Drinking Solo

Drinking Solo

6.5/10

Drinking Solo

Genre:                                 Episodes: 16                          Year: 2016

Romance

Comedy

Synopsis:

After starting her new job as a private institute lecturer, Park Ha Na meets Jin Jung Suk, a man famous for his brilliant teaching ability and terrible personality. While others in the institute enjoy drinking together, both Ha Na and Jung Suk prefer taking time for themselves and drinking alone.

Cast:

Park Ha Sun (Park Ha Na)

Ha Suk Jin (Jin Jung Suk)

Gong Myung (Jin Gong Myung)

Hwang Woo Seul Hye (Hwang Jin Yi)

Min Jin Woong (Min Jin Woong)

Key (Kim Ki Bum)

Kim Dong Young (Kim Dong Young)

Jung Chae Yeon (Jung Chae Yeon)

General Thoughts:

I wanted to love this drama much more than I actually ended up liking it, and I’m sad to say that the main male lead is the cause of most of my dissatisfaction. The plot was fairly small and slow, and so the drama focused heavily on its characters and all their relationships. Most of the characters were cute and realistically flawed, and it was enjoyable to watch them take this journey through a very specific part of time in their lives.

Drink yourself into oblivion, you toss-bucket

The three younger boys were always fun to watch, and were insanely endearing in their friendship that could go from fighting one moment to crying and professing love for one another in the next. The two other teachers in the academy both had wonderful trajectories, their stories gradually building and unravelling before eventually entangling in the cutest way possible.

Not feelin' it

But our leads…never really captured my heart. At first Ha Na was charming in her quiet determined ways, but as the ‘romance’ started taking centre stage her personality became less and less and her determination all but disappeared. She was a likeable character as we were watching her fight an uphill battle as the newbie teacher with a lot to learn and everything going against her, but as the story shifted more to her romance she just seemed to become too boy-crazy (or Jung Suk-crazy) and her teaching completely fell into the background- along with most of her character. And Jung Suk- hoo boy. I did not. Like. Jung. Suk. I mean really, what a wanker. I completely and utterly failed to see his charm and couldn’t understand what in the world caused Ha Na to fall for him- except the fact that he liked her first. On the top of my list of most hated traits in a man is arrogance (barring things like axe-murderer or complete sociopath), and goodness did Jung Suk have a lot of that. I can deal with male leads who are hard on the outside but gradually show their soft underbelly as it turns out they’re just very insecure- but Jung Suk was not one of these men. He was just so up himself.

No. 1 teacher, No. 1 asshat.

His head was so far up his ass that I don’t think anything could unstick it- and of course, nothing ever did. While he became tolerable awards Ha Na during the progression of their romance, he still treated the rest of the people around him like garbage- which is just not cool. Even when he was romancing Ha Na he seemed to imply that she was lucky for a high-class man such as himself to take interest in someone like her. Sure it might seem cute that he sets up all these rules for their dates (like no popcorn because it distracts from the movie) only to be completely distracted by Ha Na anyway- but what happens when that initial infatuation wears off? Will he revert back to being an asshole to Ha Na? Probably- because that’s all he’s ever done.

I know I called you trash- but I stared at you for like two hours so that makes up for it, right?

While I know many viewers found him cute, I just couldn't understand it myself as I personally found him so utterly dislikable. If Jung Suk and I met in real life we would not be friends- no matter how handsome he was. And of course my dislike of the male lead meant that I was disconnected from our female lead as well- because she thinks this man is marvellous while I think he’s sucky.

WHY WON'T SHE GO FOR THE GUY WHO ACTUALLY TREATS HER WELL?

Ha Na’s personality just gradually slipped away as the drama went on, and she wound up being a rather unremarkable heroine. Plot-wise there’s not a lot going on- it’s just watching this bunch of people going about their daily lives. It’s not rivetting, but it’s interesting enough, and the three young boys carry a lot of the entertainment-factor. I do wish the worlds of the teachers and the students had collided a little more than it did, because it felt a bit like I was watching two different dramas- a really cute, fun one about three boys in a bromance studying, and a kinda boring one with a dislikable lead. As Gong Myung was the only real point of connection between these worlds (even though every character spent all day at the same location) it meant that he dominated the screen-time. I was on Team Gong Myung pretty early on, as he wasn’t a giant douche. Sure he was a little immature sometimes, but he was mature enough around Ha Na and liked her for all the right reasons- her sincerity, her determination and her personality. So next to him, Jung Suk (who is constantly calling Ha Na ‘low-quality’ and treating her like poop) looks even worse. All in all, there were heaps of great things about the show, but I wasn’t onboard for the romance which sucked out a lot of the enjoyment.

What Was Great:

Noryangjin Idiots:

The three young boys are what made this drama bearable for me. They were always fun, but could hit strong emotional notes out of nowhere. Every one of them had a serious undertone to their character even if they were mostly just mucking around.

Adorable dorks

Each of our boys faced different struggles which made them loveable in their own ways. The bromance was killer with the boys always trying to protect each other- and they were just so darn cute. Key and Gong Myung put in excellent performances.

That haircut though...

They truly shook free of the ‘idol’ tag during filming and embraced their characters. Key was wonderfully hilarious and was the source of a lot of the fun. While his character could be a tad irritating at times (he was also painted a bit with the arrogance brush), his love for his friends always pulled him through and he had a couple of nice emotional beats that really solidified him as a character that was more than just comedic support. And Gong Myung kind of stole the show. Even though the main romance didn’t actually involve him, it definitely felt like it was a story about his growth and maturing through his heart-break. Due to his large amount of screen-time and constant development, it felt a lot like Gong Myung was our main character. We watched him struggle and grow, and while he wasn’t always in the right he was an easy character to cheer for. The acting to back his character was superb. Gong Myung nailed both happy-puppy and heart-broken-puppy and delivered a strong, relatable performance. 

Emotion:

The thing the show really nailed was the way it slowly and steadily built emotion. The emotional scenes were built so subtly that it never felt like we were being thrown from a comedic scene to an emotional one, even if it did happen rather rapidly.

From dancing to weeping in 10 seconds

Characters were given their own backstories and enough hints were dropped about them and their situations that by the time it was their turn to have a bit of their story unravelled it didn’t feel unexpected or out of place.

Cuter than our leads by far

The best examples of this are definitely Jin Yi and Jin Woong. Jin Woong’s story arc hit like a ton of bricks and gave the character a huge amount of unexpected depth. Even though he faded back into the background again after his story was done in the spotlight, once his history had been revealed his character was viewed in a new light which made him more realistic and likeable. While Jin Yi was a character that was a bit up and down (she was likeable enough but it was a huge let-down whenever she got snarky and jealous of Ha Na), her resolution was superb. As more light is shed on her character, we see how unloved she feels and how her more annoying moments tend to be a result of that. Her tie-off with Jin Woong is insanely adorable, and while it came on pretty fast it wasn’t a leap of logic nor was it unwanted. All three young boys had similar flows of emotion, going gracefully from comedic to serious and back again. Weirdly, it was our two main leads who didn’t really snag the emotional flow. 

What Wasn’t:

Main Love-Line:

In case you haven’t already guessed, I wasn’t that keen on our main pairing. There were a few reasons this couple didn’t fit well with me (mainly Jung Suk’s overinflated ego), but the main disappointment was the lack of development in both our main leads as they fell for each other.

NOT KEEN

Ha Na is pretty sweet natured, but at no point in the series does she grow any backbone. Sure, it can be seen as a good trait when she refuses to throw others under the bus during misunderstandings in order to clear her own name (like when Jin Woong sent flowers to Jung Suk under Ha Na’s name), but when Jung Suk continued to put her down and she continued to shrink in front of him it just became a tad boring. I never quite grasped how Ha Na went from respecting Jung Suk to liking him either.

NO THANKS

She seemed fairly happy to know that he liked her (even though he adamantly denied it), but there was no real reason that Ha Na should have liked him back. And I knooooow that love and feelings don’t follow reason in the slightest, but when a man is constantly telling our heroine how trashy she is and how superior he is to her, I fail to see what part of him could be considered charming. Sure, he does some cute things for her like give her his jacket and peel her prawns- but then he also leaves her drunk on a bridge in the middle of the night with no way to get home that very same day. Yeah, not appealing at all. I could have forgiven him if he came in on his knees with some serious grovelling, and while it was amusing to watch Ha Na reject his advances, I was completely put off by his lack of apology. He acted completely appallingly towards this woman, and no amount of ‘I couldn’t take my attention off you’ is going to cover for that. The two seemed lost in their honey-moon phase, and while I can see how people found it cute, it also lacked depth. Unlike every other relationship in the drama, at no point did Ha Na and Jung Suk actually have a deep and meaningful conversation with each other. The only time that they came close was when Ha Na admitted that she liked drinking alone occasionally as well. But that was it.

Much better

There was a distinct lack of emotional connection between the leads, and it felt as though they only ended up together simply because they were the main leads. While I found Gong Myung completely adorable, I will admit that he also probably wasn’t a great fit for Ha Na- but I still prefer him over Jung Suk.

What's not to like?

Occasional immaturity expressed in goofiness is passable, but constant emotional immaturity is a big ol’ no-no. I was kind of hoping that our heroine wouldn’t end up with either of them as the story didn’t naturally flow with either brother. Jung Suk dumping Ha Na (by once again telling her that he was too good for her) because of Gong Myung’s love for her was just so out of character that it didn’t really make sense. He’s spent all drama long criticising his little brother and belittling his feelings that his change of heart is unreasonable. While it could have been a sweet plot-point, there wasn’t enough buildup for the brother’s reconciliation for it to be impactful, and instead came across as wishy-washy character construction. At no point were we given hints that Jung Suk had any warm feelings or felt any brotherly responsibility towards Gong Myung, so it all felt a bit random. The quick patch-up of Ha Na and Jung Suk’s relationship in the last episode was also rather patchy. It should have taken much more than one measly hospital visit (where he didn’t actually visit her, only glanced from a distance) that didn’t require any sacrifices, and Gong Myung saying Jung Suk still liked her for Ha Na to even consider Jung Suk again. Because he was such a d*ck.

They've hated each other all drama long but now will both give up the girl for the other (her own opinion be damned)

They also dated for what…two weeks? Three? Then they were broken up for three months. At no point did I feel like Ha Na loved Jung Suk so much that she should struggle moving on from him, because once again- he treated her like complete poo. At least I can remain slightly satisfied that they ended with smiling across the room rather than a huge reconciliation snog- because that would have been ridiculous. 

Top-quality asshole

‘Quality’:

This drama has made me hate the word ‘quality’. I wanted to punch Jung Suk whenever the word came out of his mouth. It reeked of obnoxiousness and was Jung Suk’s way of measuring absolutely everything. Example: himself- high-quality, Ha Na- low-quality. It’s actually made me hate hearing the word in real life. Thank the good Lord it’s not something Australians say often else I probably would have hit someone.

Re-watch?

I wouldn’t say so. I really disliked Jung Suk, and Ha Na’s blind love for him kind of made me dislike her too.

Side characters were so fab though