Let's Eat

Let’s Eat

5.5/10

Let's Eat

Genre:                                 Episodes: 16                         Year: 2014

Comedy

Synopsis:

Lee Soo Kyung is a divorced woman who lives alone. Although Soo Kyung prefers to do everything by herself, she finds it embarrassing to do the thing she likes best alone- eat at famous restaurants. After a friendly, enthusiastic girl moves in next door, Soo Kyung finds herself spending a lot more time with both her neighbours. After discovering that they all love food, the three often go out to eat together.

Cast:

Lee Soo Kyung (Lee Soo Kyung)

Yoon Doo Joon (Gu Dae Young)

Yoon So Hee (Yoon Jin Yi)

Shim Hyung Tak (Kim Hak Moon)

Lee Do Yeon (Oh Do Yeon)

Feeldog (Hyun Kwang Seok)

General Thoughts:

Well, while this drama certainly didn’t land itself in any of my favourite lists, it wasn’t all bad. The show had glimpses of sweetness and quite often presented laugh out loud humour, and of course plenty of delicious food.

Okay, but far from exceptional

Where ‘Let’s Eat’ went wrong for me is that it felt kind of like it was trying really hard, then just gave up, before trying some more and getting tired again. The story line was quite confused- while the mystery elements were mildly interesting, they felt extremely out of place in a slice of life drama such as this one, and I really don’t think they could have executed the mystery worse.

Weird thriller killer with no backstory, and really no point

Also the heroine was a giant b*tch, and that’s certainly not doing anyone any favours. Although it meandered along not doing very much, it did avoid being completely boring. While I personally disliked the heroine, the rest of the characters were fun and quirky, though rather deprived of any depth. Jin Yi rapidly became my favourite character- she was just so adorable and Yoon So Hee pulled of her naivety and innocence perfectly, so the character only appeared inexperienced rather than dumb. Dae Young was interesting as a male lead, though I will admit that I didn’t care all that much what happened to him. Yoon Doo Joon played the role well and was highly amusing, though the character was hard to connect to emotionally. The downside of having a quirky, detached male lead who brushes everything off is that it starts to imply that nothing really impacts him- he’ll keep making shallow relationships that never go anywhere while working as an insurance salesman. Sure, this might not actually be the case, but as he got very little (dare I say no) character development, it was hard to grasp who he really was or grow attached to him.

We barely even know our male lead

Feeldog’s character probably had around ten times the development the hero had, and he was only in like…4 episodes. If that. Shim Hyung Tak was just a ball of laughs, and it was easy to steadily open up to his character. While at first Hak Moon seems like a total butt, it becomes obvious fairly quickly that he is in fact just a massive ball of insecurity with a squishy centre and haughty outside.

Solid ten out of ten for comedy

Watching his haughtiness clash with his squishiness was always entertaining, and Shim Hyung Tak nailed the nervous puppy-eyes. And I suppose that brings us to our female lead. Sigh. I think I would have enjoyed this series way more had our heroine…not been our heroine. I would have much preferred Jin Yi to be our lead- but I suppose there’s an infinite number of problems that would have cropped up if she had been. Soo Kyung was just not likeable. In any way shape or form. At no point in the series did I find her sweet or endearing or acceptable at all really. I don’t know if her prickly character was supposed to be funny or just make her a unique character- but I found it completely off-putting. She just seemed like a person who had no interest in the world around her, and who was content to stay in her own private bubble. And a character like that probably would have been fine- but it was the way Soo Kyung acted as if the world was a dirty place and everyone else that inhabited it was beneath her that really made me dislike her character. For almost 12 or so episodes, Soo Kyung doesn’t even like Jin Yi or  Dae Young- so I question why some people have said that this is a heartwarming tale of neighbours becoming family- because it’s really just a tale of Soo Kyung figuring out how to not be openly hostile to her neighbours.

How can anyone like her- she's such a cow

I guess you could say that her prickliness covers up her real character- but unfortunately her prickliness is basically all we see until she has a unbelievable personality transplant after discovering Dae Young is the author of her favourite blog. Soo Kyung is shallow and selfish from start to finish, and had very few redeeming qualities. The writing was a bit all over the shop too. Sometimes it was a slice-of-life, sometimes it was a thriller, sometimes it was a romance- and none too convincingly. Despite having no real ongoing plot, the drama still remained fairly engaging- an upside of having such poorly constructed leads and characters is that it’s not predictable which way the romance will swing.

Stealer of scenes

The thriller aspects were tacked on as an afterthought and really could have used some fleshing out- some episodes had no mystery moments at all, while others relied on it heavily. I didn’t mind the mystery/thriller parts, though I do wonder if that’s just because I wanted to see the heroine hit over the head with a blunt object. Who can tell. The romance stayed out of the series for the most part, but came in heavy at the end. I didn’t really love the pairing, but can appreciate that the scenes probably would have been pretty cute had I not written off Soo Kyung from episode 2 (and once I write a character off, they rarely get back in my good graces). There were some jokes that got old pretty fast- such as Do Yeon wrongly thinking that every man loved her, and some jokes I wish had been kept going longer- Dae Young and Hak Moon’s awkward, almost gay moments. The directing, while not amazing, was better than the writing, and knew how to make a comedic moment truly funny. The editing cuts and camera angles for our two main boys enhanced their goofiness and made them seem adorably ridiculous. Though I will admit that the lengthy shots of food and characters eating were probably a bit too lengthy. You could have a bathroom break, make a cup of tea or have a short nap and you won't have missed anything except for people having lunch. The Pomeranian was a total scene stealer and was adorable throughout. The soundtrack was also on point.

Just one of the many, many food shots

What Was Great:

Second Leads:

The second leads were fabulous, and had way more story than either of the main leads. Although Hak Moon was used mostly for comedic relief, he had a heap of emotion stacked into his story, and it was hard not to pity him.

Jin Yi is Number 1!

I actually preferred him with Soo Kyung (disregarding her awkwardness around him), as they both seemed to have similar harsh exteriors to cover whatever was inside (though I’m still doubtful about Soo Kyung). Hak Moon’s journey of self discovery was really quite entertaining and sweet, and he remained likeable as he never tried to force the heroine over to his way of thinking. Jin Yi was just all kinds of adorable and I loved her to pieces. She was everything that Soo Kyung wasn’t- nice, friendly, optimistic, and caring. I cared more for Jin Yi’s happiness than I did for Soo Kyung’s- probably another reason I wasn’t really onboard the central romance. I liked when they brought in the delivery-boy character for Jin Yi, though it was a little weird how they tried to make him a bad guy before promptly forgiving and forgetting. Though I really shipped that romance, so I’m not mad that it came through. Jin Yi was always likeable to me as I was always on her team, though I can understand people not loving the way she tried to interfere with Soo Kyung and Dae Young’s relationship. 

I wouldn't have minded a massive plot twist where Dae Young was keen on Hak Moon. At least it would have been funny.

Sound Effects:

These were wonderful and so on point it was ridiculous. It made everything so much funnier than it otherwise would have been and fit into the tone of the series well. It’s not one of the things you start out noticing is done well in a drama, but once you do notice it’s hard to ignore the extra hilarity the sound effects add.

What Wasn’t:

Soo Kyung:

I’ve really said all I need to about her. She sucks and I don’t like her.

Unfortunately she didn't choke

Romance:

Boy was this one unconvincing romance. It came so far out of left field. There was no warm up to Dae Young falling for Soo Kyung, and as he’d apparently sworn off women until he got rid of his debt, I found it hard to see what it was about Soo Kyung that made her so irresistible to him. I mean, she lost the dude $100 000.

As Yoon Doo Joon tries not to pee his pants laughing mid-snog

Soo Kyung’s interest in Dae Young was also super unconvincing. She’s gone from outright hating this man to barely tolerating him for the sake of Jin Yi and good food. Suddenly she finds out he’s the author of the blog she reads and her attitude completely changes. It’s not even like a gradual softening. Just BAM suddenly she loves him. It did nothing for Soo Kyung’s character, as it only made her seem that much more superficial.

My thoughts exactly

She hasn’t given a toss about this guy until she finds out about his blog. It felt much more like she was in love with the idea of Dae Young rather than Dae Young himself. I also wasn’t keen on the way the romance impacted the relationships with Jin Yi. Jin Yi was the one who brought them all together to eat, but neither Dae Young nor Soo Kyung really care about Jin Yi once they decode they like each other. Had it been a big eating group it might have been fair, but these guys have been doing everything together, and then suddenly the two pair off and start (indirectly or not) excluding Jin Yi. I was fairly on board with Jin Yi in thinking that Soo Kyung was out of line. While Soo Kyung has every right to date Dae Young if he likes her, she’s known for ever that this is the man Ji Yi likes, and has constantly been telling Jin Yi to go for it and that Jin Yi and Dae Young look good together. Then suddenly she turns around and starts dating Dae Young without giving Jin Yi any sort of heads up. Yeah, not cool at all.

Meanwhile Jin Yi's getting pushed off a roof by a psycho

I think I almost would have preferred the romance being left out of it completely, as the romance left me feeling dissatisfied on many fronts. Perhaps it really should have been just a show about three neighbours becoming really good friends.

Re-watch?

I’d rather not.

Jin Yi and Kwang Seok were my favourite part