Smart Doctor Living

Smart Doctor Living

8/10

Smart Doctor Living

Genre:                                                    Episodes: 12                                    Year: 2020

Comedy

Melodrama

Synopsis:

Five friends entered the same university in 1999, and now work at the same hospital. 

Cast:

Jeon Mi Do (Chae Song Hwa)

Jo Jung Seok (Lee Ik Joon)

Jung Kyung Ho (Kim Joon Wan)

Yoo Yeon Seok (Ahn Jong Won)

Kim Dae Myung (Yang Seok Hyung)

Shin Hyun Bin (Jang Gyo Wool)

Kim Joon Han (Ahn Chi Yong)

Ahn Eun Jin (Chu Min Ha)

Jung Moon Sung (Do Jae Hak)

Kwan Sun Young (Lee Ik Soon)

Kim Hae Sook (Jung Ro Sa)

Kim Gap Soo (Joo Jong Soo)

General Thoughts:

The director and writer duo, Shin Wo Ho and Lee Woo Jung, are back! I just don’t think these two can help but make fantastic shows that are filled with heart and wonderful characters.

A new group of loveable characters

(If you didn’t know, this is the pair behind the three seasons of the ‘Reply’ series, and ‘Smart Prison Living’). Similarly to their previous works, ‘Smart Doctor Living’ focuses a lot on world building. The writer gives a highly detailed and understandable place for our characters to live and interact, and such comprehensive world building lets the characters really shine and develop.

Whoever even heard of a doctor wanting to be a priest

What I really enjoyed about this particular world building for this particular show, is that it very cleverly played with viewers expectations, and then subverted them. The first time I noticed this was during the discussion of who was the heir of the hospital- it played with using a Baptismal name, and not showing a face to the youngest child of the late Chairman. If you’ve watched any of the ‘Reply’ series, you’d know that this is a trademark of their work- all three seasons of ‘Reply’ focus on not knowing who the heroine would marry by using clever tricks, such as nicknames and shots framed to exclude the husband’s face, which is a similar thing they did here. Just as I found myself thinking ‘oh surely we aren’t doing this again’, they revealed that the son was Jong Won. It was a cute little ‘gotcha’ moment that felt very meta, and was quite fun. Again a few scenes later we are teased into thinking that Jong Won, as the Chairman’s son, and Jong Soo, as the hospital Director, are going to have a political war about who would inherit the Chairman seat after the Jong Won’s father’s death.

I don't think I've seen a single other K-Drama where the Director/CEO has been a genuinely good person

We see familiar scenes of people wondering if a shareholder meeting will be called, and discussing where they think the cards will fall- how many times have we seen these set ups in literally ANY K-drama that includes a big corporate body. Only in ‘Smart Doctor Living’ we get another ‘gotcha’ moment when Jong Won simply states he doesn’t care about being Chairman and hands it over to Jong Soo.

Ik Joon is my new favourite character ever

Who then also turns out to be a big softie who is very close to Jong Won’s mother. It was a nice surprise to find that hospital politics were not going to be prominent in a drama that was all about a hospital. I’m not sure how realistic it is, but it was a lovely surprise to find that most of the doctors and people in high positions were actually kind and reasonable, and were wanting the best for their patients, juniors and the hospital as a whole. The characters were of course at the heart of the show, and it was their relationships and hardships that were the focus for the plot. Similarly to ‘Smart Prison Living’ there were so many characters. So. Many. Due to the slightly smaller episode count this time around, I did feel like we were a little rushed in some of the character introductions. There were also some fairly big gaps between some characters’ introductions and the next time we saw them on screen, and I will admit that I occasionally forgot certain characters and who they were and what department they belonged to.

Who...who are you people?

I also usually have no issue with remembering characters names- sure if I met you on the street I might not be able to tell you the main characters’ names then, but when I hear them discussed in drama, I pretty much always know who they are referring to. That was not always the case in ‘Smart Doctor Living’. A good few times I struggled to realise who a group of characters were referring to, and unfortunately I think that meant I missed a few nice character revelation moments.

Characters are also 80% harder to identify when in scrubs

Sure, it wasn’t anything major that I missed, but I was a little bummed that I didn’t know exactly who they were talking about. I think one of the issues with this is that characters were getting referred to by different names by different characters. Jong Won alone had Andrea, Jong Won, Professor Ahn, Daddy Long Legs. It was a lot to keep track of, and I often got Jong Won and Joon Wan confused when they were being discussed but were not present- what can I say, as a non-Korean speaker the two names look kind of similar to me! Chi Yong and Jong Won also sometimes got mixed up for me, because they both had the surname Ahn, and sometimes all my subtitles gave me was a vague ‘Doctor Ahn’. I know Jong Won is normally ‘Professor Ahn’, but I really wish that Chi Yong had been given a different last name to spare some confusion. Although I was getting some names mixed up, I loved how individualised and unique each of our characters were.

I love all the intricate relationships 

Even down to the supporting characters who weren’t seen that often- everyone was completely different and showcased those differences brilliantly. One of the better outcomes of these differences was showing the different strengths that each health care worker had. While Joon Wan was a brilliant doctor and surgeon, he had terrible bedside manner. On the flip side Jae Hak was less confident as a doctor, but had brilliant interpersonal skills with his patients. No one was perfect, and each character was continually learning and growing, both as people and as professionals.

Everyone loves some personal growth

Another thing I adored about this drama was the way it fought the stereotype that men and women can’t be friends. While the five doctor friends were the main characters, I actually think this was most perfectly expressed in Ro Sa and Jong Soo’s relationship. They had been close friends for so long, and shared so much of their lives together. Each had their own families and had a spouse that they had loved very much- but none of those things impacted their friendship. There was nothing romantic between them at all, and they were simply shown to be very close friends, even after their partners had passed away. It really was a beautiful relationship- it was a doubly good one because not only was it showing so plainly that men and women CAN be friends with absolutely no romantic undertones, but it was also a friendship between two older characters. So often characters over the age of, let’s say 50, are relegated to being a mother, a father, a professional, and that’s pretty much it. I adored that Ro Sa and Jong Soo were still individual characters that had their own lives that didn’t stop when they became partners to their spouses or parents to their children.

A middle aged friendship sounds oh so boring, but it was actually really fun and really refreshing

It’s not something that’s often seen in K-Drama, so I found Ro Sa and Jong Soo’s friendship really precious and really special. As for actual romantic relationships, there were a fair few that were floating around in this show. It’s not uncommon for workplaces to be the spark that lights crushes, and it was cute how a lot of these crushes played out.

My poor heart can't handle all these unresolved love-lines

Min Ha had the direct, blunt approach to Seok Hyung, and while I can’t really see them working out (though I bet Season 2 will pair them up), it was fun and endearing to see Min Ha take the front foot in expressing her feelings. In many ways she was the most likely to get hurt- she was a woman and she was also in a lower position in the hospital. It was unexpected and very brave of her to be so forward, but because she was so straightforward despite being in a more vulnerable position, you just couldn't help but cheer for her. Gyo Wool’s crush on Jong Won was much quieter and she kept it a secret from him right until the last episode. This relationship was probably the one I was least enthusiastic about (and ironically is the only one that actually came to fruition). My lack of enthusiasm mostly stemmed from not really seeing what it was that sparked their interest in each other. Love at first sight isn’t something unusual for K-Drama, but I honestly expected something with a little more depth from this writer, so I felt a little let down when this was Gyo Wool’s answer to Ik Joon asking why she like Jong Won.

Of all the love-lines in this show, I am most surprised that this is the only concluded one

As for Jong Won, I still am not exactly sure why/how he ended up falling for Gyo Wool. I don’t think I’m wrong in thinking that when this show started he didn’t really have any romantic feelings for her, so I’m not sure what changed over the course of the show. Whether it was Ik Joon’s friendship with Gyo Wool making her more noticeable, or Gyo Wool making the effort to really better herself as a doctor, I wish the show had expressed a little more clearly what exactly it was about Gyo Wool that made Jong Won

Can't Song Hwa see that she fits in so perfectly with this lil' family?

want to give up his life long dream of becoming a priest (even though we all kind of knew that he liked being a doctor better than a priest anyway). My absolute favourite of the romantic pairings was Ik Joon and Song Hwa. They had such a solid friendship to build their relationship on, and the scene of the two of them looking after Ik Joon’s son when he was sick really solidified to me that they could be happy and feel fulfilled together. I guess we’ll have to wait til next year to find out. Sadface. Chi Hong was cute too, and his crush on Song Hwa was sweet, but once the show started suggesting that Ik Joon liked Song Hwa too, I just couldn’t root for him- sorry Chi Hong! Joon Wan and Ik Soon were an adorable pairing too, and I really enjoyed watching their relationship develop and how they went out of their way to accommodate each other and grow together. I think the long distance will be a hurdle for them next season, but it was a nice contrast to have one relationship going so well while all the others were not quite finding their feet.

Why do I feel like Season 2 is going to be tough on them?

What Was Great:

Fabulous Five:

The characters and cast were absolutely delightful, especially the main circle of friends. There were a couple of familiar faces- Yoo Yeon Seok was a major character in ‘Reply 1994’, and Jung Kyung Ho was a main lead in 2018s ‘Smart Prison Living’ (there were also copious cameos from actors that had appeared in other works by Shin Won Ho and Lee Woo Jung also).

Some familiar faces and some new ones too

Both Yoo Yeon Seok and Jung Kyung Ho played characters that had similar traits to their previous characters, but they were different enough that it didn’t feel like they were playing the same characters in a different universe. It was more like the writer knew their strengths and added that into the characters, or cast someone familiar that they knew could really sell the type of character they were aiming to portray.

He's hilarious and delightful and all kinds of adorable

Jo Jung Seok was absolutely delightful in his role here as the social butterfly doctor. The role suit him well and really let him bring out his goofy, cheeky side. He is just ridiculously charming, and he channeled all his energy to give us a bright, energising character. His scenes with Kim Joon, who played his son, were so adorable and were doubly cute knowing that he is going to be a father for real soon. Jeon Mi Do was the only female in the main group, and she was fabulous. The way her character was described by other people made her sound like an absolute goddess, and I think Jeon Mi Do did an excellent job at making Song Hwa seem like a real person, and not someone’s fantasy of what the perfect woman would look like. Her bumbling responses to Chi Hong and Ik Joon’s confessions made her feel realistic and awkward, and she had a certain ‘grannyish’ quality to her where she liked what was comfy and convenient over what was trendy and cool. Song Hwa was grounded and reliable and Jeon Mi Do played her so, so well- I almost couldn’t believe when I searched her up and saw that she’d only been in one other drama and only one movie! She was great!

Song Hwa- please love him next season

Kim Dae Myung rounded out the main cast, and he was so wonderfully awkward. While the other four had great qualities that were obvious from the start, Seok Hyung’s good traits took a while to be revealed. Much like he was closed off to other characters in the drama, he started out as a bit of a mystery to us viewers as well. We learned about his gentle, considerate character as the drama progressed, right along with the rest of his team.

Seok Hyung was surprisingly sweet

Kim Dae Myung did a great job at slowly lowing Seok Hyung’s walls and gradually showing more and more aspects of his character. Of all the characters, Seok Hyung tended to have the subtlest character development moments, were he quietly went about his business in an unobtrusive, yet caring manner that was easy for other workers in the hospital to overlook. While each of the main five were wonderful on their own, magic really happened when they were all together. It didn’t have to be all five of them together at once either- whether it was Ik Joon and Joon Wan, or Song Hwa and Jong Won, or all five of them together, they were always endearing and often hilarious. I liked how the show gave enough focus on each of the relationships between each of the characters. The friendship between Joon Wan and Jong Won was different to the friendship between Joon Wan and Ik Joon, and I appreciate that the show took the time to show the intricacies and layers of these friendships.  

Character Driven:

Despite being in a hospital setting and a lot of patients and surgeries being major parts driving the plot, this drama was so much more than a medical drama. I don’t think I’d even want to describe this show as a medical drama because it was so character focused.

Dat drunken tension

Most drams that take place in a hospital have a sort of ‘patient of the week’ episodic format. ‘Smart Doctor Living’ sometimes had three or four patients in a single episode, and sometimes had one patient over a couple of episodes. Whether the surgery was successful or not wasn't really the point of the show or the story the drama was trying to tell.

So many small stories with so many thoughtful moments

The show instead focused on the smaller character beats that these patients brought. We got to see our beloved characters breaking bad news to loved ones, we got to see the strain of family members doing nothing but sit in a waiting room dwelling on their powerlessness. In one episode we were seeing a family have to let go of a loved one who was brain dead and donating his organs. In the next episode we saw a family helplessly praying for a brain dead organ donor to save their loved one’s life. And the doctors were the same- they saw both sides of the story, the grief and the relief and it weighed differently on all of them. This writer-PD duo do so extremely well at finding the small character beats in a busy, complex drama, and in making their characters so endearing and relatable. It’s become a kind of signature for their dramas, and it has always been brilliant, and has never disappointed. The characters moved the story forward, not necessarily by what they were doing, but by who they were being, and how they responded and reacted to events and people around them. 

What Wasn’t:

Inconclusive: 

The episode count of ‘Smart Doctor Living’ was 4 episodes shorter than ‘Smart Prison Living’, which had 16 episodes. I am not sure if the smaller episode count was a calculated decision in order to get a second season out of it, or if this show was always going to be 12 episodes regardless of if it got a second season or not.

I want more of these characters and I want it right now!

I am never really super enthusiastic about K-Dramas having a second season or multi-season format. One of the things that originally drew me into K-Dramas was the single season format- whether a show is great or terrible, it will tell its story in the allotted number of episodes and I can be satisfied that however it ends, that will be the story all wrapped up.

2021 feels so far away...

I get this impending sense of dread when I get about halfway through a final episode and things don’t seem to be wrapping up fast enough. It’s not that I want the show to rush through everything nor that I need every single thing to be tied off in a neat bow- but I do want a conclusion to the main storylines of the drama. So I wasn’t that thrilled when ‘Smart Hospital Living’ left several important plot lines unresolved (primarily Song Hwa’s answer to Ik Joon’s confession) and finished up with a ‘Smart Doctor Living will return in 2021!’ And really, there were only a few things that needed to be touched on in order to bring a satisfying close to the story, which made the Season 2 pill even harder to swallow. If there did have to be a second season, I don’t think it would have been that hard to wrap things up in Season One in a satisfying manner and still have room to explore relationships and events in Season 2. On the bright side, this does mean we get these wonderful characters for another 12ish episodes. But I still don’t like multiple seasons. 

Recommend?

Absolutely- this is one of those one size fits all type of dramas, and I think you would have to try really hard to not like this show.

It is truly delightful

How Are You Bread

How Are You Bread

4/10

How Are You Bread

Genre:                                 Episodes: 5                     Year: 2020

Romance

Synopsis:

Noh Mi Rae, a variety show writer, is tasked with hiring pastry chef Han Do Woo as a guest on a new program. Han Do Woo is famous for his How Are You Bread, which is said to grant wishes.

Cast:

Suho (Han Do Woo)

Lee Se Young (Noh Mi Rae)

Moon Ji Yoon (Patrick)

Han So Young (Do Do Hae)

General Thoughts:

Yeah look, this drama wasn’t great, but it wasn’t super awful either. This drama is a bit of an odd one as it has actually been floating around for years. It was announced, casted, and even filmed right when I first started getting interested in Korean Dramas- all the way back in 2016!

It took a while, but it's aired at last!

For four years this little show has been hovering around and only this year was it able to secure a network to air on. It makes me a little sad for all the people who put so much love and effort into the show, as it really isn’t that bad for what it is, and I have seen far worse shows have no problem securing a network.

More baking, less writing please

So props to the team who worked to get this show aired. As for the content, it was an easy enough show to get through, but there wasn’t really anything special or unique to it. It had a lot of ideas going on, but they weren’t exactly new concepts. I love bakeries and patisseries so I was sucked in seeing a show that was centred around these concepts. I didn’t expect the drama to go into the baking side of things too much (which it didn’t), but I maybe would have liked a bit more focus on Do Woo’s magic bread- seeing as that was the whole catch of the show. Apart from the first episode which showed a line going down the street, Do Woo’s bakery was always empty. Instead, the drama chose to focus on the baking competition program. This had the upside of furthering the revenge plot between Do Woo’s father and President Bang, but the downside was that the show looked kinda lame. I don’t think I would tune in if that was airing on my TV.

Perhaps if I knew more about what their relationship was, I'd care more about who wins the competition

In the acting department, Lee Se Young did a great job as the leading lady. Suho was less convincing as the leading man, but I didn’t judge him too harshly considering that this was basically the first thing he filmed.

Their sad destiny can't be sadder than wasted pastries

The cold, cool charisma works well for being a K-Pop star, but when switched over to acting it can make his characters seem a bit too arrogant or emotionless. I’d like to see Suho try out a character that’s a bit more down to earth to see if that can help him relax into his acting a bit more. The chemistry between Suho and Lee Se Young was good enough, but to be honest they didn’t really have that many scenes together that had a romantic undertone. More often than not there was a sort of angsty vibe between the two of them (resulting from Mi Rae’s memory loss), so their relationship lacked the cute, bubbly feeling that most new romances have. I didn’t really buy the idea of Mi Rae and Do Woo being a love separated by destiny (what even is that- why would destiny bother?). The ending did a good enough job of wrapping the idea up and putting a cute flavour on it, but it was pretty random. I was a bit confused by Patrick’s presence throughout the show, and found the whole concept of the memory wiping due to constant accidents a bit cringey, but the show was able to resolve it in a nice enough way that kind of made up for the weirdness. 

Doesn't this guy have better things to do than go around telling people they shouldn't like each other?

What Was Great:

Lee Se Young:

I know that I have criticised her acting in the past, but she did a great job here. Unfortunately one of the best ways to recognise a good actor is to put them in a drama with some not so good actors,

Girl had a lot of crying scenes for a 3 hour show

and that’s what happened here. While it’s a shame that this drama didn’t have a lot of great actors in it, it did serve well to showcase Lee Se Young. She was able to bring both an innocent and a sadder vibe to her character, and was essentially the emotional gauge of the show. She did a good job at elevating Suho’s performance in scenes that they shared together, and I think if the show had opted for a less experienced/less competent actor, it would have suffered for it. Lee Se Young brought a sense of professionalism to this drama, and lessened the sense that this was an amateur show. She had to do a lot of crying while eating sweets, which must be pretty whacko to act out, but I thought she did it splendidly, which really sold the idea that there actually was something special in the bread that Do Woo was making. 

What Wasn’t:

Too Many Ideas:

There is such a thing as too much, and in this case it was too many ideas. There were a lot of interesting storylines going on in this show- a father and son having a fallout over traditional Korean vs Western cooking, a revenge plot, a destiny twist, an amnesia situation, a baking show, magic bread, and a hardworking love.

Just give me a cute love story and I'll be happy

The issue here is that ‘How Are You Bread’ had only 5 episodes (at about 45 minutes each) to tell aaaaaall of these different plotlines. And it just wasn’t enough. So what ended up happening is that each idea was dabbled in a little, but none of them were fleshed out to their full potential. Instead of one really great plot, we had several not so good ones. I think the show might have done a better job if it had picked just one or two of the stories it wanted to tell and really delved into that. 

Recommend?

Nah- it isn’t quite short enough to be one evening’s worth of quick story, and it isn’t quite good enough to be anything else.

Now I want pastries...

The Game: Towards Zero

The Game: Towards Zero

4/10

The Game: Towards Zero

Genre:                                                  Episodes: 16                                         Year: 2020

Mystery

Thriller

Synopsis:

Tae Pyung has the ability to see a person’s death when he looks them in the eye. When he meets Detective Joon Young, hers is the first death he cannot see, and he works with her to capture the infamous ‘Midnight Killer’.

Cast:

Taecyeon (Kim Tae Pyung)

Lee Yeon Hee (Seo Joon Young)

Lim Joo Hwan (Goo Do Kyung)

Park Ji Il (Nam Woo Hyun)

Choi Jae Woong (Han Dong Woo)

Shin Sung Min (Yoon Kang Jae)

Lee Seung Woo (Ko Bong Soo)

Park Won Sang (Lee Joon Hee)

General Thoughts:

I had a bad feeling about this drama ever since I saw the poster. It’s eerily similar to another terrible drama that Taecyeon has made. And that show was also a supernatural mystery/thriller. I feel like Taecyeon needs to just stay away from supernatural mystery/thrillers because they’re not doing him any good.

Try a new genre Taec...

I mean, ‘Let’s Fight Ghost’ was alright but that was more of a rom-com anyway. Sigh. Anyway, while the premise of ‘The Game’ wasn’t the most revolutionary (someone can see death) and has been done in other K-dramas (‘Black’, ‘While You Were Sleeping’), it’s still an idea that really grabs my attention.

Cool idea, cr*p execution 

The ability would be such a double edged sword, and I really enjoy seeing the different takes and complications that writers can come up with surrounding this topic. Unfortunately, the writer behind this particular drama is pretty new, and wasn’t really able to bring all their ideas together to form and interesting and comprehensive story. It was never really explained why Taecyeon’s character (or the old man mentor) had this strange ability, and the reasoning behind why he couldn’t see some deaths were murky at best. If the reason he couldn’t see Joon Young’s death was because Do Kyung was going to kill her to get at Tae Pyung, then why was Tae Pyung able to see the deaths of all the officers that died in the bomb explosion Do Kyung planned? The show sort of tried to touch on this towards the end of the drama, with Tae Pyung suddenly not being able to see the victims of the bombing- but is that because Do Kyung’s reasoning for the bombing changed? Then how come his reasoning to kill Joon Young was always revenge on Tae Pyung, even before Tae Pyung had met her? It was weird and inconsistent.

Man, it would be super helpful if Tae Pyung had seen this 

And beyond this, Tae Pyung’s power wasn’t even used that much anyway. The first time it is used is to introduce us to the mechanics of how his power works in an irrelevant mobster plot line. The second time is to introduce us to Joon Young and the rest of the police characters. After that, there are no other police investigations that require Tae Pyung and his ability- he solely works on trying to apprehend Do Kyung. Nothing else. Which made the drama draaaaag on a bit. There were no other smaller plot lines to pad out the cat and mouse game that was going on between Tae Pyung and Do Kyung, and due to this hyper focus on the back and forth between these two characters, not a lot was actually happening in the drama.

If only there were, I dunno, other cases the police could work on

Until the final few episodes the other characters that filled in the investigation team Joon Young was in didn’t get any character development at all. The character development between all the characters was pretty poor all around really. Even our two leads. Beyond the strange not quite father-son relationship Tae Pyung has with his mentor, Teacher Baek, and his very quickly developed feelings for Joon Young, Tae Pyung doesn’t actually have a lot going for him.

Well that happened fast

Joon Young had perhaps a little more going on, with the death of her father and working to solve the Midnight Murders once she discovered that Do Kyung’s father wasn’t actually the culprit. But still, considering that the entire show centred around the relationship of these two characters and the impact their relationship had on Do Kyung, not a lot actually happened between them. Early on in the show other characters were commenting on Tae Pyung and Joon Young having feelings for each other, which honestly came as a bit of a surprise to me- how do these other characters know that? From what  was seeing on my screen, Tae Pyung and Joon Young weren’t really treating each other any differently than they were treating other people. However, after the weird beginning where we had to be told that they were ‘in love’ by other characters because the show didn’t know how to express them falling for each other, their relationship was actually done quite well. There was always an element of respect in their relationship, and while Tae Pyung could be a bit overprotective of Joon Young, he always let her make her own decisions even if he didn’t think they were the best ones.

This drama would have gone a lot smoother if they'd both made better decisions 

But in saying that, it’s not like Joon Young disregarded Tae Pyung’s opinions either. She always considered his thoughts, but acted in the way she thought was best (even if most of the time she was kinda wrong). They were a sweet couple come the end of the series, and you could really feel their affection for each other. For Taecyeon I wouldn’t say this is his best performance.

Tae Pyung is not exactly a 'fun' character 

I think he’s an actor that struggles when his character isn’t written well, and boy was Tae Pyung not written well. His character got basically no development, and his decision making was sporadic and nonsensical. Tae Pyung was trying so hard to prevent Do Kyung’s death scene from becoming a reality, but it felt like every single thing he did pushed Do Kyung towards that exact same death scenario, and thus Joon Young’s disappearance/assumed murder. It felt like Taecyeon struggled a bit to find the emotions behind his character’s actions (and who can blame him when he has a character that makes so little sense). I like it when actors take a step out of their comfort zone, and while Tae Pyung was a newish type of character for Taecyeon, I couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed that his natural charms were hardly present in this show. In my opinion, Taecyeon is best when he can be a little bit goofy with a silly, endearing charm and then undercut that with solid emotion. Tae Pyung was just too moody and broody and just not all together a very fun character, and it feels like a bit of a waste to cast an actor that oozes a certain type of charisma, and then just never utilise that charisma into the show.

Sooooooooo broody

Like, I knooooow that an actor is supposed to take on a whole new persona for each new role, but like…why not use what you have to your advantage, right? Similarly, the character of Joon Young had minimal development and at times made questionable choices, and similarly I felt that Lee Yeon Hee’s performance suffered due to the lack of depth her character was written with.

None of the actors were given very much to work with...

I’ve not seen her in any other show, so I don’t know for sure if it’s just this role, but she wasn’t great here. In the first few episodes I actually wondered whether I’d be able to make it through the whole show with her acting. However, as the episodes went by, Lee Yeon Hee settled into her character more, and I got used to the way she was acting Joon Young. Lim Joo Hwan rounds out the three main characters, and as usual his acting was fabulous. I had absolutely no idea what in the actual f*ck his character was doing or why he was doing it, but I could most certainly see the emotions that were driving those behaviours. Just like the other two leads, Do Kyung was a terribly written character, but unlike the other lead actors Lim Joo Hwan had the acting skill to really drag his character along and make something of him as best he could. All the other characters were on screen for such a short amount of time that it’s pretty hard to comment on the actors behind them. The detective unit were an enjoyable bunch though, and I was pretty happy whenever we were treated to a group scene. The lawyer and old man Tae Pyung knew felt like unnecessary additions to the story though, and I won’t lie, I wasn’t that upset when Old Man Teacher Baek got killed off.

Wait, you're telling me we aren't supposed to feel happy that this happened?

I am 100% over stuffy old men who have a whole bunch of information that could be very relevant and useful who just…don’t divulge said information. Like why? Why would you purposely make life harder for everyone else? Selfish butthead. 

What Was Great:

The Wrap Up:

While Tae Pyung’s whole seeing death ability was relatively useless the entire show, it provided quite a nice wrap up for the drama. Usually K-Dramas (and most mainstream media) end their stories on happily ever afters with all the couples being together forever.

Everyone's back together again

It was quite a nice surprise that ‘The Game’ concluded on a happy, yet realistic note. Joon Young woke up from her coma that she fell into due to Do Kyung’s attempted murder of her, and Tae Pyung completed his prison sentence that he received due to his murder attempt on Do Kyung. Even though I didn’t love that Joon Young was comatose for so long and then so quickly made a perfect recovery, on the flip side it provided the time for Tae Pyung to serve his sentence and take responsibility for his own wrongdoings. And then Tae Pyung and Joon Young get to be together, and they are happy and in love- hooray! Tae Pyung can now see Joon Young’s death, and sees that she lives to an old age and passes away peacefully in her sleep in the sunshine. But he does not see himself. Maybe he’s already passed away, maybe he’s just out of the room, or maybe they don’t stay together. The uncertainty of the future was still there in a realistic way- just like Joon Young, Tae Pyung is just as in the dark about how their relationship will turn out. They are on even footing. It also drove home the show’s message (even if the rest of the show kind of didn’t). How a person dies is not a gauge of how they lived- it is simply one short moment in their whole, long life. 

Even if the rest of the show was hit and miss, the ending was spot on

What Wasn’t:

The Bad Guy:

Man oh man, Do Kyung was just a complete mess. And not in a good, interesting way. In a weird, confusing way. Basically the entirety of this drama rested on having an engaging and sympathetic villain. This show was all about moral dilemmas and the effect of the media, and where blame should be/is placed.

Oh Do Kyung, why do you suck so bad?

Only Do Kyung was not an engaging OR sympathetic villain. There are certain things you just can’t have a character do if you are wanting the audience to feel pity for them and connect to them emotionally. And one of those things is murdering an innocent teenage girl. It is very, very, very difficult for audiences to connect with a character that goes around murdering innocent people.

Yeah, there's no coming back from this...

It’s a tricky concept to pull off, and as such it is a concept that not a lot of shows try to do. ‘I Remember You’ was an amazing drama, because it made a psychopathic murderer into a pitiful and sympathetic character. But in that show, I don’t believe we ever actually saw Park Bo Gum’s character actually murder anyone. It was implied, and then confirmed that he was the killer, but we never saw it play out on screen. Because knowing something and actually seeing it are a little different. In ‘The Game’, we saw Do Kyung kill not one, not two, not three, but FOUR innocent people for his weird and petty revenge. As well as finding it hard to connect to Do Kyung because he was a full on murderer, it was also hard to relate to and connect with Do Kyung because his revenge plan was pretty stupid, and he was wildly hypocritical. I do not understand on what planet killing people and leaving traces of his father (the assumed killer, whose DNA was wrongly identified) was supposed to make any of this better? While I kind of understand that if the DNA from the previous murders was found on a new murder that it may spark a reinvestigation as the supposed ‘murderer’ was in prison and thus unable to commit the crime.

Do Kyung- WHY ARE YOU SO BAD AT MAKING PLANS THAT WORK

But then Do Kyung’s Dad was at the hospital at the time, so rather than doing anything useful, Do Kyung leaving this DNA evidence behind just implicated his father even further. And he also seemed super confused when the mother of the girl he murdered killed his father because she believed that he was the one who killed her daughter. Like, did you not factor in other people’s emotions? If you are so ready to kill someone because of what was done to you and your family, why would you not assume that someone else could do the same?

So to avoid this becoming his reality he...did exactly this

So in the end, his whole stupid revenge didn’t help his father at all, but instead got him killed. Good one. I also completely fail to understand Do Kyung’s animosity towards Tae Pyung. It’s kind of understandable that he would be upset about Tae Pyung telling him of his suicide death as a child, but I have absolutely no idea how Do Kyung thought of that as the moment that derailed his life and turned him into a murderer? Like…how does that make any sense at all? (Spoiler Alert- it doesn’t). Do Kyung’s turmoil over being the one to kill Joon Young was also insanely stupid. If he’s so torn up abut being the one who kills the woman he loves then just…don’t. Is it really that hard? The show didn’t make any sort of claim that now that Do Kyung had started down this path that he needed to kill Joon Young in order to carry out his revenge. He just did it to mess with Tae Pyung. And he wanted to mess with Tae Pyung because of something that happened when they were children. Like, seriously dude, get a grip. Do Kyung’s hypocrisy was also a huge barrier that prevented him from being a character that you could pity. While his situation was horrible, and no child should have to go through that, it also didn’t justify anything he did. Being branded as a murderer’s son doesn’t magically allow you to do horrible things and get a pass for them.

Shouldn't his revenge centre on the cop who falsified evidence and not some random kid from an orphanage? 

Just because a reporter took photos of you and your Mum being harassed because of a false accusation, doesn’t mean you can go and kill that reporter’s daughter and get off without any consequences. Do Kyung kept calling Reporter Lee and Tae Pyung murderers to insult them and defend his actions towards them, but it was like- mate…they have killed no one and you have literally killed four people with your own hands, so who’s the real murderer here? It was super frustrating and didn’t make him a villain that was engaging, nor a villain that furthered the plot. It was a huge downside of this drama that Do Kyung’s character and motivations were written so sloppily, as really these aspects were supposed to be the central part of the show.

Recommend?

Nope- watch something else.

Oh, well it was all bad. Still wouldn't recommend it though.