TheMaskedWarrior
Can a pretty (and good) boy make (your) korean dream come true?
The drama set in Sandbox, a swing-safeguard for budding start-ups begins with Seo Dal Mi, one of the several dreamy aspirants, breaker of many pretty boys' hearts (more on this later), attending a start-up relay lecture, meets Han Ji Pyung (AKA 'Good Boy') and Won In Jae (her icy poles apart sister, starring as Elsa in her company's promotional videos, brownie points for comedy).
The story goes back and forth from present to 15 years back, giving a nice backstory for our good boy, an orphan, winning a competition, left no one to congratulate him, strikes an unusual friendship with Dal Mi's grandma. Meanwhile growing up in a turbulent family, Seo Dal Mi, follows her broke but ahead-of-his-times dad whereas her sister follows her mother who marries a rich businessman. To assuage Dal Mi, her grandma and Good Boy team up to write love letters under the name of Nam Do San, the male lead and unfortunate victim of many fangirls' hatred. Nam Do San, an undeniable child prodigy, but lacking dream, social skills, a dimwit but good knitter, runs a pitiful Image Recognition start-up with his friends. Everything goes fine, until Seo Dal Mi meets Nam Do San or until Seo Dal Mi meets Won In Jae at the lecture! (Giving an urge to prove herself)
Now, the main characters, Heartbreaker, and Elsa, with their motives being to achieve the (korean) dream of succeeding in life whereas the Good Boy, and Dim wit, want to win their first love, Heartbreaker's heart. Pretty simple story, right? No! Nothing is simple. For more than half of drama, heartbreaker remains in dark about who is her first love (also the reason why she keeps breaking many boys' hearts) and everyone else, especially good boy and dim wit protect her heart from breaking with lies and trickery (obivously!). This goes on and on till the spectacular risky explosion at episode 10 coupled with predictable twists in mainstory ( which is about start-ups finding investors, reminding you in case, you got lost in love triangle) gives a typical kdrama of unreasonable break-ups, unreasonable heartbreaks, and a time jump, (nice trick to avoid showing gradual character growth, they would have probably messed it up too anyway) which brings us to impending question: Will the Tarzan (their new project) reach the smart city? ( No points for guessing, it's a kdrama.)
What was Good? (and Bad?)
Comedy was superb in the initial episodes, especially the videos, the goofiness of the Samsan gang, the food hoarding etc. Romance was not over the top but you can't deny that it didn't get hot. I had to fan myself for the rooftop scene. The aesthetics and set production of this drama was exceptionally good with no compromises.
The pretty and good boy, a lifesaver, a metaphorical sandbox for the dimwits & co, the enlightened shepherd for the brainless sheep gets a pretty decent closure without getting completely tainted as an evil person. The Dimwit, too has some decent backstory, but often gets shadowed by the sunshine of good boy. (Gone are the days of rich, successful, and sharp-tongued guys getting the lady, time is for geeks!) This character did haphazardly attempt at breaking the conventional mold of kdrama male leads. Heartbreaker: she was street-smart, sassy, bright, lively, the go-gether of the entire drama, she does however unluckily falls victim to the kdrama tropes- "Oh I care about you, so let's break-up!"
Other characters- Elsa and her mother, turn a new leaf without inflicting any malice; her grandma, steals the show with her spot-on character judgements and corndogs; SamSan gang, although sometimes dumb, had solid friendship and goofiness; Dimwit's parents, lovely and comical couple, could have give more story. Many more characters- Sa ha, SH VC's Ceo, amicable guest appearance by Kim Joo Heon as father could have gone wrong but didn't.
The Technology, Image recognition, is shown very realistically and toned down for the audience, giving its applications. The workings of start-up and business is also given practical glimpse, with a dash of drama. Especially, the selection process of sandbox was innovative and interesting.
Acting, Music and Rewatch Value
All the leads have upped their game including Suzy. Nam Joo Hyuk aces the geeky role perfectly. Kim Seon Ho, god blessed his parents, steals our hearts with dimples and reality pills of dialogue. Red Velvet's Future is an earworm, Gaho's running is memorable and BOL4's Love letter is peppy. Of course ya, As for rewatch, All Good Boy scenes are must.
Final Note, Predictable and typical love triangle kdrama (which as always tries to do too many things) with refreshingly unconventional characters and interesting setting of start-ups, image recognition but got sidetracked with fanwars.
The story goes back and forth from present to 15 years back, giving a nice backstory for our good boy, an orphan, winning a competition, left no one to congratulate him, strikes an unusual friendship with Dal Mi's grandma. Meanwhile growing up in a turbulent family, Seo Dal Mi, follows her broke but ahead-of-his-times dad whereas her sister follows her mother who marries a rich businessman. To assuage Dal Mi, her grandma and Good Boy team up to write love letters under the name of Nam Do San, the male lead and unfortunate victim of many fangirls' hatred. Nam Do San, an undeniable child prodigy, but lacking dream, social skills, a dimwit but good knitter, runs a pitiful Image Recognition start-up with his friends. Everything goes fine, until Seo Dal Mi meets Nam Do San or until Seo Dal Mi meets Won In Jae at the lecture! (Giving an urge to prove herself)
Now, the main characters, Heartbreaker, and Elsa, with their motives being to achieve the (korean) dream of succeeding in life whereas the Good Boy, and Dim wit, want to win their first love, Heartbreaker's heart. Pretty simple story, right? No! Nothing is simple. For more than half of drama, heartbreaker remains in dark about who is her first love (also the reason why she keeps breaking many boys' hearts) and everyone else, especially good boy and dim wit protect her heart from breaking with lies and trickery (obivously!). This goes on and on till the spectacular risky explosion at episode 10 coupled with predictable twists in mainstory ( which is about start-ups finding investors, reminding you in case, you got lost in love triangle) gives a typical kdrama of unreasonable break-ups, unreasonable heartbreaks, and a time jump, (nice trick to avoid showing gradual character growth, they would have probably messed it up too anyway) which brings us to impending question: Will the Tarzan (their new project) reach the smart city? ( No points for guessing, it's a kdrama.)
What was Good? (and Bad?)
Comedy was superb in the initial episodes, especially the videos, the goofiness of the Samsan gang, the food hoarding etc. Romance was not over the top but you can't deny that it didn't get hot. I had to fan myself for the rooftop scene. The aesthetics and set production of this drama was exceptionally good with no compromises.
The pretty and good boy, a lifesaver, a metaphorical sandbox for the dimwits & co, the enlightened shepherd for the brainless sheep gets a pretty decent closure without getting completely tainted as an evil person. The Dimwit, too has some decent backstory, but often gets shadowed by the sunshine of good boy. (Gone are the days of rich, successful, and sharp-tongued guys getting the lady, time is for geeks!) This character did haphazardly attempt at breaking the conventional mold of kdrama male leads. Heartbreaker: she was street-smart, sassy, bright, lively, the go-gether of the entire drama, she does however unluckily falls victim to the kdrama tropes- "Oh I care about you, so let's break-up!"
Other characters- Elsa and her mother, turn a new leaf without inflicting any malice; her grandma, steals the show with her spot-on character judgements and corndogs; SamSan gang, although sometimes dumb, had solid friendship and goofiness; Dimwit's parents, lovely and comical couple, could have give more story. Many more characters- Sa ha, SH VC's Ceo, amicable guest appearance by Kim Joo Heon as father could have gone wrong but didn't.
The Technology, Image recognition, is shown very realistically and toned down for the audience, giving its applications. The workings of start-up and business is also given practical glimpse, with a dash of drama. Especially, the selection process of sandbox was innovative and interesting.
Acting, Music and Rewatch Value
All the leads have upped their game including Suzy. Nam Joo Hyuk aces the geeky role perfectly. Kim Seon Ho, god blessed his parents, steals our hearts with dimples and reality pills of dialogue. Red Velvet's Future is an earworm, Gaho's running is memorable and BOL4's Love letter is peppy. Of course ya, As for rewatch, All Good Boy scenes are must.
Final Note, Predictable and typical love triangle kdrama (which as always tries to do too many things) with refreshingly unconventional characters and interesting setting of start-ups, image recognition but got sidetracked with fanwars.
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