Sweet Munchies (2020)

oof… where to begin. The premise of the show is borderline offensive. The scene where a guy pretending to be gay lectures, actual gay man on gay rights and coming out made me want to dig a hole and bury myself alive.
It’s obviously a straight story, but they were pushing the “gay love line” so bad. The scenes between ML and SL were more romantic and shot in a more “typical for romance” way than the ones between the actual main couple. As if they wanted brownie points for being “progressive”, but they were not willing to actually give us a gay couple, just bait us with stuff like we had here.

So, let’s talk about the characters, because there is quite a lot to unpack.

Park Jin Sung is a disaster of a character. I love me some flawed ones, but he had no redeeming qualities. While I can empathize with his initial decision to join the pilot episode of the show to get money for his dad’s surgery, the fact he kept going with this lie later on was laughable. Why? His reasoning for not dropping the show was: it will hurt my crush. What was in the brain of that dude? He became so amazingly preachy, I wanted to teleport myself into a drama and slap him at least a few times. This whole mess happened, because he did not think about anyone else except what Ah Jin thought and felt. What’s even more frustrating? He didn’t really lose anything in the end. He got his happy ending and we didn't see that much backlash happen directed at him. None of the characters were even that angry with him. Karma ain’t real here ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Kim Ah Jin… well. I like to think there are two types of naive female leads - nice naive and dumb naive. She is the latter one. When people questioned her on the reasons for the “gay chef” show, she had no real answer. She said she wanted to show how gay people are normal and not different than others, but that’s dumb, since the main focus of the show and it’s promotion was that it’s a GAY chef as if this was the most important description of him as a human being. She had NO IDEA what she was producing. It shows when she gets so amazingly shocked about these 3 people protesting and asking for the cancellation of the show. “Their eyes were full of hatred” YES HONEY, THERE ARE HOMOPHOBIC PEOPLE.

As someone who was willing to make a whole show focused on the fact your host is gay, you should do some research to know what you are getting yourself and said person into. So you can prepare. So when homophobes show up, no one needs to protect you and make you feel better. It’s you who should stand strong and defend your host and the program you are creating. Her whole character was so amazingly useless and no true development happened.

Luckily we were graced with Kang Tae Wan, the true star of the show. First, I want to say Lee Hak Joo is an amazing actor and I believed every line he delivered. When he was happy, I was giggling like an idiot, when he was sad I wanted to fight whomever made him sad. Thanks to that awesome performance I was able to engage in his part of the story more. I also appreciate that they avoided going with stereotypes and making the gay character “less manly” with over exaggerated movements, way of speaking and fashion. Tae Wan was none of that. I loved to watch his emotional journey and how he slowly learned how to smile and get close to people around him. I loved the closure he was given and his scene with the dad in the last episode.

The plot had so much potential and could have offered us so much, but for some strange reason they decided to not do it. Why did they give us the typical side couple? They could use that time to explore Park Jin Woo’s character more. Deliver more scenes of Park Jin Sung cooking while they film the show, with some nice messages and calming mood. Dive deep into the struggles of LGBT community. Let Jin Sung taste it a bit, so when he finds out Tae Wan is actually gay, it would truly hit him how much of a bullshit what he did was. Truth to be told, the whole 12 episodes felt like a beginning of the drama, just an introduction. What happened to the characters’ development? We only got Tae Wan opening to people a bit and Gyu Jang being slightly less of an asshole. That’s it.

Not to mention the random journalist which was used in the show two times, when the plot needed it. They should simply incorporate him more into the plot. Otherwise, him being so invested when we saw him only twice makes no sense. Then there is the last episode. They legit got the main couple to break up 20 minutes before the ending, then we jumped to the future and the last scene they met again… wow. hOw oRiGiNaL! In the last scene, I was hoping we will get all three main characters live their lives and move on, taking different paths and not seeing each other anymore. With that I would consider giving it 7.

That said, I might have disliked the story, but I truly liked the directing. How at times the camera focused on smaller details and not the faces of the actors as they were talking about emotional topics. Or when the screen turned to black as the important lines were delivered. This allowed me to truly focus on what was being said and how it was being said. How the whole drama was not overly produced and had this cozy feel to it. Not to mention that bop of ost. Need it all on my laptop asap.

Overall, I would truly not recommend watching. Sure, Tae Wan was amazing, but the amount of frustration I had to deal with as I was watching the rest of the characters was unimaginable. If you decide to watch it, don’t get invested in any character in hopes of seeing them improve and have some nice development - it ain’t gonna happen.

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Not Good Enough

" Sweet Munchies " was a frustrating drama.

And that is mainly due to the two main characters that were annoying, each one in their own way. For the girl, she was way too naive, forgiving, and positive to be even considered cute. She was beyond redemption, as it was proven in the last episode and her reaction to the whole revelation. But, the most irritating was the chef. Sure, he had his reasons in the beginning for doing what he did, but he just kept lying, and acting selfishly throughout the whole drama. He was just unlikeable and he didn't make it easy to root for him. The second lead, however, did have a solid character and story and the actor did an amazing job with his expressions and emotions. As for the rest of the cast, they were there when they were needed, but hardly explored.

And now, time for the story. The main idea was ridiculous to begin with. There was no real reason why the show had to have a gay chef other than prompt the story. The reactions and actions of the characters were ridiculous as well and unreasonable really.

And, finally, the ending. The drama kind of wrapped things up for the three main characters, but left the rest out. Not to mention that everyone suffered the consequences of the chef's decision expect from him.

So, overall, three out of ten.

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