Naomi Necro
United States
This review may contain spoilers
First impressions:
Good:
- I like the backstory between Sung-Joon and Hye-Jin. It's nice that they formed a neighborly friendship, despite how superficial school children can be, and that it deepened into a "first-love" type chemistry before they parted ways as children. The umbrella/earbud moment was really cute.
-Park Seo-Joon.
-Ep 6 - the whole dynamic between Sung-Joon and Shin Hyuk was comedy gold. I *loved* the subverted trope with Shin Hyuk nursing Sung-Joon back to health.
-Ep 7 and on - really love the chemistry that FINALLY has a chance to breathe between our main leads. I enjoyed watching them go on their business trip together and seeing the real layers of Sung-Joon come to the forefront, and Hye-Jin being a (little) less crazy than her usual self.
Bad:
- Kim Ra-Ra in her entirety. I could tell they were trying to pull off the "eccentric, out-of-touch, overly-artificial boss" archetype that I sometimes see in KDRAMAs, but it was so poorly executed, I couldn't help but grit my teeth every time she appeared on screen. Her lazy attempts at Spanish and Italian to sound cultured and her over-the-top body language antics never came across as funny for me. If you want to see this type of character type done *perfectly*, watch Kim Sun-Young as Eom So-Hye in Her Private Life. SO FUNNY. I'll give Kim Ra-Ra a little credit later on in the series when her antics toned down a bit, but I still didn't think she was nearly as funny or endearing as Kim Sun-Young.
- Hwang Jung-Eum as Hye-Jin during the first few episodes. Her overreactions and over-acting antics really really bother me. No normal person would react so ridiculously. She looked like a cracked-out lunatic in the elevator scene and it made no logical sense. Running away screaming, arms flailing to avoid a person. Falling over herself hiding under furniture. It's all just too much. She did the same craziness in the beginning of Lucky Romance and I nearly dropped the show because of it. Eventually, her character (and her over-acting) mellows out, so I'm hoping it does here too. I really loved her in Mystic Pop-Up Bar so I know she's fully capable in her acting and ability to play a well-developed, well-rounded none-Jim Carrey-esque character.
Conflicted:
- The very premise of this show is pretty problematic, but it does do a pretty decent job at digging more than skin deep. I wasn't a huge fan of the office atmosphere changing as soon as Hye-Jin had her makeover. Like being prettier suddenly means she deserves respect. At the same time, I know it's also because she gained her confidence and probably exuded a different aura that allowed her to seem more approachable to her colleagues. I don't know, it's a little wishy-washy to me. It's also laughable that Hwang Jung-Eum is conveyed as "ugly" with just a bit of rosacea and frizz.
- Intentionally misleading Sung-Joon with her friend, Ha-Ri, was upsetting. He hasn't seen you in 15 years, give the guy a break! He looks completely different as well. I was upset his reaction didn't fit the crime. The reaction should have been bigger, and more drawn out. It was morally grey, at best, to lie to him and play with his emotions like that.
- I do think the romantic tension fizzled out a little too quickly by having their issues resolved and their romance in full bloom by the end of Ep 12/13.
*** I ended up dropping the drama by Ep 13 because I lost interest in the "will it or won't it" close-down issue with The Most magazine. I skipped through the last few episodes just to watch the cutesy moments between our leads, and because I love Park Seo-Joon so much, but I literally had zero interest in the plot after his collapse/they solidified their relationship. All of the tension I felt with the series was with the truth behind their relationship, and his health issues. I also wish they expanded on his health issue a lot more- I thought it was very interesting that they were alluding to Sung-Joon having an eating disorder, especially considering how taboo of a subject it is in Korea (and even in western countries) for men to have eating disorders even though it's definitely a thing. I wish they'd expanded on that a bit more and confronted it.
Good:
- I like the backstory between Sung-Joon and Hye-Jin. It's nice that they formed a neighborly friendship, despite how superficial school children can be, and that it deepened into a "first-love" type chemistry before they parted ways as children. The umbrella/earbud moment was really cute.
-Park Seo-Joon.
-Ep 6 - the whole dynamic between Sung-Joon and Shin Hyuk was comedy gold. I *loved* the subverted trope with Shin Hyuk nursing Sung-Joon back to health.
-Ep 7 and on - really love the chemistry that FINALLY has a chance to breathe between our main leads. I enjoyed watching them go on their business trip together and seeing the real layers of Sung-Joon come to the forefront, and Hye-Jin being a (little) less crazy than her usual self.
Bad:
- Kim Ra-Ra in her entirety. I could tell they were trying to pull off the "eccentric, out-of-touch, overly-artificial boss" archetype that I sometimes see in KDRAMAs, but it was so poorly executed, I couldn't help but grit my teeth every time she appeared on screen. Her lazy attempts at Spanish and Italian to sound cultured and her over-the-top body language antics never came across as funny for me. If you want to see this type of character type done *perfectly*, watch Kim Sun-Young as Eom So-Hye in Her Private Life. SO FUNNY. I'll give Kim Ra-Ra a little credit later on in the series when her antics toned down a bit, but I still didn't think she was nearly as funny or endearing as Kim Sun-Young.
- Hwang Jung-Eum as Hye-Jin during the first few episodes. Her overreactions and over-acting antics really really bother me. No normal person would react so ridiculously. She looked like a cracked-out lunatic in the elevator scene and it made no logical sense. Running away screaming, arms flailing to avoid a person. Falling over herself hiding under furniture. It's all just too much. She did the same craziness in the beginning of Lucky Romance and I nearly dropped the show because of it. Eventually, her character (and her over-acting) mellows out, so I'm hoping it does here too. I really loved her in Mystic Pop-Up Bar so I know she's fully capable in her acting and ability to play a well-developed, well-rounded none-Jim Carrey-esque character.
Conflicted:
- The very premise of this show is pretty problematic, but it does do a pretty decent job at digging more than skin deep. I wasn't a huge fan of the office atmosphere changing as soon as Hye-Jin had her makeover. Like being prettier suddenly means she deserves respect. At the same time, I know it's also because she gained her confidence and probably exuded a different aura that allowed her to seem more approachable to her colleagues. I don't know, it's a little wishy-washy to me. It's also laughable that Hwang Jung-Eum is conveyed as "ugly" with just a bit of rosacea and frizz.
- Intentionally misleading Sung-Joon with her friend, Ha-Ri, was upsetting. He hasn't seen you in 15 years, give the guy a break! He looks completely different as well. I was upset his reaction didn't fit the crime. The reaction should have been bigger, and more drawn out. It was morally grey, at best, to lie to him and play with his emotions like that.
- I do think the romantic tension fizzled out a little too quickly by having their issues resolved and their romance in full bloom by the end of Ep 12/13.
*** I ended up dropping the drama by Ep 13 because I lost interest in the "will it or won't it" close-down issue with The Most magazine. I skipped through the last few episodes just to watch the cutesy moments between our leads, and because I love Park Seo-Joon so much, but I literally had zero interest in the plot after his collapse/they solidified their relationship. All of the tension I felt with the series was with the truth behind their relationship, and his health issues. I also wish they expanded on his health issue a lot more- I thought it was very interesting that they were alluding to Sung-Joon having an eating disorder, especially considering how taboo of a subject it is in Korea (and even in western countries) for men to have eating disorders even though it's definitely a thing. I wish they'd expanded on that a bit more and confronted it.
Was this review helpful to you?
