So it looks like I ought to have my “Woob Fangirl” license revoked, you guys. Coz try as I might (and I really, really, really tried), I just could not get into Uncontrollably Fond. I trudged through 14 episodes of this one, trying – and consistently failing – to see the light with this show. At this point, I feel it’s time to admit defeat: I just don’t have it in me to sit through another 6 episodes of this one. Not even for Woob (gasp!).
I acknowledge that this show has its fans, who legit love this show. To which I can only say, I’m sorry, I just don’t get it.
This is my “I don’t get it” face. (Dream High pun completely intended. Hur.)
STUFF THAT WASN’T BAD
I honestly can’t think of stuff that I really loved – or even seriously liked – in this show, but these are the things that made what I consider my Silver Lining List:
1. Woob’s not bad as our main character Joon Young, even though I feel like there’s a certain x-factor that’s missing from his performance in this drama. At least it’s nice to have him on my screen. I was duly impressed with his delivery of the pain scenes in particular.
On a tangent, for the record (and for the curious), I do feel like he’s bulked up too much here. I prefer the amount of bulk he showed in Heirs; that felt just right, to me.
2. Im Joo Hwan is quite riveting when his character Ji Tae gets angry. He also cleans up nice in a suit.
3. Im Joo Eun is also quite compelling as Jung Eun. Mostly, I just find Im Joo Eun’s screen presence compelling, rather than Jung Eun the character herself.
4. Occasionally, some themes come into play, and sometimes, they seem to be trying to make a meaningful statement. Like in episode 2, where it’s about power and the powerless, and how those with power basically screw up the lives of the powerless, in order to preserve themselves.
5. Some of the music on the OST is pretty catchy. Specifically, I like both versions of 밀지마 (Don’t Push Me) by Wendy and Seulgi of Red Velvet.
…And that’s about it, unfortunately.
A BREAKDOWN OF ALL THE THINGS THAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME
This is my “What were you thinking?” face. Directed at Show in general, but mostly at writer-nim, if I’m being honest.
Frankly, there are so many things that don’t work for me in this drama. But because I don’t want this section to turn into a really long rant, I’m gonna try to distill it as much as possible.
Just so we’re clear, this is absolutely my personal perspective, and not truth that’s cast in stone.
1. Suzy as Noh Eul
I had problems with Noh Eul as a character, and this is mostly due to her bemusing characterization by writer-nim. I didn’t feel like Eul was a very believable nor well-drawn character, and when you layer Suzy’s limited acting chops on top of that, it just compounds the problem. To Suzy’s credit, she clearly gives the role her all, and approaches it without vanity. However, even though I do think she’s improved since her acting debut in Dream High, her acting range is still pretty limited.
I found Eul annoying when she was supposed to be bubbly-cheery, and I also found her annoying when she was supposed to be an amusing drunk. Even more annoyingly, writer-nim inexplicably makes Eul a pretty screamy character in general who tends to have random loud outbursts. I flat-out cringed whenever Suzy screamed, so whether Eul was scream-singing at the noraebang, or screaming at a bunch of guys for picking on a girl, I winced.
When you add on other character quirks which are supposed to be endearing, like Eul’s tendency to try to drown herself in a plate of water whenever she’s upset, it just didn’t sit well with me – to put it mildly.
2. Characters generally behave in bemusing ways
This is the “Why are you doing that??” look. A double serving, since I felt that way so much of the time.
Honestly, a lot of the time while watching this show, I didn’t really understand why characters behaved the way they did.
I get that this show is supposed to be about a group of flawed people behaving in very flawed ways, but I really had to work at it sometimes, to rationalize why they were behaving the way they were. And even then, I didn’t feel fully convinced by the conclusions of my rationalization. When you have to work this hard to try to understand character motivations, it’s even harder to engage with the characters. I never felt truly on board with these characters, frankly.
[SPOILER ALERT]
There’s a lot of lying that goes on between characters. When you think about it, Joon Young is lying to everyone about his condition, Ji Tae is lying to Eul and her friends about his identity, Eul regularly lies to brother Jik (Lee Seo Won) and bestie Na Ri (Kim Min Young), Joon Young’s mother (Jin Kyung) has lied to him his whole life about his dad, and the list goes on. Most importantly, I found it disturbing that we spend so much time with both male leads lying big time to the woman they profess to love, while both working to win her affection. That’s.. not cool.
On a slight tangent, I couldn’t help feeling impatient with the characters as a result. All the lying leads to a whole lot of back-and-forthing among the characters, and as I was watching it unfold on my screen, I couldn’t help but feel that it was a huge waste of time because Joon Young is supposedly critically ill, with a maximum of 3 months left to live.
There were many times when I felt bemused and confused by these characters, but here’s a quick spotlight on episode 14.
I could understand why Eul took the money that Ji Tae’s mother offered, but I couldn’t understand why she’d choose to flippantly splurge on clothes and shoes for her friends, when that money could’ve been put to much better use, both for her own debt and her friend’s tight money situation. And then when she started crying, drinking and drunk-yelling, it just annoyed me coz she put herself in that situation by being flippant about the money. I totally get why Na Ri got mad at her, and I had no sympathy for Eul for passing out drunk in a pile of shopping.
I could sort of understand that Joon Young wanted to get close to Jung Eun to get her to own up to being the driver who’d knocked down Eul’s father, but it was still bemusing to watch him put on the romantic moves on Jung Eun when he could barely hold it together health-wise.
I got that Jung Eun would probably have an axe to grind with Eul, but her violent hissy fit did feel like it came out of nowhere.
Haru’s (Ryu Won) obsession with Jik also felt like it came out of nowhere. I liked Jik, but I didn’t care for Haru, so it was annoying to see that he seemed to like Haru back. His affection definitely felt out of the blue.
[END SPOILER]
3. Angst, angst, angst
Sadness by the bucketload is so not fun.
I want to say that this show is in the vein of classic Hallyu melos, but I feel like it is, and it also isn’t. For one thing, old-school melo usually starts out bright and happy, and with this show, we don’t even get that. We dive right into the angst, and then flashback to more angst – and then even more angst. There are hints of cute and potential happy, but those are consistently snatched away before they get to really reach fruition.
The college-age flashback we get in episode 3 is helpful in shedding more light on the backstory of the characters, but it does feel like way too much misfortune to befall a small, way-too-interconnected group of people.
I get that this is (probably) supposed to be Very Dramatic Makjang, and if I worked hard enough, I found that I could rationalize most things. But none of it felt organic to me, somehow. It all felt strung together for the sake of maximizing the Drama, and I just couldn’t feel it.
4. Rushed cliffhangers with overly skimpy (or non-existent) context
Wait. How did we skip from A to G in that cliffhanger again? My head hurts.
This show does a weird thing of showing certain events in its cliffhangers without showing how we get to those events, and then taking its time to fill in the gaps in the following episode. I get that this is what many kdramas do these days, in order to create the “wow” factor in their cliffhangers, but really, there is a limit to how well this can work. Consistently, I’ve felt like this show oversteps that limit.
It tends to show events stripped of so much context that I just go “Huh???” at the end of an episode. And, while Show tends to fill in (most of) the gaps in the following episode, I’d venture to say that a good chunk of your audience may run out of patience before the show’s run is over and just stop tuning in to find out the context.
It’s like that “push and pull” that is used often to describe romance in kdramas – when you go too far, the other person gets put off and fed up, and your “push/pull” gamble doesn’t pay off. I felt the same way with Show’s efforts to “push/pull” and I grew tired of it and stopped caring what happened in this drama world because everything ended up feeling so random.
[SPOILER ALERT]
Just as an example, here’s what watching the end of episode 12 felt like.
Suddenly Joon Young is seeking out the lawyer who handled Eul’s father’s case. Suddenly he’s hanging around Jung Eun and saving her from drunk-drowning. Suddenly he’s appearing on her movie set.
On the other hand, suddenly Eul’s asking Ji Tae to date her, coz she’s decided that that’s the best revenge to wreak on his parents. Suddenly Eul’s dressing up for her new job when she’s never cared before. Suddenly Ji Tae’s standing up his own engagement, against which he’d never before shown inclination of rebelling. Suddenly Jung Eun’s walking around drunk and decides to throw herself into the very shallow pool. (On a side note, it was completely unnecessary for Joon Young to dive into the pool. He could’ve just stepped in and pulled her out; it was that shallow.)
Like, pretty much everything seems to have happened, just so that that last scene could happen. But, there are so many odd, unexplained things. Why is Joon Young even showing up at Jung Eun’s movie set, let alone saving her? Why is Jung Eun conveniently drunk-walking near a pool? Why is Ji Tae even at the same place, and piggybacking Eul, no less?
To be fair, the beginning of episode 13 fills in most of the blanks, but I was very bemused watching episode 12’s cliffhanger.
[END SPOILER]
5. Overly-delayed reactions
Let.. me.. react.. in.. super.. slo.. mo.. for.. maximum.. effe–zzz..
The delayed reaction is a total Thing in this show. I get that certain moments are given the Dramatic Slo-Mo treatment in order to amplify the way the scene lands with the audience, but I personally think Show overstepped the fine line that divides Dramatic Slo-Mo and Laughable Slo-Mo.
[SPOILER ALERT]
One big example of this is in episode 10, when Eul moves to drive a van into Choi Hyun Joon. The way it’s presented, there is so much reaction time in the almost-accident that I feel like the characters are unnaturally retarded in their ability to react quickly to their surroundings.
Same thing when Joon Young carries Eul into the hospital and shouts for a doctor. That bit, and variations of it, is played for so long, and so over-dramatically, that it looks super strange that the hospital staff are completely ignoring this screaming mad man for so long.
I know it’s supposed to up the drama, but it does the opposite thing and takes me out of the drama even more. Not good.
[END SPOILER]
CLOSING THOUGHTS
I started this show convinced that if I could watch all of Heirs for Woob, that I’d be able to watch anything for Woob.
…Guess I was wrong.
Again, I know there are people who legit love this show. It’s just, I am definitely not one of them. I felt completely impassive most of the time I spent watching this show, and the emotions that I did feel were mostly not of the positive variety.
The only reason I even made it as far as episode 14 was that my mostly dormant completist streak decided to have a case of bad timing, and reared its head. I stubbornly hung on, even though I never truly cared about any of the characters and never quite understood why they behaved the way they did.
The breaking point came when episodes 15 and 16 became available and I found myself filled with a sense of bummed dread at the thought of having to watch more of this show. That’s when I knew it was time to beat that completist streak into submission and drop this one.
Goodbye, Show. It’s not you.. it’s m– uh, maybe it is you..
밀지마 (Don’t Push Me) – Wendy and Seulgi of Red Velvet
Just coz I really do like the groove of this song.
Hi Kfangurl,
I came across your page a while ago and I love and agree with most of your reviews. I also understand why you felt the need to drop this one. First off, I totally agree with you on the over delayed reactions. Urrgghh. I mean even in the episode where Ji Tae had an accident, I felt like there was enough time for him to move out of harm’s way. But he just stayed there watching the oncoming vehicle *eyeroll*. Also when Eul collected money from Ji Tae’s mother and they went on to splurge. I mean, who does that? I however don’t agree with your view of Jik’s relationship with Haru. I was kinda rooting for them cos it will so piss off Haru’s mum.
Anyways, I’m a sucker for sad/tragic movies so I had to see the show through. I liked the way Show handled Sin Joon Young’s illness towards the end. I didn’t still feel sorry towards his mother though. I mean, why would you ignore and mistreat your son just because he didn’t turn out to be what you wanted. It’s not even like he became a criminal or wretched. I found myself hissing or just angry whenever I saw her in the first half of the show. I’m not going to talk about Suzy’s acting cos you and everyone in the comments have said it all, lol.
Finally, I feel like the writer could have done something better with most of ye he characters.
Hi Ayreen! It’s good to meet you! 😀 Thanks for enjoying the reviews. <3 Kudos to you for staying with this one till the end, despite it not working for you in various ways. You have more fangirl fortitude than I do! 😅
You’re right. There was so much, so wrong with this show. Why would someone go ahead and actively pursue someone they claim to love when they KNOW they don’t have long to live? And even if they do, the biggest thing is, doesn’t said person have a right to know about the terminal illness BEFOREHAND? That in itself is so cruel, so completely ridiculous. Its like he went out of his way to mess her up every chance he got. I get that he was in some form of denial for a very long time, but still. Then there’s Suzy’s acting. There’s the trashy way Joon-young’s mom treated him. The only realistic thing I found in this was the way Joon-young’s father is a corrupt person but he has justified it all inside his head. He’s not out and out evil, he’s not a bad father or a bad husband. This is closer to how corrupt people are in real life than its usually shown in dramas and such. Anyhow, I’m just sad about Woo-bin. It was his first lead role in a drama, and he did really give it so much. I don’t see how he could have made it any better.
Yes, there was so much that didn’t make sense to me, in this show! And it just seemed to revel in the pain; nothing else seemed to matter. 🙄🙄 I felt sorry for Woob too, and I hafta say, this show drained me of a great deal of Woob loyalty, which I’ve taken years to recover from! That takes a special kind of awful, to do that! 😝😝
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Hi! First off I enjoy all of your reviews… most I agree with some, I respectfully don’t. So I just finished this series and I understand all the reasons why you dropped it but also feel that perhaps you missed the most pivoting movements in Woo Bin’s acting that was showcased in the last few episodes. I have to agreed—— it’s taken me ~155 Kdramas before watching this one inspite of it being highly recommended by so many. First off, I was not a fan of Woo Bin although I enjoyed his performances in Heirs and School 2013. There is something endearing about him but not enough for me to seek him out like I do for Gong Yoo or Park Seo Jeon. Also, biggest deterrent for me really was Suzy. I just do not think she acts well at all. Majority of the time- I find her performance flat and mostly annoying. Although there were pivoting moments in the whole series, I just didn’t feel that both leads characters had good chemistry. It was just blah. I stuck through the whole series because I found the overall story to be interestingly tragic. There’s something about tragic melodramas that is just quite addicting. I found the script lacking in certain areas too and I didn’t understand why characters made some of the decisions and actions they did as well. I found the whole scene where Woo Bin was locked up in his own home prevented you go to his love very frustrating!!!! Anyway, highlight for me truly was Woo Bins performance mostly during the reconciliation scene with his father, mother, step brother and when the illness started to take his memory. I think I’m now a Woo Bin fan…. I certainly look forward to his future projects. I hope it’s sooner than later now that he is healthy and fully recovered!
Hi there Sheryll, it’s great to meet you! 😀 That’s great that we agree on quite a few shows! And it’s perfectly normal for us to feel differently about various shows, despite agreeing on so many. 🙂
You definitely have more fortitude than I do, forging through to the end, despite your underwhelmed feelings towards Suzy’s delivery. At least you were rewarded by Woob’s great acting at the end! So at least one good thing came out of this watch – your new appreciation for Woob as an actor! 😉 Yes, hopefully we’ll see more projects from him. So glad that he’s better now! 🙂
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i’m glad i’m not the only one who didn’t really agree with this kdrama. i understood all the points you made, i seriously hope they avoid these kinda over dramatic shows.
Hi5, t0matolicious – this one was just too much for me too, Woob loyalty or no! 😅😛
I enjoyed the show but I wished they concentrated on Kim woo-bins character doing a positive bucket list. It was hard to take that he would do such cruel things when he only had a few months to live.
Hi there Allan! 🙂 I don’t think I got far enough into the show to fully appreciate your point, but I definitely agree that having his character doing something more positive with the time he had left, would have made for a more uplifting and satisfying watch.
Hi! I enjoyed reading your review so much and I totally agree with you. Though I was not able to get past my completist streak (i did push the fast forward button more times than I care about), i felt exactly how you explained why you didn’t like it. It’s like the story wanted to achieve something that it miserably failed to do. I liked watching Kim Woo-bin though and i think his acting is great. Hope he gets well soon and does more lead roles. Although i must say he suits the antagonist role very well. Anyway, will be reading more of your reviews. Cheers!!! 🙂
Well that settles it. Tonight I *suddenly* had the urge to start watching this because I wanted to see Woob in something watchable (to me) but my inner voice said, go to the Fangirl Verdict, you know she reviews THIS!. And here I am. Wow. Dropped with a capital D. I don’t remember reading this review. I dislike screechy female leads that always get “cute drunk” – their livers won’t be so cute when they hit 40 — and it seems like too much angst. I confess to liking certain makjang, but this doesn’t feel like the type.
Haha! Glad to have saved you from this one, my dear! This was not a good time, for me. Such a pointless sobfest, I just couldn’t get into it, despite my Woob loyalty. And even though I didn’t finish it, it managed to reduce my Woob loyalty to an all-time low. That’s quite the accomplishment, as you can imagine! I honestly can’t recommend this on any front, so I’m glad you avoided this one! 😛
I’m new to Korean drama – this is only the fourth drama I’ve watched. I was curious after seeing Kim Woo Bin in the Heirs. I agree that this one was flawed in many ways. I think the last two episodes of the show were the strongest though. Definitely tearjerkers. I think I was crying for 120 minutes straight. In the end I am an even bigger fan of Kim Woo Bin and want to watch more of him – probably will try School 2013 next. Someday if you have 2 hours to kill, watch ep 19-20…
Welcome to the wonderful world of kdramas, lnm! 😀 It’s nice to know that the last 2 episodes were stronger, although that really feels like a waste, for Show to go so many hours before it finally got good. 😛
I do love Kim Woo Bin (though possibly a little less, after feeling so underwhelmed by UF), and I highly recommend School 2013, because that’s where he totally stole my heart. There’s no romance in S2013, but the bromance puts many a romance to shame, with its strength and potency. I do hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did! 😀
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I agree so freakin’ much. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one!!! I didn’t even brother watching, because I had a feeling this would be the outcome. I do admit I did try. I’ve watched clips here and there to see if I could get into it and work myself it. But it was very difficult to like the story and the characters. Very sad.
Heh. In this case, I think you were smart to avoid this one, Tiffy! I couldn’t get into it – story and characters – as much as I tried. It’s just too bad. Good to know that we’re not alone though!
I dropped it like after 4-5 eps…and yes, I also didn’t like Noh Eul…and I was not feeling anything for anyone…
You were smart to drop out early, snow!! I hung in there out of Woob loyalty – not that it did me any good!! I never made it to the finish line, and lost all remaining Woob loyalty in the process 😛 But never fear.. Woob’s next amazing project is likely to mollify me well enough to bring back some of the loyalty 😉
Never thought I would hear these words from you!!! “lost my Woob loyalty” 😉 😛
I KNOW, RIGHT?!?? I never thought I’d hear those words from me either! But that’s what UF accomplished, unfortunately. I’ve now learned that it’s better to quit while you’re ahead, & not to try TOO hard to love a show, even if a major k-love is starring 😝
Totally with you on this, FG! And I’m not even as big of fan of Woobs. Didn’t like Eul, didn’t like Suzy playing Eul, but perhaps that’s just my Minoz bias coming out! 🙂 In general, Eul’s interests were all pecuniary from the get go, and the lying, drunken, rants were too much.
Ah, it’s good to know I’m not alone on this! I felt so bemused while watching. Like, I would watch Eul do her screamy thing, or the money thing, or the screamy-drunk thing, and I would literally think to myself, “Am I supposed to even like this girl??” It really was all too much for me. My Woob loyalty was milked dry, thanks to this show. 😛😂
I also had high hopes for Kim Woo Bin, he was like my black prince for Lee Jong Seok is the white prince but since the genre was melo I didn’t start to watch until it was good 8 episodes running then I join the show and review on Dramabeans.
Such a dissapointment for a preproduced as we should expect the production team can purely follow the original script (which means the script is sucks from the beginning??!)
I did have one Melo which stays in my heart and will probably revisit to cure UF’s train wrecked. Secret – Ji Sung/Hwang Jeung Eum. All powerhouse casts, enough fun, comedic as well as mystery and angst.
Lol. I sort of felt the same way – like, they wrote this show like this on purpose? 😂 But, to be fair, there is a circle of fans that genuinely love this show, so perhaps writer-nim was catering to that audience.
I’ve heard good things about Secret, actually. I’ve just never gotten around to it, because my appetite for revenge melos is very limited, and I consume them on a “few and far between” basis. I expect I’ll get to it.. someday. 😁
Thanks for your insight. I do occasionally check a melo out but no longer will I jump into one until it has finished its run and see how much fan rage there is. Ha! I actually liked Secret Love Affair but find people really like it or really dislike it.
Oh my gosh, you have to do a review of Doctors even if you dropped it. (okay you don’t but maybe someday….) I liked the first few episodes (once you get over that whole icky teacher/student thing), but I ardently believe when it became super successful the writer just bailed on any kind of functioning story line and coasted on the pretty. I was skipping huge chunks of the show by the last 3 to 4 episodes because I’d committed the time early so I didn’t want to just drop it like I normally would…oh well. As far as its popularity other than the genre seems a bit hip right now, I would say the same reason Healer got overlooked…Kim Rae Won. He was killing it in Punch (didn’t watch it) and that was Healers competition. I see that he often gets overlooked with US fans, and I am hit or miss with his shows but he always seems super popular in Korea, and Punch did end up on a lot “best of” lists that year. But, yeah, the luck of the competition often dooms good dramas. It always has amazed me how much star power means in Korea. The “it” star of the time or a beloved actor can make a drama, regardless of the script. It will always seem unfair when I see good dramas go under the radar but it is what it is.
Look forward to your next review.
Yes, I noticed that about SLA too – people either seem to love it or hate it. I guess it’s a very particular style of story and storytelling, and one has to be in a very specific sort of mood to enjoy it. At least, that was true for me. My first attempt at watching the show, I didn’t make it through E1, even though I recognized it was very, very well-made. I shelved it for another day and another mood, and ended up loving it unreservedly. I really hope more people give SLA a chance, it’s just so good. <3
I'm about 2 eps away from finishing Doctors and posting a review.. It's just that life's busy and there are so many other more interesting dramas screaming for my attention (*coughMoonlightcough*) that I find myself putting off the last couple of eps. I'm with you, in that I really liked the early episodes in spite of the squick factor, but after we got into the hospital setting, things very quickly became very vanilla. I will finish it, I'm quite sure.. Just, I'm not in a hurry. Probably after my work trip next week I'll get back to it. 🙂
When this first got announced, it was going to be a light melo….then I found out who the writer was. Ha Ha Ha That is when I backed away from even giving it a go. I do not like makjang melos or even classic hallyu melos. They are just not my thing. I can get into something like 49 Days or a slice of life type show which is how I thought this was originally presented. But, just, no. Even with that, I did check out comments on the first episodes in case I was wrong, and there were a lot of people just confused about things and that reminded me how very confused I was about A Love To Kill in the early episodes with the past/present.
Anyway, I have no strong feelings about KWB. I thought he was good in Heirs, but he is not a particular bias of mine so I passed.
Just out of curiosity, do you think the big melos are just done? I mean something like Marriage Contract w/Leo Seo Jin seemed to do well but as far as big style hallyu melos, I just don’t know if that flies anymore. It seems the big, breezy and often cheesy romances are more likely to hit. I’m not judging; I like them too but they often don’t stick with me.
OMG this is so far from a light melo, seriously. It lays on the angst so thick that it seems like that’s Show’s only objective, almost. I just never felt like I understood what Show was doing with it and why. You were smart to back away from the get-go, Kat! I felt like I had to give it a chance, out of Woob loyalty. Bad decision, since now I have no Woob loyalty left to speak of, ha. 😝
As for big melos.. I don’t think they’re completely done. I think audiences still love a good story that’s well told, and while a well done big melo may not draw in huge ratings, it would likely have a strong niche audience. I think the problem is, the way kdramas are made, there are too many pressures on all sides, and that makes it very hard for writers and PDs to retain proper creative and narrative integrity. My Love Eun Dong was very much a nod to the Hallyu classics, and it enjoyed a small but rabid fanbase. I didn’t love all of how the show was handled, but I enjoyed it quite well in parts, and liked it enough to follow it through to the end. Other strong melos that I liked in recent years include One Warm Word and Secret Love Affair. Both not in the vein of classic Hallyu, but both were strongly melo, and enjoyed relatively small, ardent fanbases. In that sense, I don’t think the big melos are done.
As for ratings hits.. I find Korean audiences hard to predict, honestly. I feel like they do like their melos, but then again, not all melos do well. They also seem to like big budget flashy things, but then not all big budget flashy shows do well. And then sometimes, inexplicable things happen, like a boring show like Doctors doing so well at the ratings game. Other times, wonderful shows like Healer get overlooked and get low ratings. 🙄
When the show started im one of those fans who keeps on posting my reactions to fb. But now, i dont even understand why im still watching it, im disappointed with how the story runs. 🙁
Yes, the writing is quite bemusing to me too.. I just can’t understand what they’re trying to accomplish with this treatment of the characters and the story. I guess the silver lining is that it’s ending this week? Then you won’t be in a dilemma anymore, about whether to keep watching? 😛
You ave mentioned all nd its tru i thnk noh eul(suzy) shld work out on her acting even though she had improved frm her last drama
Oh yes, Suzy has definitely progressed since her Dream High days.. just, not enough, for this kind of role, sadly.
I also nearly lost my fangirl credentials. I couldn’t bring myself to watch the K-Version of Fated to Love You, even though Choi Jin Hyuk was the second male lead! I’m sorry that you couldn’t find something to love about this drama. I never started it, the melo theme turned me off. Plus I’m not a huge fan of Suzy and couldn’t see her as a balanced partner for Woob. Hopefully his next project ignites your passion again!
Heh. I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see. For now, I feel like I’ve got no Woob loyalty left in my poor fangirl heart, so any new project that he does will have to interest me at an intrinsic level for me to want to check it out. Not like UF, which looked completely uninteresting to me from the outset, but which I checked out anyway, for Woob. Bad decision. 😝
That’s a tough go my friend! I can so understand that though, a bad project can totally turn you off from even your most favorite actors. Let’s hope that his next project is just totally amazing to make up for this!
I’m thinking, that project that undoes the UF Effect on me, would have to be epically amazing, lol! 😝 Not saying never, but let’s just say I’m not holding my breath 😁
Oh, I knew already from the outset that this was not for me, so I didn’t even bother checking it out. Everything I’ve read about UF so far has just confirmed that my spidey senses still work. 😉
Your spidey senses SO DO WORK, Timescout!! 😆 Sigh. Tbh, I was never taken with any of the UF teasers or trailers. I dived in out of Woob loyalty. And in the process, lost all remaining Woob loyalty, heh. I should’ve avoided this one just like you did!
This drama makes me feel bad. Not because the story and the characters were jarring in general but because this show had SO MUCH HYPE surrounding it (I am still crying over the unfair ratings on I Remember You TBH- watch it fyi). Honesty, with the amount of promotion this show had, I immediately knew that they had to pull off something spectacular to get the much deserved hype which is why I am mad that it was never even really mediocre. This drama had things going on… Just for the sake of it. I never really got around to watching the show but I read a few of the recaps just to catch up and everytime I did read them I was thoroughly annoyed by how many hardships they could throw at us just to evoke empathy for the characters and even they tried SO VERY hard I really couldn’t care enough to actually watch it. I guess my interactions with this show is limited to watching some (slightly) bemusing clips on fb and reading the recaps. I am so very dissapointed that this wasn’t my one true opportunity to ogle Kim Woo Bin. Despite all of this, I will still hold my faith in him (Heirs did a great job at making me love him- not) and wait for a drama that will have me fall in love with him the way School 2013 had me swooning all throughout.
Lol that this show managed to annoy you so much even though you didn’t actually watch it, kpocketbunny!! 😆 I do agree that the angst was just laid on way too thick. It honestly felt gratuitous, after a while. Like writer-nim was thinking, NOPE, this bunch of people is NOT allowed to be happy.
I loved Woob in S2013, and my Woob love is no secret around these parts. But this show – THIS SHOW – has drained me of my Woob loyalty. I think it’s going to take something pretty amazing for me to get back my Woob love. 😛
You’ve got company. My exact sentiments and you’ve put them down so succinctly especially about the characters and the lying! The only difference is I’m still watching and I’m not sure why 🙂
I’m in the exact boat as you… not sure why I’m still watching but once I rounded ep 17, it’s like the last 10 minutes of gym class, might as well finish
Haha! Great analogy 😀
Tee hee! Love the analogy! Although, at least gym class has health benefits? 😝
Woot that we feel similarly about this show, Mitta! I feel quite bemused by this show’s odd choices as a whole. I’m impressed that you’re still hanging in there! You’ve got more fangirl mettle than I do, that’s for sure! 😆
Note: this comment contains SPOILERS:
I too have issues with this show, but for different reasons. Most of what you found bemusing, I was ok with. For example, Ti Jae’s skipping the engagement party. There were enough flashback scenes as well as his distaste for Jung Eun in current scenes that I found this action believable. So, my mileage varied on this and other points.
What has disturbed me most about this show is the abusiveness of Joon Young’s behaviour towards Eul, and how until ep 11 he doesn’t seem to understand how his actions might have impacted her. (More details in this thread: https://twitter.com/mishkarma/status/760539505459798016). I understand that the show is showcasing people, their flaws, and the necessary accompanying cognitive dissonance, but still!
As for Eul’s character, I see her as having PTSD, in some form, and her behaviours make sense to me in that light. She has had several traumatic events in nine years: witnessed father’s death and its cover up; become a single parent; hit by a car, requiring three surgeries; lost a lawsuit, which sent her into massive (for her income bracket) debt; ongoing abuse from the man she has loved for eleven years; and learning that the two most important men in her life have been lying to her for years.
With such powerful experiences, I have been hoping writers will provide an equally powerful resolution. I fear though they may go for a more cliche melo ending, eg in death all of Joon Young’s sins are forgiven or some such. Or worse Joon Young and Eul get a happy ending as, in my opinion, this will mean the show is advocating it’s ok to abuse and one should put up with abuse.
I will continue to watch to find out.
Thanks for highlighting the abuse issue, Michelle!! I absolutely felt it too, while watching, and I very much disliked Joon Young’s treatment of Eul, even when he WAS being nice to her. It just always felt like he was never being truthful with her, either way. And I hate the cruelty with which he treated her as well. I hated even more, the way she decided to stick it out and stick to him, even though I get that she was being written to look beyond the surface, to what’s truly in his heart. The problem is, though, he’s been so evasive and untruthful with her, that it’s a stretch for us to believe that she has any clue about what’s really in his heart. I guess I just couldn’t get past why the characters behaved the way they did (like, what’s really driving this behavior?), and Show never had a solid nor elegant answer to that. So past a certain point, I just gave up on ever understanding all the bad behavior. But you’re very right, it’s very bad behavior, and I hope that bad behavior doesn’t end up being endorsed by Show in the end.
On the other hand.. If I think of Eul as having PTSD, then Suzy’s delivery needs added depth and dimension. Even though Eul logically is likely suffering some form of PTSD after all the terrible events of her life, I just can’t feel it in Suzy’s delivery, and writer-nim sure isn’t being much help in terms of writing Eul so that we can understand her better.
I’d be curious to hear your take on how everything went down, after the show ends its run. I might check out the last episode a little bit myself, but I’m not sure I can last through the whole thing. I dipped my toes into E15 just to see if I’d feel differently after officially dropping the show, and lasted all of 8 minutes. 😝
Hahaha! Revoked license. But really the last 6 episodes or so have been circling around I don’t know what.
Seriously yes. Revoked license! I honestly feel like this show sucked me dry of my Woob loyalty. Which only lasted up till E14. After all of that, I don’t know if I have any Woob loyalty left! 😝 Also, I dipped my toes into E15, out of morbid curiosity. Y’know, just to see what happened after I called it quits. I lasted 8 minutes before bailing in a big hurry. I just can’t, with this show.