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Hearing about Moon Chae Won's casting offer for Goodbye Mr. Black made me happy. Having enjoyed her previous works I was looking forward to her new drama, as it has been 3 years since her last one 'Good Doctor'. Lined up for fall 2015 after 'The Village - Achiara's Secret', it was suddenly being dropped by SBS in favor of another drama, Remember (ft. Yoo Seung Ho & Park Min Young). There was a lot of uncertainty whether Goodbye Mr. Black would still be broadcasted after being cut. Eventually MBC picked up the drama and scheduled it for a premiere in March 2016. A small screen comeback for Moon Chae Won was finally in the works.
The story is based of a manhwa named Goodbye Mr. Black, that takes its inspiration from the novel 'The Count of Monte Cristo'. Searching for this story led me to a lot of positive reviews. With a cast of well known actors including Lee Jin Wook, Song Jae Rim and more, the future looked bright. But as always you never know how things will turn out. A revenge themed serie is usually about the main character outsmarting his enemies and punishing them to pay them back for his pain. Love is often thrown into the mix as it is something where the main character gets his strength from to endure difficult situations. Lacking a real love story could have done wonders because it got more annoying than it contributed to the quality of the serie. After a while everything became predictable and felt dragged. Halfway through it picked up a little bit, not long before going back to it's usual pattern. You get the feeling the story is going nowhere. The extension of 4 episodes didn't make it better. They could have wrapped this up in 16 episodes. Having watched some of the actors & actresses past works, this is probably one of the most poorly written drama's in their career. Seeing their filmography they have surely acted in better ones. Lee Jin Wook's character Cha Ji Won is a smart & loyal person, that would consider taking risks in order for him to succeed. A very optimistic person. Making a return as Mr. Black after being framed by his best friend Min Sun Jae (Kim Kang Woo) he seems to have lost some of his composure & intelligence. It was like seeing him smiling and punching himself in the face multiple times although knowing it hurts. Moon Chae Won did an amazing job in both 'Innocent Man' & 'Good Doctor'. In 'Goodbye Mr. Black' her character 'Kim Swan' fell short. She was running all over the place (looking for her identity). Being the female lead you expect her to do a better job supporting Mr. Black in his quest for revenge but she had her own problems to deal with. It only lead to dragging him down. Obviously developing feelings for each other is a bad idea when planning your revenge, seeing how enemies could use her against him. In these kind of series, it always bound to happen. Her chemistry with Lee Jin Wook isn't bad yet it isn't comparable to her pairings with Song Joong Ki & Joo Won. However Lee Jin Wook is not at fault as I liked his acting in 'The Time We Were Not In Love' where he formed a nice love line with Ha Ji Won. Kim Tae Woo's portrayal of his characters in 'That Winter, The Wind Blows' & 'God's Gift - 14 Days' were great. This is probably one of his more forgettable roles since he didn't have as much influence as he had in his former works. The whole cast fell victim to a poorly written drama which is a pity because the reference material and cast were promising. Moon Hee Jung has better works on her résumé, for example: 'Missing You' (ft. Park Yoo Chun, Yoon Eun Hye & Yoo Seung Ho).
Goodbye Mr. Black wasn't atrocious but decent would have been too praising. It was okay at best. While the 4 OST's were not bad the lack of good (variety) background music, that captures the feeling of the serie, didn't do the drama any good. All that remains is an average drama with a lot of repetitive looping and predictable plot lines. Sharing the same day- & timeslot as 'Descendants of The Sun' when premiering adds up to the unfortunate stuff happening to the drama, as many people preferred the latter for a very good reason. A fair share of bad luck you might say.
Revenge is sweet when done right but that's certainly not the case with Goodbye Mr. Black.
The story is based of a manhwa named Goodbye Mr. Black, that takes its inspiration from the novel 'The Count of Monte Cristo'. Searching for this story led me to a lot of positive reviews. With a cast of well known actors including Lee Jin Wook, Song Jae Rim and more, the future looked bright. But as always you never know how things will turn out. A revenge themed serie is usually about the main character outsmarting his enemies and punishing them to pay them back for his pain. Love is often thrown into the mix as it is something where the main character gets his strength from to endure difficult situations. Lacking a real love story could have done wonders because it got more annoying than it contributed to the quality of the serie. After a while everything became predictable and felt dragged. Halfway through it picked up a little bit, not long before going back to it's usual pattern. You get the feeling the story is going nowhere. The extension of 4 episodes didn't make it better. They could have wrapped this up in 16 episodes. Having watched some of the actors & actresses past works, this is probably one of the most poorly written drama's in their career. Seeing their filmography they have surely acted in better ones. Lee Jin Wook's character Cha Ji Won is a smart & loyal person, that would consider taking risks in order for him to succeed. A very optimistic person. Making a return as Mr. Black after being framed by his best friend Min Sun Jae (Kim Kang Woo) he seems to have lost some of his composure & intelligence. It was like seeing him smiling and punching himself in the face multiple times although knowing it hurts. Moon Chae Won did an amazing job in both 'Innocent Man' & 'Good Doctor'. In 'Goodbye Mr. Black' her character 'Kim Swan' fell short. She was running all over the place (looking for her identity). Being the female lead you expect her to do a better job supporting Mr. Black in his quest for revenge but she had her own problems to deal with. It only lead to dragging him down. Obviously developing feelings for each other is a bad idea when planning your revenge, seeing how enemies could use her against him. In these kind of series, it always bound to happen. Her chemistry with Lee Jin Wook isn't bad yet it isn't comparable to her pairings with Song Joong Ki & Joo Won. However Lee Jin Wook is not at fault as I liked his acting in 'The Time We Were Not In Love' where he formed a nice love line with Ha Ji Won. Kim Tae Woo's portrayal of his characters in 'That Winter, The Wind Blows' & 'God's Gift - 14 Days' were great. This is probably one of his more forgettable roles since he didn't have as much influence as he had in his former works. The whole cast fell victim to a poorly written drama which is a pity because the reference material and cast were promising. Moon Hee Jung has better works on her résumé, for example: 'Missing You' (ft. Park Yoo Chun, Yoon Eun Hye & Yoo Seung Ho).
Goodbye Mr. Black wasn't atrocious but decent would have been too praising. It was okay at best. While the 4 OST's were not bad the lack of good (variety) background music, that captures the feeling of the serie, didn't do the drama any good. All that remains is an average drama with a lot of repetitive looping and predictable plot lines. Sharing the same day- & timeslot as 'Descendants of The Sun' when premiering adds up to the unfortunate stuff happening to the drama, as many people preferred the latter for a very good reason. A fair share of bad luck you might say.
Revenge is sweet when done right but that's certainly not the case with Goodbye Mr. Black.
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