Great Start; Awful End

Plot-wise, it had a pretty solid start. The gruesome politics really sucked me in. The way it changed and affected the lives of the ml and the people surrounding him was really gripping to watch. But mid-way through, the storyline took a completely different take. It felt very wishy-washy. The whole competition thing was way overdone. I enjoyed the surgical scenes but the contest part could have been limited to the first one itself, or max to max, best out of three. It got very repetitive, and was no longer interesting enough.

As for the characters, I liked pretty much all of them. The cast did a very good job at portraying them, especially LJS. His role as Park Hoon, the goofy doctor with a tragic past really made me feel for him. I laughed with him, cried for him and was sometimes even really upset with him. The only exception was the fl. Her acting was so flat and on top of that, her character was so two-dimensional without any development whatsoever. I feel like instead of making her an individual with a personality of her own, the writers turned her into a plot device just so that the ml could have a goal.

The romance pretty much sucked for me. Now, I love this genre, in fact, it's practically my favourite, but I just couldn't feel anything for the leads. The romance felt so forced, like you're holding hands and kissing just for the sake of it, without any real feelings involved. I felt like logically speaking, I should have been supporting the fl to get together with the ml, after all, they had so much of history and stuff. And the ml couldn't possibly forget her, like they deserved to be together. But on the other hand, he had so much chemistry with the 2nd female lead (something I didn't see a sliver of with the fl). I couldn't stop myself from supporting her. Her acting and character development were also top notch. The major reason I got the second-lead syndrome was the fl's acting and character, which like I mentioned above were so flat. I was even rooting for the hyung girl more than the fl.

And the ending, don't even get me started on that. It wasn't particularly bad, but it wasn't satisfactory either. Overall, the show was too stretched out. Would have been much better if it was wrapped up within 12-15 episodes.

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Super problematic movie!!!

I've never written reviews for dramas but this show is so messed up, it basically forced me to write one. Btw, tonnes of spoilers ahead, so beware!!!

First of all, the intent of the movie is quite clear and a lot of people will realise that what it's trying to show is that inner beauty is what matters and that even after changing your outer appearance, you cannot change yourself. But what it really shows is that no matter how talented you are, you cannot fulfill your dreams and cannot have a normal social life, unless and until you fit into the beauty standards. And the movie makes this message so prominent that the inner beauty and stuff is pushed to the back of our minds and ultimately out of it.

Throughout the movie, we are being told that confidence is what matters, as long as you have it, nothing else matters. But that is always preceded by the fact that unless you look drop dead gorgeous, you cannot have confidence. So plastic surgery is always the answer.

And then there's the lift scene, VICTIM BLAMING at its finest. When will people understand that IF A GIRL GETS ASSAULTED, IT'S NOT HER FAULT. IT'S THE CULPRIT'S FAULT. That girl is allowed to wear whatever she wants, be it a short skirt or a crop top. I know that scene was probably for purposes of hilarity, but it sends the wrong message, and people tend to adapt to those messages.

Then there's the scene with the delivery guy, where he is seen stalking the female lead, but she ends up defending him saying he doesn't have any other ways to express his feelings and all that nonsense. Seriously, what was up with that?? What was the scene even trying to tell us?? That if a weirdo ends up stalking you, it's because he has pure, unadulterated love for you and you shouldn't blame him for that?? That you're allowed to stalk people?? That scene was super creepy and I genuinely hope that nobody takes any sort of advice from it. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO STALK ANYBODY. IF ANYBODY IS STALKING YOU, THIS PERSON DOES NOT HAVE ANY PURE INTENTIONS TOWARDS YOU AND YOU SHOULD RUN LIKE YOUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE AND REPORT THIS PERSON. This might actually be a super scary scene for someone, and this movie basically made a joke out of it by trying to show how compassionate the female lead is. There are millions of other ways in which they could have shown that.

There are a lot more problems with the movie which I would list if I wasn't so tired, frustrated and pissed off at it.

The only redeeming quality of this movie was the music. But not enough to make me entertain even the thought of re-watching it. And the music was superb, so you can only imagine how bad the movie was.

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