If the first two eps of Sungkyunkwan Scandal rendered me madly in love, eps 3 and 4 reduced me to a state of incoherent gibbering at the screen, complete with spazzy hand-gestures
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I confess I am puzzled by the fandom love for Song Joong Ki's character.
He reminds me of BiDam, not the BiDam who got all serious and angsty towards the end of QSD, but the BiDam who burst onto the scene, the cunning bystander who was cruel, unfeeling, didn't care for politics but also had penetrating insights into power and people. I also find YongHa's nouveau-riche background interesting, which I think explains some of his personality. And which SunJoon picked on when YongHa was ribbing him about being too serious & too proud and knocking the students off their high horse are what the rituals are about. I loved SJ's response, 'if that's the case, why do you keep dressing like a peacock, mocking the students behind that dandy front is no different than what you accuse me of doing.' And I think SJ rose (even higher) in YongHa's esteem for seeing through that.
I like how they're all different from each other, and I look forward to the different dynamics that are going to develop as they learn about each other. SJK/YongHa might have been one of the first to catch the viewers' fancy, but with each ep., I see more and more appreciation for each character, and that's both a credit and a challenge to the PTB, how to sustain that throughout the series.
I can see the Bidam resemblance and he also reminds me a bit of Kim Bum's character in BOF before the angst truck hit him. He is an interesting character, all right, but I don't love him (but then I didn't like Kim Bum's character until the angsting either and Bidam...is well...Bidam. I love him so much). If SJK is Bidam, I wonder if it makes Sun Joon this story's Yooshin, in which case they got the balance better than QSD (poor boring Yooshin).
They have the book to work from so they will hopefully keep up a good script.
I wonder if it makes Sun Joon this story's Yooshin, in which case they got the balance better than QSD (poor boring Yooshin).
I think the character of Gen. Kim Yooshin (who did not deserve such an awful fate at the hands of the QSD writers) was pretty much doomed from the moment they forced a romance with the Princess/Queen which not only did not exist IRL but on-screen was also completely devoid of chemistry, and in the process stripped him of everything that made him such a compelling figure in history. The execution was so awful that he wasn't just boring compared to BiDam, he was boring compared to everyone else. The only few times I saw some spark to his scenes were opposite GHJ/MiShil but beyond that... The writers seemed to thrive with their fictional creations (eg. MiShil, BiDam) but completely stuck when it came to the real-life figures (eg. QSD, Kim Yooshin, Kim Chunchu), but I'm getting off-track...
Anyhow, at least in SKKS, that's a non-issue, when it comes keeping everyone interesting and striking some balance, ie. there's no chemistry blackhole as far as I can tell among the characters, which probably offers the writer/PTB more ease and freedom with the directions they want to take the characters and storylines. For instance, they don't have to worry about whether their main romance, SJ and YH, will appeal to the audience, because there IS chemistry.
Poor Yooshin. I wonder if the writers weren't helped by the fact that my hunch before QSD aired that UTW wouldn't do well in a period drama were in general borne out - he just doesn't have the vibe.
I wonder if the writers weren't helped by the fact that my hunch before QSD aired that UTW wouldn't do well in a period drama were in general borne out - he just doesn't have the vibe.
50+ eps. is a painful way to learn it. Ah well, better luck with Dr. Champ, hopefully.
He reminds me of BiDam, not the BiDam who got all serious and angsty towards the end of QSD, but the BiDam who burst onto the scene, the cunning bystander who was cruel, unfeeling, didn't care for politics but also had penetrating insights into power and people. I also find YongHa's nouveau-riche background interesting, which I think explains some of his personality. And which SunJoon picked on when YongHa was ribbing him about being too serious & too proud and knocking the students off their high horse are what the rituals are about. I loved SJ's response, 'if that's the case, why do you keep dressing like a peacock, mocking the students behind that dandy front is no different than what you accuse me of doing.' And I think SJ rose (even higher) in YongHa's esteem for seeing through that.
I like how they're all different from each other, and I look forward to the different dynamics that are going to develop as they learn about each other. SJK/YongHa might have been one of the first to catch the viewers' fancy, but with each ep., I see more and more appreciation for each character, and that's both a credit and a challenge to the PTB, how to sustain that throughout the series.
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They have the book to work from so they will hopefully keep up a good script.
Reply
I think the character of Gen. Kim Yooshin (who did not deserve such an awful fate at the hands of the QSD writers) was pretty much doomed from the moment they forced a romance with the Princess/Queen which not only did not exist IRL but on-screen was also completely devoid of chemistry, and in the process stripped him of everything that made him such a compelling figure in history. The execution was so awful that he wasn't just boring compared to BiDam, he was boring compared to everyone else. The only few times I saw some spark to his scenes were opposite GHJ/MiShil but beyond that... The writers seemed to thrive with their fictional creations (eg. MiShil, BiDam) but completely stuck when it came to the real-life figures (eg. QSD, Kim Yooshin, Kim Chunchu), but I'm getting off-track...
Anyhow, at least in SKKS, that's a non-issue, when it comes keeping everyone interesting and striking some balance, ie. there's no chemistry blackhole as far as I can tell among the characters, which probably offers the writer/PTB more ease and freedom with the directions they want to take the characters and storylines. For instance, they don't have to worry about whether their main romance, SJ and YH, will appeal to the audience, because there IS chemistry.
Reply
Luckily everyone seems to fit into SKKS.
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50+ eps. is a painful way to learn it. Ah well, better luck with Dr. Champ, hopefully.
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