Heirs

I'm going to be honest, I didn't watch the last four episodes of Heirs, I literally couldn't do it, so I just read the recaps on Dramabeans. For the last six or eight episodes, I had been falling behind because I just didn't care about anything that the drama was doing. Tan and Young Do are fighting over Eun Sang? You mean like the million other times it happened, cool. Dad is an annoying dirt bag? Seen it. Oh, people are crying again, awesome, I should probably be feeling sad about this. Tan and Eun Sang are fighting again, how original.

This drama was so drawn out and because the story wasn't going anywhere fast, every episode just felt like a repeat of the last. In the end, the Chairman got sick, Madam Jung made her move, Young Do started to be honest with himself, Won started to be a better person, why didn't that happen in the middle instead during the last three or four episodes?

I have been thinking about Boys Over Flowers a lot in this drama because that was also really drawn out and you just wanted everyone to stop dragging their feet and confess and stop being incredibly annoying. At least with BOF though, it was funny so you almost forgot that the drama was staying in the same place, almost. Heirs was just so full of drama and tears though it was a lot  more noticeable that we were stuck in the same place because amid the monotony, there was nothing fun to take you mind from it.

The story  

I was pretty excited when I heard that this drama was going to come out, even though I did think that it might just be a rehashed BOF. Even if it was that, maybe Heirs could fix the things that didn't quite go right in BOF.

The first hook in this drama is the fact that Lee Min Ho is playing the main character. That is probably one of the best ways to get anyone to watch or buy anything. Then to make the deal even sweeter, the second male lead is Kim Woo Bin. The two of them used to be friends, but they had a falling out and now they hate each other.

Two angst ridden men, sounds good. This can also grab the people who watched School 2013 in the hopes that they can see another budding bromance to rival that of Kim Woo Bin and Lee Jong Suk. Yeah, right, that could never happen.

These two boys are fighting over the poor, yet spunky, Cha Eun Sang. She meets Tan in California and Young Do in Korea and they are both fighting for her affection. I have come to accept this in dramas, the boys fighting over the girl, but the reason that this rubbed me the wrong way is because it was almost like Eun Sang wasn't even a person to them. She was the prize in their contest to see who had the most testosterone.

Eun Sang also lost all that spunk that she had in the beginning. I liked her for that because she seemed to be able to take care of herself, but in the end, she became that girl that let herself be wrist dragged from one person to the next.

Something that I did like about the story, at least at first, was all the allusions that were made to Joseon in these chaebol groups. These students weren't allowed to be children, they were always the successor to "the throne" and they were expected to act in such a way that would not embarrass their parents. There was also the arranged marriage of Tan and Rachel and company merger weddings. Then we also had Madam Han the "concubine" who was woman of the house, but nothing more.

I really did like all this in the beginning, but along with everything else that happened in the story, it got old and boring by the end.

The only thing that I liked about this drama from beginning to end was Chan Young and Bo Na's relationship. In a sea of unhappy people, they loved each other and that was a very welcome breath of fresh air.

The characters 

And, oh man, are there characters. I'm going to separate the characters that I liked from the characters that I didn't like to make everything a little more interesting. Let's do this.

Characters that I liked 

So these are the "kids" and adults that I liked in the drama. For some reason I really liked Young Do's character. Yes, he was a giant turd bucket, but he was such a sad character and you could see why he was that way as well. He was kind of a tragic villain and I am a sucker for a tragic villain.

Here we also have the only good couple in the drama, Chan Young and Bo Na. They were happy and they cared about each other and there wasn't any wrist grabbing either. Whenever they were on screen, especially Bo Na (after I realized that she wasn't a terrible person), everything seemed better.

Lastly for the kids, we have two rather minor, yet good, characters, Myung Soo and Hyo Shin. Myung Soo, like Bo Na and Chan Young was a breath of fresh air in this angst ridden drama. He was so happy and ridiculous I knew that something funny would happen when he was on screen. He is the Jeremy in this drama. Then we have Hyo Shin. He is so sad, but I loved him and I don't know why. I'm glad that he was able to have a good, I guess it can be called that, ending.

Now we have the adults and our lady romance of the drama. Why isn't there a female equivalent to bromance? These two were amazing together and it was cute to see them interact because you knew that they needed each other, but they would never admit it.

There is also one honorable mention in this category and that goes to Jay the Surfer.

Even though he is every single Southern California stereotype wrapped up into one awkward character, he has a special place in my heart.

Characters that I didn't like or didn't care about 

And here is a visual of why I was bored of the drama, I disliked a lot more than I liked, and many of those people were the main characters. 

To be perfectly frank, Tan and Eun Sang were really annoying. Tan was way too mopey and he had trouble putting his plans into action. He always talked about escaping, but then when he did, he would end up giving up. He also treated Eun Sang like she was his possession more than a person which is not okay. This isn't just his fault though because Eun Sang let herself be tossed around between Tan and Young Do. She was more teary and ridiculous than Tan was and that made me even more angry. 

Finally, with Rachel, I did feel bad for her for about a hot second and then I just stopped caring about her. Sometimes feelings of sympathy would pop up because she really did like Tan and Tan was a giant jerk to her, but she was a giant jerk back. She almost made it to the like category, but, meh. I can't say that I like or dislike her, she just is.

Now, with all those adults, I wish I cared about them, especially Secretary Yoon, he also almost made it to the "like" section. They were just there and were mostly an annoyance to move the plot forward because apparently the kids in the drama were unable to do anything on their own.

Final thoughts

I'm really bad at saying "don't watch a drama". I always hesitate and say, "you can watch it if you want, but just know......." because there is always something that someone is going to like, but I cannot say that for this drama. I'm sure that there are some people that like it, (the rating sure said so) but I couldn't even finish it.

I was excited for it in the beginning, but by the end, I had no emotional connection to the drama and I felt that it was a waste of my life. The only way that I would have finished it is if I spoke Korean or if I had a dubbed version because then I could at least do other things around the house while I watched it.

This drama was hyped so much and I was cautiously excited for it, but now I'm just sad, especially since I was also let down by Mi Rae's Choice. Hopefully the drama that is taking Heirs time slot, My Lover From the Stars, will be good because I don't know how much more disappointment I can take.

~ Alora

Heirs - First Impressions

Well you guys, it has finally begun; and when I say finally, I mean FINALLY because holy crap we have been hearing about this drama since freaking March. MARCH! But now we have the question, will all the hype that we have been getting match up to what the drama will give us in the end? We'll see.

After watching the first two episodes, I think that I can say that I am optimistic about this drama. Aside from the fact that there are painful English stereotypes and actors galore, I have liked it. I'm sure that Asian people think the same thing about Asian actors in American movies though. There are really only three main parts to fill: the beautiful male martial artist, the beautiful female martial artist, (these parts can be either good or evil) or the dorky male friend.

This particular white guy has really struck a chord with me though and I am a little sad that he is probably gone forever. Even though he was a little painful to watch, he was probably one of the best English speaking actors that I have ever seen in a K-drama. I'll miss you surfer bro. We also have almost matching hairstyles which is both funny and a little weird.

One thing that I really like from this drama is that even though it is a modern drama, there are definite sageuk chords that are being played. All of these young adults, or heirs, are working to take their parents place as head of the family business when they come of age. This also ties into one of main issues with Min Ho's older half brother chasing him out of the house so there would be no competition for his succession to the "throne", or dad's business. There are also business merger marriages, both old and young, and there is a live in mistress in Tan's (Lee Min Ho's) household. She is really only there so that the real wife can keep an eye on here, but mistress she was none the less.

I am also liking all the characters that we have been introduced to and let me tell you, there are a lot. I guess that also adds to the feel that this is a little sageuk-y.

Thus far, I really like Lee Min Ho's character. He is not your usual male lead in the sense that he is a jerk that you would like to Falcon Punch in the face. He puts up a front of nonchalance and a play/party boy attitude, but in reality he is really just kind of sad and lonely.

 
Then we have Park Shin Hye's character who sadly is jut your average, poor, female lead. I do like that she is spunky and that she initiated the female wrist grab (something not often seen in a Kdrama), but there doesn't seen to be anything deeper to her character.

Then, of course, you have the crap ton of other character that this drama gives you and here are some of the main young actors with a two word description of how I feel about them.

Choi Jin Hyuk - Jerk half-brother (to Min Ho)

 Kim Woo Bin - Terrible person

Kim Ji Won - Terrible Person (fiancee to Min Ho)

Kang Min Hyuk - Best friend(?) (to Park Shin Hye) Krystal - Needy Girlfriend (to Min Hyuk)

There are a few other characters as well, but I haven't been given enough information about them to sum them up in two words yet. If it continues is the way you see above though, they will probably all be jerks as well.

So, yeah, that's the first two episodes of Heirs severely boiled down into a few paragraphs. I am excited to keep watching and hopefully it just gets better from here. 

~ Alora

White Christmas

I was recommended this drama by Murphy and it was a good recommendation. I feel like she hyped it up a little for me though so I wasn't as impressed when I had finished it as I initially thought I would be. It was good, but I wasn't overwhelmed by the awesomeness of it all like she was. This drama was very different from many popular dramas because it is a shorter with 8 episodes, which works for the story because I think that condensing it was a far better idea than putting it into the usual sixteen episode drama pattern. It also deals with the human mind and brings some interesting questions to the table.

I love stories like this that really strip down the human spirit and show the audience what is underneath; seeing the why behind the actions is fascinating which is probably why one of my favorite research papers that I wrote in college was about the tragic villain. I got to read all of these articles on killers and dissect why my case studies did what they did and whether the monsters that they became were born or created.  

Our drama takes place at a school in the mountains that only the top 0.1% of students are allowed to attend. They are allowed eight days off every year and those are the days that encompass Christmas and the New Year, hence the title. Seven of these students decide to stay at the school during these eight days for one particular reason, they have all received a strange letter saying that someone will die at the end of their break. I am glad that I watched this drama when I did because I already knew a lot of the actors from other things that they have done since White Christmas and may I say

Seriously, there are so many good looking people in this drama, it is just one big pretty party with a side of murder. I watched this with my friend Kris and we both decided that almost all of the guys in this drama were prettier than the one girl. Not that she wasn't pretty, she was suppose to appear plain, but those guys were just way too good looking for their own good. I think that if I had to pick a winner for the prettiest person in the drama, that award would go to Lee Soo Hyuk with Sung Joon taking a close second.

He wasn't just a pretty face either. He did a really good job as the drug addled, unstable, rich kid and I think that it is pretty safe to say that he has the saddest story out of all the characters. 

While doing some research on the drama, I found that the director's main goal in casting all the men for the drama was that he wanted them to be tall which seems like something that should be at the bottom of your priority list when casting for a drama. This turned out to be a good idea though because as Kris and I were watching, she couldn't keep track of who all the actors were. When discussing the characters, we opted to speak about them through their attitude or a defining feature. We also gave them nicknames, they were: Vampire Idol (Lee Soo Hyuk), Ear piece (Kwak Jung Wook), the girl, (Esom), Moo Jin (Hong Jong Hyun, since I had just watched him in Cyrano), Kim Woo Bin, the main dude (Baek Sung Hyun), Sung Joon, and the jerk or that guy from Love Rain (Kim Young Kwang). Oh yeah, that's the way to do it.    

Back to why this is all important, the students at this school aren't there as individuals, they are there as an IQ number and no one seems to care for each other. Everything is about you and how well you do so you don't fail and bring dishonor upon everyone. All of the students are basically the same, but only on the surface. As we get deeper into the story, we really are able to see their personalities more and they slowly become individuals, for better or for worse. The only person who started out with any individuality was Kang Mi-reu (Kim Woo Bin) and his red hair. 

He is the only character who, at the beginning, refused to conform and secretly stayed at the school even though he was technically expelled. He is like this ticking time bomb and neither the audience, nor the other characters, are ever quite sure what he is going to do next.

With the introduction of Mi-reu, we start to see more individuality, but also more of a sense of togetherness from the other characters. There is a bit of a paradox in this because as they learn that their individual actions are bringing them closer as a group, their actions in their group work shows the audience more of their characteristics as individuals.

The beginning of the end really starts at episode five, that is when the "experiment" begins and all the characters begin to crack. You really get to see all of these students true colors as they are each brought to their limit, and it is up to them to choose whether or not they will cross that line and do something that they might regret later. 

The thing that really bothered me about this drama is that there were some continuity issues and there were some serious suspension of disbelief, especially with the last episode. Kris and I actually paused the episode at one point and had a quick talk about what had just been discussed. That is not to say that the last episode isn't a very good and thought provoking one, it's just not done in the best way.

Overall, while I didn't like this drama as much as Murphy, but I still thought that is was a good story that brought forward an interesting plot and theme of is a monster born or created. It is a real life question with real life application that we can all think about. I would suggest that people watch this drama and decide for themselves what they think of this question, and beware of the monster in the corner. 

 What else am I watching?

Cruel Palace: War of the Flower - I will finish this someday, it may take the rest of my life, but I will finish it, dang it!

Who Are You - I'm getting use to the acting of our main characters and they don't bother me as much any more. I do like the story though, especially now that Kim Jae Wook has finally shown his ghostly face! Let the confusing love triangle begin!

The Master's Sun - This is definitely a Hong Sister drama and I am absolutely loving it. I just hope that it doesn't crap out in the end as I heard Big did. 

~ Alora