Eps 1 to 4

[Knov1]

Warning: Post contains spoilers!

Do Hee works for 2NBOX. They produce online programming. She flies to Jeju to surprise her boyfriend Young Dong. Do Hee catches him with another woman and breaks up with Young Dong. Hae Kyung is a famous psychiatrist. He meets Do Hee on a flight to Jeju. Hae Kyung runs into Do Hee again at a restaurant, while he's meeting with a patient, as she confronts her boyfriend. Hae Kyung's patient urges him to help Do Hee. Hae Kyung follows Do Hee to the beach. Thinking she's going to jump into the water, he races after her and ends up getting injured in the process. Do Hee stays with Hae Kyung at the hospital. Once he's better, she offers to take him to the airport since he has to return to Seoul. Instead of catching his flight, Hae Kyung asks Do Hee to have dinner with him.

During their meal, Do Hee tells Hae Kyung that she feels comfortable with him since she believes neither are romantically interested in each other. After eating, Hae Kyung and Do Hee stay at the same inn. The following morning Do Hee offers to drive Hae Kyung to the airport but he plans on taking a taxi. She wants to buy him dinner as a thank you for his help, when they both get back to Seoul, but he declines. Hae Kyung tells Do Hee that they can meet again when Tae Jin Ah's new song tops the charts. Once she's back in Seoul, Do Hee's boss wants her to book Hae Kyung for her show. Do Hee doesn't know that Hae Kyung is the guy she met in Jeju. Do Hee and Hae Kyung exchange several emails in which they bicker with each other. Tae Jin Ah's song tops the chart with help from a hacker group. Hae Kyung and Do Hee meet at the Daedong fish market.

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Dinner Mate is based on a popular comic. I'm not familiar with the comic but, based on comments that I've read, it seems like some changes have been made to the story. This being a romantic comedy there is some silliness. Off to a good start.

[ajk]

I haven't watched the second hour yet, because I hated the first hour so much it left me dazed. HATED it. But maybe the second hour will go better--I'll watch it tonight. Sometimes a series will flail around before it settles in.

The comic book thing is very interesting; thanks for mentioning that. It would explain some of what bugged me.

Apparently it got pretty good ratings so people seemed to respond pretty well to it so far.

[Knov1]

I'll be honest.. me saying the series is "off to a good start" is me being generous. Sometimes I feel like I'm too negative on shows. I didn't want dissuade people from giving it a shot by focusing too much on the negatives. Romantic comedies can be hit or miss with me. This being a Korean series, some jokes will be lost in translation.

Eps 1 & 2 were Meh to me. I didn't like the action sequence in the beginning. Hae Kyung is a psychiatrist. Not a secret agent. When Do Hee was driving Hae Kyung around in Jeju, I'm not sure if that was meant to be a woman driver joke or make him out to be a scaredy cat but that fell flat. She was driving recklessly. There's nothing funny about that. The driving in general seems to be everyone speeding everywhere. Didn't really care for some of the antics at 2NBOX. This series being a romantic comedy is why I don't like Hae Kyung being a psychiatrist. You can already see that some situations will be treated as a joke. It's not funny and just plain weird.

I did like eps 3 & 4 a bit more. I got You've Got Mail vibes from it, which is one of my favorite movies. By Kdrama standards, Hae Kyung and Do Hee's first meeting was surprisingly normal. I did like the cameos, including the random appearance by Tae Jin Ah.

[ajk]

I don’t watch a lot of this kind of show and was expecting something with a little more depth to it. This is fluff, which is fine if you like fluff. Fortunately the second hour was a lot easier to take than the first hour, so hopefully it’s settling down into something better than it started out as.

I thought the first hour was awful. Right from the beginning, the motorcycle/foot chase scene you mentioned...Of course we assumed that the guy was an undercover cop chasing a criminal. It wasn’t until later that we realized he was a psychiatrist. What kind of an idiot doctor endangers numerous drivers and pedestrians doing what he should have called the police to do? It was just weird. There was a lot of stuff like that, things that didn’t make sense.  Later he supposedly got that gash in his scalp that needed suturing...but all we saw of it was a tiny piece of gauze sitting on top of his hair (none of which was shaved so he obviously was not sutured) and he throws it away within two hours, so no gash. Yes I get nit-picky but some of these things, it’s like the writer thinks we’re idiots.

The humor...yes a Westerner may laugh at different things than an Asian would, but the humor seemed awfully forced, almost desperate. The office scenes, so far the big running joke there is a fat guy who smells bad. Seriously? And that bit on the seashore, where the doc charges Dohee and she dodges, the drawn-out super-slo-mo with the goofy faces, that was embarrassing. Maybe they were trying to recreate a panel from the comic book—that would explain it. But it didn’t seem funny. (Plus even if she were really falling in, he was running so fast he’d have knocked her right in anyway, so it made no sense.)

It did get better in the second hour, but still a ways to go. The doc is supposed to be an elite mental health professional and runs the “Relax Psychiatric Clinic,” but he gets his buttons pushed into a temper tantrum by some snotty emails and goes right out and gets into a road-rage battle. (You’re 100% right about the driving, no idea what this series is trying to prove with the driving scenes.) And speaking of that scene...They leave their workplaces at the same time and drive to each other’s workplaces. How did they end up on the same road going in the same direction?? Talk about making no sense—again treating us like we’re idiots.

Three things I liked. One, the plot twist with the flight attendant. Did not see that coming at all, well done. Two, that bit with the hacker pushing that song to #1. Wish they had done more with it because it was one thing I laughed at. And three, Dohee gets fender-tapped and it’s the singer. I laughed at that too.

It would be nice if the rest of the series settled down and we got to see the two of them help each other grow up. Neither of them is all that likeable right now so that would probably the best storyline going forward.


p.s. Why all the ugly baggy clothes for Seo Ji-hye? Is she preggers or has she porked out, something they’re trying to hide? She’s so pretty but they made her look awful.

[Knov1]

May 30, 2020 4:25:24 GMT -5 ajk said:

p.s. Why all the ugly baggy clothes for Seo Ji-hye? Is she preggers or has she porked out, something they’re trying to hide? She’s so pretty but they made her look awful.

I don't know if this look is popular right now or it's simply the Kdrama default for "working class woman" but this seems to be the go to style for female characters with everyday jobs. I've seen 4-5 other female leads styled the same way as Do Hee this year.

[ajk]

Well that's interesting--thanks.

Frankly it reminded me of Columbo. Peter Falk waddling around in that trenchcoat.