me tell you, that was an understatement. Usually, disappointment that comes with a happily ever after, comes from the rushed ending of making everything magically happy within the last episode or within the last two episodes. That was not the case here, it was worse. Instead of pushing things to the last episode, like some do, they pushed it to the last 30 seconds of the show. No explanation. One frame. Zoom out. The. End.

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Totally Worth the Watch!!!

Honestly, this was such a great watch, the show was so good. It was one of few shows that hooked me in within the first episode. Usually dramas can take a minute to really hook you in, but after you watch episode 1, you are ready to continue and see what is going on next.

When rating this show, I was having a hard time between either a 9 or a 9.5 out of 10 and here is why. This show was very much unpredictable, with how the characters were depicted as well as their actions. There were only a few times where I felt I knew what was going to happen next, this happened in the beginning of the show when you are first introduced to the ML's sister, but other than that the show was very much different.

The main reason this show was not a 10/10 for me, was because I wish there was more at the end. Within the last two episodes of the show, we are thrown a huge plot twist, when we jump through time and the ML looses his memory. The jumping through time, the only reason this really bothered me was because I wanted to know how they close up the case, we finally find out who did it, but then nothing. We jump 4 months into the future and I can't remember anything. Does the ML know what happened to his father? Does the survivor meet her family? Does the case close up smoothly? I personally felt it was unnecessary and did not add to the show itself. The memory loss concept, I see how it could add some spice, but within this show, I just felt that it was not handled well. At the end we do live happily ever after, but not as happily as I would have hoped. This show pulled me through so much and had me crying on end and we can't even live our best happily ever after.

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I was disappointed and I just wanted more

There is nothing wrong with a drama being overdramatic, as long as the overdramatic adds to the storyline or actually pertains to the story. In this case, I felt like there was too much drama that was just somewhat meaningless. The male lead, Park Bo-Gum or Hye-jun, after starting to get famous kept on running into problems and honestly, after a while it just got boring. I did not feel like it added to his character or make him a stronger person, just a huge lack of character development.

Let's talk about the poster for the show itself, I felt was not really even focusing on who the show was really about. The poster makes it seem like its about those three characters mainly, when in reality, it was really about Park Bo-Gum's character, I mean even at some point the female lead gets pushed to the side. Speaking of the female lead, Park So-Dam or Jeong-ha, there was also a huge lack of character development with her or really any other character in the show. Specifically with her, we were clued into her family problems and how those issues have lead to her being cautious when it comes to romantic relationships, but those issues were never addressed. The FL continued to just be in the dark alone with her own thoughts and continued to be upset alone while the ML knew nothing about it because he assumed she was fine and that they were happy together. That was what made me hate their relationship even more, they never really knew what the other was thinking because they never spoke about their problems or when they were upset. Byeon Woo-Seok or Hae-yo, the last person in the poster for the show, I thought in a way was the only character to actually change. Hae-yo is depicted as being in love with the FL even though she has a boyfriend, but he continues to just be her friend. As the ML gets more popular than he does, we start to see a change in Hae-yo's character, we see him struggle jealousy, anger, reality. We finally see him come face to face with the fact that he has not made it this far on his own but because he has had a helping hand the whole way. He was the only character I felt actually developed over the course of the show, he struggled very much with self esteem issues and being insecure but near the end, he started to realize that he wanted to take total control of his own life, and he proceeded to do so.

Overall, I felt the show lacked in some areas. It was fun to watch at the beginning but I would say that at about episode 8 or so, it just went down hill from there. But I mean everyone has their own opinion. :)

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"Call me when you are in pain or struggling."

Not going to lie, I did not know much about this drama going into it, I had not even really seen much talk about it on social media like other dramas. I came across one TikTok where someone mentioned that the actors were "emotionless" and that it made the drama less enjoyable. That one video, it what made me want to watch it, I knew nothing about the storyline other than the small synopsis on Netflix.

Let's talk storyline, you'd think because it focuses on the fact that the main male lead is a national athlete, you would actually see him complete in competitions or that the story would be more about maintaining his career to continue to be one. Whereas this drama does something completely different, it was interesting that Ki Seon-Gyeom's (aka Siwan) story really just focused on the him not really benign a national athlete at all and more focuses on his life and career afterwards. As for Oh Mi-Joo (aka Shin Se-Kyung) her story really took over the drama as a whole, was was really both the main female lead as well as the main lead in the story.

This story itself really did bring an everyday aspect to dramas, typically dramas tend to sugarcoat a lot of daily life situations and problems within relationships, but not in Run On. Run On focused on fact that Ki Seon-Gyeom and Oh Mi-Joo are two individuals coming into a relationship together, rather than focusing on them just being an item. Bring forth issues that everyday couples can having, having problems individually and deciding whether or not to involve your significant other. This concept was very well depicted throughout the whole drama, both within the main couple and the second main couple.

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So much potential, but it wasn't used.....

I waited until after the show finished airing to watch it, because honestly, I like to binge watch tv, instead of waiting each week to watch one new episode. Honestly, I somewhat think that I should have made an exception for this. Not because I thought the show was so amazingly good that I could have stuck it out, but because I saw so many good things about it on social media, and when I finally got around to watching it, I went in with such high expectations and I am quite sad that it did not meet them. So maybe my opinion would have different, but now we will never know.

Plot: When looking at a basic synopsis of the show, you are given so little to what the show is actually about. One could argue that the main goal of the show is about finding the gold and getting it out or not. It seemed to be the only reason Vincenzo would flee to Korea in the first place. The show starts with that being the main goal, but very quickly that is pretty much put on the sidelines. At one point or another, I honestly forgot why Vincenzo was even there in the first place, it seemed like he was destined to help the FL bring down the bad guys. Then you are randomly brought back to why he was actually there in the first place, finding the gold, stealing it, fleeing, and becoming rich. The audience gets used to the plot being helping fight bad guys in Korea instead of just getting gold and leaving again. Which would have been fine, but randomly throwing in times when people from Vincenzo’s mafia life in Italia, made those moments seem random. Other than when the antagonists purposely used the Mafia members in hopes of killing Vincenzo, the random bits of Mafia members showing up, I thought did not really add to the story itself.

Character Development: I wish I was shown more character development, in this type of show, where there is very much good vs evil, there would be room for characters to develop and become “mature”, but it was lacking. We are shown small bits of character development, just by certain people changing their actions, but then realizing that they were just faking it all to begin with. Jang Han-Seo, I felt was the only character that had a general change of mind and heart, but he was so wishy-washy about it all. Every time I felt that maybe he had finally grown, he would do something that proved it wrong. If Han-Seo had held all that anger and hatred towards his brother, like he said multiple times, then why was it always back and forth? Why wouldn’t he have realized what he actually wanted earlier on? How many more people had to die, before Han-Seo made his choice? As well as maybe I am looking at it a bit too realistically but look at the people who lived in the Plaza. Before Vincenzo showed up, these people were depicted as normal people just trying to make a living to survive and people not wanting to give up their home for redevelopment in town. How is it that these “normal citizens” are not phased at all when any crime happening in the plaza? Within the very first episodes of the show, Vincenzo throws someone through a window and no questions were asked, no comments made, it was almost as if that sort of thing happens in normal day life. Where was the hesitation from these “normal people”? Wouldn’t have these people called the police or at the very least at least question the whole thing??

FL & ML: Initially, I did not care if the FL & ML had a relationship or not. Of course, the chemistry between the two was present, but the show made it seem like some random thing to throw in, in the mist of all this violence. I was honestly rather thrown off by how easily Hong Cha-Young started to develop feelings for Vincenzo. I say this partly because of their differences in lifestyle, not that someone cannot go out with a member of the Mafia, more what they spoke about before so much violence occurred. The two had a conversation about what it is Vincenzo did when he was in the Mafia fully, whether he had killed people and if he was going to kill people going forward. Vincenzo lied and told her that he had not killed people previously and would not kill people going forward. We are shown dreams/nightmares of the ML killing in the past and then after this conversation, the killing begins. I was generally surprised by how easily Cha-Young was okay with all the killing and torture that Vincenzo used throughout the show. Cha-Young is depicted as a strong independent woman, the type that would not stand down, but very quickly she had a change of mind about the violence.

The Bad Guys: Now we are getting to the villains, Jang Jun-Woo and Choi Myung Hee. These two did a phenomenal job at playing the villains of the show. Honestly, I found myself getting so into the show because of how heated I was at these two. Every time I thought that maybe Vincenzo and team would have things go easily, these two threw something in their path to throw them off. But these were still never good enough to beat Vincenzo, they kept blaming it on the fact that Vincenzo was in the Mafia, but I don’t think that was it. Ultimately, I think that even though they were depicted as evil, strong, and willing to do anything, they were still just weak. Personally, I thought that former prosecutor Choi Myung Hee was more of a villain than Jun-Woo, I hated her character even more than the real head of Babel. She was so self-conceited even more than the psychopath that was the “ultimate” villain. When we learn finally about Jang Jun-Woo’s past, that was the moment I finally started to take him seriously. Before this, he was just some ridiculously angry kid and Myung Hee in her own was telling him what to do, even if he did not notice it. After hearing the past, he was not just some stupid kid, he was a literal psychopath, which in the end added to his character.

Final/e Thoughts: All I wanted for the end was not for them to find the gold or the guillotine file or even for the FL and ML lead to live happily ever after. I wanted the villains to get what they deserved, because at that point justice wasn’t shit, all that mattered was that they would painfully die and that it would hopefully replace all the pain we had gained previously. The one and only character I was sad to see die was Han-Seo, he had finally shown his true colors, but was killed before he even had a chance to be free.

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