Review: The Red Sleeve

THE SHORT VERDICT:

The biggest compliment I can give Show, is that it knows what it wants to be, and accomplishes its core purpose with finesse and aplomb.

Sure, there are some narrative decisions I didn’t prefer, but Show demonstrates such a profound understanding of its key characters, and teases out the finer points of each of these characters so very well, that I’m more than willing to look past any dissatisfaction I might have with these other details.

Lee Junho and Lee Se Young are wonderful in this, both individually and together. It’s no exaggeration to say that these two had my heart, unequivocally.

Beautiful, poignant and completely worth it.

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Flash Review: What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim? [Why Secretary Kim]

A phrase that’s sometimes said around the dramaverse – and maybe you’ve said something similar yourself, at some point – is, “I could literally just watch these two be cute for sixteen hours.”

Well. Except for a backstory involving childhood trauma (kidnapping trigger alert, coz some folks might be sensitive to that), this show pretty much gives us exactly that: Park Seo Joon and Park Min Young being cute together, pretty much all of the time, for 16 episodes.

Yep. It’s as fluffy and angst-lite as it sounds. So if you’re up for something that’s light on plot but heavy on cute, this just might be the show for you.

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Dropped: Beautiful Gong Shim

Sometimes being a curious cat and following the buzz of a show pays off, and you end up finding – and loving – a gem of a show that you might not have bothered to check out otherwise.

And sometimes, being a curious cat.. well, doesn’t pay off.

I know lots of folks loved this show right from the start, and I even saw enthusiastic endorsements of it from some of my most trusted drama friends.

Sadly, try as I might, I never managed to really love this one.

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Review: That Winter, The Wind Blows

THE SHORT VERDICT:

A melodrama that has such beautiful cinematography, lovely music and good-looking actors that watching it often feels like looking at gorgeous moving postcards with their own built-in sound.

Unfortunately, logic is not this show’s strong point. On the upside (?), this flaw doesn’t become terribly glaring until fairly late in the show.

In the meantime, there’s a good amount of tension-laden fauxcest to mess with one’s mind. Which, I have to admit, was a fascinating exercise in itself.

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