Three shows I dropped before I hit the jackpot
Start-up (2020)
Although business and investments are not my kind of thing, I wanted to watch Kim Seon-ho’s pre-Hometown outing. It is fast-paced and punchy, with an interesting mix of characters.
What I liked:
- Kim Seon-ho (Han Ji-pyeong) and Nam Joo-hyuk (Nam Do-san), together and separately
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| techie who knits |
- Nam Da-reum playing the young version of Ji-pyeong, with depth and emotion
- the other two Sans (Yoo Su-bin, Kim Do-wan) of Samsan Tech – funny, loyal and such fantastic friends
- Kim Joo-hun playing the father of Dal-mi and In-jae – full of life and ideas; he should have spent more time explaining the nature of entrepreneurship to his wife!
- In-jae’s silly, unethical and irritating stepfather and stepbrother (no wonder her mother moved out!)
- the story between Ji-pyeong and Dal-mi’s grandma
- the eclectic looks of Do-san’s family home, and Dal-mi and grandma’s home
- the offices in Sandbox
What was acceptable:
- the Sandbox concept
- Stephanie Lee, suitably grumpy and caustic as Sa-ha, the unlikely addition to Samsan
- Heo Jung-eun playing the young Dal-mi – I know she is an award-winning actress but I don’t find her outstanding. She does the scenes with the father well but she is not at Nam Da-reum’s level, and his scenes with the grandma are far superior.
Roles that could/should have been written and played better:
- the mothers
- In-jae (Kang Han-na)
- the grandma (Kim Hae-sook)
- Do-san’s father – annoying and unconvincing
and… the biggie…
- how did Bae Suzy win Best Actress for this??
- jarring imbalance among the main characters
For me, Ji-pyeong and Do-san were the main leads but technically, Seon-ho is second lead. Such a pity for such strong acting, but at least he won Best Supporting Actor for it. The two guys had compelling stories but I didn’t care much about Dal-mi and In-jae.
- Dal-mi and Suzy
There seems to be a disjunct between the young and adult Dal-mi. It is like they are two different people, whereas you could see young Ji-pyeong becoming adult Ji-pyeong and broody young In-jae becoming mean, bitter adult In-jae.
I don’t find Dal-mi particularly entrepreneurial and wasn’t keen to carry on for episodes to see this being revealed (if it does get revealed). She doesn’t have her father’s drive, creativity and energy. How is she suitable as Samsan Tech’s CEO? You could see the father was brimming with passion and motivation. Dal-mi is supposed to have inherited some of this, I think, but it didn’t come through either Jung-eun or Suzy.
- does the Sandbox competition have proper rules?
How does In-jae qualify when she is Rich, is from a successful company and her stepfather is a judge? He clearly helped her team! (or did he actually mean to eliminate her?!)
- lie upon lie upon lie
It gets increasingly ridiculous with the lies piling up just to protect Dal-mi from the truth. Was it necessary at all since she doesn’t seem surprised or disturbed about lies? She is completely unfazed by the fact that Do-san had lied about being the hotshot CEO that he wasn’t. When Do-san comes up with the n-th lie at episode 4 – that Ji-pyeong helped out as they were good friends, bro-like – it was time for me to exit.
16 episodes, tvN
More Than Friends (2020)
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| through thick and thin, all fights and punishments |
I liked the friendship theme and the whole group mostly acted well. Shin Ye-eun is such a sweet Woo-yeon. I had a problem with Lee Soo, played by Ong Seong-wu. He is supposed to be cold, but even coldness could be done much more convincingly. The book publishing and calligraphy themes were potentially attractive, then I realised the show is not a rom-com, so after one episode, that was the end of it.
16 episodes, JTBC
Revolutionary Love (2017)
It’s definitely a rom-com. Kang So-ra (playing Baek Joon) looks and acts very much like Kate Tsui! She’s okay in the role.
The guys Choi Si-won and Gong Myung are also okay, so that was it, it was an okay show. One major problem I had was Byun Hyuk’s (Si-won) father, who thought nothing of hitting his son with his golf club and BH’s trusty assistant Jae-hoon (Gong Myung) with his baseball bat.
Appalling! Good-bye.
16 episodes, tvN
Then I settled with Business Proposal.
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