Amy Bown

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Jang Hyuk was good butJang Seung Jo is the MVP of this series. What an incredible actor. His emotional range is phenomenonal. He gave the series some heart. This a top-notch revenge melo and while it has some kdrama clichés, the scenes with Jang Hyuk and Jang Seung Jo are master-class acting. Worth it just to watch the two male leads--consummate actors in a drama that is soapy and operatic and Shakespearean, all at once.

The heroine was neurodivergent? I didn't get that AT ALL. I thought her reactions to bullying and the overwhelming experience of being thrust into modeling were no different from what any teen would feel. Her being a "geek" isn't enough to show us she is on the spectrum. I thought it was a typical, silly cliched, ugly-duckling-transformed into-swan rom-com, a total fantasy complete with the requisite sassy gay black man with a heart of gold (the contemporary version of the Magical Negro) and an utterly unrealistic plot about a pretty but average girl becoming a supermodel overnight.. If they wanted to make a positive statement about neurodivergence, the audience should have been let in on it.

Three stars for Seo Kang Jun's star-making turn as Baek In Ho. The show itself is fascinating and gets points for not being a typical kdrana. But it sends mixed messages about toxic relationships. So many kdrama watchers are young girls, and the message it sends is that controlling, manipulative men can be changed by love. I find it disturbing that so many viewers romanticize Seol's devotion to Jeong. What they have is obsession and codependency, not "true love". It is clearly shown that Jeong had psychopathic tendencies from childhood (like when he gave alcohol to the toddler) yet viewers think he's just "misunderstood". The show has gaslighted viewers as much as Jeong has Soel. Men with this many red flags are not romantic and they don't change. They just get worse. Since this was made in 2015, the normalizing of an unhealthy relationship can be forgiven. But it's 2024. That so many viewers still see Jeong as "complex" or a "victim", and a bad relationship as "true love"--have we learned nothing?

The first few episodes are trying to be a stupid rom-com where SKJ has a perm and buck teeth. They're cringey. You won't miss much if you go directly to epi 3 or 4. That's when a completely different series starts, and though flawed and uneven, it has moments of unforgettable brilliance. This portrait of a relationship between two imperfect people is raw, frustrating, and sad--because that's what relationships are in real life. Seo Kang Joon gives a heartbreaking performance as a young man who gives his heart to a woman who is too depressed and damaged to completely receive it. I can't say enough about how great an actor SKJ is. Korean actors are the greatest in the world and he is the best of the best. There is a scene where he keeps stalling the inevitable breakup by desperately looking for a coffee shop. As the shops close and turn their lights off one by one, it's a metaphor for the light of hope being turning off on the relationship. SkJ manages to go through the stages of grief--denial, bargaining, and acceptance--without saying a word, all in the space of two minutes. It's all in those famous, wounded, amber-colored eyes. He has a rare soulfulness for one so young. In the scene where his ex drunk-dials him, he doesn't say a word. The camera moves in on his face. He barely moves a muscle but with his eyes and the slightest of microexpressions, he shows how conflicted his character is. He doesn't want to be sucked back in to her drama, but knows resistance is futile. And you can see it in just a flicker of the eye and an infinitesimal movement of the mouth. That takes serious acting skills. Esom is also incredible here. So many people condemn her character as selfish, but when you're depressed, you just don't have room for anyone else. You barely have energy for herself. Her depiction of grief and suicidal depression was spot-on. At the end, we see her healthy and looking to the future. To me, that's a happy ending. This is about adult relationships in real life. They're flawed. They're confusing. They don't always make sense. And they're messy as hell. The ending is not fairytale. It's better than that. It shows two people who learned from the relationship and are moving on, not just in their lives, but from each other. They've grown up. All in all, this a flawed drama and is not for everyone. But if you like great acting, it's worth it, especially from Seo Kang Jun.

Although it may seem stereotypical, the entitled attitudes of the ex-pats toward the "locals" in this series is pretty accurate. When I lived in Venice, the ex-pats who married Venetian aristocrats were almost anachronistic in their classist attitudes, acting superior to overcompensate for the fact that they were feeling out of place. I thought this could explore more of that--interesting themes of how people become ex-patriated from themselves when abroad. But instead it's Nicole being yet another white, privileged fragile flower who manages to make losing a child--which should be tragic--seem like an annoying first-world problem. I love Sarayu Blue, but the storyline of the husband who just happens to be cheating on her with the third main character--Ho to the hum. The other thing is that the dialogue especially outdoors, sounds like it had to be redubbed, so that the line readings sound inauthentic and badly acted. Not sure I'll return to it. The opening prologue was brilliant though.

By far, the best Bridgerton yet. This one was less fluffy and had more emotional depth than the others. The actor who played young King George was phenomenal (and gorgeous). You got the backstories of the two most interesting characters, the Queen and Lady Danbury. But the most compelling was the lifelong love the Queen had for her mad King, his struggles with insanity, and her steadfast devotion. I cried more than once because it was tragic and bittersweet.

Why do so many shows that start out brilliantly always end up being so disappointing? In1899, the writer didn't know how to end it so they tacked on this ridiculous deus ex machina that came out of nowhere and negated the seven episodes before it, and then ended with no explanation. Too many questions were left unanswered. It's like let's just focus on the cool CGI and gorgeous cinematography and create an acid trip (with Grace Slick and White Rabbit no less). Who cares about the story? Why bother with the writing? Let's just throw a bunch of plotlines at the wall and see what sticks. Unfortunately, nothing sticks. It's a mess. The first half was dramatic and mysterious. But it turned almost laughably campy and badly acted in the second. If it had gone a few more episodes and explained what it was all about, it might have been salvaged by some semblance of meaning, but there was no such respect for the viewer. This also just happened to me with the Korean series "Grid". It started out intriguingly and had the brilliant actor Seo Kang Joon, but devolved into an incomprehensible trainwreck. You can go along for the ride with both shows, but expect to be frustrated and unsatisfied at the end.

Seo Kang Joon is not just a beautiful face. He's a phenomenal actor. Very few actors his age are at his level. A less skilled actor would have overplayed the differences between the human and the robot, or made the robot cartoonish, but he was subtle and nuanced. One of the best perfornances I've ever seen. Unlike others here, I never hated human Shin. To lose his father, be kidnapped and separated from his mother, raised by an unloving grandfather, hit by the White Truck of Death, and wake up from a coma only to find a robot has taken over his life and everyone likes the robot better? I'd be pretty angry and want to destroy the robot too. Although he redeemed himself in the end, I would liked to have seen his character more. Otherwise, it's a must-see series for SKJ's performance alone. I have to laugh at the reviewer here who said that Seo Jang Joon was terrible at kissing and skinship and must be inexperienced. Um, he's a robot? He's supposed to be inexperienced and well, robotic, in romance. Did the commenter not get the memo? In actuality, SKJ is one of the best and most realistic kissers in kdrama (Entourage, When the Weather is Fine). Just had to set the record straight!