Love Frequency 37.2
3/10
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| Love Frequency 37.2 |
Genre: Episodes: 6 Year: 2014
Romance
Melodrama
Synopsis:
A pirate radio station broadcasts stories from its listeners. DJ Captain shares various love stories and and offers advice and consultation.
Cast:
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| Yoon Gun (DJ Captain) |
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| Choi Yoon So |
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| Yoon Jin Wook |
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| Jin Hyun Bin |
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| Ayoung |
General Thoughts:
This is a drama that’s so far under the radar that it’s hard to find information on it at all. I’m totally surprised that I was able to stumble across it, as it’s so unknown, and so are most of it’s actors. The writers try to do something a little different, with each episode telling the story of two different couples and their love.
It’s nice to have a break from the overly tired K-Drama tropes that seem to be spurned out at a rate of knots. And that’s not to say those dramas are bad- there are lots of dramas that reuse ideas but package them in a fresh way for an interesting watch (Healer, The Heirs), but it’s nice to have a change all the same.
That being said, there was a lot that was left behind in the actual execution of the drama. None of the small stories had any sense of continuity, and many of them were actually left feeling unfinished. Perhaps it was a result of having two rather than one story an episode, but it seemed as though the writers would only ever go deep enough to explore what the problem was, but finish the story arc up without actually addressing any of our characters’ problems. By ending so many of the smaller stories in this manner, it gave the drama a sense of pointlessness. If no real solution is being reached, why bother telling us the story at all? The writers also never truly capitalised on having two stories in the one episode by interweaving them. The couple from Part 1 of the episode barely ever made an appearance in Part 2 of the episode. Only once did this occur, in the story of the girl growing nervous because her boyfriend had a close female coworker, and her friend made a throwaway comment about how perfect office relationships could be, gesturing to a couple in their own office. Only, we’d just seen that exact office couple’s story, about how their relationship was a lie, and their marriage was one of convenience. By interweaving the story that way, it gave the sense that our current couple weren’t just out there in the void somewhere, but existing in the same space, time, and culture as the rest of our couples. It also gave added insight into how no one truly knows the relationship between two people except those two people themselves. Definitely a wasted opportunity there.
And our supposed main character DJ Captain is just totally confusing. We are given no information about who he is, or why he runs this pirate broadcast. Seeing as he’s the only continually occurring character it would have been nice to get to know him. It’s hard to tell where the drama was wanting to go, and if the writers had planned to explore Captain’s character further down the track- it's a bit brutal when your drama is cut from 12 episodes back to 6. That aside, the camerawork and cinematography were lovely, and the song choices were spot-on.
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| Love stories everywhere |
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| Basically my reaction whenever they didn't give me a proper conclusion |
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| What's your deal, Mr. DJ? |
What Was Great:
Same Actors:
While new stories were given every episode, we always had the same four actors acting these stories out. Which was quite nice.
While we didn't have any continuing characters (bar DJ Captain who I’m not counting) it was enjoyable to still have the same cast, and gave the cast an opportunity to take on a few different roles. While I didn’t always love Choi Yoon So, I found Ayoung to be surprisingly entertaining to watch. While she could definitely be cute, she was able to express that cuteness in very different ways for each of her characters. And Yoon Jin Wook and Jin Hyun Bin were just marvellous. Although their acting may not have been the most convincing thing I’ve ever seen, they’re easy on the eyes and delivered some very adorable men.
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| Soon Jin Wook is a pretty, pretty |
What Wasn’t:
No Continuity:
Every choice in every drama has its pros and cons. While it was interesting to have new stories every episode, sadly this also meant that characters did not return. As there were two stories every episode, we had 30 minutes to get to know our characters, and at the end of that 30 minutes we would never see them again. Which is great if it’s a story that’s not particularly interesting, but it’s a total bummer when there’s a story you’re drawn to. Having such a short space of time to get to know our characters meant that there was zero character development. The characters came, delivered their short snapshot into their lives, and disappeared. I’m sure these characters had names, but I wouldn’t be able to tell you a single one of them, because they came and went so quickly.
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| Just look at those characters we'll never see again |
Obvious Inexperience:
While it is nice to see some new faces in Dramaland, unfortunately the acting was not quite up to scratch. Sure, it was acceptable enough, but it probably wasn’t quite ‘good’. Just when you thought the actors had settled into the drama, a scene would come along where their acting skills fell just a tad short, and we were reminded once more that the drama was dealing with a very inexperienced cast. But hey, everyone has to start somewhere.
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| STOP F*UCKING CHEATING ON YOUR SPOUSES. SERIOUSLY. |
Beginnings of Repetition:
Even though the show had chosen to take on the format of smaller stories rather than one continuing plot, it did seem that our radio love stories were getting a tad repetitive. Sure, the characters were new and the situation was different, but how many ways are there of spinning cheating and affairs? I wish the writers had chosen to explore a wider variety of topics. I got pretty darn tired of watching a bunch of people choosing to marry people they weren’t 100% sure they liked, and then trying to justify their affair. Sorry drama, but I find it pretty hard to sympathise with cheaters.
Re-watch?
Not a chance. While I liked the two actors, the drama just wasn't good. There were interesting aspects of the series, but I don’t know if I’d go as far as calling the drama ‘enjoyable’.
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| 37.2- a frequency I would probably not tune in to. |
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