my ajumma notes

Unusual combi of three leads, with one of them the villain!  You’d need a closely connected script and well-written characters for this to work well. Main reasons to watch:  Seo Kang-joon as Jung Hae-seong and Kim Shin-rok as Seo Myung-joo   Seo Kang-joon does well as the Stephen Chow undercover high school student, son of lost father, NIS agent and half of the couple, covering the whole range of being funny, cute, intelligent and emotional. Kim Shin-rok is superbly creepy and unhinged.   Who else was entertaining Domestic Team 4: amusing as a group Boss Ahn (Jeon Bae-su) is predictable but has some punchy lines.  Senior lady Mi-jung (Yoon Ga-yi) and junior Young-hoon (Jo Bok-rae) deadpan well.  That Young-hoon is 26 years old makes me laugh every time he appears.  I liked how Hae-seong’s being an outstanding agent doesn’t overshadow the others too much and they all have their strengths.   The students: such an interest...

Somewhat unusual, with the comedy and the side plot more interesting than the romance, which was, sadly, bland and predictable. Hilarious Seok Ji-won ( Joo Ji-hoon ) Lee Ki-ha (Kim Hyun-mok) Ji-hoon and Hyun-mok are funnier than Rowoon and Hyun-mok in The Matchmakers ; without this pair, I probably would have dropped the show. Moderately funny Grandpa Yoon (Kim Kap-soo), with his smirking and some amusing lines Mildly funny Dad Seok Gyeon-tae (Lee Byung-joon) Teacher Byun (Yoon Seo-hyun) VP Kang (Baek Hyun-joo) Disappointing The love stories Seok Ji-won and Yoon Ji-won I don’t know why Seok JW likes her.  Student Yoon JW isn’t a nice person – smug, vain and self-centred.  She’s mostly just putting down Seok JW or swinging her hair around and looking pretty.  Teacher Yoon JW is boring, and again, I don’t know why Seok JW likes her again/still.  It felt like he was carrying over his teenage affections into adult life.  When she asks why he...

Cute dogs!  Cute Hae-na!  Cute Hae-na’s family!  Cute couple!  Cha Eunwoo’s cute face! All the dogs deserve praise and of course the two main ones should be singled out for more doggy treats!  However, there was too much use of CGI and the dogs looked too fake in those moments. good to stick to just the real dogs! Park Gyu-young (Han Hae-na) is delightful in this and so is Cocoa, as well as Hae-na’s voiceovers when she is in dog form.  I think there is a template used for actresses people don’t like – it says that so-and-so will never be a good actress, she has only one facial expression the whole time and has no chemistry with the male lead.  I saw a couple of such comments about Gyu-young for this show, but I’ve seen almost exactly the same points made about Shin Se-kyung , Moon Ga-young , Nam Ji-hyun ,  Park Eun-bin  and Jo Bo-ah .  Gyu-young is not at the level of these other ladies but she's d...

True beauty is: Friends you can count on   The girls are the typical friends-are-forever lot and I like how fellow bully victim Hye-min (Oh Yoo-jin) eventually becomes part of the group. The guys are my  scene stealers  for the show.  Seo-joon’s non-gangster gang is hilarious, along with Tae-hoon (Lee Il-joon) and the guy in specs.  Their best parts were the hospital room scene and them chasing the ‘ugly ghost’ at the school camp.  Brilliant juxtaposition of the guys finding the white sheet at the bottom of the slope with Soo-ho (Cha Eun-woo) confessing to Ju-kyung (Moon Ga-young).  Loved how the Soo-ho/Seo-joon (Hwang In-yeop) ‘fight’ looked like a weird romp in the fields from the guys’ perspective.  so funny to have Seo-joon faint at the sight of 'ugly ghost' where else in the world can we find a school campsite with a romantic boat setting? Special mention for Tae-hoon, who was instrumental in Soo-ho taking his first step, ...