

That is a kind of instances when my goodwill simply isn’t sufficient, my associates 😅 – I’m tapping out of this one, 5 episodes into Present’s whole of 10.
Initially, I’d had each intention of ending this present, if solely out of curiosity, however.. it didn’t find yourself working that means, as they typically say, in kdrama. 😁
Nonetheless, I’ll do my greatest to put out the professionals and cons that I personally discovered, whereas watching, and hopefully that may assist you determine which camp you belong to, as a result of, for probably the most half, people appear to both love this one, or hate it. 😁


MY INTEREST
I assumed it will make sense for me to a minimum of share why I used to be on this present within the first place.
Primarily, it’s as a result of the unique story comes from Kang Full, and he’s demonstrated a aptitude for telling tales, significantly with Shifting (overview right here!) which I cherished.
For the document, I cherished Gentle Store (overview right here!) much less, however I nonetheless discovered it a really worthwhile watch, in the long run.
I even have some affection for each Jin Younger and Roh Jeong Eui, and I appreciated the concept of them headlining this drama collectively.
I didn’t discover myself tremendous drawn to the premise itself, however I used to be intrigued sufficient, to wish to discover out extra.
DOWNSIDES
I’m going to begin by speaking in regards to the downsides, as a result of these stood out to me fairly strongly, proper from episode 1.
1. Present feels heavy


The primary one being, that Present feels fairly heavy, total.
Tonally, it’s very melancholic, which I discovered fairly heavy-going, within the watch expertise.
Some folks love that melancholy, however I personally didn’t care a lot for it, and subsequently, watching the episodes admittedly felt like a little bit of a drag, for me. 😅
2. I discovered it arduous to attach with Mi Jeong


Our feminine lead Mi Jeong (Roh Jeong Eui) could be very withdrawn, and I discovered it arduous to attach together with her, as a personality.
Moreover, this may simply be a me factor, however I discovered Roh Jeong Eui’s supply of Mi Jeong fairly flat?
I’m sorry in the event you’re a Roh Jeong Eui fan! I’m not making an attempt to hate on her; I like her too. 😅 I simply would have appreciated to see extra nuance and dimension in Mi Jeong, and it’s completely doable that there’s a few of that within the episodes that I didn’t watch, however primarily based on what I did see, she felt fairly flat and two-dimensional as a personality, and I didn’t really feel drawn to her.
As a result of I discovered her unappealing, I additionally discovered it arduous to know why so many male characters had been drawn to Mi Jeong, however Trent identified to me over on Patreon, {that a} fairly face can matter rather a lot, to the typical younger male, so I’ll take that. 😉
3. I discovered it arduous to know Dong Jin


I discovered it arduous to know Dong Jin’s (Park Jin Younger) attachment / fixation with Mi Jeong, and his very robust want to assist her break her curse.
[MINOR FOUNDATIONAL SPOILERS]
Dong Jin’s by no means spoken to Mi Jeong, and subsequently doesn’t know her personally in any respect, and but, we even get a scene the place he’s teary-eyed at wanting to interrupt her curse.
After which he dedicates himself so wholly, to proving that she’s not a witch, that he would select to main in statistics, for the trigger.
Not solely that, it appears like Dong Jin dedicates virtually his total life, to this mission that he’s given himself – for somebody whom he doesn’t really know.
It’s not unattainable, I suppose, however I discovered it to be a stretch, and one which continued to niggle at me, throughout my watch. 😅
And I do assume that my disconnect with Dong Jin contributed an excellent chunk, to my wrestle to get pleasure from and admire this present.
[END SPOILERS]
4. I struggled with the curse itself


This isn’t a spoiler because it’s in Present’s premise and synopsis, however I did discover the curse itself to be fairly darkish, coz folks – particularly boys who like Mi Jeong – preserve dying.
I assume I’m not superb with darkish themes like this, eh? 😅
[SPOILER ALERT]
5. How we lose Mi Jeong’s dad


In episode 2, Mi Jeong loses her dad (Ahn Nae Sang), and I didn’t like the way in which this was dealt with in any respect.
I get that the entire thought is to isolate Mi Jeong as a personality, however the way in which it was accomplished, was simply means too melodramatic, with Dad sucking the poison out of Mi Jeong’s snake chew, after which refusing to let her name for assist as a result of it will improve the fingerpointing that Mi Jeong would undergo – after which he dies. 🤦🏻♀️
I didn’t like this plot level a lot, that I ended up ranting about it fairly vehemently over on Patreon, in my fast impressions voice word. 😅
All the pieces about this plot level, significantly the way in which it was written, made me really feel much less excited by following the story, to be sincere.
[END SPOILER]
UPSIDES


Sure, there have been upsides that stored me watching for so long as I did, however I’ve to be sincere; the upsides had been rather a lot fewer than the downsides, for me. 😅
For one factor, I discovered that I appreciated episode 2 greater than episode 1, as a result of we get to see issues from Mi Jeong’s perspective, and that helped to flesh out her character in my thoughts, a minimum of somewhat bit.
I additionally thought it was fairly a contemporary strategy, to have episodes 1 & 2 deal with the identical occasions, however from completely different views.
I appreciated this concept, of enjoying with factors of view, and context.
[SOME SPOILERS]
When it comes to particular plot factors, I actually did genuinely benefit from the arc in episode 3, the place Dong Jin ingratiates himself with a withdrawn Joong Hyuk (Lim Jae Hyeok), and them ultimately turning into associates.
Additionally in episode 3, I appreciated the concept of Dong Jin’s mother (Jang Hye Jin) getting some much-needed consolation from Dong Jin’s biased statistics paper about Mi Jeong not being a witch, earlier than her demise.
[END SPOILERS]
SAYING GOODBYE


Like I discussed at first of this put up, I’d had each intention of ending this present, if solely to see how Present would conclude Dong Jin’s mission.
Nonetheless, two issues occurred, which led me to my resolution to drop this present.
1, It took me an excellent a number of hours to complete watching episode 5.
I’d discovered it boring, and stored wandering off to distract myself with one thing. It felt genuinely arduous, to get to the tip of the one-hour episode. 😅
2, Present ended its run, and I occurred to spoil myself for the ending – particularly, how Present concluded Dong Jin’s mission – and I discovered the entire thought sort of lame, to be brutally sincere.
[SPOILER ALERT]
Mainly, the curse doesn’t apply, so long as Mi Jeong likes the opposite individual again, and we get a cheerful ending the place Dong Jin confesses his emotions for her, and she or he reciprocates. 🤨
[END SPOILER]
Uh. I assume it’s a kind of issues the place you simply needed to be there, coz it’s all within the execution?
For me, although, each the end result and the watch expertise had been simply not compelling sufficient for me to maintain on urgent on – particularly because it had taken me literal hours to look at episode 5. 😅
And that, my associates, is how and why I made a decision to drop this present.
The truth that I really feel such an awesome – significantly nice – sense of aid, as I’m typing this put up, tells me that this was the appropriate resolution for me.
I assume I didn’t have as a lot good-intention willpower saved away as I’d thought. 🙈😅


PATREON!
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