Madame Antoine

Madame Antoine

3.5/10

Madame Antoine

Genre:                           Episodes: 16                          Year: 2016

Romance

Comedy

Synopsis:

Go Hye Rim is a divorced woman in her 30s who earns a living by running a fortune-telling cafe. While having no actual supernatural abilities, Hye Rim uses her keen senses of observation to evaluate and assist her customers. When a psychologist, Choi Soo Hyun, moves his practice to the floor above Hye Rim’s cafe, she is not pleased as customers may leave her cafe for professional counselling. Due to the animosity between the two, Choi Soo Hyun makes Hye Rim the subject in a psychological experiment he is conducting, which aims to prove that true love doesn’t exist. He has three men approach Hye Rim and attempt to woo her. Won Ji Hyo- a younger pretty-boy who works at the office, Choi Seung Chan- an athletic man and Soo Hyun’s younger brother, and Soo Hyun himself.

Cast:

Han Ye Seul (Go Hye Rim)

Sung Joon (Choi Soo Hyun)

Jinwoon (Choi Seung Chan)

Lee Joo Hyung (Won Ji Ho)

Hwang Seung Eon (Go Yoo Rim)

Jang Mi Hee (Bae Mi Ran)

General Thoughts:

It’s a flawed drama- there’s no denying it. And it’s not the kind of drama where you can overlook it’s less than ideal portions in favour of the more acceptable aspects of the drama, as the less than ideal points are the actual main points of the series. Yeah. More or less any plot that circulated our main couple was vastly unbelievable and bordered on ridiculous. And that psychology…oh my God.

Yeaaahh....it's actually kind of a lot about morals...

The support characters were all delightful and made significantly more sense than our leads. The plot does nothing and goes nowhere. Well, I lied. I suppose the plot does go round and round in circles. Sometimes even the editing was bad- choosing to end a scene with a simple fade to black as the scene continues, or even just a brutal chop- scene X end, scene Y start. This isn’t the early ‘00s guys, put some effort in.

Those boys were infinitely better than our 'hero'

The acting was pretty spot on, with our main leads and support cast all delivering convincing performances. Han Ye Seul does well as the divorcee aiming for a second shot at love, and while her character’s fiery nature seems to fall away drastically on paper, Han Ye Seul always did a fantastic job at keeping Hye Rim’s spirited personality present. Sung Joon is a star, but this series really wasn’t the best move for him. Whoever is calling the shots on what projects Sung Joon takes on may need a bit of a slap. While I personally enjoyed ‘Hyde, Jekyll, Me’, it’s no secret that it’s a show that didn’t receive a lot of love (or ratings). While ‘High Society’ did pretty well, Sung Joon unfortunately stars in a bit of a flop as far as ‘Madame Antoine’ is concerned. Basically, Sung Joon’s character (Choi Soo Hyun) was a total wanker. He was such an asshole that I actually found myself questioning if I ever really did like Sung Joon, or if it had just been an excess of dopamine in my brain. At least that goes to show that Sung Joon is a fantastic actor and played his character to perfection. While the drama did hit some of the right notes emotionally (always with the side stories, never with our leads), I tended to find myself feeling emotions that I’m not entirely sure the writers were aiming for. I absolutely loved whenever Soo hyun was having a hard time. I was filled with savage pleasure whenever he wasn’t a happy man- because I just couldn’t stand his smug little face.

Let the games begin

Also he’s a terrible psychologist- I’ve never seen anyone with that much lack of compassion. There were times I was sure the writers were aiming to create sympathy for Soo Hyun by having Hye Rim really rip him a new one- but I was  totally on her team whenever she did, and often there were times I wished she’d hurry up and blow her top at him. The awful truth is- I didn’t ship our main couple together, and when I watch a rom-com, I really need to ship the main couple together to get any sense of enjoyment. 

What Was Great:

The Idea:

Everything behind the premise of this drama is fantastic. A head-to-head battle of a psychologist and a fake fortune-teller. It sounds awesome, and the brief glimpses we got of it were awesome.

It sounds fun, but it's really kinda not

The few scenes near the start of this drama that had Hye Rim and Soo Hyun in silent battles as they each tried to read each other’s body language was fantastic. It was interesting to have someone who was professionally trained to make judgements about a person’s mental state go up against a woman with keen observation who used her skills every day to help her customers. It was a great way to have Soo Hyun’s confidence shaken up a bit, and it was particularly delicious whenever Hye Rim actually one-upped him simply because she cared more about a patient's feelings than Soo Hyun. Who only cared about the cold, hard facts. And the idea behind the psychological experiment was interesting too. Although it’s not necessarily the most original set-up (one heroine pursued by three differing, unique men), the fact that none of these men originally had feelings before pursuing the heroine added in a different enough feel. And as long as you make the men interesting and unique enough, who really gives a rip if your set-up isn’t the most original idea out? But sadly, even this idea becomes bogged down pretty quickly. Because obviously all the guys fall for the heroine for realsies pretty quickly. And surprisingly, she also falls for one of the men pretty quickly. Which pretty quickly rules out any sort of contest. Which sucks, as Soo Hyun was most likeable and funny when he was losing and unable to comprehend why.

He was a giant ass when he was winning

Originally, it seemed as though Hye Rim was gong to upset all beliefs on women that Soo Hyun had ever held, but all too rapidly she became the typical, predictable woman Soo Hyun expected her to be. How boring.

2AM:

Jinwoon totally steals the show. It’s been a while since I’ve watched him on screen in anything (2011…eep!), but he’s become a total babe. 100% pure studmuffin. And him acting as Seung Chan is just intoxicating to watch. He’s basically every girl’s dream man. Handsome, sensitive and caring.

I'd choose him. I'd choose him a thousand times

Which makes it that much more unbelievable that the girl he was pursuing fell for his emotionless asshat of a brother. I know which one I (and every other girl but Hye Rim) would choose. To go along with Jinwoon’s excellence, we have the most endearing of the show’s three relationships. Obviously I’m not a fan of the main pairing, and while the Ji Ho/Yoo Rim couple was hilarious and sweet, it was Seung Chan’s pure relationship with Doctor Bae that completely stole the show. The most logical thing in this whole drama is that this woman fell for Seung Chan even though she was at least 30 years his senior. Because who wouldn’t harbour a little crush on a spunky young man who treated you that well? Especially when you could drop dead in the next few months. What really tugged on the heartstrings was how undemanding the love between these two people was. Doctor Bae was content to quietly love Seung Chan without ever letting him know- simply enjoying their time together and experiencing how happy his presence made her. Similarly, Seung Chan simply loved Doctor Bae’s company. In her he found a companion and a confident, a mentor and a soulmate.

I'd never thought lip-syncing to Queen could be adorable and sexy- but there you go

One of the things the writers did best in the whole drama was choosing to not pigeonhole this relationship into a romantic one. The feelings between the two are very simple and very pure, and is a wonderful point of difference in a drama that is so filled with complicated, misunderstood relationships. The final moment that guaranteed that Seung Chan was my favourite man is this series was the way he accepted Doctor Bae’s feelings. He didn’t reciprocate, and he was uncomfortable at first, but his decision to continue to be her close friend was beautifully satisfying.

What Wasn’t:

Every Male but Our Male Lead Syndrome:

Every man in this drama was better than our leading male. He’s just not that likeable.

Not off to a great start

Any man who conducts an experiment on the woman he supposedly loves and lies to her for 4 months is not a stand-up guy in my books. And it’s not even the fact that he does this one experiment- I think Soo Hyun ends up lying to Hye Rim about three times in the drama about whether the experiment was over or not (which tended to get a tad confusing when Hye Rim started catching on about the real experiment). The complete downside of Ji Ho and Seung Chan being so loveable was that compared to these two adorable boys, Soo Hyun really looked like poop. I was kind of hoping that the drama would wrap up with Hye Rim learning that selflessly forgiving someone in the name of ‘true love’ was a stupid thing to do, and that she would move on and find some better guy who loved her properly for who she was. Because I never found myself believing that Soo Hyun ever did. 

These guys, on the other hand, were adorably sincere

Terrible Psychology:

I can almost guarantee you that they did not consult an actual psychologist before the making of this drama. Because the psychology presented in this drama is laughably bad. There’s not a chance in hell that an experiment like that would be given the all-clear by an ethics committee.

It's a lie. If this drama is based on real psychology then I'm a potato.

The scientific knowledge that would be gained out of an experiment like that would in no way equal or surpass the emotional suffering inflicted on the participants . Boom- experiment request denied. Also, there’s no chance in hell that the experiment results would get published in any self-respecting psychological journal. The experiment would need to be carried out on far more than two or three participants in order to gather enough evidence to support any form of hypothesis. Like waaaaaaay more participants. Not only that, but Soo Hyun was blatantly manipulating the results. From the moment Hye Rim caught a whiff of the actual experiment, he was changing conditions and participants and methods left, right, and centre. Not to mention that he was actually participating in the experiment while also maintaining his role as an ‘unbiased’ observer. If a research article like that was actually written and published, that psychologist would get laughed right out of his job. Just sayin’. On a different note, I appreciated that our heroine’s abilities came from observation rather than some supernatural power. However, it was disappointing that this skill of hers became redundant so early on.

No honey, you'd seriously have to be a psycho to believe him

Hye Rim went from a character who was able to challenge Soo Hyun in his own field and read his body language against his will, to a girl that had no confidence in her abilities and relied on Soo Hyun's professionalism for every darn thing. Her ability to withstand Soo Hyun’s own observations also went down the tubes pretty fast. By about episode 3 or 4 she was basically just a barista. 

Least Convincing Love-Line Ever:

The main pairing sucked. There is no way they would have been able to work through all their issues. Even if we ignore Soo Hyun’s actual inability to give or receive love, there’s the fact that he’s lied and deceived Hye Rim the entire time she’s known him. Not exactly the basis for a strong relationship.

I DON'T BELIEVE YOU

I also didn’t appreciate the way that Hye Rim was roped back into the relationship after she’d decided to leave. Her Cinderella Strategy may have been brutal, but it was an effective way to show Soo Hyun how he’d been treating her and how she’d felt as a result. I was completely on board when she packed her things and left- because Soo Hyun had been continually dishonest with her for a whole four months while she provided him with every opportunity to come clean.

I found this scene way more enjoyable than I was probably supposed to

But then Soo Hyun nearly jumps off a roof and Doctor Bae tells Hye Rim that it’s her fault and her responsibility. Yeah, not loving that. Soo Hyun’s abandonment issues and craving for love is no one’s issue but his own. While his mother abandoning him as a child definitely wasn’t his fault, Hye Rim breaking up with him completely was. BECAUSE HE WAS A TOTAL DOUCHE TO HER. And she had every right to leave a man who treated her that way. But suddenly she magically believes his sincerity because he’s all messed up after his mother returned to see him. Yeah, no. No, no, no. I’m having none of this. Every cute couple moment in this drama (except that one final confession from Soo Hyun) occurred as he was trying to win her over as a part of the experiment. There was not once in this drama where I believed Soo Hyun’s feelings for Hye Rim were sincere. Not once. Which also meant that Hye Rim came across as stupid for giving his so many chances and ultimately going back to him in the end, as he’s given her no real evidence that he’d changed at all. 

I do wish there'd been more Seung Chan awkward third-wheeling Ji Ho and Yoo Rim though

Re-watch?

No. Good love-lines and good male leads are needed in a rom-com, even if it lacks everything else. This drama had neither a convincing main couple nor an awesome leading man.

If this was real life they'd break up in another couple of months or so