Where to start? We were really so excited to see this. We have been gaming for more than ten years, I, for one, love Spain (I have a gihugic painting in the living room of Sevilla that I spent a year painting) and as I had literally just finished watching Crash Landing on You, I was even more stoked to see what the talented actor Hyun Bin could do. There also have been reviews that were interested in a gamer’s take on it. I went in relaxed, hyped by the positive reviews, and with an open mind.
I really did.
OMG.
First off, I’m going to nerd out, zero shame. I don’t think a gamer was involved in the writing of this at all, other than the occasional verbiage they toss out. If there was, I’m pretty sure he or she is a troll, or had such a bad experience PVPing right when they began that they ragequit. There are so many things that are just not happening in the gaming world. Simple things. Like for instance, when you just start a game, the first NPC you fight isn’t going to take 50+ times to kill. I don’t care how much of a noob you are. Even the most complex game gives you breathing room to adjust to the controls and idiosyncrasies before it really starts challenging you. Yes it takes more to level endgame than it does in the beginning- BUT you don’t get XP by killing low level NPCs unless you’re low level too. It just doesn’t work that way in ANY game I know. The scene where he drives by in a car and guns down the NPCs the newbies are fighting with in the starting zone? Yeah, I don’t know if even trolls bother to do that. It’s just beyond obnoxious. Now I could see if he was legit concerned about the noobs and trying to keep them safe, but it didn’t present that way and certainly wasn’t in his personality to do so.
That brings me to the show’s personality archetypes. There are only two people in this entire show- the secretary, and the little sister that we nicknamed “Total -harm” (i think her shirt actually said totally charming but it was partially covered in a way that made it adorably apt)- that aren’t either utterly unlikeable or completely frustrating.
I don’t even think the leads in this could truly engage with their characters because, while I could tell they were trying, so much of it felt stilted and one dimensional.
The ML is pretty much a Trump-type stuffed into a supermodel’s body, which to me is just the devil incarnate- if the devil weren’t even remotely intriguing and was just off putting instead. I told myself, however, that no matter how much I might want to punch the ML at first, Kdramas have a tendency to give the guy layers (Secretary Kim etc) and let you see past the surface to the decent person underneath. But…. halfway through, and I was still wanting to punch him. Two episodes from the end, and I am stymied with the feeling that if he hadn’t been stuck in circumstances entirely beyond his control and didn’t need her to soothe his wounded ego, he would still be same a$$**** that yelled at her so viciously in the beginning. And that scene… where he just unloads on her, gets the phone call where he finds out she’s intrinsic to his business goals, and then turns around with that smile on his face? I got totally creeped out. ( I’m going to need a Hyun Bin palate cleanser after this. I don’t want to hate him) The FL, adorable as she is, spent most of the time crying and being helpless. (UGH, put your big girl panties on and kick some gaming ass, why don’t you?? It’s your BROTHER) I’m sorry but if a game- or anything else- ate my sister, whatever-it-was would be in for an entire world of hurt.
And really, this was a Netflix original? Did there need to be SO MUCH product placement?
We desperately stuck with it however. The guy that I watched this with was determined to stick with it too, because he felt he deserved an explanation for the bizarre twists the show kept throwing out. We just needed to know how it ended. We knew by then, even if it somehow managed to validate everything into something shiny and glowy and new, it still wouldn’t get back the fourteen hours of growing frustration and annoyance we had spent watching it. BUT WE DID. And….
Everyone is entitled to their own feelings and opinions. This is ours. If we want to signify something to each other that should have been good and disappointed us completely, we use this as a reference now. Just saying.