THE SHORT VERDICT:
A fairly typical contract-marriage-meets-terminal-illness sort of melodrama that doesn’t pack many narrative surprises.
The surprises mostly come in the form of the fantastic deliveries by the main cast. Namely, UEE is flat-out fantastic in this. So is Lee Seo Jin, and so is little munchkin Shin Rin Ah. The chemistry between these three, any which way you slice it, is golden, and alone is worth the watch.
Heartfelt, heartwarming, and solidly engaging.
I can hardly believe that 2015 is coming to a close and 2016’s almost upon us. I know I said this last year too, but seriously guys, time is flying.
Even more so when you count the year in drama milestones, or so it seems, since there are more dramas in dramaland than ever before, vying for our limited drama hours.
Everything feels like it’s flying by in a blur, and even though I’m dedicated to my dramas, it’s just not humanly possible to stay on top of everything – and that’s before taking Real Life responsibilities into account! XD
Still, I’m pleased to report that I managed to watch at least as much drama as I did last year, if not a little bit more. I’m sorta behind on the reviewing front, but I promise to catch up on that, pinky swear!
Remember when everyone seemed to love Ho Goo’s Love but I ended up dropping it? Uh, pretty much the same thing happened here, with Ex-Girlfriend Club.
I’d heard more than a few glowing recommendations for Ex-Girlfriend Club, and phrases like “underrated little gem” were thrown about enthusiastically whenever I’d seen this show mentioned. I was optimistic.
As a bonus, I already liked Byun Yo Han, Song Ji Hyo and Lee Yoon Ji.
Sadly, try as I might, I never was able to get into this drama. On the upside, just because this drama didn’t work for me, doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. 😉
So recently, a couple of comments on the blog have combined to give me pause for thought.
And instead of just answering the latest question in the comments section, I thought it was interesting enough, and thought-provoking enough, to put it all in a new post, and see what you guys think.
Well ok, that, and the fact that as I chewed on my answer to the latest comment, I realized that there were just too many facets to the answer than I felt could fit reasonably into a simple comment.
Basically, the question is, have kdramas gotten worse / more “dumbed down” in recent years?
Let’s dive in together to take a look, shall we?
…And another one on my drama plate bites the dust.
I’m not in a dropping mood or anything, I swears. I promise that there are dramas that I’ve finished and liked, even. I just haven’t finished writing the reviews (they’ll come, honest!).
I really wanted to like Ho Goo’s love, and even stuck with it for 10 whole episodes, hoping that it would hook me properly at some point. 10 episodes into Show’s total of 16, though, I realized that this show simply wasn’t working for me.