Post by mikey on Nov 18, 2005 13:22:25 GMT -5
As “My Sweetheart” draws to a close, I couldn’t help but look back and try to understand why I’m so disappointed with this show. No, it’s not on my “Worst Drama Ever” list, but I do think it might rank high as a “Drama of Greatest Disappointment.”
Chalk it up to the writer’s reputation, and the superlative job she did with her earlier drama, “Yellow Handkerchief.” In light of that, I had high hopes for “My Sweetheart.” And, disappointingly, it’s fallen flat for me.
Lots of things contributed to this failure: Ki-joon’s endless moping (gets tiresome real fast) In-young’s endless sobbing (dittos) Him-chan’s inability to say anything without shouting at the top of his lungs . . . but topping my list is just how many seemingly important occurrences turned out to be useless, meaningless fluff; nonsense that contributed absolutely nothing to the overall storyline.
Now, every story will have a few red herrings, but “My Sweetheart” wins the Grand Prize. It was just clogged with them:
1. In-kyung, the illegitimate daughter. Poor girl, she doesn’t know that she’s the result of a fling by her schoolteacher father. And it’s pretty dramatic when she finds out. But, then what? She leaves for college, and that’s it? What plot purpose did that serve, anyway?
2. In-chul’s motorcycle. Everybody’s favorite meaningless sub-plot. In-chul gets a motorcycle, lies to his father about it, gets caught, and then has to give it up. Apparently meant to show that though In-chul may be immature, he’s still a good-hearted kid. Which is fine, except that most of us viewers had figured that out already.
3. Sun-mi’s appendectomy. Sun-mi, as a character, was full of potential. She was pretty, fun, full of life – and she ended up being nothing more than a well-meaning but loose-lipped message-relayer, spilling the beans every time somebody told her something in confidence. Oh yeah, she had to have her appendix removed. Big deal.
4. Bok-soon. What the hell was her story? She arrives, with hints that she’s carrying with her some dark family secret. And she ends up being nothing more than a troublemaking chatterbox, who departs the show just as abruptly as she arrived. Honestly, “My Sweetheart” would have been better off without her.
5. Jae-min’s irritating salesman. Talk about the show being better off without someone! I don’t think this idiot ever did anything more than swoon over Sun-mi and get on all the viewers nerves. Served no other apparent purpose.
6. Ki-joon’s spoiled sister. Okay, like mother, like daughter. We get it. So she has a fling with a boyfriend, heads for America, and then is completely forgotten, even by her own mother?
7. Jung-ja’s arrival at In-chul’s restaurant. So, what’s her big secret? Guess we’ll never know for sure. Tough, brassy, and with a wry sense of humor, she might have had some real potential had she arrived on the scene earlier (imagine a romance developing between Jung-ja and In-young’s straight-laced schoolteacher dad)! As it was, though, she hardly mattered.
8. Aunt’s impending senility. Roughly every two-dozen episodes, the viewers got a grim forewarning (usually involving misplaced telephones) of Aunt’s impending senility. And then, a short time later, she’s fine again – for another two-dozen episodes. Okay, by the time Aunt’s 95 years old, who knows, maybe she’ll actually be senile, but why should we care about that now?
9. Grandfather’s home-schooling. Boy, those kids sure vanished without a trace! Bratty school kids ruined Aunt’s flowers, and then they’re never seen again! You don’t suppose that sneaky Aunt did them in, do you? (hey, don’t laugh: just remember how mean that woman was in “One Million Roses”).
10. Grandfather’s gas-station job. Proved Grandfather’s still man enough for full-time employment. Quite a major part of the storyline for, like, 8 episodes. But, again, so what?
(Feel free to suggest any other examples I might have missed –there’s bound to be plenty).
Honestly, I think that episodes 5 through 50 could pretty much have been deleted outright with almost no effect on the overall plotline. And then, if they’d slashed more of the nonsense from everywhere else, and then condensed everything down into 50 or 60 tightly-written episodes, we might have actually gotten to enjoy a moderately engrossing drama series. But, it almost seems as if this screenplay was written “on the fly,” with the writer just adding anything and everything she could think of as the show progressed, as if she needed to fulfill some kind of contractual requirement she might have had with KBS for 150 episodes.
While “My Sweetheart” still has the dreadful KBS drama “My Precious Child” beaten by a mile, I sure hope KBS’s next effort comes off a little better than this!
Chalk it up to the writer’s reputation, and the superlative job she did with her earlier drama, “Yellow Handkerchief.” In light of that, I had high hopes for “My Sweetheart.” And, disappointingly, it’s fallen flat for me.
Lots of things contributed to this failure: Ki-joon’s endless moping (gets tiresome real fast) In-young’s endless sobbing (dittos) Him-chan’s inability to say anything without shouting at the top of his lungs . . . but topping my list is just how many seemingly important occurrences turned out to be useless, meaningless fluff; nonsense that contributed absolutely nothing to the overall storyline.
Now, every story will have a few red herrings, but “My Sweetheart” wins the Grand Prize. It was just clogged with them:
1. In-kyung, the illegitimate daughter. Poor girl, she doesn’t know that she’s the result of a fling by her schoolteacher father. And it’s pretty dramatic when she finds out. But, then what? She leaves for college, and that’s it? What plot purpose did that serve, anyway?
2. In-chul’s motorcycle. Everybody’s favorite meaningless sub-plot. In-chul gets a motorcycle, lies to his father about it, gets caught, and then has to give it up. Apparently meant to show that though In-chul may be immature, he’s still a good-hearted kid. Which is fine, except that most of us viewers had figured that out already.
3. Sun-mi’s appendectomy. Sun-mi, as a character, was full of potential. She was pretty, fun, full of life – and she ended up being nothing more than a well-meaning but loose-lipped message-relayer, spilling the beans every time somebody told her something in confidence. Oh yeah, she had to have her appendix removed. Big deal.
4. Bok-soon. What the hell was her story? She arrives, with hints that she’s carrying with her some dark family secret. And she ends up being nothing more than a troublemaking chatterbox, who departs the show just as abruptly as she arrived. Honestly, “My Sweetheart” would have been better off without her.
5. Jae-min’s irritating salesman. Talk about the show being better off without someone! I don’t think this idiot ever did anything more than swoon over Sun-mi and get on all the viewers nerves. Served no other apparent purpose.
6. Ki-joon’s spoiled sister. Okay, like mother, like daughter. We get it. So she has a fling with a boyfriend, heads for America, and then is completely forgotten, even by her own mother?
7. Jung-ja’s arrival at In-chul’s restaurant. So, what’s her big secret? Guess we’ll never know for sure. Tough, brassy, and with a wry sense of humor, she might have had some real potential had she arrived on the scene earlier (imagine a romance developing between Jung-ja and In-young’s straight-laced schoolteacher dad)! As it was, though, she hardly mattered.
8. Aunt’s impending senility. Roughly every two-dozen episodes, the viewers got a grim forewarning (usually involving misplaced telephones) of Aunt’s impending senility. And then, a short time later, she’s fine again – for another two-dozen episodes. Okay, by the time Aunt’s 95 years old, who knows, maybe she’ll actually be senile, but why should we care about that now?
9. Grandfather’s home-schooling. Boy, those kids sure vanished without a trace! Bratty school kids ruined Aunt’s flowers, and then they’re never seen again! You don’t suppose that sneaky Aunt did them in, do you? (hey, don’t laugh: just remember how mean that woman was in “One Million Roses”).
10. Grandfather’s gas-station job. Proved Grandfather’s still man enough for full-time employment. Quite a major part of the storyline for, like, 8 episodes. But, again, so what?
(Feel free to suggest any other examples I might have missed –there’s bound to be plenty).
Honestly, I think that episodes 5 through 50 could pretty much have been deleted outright with almost no effect on the overall plotline. And then, if they’d slashed more of the nonsense from everywhere else, and then condensed everything down into 50 or 60 tightly-written episodes, we might have actually gotten to enjoy a moderately engrossing drama series. But, it almost seems as if this screenplay was written “on the fly,” with the writer just adding anything and everything she could think of as the show progressed, as if she needed to fulfill some kind of contractual requirement she might have had with KBS for 150 episodes.
While “My Sweetheart” still has the dreadful KBS drama “My Precious Child” beaten by a mile, I sure hope KBS’s next effort comes off a little better than this!