Overripe Banana

I like office romances. It's only natural to fall for someone you see at every day! The New Employee is every office romance cliché imaginable and it works for the most part. The sneaking around, the shared resentment towards other coworkers and office politics, the rare brightness of connection amidst mundanity of paperwork taps into something potent for a viewer that you can't help but smile. I think the office romance genre exists to boost morale and I may never even wind up working in a 9-5 but that fairytale has its own charm. It's certainly better than A Boss and a Babe but it's no Cherry Magic or Old Fashioned Cupcake. The chemistry of the leads is present but hindered by how chaste it is, thoroughly lacking in drive or passion. Their big third act resolution grand gesture of love is not a ring or even a kiss, it's a business venture. This has a seed of values I despise but it's fleshed in cute things. It's an overripe banana, too sweet and even appealing on some days but oh honey you definitely know it's gone bad.

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Flawed but tender

Beyond Evil is a stunning slow boil thriller that ekes out tension of every possibility until what remains is endless ache. I still don't like the awful ableism of the show, which the show insists upon even in the last episode. And I definitely do not like cops, but the show doesn't like them either. Proceed with caution. Shin Hakyun and Yeo Jingoo have excellent chemistry and gave great performances that made me dive into their filmographies. Score is unusually warm and jazzy for a mystery show (and god I hate that BIBI song, it's extremely grating) but works well since the show is actually a melodrama more in line with something like Magnolia (1999) (a film Shin Hakyun loves, or at the very least likes as far as public knowledge goes). Formally excellent but falters in its imagination occasionally. I have brainrot for Juwon and Dongsik for days. More please?

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