michelleoc
This review may contain spoilers
Watching this, I was angry at almost everyone in it!
What I liked:
1)The actors playing the younger Ri Hwan and Haeng Ah. Their story lines were interesting, and they did a good job. Episode 11 was good, we got to see the leads as their younger selves.
2)I suppose all of the actors did a good job with what they had to work with. It wasn't the actors themselves, but the characters that I had a hard time with.
3)Episode 15. Nice tie up and it would have been a good ending here.
Things that made me want to scream:
Let's start with the characters.
1) Ri Hwan appears to have cared for Haeng Ah forever. He was always there to pick up the pieces when her life fell apart, but never put himself out there. Then there's the fact that he was TOO nice. There was a girl that liked him (why?), she was basically a stalker, she knew that he liked someone else, but he kept meeting her and then he apologized to her?!?!
2) Haeng Ah - puts up with (and lives with) a man that completely ignores her, shows no emotion toward her, and can't even really have any kind of a deep conversation with her. She decides that she's had enough, breaks up with him, yet keeps meeting with him. Apparently, I was so irritated I started micro-watching, because her rings were driving me up the wall. Why do you need one on every finger?
3) Seok Joon - aforementioned boyfriend of Haeng Ah. This character had no personality at all. Completely flat affect throughout the entire drama, until one slight movement toward a grin in the last episode. She breaks up with him, he knows why, you know he has no intention of changing, yet still keeps coming around. Stalker much? Watching him was creepy and depressing.
4) Ye Seul - the girl that likes Ri Hwan. Again, this character had no emotion, other than depression, throughout the entire show. She even says that people "say I'm like misery". True words. She knows he doesn't like her, that he likes someone else, yet uses emotional blackmail to be with him "I'll get the best care for your mom if you'll be with me."
5) Haeng Ah's mother - she was terrible at the beginning of the story line wanted us to feel bad for her, but in some ways, it was too little, too late.
Those were my main issues. Then, you add to the fact that there were entirely too many story lines going on. Multiple couples, used-to-be couples, almost couples. Not enough time was spent developing a really good story for any of them.
Story:
At about episode 5, Haen Ah and Ri Hwan finally admit their feeling for each other. But by episode 7 she is waffling. They break up in episode 8 and there is abject misery all around until the very end of episode 13. The reasons for the breakups are weak, and there are numerous opportunities for the 2ML and 2FL to try to inveigle their way into the leads' hearts/lives. It was so irritating and unnecessary. I really disliked both second leads, and the fact that the leads kept meeting up with them made me dislike the leads as well. So, the leads were actually apart more than they were together, and I didn't feel chemistry between any of the characters. Episode 16 was just filler.
Music:
There was some song that was repeated multiple times and the beginning of it sounds like Jingle Bells, which totally took me out of the story.
I know that a lot of people really liked this drama, lauding it as having an Indie feel about it. In layman's terms, that just means that the story was slow. Which isn't a bad thing in itself, provided the drama is well-written and that you like and root for the characters. I was just counting down the episodes until I could be finished.
1)The actors playing the younger Ri Hwan and Haeng Ah. Their story lines were interesting, and they did a good job. Episode 11 was good, we got to see the leads as their younger selves.
2)I suppose all of the actors did a good job with what they had to work with. It wasn't the actors themselves, but the characters that I had a hard time with.
3)Episode 15. Nice tie up and it would have been a good ending here.
Things that made me want to scream:
Let's start with the characters.
1) Ri Hwan appears to have cared for Haeng Ah forever. He was always there to pick up the pieces when her life fell apart, but never put himself out there. Then there's the fact that he was TOO nice. There was a girl that liked him (why?), she was basically a stalker, she knew that he liked someone else, but he kept meeting her and then he apologized to her?!?!
2) Haeng Ah - puts up with (and lives with) a man that completely ignores her, shows no emotion toward her, and can't even really have any kind of a deep conversation with her. She decides that she's had enough, breaks up with him, yet keeps meeting with him. Apparently, I was so irritated I started micro-watching, because her rings were driving me up the wall. Why do you need one on every finger?
3) Seok Joon - aforementioned boyfriend of Haeng Ah. This character had no personality at all. Completely flat affect throughout the entire drama, until one slight movement toward a grin in the last episode. She breaks up with him, he knows why, you know he has no intention of changing, yet still keeps coming around. Stalker much? Watching him was creepy and depressing.
4) Ye Seul - the girl that likes Ri Hwan. Again, this character had no emotion, other than depression, throughout the entire show. She even says that people "say I'm like misery". True words. She knows he doesn't like her, that he likes someone else, yet uses emotional blackmail to be with him "I'll get the best care for your mom if you'll be with me."
5) Haeng Ah's mother - she was terrible at the beginning of the story line wanted us to feel bad for her, but in some ways, it was too little, too late.
Those were my main issues. Then, you add to the fact that there were entirely too many story lines going on. Multiple couples, used-to-be couples, almost couples. Not enough time was spent developing a really good story for any of them.
Story:
At about episode 5, Haen Ah and Ri Hwan finally admit their feeling for each other. But by episode 7 she is waffling. They break up in episode 8 and there is abject misery all around until the very end of episode 13. The reasons for the breakups are weak, and there are numerous opportunities for the 2ML and 2FL to try to inveigle their way into the leads' hearts/lives. It was so irritating and unnecessary. I really disliked both second leads, and the fact that the leads kept meeting up with them made me dislike the leads as well. So, the leads were actually apart more than they were together, and I didn't feel chemistry between any of the characters. Episode 16 was just filler.
Music:
There was some song that was repeated multiple times and the beginning of it sounds like Jingle Bells, which totally took me out of the story.
I know that a lot of people really liked this drama, lauding it as having an Indie feel about it. In layman's terms, that just means that the story was slow. Which isn't a bad thing in itself, provided the drama is well-written and that you like and root for the characters. I was just counting down the episodes until I could be finished.
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