Queijo na Ratoeira (2016)

Overall I did not like this drama. I went in with high expectations since it had received so much hype and since I had seen most of the main cast in other dramas. My biggest problem with the show was with the characters so I will structure this review around them.

Hong Seol: As far as female kdrama leads go Seol isn't so bad. She's smart and eventually grows quite the backbone. My problem with this character was the way she acted with our male lead, Yoo Jung. She bent over backwards to accommodate him. Maybe I'm being harsh on her, as this is fairly typical kdrama female lead behavior, but it honestly bothered me that she seemed so blinded by his very consistent and predictable bad behavior. Also a point on Kim Go Eun; she plays all of her characters with too much of her own personality in them in my opinion. It's not that she plays every character the same, since Eun Tak from Goblin is nothing like Seol, but they all feel too much like Go Eun. I want to feel immersed in her acting and her real life personality is very distracting.

Yoo Jung: At the beginning of the show I adored Yoo Jung. I am a huge sucker for male leads with dark pasts and personal issues. He seemed perfect. Then came the stagnant to nonexistent character development. I am all about character's changing and growing with their experiences. Despite having innumerable opportunities to grow and change Jung remains stagnant. He never learns from his mistakes or changes his behavior. He never accommodates or changes for Seol even when she makes a huge effort to do so for him. He is the same problematic person in episode 16 as he was in episode 1. His chemistry with Seol is also nonexistent. They have nothing in common and the emphasis placed on how similar they are confused me throughout the entire show. His lack of growth was very disappointing to me. Despite being my male lead perfect type  in the end Jung fell flat.

Baek In Ho: He is my favorite character in this entire show. He shows an immense amount of growth and development going from a bratty thug to a respectable mature and caring adult, friend, and brother. Baek In Ho is what i wish the other characters were.

Baek In Ha: My least favorite character. I can write an entire essay with what I dislike about In Ha. She is shrill, immature, selfish, one dimensional, vapid, greedy, violent, arrogant, rude, untrustworthy, envious, and self serving. I could go on. Her character is just so unlikable in every way. She shows no remorse for any of her actions, at least no genuine remorse, and makes those around her miserable. Every moment she was on screen was torture to me. She too lacked character development and any moments where I was meant to feel sorry for her only made me hate her more. I see no redeemable features in her. A note on Lee Sung Kyung as an actress: I also saw her in Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo and hated her in that too. Maybe some of that carried over into my assessment and feelings for In Ha but nonetheless it happened. I do not like Sung Kyung as an actress. She consistently annoys me and her characters, whether sweet of bitchy, are not to my taste.

Eun Taek and Bora: I paired these two because they are a package deal. I wish more of the show focused on them. They were bright cheerful and showed a lot of growth for their comparatively small amount of screen time. I have no complaints about them and once again wish some of the main characters were treated with this level of character development.

Leia Mais

Strong Start, Weak Finish

Cheese in the Trap was a drama that started off really strong for me...but ultimately fizzled out toward the halfway mark. I never read the webtoon so I went into this with zero context. CIIT is not the worst drama I have ever watched. Despite its low rating I don’t vehemently loathe everything about it.

Going into this I knew the plot was going to be not that exciting since it’s main focus is around college students. Even though they tried to add drama with Seol’s classmates or the plot around Jung’s borderline sociopathic tendencies everything was grounded in reality. And I loved it. As a college student I definitely related to Seol and her struggles. It felt so good to watch a drama where college is the setting and they actually show the struggle of juggling classes, friendships, jobs, and everything else. Nothing was happening plot wise but I was unable to stop watching it. Which leads to my main issue with this whole entire drama: the romance.

I want to start out by saying this: the acting in this was amazing. Everyone gave it their all and it was flawless. However, the characters are what I have an issue with, more so than the messy plot. Seol was a somewhat relatable character (as was Eun Taek and Bo Ra) but no matter how much I tried to force myself I couldn’t root for Jung. In the webtoon I’m sure we got to learn more about his character but in CIIT he felt like a minor character. I was unable to feel anything more than annoyance with his character. His psyche is super fascinating but because the drama pushed the romance I kind of forgot how intriguing he was at the start. Kudos to Park Hae Jin because he played Jung very well.

As for the side characters I adored Baek In Ho. He’s not somehow better that Jung morally or perfect for Seol but he was interesting. He was fleshed out. I grew to love and root for his character early on. I know fans of the webtoon was complaining because In Ho got too much screen time but since he was my favorite character I was okay with it. That’s probably why I didn’t like Jung at all, if he was the lead he should of had more screen time so that the audience can give him a chance.

Baek In Ha was a truly complex and messed up character but once again I found her interesting. In my opinion, The Baek siblings stole the show from their very first scene. With dramas I never ask for perfect characters who never do anything wrong. I just want properly fleshed out characters. We had 16 hours to flesh out Seol and Jung’s relationship but it was not that believable to me. Again, this solely lies in the messy plot.

As for the controversial ending: I liked it. I won’t spoil it but I was okay with what happened because sometimes an open ending is better. It would of felt rushed if they tried to give every character their fairytale ending.

Anyways, Cheese in the Trap was just an okay drama for me. The only thing it had going for me is the side characters (such as Seol’s friends/family + the Baek siblings), the acting, and the emphasis on showing what a college life is actually like. This might be the first drama in awhile where I actively was rooting against the leads to not get together so...do with that what you will.

Leia Mais

I’m not a fan of the show, but the actors were great

I dropped this show twice before I just powered through it on my third try so I could feel like my review is legitimate.

At least half of these actors are flat out sociopaths: they feel basically nothing for anybody outside of themselves and (sometimes) those they care about. The mental gymnastics to turn themselves into victims are astounding.

As far as the male lead is concerned: I’ve always been a big sucker for the stoic/angry male lead falls for the hardworking female but this guy has absolutely no redemption arc, he just stays shady. I feel bad for the FL over and over that she doesn’t get out of his web, she seems like she should be smart enough to.

The only redeeming points for this show are Hong Seol’s best friends because they are amazing, and the fact that many of the really bad people *eventually* do get them comeuppance in very satisfying ways.

Leia Mais

It's a trap!!!

Cheese in the trap.
Don’t fall for it, it’s not just lactose-free cheese, it’s actually a bad, vegan imitation. (Please, excuse the wordplay but it definitely boils down my disdain).

How is it possible that so many deeply problematic people are gathered in one drama, is beyond me. Like, not your average behavioural issues or mistakes - to even help the plot move forward and create suspense - we’re talking about eerily disturbed people.

Warning: If you are a first-time Kdrama watcher, skip it and watch something else instead. Otherwise, give it a shot only if you’ve reached your limit and have nothing else to watch.

The questionable morals, principles and good/bad deeds will be very much intertwined throughout. It is a weird drama, that you will keep watching in hopes that all this will lead to some type of catharsis or deeper meaning or….somewhere, at least for the protagonists.

Certainly, it is a drama where second ML syndrome is unavoidable.. Seo Kang Joon is praise worthy for his acting skills, apart from the fact that he is extremely good-looking and a very likeable character, who has his flaws but surely, he is not disturbing.

Other than that, over the top acting from some actors or just plain boring from others. Was it the acting itself, the fact that the characters were so unlikable or the scenario/direction combo?
Bottom line, no-one really shines.

Leia Mais

Could have been better!

I don’t know what happened with this drama? Why are there more scenes with the SKJ (2nd male lead) as compared with PHJ (male lead)? The first few episodes were intriguing that’s why I got hooked on it. However as the drama progresses, I’ve noticed that the story focuses more on Seo Kang-joon (Baek In-ho) rather than on Park Hae-jin (Yoo Jung). With the male lead’s fewer scenes, it was no surprise that audience had difficulty recognizing his character and its development. It would have been better if more scenes were given to the leads. The few romantic scenes between them were not enough to build a solid chemistry. I’ve read some BTS drama regarding CITT. I think this behind-the-scenes drama affected the quality of the show.

This would have been a good drama if the characters were established properly. There should’ve been more scenes that showed the development of male lead character as well as the romantic scenes between the leads. Good ending for the support cast but not for the leads. I was disappointed with the ending. It’s ambiguous and it felt rushed. It just showed the past romantic scenes of the leads as fillers. A simple interaction between them will suffice to give audience a decent ending.

Acting was good. I find Jang Bo-ra and Kwon Eun-taek’s romance cute as well as their friendship with Hong Seol. Character devt for male lead is poor. Too much focus on the 2nd male lead. Few romantic scenes between the leads. Music is alright. Will not rewatch this.

Leia Mais

This was a binge watch for me. It only took two days and went by really fast. None of the episodes felt slow because I believe they were all genuine in design to keep the viewer guessing. HOWEVER the biggest problem for me was the indecision of where they wanted the story to go.

The characters really brought this story to ahead. If that was a good or bad thing, I don't know at this time. They all had flaws. There was no perfect character, in fact none of them were close to being perfect and I think that was by far the biggest challenge the writer had to make because you have all these characters with separate goals and motivations and it's hard to gel them into one coherent message or theme.

At the base, you have college students that are trying to get by and shape who and what they want to be. But then there are characters that have emotional baggage they've been carrying and haven't really expressed to others and if you combine that with all the external elements like family and love then things tend to get blurred.

Was the message that everyone should understand each other? That everyone shouldn't keep things bottled up inside so not to hurt others or that everyone should express themselves freely even if knowing it would turn out bad. There was really no answer and it was severely needed to give some sort of closure to the story given how absurdly abrupt it ended.

Overall, it needed a clear message and a clearer answer and because it didn't. You get mixed reviews and confusion and even anger because an audience watched for 16 hours and never got a pay off.

Leia Mais

the most frustrating drama i’ve ever seen

when i first started this drama i had high hopes but as i continued watching i couldn’t help but resent and hate some of the characters .

jeong gives off a sort of vibe that you like in the beginning and then it slowly fades into a vibe that you can’t stand because and i swear i can’t put this nicely even if i could , a crazy psycho . but not the kind of psycho that makes a scene . his moves are calculated and he knows which buttons to push in order to manipulate people and situations so that he can have his way . he puts people in dangerous situations and then claims he does it because he cares about them and what frustrates me the most is that seol ends up believing that more so after he tells her his story .

he didn’t understand what he did was wrong and he wasn’t willing to understand at all . he claims people always blame others yet he does the same .

another character that absolutely pisses me off is in ho’s sister . she does whatever the hell she wants and shows zero willingness to grow up . i mean yeah she had it tough but how can she have such disregard towards her younger brother who has to do every single thing for her even when she stabs him in the back multiple times . the yelling , the manipulation , the gut tripping just makes her insufferable .

in all my years after having referred to my drama list for something to watch i have never not once agreed with a review but the ones under this drama are spot on . i don’t know if this whole thing is a spoiler or not but i just said what i felt and saw while watching .

Leia Mais

Beyond my expectations ~

Beyond my expectations ~ my own opinion that may or may not others agrees with ....
I like dramas that goes not like what I thought it'll be~
I had nice time watching , which I didn't expect~ I'm glad it was one from the type of drama that kept me day and night watching hehehe till last ep ^^
Kind of typical kromance but so well presented , the acting the osts and the filming I liked all
And so puzzled by how low the rating ? It deserves more at least at least over 8 but why ?? It deserves more ...
I liked the way how she questioned the feelings and the acts by him , and how he do revenges that woah loved it
And ofc I fell for the main although I like the sec but the main ( heart eyes emoji ) XD

Leia Mais