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GrumpyInsomniac

GrumpyInsomniac

I Picked Up a Star on the Road korean drama review
Completed
I Picked Up a Star on the Road
1 people found this review helpful
by GrumpyInsomniac
Dec 12, 2022
10 of 10 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 5.0
Story 5.0
Acting/Cast 6.0
Music 2.5
Rewatch Value 2.5

Very silly dark comedy

This is an absurd show that requires you to switch your brain off, lower your expectations, and not take anything too seriously. I found about 50% of it fairly entertaining. This show is at its best when it's a dark comedy and the earlier episodes are genuinely amusing at times. However it then introduces a murderous plot and a love triangle and sadly takes them both vaguely seriously and moves away from dark humour to more conventional silliness, casting aside the show's main strength. It continued to amuse me, but often unintentionally.

Things I liked
This show was very funny at times. Intentionally at first, then mostly unintentionally. The concept was bonkers. She doesn't just accidentally kidnap someone; she preps an acid bath to dissolve his corpse. She nearly buries him alive at one point. If you're thinking there's no way you could find humour in such situations then this is almost certainly not the show for you. I was amused. Everyone in the show is very stupid. This was the catalyst for most of the shows plot and humour and I found it best just to accept that I was watching incredibly stupid people doing incredibly stupid things and allow myself to be entertained by it.

The ML is a spoiled, self absorbed jerk. This means that you probably won't feel any sympathy for him despite the fact that he's been kidnapped by an idiotic lunatic who keeps him chained up in her apartment for weeks on end. I feel this was key to the tone of the show and trying to make us like him later on was a mistake. The FL and SML are both pretty charming and handle the comedic aspects well. Kim Ga Eun did a great job as the FL, somehow managing to make a character who has repeatedly tried to kill someone fairly likeable. Kim Jong Hoon was also endearing and funny as Nak Goo- the oddball neighbour who accidentally becomes an accomplice to the kidnapping. They are both only marginally likable idiots but because the ML is such an obnoxious douchecanoe, you'll probably be rooting for them over him.

The romance between SML and FL was pretty sweet. They’re both complete idiots so they’re perfect for each other. The romance between ML and FL was so ridiculous and underdeveloped that I actually found it funny. I don't think I was meant to though. He mostly fell for her through scenes of romantic music playing whilst they looked at each other. Similarly, the murder mystery plot in the second half was pretty funny at times, but calling this entirely intentional would be giving the show too much credit, other than in the final showdown. I think it’s meant to be a bit silly, but I don’t think I was meant to laugh whenever they played dramatic music or the leads were in danger. I still did though.

Both the FL and the ML’s bad singing made me laugh.
There were a lot of montages. This made me feel nostalgic for 80s movie montages so I’m calling them a positive.

Things I didn't Like
The humorous moments were too sporadic and interspersed with too much drama. They should have thrown way more dark comedy in there and stopped trying to make us care about what was happening to these people. I didn’t care. I just found their stupidity entertaining. The show's tone veered away from black humour in the later episodes despite not having any other strengths.

They tried to redeem the ML. This was a mistake. He's a selfish arse who goes through no character development. Much of the earlier humour hinged on the viewer not liking him; they should never have tried to change that. We could have had humour to the very end of the show at his expense but the writers somehow decided that we should instead care about silly things like his career and his life. Fools.

The love triangle was handled poorly. The writer seemed to actually take it seriously, when they should have played it for laughs. Have the famous bellend fall for his kidnapper and have his overconfidence leave him stunned as he realises the FL doesn't like him and SML wins her heart. That would have been funny. Sung Hoon was amusing as a hateful arse, but he wasn’t up to the wider range of acting required of him in the latter half. Another reason they should have stuck to comedy at the MLs expense.

The pacing was off. The story takes a while to crank into black comedy territory and we get at least an episode of plot build up before we get to any jokes. Then they veer off into a different plot in the latter half of the show and everything changes pace once again before accelerating in the final episode to the extent that the main plot wraps up with about 2 minutes to go.

I don't think the stylist liked the female lead. Her lounging around at home clothes were suitably comfy but whenever she left the home she looked like a crazy person had dressed her. Which I suppose is technically true given the character, but probably not what they were going for.


TLDR: This is an occasionally funny black comedy that should have leaned further into the crazy, but lost its nerve and tried to be something a bit more conventional, losing its main charm in the process. It still made me laugh though.
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