On the one hand, it’s a silly, funny show about mixed signals, wrong turns and burgeoning feelings, all within an overarching umbrella of fish-out-of-water hijinks, because our earnest vampire needs to get used to the modern world that he’s woken up in.
This is pretty great, I have to say.
On the other hand, Show isn’t a rom-com at heart, and has more poignant themes about love and purpose that it wants to focus on, in its second half. This requires some hefty lens adjustments, which I’ll talk about in my review.
Your mileage will absolutely vary, but I will say that with my lens adjusted, I’ve come away with a more appreciative attitude towards Show’s ending, and I’m not putting in a request to get my watch hours back.
If you’re on the market for something a little different on your drama plate, and you have a taste for cyborg stories (and if you happen to like Lee Sang Yeob too!), this little drama special might be worth a look.
At just 1 hour and 15 minutes, Show manages to pack quite a bit of story on its bones, and I found myself solidly engaged, all the way through.
Some lens adjustments are helpful, which I’ll talk about shortly.
There are so many occasions when I feel a drama starts out strong, but then loses its footing and becomes underwhelming; it isn’t too often, that I feel the opposite way about a show.
Granted, that’s often because if a drama isn’t working for me, I’ve learned that I don’t need to suffer through it, and that it’s perfectly ok to drop it.
However, because this little drama special is just 1 hour 7 minutes long, it wasn’t all that hard to persevere to the end, even though I wasn’t too taken with Show’s first half. And whaddya know, Show actually ends much stronger than it starts.
Yay for this little show managing to exceed my expectations, and buck the trend, at the same time. 😉
Show is a lot of things, and attempts a lot of things (some with more success than others), but one thing I can say for certain, is that Show is bold, and dares to try new things.
When the things that Show try don’t go so well, Show can come across as rather uneven, but when Show is at its best, it is a wild, absurd and completely absorbing ride of the best kind.
Our story world and our characters lean dark, yet this is all served up with strong lashings of screwball comedy. It sounds weird, but when Show makes it work, it’s glorious.
Our cast is very solid, but hands down, the one who shines the brightest, is Song Joong Ki, as our titular antihero. So much matter-of-fact, cool badassery, served up with a side of comedy; I just couldn’t look away.
Sometimes Show got uncomfortably dark for my taste, but Show gets brownie points, for unabashedly daring to be its own thing, for better or for worse.
(This is a long intro, so skip it if you wish) Hello! I’ve been a silent reader of your blog for a really long time, since I was thirteen and I just made this account to comment!
I’m sixteen now, and I feel like I’ve grown up with your blog- you introduced me to dramas and k-pop, and I still read your older articles when I feel down, it’s like comfort food for me. So thank you for that!
The question I have is: What do you think of idol actors? I don’t know if it’s just me, but it feels like a lot more idols are starring in dramas nowadays, and they may not always be good at acting. The general consensus among some of my other drama-watching friends is that idol actors take away jobs from better-trained rookie actors, and some think it’s unfair that they get to use a drama as an acting class.
Personally, I think it’s a bit of a gray area, since there’s plenty of perfectly well-trained and decently popular actors who can’t reeeallly act that well, but also it kind of ruins the drama for me if the lead cannot act well (fourteen year old me wasn’t that bothered about acting skills so much as ~swoon~ factor and watched The Great Seducer on repeat, but I watched it last week and had to skip a big big chunk of the scenes because the acting was…not the greatest) What do you think?
(But I think we all know idols are going to keep getting casted anyways, lol. They’re far too popular to miss out on for profit-related purposes, and some of them are really really good!)
Annie writes:
Would be interesting to read your thoughts on idols turned actors/actresses.
The moment Lotte Duty Free announced this little web series for the festive season, I knew I’d be tuning in, no matter what.
I mean, to have Lee Jun Ki, Park Hae Jin, Ji Chang Wook, Kai, Taecyeon, Lee Jong Sukand Lee Min Ho in the leading men line-up? Even the most big-budget blockbuster movie production would have trouble pulling that off.
So tune in I did; which wasn’t hard to do, really, with each episode topping out at a very compact 7-8 minutes. And y’know what, for what it is (an unabashed, extended CF for Lotte Duty Free, in case you were wondering), this show’s a fun little ride.
In a drama landscape where big budgets and loud buzz grab most of the spotlight, Bring It On, Ghost is, quite literally, the little drama that could.
Nestled in the midst of other dramas boasting bigger names, bigger budgets and bigger hype, it’s easy to overlook this show – everyone’s got limited drama hours to spend, after all, and isn’t it natural to gravitate towards the dramas with bigger names, bigger budgets and bigger hype?
If you’ve ever been bitten by a show that starts out fabulous but then crushes your drama hopes to smithereens by derailing partway through, though, you might just appreciate Ghost.
It’s got its flaws – minor inconsistencies and some pacing issues – but it just chugs along in its understated way, and is relatively consistent from start to finish. Which, if you’ve been hurt by a drama before, is a pretty solid achievement not to be sniffed at.
As a bonus, Taecyeon and Kim So Hyun are surprisingly cute together, too.
It’s funny how I ended up watching Wonderful Days. After all, I wasn’t in a family drama sort of mood, nor had I heard lots of positive buzz about this show.
Basically, I was still sorta in a fond sort of haze over Lee Seo Jin after enjoying his recent, fabulously grumpy, and inadvertently cute variety appearances. On top of that, I’d happened to catch him being charismatic and smoldery in a romantic context in Love Forecast, in which he’d played a supporting role.
Lee Seo Jin actually acting romantic instead of being his fabulously grumpy self? Yes, please. I lapped up his (limited) screentime in Love Forecast and found myself hungry for more.
It hit me that I really, really wanted to see more of Lee Seo Jin being a romantic leading man, and I figured that Wonderful Days would be just the ticket.
Fresh, fun and earnest, and backed by a breezy soundtrack that’s easy on the ears, Dream High ranks as one of my all-time favorite music-centric, high school dramas. Heck, it’s one of my favorite dramas, period.
Despite its youth-y premise, Dream High has a pretty universal appeal, with its emphasis on friendship, loyalty and finding & pursuing your dreams.
What the idol-heavy cast lacks in finesse, they more than make up for with earnestness. And then there’s Kim Soo Hyun, Uhm Ki Joon and Lee Yoon Ji in the main cast, lending acting cred and nuance to the overall package.
The drama takes an episode or two to get into its groove but once it does, it’s cracky, delicious goodness.
