Oh, you pulled the words out of my mouth. Everyone except Hye-Jin is given a long rope by Dusik. They gossip till it reaches elementary school and when Hye-jin asks them to stop, Du-sik says don’t over react???Backstory justification of Nam-suk for gossip mongering left a bad taste. Yes her story was sad, but if anything she wouldn’t want people gossiping about her daughter if she was alive and grown up. You are right, I don’t know if they could have pulled this off if Dusik was played by a less charming actor.
I guess the beautiful leads, their chemistry, the locale keeps it on Netflix top 10 across different countries!
I wish I were sad for Nam-suk. I knew she had a story. It was practically telegraphed with a megaphone in the latest and previous episodes so I saw it coming. But someone in the town really needs to take her aside about the way she mouths off. Gossiping might be harmless on some level but if it gets out of hand, people could get seriously hurt. You made a really good point about whether she'd like it if people went around gossiping about her and her late daughter in negative terms. I can't help feeling that there's a tribalism going on that's keeping everyone in an unhealthy bubble.
The reasons I mentioned above are tempting to make me watch🙂 Now Seong-Hyun too. I too hope Seong-Hyun isn’t butchered to make Dusik look good. Yeah, gossip to a certain level would have been okay. I get that the news spread fast in smaller towns. I didn’t like it that an elementary school kid almost asked an inappropriate question to Hye-jin.
You are right tribalism may be the right word. Otherwise why is the outsider portrayed as someone in need of a fix when everyone there isn’t a saint.
I think it’s also got a lot to do with perspective. What drives people to like or dislike a series or film.
If I break it down to broad reasons:
- it’s the star power of the actors playing the roles
- the actors doing justice to what’s written
- the set up and scenic beauty
- the chemistry of the main leads
- the character sketches
- the storyline (in this case from the movie)
- the dialogues
For many it would also be getting a combination of these right barring one or two.
But every viewer would have something non negotiable and for me it’s how well written the characters are and how true the writer has stayed to the story of the said characters. And hence I can see where you’re coming from.
But for the majority I think it would be a majority of the factors combination or just the chemistry and good looking actors playing it given that it’s a Rom Com. Hence the high ratings. So I think the series doing well is fair but then the complaints that some of us will have about the characters being inconsistent and half baked are also fair.
For me what I really struggle with are most of the characters. I can see what the show is trying to do and there are things it has going for it. Apart from Seong-hyeong, I like that he's trying to make a variety show around life in Gongjin. That's probably the most interesting part. Other than that, the show is filled with stereotypes and caricatures. The gossipy lady being one of them.
I don't mind that the male lead is flawed. In fact, I'm fond of antiheroes but for some reason Du-sik rubs me up the wrong way and even though I don't outright dislike him, I don't love him either. Which is odd because I like Kim Seon-ho a lot.
Thanks for your measured comment. I understand the point too that this is a breezy rom com and that has a lot of traction with the great swath of K drama viewers.
Agreed the character stories lack depth for me and I can’t cry with them like I did for many characters in Hosplay. Like the lady who had an angel baby visit again. The words were minimum but that scene made me cry. Lol… I wonder also if it’s a hangover from Hosplay and it’s well written characters!
For the male lead I find it a bit contradictory that he’s hopelessly in love with her but is still so stubborn about changing her attitude like immediately and in a rigid way. It’s like he has to finish practising so many chapters of an ethics text book with her and still be looking at her longingly and wistfully in the middle of it all.
For Hye Jin I feel if I was in her place I would find his push and pull ways a blow for my self esteem especially after the bad boyfriend in the past.
So they look superb together in every scene but I still cannot see an emotional connect somehow.
I laughed several times reading your rant because I really couldn't agree more. To be clear, I haven't watched the latest 2 episodes so I don't know much of Seonghyun's role in the town yet.
But I stopped watching HomeCha because I just couldn't deal with Dusik's character. Kim Seonho being a beautiful man is not enough for me. I've seen some twitter comments about how Dusik's acting portrays signs of trauma really well, but much like you I cannot get over the drawn-out wishy-washiness of his character with regards to his feelings for Hyejin. A lot of the joy of romcoms come when you can root for a couple, and I really can't bring myself to root for Hyejin and Dusik. ...so I've just decided to read episode recaps to finish the story somehow and save myself the frustration.
And as a side note, I wish Hyejin wasn't being used throughout the story as a scapegoat for everyone else's shortcomings. Trauma and past hurt is one reason to act out, but it certainly doesn't excuse it. We can grow to understand others better, but letting hurtful behaviour perpetuate does no good to anyone.
I'm not sure how much of this drama was adapted from the original movie, but I hope the story improves for the ones still watching. I'll just be in my corner trying to resist clicking it on my Netflix page.
Oh, you pulled the words out of my mouth. Everyone except Hye-Jin is given a long rope by Dusik. They gossip till it reaches elementary school and when Hye-jin asks them to stop, Du-sik says don’t over react???Backstory justification of Nam-suk for gossip mongering left a bad taste. Yes her story was sad, but if anything she wouldn’t want people gossiping about her daughter if she was alive and grown up. You are right, I don’t know if they could have pulled this off if Dusik was played by a less charming actor.
I guess the beautiful leads, their chemistry, the locale keeps it on Netflix top 10 across different countries!
You're watching it too. Ha.
I wish I were sad for Nam-suk. I knew she had a story. It was practically telegraphed with a megaphone in the latest and previous episodes so I saw it coming. But someone in the town really needs to take her aside about the way she mouths off. Gossiping might be harmless on some level but if it gets out of hand, people could get seriously hurt. You made a really good point about whether she'd like it if people went around gossiping about her and her late daughter in negative terms. I can't help feeling that there's a tribalism going on that's keeping everyone in an unhealthy bubble.
The reasons I mentioned above are tempting to make me watch🙂 Now Seong-Hyun too. I too hope Seong-Hyun isn’t butchered to make Dusik look good. Yeah, gossip to a certain level would have been okay. I get that the news spread fast in smaller towns. I didn’t like it that an elementary school kid almost asked an inappropriate question to Hye-jin.
You are right tribalism may be the right word. Otherwise why is the outsider portrayed as someone in need of a fix when everyone there isn’t a saint.
I think it’s also got a lot to do with perspective. What drives people to like or dislike a series or film.
If I break it down to broad reasons:
- it’s the star power of the actors playing the roles
- the actors doing justice to what’s written
- the set up and scenic beauty
- the chemistry of the main leads
- the character sketches
- the storyline (in this case from the movie)
- the dialogues
For many it would also be getting a combination of these right barring one or two.
But every viewer would have something non negotiable and for me it’s how well written the characters are and how true the writer has stayed to the story of the said characters. And hence I can see where you’re coming from.
But for the majority I think it would be a majority of the factors combination or just the chemistry and good looking actors playing it given that it’s a Rom Com. Hence the high ratings. So I think the series doing well is fair but then the complaints that some of us will have about the characters being inconsistent and half baked are also fair.
For me what I really struggle with are most of the characters. I can see what the show is trying to do and there are things it has going for it. Apart from Seong-hyeong, I like that he's trying to make a variety show around life in Gongjin. That's probably the most interesting part. Other than that, the show is filled with stereotypes and caricatures. The gossipy lady being one of them.
I don't mind that the male lead is flawed. In fact, I'm fond of antiheroes but for some reason Du-sik rubs me up the wrong way and even though I don't outright dislike him, I don't love him either. Which is odd because I like Kim Seon-ho a lot.
Thanks for your measured comment. I understand the point too that this is a breezy rom com and that has a lot of traction with the great swath of K drama viewers.
Agreed the character stories lack depth for me and I can’t cry with them like I did for many characters in Hosplay. Like the lady who had an angel baby visit again. The words were minimum but that scene made me cry. Lol… I wonder also if it’s a hangover from Hosplay and it’s well written characters!
For the male lead I find it a bit contradictory that he’s hopelessly in love with her but is still so stubborn about changing her attitude like immediately and in a rigid way. It’s like he has to finish practising so many chapters of an ethics text book with her and still be looking at her longingly and wistfully in the middle of it all.
For Hye Jin I feel if I was in her place I would find his push and pull ways a blow for my self esteem especially after the bad boyfriend in the past.
So they look superb together in every scene but I still cannot see an emotional connect somehow.
I laughed several times reading your rant because I really couldn't agree more. To be clear, I haven't watched the latest 2 episodes so I don't know much of Seonghyun's role in the town yet.
But I stopped watching HomeCha because I just couldn't deal with Dusik's character. Kim Seonho being a beautiful man is not enough for me. I've seen some twitter comments about how Dusik's acting portrays signs of trauma really well, but much like you I cannot get over the drawn-out wishy-washiness of his character with regards to his feelings for Hyejin. A lot of the joy of romcoms come when you can root for a couple, and I really can't bring myself to root for Hyejin and Dusik. ...so I've just decided to read episode recaps to finish the story somehow and save myself the frustration.
And as a side note, I wish Hyejin wasn't being used throughout the story as a scapegoat for everyone else's shortcomings. Trauma and past hurt is one reason to act out, but it certainly doesn't excuse it. We can grow to understand others better, but letting hurtful behaviour perpetuate does no good to anyone.
I'm not sure how much of this drama was adapted from the original movie, but I hope the story improves for the ones still watching. I'll just be in my corner trying to resist clicking it on my Netflix page.