Good witch

•  Korean title :  착한마녀전
• Other title : Nice Witch
  
• 40 episodes (but same length overall as 20 episodes)
• 
  Aired on SBS
  
• From 2018 March to May

Main cast :

• Lee Da Hae as Cha Sun Hee / Cha Do Hee
• Ryu Soo Young as Song Woo Jin
• Ahn Woo Yeon as Oh Tae Yang
• Shin Hye Jung as Joo Ye Bin
• Bae Soo Bin as Bong Chun Da
• Ahn Sol Bin as Bong Chun Ji
• Yoon Se Ah as Oh Tae Ri
• Shim Hyung Tak as Chae Kang Min
• Lee Han Seo as Bong Cho Rong
• Lee Duk Hwa as Oh Pyung Pan
• Geum Bo Ra as Byun Ok Jong
• Yang Geum Suk as Lee Moon Sook 

Production credits :

• Director : Oh Se Kang
• Screenwriter : Yoon Young Mi

 

Review : -/+

Title : It's actually referenced several times in the drama. Sun Hee and Do Hee are twins with different personalities and lives. Do Hee has become a flight attendant and the face of the company, but she's known as the cold-blood witch. Sun Hee has to take her place and, as she can't help being kind, changes her image. She's now the good witch.

Girl : I thought she was interesting. She's the super kind girl character but the drama showed how being too nice can also be a flaw she has to overcome while still being true to herself.

Boy : He's good looking, smart, kind, courageous, honest, understanding, loyal, funny. I could go on and on. He basically has every quality there is and no discernable failing (apart from a quirk in the beginning which was his only original trait). The problem is that his character didn't change at all. Now that I think about it, he's like the one-dimensional love interest in action movies, except that he is a main character.

Relationship : I wasn't invested at all in Girl and Boy's relationship since Boy was such a non-entity.

Plot : So I kept watching because of the plot. I was curious to see where it was going and how everything would fall down. Also because of the antagonists. Basically, they were 50% of the reason why I didn't DNF this drama. I was really intrigued by their dynamic.

What the... ? There are some stuff that didn't make sense and instantly took me out of the drama. The first is the whole housemates situation. The second is Girl's daughter. There are precocious child character and then there is this perfect life coach confidente child character. It's like they didn't want to add another character and thought "why not give the role to the 5 year-old kid ?" (I have no idea of her age but the point is that she's way too young to be giving life advice to her mother, expecially about her relationship to her father... yikes).

Funny : Yes, some moments are funny but this drama goes to dark places. There are some heavy betrayals.

Music : Not memorable.

Cliché : See the premise of the drama in title.

Bottom line : If I don't care about the romance and the Boy in a romantic drama, I can't rate it more than a -/+. Besides, the mix of stupid and of well-done stuff was confusing. Still, it wasn't a minus because the plot and most of the characters were interesting. In the end, I don't think I can recommend it : -/+

 

2020 October 24th update : From commentary about Red Velvet Irene's scandal, I've just learnt about the "nut rage incident", which I think inspired this drama. More after the jump (spoilers, though it's about something that happens in the first episodes). 

The Heirs

Korean title: 왕관을 쓰려는자, 그무게를 견뎌라 - 상속자들
Other titles: The Inheritors or The One Trying to Wear the Crown, Withstands the Weight

20 episodes

Aired on SBS
From 2013 October to December

Main cast:

• Lee Min Ho as Kim Tan
• Park Shin Hye as Cha Eun Sang
• Kim Woo Bin as Choi Young Do 
• Kim Ji Won as Yoo Rachel/Yoo Ra He
• Krystal Jung as Lee Bo Na
• Kang Min Hyuk as Yoon Chan Young
• Choi Jin Hyuk as Kim Won
• Kim Sung Ryung as Han Ki Ae
• Jung Dong Hwan as Kim Nam Yoon 
• Kim Mi Kyung as Park Hee Nam 
• Choi Won Young as Yoon Jae Ho 
• Park Joon Geum as Jung Ji Sook 
• Yoon Son Ha as Lee Esther R
• Choi Jin Ho as Choi Dong Wook 
• Im Joo Eun as Jun Hyun Joo 
• Kang Ha Neul as Lee Hyo Shin 
• Park Hyung Shik as Jo Myung Soo 
• Jun Soo Jin as Kang Ye Sol 

Production credits:

• Chief Producer: Choi Moon Suk, Producers: Shin Bong Chul, Lee Sung Hoon, Yoon Ha Rim
• Director: Kang Shin Hyo, Boo Sung Chul, Assistant Director: Lee Kwang Young
• Screenwriter: Kim Eun Sook

Notes:

- I saw Kim Sung Ryung first in Miss Kim makes a million. I loved her in that drama and I love her in this one, in which she's a really different character.

- The screenwriter is also credited for Secret garden... I thinks she's less successful here.

- I started to write this review after watching the drama but I'm just finishing now, years after, from memory.

Review: -/+

Title: Generic. Except for Girl, every young character is heir of a powerful family. Though there is a central love story, other characters' relationships with their family, and especially their status as heirs, are explored.

Boy: He's a typical Lee Min Ho character, which is not a bad thing. He's passionate, protective, hot and cute.

Girl: Ouch. Here's the rub. Girl is the most reluctant Girl I have ever seen. It's like she just wants to be left alone, in a "I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative." way, but for real. I'll get back to it below. Besides that, she's a typical down-on-her-luck girl.

Other boy: He takes "arrogant jerk" straight into "scary jerk" territory.

Other girl: So this is years after, so I don't remember much. She's basically a "Mean girl", you know the popular pretty girl who has minions.

Plot / relationship: The problem with the main couple is that Boy does all the work and Girl is just... there, kinda. I sometimes wondered if she wanted that relationship, was she even in love with him? Luckily, Boy is a very strong character, with an interesting arc, and his feelings are clearly expressed, so you keep watching for him. His relationship with Other boy is also explored.

Other characters: Again, I don't remember much, sorry :(. I liked Girl's mother. I seem to remember that she was mute so they used sign language to talk to each other, which is a good thing to see portrayed in a drama. Boy's family was typical drama rich family but with a twist, which added to Boy's character arc. He also had a group of friends, they had a fun dynamic and as I said, their struggles with their status and the pressure of their family are explored. It can go quite dark.

What the...? I was confused by the characters' age. At first, I thought they were in uni so it was weird to see them in high school.

Also, the drama starts in the US. Its depiction of America was funny.

Clichés: Stalking. Love triangle.

Funny: No.

Music: I didn't like it which almost never happens.

Bottom line: So thinking again of this drama, its issues reminded me of Marrying a Millionaire. Like in this drama, I was really invested in Boy's character but didn't really care for Girl. When you don't actively root for the main couple in a romance drama, there is a lot to compensate, and though everything related to Boy was good, it was not enough for me to give this drama more than a -/+.

  

Bad guy

Korean title: 나쁜 남자
Other title: Bad boy

17 episodes
Aired on SBS
From 2010 May to August

Main cast:

Kim Nam Gil as Shim Gun Wook

Han Ga In as Moon Jae In

Kim Jae Wook as Hong Tae Sung

Oh Yun Soo as Hong Tae Ra

Jung So Min as Hong Mo Ne

Kim Hye Ok as Mrs. Shin

Jun Gook Hwan as President Hong

Shim Eun Kyung as Moon Won In

Kim Eung Soo

Notes:

- Hello Paper fan teacher from Nodame cantabile! It's funny because Shim Eun Kyung who plays Girl's sister in this drama is playing the Nodame role in the Korean adaptation.

- Hello cute little girl also seen in Rooftop Prince!

- Hey guy from Coffee Prince in a major role!

- Strong feelings about that one. I'm going to have a spoiler space about it. It could have been a Fav but nope. It's been a few days so I'm not mad anymore, just bitter.

- Finally, I decided to start putting the production credits from Drama Wiki because these people are even more responsible for the end product than the cast.

Production credits :

Producer: Goo Bon Geun

Director: Lee Hyung Min

Screenwriter: Kim Jae Eun

 

Review: +

Title: I get it but it's hard to be more generic. Just "Guy" maybe?

Boy: I don't think you can go more mysterious-loner-dude-y than that. This drama lives or dies on his Boy. And he is SO good. He can do the single tear, the goofy smile, the smirk, anything. I read that actor Kim Nam Gil stole the show in another drama and I'm not surprised since I found him very charismatic. He had to, since the drama relies a lot on his character being that way. To sum up, all the pluses in the world for him.

Girl: All the pluses for her too. She is a art consultant (I had to get past the fact that it's a rom-com job despite not being on that list) from a poor background. She wants to be a social climber. Like Boy, she has an agenda, she drives the narrative. She is smart and level-headed but not boring. She's someome you'd like as a friend and it's the first time I wrote that about a drama's character.

Boy: The black sheep of his family. I'm not in love with him but he is touching. I feel for him.

Girl: A young spoiled girl but not the annoying brat type. She is cute and lively, passionnate and open-hearted. 

Girl: She's an unsatisfied married woman who always puts her duty to her family first. She could have been a cliché but she's a strong character and her story was well-handled.

Plot/relationships: The plot was so good. It was hard to see where it was going. It's driven by the characters' motivations, it makes you care about the characters, the pacing is great, revelations are dished out progressively. Fab! Triple Fab... But, triple but, at one point, characters act in stupid ways just to allow a plot point that makes no sense. And the end is completely botched. I was so mad. I've never been so mad... it doesn't ruin everything, I'd still recommend it but no to the end.
I'm just going to paraphrase one of my favourite reviews ever: "For about nine-tenths of the drama, this is perfect. The drama is tense, there’s a palpable sense of mystery, of trying to figure out along with the characters what the next move is, what the next layer is, how the disparate pieces that don’t make sense fit into a cohesive picture.
And then the bottom falls out catastrophically.
The last two episodes in which we get "resolutions" are just so terribly written that I think the screenwriter should get an MRI, because I think he had a stroke on page 85 and then ignored the smell of burnt toast to keep typing."

Funny factor? Nope.

Bottom line: It should have been a Fav! I'm mad it's not a Fav because of [spoiler].

But watch it! Just don't watch *first degree spoiler* the last two episodes and imagine it's the end.

However, I still need to dish on what I hated, so full blown spoilers coming  after the jump. You should really watch the show before reading this because, for one thing, you won't understand what I'm talking about and second, it will colour your experience of the show and you don't want that. Anyway, you will probably binge-watch it in days like I did so you're coming back soon.

Borrow your Love

Taiwanese title: 借用一下你的愛 (借用一下你的爱)

14 episodes
Aired on CTV
From 2013 March to June

Main cast:

Amanda Chu: Xie Ping An 謝平安

Dylan Kuo: Ye Chen 葉晨

Shi Yi Nan: Li Zi Wen 黎子文

Cherry Hsia: Xie Xi Le 謝喜樂

Linda Liu: Bai Ming Li 白明俐

Allen Chao: Li Shi Cheng 季世城

Huang Ke Jing: Ji Li Sa 季麗莎

Chen Qiao Wei: Li Huo Ying 季霍英

Notes:
Hello Mother from Autumn's concerto!
And I totally didn't recognise Amanda Chu from the same drama.
Hey Cherry Hsia! I just watched you on Alice in Wonder city.

 

Review: +/-

Title: I'm glad I have this category so I can say how bad this title is. The title is misleading because it screams romance while romance is not a focus. As for the synopsis from Dramawiki: "Xie Ping An and Ye Chen pretended to be a couple in order to hook up their friends. However, the mismatch duo find themselves attracted to one another instead.", it's just false: this is not the premise of this drama.

Girls: They are two orphans who have grown up together and who share a sisterly bond. Girl is brash while Other girl is sweet and timid.

Boys: Full disclosure, this is the first time I thought that I'd like to have a boyfriend like a Boy. And Dylan Kuo totally deserves a spot on this list. I'm just not sure who to kick out. (Edit: now, I know who to kick out, so he's on it.)

All four main characters are interesting and I cared about them. (++++)

Relationships: I'm going to talk about the relationships first. The drama starts with hallmarks of romance: multiple coincidental meetings, initial dislike, forced interaction... however, it becomes quickly apparent that the focus will be on Girls' relationship. I didn't mind. (+)

Plot: The plot is character-based. It advances briskly (which allows for Boy to figure things out and be smart). One piece of information I thought would last episodes before being revealed turned out to be the premise of the drama. (++)

However, the drama suffers from a fatal case of last episode syndrome. It should be obvious but apparently, it's not (see also Heartstrings). A finale is supposed to wrap up the threads, and possibly give us an epilogue. It SHOULD NOT introduce lame cliché pointless new threads that are resolved in ten minutes. There was something else I disliked but it's more subjective. (--)

Other characters: The villain is after my heart, complex with clear motivations, though crazy in execution.

But, there is another very important character who is introduced as ruthless, not only by other people but we also see them in action. Then, at the end of the drama, they're practically a saint. I mean, I can believe that they're not just a monster but I wish their greyer parts were still acknowledged just so I know I've been watching the same events as the characters. Unfortunately, some secondary characters who had potential are also inconsistent.

Most egregious clichés: Everyone is an orphan. Anyone can be CEO.

Funny factor? A scene made me laugh out loud for minutes. I kind of felt bad about it because it's really really really embarrassing.

As often, it gradually becomes darker, though there are still comedic moments.

Music: Serviceable

What the... ? Boy has the weirdest phobia.

Bottom line: While watching, I couldn't decide between a + or a +/-. I don't know why because the characters, the plot, the relationships, everything was compelling. Maybe it was some details, maybe I miss romance... Anyway, the ending sealed it for me: +/-