Too Poor to Love

The endless chase of money. It started off with a catching premise with some predictable routes that didn't seem to be enough for a full story in 11 episodes package, which is why they had episodes dedicated to some cases at work. These cases affected the story negativity and caused delays that pushed the main story as far as the last 20 minutes. As you may read from the synopsis, her ex began working at the same company but he has a girlfriend who wouldn't reject his poor status which caused a lot of pointless back and forth. His girlfriend didn't offer something worthy to the dynamic of the trio. Instead of some of the cases, I wanted to see better side characters with stories integrated into the main theme. It was an okay drama but it doesn't have much to offer.

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Would Rather Be Homeless

It was really not good. The extreme hyper reactions, interactions and acting were unsettling. I'm familiar with this style from Japanese movies/series themed around life/family but they went totally overboard in this one. It was just too forced and fake at every step of the way, even for a theatrical play. The synopsis talked about entrance exams but that was mostly just for the setup and setting while the rest was about some family problems and cheap affairs baits which all were poorly written from start to finish. Due to the lack of any interesting merits, I found myself examining the 90s set design more often than not.

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Watch 1985!

Compared to the original, this remake was a total flop in every aspect without a single redeeming quality. It's significantly shorter than the original to the point it could only present general outlines of the story, stripping down all the details and relationships. The cast was questionable and their performance was a disappointment. Even the production value is incomparable to the original that came in the 80s! The split personality showcase was just comical here, as well as the FL's relationships with those around here. This remake did nothing but tarnish the original work. Perhaps, it serves as a good example for a bad remake and even a more generalized example to the severe literary and artistic decline of Jdrama in general.

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Delinquents, Rise Up!

A ridiculous amount of face slaps with every other scene regardless of age and gender which was very fitting for the 80s vibes. It's a surprisingly good well-written drama, well, for the most part. The drama had a solid run checking all the boxes for its first half, but, for some reason, they couldn't keep the same momentum for its 2nd half. There was a significant drop in quality and the story took weird turns especially with that creepy classmate. Maybe its length was problematic for the writer and he couldn't plan for 18 episodes properly. Even the ending was kind of whatever, not much thought was put into it. I will probably only remember it for its first half. In comparison, the remake was the definition of pure manufactured waste. Utterly shameful to have a remake as that one. Just stick to the original one even with the 2nd half being a bit of a let down.

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Kidz Bop Makjang

This was an attempt to make a melodrama from the kids' perspective and there's a very good reason why there's not many like it. Mainly, because it's utterly absurd to showcase this, especially for events related to the kids between themselves. It's less of a problem when it's between the kids and the adults. When looking at the whole picture with the adults, it's a pretty standard watered down melodrama because of the given theme. It wants to be targeted at kids/teens but it doesn't do a good job in that regard so it end up being stuck in this weird middle ground. Earlier on, the drama had plenty of animation but they stopped doing these because they realized how atrocious and unnecessary these were. The story, cast and performance were all pretty average and lazy.

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Too bored to date

They should've removed the boyfriends from the equation and made it about life in general, otherwise it was cheap in its current state. A new profile picture every episode with no change/growth/development between each. Each episode was just a long montage of speed dating a new guy. Nothing connected or clicked in relation to her life. The main character herself wasn't appealing to begin with. Her personal life beyond the relationships had little to no role despite having an introduction that indicated otherwise. There was an attempt to do things differently for the last episode, especially in regard to her childhood, but things were more or less the same. On the bright side, it was shot nicely.

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Too sweet, no salt...

It's surprising this drama managed to go on for 10 full episodes considering the bulk of its content. The drama had a sloppy poor blend of workplace setting, food and a love triangle. The office related events were the worst as these were extremely generic auto generated fillers just to give the illusion that it's a workplace setting. The food scenes were okay at best but nothing stood out even the food shots. The romance was just bland and weird, it was only there because they didn't have anything else to do or show for a story, not even if they were aiming for a slice of life/episodic formula. If anything, they should've cut its runtime in half and double the focus on food.

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Love Affair Agent 47

Most of the episodes kinda played out in the same way. They got a client, they ran through typical scenarios avoiding getting caught, then end the episode with a close call just to succeed in the last second. However, they did try something different for episode 6 which was much needed to shake things up. While the concept of the drama is provoking but they generally kept it safe without too much risk, it would've been better if they were more daring. All in all, the drama oozes mid 2000s scuffed vibes. I was expecting Ma Dong Seok to be more of a stand out character but I guess this wasn't the case earlier in his career.

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Love Marathon

The anthology brought something special to the table, for the most part. Each episode offered a unique take on romance with a decent story. These weren't just focusing on the thrill of falling in love but also having a rhyme and reason behind them. Cinematography was decent and the low angled framing shots from the 90s are always appreciated. The cast was absolutely stacked, it was only possible because this project came early in their career. I don't see this happening again even with new emerging talents but only time will tell. The pacing was decent for 2 episodes per story, each had the space to unfold and progress reasonably. Nonetheless, not everything was sunshine and rainbows, some stories were a total flop in all aspects from romance to writing, acting, characters and vibes. Case in point, story number 4 "Open Ended" was the worst one and a poor addition to the anthology. On the flip side, the stories "Sunflower, Rose, Miss Hip-hop and Mr. Rock" were amongst the better ones.

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Too single to rent...

Any aspect involving the older cast was much better than every aspect that involved the younger cast, from story to characters, cast, writing, acting, dynamics and overall existence. It needed to have better pacing, things were moving too fast for the last episode. Either extend it a bit or pace it properly, although the latter is preferable since it had loads of slow parts in the middle. The drama had an interesting introduction but I wish we had a proper follow up to the owner's story. It would've also benefited from having a more diverse types of characters with better complementary qualities.

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Scandalous-less Scandal

No matter how I look at it, it was disappointing for the wasted potential it had. Thanks to its higher content rating, the drama had less than PG themes and more provocative ones, such as, as stated in the synopsis, teen pregnancy, as well as prostitution and sex. However, it handled each very loosely and didn't stick to any of them for more than a couple of episodes, especially the main selling point, the 'mom scandal,' but all of that didn't measure up to how outrageous and maniacal the ending of part 1 was. My theory is, they had issues in the production and had to split it into 2 parts, as well as giving an exit to Jung Hee Jung from the cast for one reason or another. They gave her character a very extreme resolution. Not only that, but the other characters had little to no reaction despite being friends and roommates for the whole series. She didn't even get a single mention in part 2.

Moving on to part 2, things got worse and made me question, was part 2 even planned in the first place? I think the screenwriter must've been changed as well. They pretty much changed the content rating to 15, as close as possible, while neglecting the previous themes. There was no longer a consistent story but rather whatever events each episode would have, mostly a slice of life and a hint of storylines to follow loosely. They had the opportunity to craft something properly like the daddy issues, teen mom, and sex worker finding love, but, obviously, the drama did the bare minimum throughout the entire thing. I still can't believe they let Ha Na exist maniacally without doing anything with her after what she had done. The ending wasn't as bad as part 1 but it's still a bad ending for part 2 as well.

Looking into the whole series, it was somewhat serviceable with a decent cast but with glaring wasted potential. It's unfortunate because we rarely get such shows nowadays. Even shows like LTNS (2024) are weak with their delivery and themes. I guess such ones are reserved for the movie space to avoid the higher-ups parental control, not drama shows where they have to kneel down to broadcast and streaming bigwigs.

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Scandalous-less Scandal

No matter how I look at it, it was disappointing for the wasted potential it had. Thanks to its higher content rating, the drama had less than PG themes and more provocative ones, such as, as stated in the synopsis, teen pregnancy, as well as prostitution and sex. However, it handled each very loosely and didn't stick to any of them for more than a couple of episodes, especially the main selling point, the 'mom scandal,' but all of that didn't measure up to how outrageous and maniacal the ending of part 1 was. My theory is, they had issues in the production and had to split it into 2 parts, as well as giving an exit to Jung Hee Jung from the cast for one reason or another. They gave her character a very extreme resolution. Not only that, but the other characters had little to no reaction despite being friends and roommates for the whole series. She didn't even get a single mention in part 2.

Moving on to part 2, things got worse and made me question, was part 2 even planned in the first place? I think the screenwriter must've been changed as well. They pretty much changed the content rating to 15, as close as possible, while neglecting the previous themes. There was no longer a consistent story but rather whatever events each episode would have, mostly a slice of life and a hint of storylines to follow loosely. They had the opportunity to craft something properly like the daddy issues, teen mom, and sex worker finding love, but, obviously, the drama did the bare minimum throughout the entire thing. I still can't believe they let Ha Na exist maniacally without doing anything with her after what she had done. The ending wasn't as bad as part 1 but it's still a bad ending for part 2 as well.

Looking into the whole series, it was somewhat serviceable with a decent cast but with glaring wasted potential. It's unfortunate because we rarely get such shows nowadays. Even shows like LTNS (2024) are weak with their delivery and themes. I guess such ones are reserved for the movie space to avoid the higher-ups parental control, not drama shows where they have to kneel down to broadcast and streaming bigwigs.

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Too single to die...

The main theme was bloated super messy entanglements. These relationships were poorly and unjustifiably tangled for the sake of it. The girls were constantly switching love interests between the same 2-3 guys with no repercussions affecting the story, dynamics and friendships. The synopsis was mostly misleading, whatever is mentioned about friendship was nothing but a small trivial thing that was barely worked on during its runtime, mostly during the last episode. They were all up into each others love interests but none of the girls had direct interactions and/or confrontations in that regard because it would bring sour feelings that would be impossible to clean up by the end. Sloppy chaotic mess can have some entertainment value in melodrama/makjang world watching chaos ensues but this drama couldn't even provide that. The final resolution was weird, forced and just generally bad.

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Too rich to die...

The controversy regarding the middle east content was only contained during the first 10 minutes to serve as an introduction while the remainder of the drama was solely in South Korea. Regardless of these 10 minutes intro, the drama had plenty of problems splattered everywhere. I've seen a much better performance from Shin Sung Rok in his prior projects to this one as well as from future ones, his performance here was just weaker than usual. The drama attempted to blend slapstick humor with more serious, emotional beats, creating a rocky viewing experience. The exaggerated extravagant persona of the father got kinda old and tiring halfway through and a change with the dynamics was needed. Which is also why everything felt so contrived and limited for a 12 episodes drama from the cast size to characters, pace, storylines and writing in general. Don't get me started about the writing, it was doing the bare minimum while relying on the high melodramatic and emotional moments to mask it as a big functional piece. Overall, the first half was decent enough but it didn't go anywhere after that.

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"Family"

It might seems like a promising sitcom at first glance but, in reality, there were just too many problems with it. Its runtime seems short at 8 episodes as if they had to cut it short for one reason or another. The cast were great with plenty of different personalities to spin all kinds of scenarios, as well as the setting and the premise, however, it failed in creating enjoyable dynamics for a decent worthwhile sitcom. The storylines were bad and the jokes/bits they tried to spin out of these storylines didn't land well 9 out of 10 times. Kim Seul Gi was a decent choice to play that character.

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