This review may contain spoilers
I decided to watch this after seeing Woo-Do-hwan on The King: Eternal drama, soo I thought why not.I think for me the story was a little messy, and a lot of like unnecessary drama as well! - I mean yes rich people and money and hide-outs! But yeah I don't know, I thought it could have been a little better!
I think my favourite was the trio, Si-yeon, Su-ji & Se-joo! - I wish they didn't like fight so much near the end, and also I wished, they would have stayed together as friends, I mean they pretty much were with each other through thick and thin and just because of a random girl, they just didn't work out?
I do think the actor Joy is pretty, but I didn't really like her character Tae-hae! I felt she was a bit too needy, or just a little annoying at times! - and I prefered her with shorter hair and not at the end, she just looked kinda different.
I do think I preferred if Si-yeon & Su-ji ended up together, cause I think they looked a lot better together, and they suited each other a lot more, since they literally went through ups and downs together! But I guess, not all the time that happens. But do in the end feel the story could have been better, it was okayyy in my own opinion!
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The actors were all incredible. I've read a lot of negative comments about Joy's acting so it was a great surprise.
My personal favorite was Moon Ga Young, this role was for her. She embodied the charisma and the complex personality of her character perfectly. I loved that it wasn't an all black/all white character depending of the story advancement but really a constant complexity.
However, even though the idea of the story was good, as the plot was progressing it seems like each event were botched.
For instance, the parent's story and Sejoo's background.
They did attempt a character development with Sooji and Sihyun. We indeed saw how their characters evolved as their relationship change and as they both realise nothing turned out as expected. Nevertheless, this evolution wasn't an improvement but it seems like the end was displayed as such.
The Great Seducer is aesthetically appealing (actors with a good performance, music, decors...) but the development of the story, as well as the character's one, was lacking. That's why overall it was a disappointment.
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Cruel Intentions but for kids
When I saw this show pop-up on Netflix as a recommendation I was excited to watch it, the trailer made the show out to be something different from your average romance kdrama. As I watched the first few episodes I realised what it was about - Cruel Intentions - or at least the book that that film was based on. Now although I wouldn't consider Cruel Intentions the greatest film of all time, it's a pretty decent film. So I became pretty invested in the show and was interested to see where they would take the story and characters and how similar or different it would be from the film.They took it everywhere! With the hundreds of side character stories that were happening all at once.
There was so much going on storywise you really had to focus if you wanted to keep up.
The whole bet and revenge plan had no reason to it and it was all very... tame? Especially following the 'outing' of their teacher's affair at the beginning of the drama. The actors themselves seemed ok and the chemistry between them was there and that was probably the saving grace of this show but I don't think they were given the best direction or story to work with.
I feel like I've been pretty lenient with the ratings I have given, I wouldn't recommend this drama or give it a rewatch.
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idk dude
listen. this show could have been so good.while i really disliked the adults, and tae hee, the main trio was so good in the beggining.
i loved soo ji and se joo. their characters were very entertaining (on their own and as a ship) and they had pretty good chemistry. i also loved soo ji and shi hyun together, bc their chemistry was off the charts. i enjoyed their scenes and the whole vibe. and then tae hee's character had screen time. oh boy. in the beggining it wasnt that bad but the more screen time the blander and more boring their (tae hee and shi hyun) scenes got. it was always the same pattern. they have fun together, they fight, make up, have fun together, make up etc... they brought nothing interesting and their dynamic was boring af. after like 6 eps i started skimming through their scenes and after 15 eps i just started skipping them altogether. i didnt miss much, honestly. so i just watched soo ji' scenes and se joo's. bc they became the only fuckin ineteresting characters.
its pretty common to have adults/their storylines in dramas, i always skip them so i dont really have anything to say abt that.
not gonna say anything abt the ending, it was poo. they mistreated the best characters. this show could've been better if it was just the main trio, like tae hee character did nothing. i would've really loved if it was a love traingle between the trio. so yeah. watch only soo ji's and se joo's scenes if you want a lil darker vibe, and if you want a bland drama nothingness watch tae hee's and shi hyun scenes lmao.
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Missing the feel good factor
This was a messed up melodrama with more tears and negativity than I expected. Many of the characters are hardly likeable. Their thoughts and actions are despicable, small minded, selfish and short sighted, but the director has really done a good job of bringing out why they would think and behave that way. The angst, jealousy, pettiness, rage, self pity and loneliness of the leads were well brought out. Would have liked more feel good friendship scenes in the beginning so that the bitterness of the final episodes were balanced out. A redeeming factor is that all the leads are easy on the eyes, and since they are well off, the aesthetics even indoors was pretty.I didn't like how the parent characters didn't get the usual closure we expect from kdramas but I guess they wanted to keep it closer to reality. What happened to Sae Joo's mom lying in the hospital? How did the parents wedding get cancelled amicably? Did the father and son finally get along after both recovered? There are a lot of dragged out episodes where simple honest communication among friends and parent-child would have brought clarity and peace of mind to both sides, so this made it frustrating for me as a viewer.
The shortness of the episodes kept me watching an episode now and then until it got over. Definitely not rewatch material, but a one time watch, first melo genre for me. I now feel like watching a typical romcom with likeable characters and all the cliches possible (butterfly moments, umbrellas, back hugs, cute jealousy, arm grabs and heartfelt confessions), just to erase out the negative emotions brought out by this melodrama and remind me why I started watching kdramas in the first place!
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Not satisfied
Ok I know it has been 2-3 years since this drama aired and I had been ignoring reviewing this drama but now I just cannot bear it. Ugh!! Ok so first of all there is something known as "karma" if there is a girl with parent issues who was bullied when she was young and then saved by two handsome boys-i get it -anythings possible, but still if she was trying to play with someone Innocent's heart ,like literally ITS NOT HER FAULT if he(the one whose first love is tae hee) snubbed u, did she tell him to snub u? And literally it's like she's some kind of a queen playing with two boys' hearts idk even If this is the evil kind of drama, at least give some real suffering to Soo ji and the main leads' relationship is effed up, the ost's cool and that's it. I would never rewatch this thing, becus of frustration, I have yeeted my phone and gotten it some fresh cracks(now old)on its screen. Anywho it's my personal opinion and it doesn't matter, I just feel frustrated with Soo Ji's assy character, I knew I shouldn't have watched this in the first place if i didn't wanted this shit and stuff but I am free to criticize this drama as much as I like (as long it's not directly hitting on the cast or hurting someone blah blah) and THERE IS NOTHING wrong with joy (idk why u guys hating her like dude , hate the character, the fucking character, not her, also correct me if am wrong , but are people doing this cus of the rumour that moon ga young and woo do Hwan were in love or is this just genuine hate-?) AnyhowThank you for your time?
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Do not waste your time
I had high hopes for this drama due to the main cast however it was mediocre at best. Storyline is boring and there is no chemistry between actors, it could have been a lot better especially in relation to Joy I’m not sure why but I didn’t warm to any of her parts.I was hoping it would get better however the opposite happened, I really wouldn’t advise watching this drama. The main female lead however is fantastic in True Beauty that is a must watch if you haven’t seen it!
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Tae Hee starts off being a nice female protagonist, seeming strong, independent and level-headed. But as the story progresses she becomes just a love-sick, pathetic girl. Honestly I don't understand how someone like her would be with Shi Hyun when he's constantly lying and humiliating her in front of his friends. The worst part is that she's the one who runs back to him all the time like a lap dog and forgives him even though he does like the bare minimum to apologize.
There's not much to say bout Shi Hyun, other than I think he'd fit better in an actual rom-com. Soo Ji is just a terrible person. She's an egoist and a hypocrite, which I think makes her fit perfectly the initial dark theme of the plot, but becomes basically unbearable as the story transitions into more romance. Se Joo was the only one I would bear see on the screen, he was interesting and he at least had some common sense unlike everyone else.
To sum it up, this drama isn't terrible, but it didn't deliver what it originally promised, so that's why many people (including me) were left annoyed and disappointed.
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This review may contain spoilers
Even though I'm 2 years behind, I would like to give justice to this Melodrama!
So, I don't know if anybody would read this or ever see this, but if you do happen to scroll across to this review, I promise I'll make it worthwhile.Back in 2018, I started watching this drama, but I was still new to the whole k-drama world and had no clue of a melodrama and had to learn it the hard way. Around ep. 17 I stopped watching the drama, partially because I didn't feel like waiting a week for the next episode, and 2, I was just unable to grasp the story's theme. But now, with my eyes still swollen, I finished the drama 2 years later and I decided to check the reviews, and I am confused as to how you could rate this show so low.
Story- Yes I know it is an adaptation and I watched the whole drama without knowing it was one, all I can say is adaptations usually are not exacccttlyy the same, and whichever plot the adaptation was, I'm sure the great seducer made up a pretty good plot as best as they can. I love the story. even though near the end we still didn't get some answers to the side character's stories, I believe they told the story well in 32 or 16 complete episodes. Also, people get mixed up with the meaning of The Great Seducer as him "seducing as many women as he can" but I believe they wanted to represent him as a man who always gets his way with women without any effort, but when Tae Hee comes around that changes for him, causing him to fall in love. There's not a lot of popularity or likeability with melodramas because you have to use your feelings to watch the story, it's not meant for understanding but to just tell a story of tragedy, which this show did a great job of doing.
Acting/cast- I love all of the main characters and the side characters, Kyung Joo was a headache for me because I couldn't bear a friend who doesn't read the room or just talks to much and ends up telling things she has no business lol, but she did contribute to the show so I'm not really bothered. I've heard there was a slander on Joy for her acting, which is probably because people hate the fact of idols acting but she actually did well. Especially when I first watched it without knowing anythinggg about k-pop and k-dramas, she really portrayed her character and became one of my favorites over time. As so for the other actors, there's no doubt about how much I love them, I still watch many of their other dramas today and keep track, so it's a 10/10 for me.
Music- There were two main songs: with you and missed connections. I listened to them back to back and even for my own events through life. Other than that, the classical music that played at emotional points in the story was just *chefs kiss*
rewatch value- I rated this low because even though the story was good, I just do not want to sit through this painful melodrama again, even though it ended well lol. I just can't bother to go through certain scenes because I'm just too over-sensitive lol. Just a personal preference though.
Overall- THE SHOW IS GOOD. Not one of the greatest but as a starting MELODRAMA, I'd strongly recommend it. Definitely not as a first k-drama though, I just feel like it's a different side to k-dramas, like k-drama with a hint of bitterness to it. So not good for a first or starting drama, but good when you get tired of the regular k-drama and want to break off into something a bit darker.
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I actually had high expectations since the character lineup was good esp Moon Ga Young and Woo Do Hwan. I'm not really a huge fan of Joy and i have seen her acting from The Liar and His Lover. I can say she has potential but to take on a really emotional role like Taehee's i personally think she was not that prepared for it but i can see her perseverance to try hard especially during emotional scenes. I also loved how Kim Minjae portrayed his role. He was the perfect SeJoo.
As for the plot its based on a book which has really complex, dark and rated theme. I'm glad that the directors were somehow able to showcase these themes in a moderated way. One issue that I had was that i didn't like how Taehee's character always seemed like she was ready to take Sihyun anytime any day even if he does something really stupid. Like she cannot be firm with her decisions. One thing I loved though was the push and pull between Sejoo and Sooji.
To sum it all up, i never imagined the ratings to be so low its rock bottom. Cinematography wise, it was pleasing and i enjoyed following the drama but it didn't really reach my expectations and i wanted more from the characters especially Taehee's it needed depth and so as the story line.
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I absolutely love the relationship between the trio, the setting, and the atmosphere of it all; it reminded me so much of Gossip Girl! When it started off, I felt like maybe this wouldn't be a typical tragically written drama. Oh, I was so wrong. As the relationship between Taehee and Shihyun kept on progressing, the more poorly written the plot was becoming :(
Honestly, The Great Seducer started out so well and could've ended so well, but it didn't.
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I believe that one of the weaknesses of this drama is that most of the dialogs and the incidents were extremely unusual; especially the way that the characters were reacting to the incidents. I was getting emotional bcz of the story but couldn't relate to how the character had reacted to it.
TBH the first 10 EPs of the drama were cool and ok in the case of acting but then things get weird. I didn't bother to watch the ending but I feel as we go further it gets worse.
Throughout the story, we go through different love stories. That's why I believe that anyone can enjoy the story. Hence, even though I didn't finish it but I recommend it cuz I enjoyed spending my time on it. But I also suggest that don't watch it with your high standards just enjoy and don't judge :)
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