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dangermousieI have finished 4 episodes of Take Care of the Lady and it's official - Hae Na is my LEAST favorite kdrama heroine in history. Seeing that one of the reasons kdramas are my favorite is because I love their heroines - yikes!
I think I am going to give up Lady, sorry. I don't really need any ulcers. I can feel Boys Over Flowers symptoms kicking in - sheer rage at seeing one of the characters and rage at other characters for loving that character instead of seeing them for what they really are. Most of all, rage at the insane writer. It has that same glitz, the same good actors horribly mistreated, the same wistful feeling of 'this could have been a great drama only' and, worst of all, that same pull - I am so so so tempted to watch just so that I could rage about it. But at least BOF had a stellar first half and degenerated into insanity only later on.
I hasten to add my problem is not with Yoon Eun Hye - she is as always gorgeous and despite criticisms of her acting in this role that I have seen all over, I think she is fine enough - I have seen plenty of worse acting around. My problem with with her character, Hae Na.
As I said, I do not mind a horrible, even dysfunctional, character as the lead. They can even be a bratty useless horrible rich person - but the drama and I have to be on the same person that the lead is, in fact, a useless horrible rich person, not a sweet girl to be loved.
Any hope I have had of meaningful character growth for Hae Na is gone after 4 eps - it's the Gu Jun Pyo syndrome - the writers will not address her horrendous flaws because they do not think they exist. They are too busy insisting Hae Na is loveable because she is cute. I am not making it up! Even with Gu Jun Pyo, where they did not develop his character and did not make him grow up (the way they did in other BOF versions), I could see why Jandi would eventually fall for him - the guy wooed her assiduously, and rescued her from horrible situations, risking life and limb in the process. While I wished she, like the manga original she was based on, held off until he became human enough, and I certainly was irritated with her loving her long after she should have moved on, her falling for him was not inconceivable.
But not here - why is Dong Chan in love with her? She is certainly not wooing him or doing anything to win him over - she has no interest in him that way. She is not clever or funny or kind or good-natured. She is not considerate, she is self-absorbed, violent, and lazy. (My last hope for liking her died when grandpa bargained with her to go to work in exchange for allowing her to date Tae Yoon, and she showed up at the office and spent the day doing nothing, commenting she promised to come to work, not to work. Ohhh, how I longed for her to be the granddaughter of Hwan's Grandma from Brilliant Legacy then - but that is the difference, in BL that attitude of Hwan was addressed and dealt with - it was shown as a big issue. Here it's a side comment to show how funny and adorable she is. UGHUGHUGH).
So yes, we are left with the fact that Dong Chan is falling for her because she is hot. That's it. WTF? How can I ship that? And I do adore Dong Chan and am left wondering if he's gotten hit on the head and lost his mind, especially since we are supposed to view it as sweet and not problematic.
And don't even get me started on Tae Yoon. She is presenting a false front to him (a commoner-loving, bus riding, charity and protest attending woman) to hook him and he is beginning to fall for that woman - someone who, like him, is caring and socially-conscious individual - when she is nothing of the sort. She is going to make him fall for her and then he is going to have his heart broken for and by a woman who doesn't really exist, who only won his heart by pretending to be someone she is not (do you really think he'd like her if he saw how she is with her servants or the way she was in ep 1?)
Also, yes, she is being interested (well, fake-interested, she is only there to hunt Tae Yoon) in Tae Yoon's causes and is OK with riding a bus etc but that's the thing - why would anyone want to be with her - if they get married, once the infatuation wears off, she will revert back to her selfish, shallow self. She has zero in common with either Dong Chan or Tae Yoon. Either couple is a nightmare in the making (side note, boys: the way to see what that person is like is to see not how they treat someone they are obsessed over, but how they treat people in general. If they do not notice them and ride roughshod over them then, guess what, one of these days they will do it to you).
All TCotL is making me do is want to appreciate anew the writers of Brilliant Legacy - TCotL proves what a hard feat they pulled off in creating Hwan.
Buh-bye, biggest drama disappointment of the year!
I think I am going to give up Lady, sorry. I don't really need any ulcers. I can feel Boys Over Flowers symptoms kicking in - sheer rage at seeing one of the characters and rage at other characters for loving that character instead of seeing them for what they really are. Most of all, rage at the insane writer. It has that same glitz, the same good actors horribly mistreated, the same wistful feeling of 'this could have been a great drama only' and, worst of all, that same pull - I am so so so tempted to watch just so that I could rage about it. But at least BOF had a stellar first half and degenerated into insanity only later on.
I hasten to add my problem is not with Yoon Eun Hye - she is as always gorgeous and despite criticisms of her acting in this role that I have seen all over, I think she is fine enough - I have seen plenty of worse acting around. My problem with with her character, Hae Na.
As I said, I do not mind a horrible, even dysfunctional, character as the lead. They can even be a bratty useless horrible rich person - but the drama and I have to be on the same person that the lead is, in fact, a useless horrible rich person, not a sweet girl to be loved.
Any hope I have had of meaningful character growth for Hae Na is gone after 4 eps - it's the Gu Jun Pyo syndrome - the writers will not address her horrendous flaws because they do not think they exist. They are too busy insisting Hae Na is loveable because she is cute. I am not making it up! Even with Gu Jun Pyo, where they did not develop his character and did not make him grow up (the way they did in other BOF versions), I could see why Jandi would eventually fall for him - the guy wooed her assiduously, and rescued her from horrible situations, risking life and limb in the process. While I wished she, like the manga original she was based on, held off until he became human enough, and I certainly was irritated with her loving her long after she should have moved on, her falling for him was not inconceivable.
But not here - why is Dong Chan in love with her? She is certainly not wooing him or doing anything to win him over - she has no interest in him that way. She is not clever or funny or kind or good-natured. She is not considerate, she is self-absorbed, violent, and lazy. (My last hope for liking her died when grandpa bargained with her to go to work in exchange for allowing her to date Tae Yoon, and she showed up at the office and spent the day doing nothing, commenting she promised to come to work, not to work. Ohhh, how I longed for her to be the granddaughter of Hwan's Grandma from Brilliant Legacy then - but that is the difference, in BL that attitude of Hwan was addressed and dealt with - it was shown as a big issue. Here it's a side comment to show how funny and adorable she is. UGHUGHUGH).
So yes, we are left with the fact that Dong Chan is falling for her because she is hot. That's it. WTF? How can I ship that? And I do adore Dong Chan and am left wondering if he's gotten hit on the head and lost his mind, especially since we are supposed to view it as sweet and not problematic.
And don't even get me started on Tae Yoon. She is presenting a false front to him (a commoner-loving, bus riding, charity and protest attending woman) to hook him and he is beginning to fall for that woman - someone who, like him, is caring and socially-conscious individual - when she is nothing of the sort. She is going to make him fall for her and then he is going to have his heart broken for and by a woman who doesn't really exist, who only won his heart by pretending to be someone she is not (do you really think he'd like her if he saw how she is with her servants or the way she was in ep 1?)
Also, yes, she is being interested (well, fake-interested, she is only there to hunt Tae Yoon) in Tae Yoon's causes and is OK with riding a bus etc but that's the thing - why would anyone want to be with her - if they get married, once the infatuation wears off, she will revert back to her selfish, shallow self. She has zero in common with either Dong Chan or Tae Yoon. Either couple is a nightmare in the making (side note, boys: the way to see what that person is like is to see not how they treat someone they are obsessed over, but how they treat people in general. If they do not notice them and ride roughshod over them then, guess what, one of these days they will do it to you).
All TCotL is making me do is want to appreciate anew the writers of Brilliant Legacy - TCotL proves what a hard feat they pulled off in creating Hwan.
Buh-bye, biggest drama disappointment of the year!
