The Silent Sea

 The Silent Sea

8.5/10

The Silent Sea

Genre:                                     Episodes: 8                           Year: 2021

Mystery

Thriller

Synopsis:

In the future, Earth suffers from a sever lack of water. Water is strictly rationed creating tension between the different socio-economic classes. A team of soldiers and scientists are sent to a research station on the moon to receive samples that were left behind when the station was abandoned due to a radiation leak.

Cast:

Bae Doo Na (Song Ji Ahn)

Gong Yoo (Han Yoon Jae)

Kim Sun Young (Hong Ga Young)

Lee Joon (Ryu Tae Suk)

Lee Moo Saeng (Gong Soo Hyuk)

Lee Sung Wook (Kim Sun)

Jung Soon Won (Gong Soo Chan)

Kim Shi Ah (Luna)

Heo Sung Tae (Chief Kim)

Gil Hae Yeon (Director Choi)

General Thoughts:

This was a great show. I really enjoyed every episode and highly enjoyed the creepy atmosphere that was built throughout the show’s run. There’s so much in this drama that was made to grab attention and draw viewers in. Being a Netflix show, its reach was a little further than K-Drama’s that are only shown in Korea and on smaller streaming platforms internationally.

It's SPACE

Netflix gives a lot of people access to international content that they might not otherwise have had access to, and over the last couple of years you can really feel Netflix capitalising on Korean content. As well as being on one of the biggest streaming platforms, ‘The Silent Sea’ also had a handful of cast members that viewers would have seen before- also on Netflix. Bae Doo Na, who is the leading character of ‘The Silent Sea’ got a lot of attention when she starred in ‘Kingdom’ and ‘Kingdom 2’. The tone of both these shows are also similar- ‘Kingdom’ was a tension building zombie series, and ‘The Silent Sea’ was a tension building space mystery.

This is not her first Netflix rodeo

A lot of people who tuned in to ‘Kingdom’ would be the target audience for ‘The Silent Sea’. Gong Yoo, who plays the main male character, and Heo Sung Tae would both be familiar to those who watched ‘Squid Game’. And again, ‘Squid Game’ is a series that has a similar dark, mysterious tone. The casting of the drama was definitely a big draw card, not just for dedicated K-Drama fans, but also for newer viewers whose only experience with Korean content is through Netflix. A large budget and a large audience is a great way to start a show. Obviously I’m late to the party as ‘The Silent Sea’ aired almost a year ago now, but I still think it’s one of the better Netflix K-Dramas I’ve seen. I’ve mentioned before how a platform like Netflix gives K-Dramas certain freedoms that shows aired on Korean networks don’t have, and I think this show really hits that perfect middle ground of not being too conservative, but also not being too dark. ‘D.P’ is another Netflix release that was at its core a great show, but the themes were so dark that it wasn’t actually that enjoyable to watch. ‘Sweet Home’ is a Netflix release that I didn’t even make past the first episode- the horror themes were just too much for me. ‘The Silent Sea’ is great for me because it sort of dances on the edge of being horror, but never actually crosses over. I like being drawn in and I like being nervous for the characters and anticipating what is going to happen next. I don’t like being scared. I especially don’t like still being scared even after I’ve turned the show off.

It's the perfect amount of scary for people who don't like horror

This drama was fabulous because it was so great at drawing you into the moment and holding the viewer in these tense, highly suspenseful moments, but very rarely resorted to things like jump scares or gore to heighten the tension. Instead, there was always this slightly uncomfortable feeling that something wasn’t quite right, but it was hard to pick out exactly what it was. Things like lighting, small character expressions and music were excellent tools that this show used to create suspense and build tension. Another excellent way the show did this was to have scenes linger for slightly longer than they needed to.

A+ for atmosphere

A character would leave a hallway or walk past a door and the camera would stay focused on supposed emptiness for just slightly longer than would be normal, leaving the viewer waiting for something to happen- something has to be there right, or why else would the shot still be ongoing? It was a fabulous way of creating the feeling that something else was in the station with the team and that the team was being watched without actually having to show anything at all. The actual plot of the show was pretty slow moving. Not a lot was really going on in each of these episodes. You couldn’t really build these small moments and create this spooky atmosphere if a hundred other things were going on at the same time. I didn’t mind this payoff at all- there was enough in each episode to keep me hooked and the viewers were spoon-fed small pieces of the mystery in each of the episodes. One thing I will say about the plot, is that while technically not a lot happened each episode, I liked that the characters faced threats from different sources. As the story progressed deeper into the mystery, the threats the characters came in contact with were more varied. This certainly helped to up the tension and keep the interest in the story. The different threats were also hinted at early on so it never felt like they came out of nowhere. Right as the crew arrived at Balhae station they saw a dead mercenary and the dialogue was able to give some exposition on the group and why they may potentially cause issues with the crew. Which of course they did in the form of Gi Soon and Tae Suk.

Of all the ways you could die in this station, getting shot by a human sure seems the least cool

We also had Luna herself attacking the crew in the middle episodes in an effort to prevent them from taking the Luna Water away. And then of course there was the Luna Water itself that could instantly kill any of the crew if they came into contact with it. Having a range of threats and different types of danger kept the show engaging and suspenseful, and I enjoyed how it wasn’t an obvious enemy for the crew to go up against all the time. Much like the atmosphere in each episode built, the story built itself in a similar way, gradually upping the stakes and the tension until we made it to the final episode.

Is she a fish? Is she a human? Nobody knows!

The story itself I thought was good- we knew something had happened on the station and we knew it had something to do with the strange Luna Water, and enjoyed the gradual unravelling of what really happened at Balhae Station. I appreciated the final moral issue that the characters were faced with, and I didn’t feel like the viewers had to make too many assumptions about what happened on their own. I still have no idea what the hell Luna Water is or how Luna came to be the way that she is, but I’m not sure we are supposed to know those things by the end of the show. The lack of answers to the final issue raised by the drama is probably the show’s only weak point. I can see some people potentially being put off by the slow pace, but as I mentioned before, that was a price I was willing to pay for the creepiness in each episode. I also think the lack of explanation at the end may annoy some viewers and the science didn’t seem very science-y. The mystery substance just was and interacted with things we knew, such as people, just because the was what the show needed it to do. No reasoning and no explanation. I found this to be a minor flaw though, and it didn’t really have ay impact of my enjoyment of the drama as a whole. 

What Was Great:

Cinematic Experience:

This show is gorgeous. You can tell it had a high budget. The landscaping of the moon was absolutely beautiful and all the CGI with the space and violence and water was all very realistic. To add to the stunning cinematography, the acting was all top class.

The moon landscape was just absolutely stunning 

While the characters themselves weren’t exactly integral to the story, which was more focused on location and events, it certainly didn’t hurt to have actors of such high caliber filling out the cast. The score as well was done beautifully- the music added to the feel of what we were seeing on screen, both the setting and the characters, and certainly assisted with creating the dark, unsettling mood that the show was building. All the elements that supported the plot and storyline were absolutely top shelf, and gave the drama a clean and polished look that can sometimes be lacking from smaller budget shows. All the scenes and various locations we were shown as the story progressed felt so rich and real, and had great detail focus.

Spooky station with spooky lighting

All the areas inside the Balhae Station were populated with smaller details so that we knew where in the station we were. The smaller details all added up to build the bigger picture and add depth to the show. Each and every aspect of the drama came together to increase the foreboding atmosphere and worked together to build the tension that the plot of the drama was riding on. This show was a great experience all around, but visually it was really a cut above other K-Dramas. 

What Wasn’t:

Inconclusive:

As I've said in many a drama review- I’m not really a fan of open endings. While I understand it can be there to allow the viewer to imagine the story to go in any direction from that point, a big part of me has always felt that this is a slightly lazy way of ending a story. Sometimes I’m on board- such as the ending of ‘Inception’ where it’s unclear if the main character has made it back to his family or if he’s still in a dream.

We just kinda threw science away for that last episode, huh

Because there’s only two options and the story that we’ve sat through isn’t really impacted by which of those scenarios are true. But the ending here in ‘The Silent Sea’ was just too open. It’s unclear who is in the spacecraft that arrives for Ji Ann and Dr Hong. It’s unclear why Luna can live on the moon without the need for a space suit. It’s unclear if Luna is going to taken for more experiments and research. It’s unclear whether the moral quandaries the characters have experienced have any impact on wether the Korean government continues the research into Luna Water and if the cloning experimentation continues. It felt like the show spent all its time on uncovering the mystery of Balhae Station (which it did extremely well), but then did nothing with what was left after our characters had all the information. Is it setting up for a Season 2? I mean, probably but I don’t really like that either. Almost everyone from Season 1 is dead and any ongoing seasons are unlikely to have that same level of unsettling atmosphere and curious underlying mystery that made this series so good. Not a fan of open endings, and not a fan of banking on second seasons, so either way- not a huge fan of the way this drama wrapped up.

Recommend?

I would recommend this drama. Particularly for those that enjoy atmosphere building and the tension that comes from a mystery slowly unraveling. 

I sure hope they don't go back to Earth for a second season

Shooting Stars

 Shooting Stars

7/10

Shooting Stars

Genre:                                    Episodes: 16                           Year: 2022

Romance

Comedy

Synopsis:

Oh Han Byul is the leader of the PR Team at an entertainment company. The star actor at the company is Gong Tae Sung, who has known Oh Han Byul since their university days. Gong Tae Sung has a perfect public image which is carefully monitored by Oh Han Byul and the rest of the PR Team.

Cast:

Lee Sung Kyung (Oh Han Byul)

Kim Young Dae (Gong Tae Sung)

Yoon Jong Hoon (Kang Yoo Sung)

Kim Yoon Hye (Park Ho Young)

Sojin (Jo Ki Beum)

Lee Jung Shin (Do Soo Hyuk)

Jin Ho Eun (Byun Jung Yeol)

Jang Hee Ryung (Baek Da Hye)

Lee Seung Hyub (Kang Shi Duk)

Kim Dae Gon (Han Dae Soo)

Lee Shi Woo (Jin Yoo Na)

Shin Hyun Seung (Yoon Jae Hyun)

General Thoughts:

This was a fun show and actually ended up being better than I thought it was going to be. I fully expected this to run out steam about the half-way point, but it surprised me and kept plodding along at an enjoyable pace. This is one of those weird show where nothing, and I mean nothing, happens, and yet it still somehow manages to be fun and entertaining despite the complete and utter lack of plot.

I do not understand how this show is so fun, but it just is

This drama wasn’t a fast paced one, but given that the plot moved at a continual pace, that wasn’t too bad. There was a lot of great humour in this show- it wasn’t silly humour or toilet humour, and the situations and the relationships between the characters often gave great comedic timing and made the show super enjoyable and relaxing to watch. While I love a solid, twisty, excellently written drama as much as the next person, sometimes the best thing is to come home from a long day at work and watch something light-hearted with great humour that doesn’t require much brain power.

Cute + Fun + No Thinking Required = Yes Please

Which is exactly what this show was. I think how it managed to keep it’s pace going steady without too much going on plot-wise was just the sheer amount of characters this show had. And unlike a lot of other dramas where there are different groups of characters who don’t necessarily interact with each other, in ‘Shooting Stars’ basically every single character had a relationship with every other character to explore. Which is a huge part of the fun of this show. The begrudging friendship being formed between Tae Sung and Soo Hyuk was so fun to watch. Enemies to lovers is a common romance trope, so it was great fun to see this familiar trope turned around and applied to the bromance rather than the main romance. Their interactions were always fun and it was sweet to watch these two characters grow close and start to depend on each other. I don’t think Lee Jung Shin is the greatest actor out there, and early on in the drama it did seem like he was struggling a bit to portray the ‘cool, charismatic lawyer’ type character. His chemistry with Lee Sung Kyung was basically at zero (which kind of actually worked for the show by showing that they weren’t suited to each other), and he felt much more relaxed once his character fell more into the male lead’s friend box as opposed to the second lead vying for the heart of the female lead box. This seemed to flow through into his chemistry with Sojin too, and so when the show started pairing them together it felt believable and enjoyable rather than feeling like the drama was just trying to get a partner for absolutely every character.

It's an idol-actor couple on screen!

One relationship that did feel like the drama was just trying to pair every single character up was Ho Young and Yoo Sung. I was just not on board with this at all. I really liked the character of Yoo Sung and loved the way that Yoon Jong Hoon was portraying him- fun but reliable with a lot of experience at his job. He felt very much like a nurturing presence to help the newer staff members feel at ease so they could learn better and quicker.

Um, no thanks, I'm fine without this one...

Ho Young was an okay character outside of her relationship with Yoo Sung but she definitely felt rushed. While it felt like the show had dedicated enough time into establishing Ki Beum and Soo Hyuk’s characters outside of their work roles, it never felt like they had time to do this with Yoo Sung and Ho Young. As a result we had two fairly weak characters being forced together into a relationship that I’m not sure anyone else actually cared about. There wasn’t a lot of chemistry between Yoon Jong Hoon and Kim Yoon Hye and they came across as very awkward when they were together. I could see that the show was trying to push Ho Young into a ‘cute’ character, but that didn’t seem to fit how they had been building her character up until that point. Pairing this with the fact that she was also Yoo Sung’s direct junior in their workplace who often went to him for help when she made mistakes, the way Ho Young acted when she was in a relationship with Yoo Sung made her character feel more immature than cute, and I just was not sold on the relationship at all. I would have much preferred if the show had spent that time focusing on how Ho Young was growing as a manager and mentoring Shi Duk into a successful actor the way that Yoo Sung mentored Da Hye. The show could have even had a cute little parallel of unrequited love of Shi Duk crushing on Ho Young and Ho Young crushing on Yoo Sung. But alas, the show did pair Yoo Sung and Ho Young together in what was altogether and underwhelming love line.

THIS is where her character shined- not in that weird father-daughter-like relationship

There was even some hints of romance between Da Hye and Shi Duk which I was surprisingly quite receptive to. The very many love-lines were basically the entirety of the show, with a healthy dose of friendships sprinkled throughout as well- this meant that there was always a relationship developing somewhere so that if one couple hit a low point, there was something cute going on somewhere else that helped to keep the lighthearted feel of the show going strong. 

What Was Great:

The Stars:

Lee Sung Kyung and Kim Young Dae. They were just fantastic. I’ve liked Lee Sung Kyung since I first saw her acting and absolutely fell in love with her character in ‘Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo’. I know she’s an excellent actress and she didn’t disappoint here.

Oh Lordy, he is actually so fun!

Kim Young Dae is a new face for me as unlike every other K-Drama fan I have not seen ‘Penthouse’. Any of the seasons. What an absolute treat he was in ‘Shooting Stars’! The show spent a fair amount of time on him monologuing as Tae Sung, and he is just so darn funny! His expressions are over the top to dial up the comedy, but are not so far gone that he comes off as ridiculous. Somehow he managed to make all of Tae Sung’s silly quirks and mannerisms seem perfectly fine and fun. It’s been a while since a male lead has come off as so swoon-worthy to me, but Kim Young Dae was exceptionally swoony as Tae Sung. And that’s not just due to looks- Kim Young Dae is certainly a handsome guy, but it was the way he poured so much energy and commitment into Tae Sung that made the character so wonderful. The character was written well, and his actions around Han Byul were so sweet- even at the start of the show when they would constantly bicker, Tae Sung was never malicious or cruel, and just had massive amounts of puppy-like energy. The character and the actor had perfect synergy and together they gave us a really great male lead- which this drama super needed due to the lack of anything else going on in the story. The plot of this drama basically just put Lee Sung Kyung and Kim Young Dae in a room together and went- be cute. And they were. For 16 episodes they were so very cute.

Them bickering was great, him wooing her was great, her falling for him back was great- just all around great stuff

How did they manage to keep it interesting for so long? I DON’T KNOW. I don’t know what magic these two were using, but watching them acting their characters together and the chemistry they had was just a wonderfully fun time. While all the actors involved did pretty well (I mean it’s not like there was any difficult acting moments anyway) it remains a solid fact that Lee Sung Kyung and Kim Young Dae carried this drama hard. They were the perfect fits for the characters and I’m certain the show wouldn’t have been the same with different actors.

What Wasn’t:

Half-*ssed Plot:

Look, with all the cute going on with the characters this show didn’t really need a big plot. Should it still have some overarching story? I mean, probably. But I don’t think I would have minded if it didn’t. What did annoy me though was the small, unlinked plot devices and antagonists that the story sprinkled in for some tension. 

WHY ARE YOU EVEN HERE WHAT IS THE POINT OF YOU

To be honest if you’re going to bank on cuteness and romance just go with that- don’t try and shoehorn other plots into the story. There was the relationship between Tae Sung and his Mum and the anti-cafe, some weird rich lady, and an ex-manager with a vendetta against Tae Sung. None of them really related to each other, and none of them added that much to the story either. I wish the writer had just chosen one of these issues (probably the anti-cafe) and gone into it a little deeper rather than lightly touching on a bunch of issues, resolving them quickly and then never revisiting them again. I also feel like the show ignored the obvious choice of plot-tension- fan reactions and the fallout of Tae Sung and Han Byul going public with their relationship. It certainly felt like this is what the show was building up towards with the efforts they were going to keep it a secret and how obviously dissatisfied Tae Sung was that they couldn’t be together more openly. So it was a total disappointment when that was never explored properly. Instead the show cuts off just as Han Byul decides that she’s ready to face the storm by announcing their relationship.

But...but...what about the public opinions that have mattered so much until now?

It kind of felt like the show got us all the way to the main point and then ended before actually getting into any of the main plot. I 100% would have sacrificed the smaller, less important antagonist plot-points to focus time and energy on how Han Byul and Tae Sung make it through all the attention and criticisms of Tae Sung’s fans.

Recommend?

If you are wanting something light and breezy to watch with more than one love-line this would be a great watch for you. If you’re after a more substantial plot maybe look elsewhere.

Nice and fluffy and easy to watch

Our Blues

 Our Blues

8/10

Our Blues

Genre:                                        Episodes: 20                     Year: 2022

Melodrama

Synopsis:

Interweaving and interconnected stories following a tight knit community of friends and families living on Jeju Island.

Cast:

Lee Byung Hoon (Lee Dong Seok)

Shin Min Ah (Min Seon Ah)

Han Ji Min (Lee Young Ok)

Kim Woo Bin (Park Jong Joon)

Lee Jung Eun (Jung Eun Hee)

Choi Young Joon (Bang Ho Shik)

Park Ji Hwan (Jung In Gwon)

Roh Yoon Seo (Bang Young Joo)

Bae Hyun Sung (Jung Hyeon)

Cha Seung Won (Choi Han Soo)

Ki So Yoo (Son Eun Gi)

Jung Eun Hye (Lee Young Hee)

Go Doo Shim (Hyung Chun Hee)

Kim Hye Ja (Kang Ok Dong)

General Thoughts:

This has been a drama I have been anticipating since the casting news was announced. Kim Woo Bin has returned! After having not seeing him in anything since ‘Uncontrollably Fond’ in 2016 after his health issues, I have been very excited for his return.

Guyysss, it's Kim Woo Bin!

There were a lot of big names pulling together for this drama, which also gave me quite high hopes for the script- I know big manes don’t really equal a good drama, but I hoped with so many high profile actors signing on that this would mean the script sounded pretty darn good. And it was! There weren’t really any episodes where I felt like the story was dragging or I was super disengaged from the plot or the characters.

Big emotions can come from small moments

While it wasn’t a fast paced show, the story continually had forward momentum, taking its time to go a bit deeper into each character in turn. Which is another thing I liked about how the plot moved- the same characters were always present giving the show a feeling of continuity as if it was just telling one big story. But what it was really doing was telling lots of smaller, shorter stories using the same characters present. It flowed really well and was always a gradual shift from one character to the next. It didn’t feel like we finished Eun Hee’s story and then launched right into Jong Joon and Young Ok- Jong Joon and Young Ok had their chemistry and moments building in the background while the show focused on Eun Hee, and Eun Hee was still very present in island life as the focus shifted slowly to Young Ok. Another thing I liked about the writing in ‘Our Blues’ is that it didn’t try too hard to be too dramatic. The plot was still engaging without murder and betrayal and Big Dramatic Moments. The show focused instead on the emotions in smaller moments- many of which were relatable to the viewers. We don’t all know how it feels for you father’s hidden son to shoot your mother, but we do all know about small regrets, and loving your children even when you don’t understand them, and feeling nostalgic. The show used relatable characters to portray relatable emotions in a constantly interesting way, and I think that in a nutshell is why the show was so successful.

This drama knew how to punch you in the heart

If you can make your audience feel something while watching, then you're 3/4 on the way to a great drama. Despite the fact that this show is called ‘Our Blues’, going in I kind of didn’t think that it would be a sad drama. In hindsight that feels like a silly assumption to make, but I kind of always associated Jeju with fishing and holidays and good times, so it did take me a little by surprise how sad a lot of the episodes were. The show wasn’t as lighthearted as I’d thought it would be, but I do still think it hit a nice balance. It never became too overwhelmingly depressing that it wasn’t enjoyable to watch. It hit that sweet spot in between fun and emotion so it wasn’t too heavy or too light as to be easily forgotten.

A great blend of sweet and sad

Everything pulled together really nicely in this show and really gave it a cohesive feel. The characters, acting, plot, pace and directing all contributed towards forming the show into what it was, and it never felt like any of those aspects were outperforming the others. This show is well balanced and easy to watch- I was never really not in the mood for an episode of ‘Our Blues’, and I enjoyed every episode that I watched.

What Was Great:

The People:

Both the cast and the characters. There were such a large range of characters to have in the show and it really felt like all of those had been cast perfectly. Though I will admit to being ever so slightly disappointed that Kim Woo Bin and Shin Min Ah were not paired together in the story.

I enjoyed seeing a more serious side to Shin Min Ah too

The characters all felt very real and lived in, and the writer provided each character with such rich and detailed backstory that it was easy for the viewers to feel like they understood the people they were seeing on screen. The journey in this drama was really in slowly revealing the different layers to each of the characters so that we could see what moments and relationships forged them into the people they were in the present day. I surprisingly enjoyed the way the show would present a character a certain way, and would then slowly work to show why these characters were behaving the way they did. The prime example of this is Young Ok- I really didn’t like her at first as she was presented as flippant and manipulative. I found it hard to cheer for her relationship with Jong Joon to work out when it was so obvious that she was hiding something important. Yet when it was revealed that she was the sole family for a disabled sister all her actions suddenly made sense, and she became a character that was understandable and sympathetic. Young Ok only wanted to have fun because she was trying to distance herself from something that was already so emotionally grinding. She didn’t want to commit to a future with Jong Joon because she didn’t want to rope him into a caring role he didn’t want, and she also didn’t want to expose herself to a situation where she was very likely to be hurt- a situation she had experienced multiple times before with previous partners leaving.

I went from wishing Jong Joon would leave her alone to really rooting for them to work out

There were similar revelations for each of the charters that the show focused on, which made the village where the stories were set in feel so real and easy to connect to. The drama seemed to focus on this idea that it’s difficult to actually know people, even people you see everyday, as we are all made up of so many experiences and emotions and memories that shape who we are.

What Wasn’t:

Some Stories:

While there are lots of perks to a drama that is set out the way ‘Our Blues’ is with lots of smaller stories building a bigger, more whole picture of a community of people, there are undoubtably going to be some stories that don’t resonate as well as others. There was no section of story that I was vehemently against, but the last two stories of the show didn’t draw me in quite the way the others had.

Ki So Yoo was cute as but this storyline was so so

There were aspects I liked to each of them- the resolution of the fishermen of Jeju coming together to give Eun Gi and her Grandmother 100 moons to wish on really hit the emotional spot it was aiming for. But a lot of that story just felt like Chun Hee not even trying to connect with or comfort her granddaughter- in fact it often felt like she went out of her way to say antagonising things to upset Eun Gi. I understand that the show was trying to depict a generational difference between Chun Hee and Eun Gi, but I also felt like I was experiencing a bit of a cultural gap as well. I found Chun Hee quite difficult to relate to, and rather than coming to understand her character more, there were times where I just felt like the show made her feel more unlikeable by giving her this storyline. It was a similar thing with the story between Dong Seok and his Mum- all the emotional beats were there, and it was a wonderfully emotional way to end the show. But even at the resolution of the story I never felt like I fully understood Ok Dong or her actions. I understood the emotions between the characters and the emotions that lead to the opening up of their communication and their reconnection, but I honestly never fully grasped why she had felt she needed to do the things that hurt Dong Seok in the first place. None of these complaints are that big, but next to a whole bunch of stories that felt so complete where you felt like you deeply knew all of the characters, these small lapses in understanding felt a little disconnecting.   

Recommend?

Yes- if you like dramas that feel quite slice-of-life rather than having one overarching story then I think you would enjoy ‘Our Blues’.

I feel like you'd have to be trying really hard to not like this drama