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Happy New Year! |
A belated New Year's greeting as my December-January shows took a while to wrap-up. Praying the terrible drama drought of 2024 comes to an end soon!
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Check-in Hanyang
This Joseon-era drama of a group of trainees at a famous inn, each with secrets that are driving them to succeed, starts out with such promise. But the series does not develop the character relationships well and like many dramas it falls off in the second half.
Everyone wants to experience the luxury and opulence of Yongcheonru. Even the King has to do deals with them to help him finance his life. No one seems to have more money than the owner, Cheon Bang-ju.
But there’s a reason each of these interns at the inn have come to train at this inn. Prince Mu Yeong (Bae In-hyuk) hides his identity to investigate a secret which he hopes will free his father, the King, from being under the thumb of Cheon. Hong Deok-soo (Kim Ji-eun as) is actually a woman disguised as a man and she is trying to find the other half of a key that her father gave her upon his death. Cheon was her father’s business partner and may have had a role in his death. Cheon Jun-hwa (Jung Gun-joo) is the heir to Yongcheonru but no one knows he is the owner’s son. Go Soo-ra (Park Jae-chan) is a straight-forward merchant’s son who needs to help his family with their debts. They four may hate each other at the start but become a bonded foursome while they fight for their place at Yongcheonru. But their secrets begin to pile up with each other which becomes their undoing.
There was immediate intrigue here with Deok-soo cross-dressing for her safety and the family secret she was trying to unravel. Meanwhile, the Prince is looking for the key she possesses.
Slowly, some of the men in the friend-group learn Deok-soo’s secret, but she is at risk should certain other people find out her real identity. Jun-hwa begins as kind of a easygoing trust fund kid who has never had to be serious about anything. He is annoyed to be learning the ropes of his father’s business and has never had the cutthroat personality his father has. But he becomes more driven to help his friends. Until he kind of tips the scales into evil…which was just so strained and cliché.
The unwinding of the secrets, the betrayals among friends, and the budding romance between Deok-soo and one of the men just kind of dissolves this whole plot into a mess of a puddle.
Ultimately, none of the characters remain true to who they are in ways that deflate the whole show.
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Namib
Idol life is so inherently interesting but so many dramas really miss the mark. This one included. It puts some terrible parenting and caretaking on display and then tries to suggest some of that is not that bad. Whether it intends to or not, it does make the exploitation around idol contracts crystal clear.
Kang Soo-hyun (Go Hyun-jung) is a top idol producer with a stellar track record but she gets ousted from the label she built based on some flimsy faked footage scandal. She agrees to walk out the door but takes one promising idol trainee, Yoo Jin-woo (Ryeoun) with her in an attempt to make some money which she intends to pour into a business venture for her deaf son Shim Jin-woo (Lee Jin-woo)(who never asked for this). Her husband, who has been a stay-at-home Dad, comes out of retirement to help her train idol Jin-woo.
At first, I was a little scared this was going to be the Min Hee-jin story but it is not. It is about an abandoned child trying to find someone in this world he can trust. But sadly he agrees to trust this horrible woman with his future, when she’s only invested in making money off of him. At times, she seems like she might care but it’s a lot of mixed messages and I really felt for this poor kid who has no where to turn but her.
Korean dramas are not usually great with respect to disabilities and I found it interesting that this deaf student is just left to fend for himself in classes with no assistance. His mother pays other students to help her son and eventually trainee Jin-woo ends up as bodyguard and project manager for deaf Jin-woo’s classes and notes. They develop a genuine friendship along with a female trainee. And it's good for all of them to finally have real friends.
Pulling Jin-woo in another direction is a washed up trainee, Chris (Lee Ki-taek) who was burned by Kang Soo-hyun back in the day and abandoned by her and is full of resentment for her. He manages a club and does the dirty-work for Kang Soo-hyun's replacement at the record label. He cares about Jin-woo but he also cannot help but want to see Kang Soo-hyun fail, even if that means Jin-woo does too.
There is an INSANE subplot around drugging women at bars and it ties into all these folks but it was so poorly handled I feel like it is not worth mentioning. Just taking a real issue and turning it into insane plot fodder. And handled with zero sensitivity or honesty. Ugh.
The whole drama, including the acting, gets kind of over-the-top soapy. I was zero-percent invested in Kang Soo-hyun and her husband rekindling their relationship. I also thought Ryeon read a little too old for the role. He should have read a bit more child-like to believe his situation and reactions.
I just could not handle how they were trading this kid’s life away to anyone who would pay for him knowing how awful the industry is and how much he came to trust them like a family. Jin-woo might forgive her but I have not.
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Love Scout
Kang Ji-yun (Han Ji-min) is the CEO of a search firm that she has been working hard to build from the ground up. She ends up butting heads with an HR executive, Yu Eun-ho (Lee Joon-hyuk) who later gets hired as her assistant. He is a single father to a little girl and his prioritizing his daughter’s happiness has set him back in his career. Which is why he finds himself starting over with Kang Ji-yun.
Kang Ji-yun is portrayed as highly competent in her work but a little bit of a mess in other regards. She is always getting into someone else’s car like its her own. A quirky, charming bit of absent-mindedness. She puts Eun-ho through a lot to test him and he just takes whatever she dishes out.
Frankly, at times, he parents her like a child and this is probably where the show lost me. Her inner child needed some healing but I wish the drama wasn’t so explicit about making this “caretaking” feel like the equivalent of what he does for his daughter. This grown woman and that small child are not the same.
There is a fated connection, natch, and this forces her to confront some of her troubled past. But in 12-episodes the healing comes fast and furious along with the love story. And I did not buy it.
Ji-yun also has an evil rival who is trying to destroy her for reasons that are not totally clear. And this rivalry just does not seem worthy of Ji-yun’s time. There’s also a mentor-investor who treats Ji-yun like a child and wants to punish her for stepping out of his control.
On the one hand I get the patriarchal bullshit women must have to put up with in business in Korea. In another breath, Ji-yun is so good at her job I don’t know why people would bother her if they are making money off of her. But it is about control and maybe I just did not enjoy a show all about various people trying to torture Ji-yun for their own petty reasons. Especially when the show is scripted for her to just keep taking all that is lobbed at her.
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