When watching dramas we all know we are going to get our dose of tropes. Not that western shows don’t have them, because they do (specially in police shows: when escaping from a car people will run in front of it, instead of going on the sidewalks, or they would escape upstairs, because everybody knows that when you reach the rooftop there’s a way out…). Anyway, tropes are always there and we are willing to see how they develop or roll our eyes as we sigh because we’ve seen this a thousand times. There are big tropes (childhood connection, childhood trauma, fated love, first love, amnesia, contract relationship, noble idiocy, cohabitation, police/prosecution/politcs corruption, evil CEO, cold ML, candy FL, unrequited love…), and minor ones we all think a drama isn’t a drama without (piggyback ride, shoulder nap, first kiss, mum packing food, leads passing by each other without realizing the other, foot shoots).
This year we had all of them. Some shows dealt with them better than others, sure, but two shows that lead with them the best way possible were Kairos and Mystic Pop Up Bar. In both of them we have lots of tropes, but they are not just plot devices, a big Macguffin placed there to make an advance that otherwise we wouldn’t have. In both the shows writer-nim uses what he/she has in his/her advantage and makes a perfect movement, making the trope part of the story and not the other way round. Like when we know all the way in MPUB who the Prince really is but the show keeps doesn’t fool us or throw red herrings to us, but just show us all the details and the options like saying: think what you want but you’ve always had all the information and it’s up to you only. Or in Kairos how we meet the cold aggressive ML and the good hearted and a bit naive FL who little by little and by their interactions and the tragedies that shake them realize there’s another way, you can trust others and that will make you stronger.
And also a special mention to The Good Detective in which one of the leads, Oh JiHyeok (wonderfully acted by Jang Seung Jo) had a childhood trauma. Throughout the show you kind of expect him to suddenly remember the face of the man who assaulted and killed his father. He witnessed it, but could never recognize his face, even if every body told him it was that man. JiHyeok barely can live with the burden of not remembering the face of his father’s murderer (the insomnia, the obsession over his cousin, the abandoned child syndrome). It was an evident trope we were all hoping was related to the case, but it wasn’t: it just explained his personality, how close he felt to EunHye, and how he could help her, but nothing was miraculously solved and he was healed by a sudden revelation, but by helping EunHye he helps himself and can start healing.
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Eazal
December 24, 2020 at 3:51 AM
#2020RoundUp.
When watching dramas we all know we are going to get our dose of tropes. Not that western shows don’t have them, because they do (specially in police shows: when escaping from a car people will run in front of it, instead of going on the sidewalks, or they would escape upstairs, because everybody knows that when you reach the rooftop there’s a way out…). Anyway, tropes are always there and we are willing to see how they develop or roll our eyes as we sigh because we’ve seen this a thousand times. There are big tropes (childhood connection, childhood trauma, fated love, first love, amnesia, contract relationship, noble idiocy, cohabitation, police/prosecution/politcs corruption, evil CEO, cold ML, candy FL, unrequited love…), and minor ones we all think a drama isn’t a drama without (piggyback ride, shoulder nap, first kiss, mum packing food, leads passing by each other without realizing the other, foot shoots).
This year we had all of them. Some shows dealt with them better than others, sure, but two shows that lead with them the best way possible were Kairos and Mystic Pop Up Bar. In both of them we have lots of tropes, but they are not just plot devices, a big Macguffin placed there to make an advance that otherwise we wouldn’t have. In both the shows writer-nim uses what he/she has in his/her advantage and makes a perfect movement, making the trope part of the story and not the other way round. Like when we know all the way in MPUB who the Prince really is but the show keeps doesn’t fool us or throw red herrings to us, but just show us all the details and the options like saying: think what you want but you’ve always had all the information and it’s up to you only. Or in Kairos how we meet the cold aggressive ML and the good hearted and a bit naive FL who little by little and by their interactions and the tragedies that shake them realize there’s another way, you can trust others and that will make you stronger.
And also a special mention to The Good Detective in which one of the leads, Oh JiHyeok (wonderfully acted by Jang Seung Jo) had a childhood trauma. Throughout the show you kind of expect him to suddenly remember the face of the man who assaulted and killed his father. He witnessed it, but could never recognize his face, even if every body told him it was that man. JiHyeok barely can live with the burden of not remembering the face of his father’s murderer (the insomnia, the obsession over his cousin, the abandoned child syndrome). It was an evident trope we were all hoping was related to the case, but it wasn’t: it just explained his personality, how close he felt to EunHye, and how he could help her, but nothing was miraculously solved and he was healed by a sudden revelation, but by helping EunHye he helps himself and can start healing.