A good romance drama tripped up by its own tail
Putting aside the supernatural aspect of the meet-cute of this drama, the core premise of the office romance plot is tropey but nicely executed. The “abilities” of the leads are icing on the cake. The leads are well matched to their roles. Their visuals, acting and chemistry are very good. The romance is cute and passionate in equal parts and comes with nice amount of skinship.
Let's be honest, the business and SF/ML subplot is meh. If they have focused completely on our OTP, it would have been even better. Alas, just when the show hits its stride and delivered us unto swoon heaven, the writer-nim went rouge.
It is true that the show always has a darker side, it won't be a k-drama otherwise. ;) It was hinted at many times and some traumatic event in the past was the likely trigger for their special abilities. For the longest time, it was low level stuff with just a hint of danger which is used to draw our CP closer together and move the plot along. Then it got dark, so very dark.
The Show decided that the only way to give closure to our CP is to retell their initial meeting and fateful parting 23 years ago. It is not unexpected, but it took a long time and a good part of that was already known or postulated. What is more problematic is that this segment contained more plot holes than the whole show up to that point. There is a fair bit of inconsistency judging from what was shown before and shown later. Even some dialogues between the actors are contradictory. I could have listed a page of them but I want to keep this relatively spoiler free. ;)
Adding to the problem is the way the Show portrayed the police. Their incompetence reached new heights in this show. It was baffling how the antagonist wasn’t caught in the first place and then managed to “hide” in plain sight for years. Again and again, the police are spoon fed relevant information but did very little which compounded the muddled narrative of the antagonist.
While the long recap is problematic, it was not the final nail. That honour goes to the last 20 minutes of the show. Did the production team review the script at all? It was a metaphoric train wreak that came out of nowhere. After we sat through the (literally) dark and gloomy recap and thought that we are back on track for some sweet CP moments, the Show went hyper! Yes, it was sort of funny for a moment but then it just escalated and escalated until I started to wince. So much bickering and shouting and for what?.
We also have closures of two side romantic subplots in the dying minutes. These were literally parachuted in with no warning or fanfare. Both romances were pushed aside by the evil plot and their conclusions felt contrived and rushed.
In the end, the show would have been better if it sticks to its core romance theme. Even though most of the subplots are weak and the support casts underutilised, they are harmless. Having said that, the Love Passionately for 7 days subplot is cute even though it did reminded me of Lovestruck in the City. ;)
The messy tail end was self inflicted and took a lot of the shine off a good romance. It is a real shame as the leads are well matched and the Show was on course for a satisfying finish. It is even more poignant when I recently read an interview of the ML where he said that he was so happy to be offered this script as he doesn’t have many opportunities to play a romantic lead at his age. Ouch!
OST is good and I’d have no problem re-watching the lead’s courting and romantic scene. Where is that YT cut?
Let's be honest, the business and SF/ML subplot is meh. If they have focused completely on our OTP, it would have been even better. Alas, just when the show hits its stride and delivered us unto swoon heaven, the writer-nim went rouge.
It is true that the show always has a darker side, it won't be a k-drama otherwise. ;) It was hinted at many times and some traumatic event in the past was the likely trigger for their special abilities. For the longest time, it was low level stuff with just a hint of danger which is used to draw our CP closer together and move the plot along. Then it got dark, so very dark.
The Show decided that the only way to give closure to our CP is to retell their initial meeting and fateful parting 23 years ago. It is not unexpected, but it took a long time and a good part of that was already known or postulated. What is more problematic is that this segment contained more plot holes than the whole show up to that point. There is a fair bit of inconsistency judging from what was shown before and shown later. Even some dialogues between the actors are contradictory. I could have listed a page of them but I want to keep this relatively spoiler free. ;)
Adding to the problem is the way the Show portrayed the police. Their incompetence reached new heights in this show. It was baffling how the antagonist wasn’t caught in the first place and then managed to “hide” in plain sight for years. Again and again, the police are spoon fed relevant information but did very little which compounded the muddled narrative of the antagonist.
While the long recap is problematic, it was not the final nail. That honour goes to the last 20 minutes of the show. Did the production team review the script at all? It was a metaphoric train wreak that came out of nowhere. After we sat through the (literally) dark and gloomy recap and thought that we are back on track for some sweet CP moments, the Show went hyper! Yes, it was sort of funny for a moment but then it just escalated and escalated until I started to wince. So much bickering and shouting and for what?.
We also have closures of two side romantic subplots in the dying minutes. These were literally parachuted in with no warning or fanfare. Both romances were pushed aside by the evil plot and their conclusions felt contrived and rushed.
In the end, the show would have been better if it sticks to its core romance theme. Even though most of the subplots are weak and the support casts underutilised, they are harmless. Having said that, the Love Passionately for 7 days subplot is cute even though it did reminded me of Lovestruck in the City. ;)
The messy tail end was self inflicted and took a lot of the shine off a good romance. It is a real shame as the leads are well matched and the Show was on course for a satisfying finish. It is even more poignant when I recently read an interview of the ML where he said that he was so happy to be offered this script as he doesn’t have many opportunities to play a romantic lead at his age. Ouch!
OST is good and I’d have no problem re-watching the lead’s courting and romantic scene. Where is that YT cut?
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