2
MJ Koontz
Back to being lost in America
This review may contain spoilers
Average to its core, True Beauty aims more for Kpop fandom than following its own early magic.
In the beginning....
Is becoming a true curse of my Kdrama journey. The first translated words of the Bible, are famous for their ubiquitous and straight forward approach to storytelling, yet over and over again are becoming a warning, that many times what starts strong has nowhere left to go.
It rings true yet again with True Beauty. At its start there is a certain magic to this take on the age old "ugly duckling" story. The female lead (Moon Ga Young) is cute and winning with a decent set of comic chops. Liking her is shockingly easy. When the male lead shows up (Cha Eun Woo) he is very dreamy and grade A South Korean boy beef, even though his character is locked behind the now oh so boring trope of cold stand-off aloof guy. He comes in as a hero, saving our FL from attempted suicide. (Korea is 4th in the world for suicide and their Kdramas have now made it a blase everyday plot occurrence, its chilling to watch as a westerner. This is a show directed towards a younger crowd and yet here it is. They must laugh at how upset the west was over 13 Reason Why) But once the actual saving is done, he retreats into being a standoffish jerk.
Why girls love this type of character, and why Asian dramas are obsessed with using this trope, is beyond me. I genuinely don't understand why anyone would want these guys except for their superficial beauty. The pretty asshole, is what gets you a pretty shitty real world life. Yet here, Che Eun Woo's Su Ho is quickly given enough backstory and home-drama to warrant his angst and keep him from being maligned into dirt-bag territory. In truth, his warmth is very much on display from the get go.
When the second male lead (Hwang In Yeop) shows up in episode 2, the rivalry between the two is fun to watch. They actually bring out charisma in each other, and both are at their best when the show is focusing on their frenemy bromance. But, of course this isn't why we are watching and thus the meaty scenes are far and few between.
Our FL's family has a larger role in the story and is a mixed bag. The older sister and father of the bunch are fun and delightful characters to watch and spend time with. The older sister arguably one of the best characters in the drama with her reverse gendered role love story a true treat. However the mother, and younger brother are as toxic as they come. The mother, arguably the worst villain of the show. If you want a step by step guide on how NOT to be a mother, watch this drama. The younger brother is just a ridiculous human being and not realistic, but has a somewhat redeemable story arc.
As for the rest of the cast, they are mostly the student population that surrounds our FL and her two rivaling MLs. Most of these characters are throw away, with a few exceptions. The most important, and one who ends up with some heavy lifting storytelling, is Park Yoo Na's Kang Soo Jin. You will love and hate her, I promise. Though almost all of the cast has a tragic home-life, hers is arguably the worst.
For the first few episodes to halfway through the series you will find yourself having a great time as you meet these characters and discover the world of the story. Again, there is an electricity, a spark, some type of magic that will keep you hitting play.
But then, the newness wears off, the story turns on its autopilot, and the mundane sets in. It is just another ugly duckling tale. Our main heroine quickly changes her face, but not her personality, and thus she just keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over again. The same situations arise over and over again. And like all ugly duckling tales, she just can't believe the male lead likes HER! HER of all people!!!
And one begins to yawn while watching.
By the end, the whole subplot KPOP suicide (yep someone does actually make the fateful jump with a 2nd suicide plot-line) story takes center stage. The romance (which stalls for multiple episodes straight) takes a back seat as the ML family drama and bromance come to a boil. The love triangle, (Though I am tired of this term as it is inaccurate. A true love triangle would mean one of the boys falls for the other boy who falls for the girl who falls for the original boy. Three points interlocked in a triangle wanting what they can't have. This is just a love line or plane with three points. The girl at the center with a boy on each side. But whatever, everyone keeps calling them triangles) is really a non-starter. The second male lead is never given a chance at any point at ever being a true option for our FL. She never once looks at him with any resemblance of wanting. It kinda just dissolves. And just when everything seems to be resolved, you find you still have 4 episodes left, and BAM!!! Enter outside plot devices to reek havoc.
This, is where everything just falls apart. The second warning side and curse of my K Drama journey. THE TIME JUMP!
Listing all the dramas that take this approach would be fruitless. Most being only one season with the creators diluting and stretching the story as much as they can to fill the episode count needed. The stories in play want to, or need to, move beyond the constructs of their premise. To solve this, and not need a whole new season worth of content, the powers that be just throw in a time jump. Is it needed? Of course not. Does it add anything to the story? Nope. It is just tacked on additional episodes because they hadn't meet their slotted quota, and also establish a false sense of closure to the story. Everything ends up in the same place after the jump as it was before. You as a viewer just find yourself repeating the same plot points in a shorter time-span to get back to where you already were.
By the time the show is done, there is a feeling of relief. You can now find something better to watch. It wasn't bad, it had some life lessons, there was drama, and by God are there some hunky leads, but whatever magic lured you in the beginning had fully dissipated. Ultimately you found yourself finishing it just because you'd already come this far! Oh well, we will try again with the next show!
6.5 C+, 3 1/4th star just above average outing. Not mad I watched it, but would never really recommend others to sit through it either.
Is becoming a true curse of my Kdrama journey. The first translated words of the Bible, are famous for their ubiquitous and straight forward approach to storytelling, yet over and over again are becoming a warning, that many times what starts strong has nowhere left to go.
It rings true yet again with True Beauty. At its start there is a certain magic to this take on the age old "ugly duckling" story. The female lead (Moon Ga Young) is cute and winning with a decent set of comic chops. Liking her is shockingly easy. When the male lead shows up (Cha Eun Woo) he is very dreamy and grade A South Korean boy beef, even though his character is locked behind the now oh so boring trope of cold stand-off aloof guy. He comes in as a hero, saving our FL from attempted suicide. (Korea is 4th in the world for suicide and their Kdramas have now made it a blase everyday plot occurrence, its chilling to watch as a westerner. This is a show directed towards a younger crowd and yet here it is. They must laugh at how upset the west was over 13 Reason Why) But once the actual saving is done, he retreats into being a standoffish jerk.
Why girls love this type of character, and why Asian dramas are obsessed with using this trope, is beyond me. I genuinely don't understand why anyone would want these guys except for their superficial beauty. The pretty asshole, is what gets you a pretty shitty real world life. Yet here, Che Eun Woo's Su Ho is quickly given enough backstory and home-drama to warrant his angst and keep him from being maligned into dirt-bag territory. In truth, his warmth is very much on display from the get go.
When the second male lead (Hwang In Yeop) shows up in episode 2, the rivalry between the two is fun to watch. They actually bring out charisma in each other, and both are at their best when the show is focusing on their frenemy bromance. But, of course this isn't why we are watching and thus the meaty scenes are far and few between.
Our FL's family has a larger role in the story and is a mixed bag. The older sister and father of the bunch are fun and delightful characters to watch and spend time with. The older sister arguably one of the best characters in the drama with her reverse gendered role love story a true treat. However the mother, and younger brother are as toxic as they come. The mother, arguably the worst villain of the show. If you want a step by step guide on how NOT to be a mother, watch this drama. The younger brother is just a ridiculous human being and not realistic, but has a somewhat redeemable story arc.
As for the rest of the cast, they are mostly the student population that surrounds our FL and her two rivaling MLs. Most of these characters are throw away, with a few exceptions. The most important, and one who ends up with some heavy lifting storytelling, is Park Yoo Na's Kang Soo Jin. You will love and hate her, I promise. Though almost all of the cast has a tragic home-life, hers is arguably the worst.
For the first few episodes to halfway through the series you will find yourself having a great time as you meet these characters and discover the world of the story. Again, there is an electricity, a spark, some type of magic that will keep you hitting play.
But then, the newness wears off, the story turns on its autopilot, and the mundane sets in. It is just another ugly duckling tale. Our main heroine quickly changes her face, but not her personality, and thus she just keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over again. The same situations arise over and over again. And like all ugly duckling tales, she just can't believe the male lead likes HER! HER of all people!!!
And one begins to yawn while watching.
By the end, the whole subplot KPOP suicide (yep someone does actually make the fateful jump with a 2nd suicide plot-line) story takes center stage. The romance (which stalls for multiple episodes straight) takes a back seat as the ML family drama and bromance come to a boil. The love triangle, (Though I am tired of this term as it is inaccurate. A true love triangle would mean one of the boys falls for the other boy who falls for the girl who falls for the original boy. Three points interlocked in a triangle wanting what they can't have. This is just a love line or plane with three points. The girl at the center with a boy on each side. But whatever, everyone keeps calling them triangles) is really a non-starter. The second male lead is never given a chance at any point at ever being a true option for our FL. She never once looks at him with any resemblance of wanting. It kinda just dissolves. And just when everything seems to be resolved, you find you still have 4 episodes left, and BAM!!! Enter outside plot devices to reek havoc.
This, is where everything just falls apart. The second warning side and curse of my K Drama journey. THE TIME JUMP!
Listing all the dramas that take this approach would be fruitless. Most being only one season with the creators diluting and stretching the story as much as they can to fill the episode count needed. The stories in play want to, or need to, move beyond the constructs of their premise. To solve this, and not need a whole new season worth of content, the powers that be just throw in a time jump. Is it needed? Of course not. Does it add anything to the story? Nope. It is just tacked on additional episodes because they hadn't meet their slotted quota, and also establish a false sense of closure to the story. Everything ends up in the same place after the jump as it was before. You as a viewer just find yourself repeating the same plot points in a shorter time-span to get back to where you already were.
By the time the show is done, there is a feeling of relief. You can now find something better to watch. It wasn't bad, it had some life lessons, there was drama, and by God are there some hunky leads, but whatever magic lured you in the beginning had fully dissipated. Ultimately you found yourself finishing it just because you'd already come this far! Oh well, we will try again with the next show!
6.5 C+, 3 1/4th star just above average outing. Not mad I watched it, but would never really recommend others to sit through it either.
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