Thumping Spike #review

두근두근 스파이크 / Dugeundugeun Seupaikeu

Aka -  Pounding Spike / We Have Something Special
Genre -  Romance, comedy, high school, sports
Episodes -  20 shorts
Format -  Web drama
Network -  Sohu TV, MBN
Broadcast -  2016, Feb-Apr

    

CAST

Hwang Seung eon as Kang Se ra, Song Jae rim as Hwang Jae woong, and Lee Tae hwan as Baek Woo jin

SYNOPSIS

Despite always coming in last, the Daehan High School volleyball team aspires to reach the top. After a misunderstanding with the team captain, volleyball goddess Se Ra is stuck coaching this floundering team in order to dodge a potential lawsuit. Daehan's star player, Jae Woong, and Se Ra are constantly butting heads. Full of love for the sport and increasingly, love for Se Ra, can the team turn around their game? - Dramafever (w/edits)

REVIEW

A good time for teenage-tweeners and nothing more (OR substantial) about this one.

Wow, what a cringe-fest!

From the overly dramatic theme music, to the out-dated macho antics of the two male leads, to the lame 'same few feet of film for every volleyball match shown', this was a tough one to sit through.

I like Jae rim, though, and he did an okay job.

Still, I had to wonder how seriously he took himself while on location -- if he wasn't laughing his ass off behind the scenes or perhaps even regretting the decision to star -- thoughts which turned out to be far more entertaining than this mini drama.

And the freaking high school bitch...

needed a beat-down in every scene she appeared.

I'm fed up with her appearance in any K-Do the same way I am over the brain-dead Japanese high school girl who can do no more than raise one side of her upper lip in every scene.

Change in times and attitude aside, anyone younger who takes that kind of an attitude with anyone older will get their ass kicked -- and rightly so -- period.

And, yeah, I plan on watching #2, though I'm not expecting anything other than more of the same embarrassing drivel like this first one.

Would not recommend anyone waste their time, but I'm positive all those under the age of 15 will disagree.

Where's the Memo About Not Doing this Anymore??

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Goodbye Mr. Black, a #review

굿바이 미스터 블랙

Writer -  Hwang Mi na (comic), Moon Hee jung
Network -  MBC
Genre -  Intrigue, Melodrama
Episodes -  20
Released -  2016, Mar - May
Cinderella -  Yes

CAST

SYNOPSIS

Cha Ji won is a Navy Special Operations UDT officer with a positive outlook and personal charm. Then a friend's betrayal throws him into numerous life or death situations. To hide his identity, Black enters into a fake marriage with Swan.   (DramaWiki w/edits)

REVIEW

It wasn't all bad.

Somewhat reminiscent of Cain & Abel in its dark, sinister plot by a jealous rival to destroy the man who has it all.

Filled with underworld dealings in weapons and drug smuggling, and power-hungry men -- the Chaebol way by Korean melodrama standards.

As for his being in Spec Ops . . . well, in the beginning, yes.

He's on assignment in Thailand and bumps into Swan, a mousy chick selling Mango juice to survive (even if she lives with a man who has amassed a small fortune).

As a child, she lived with her parents when the 2004 Tsunami killed her family and gave her amnesia, though bits and pieces of her past continue to haunt her.

While Ji won is on assignment, his best friend has made a deal with the devil to overthrow Ji won's father and take over the family business.

Things go bad in Thailand, leaving Ji won and Swan on the run from peril.

Ji won is accused of murder and goes into hiding, but a few years later he returns as Mr. Black.

In a dramatic turn of events, he startles everyone with this return while setting in motion the wheels of far more sinister dealings and plots to have him destroyed.

Swan becomes a news reporter (though it was never explained how if she wasn't properly schooled) and works alongside her handsome boss, Seo Woo jin, whose father happens to work in the upper ranks of the Family Business that Min Sun jae now runs.

Sun jae comes from humble beginnings and was always ashamed of his no-account father, wanting the opulence and prestige of the Cha chaebol way of living instead.

As he grows older, his resentment turns to bitterness and then (of course) madness.

He has taken from the Cha's, destroyed his ex-friend Ji won's life, and married Ji won's sweetheart, Yoon Ma ri.

We've seen it all before, but that doesn't mean Goodbye Mr. Black wasn't worth the 20 episodes because it wasn't as bad as it sounds.

Well, yes it was.

16 would have sufficed, and as 'smart' as Black was pointed out to be, it never quite seemed that way much of the time.

Kim Swan was hardly a femme fatale who would garner the attention of not one but two hot guys -- one a Chaebol heir and the other a self-made man.

Which brings up the Cinderella plot thingy and why I liken this to Cain & Abel.

Moon Chae won is far more appealing in reality than she was as Swan, and I didn't understand the premise behind such a flip-this-gal decision.

And while Cain (the bad guy) suffered from the brain tumor, it was Black who suffered from one in Goodbye.

And, again, Black had plenty of warning and even more chances to undergo an operation but no. He'll suffer, suffer some more, grow weaker and suffer partial paralysis because . . .

Lots and lots of aside characters with their own issues.

Too many hands in the cookie jar.

The implausible occurred at almost every turn.

And then there was this . . .

Black finally succumbs to his brain tumor and is rushed to the hospital after being whacked over the head with a 2 X 4.

And, here's what the same situation looks like over here, at a Navy hospital.

Which is why I go a little crazy every time the emergency room scene appears in a K-drama.

There is an HEA, and it is a nice one.

No chemistry between the two leads, though.

The intrigue and subsequent downfall of the bad guys was what made this a decent watch and nothing more.

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