Series Feature: Strong Woman Do Bong-Soon (2017)
The truth is, I avoid this genre – romance – as much as I can as I find these dramas cringe-worthy especially when the leads were to act out a romantic scene. I don’t care how much of it I’ve watched already – I’ll drop it once I can’t take it anymore just like what I did with the “Descendants of the Sun” series.
But staying at home for month put me to a new state of boredom that I didn’t even bothered checking which genre this show belongs to – romantic comedy. I had doubts but instead of my usual sour face, I actually found myself enjoying every single scene from this show's two main leads – Do Bong-soon and Ahn Min-Hyuk. With their great display of chemistry, you would even wish at the bottom of your heart for these two actors to actually date in real life.
However, despite finishing this drama, I can’t help but feel dissatisfied with it as there were just a lot of poor writing in the show. Since the story’s main focus aside from building romance between our main leads, which I don’t mind except for one thing (let me talk about it later), is chasing this psycho killer, the need to distract the audience and give them time to catch their breaths was essential, thus, causing the show to add filler scenes. However, I wish they put extra effort in choosing what fillers were to be injected and dropped.
Right from the start, it has been established that this is not pure romance but also half comedy. However, as the show progresses, the humor becomes repetitive and annoying. The comedy is just so forced, no one would even judge you if you skip these filler scenes and just jump straight to the main story. I especially dislike every gangster and fake monk scene in this show. Not to mention, the tasteless gay jokes they tried to pull that made me feel uncomfortable. I know they meant no harm but some scenes we're just way off. Of course, it still depends on the person whether this kind of humor is their cup of tea or not but for me, the writers could’ve chosen a different approach because this just wasn’t it. But of course, since our main character is a strong woman – literally – the action scenes made up for all those annoying fillers.
As I’ve mentioned, I don’t mind if the show focused more on the main story while building up the romance between the two leads but I wish they gave the second male lead the chance with the female lead. With the show’s poor use of In Gook-Doo’s character – our second male lead – the show, instead of creating an actual love triangle, created a big wall between the main couple. It’s like the show had an unspoken rule that no other love line could ever exist. And if there must be another love line, it must be between the two male leads, like what? You'll get it once you watch it. I admit, I totally love the main pairing but I also couldn’t deny that it was unfair for him. Gook-Doo wasn’t given a chance at all because it’s like when it comes to his character, time seems to be running in 2x speed that you can’t help but feel bitter about it.
The psycho killer scenes turn the light mood in 360 degree that sometimes when it goes overly dark, it would feel like you’re watching a different show. But don’t worry too much. For an average person, the scenes were still tolerable enough to continue watching. And if they weren’t anymore, you can just fast forward anytime. Still, I must say I hate every scene with the psycho killer. And if you’re sharp, you would even catch the show’s poor logic saying hi sometimes.
Overall, the show was still a good watch, thanks to the action scenes and the lovely main couple. But put this in your mind that everything in this show can be a little nonsensical so you better prepare yourself for it. Who knows, you might like the show's humor. Personally, I enjoyed this so I'll still give it a thumbs up and would not hesitate to recommend this to anyone.