Fight My Way and Suspicious Partner K-drama Reviews

I started out last drama cycle with sooooooooo many shows on my list, but at the end of the day, I really only managed to finish two—Fight My Way and Suspicious Partner. Both had moments I really, really loved. Both also disappointed me in some ways. So let's review both shows and see how they fared!

Fight My Way Review

Fight My Way started off on the slow side, but wow, did it steal my heart somewhere in the middle. I'm a huge sucker for friends-turned-lovers stories and slice-of-life dramas, so this ended up being an extremely pleasant, at times laugh-out-loud funny watch filled with well-rounded, lived-in characters who felt like real people.

I loved Kim Ji Won's Choi Ae Ra from the get-go—she was brash and stubborn while still being vulnerable and human. It took me a little longer to figure out Park Seo Joon's Go Dong Man, but I ended up falling for him totally and completely by the end. 

I don't know that I've ever seen a K-drama male lead quite like him. I mentioned this in the comments on my initial thoughts on the show, but in some ways he seems more like a K-drama female lead (in the vein of Weightlifting Fairy's Kim Bok Joo, for example) than a male lead. K-dramas are peppered with female leads who rely on brawn over brains and are a little dimwitted and naive when it comes to love, but have genuinely good hearts. That, to me, is Dong Man to a t. I kept being completely shocked every time he just blurted out whatever was on his mind, and I found it both refreshing and incredibly attractive (okay, Park Seo Joon doesn't hurt the attractiveness) how open he was willing to be throughout the entirety of the series. 

WHO CAN SAY NO TO THIS FACE?

Whenever you get interesting characters, there's always the fear that they'll stop being interesting halfway through the show, but these two never really lost their uniqueness. 

I guess I have to mention the second leads.

Yeah, they existed. I guess while watching I was sorta invested in the character growth there as well, but today is a hot summer day and trying to analyze this part of the show makes me so sleeeeeeeepy and bored that I just..can't...muster...energy...to...care....

Things that made me roll my eyes and/or sigh in annoyance

• The whole mom plot. WE DIDN'T NEED IT. For a slice-of-life show, it would have been perfectly fine to leave her as the quirky, badass landlady. Instead, we ended up wasting time cramming unnatural resolution to that whole story into the finale when we could have been resolving Ae Ra's whole problem with Dong Man's fighting instead.
• The "brother." Yup, I'm using two bullet points on the mom plot. I did not care about this guy and his mommy issues. Again, whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy are you wasting time that could be spent resolving more important plot points? *Pouts and throws things*

Also, too much Chicago Typewriter definitely made me think he was going to cause a lot more trouble than he did.

• Hye Ran. Another unnecessary character whose resolution seemed shoehorned in. Surprise! She's human after all even though absolutely nothing in the first half of the series seemed to indicate that she was anything other than a cardboard cutout.
• Dong Man's fighting. This. THIS. This is the thing I wish they had spent more time addressing instead of any of those other things. Soooooooo he might be permanently injured. Except then he's not. And Ae Ra makes us have a weird time skip of them apart because she haaaaaaates his fighting. Except then they're getting married. Because that's what happens when your mom suddenly shows up out of nowhere and makes us spend time resolving issues with her and your jealous adoptive brother.
• Choi Woo Shik's character. I loved how this extended cameo initially represented a completely realistic depiction of "nice guy syndrome," where he tries to manipulate Ae Ra into dating him just because he's "nice." The resolution to his storyline kinda cheapened the realism, though it did force a confession out of Ae Ra and allow me to realize just how much I enjoy Choi Woo Shik in all the things, so that's probably a win overall.

Is Fight My Way worth watching?

That would be a hearty yes from me. If you have any kind of emotions, even the minor side characters will grow on you—and if you have no emotions, at least you can enjoy lots of Park Seo Joon shirtless and bickering with a hilarious Kim Sung Oh.

Where to watch Fight My Way:

Viki

Suspicious Partner (Love in Trouble) Review

Suspicious Partner. A show that did so much right, and yet somehow I ended up forcing myself to finish it by the end.

All the good stuff

Ji Chang Wook and Nam Ji Hyun are a match made in K-drama heaven. They're both excellent comedic and dramatic actors, and sparks flew every time straightlaced Ji Wook interacted with the hot mess that was Bong Hee. Their romance was fun and filled with fantastic chemistry from episode 1.

As we know from recent experience, a cute central couple alone isn't enough to keep a show afloat, and fortunately, this series filled its cast with talented actors playing fun supporting roles. Eun Hyuk and Chief Bang were two notable standouts, though it took a few episodes for me to shake Choi Tae Joon murderer vibes after his previous role on Missing 9. (So, SO glad he wasn't the murderer in this, or I probably wouldn't have been able to watch him in anything ever again.)

Even the murderer plot kept me engaged thanks to a winning turn from Dong Ha, though I do have to admit the whole "handsome, charismatic killer" thing wasn't quite as captivating the second time around from this writer after I Remember You.

Where it lost me

Towards the end of this drama, I was texting very whiny complaints to a drama-watching friend of mine, and she said she thought I was being overly hard on this show. That may be true, but I tend to get extra irritated when a show I really love wastes potential at the halfway mark. 

I'm the Tyra in this scenario...and in all scenarios.

If Suspicious Partner had been 16 episodes instead of 20 (or I guess 32 instead of 40 with the split-episode format), it might have become one of my all-time favorites. Instead, somewhere around episode 12, it started to lose direction, and I couldn't help but feel that every passing episode and nobly idiotic decision the characters made (seriously, how many times did we need to do the "Ji Wook hides the truth to save Bong Hee, but Bong Hee finds out anyway and wants to break up" cycle?) was more a function of needing to fill time than doing things the plot required.

Just think: at 16 episodes, we could have skipped the whole my-dad-maybe-killed-your-dad-so-we-must-not-be-together-because-reasons thing altogether, and I maybe would have saved myself some eyestrain from rolling my eyes so hard so much. 

Basically my face for the entire duration of the daddy fire plot.

Dear Drama Writers, 

I really, really don't need every single character to be weirdly connected to every single other character on every single show. Sometimes people just meet and fall in love without their long-lost cousins possibly being related and/or maybe murdering each other in the past.

Sincerely, 

Vivi, A serial K-drama watcher who can't keep her eye rolling under control

Is Suspicious Partner worth watching?

If you're okay with abusing your fast forward button for the last third, then yes. Even the plot slowdown couldn't diminish my absolute adoration for the Ji Chang Wook/Nam Ji Hyun pairing, and this show is still an excellent way to tide drama lovers over while Ji Chang Wook heads off to military service.

I can forgive a lot for failed Ji Chang Wook aegyo.

Where to watch Suspicious Partner

DramaFever

Viki

New K-drama Alert: Suspicious Partner (aka Love in Trouble) Review

Update: Full Suspicious Partner review

Ji. Chang. Wook. Need I say more? Ever since Healer stole my heart, I've been waiting for him to star in another solid romance. (Sorry, but Yoona dancing with a packet of ramen kinda killed The K2 for me.)

And here he is—in a romcom penned by the writer behind the oh-so-enjoyable I Remember You, no less. Of course that means I was going to pick up Suspicious Partner (aka Love in Trouble) the moment it aired.

What it's about: I...am not even really sure since so much was crammed into the first batch of episodes. So there's this woman, Eun Bong Hee (Nam Ji Hyun), and she's studying to be a lawyer. She keeps having run-ins with upright prosecutor Noh Ji Wook (Ji Chang Wook). And then she gets framed for murder. And there's what appears to be a serial killer on the loose? Oh! And there are some side characters who I'm pretty sure are important to the backstory, like Ji Eun Hyuk (Choi Tae Joon), who is either going to be a charming little puppy or turn out to be the serial killer, or possibly both.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Episodes watched: 4*

*The networks are testing out a new format where they break each episode in half with a commercial break in between, so what looks like four episodes is really only two.

First impressions: 

I missed you too, Wookie.

For months now, all I've really wanted is a good crack drama—one that's not so dumb or sexist or terribly written that it makes you fast forward everything, but also a fast-paced watch that keeps you coming back for more without making all your brain cells hurt.

Suspicious Partner might just be that drama. As we've established, I'm a diehard Ji Chang Wook fan, and this role is already playing to his strengths. The entire charm of Healer was that it let him be a little charming, a little badass, a little emotional, and a little goofy all at once. Suspicious Partner appears to have a similar setup, and I'm getting Healer flashbacks (in the best possible way) when I see him doing those slight facial movements that convey so much emotion. Here's an actor I can fangirl for shamelessly because I don't feel at all in doubt about his talent.

Then you have Eun Bong Hee, who I'm already loving from the get-go. I only recently caught up on the joy that was Shopping King Louie, but I really enjoyed Nam Ji Hyun's  role there, though that was my only experience watching her. Within the first couple of episodes in Suspicious Partner, I'm even more impressed—loose cannon Bong Hee is the perfect foil for the straightlaced Ji Wook, and Nam Ji Hyun has shown impeccable comedic timing and ability to throw her whole body into a scene for comedic effect.

Even better, though, is how well the two work together. That scene in the hotel had me laughing out loud, and I'm all in to see how sparks fly every time they interact.

*Fans self* Dead. I'm dead.

But what's all this about a serial killer? 

I know what you're thinking. If you're anything like me, you have Strong Woman Do Bong Soon murder dungeon trauma, and you don't want any stupid killers throwing off the tone and ruining the romantic fun.

Well, I guess this is one of those cases where we'll have to trust the writer. I Remember You managed to blend an interesting thriller with likable characters and a sweet romance far, far (and I mean far) better than Strong Woman did. So far, that aspect of the plot doesn't really worry me because it seems to be following in I Remember You's capable footsteps. Even within Suspicious Partner's premiere week, the tone felt much more consistent and the killer felt far less peripheral to the story than in Strong Woman. 

I feel like every time I set myself up to love a show and announce that love publicly, my heart gets smashed to smithereens. And yet, here I am, giving Suspicious Partner the benefit of the doubt and hoping that at least Ji Chang Wook won't let me down.

Where to watch Suspicious Partner/Love in Trouble

DramaFever

Viki