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