2020 Round Up
Day 18 – the one you want to rant about

Thanks to Beanies, I did not live watch DoDo (and am giving it a hard pass) nor Start Up (waiting for the dust to settle before I quietly binge it in the corner). And in reviewing my lists of 2020 dramas, I can’t find anything to really rant about per se. So below I bestow my Minor Quibble Awards:

The Rushed Ending – When the Weather is Fine / The Spies Who Loved Me
Both of these dramas were thoroughly enjoyable, richly told stories with strong casts, multi-faceted characters, interesting premises and some surprises along the way. The latter even managed to avoid the clunky episode 14 transition. But in both cases, it did feel like they got to episode 15, realized they still had way too much to tie up and therefore had to rush to do it – which did leave me a bit deflated at the end. Both are fantastic (and I highly recommend both), but a more considered, slower-paced ending with proper time spent would have tied off my devotion even more tightly – and I am only giving them these minor dings because I loved them so much and making them even better would have just been a cherry on top.

The Lost Plot – Tale of the Nine-Tailed / Search / Private Lives
All three of these had a unique and compelling premise, which subsequently and to varying degrees ended up being a house of cards. In one instance (TONT), it kind of didn’t matter – the swashbuckling charisma of Lee Dong-wook and Kim Bum provided enough smoke-and-mirror fun to keep me happily in my seat to the end (debatable ending aside). For the other two, unfortunately they just ran out of steam way too early on. I enjoyed Search more or less the whole way through by completely suspending my disbelief at the end, and Private Lives by making friends with FF. But had all been a bit more streamlined (and stuck to their own rules), that would have been a hell of a bigger punch. Also, Private Lives gets the sub-category award for Biggest Hot Mess.

The Angst Overload – Do You Like Brahms?
With the caveat that 2020 added an extra layer of Heavy Boots to any drama this year, DYLB broke me with the exhaustion of the OTP’s suffering. It was melo that felt like it bordered on masochism at the end, though this was a rare one that spent solid time and thoughtfully spun out an ending that made sense, worked, and let us viewers cross the finish line with the main characters in triumph.

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    Oh my. I saw “rushed ending” for Spies and quickly scrolled through. I’m done with 15 only!

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      But it’s only a minor quibble!! And in both cases, it’s only because I loved both shows and just wanted to wallow more in my joy of them, haha. (PS cannot wait to hear what you think!)

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    “Heavy Boots”, ain’t that the truth? Great expression for 2020.

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    I was about to ask you to tell me if Psies3 ended well because I don’t think I can catch up before next Thursday. Should I worry?

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      No, don’t worry. The ending does make sense and I generally liked it. They actually did some things quite well and better than I expected, especially when it comes to the evolution of the characters following a pretty intense story. My very minor quibble with it was just that I wish (in general) that dramas did a better job of slowly stepping on the brakes vs slamming on them. It was a solid ending – I just would have liked more time with our characters after the main caper was over, I guess? I hope that makes sense and I definitely do not mean to put anyone off it! And I’m also really looking forward to discussing with you and others watching it – there have been so many takes and POVs on it, which I really enjoy.

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        I totally get what you’re trying to say. In fact I checked after ep 14 if the show was 20 eps long because it seemed like it still needed some more time to settle everything. Maybe not 20 but 18 episodes were needed so that everything does not happen at the speed of light and there is some more breathing space for character development.

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          Yes, exactly. I also checked to see if it was longer than 16 for the same reason.

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    I ranted about the ending of I’LL FIND YOU ON A BEAUTIFUL DAY extensively already so I’m not going to post about it again lol. I liked the drama and have fond memories of it, but I should have paid attention to the signs the finale was headed in a direction I didn’t like.

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      I remember someone posted (was it you?) something on the recaps about how the book ends, and that really helped me come to better terms with it – but it also made me wish they’d hewed more closely to the book in that case. Regardless, I still really enjoyed the drama (and I just generally skip over parts of the last 2 eps I don’t like when I do my re-watch).

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        It wasn’t me, but I’m glad to know there was a better ending out there!

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    The more I think about the last minutes of TOTNT, the more I am sure they only wanted a last scene to shock the audience.
    I have decided it never existed.

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      I think a lot of us just decided to write that off, honestly. And since you don’t really need it…it was easy to dismiss thankfully.

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