Better than Season 1

The second season of Dr Romantic was a welcome surprise. I'm not used to Kdrama shows that have more than one season but the nature of this show meant that you could justify extending the show's existence for another year. As it happens, Dr Romantic came back with a better story and arguably more interesting cast of characters. As ever, Doctor Kim remains the heart pulse of the show as he shapes a new crop of doctors, each with their own inner demons. I enjoyed the new cast, particularly their competitive friendship that slowly blossomed, rather predictably, into a relationship. This was overall a really good show, and the second season was better than the first.

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It feels better if you watch it before Hotel Del Luna

This show was really good and Hwang Jung Eum was spectacular. Her character was someone you could easily empathise for and her yearning to just be free was palpable. The story was, for most part, beautiful and some of the early "ghost of the week" episodes were unforgettably good. But the show had a very simple formula to it and there were aspects to the story that just wasn't as enjoyable. Hwang Jung Eum was the only memorable actor in it.

I don't know about anyone else, but I also think I might have enjoyed this show better if I hadn't watched Hotel Del Luna first. I couldn't stop seeing the parallels and each one was a poor comparison to HDL. By the end I was resenting the similarities because I wanted something different to Hotel Del Luna, which i rated very highly. So, Mystic Pop-Up Bar was a very strange one for me. Some really good episodes and great acting from Hwang Jung Eum but undercut by this nagging feeling that it was retelling a story told by Jang Man-Wol from Hotel Del Luna, and not told nearly as well.

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A show that's out of this world (well sort of)

Sometimes you stumble across shows that remain with you for a long time because the characters are memorable and are supported by an actually enjoyable story. My Love From the Star is one of those shows. About a brooding alien with supernatural gifts trapped on earth and a sweet, but rather clueless, actress struggling with the hounding pressure of fame, these two come together to deliver a lovely show. The scenes alternate between beautiful to funny to sad and all of them at once.

The chemistry of Kim Soo-Hyun and Jun Ji-Hyun emphatically underpins the show's success. They are incredible together and separately, injecting their characters with a beautiful array of emotions. Jun Ji-Hyun's acting is perhaps more memorable simply because her character is far more vivid and vibrant than Kim Soo-Hyun's rather guarded character. The support cast around them also delivers and that is perhaps what stands it out from a lot of other Kdrama shows. Support characters cannot exist as "support characters" to the lives of the lead ones. This is not how real life works where everyone has their own inner turmoil and is the centrepiece of their own story.

The story of course is undercut with a sense of tragedy. And an alien and a human together just isn't meant to be, at least one of the characters knows this at all times. Nonetheless, the show drives at your heart with some beautiful storytelling that also perhaps conveys a message about South Korea's rather relentless culture around its pop idols. One moment they are stars, the next they are falling from the sky into the abyss, replaced by the next brightest dot in the sky.

I'm a little mixed on the ending but it's still a terrific show.

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A show for robots and all

I really, really enjoyed this show. It quickly grew on me as a romantic comedy that understood what genre it was in but still knew how to deliver a story about people longing for companionship and the sense of value and worth that is derived from our attachments to other people.

The plot isn't majestic but it is good, centring around a businessman who cannot come into physical contact with people, and a woman trying to make her way through life. The lead duo share an amazing chemistry that makes every scene they share deeply enjoyable. The way their relationship built up, particularly through episodes 4, 5 and 6 were memorable. There were consequences to pay for and the acting was beautiful and emotional, but some of these major conflicts were resolved easily and the show finished without much tension. Nonetheless, it was still a show you could watch simply because of the chemistry all the actors shared with each other. They really knew how to step into the roles.

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An incredible, heart-wrenching show

When I first watched this show I scored it a 9 but was rather undecided on the ending episodes. Rewatching it again I've come to appreciate how masterfully executed the first half of the show was.

It was incredibly beautiful, tying in two characters who are polar opposites yet sharing in common difficult relationships with their mothers that informed their outlook on life. Both characters suffer from it, yearn for affection, love and companionship but it manifests in different ways. Their failure to understand each other creates conflict until they both come to realise they want and need the same things. There is a moment in episode seven when Moon Gang-Tae has a powerful and emotional epiphany on his mother's supposed indifference and neglect of him and he realises he was loved all along, and it deepens the grief of missing her. That it didn't come from him being directly told but piecing together the truth behind their family outings to the local market made it all the more powerful. This is a story built on motifs, symbolisms and metaphors and it does them superbly.

I think the show explores autism powerfully and beautifully. And also in a very real and human way. Having to look after an autistic brother from a very young age isn't something anyone can do without fatigue, and the show is really good in showing us how Kim Soo-Hyun's character sometimes suffers from privately wanting more. I think his acting, and particularly Oh Jung-Se's were just great. There's also some moving character moments dealing with loneliness, seeking companionship and love, and how sometimes something as simple as sharing dinner with someone else can feel special. The show is really lovely in that sense, accentuated by a blend of songs that correctly fit the tone of the show and various scenes.

I did still have a real problem with the latter half of the show and I don't think it needed a murder drama brought into it but nonetheless this was a masterpiece in storytelling.

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Hotel Del Luna - A Five Star Experience

I started watching this show as something to pass time whilst writing an essay but it quickly grabbed my attention and ensured it would never leave my memory. The concept of the story is very unique and it was really interesting seeing how the show addressed themes of guilt, forgiveness, redemption and death by making some of the main characters fallible to mistakes. The story progressed and though the first five or six episodes were certainly enjoyable, they were more about building chemistry between characters with those "ghost of the week" episodes and giving us snippets of Jang Man-Wol's past. But once we reached episode 8, everything after that was really just 10/10 episodes. I found the last scenes of the finale very difficult to watch to the point where I'll revisit the entire show but never rewatch that final episode.

It also became clear by the end that the show was telling us this very crucial message: death isn't the end but merely one stage of someone's life. Separation by death doesn't diminish the value of love and relationships, but makes living through those moments all the more special knowing that they are finite moments that can end at any point. This isn't an easy thing to make peace with for a lot of people, but Hotel Del Luna beautifully crafts the message that often the journey can be as beautiful as the destination. Things come to an end but can last forever if they're moments that are lived well.

What I really like about this show is that the overarching arc of the story doesn't reach its resolution until very well near the end, with an incredible amount of tension generated along the way, but it also gives what some might call the "calm after the storm". The pacing isn't quick but I feel it's better this way. Understanding Jang Man-Wol's history over a number of episodes rather than too quickly early on protects the intrigue around her. It is also reflective of how we come to understand new people in our lives as real human beings. Hotel Del Luna, in that sense, is truthful to the human experience of fraternity and relationships.

I also really think there's a particular episode near the end that deserves an article of its own. It was one of the best episodes I've watched in a Kdrama show. It also mattered, after so much deliberating and agonising, that Jang Man-Wol came to the decision that she did during that episode. It was important that the writers had gone with it how they did because it ascribed agency and emotional weight to the significance of her decision, rather than a situation where her choices were resolved for her by the truth being revealed to her. That would have made her angst redundant and wouldn't have been ultimately Jang Man-Wol making a choice but it being made for her. The writers were conveying quite clearly to us that this was both her decision and also their way of answering a question that would have been forming both within the heads of the characters and the audience itself from the show's beginning once Jang Man-Wol's backstory became increasingly revealed.

The stories of the support cast are also quite devastating in their own rights. Really, this is one of those kinds of shows.

The acting is extraordinary in reflecting the show's main themes, and I mean genuinely extraordinary. IU is stunning and steals the show in every scene of every episode. Her character is genuinely one of the most memorable characters I've ever watched in TV. Even if you find the show difficult to enjoy, it's difficult to not appreciate just how good she was. Yeo Jin-Goo was also really good as the lead male in the show, and his character had a really good compassionate aura that contrasted well with IU's character. His morally steadfast approach could appear boring once you realised there was no room for growth seeing as he already began as this perfect, loving guy, but it made him the perfect riposte for IU's character. Whenever the two shared a screen, the show never lacked for it. They enjoyed an incredible chemistry that will live long in the memory and made those final scenes all the more beautiful.

The music. Just wow. Find me a better OST from any show, I'll wait! They enriched the tone of just about every scene, complementing perfectly. There are particular highlights from Episodes 6, 9, 12 and 14 that stand out for helping deepen the beauty of some stirring and moving scenes. They were nearly as memorable as the characters of the show themselves.

Can I just reiterate again how marvellous IU was? She might have inspired a new generation in fashion.

All in all, this is one of the best k-dramas I've ever watched, with a finale that will remain glued to your brain for a very long time afterwards.

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A brilliant show fully worth watching

This is a show that is simultaneously brutal and beautiful in its depiction and execution. It's a fantastic metaphor for capitalism and the illusion of autonomy, the compulsion to survive that drives the poorest when their supposed freedoms and choices are constrained by a need to survive. Anyone could have left the game but out in the real world, the pressures would not let them. So they stayed and played.

I thought Gi-Hun was a weak and unsympathetic character, I didn't like the actor's constipated expressions at everything and I thought the support cast was better in terms of sympathetic characters and acting. The plot itself was formulaic but still great. Lot of the deaths were foreshadowed but that often made the prelude thick with emotional suspense and a desperation to be proven wrong. The games were brutal and I thought in particular that episodes 4 and 7 were masterful.

Again, I felt let down by the main character and I also found everything on the side with the undercover policeman to be an unnecessary addition which could instead have been devoted to fleshing out the back stories of some of the other characters. I found the North Korean defector (sorry i can't remember her name) the most interesting whilst Ali and the old man were the most endearing. This show really though could only be endured if you hated the characters. As soon as you began liking someone, they were bound to die.

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Nevertheless, this show fell apart in the last quarter

This was the first Kdrama I couldn't binge in one sitting and I think that meant the anticipation for each episode was higher - so were the inevitable satisfaction and then disappointment.

Nevertheless was a solid drama that was actually a very good drama until the end. The side romances, particularly the burgeoning lesbian romance were arguably more interesting and there was actually something delightful in seeing Sol realise that her feelings were reciprocated. I could have watched an entire show about that arc. As it is, Na-bi and Jaeon were interesting but full of cliches. I lost my mind at how he refused to explain to her a very simple truth about the circumstances of his relationships with other women when it would help his cause, especially when he got beaten up. His refusal for honesty coupled with his insistent reiteration that Na-bi was the one were confusing. His actions never supported his words. I thought the highs and lows of their relationship were beautifully realistic in the sense that she understood he was toxic and began managing her own heart, but only feebly. Although Jaeon's lack of transparency was frustrating, and his persistence was borderline unethical, the first half of the show was worth watching. Na-bi is a warming character who is navigating education whilst refusing, and failing, to get sucked into another heartbreak.

The story, for me, derailed with the cliched love triangle attempt. Viewers knew that 'potato boy' never had a chance. He was there as an interesting obstacle, but it wasn't even interesting. It made Jaeon's jealousy and continuing refusal to be honest all the more infuriating. The show did have some sweet and tender moments but they were a rarity by the end because it was clear Na-bi and Jaeon were incompatible. The resolution that was seemingly made in the penultimate episode was undone very quickly, although with some very good acting. That's the other thing, the acting was never an issue. All the actors performed their roles superbly. But some of the writing and character decisions were baffling. I just can't understand how the writers in this day and age thought to end the story like that whilst Na-bi is under the impression that Jaeon is someone who toys with people's feelings.

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Bad Mess Of A Show

This is just not an interesting show; a potentially great story about rich and poor in Korea got lost in the messy four-way love saga that left me actively resenting the male lead protagonist for how he treated his girlfriend whilst pining for someone else. I would not recommend anyone to watch this as it's just not very good.

Moon Ka-Young is great but she stands alone in her acting. Her peers just aren't very good and their characters lack depth or nuance. Kdramas and their love triangles are tedious. The best kdramas are the ones that don't make this subplot the front and centre of the show.

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This show began with an incredible amount of promise but quickly degenerated into easily solved conflicts, characters repeating the same actions time and time again, bad plot points and some really bizarre moments. I don't know what I was expecting with this show but aside from one or two performances, it wasn't enjoyable. The flashbacks were arguably the highlight of the show as they displayed the main villain's reasons for everything she was doing. It was difficult not to feel sorry for her having been spurned by her husband like that and forced to live for centuries, only to see him reborn with the very same woman he lost her to.

So much potential, and yet by the end when the show was done, I really didn't care anymore. The characters lost all my sympathy, even the previously great music became grating.

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Wholesome and fun

This was a very cute and wholesome kdrama show which I'd recommend people to watch; it's easy to get into, the female protagonist is cute and likeable and it has the charm of a typical korean small town story that it delivers quite well on. Some of the plot threads are predictable but this isn't always a bad thing. The chemistry between the lead duo was also good and this is sometimes all a show needs to compensate for the absence of an overarching plot that is wholly interesting.

Overall, I'd recommend this show. it balances different tones quite well and I had a lot of fun watching it. I might feel differently rewatching it but on first glance, it was really fun for me.

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A majestic show of two parts

I can't describe my feelings about this show without a deep lingering sense of confusion. It is simultaneously one of the greatest Korean dramas I've ever watched and one that undermines its own magic at times. It is a show with an incredibly beautiful set of personalities, moments, dialogue set against wonderful music. It explores with thoughtfulness and care, and shows Son-Yeji at her absolute glorious best.

The story across the first ten episodes or so is wonderfully warm and with tension. You find yourself engaged with every character. Everyone has some sort of a story. CLY tells this well. It makes you fall for the chemistry, makes you think that it's all real, that perhaps this is a documentary of a real life incident where a South Korean woman parachuted into dangerous terrains and was saved by a stout soldier. The acting is powerful enough to make you think that. The music is gorgeously appropriate.

Whilst set in North Korea, this show in the first half moves from amazing episode to amazing episode. But then afterwards, everything feels rushed. The magic of the show wasn't in what would happen when she finally reached South Korea. It was if she would reach. Understandably you couldn't drag this out for 16 episodes, but once they brought her back and she was no longer in North Korea, the main premise of the show had been solved. Everything after that felt a little anticlimatic.

Overall, the show finished strongly and remains one of the best I've ever watched.

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Acting is better than the story

I haven't actually finished this show but nothing I've seen so far suggests to me any major changes lie ahead. The show is carried at a stumbling pace by the warmth of some genuinely nice characters in that no-one is really rotten. The three main characters have some endearing qualities to them but it's their flaws that make this a show that's about killing time rather than enjoying.

Let's start with Hwan-gi. The socially awkward introverted boss was a concept I liked and I found him a very sympathetic character. It's clear his problems came from being emotionally tormented by his father's relentless drive for perfection. I thought his relationship with Jhi-hye was surprisingly beautiful in the flashback episode - which for me was easily the standout episode and built on some great writing - partly because it was platonic and not romantic. She being the only person who understands his introverted difficulties and helps him really conveyed a sense of what she meant to him as a friend.

But the show struggles because of his relationships with his teammates. We see at different points he lets his guard down with them individually and shares some poignant moments, yet in the next scene, they remain awkward and fearful of him. It made no sense that having had a touching moment with his secretary early on in the show, that she remains super awkward around him and doesn't even try to help others understand him. I thought they could have built a great platonic bond but the show didn't tap into that.

The big issue is Chae Ro-Woon. Her motivations for joining the company are strong but never fleshed out to the point they become weak. I don't find it plausible that her inner mechanisms leading her to that company melt away within a few episodes. She never really seemed like someone in pursuit of revenge and was too easily sympathetic to Hwan-gi despite viewing him as the cause of her sister's death. This was so weakly developed it was disappointing. Having said that, I must also add that her character was still pleasant and the acting for the role was sublime in my opinion.

The music didn't often fit what tone the scenes required. I think this show tried to tell a serious story through a comedic lens and that was a bad mistake. It's no surprise that the flashback episode was really good because it was stripped away of all that extra gloss and was a bone-bare episode of human realism, hope and suffering.

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A comedy that was more than a comedy

I picked this show because it broke the kdrama tradition of being 16 episodes ninety minutes long. It was a rather swift show but one that nonetheless delivered a deeply moving story.

The story of two mentally troubled people living next door to each other with all the comedic encounters set the tone early for what our lead pair - and the town they lived in - were like. Lee Min-Kyung suffered from OCD and an extreme anxiety that meant she had difficulty trusting anything and anyone. Hwi-oh's anger issues was what landed him in therapy and the way these two interacted early on *through* their mental illness was done really well; this is a comedy show but it didn't insult people's mental illness. It was funny without being disrespectful.

As the story progresses, the comedy becomes less prominent and you understand why it has to: the backstories of both Min-Kyung and Hwi-oh make it difficult for the show to remain completely light-hearted, especially where it concerns the abuse Min-Kyung went through. As the show progresses, her ordeal tells a good story of what it is like for women in abusive relationships, the fear of trusting again. Her relationship with Hwi-oh was done organically, built over a gradual trust sprung from his genuine decency and devotion to keeping her safe and happy. The way they first kissed sort of alluded to that; she is totally fine sleeping with him around because she trusts him. Because he listens to her, because he believes her.

Which is what this show is really all about. It's about Min-Kyung needing someone to believe her, to give her that feeling of safety and reassurance her ex-partner took from her. Throughout the show she struggles for that, but finds it in Hwi-oh. We see the importance of why believing her is better than not. The show tells a good message there; sometimes in a relationship, what's not important is whether your partner is right or not but whether they think you believe them or not.

Hwi-oh in turn finds something in his life he can now lose, and it puts him always on the verge of erupting, of reverting. She thinks she's broken him, but the beauty of the show is how they both subliminally helped each other grow and heal a lot, but the final part of the recovery needed to be done by themselves.

The last episode was a little rushed in that some of the subplots seemed wrapped up too quickly - maybe that's the drawback of being a short series, but I enjoyed this show a lot. It was sold by the terrific acting, particularly on Oh Yeon-Seo's part. I feel like this is a feel-good show I can return to a lot and still enjoy it.

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