Jo Jung Seok Makes Delightful Merman Cameo in Episode 7 of Legend of the Blue Sea with Ratings at 17.4%

Chalk it up to the best cameo so far in the cameo heavy Park Ji Eun penned Legend of the Blue Sea. So far there’s been Krystal, Kim Sung Ryung, Ahn Jae Jong, Hong Jin Kyung, Park Jin Joo, and Cha Tae Hyun, all within the first 6 episodes, but episode 7 brought the previous SBS Wed-Thurs drama Incarnation of Jealousy‘s comedic male lead Jo Jung Seok to match Jeon Ji Hyun tic-for-tic as a fellow fish out of water in Seoul.

It was a coup casting with a fabulous premise to finally make Jeon Ji Hyun‘s Shim Chung seem less alone in her weirdness and give her someone who can relate. It also created the perfect foil to make Lee Min Ho‘s Joon Jae jealous which I love to see. Episode 7 dropped a dash in ratings from 18.9% to 17.4%, making it feel like a hard push to get this drama to vault past 20% ratings, but the good news is that the competition Oh My Geum Bi and Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo remain mired in low single digits. 

saswe


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Jo Jung Seok Makes Delightful Merman Cameo in Episode 7 of Legend of the Blue Sea with Ratings at 17.4% — 64 Comments

  1. Because of Goblin, Blue Sea now feel like plain water compare to fine cocktail. There are nice part here and there but a fairly tail story is nothing compare to the thrill and exciment of what to come in goblin

  2. Oh my gosh, LOTBS is such a delightful watch. I love Jo Jung Seok’s cameo in this episode. The scene where both mermaids crying tears to turn them into pearls really gave me a good laugh. And jealous LMH is so adorable. There may be not much yet in term of plot movement but the comedic moments are just so endearing and I am all onboard for this journey till the end.

  3. Compared to the ratings of a mere drama like RDTK who continues to break records i can say that’s a kind of failure after all the fussing ! 2 of the biggest stars in dramaland, popular writer, cameos , filming in Spain and not real competitors …No need to compare with Goblin !!! They should have stayed in korea and work in Doldam Hospital! Lee Min Ho would be great as a doctor and JJH as the chief nurse.

    • RDTK is meh. So many medical scenes error plus shouting all the time. Too overacted and makjang. The show may have high ratings but not that popular. It’s more like weekdays drama in KBS where most of them has high ratings but less talk here and there.

      • If we are going to talk about popularity @Marrie what you say about RDTK is true. But Lobs is not that popular if you compare with Moon Lovers wich even with bad ratings get a great fanbase. But ratings matters and Lobs is not the success they were waiting for!

      • I don’t get all this popularity talks and Blue See dissing. While Moon Lovers was a flop in S. Korea and fans still raved about its international popularity, Blue See has been doing great domestically, albeit not a runway success compared with other hit dramas, AND has been topping non Chinese international online stream sites with way more views than other K dramas currently on air. BTW, isn’t Marrie a doctor (?) and knows what she’s talking about?

      • Just one example. Blood is one of the ‘agent’ that can transferred the diseases. So, looking at the scene like in every episodes they have blood spreads here and there and come and go with the un-washed faces just to make dramatic effect is really inaccurate. And there are many other medical scenes such as during surgery, CPR, etc which difficult to explain to someone not familiar in this field otherwise it will take like an essay. And the attitude of hospital with the doctors are weird. In the middle of surgery or in front of patients are debating or argue/ yelling/ shouting. There are many ways to make it more appropriate though.

        My favorite drama for this year I think are pretty qualified, Reply 1988 and Goblin and Six Flying Dragon.

  4. I haven’t watched this episode yet, but i really love Jo Jung Seok’s appearance/attire in the pictures with the pink Jeon Ji Hyun. It’s like Hwa Shin makes a crossover to another kdrama! 🙂 The feels…

  5. Ratings of Oh my geumbi & Weightlifting fairy remaining in single digits is a good news for you? Why can’t you just talk about LOTBS here? There are also fans of those 2 dramas..I m watching both LOTBS and OMG..OMG is not bad
    .It may not have romance much but it’s not bad at all and LOTBS though the concept is good, I m not getting the sparling chemistry between JJH and LMH which I could feel in stars drama between JJH and KSH..But I m enjoying the cinematography and under water scenes and ofc my favorite JJH..I don’t know but is it only me who gets Jun pyo vibes of him?! He has made lot of efforts like loosing weight and looking so good and I complement him for that but surely acting I won’t say he changed his style..
    Koala will not pinpoint much or say anything if it’s her favorite actor but if it’s someone who is not her favorite,she takes every single chance to put them down..

    • @dramalover Trust me Lee min ho is not koala’s favorite so you don’t need to drag his acting down because you feel she is playing favorite,all the dramas are doing good ratings or not,why are some of us so obsessed with ratings anyway.
      Lotbs my not be what some of you uexpected but can we all stop with the competition and comparisons and just enjoy the dramas we like.

      • I know she is not the type who likes every drama LMH does.. I remember how she dint like Heirs..LMH’s acting style is my personal opinion and I dint put him down.. Honestly his acting style at many places remembered me his Jun pyo ish styles.. But if I can’t watch him I would have stopped by now..So but that I mean, I am entertained..I have always watched whatever dramas LMH starred in..undoubtedly a big star but still has long to way to become versatile..And koala undoubtedly likes LMH though she might have hated heirs and also she likes JJh.. So I meant, just because she liked LMH and JJH she shouldn’t write it’s good news that other dramas get single digit rating.. I never compared ratings..It’s she who did so and that’s why I had to comment..

    • Honestly , i like LMH but from what i’ve seen i think he should take more challenging roles . As for JJH i don’t know what she saw in this role . A good actress like her should choose roles like Gong hyo Jin for exemple..JMO

      • I think it’s because she is very comfortable with the writer who penned her hit drama YFAS. Much like how Lee Jong Seok pretty much agreed to do any drama written by Park Hye Ryun, even without knowing the setup. I agree that the roles not challenging for both actors except the physical challenge in playing a mermaid by JJH. That commitment of hers is really respectable. But for entertainment sake, LOTBS is a fun watch but ofc, not everyone cup of tea.

  6. Ratings of Oh my Geumbi and Kim Bok Ju is good news for you??? How?? Mbc and KBS put two wonderful shows with solid cast and story knowing full well they can’t compete with combined star power of the two Hallayu superpowers.Yet they’ve secured solid followers who come back for each episode. That was a not cool to drag the two shows and show off LOTBS a hit compared to them here Koala.

    • That’s just how ratings work in Korea. Low ratings for the other 2 shows in the same timeslot means greater chance for the 3rd show (in this case LOTBS) to achieve even higher ratings and break 20%, which means “good news” for the 3rd show.

      Koala is not dragging the 2 shows, she didn’t say anything negative about them. You need to read her whole sentence to get what she meant i.e. “hard push to get this drama to vault past 20%, but the good news is….”.

      Anyway, I think we have all commented in the past on how ratings in Korea may not reflect the quality of a drama, or the love or otherwise of any drama by the international audience.

    • Yeah… Words came out wrong, but was still taken aback from her comment. Not cool to be happy about the misfortunes about others since I am sure all staff and cast for any production is working hard. But it’s her blog and Koala is free to write what she wants. I was just disappointed by her choice of words.

      That being said… I love both LMH and JJH but unfortunately I think the storyline will go down as a waste of their talent. The writing is just not up to par to their acting abilities. Also, with star power like this, I think it is actually strange to have so many cameos as I kind of feel they are doing it to boost ratings, especially when there are so many of them. I feel like the writer is trying to compensate for lackluster writing with all these cameos.

  7. Ratings obsessed fans who are clearly waiting for this drama to fail are just a tad bit sad to me. This drama is gold. The comedy was definitely amazing. I love how its not too heavy lord knows life is hard enough without watching dramas with a dark plot. Fave episode ever!!! JJS and JJH chemistry made me wish, hope and pray for a collab.
    I couldnt see it in other episodes but in this one LMH’s acting really stood out. The historical scene where he is carrying her back to the ocean and telling her the story of the modern Era really touched me. I especially liked that he wasnt overdramtic like most are in Korean dramas but he was still able to project his pain. Another moment was when she was telling him about that she said “I love you” to another man and he was jealous. He wasnt still but was comfortably adorably jealous. He didnt come across as a jerk or a wounded puppy while acting out his jealousy. He was just comfortable which I appreciated. Its too bad I cant look forward to another work of his for another two years.

    • I’ve seen all of LMH’s dramas, and I actually think his best role was as Choi Young. For some reason, I think he does well in this genre.

      • Yeah, I like LMH in Faith a lot. The story’s really great, too. And the way he portrayed the General, superb! The show’s quite underrated I must say. 🙁

    • This! i feel like since it is lmh and jjh some people just want it to fail terribly from comparing it to dots,mlfts and now goblin.
      I bet some of this people are not even watching or dropped it at earlier episodes but still so obsessed with the ratings and all.
      Lee min ho acting is great here and that josaen era scene in today’s episode made me see how much he has grown as an actor.

  8. Come on, why can’t we just enjoy the drama without pitching it against one another? I also noticed lately of how this blog continue to highlight on LOTBS ratings every single week which is pretty unusual. Sure, we expected a lot because there’s the star writer, the star actors but the drama is pretty good for its own merit. Not great but good. If we want to talk about ratings, there was “Doctors” which is not qualitatively good and yet still warm so many hearts to manage to break 20%+ ratings. Narrative-wise, yes, there isn’t much progress but it continues to charm its way to those who enjoy the light-hearted genre against Goblin which is way darker.

    • LOTBS’s ratings are of interest at the moment because the ratings are very close to the 20% mark, and people are waiting for it to break this mark.

  9. I plan on watching this drama when it completes its run, and I honestly wish it the best. I have a soft spot for both the leads….he was my gateway to dramas and she’s the only reason I stuck with MLFAS. However, I think Weightlifting is delightful. It is obvious that the other two stations as @Gem noted above provided two other genres (like scheduling a chick flick against the Super Bowl)without any intent of fighting this drama head on. That’s fine. I think in the day when its hard for dramas to see double digits, the station should be quite happy with LOTBS with one caveat….how much did they pay the stars and the writer? I know ad revenue is based on ratings so if they anticipated higher ratings, perhaps that’s an issue.

    I think Koala a while back posted about the powers that be starting the bidding of this drama per episode at $500,000 in China….anyone know how much they ponied up? I never heard anymore about it.

  10. Seriously tho, how the heck is it “good news” that the two other really good dramas are doing bad? Like dafuq?? I get that you like LOBS, and so do I, but either you intended something completely different or you’re just one of those ridiculous fan girls who wants everything to fail just so their fav can prove to be a hit.

    • it is very funny though because just few days ago koala was dragging Lotbs so hard but when the fans of the drama told her to be fair a lot of people here felt it was her opinion that she should continue and now I see comments saying she is a fan of this drama or lmh which is far from the case check the tags she has been hard on this drama and even this recent post says it all.

      • This is a click bait article so this writing and tone itself doesn’t surprise me but I do find it very annoying when people compare apple to oranges and claim one to be superior or inferior over the other. One show with Hallayu sweethearts versus two show with very different story line and not so popular, well known faces are being compared to declare the relative success for failure here. The ratings aren’t surprising here since no matter how well the other two shows are then networks planned accordingly to not let the slot kill them entirely. In that respect KBS, MBC are winners. They have their own little audience that is sticking with the show and sometimes even attracting new ones, its a plus that critically they are hits too with very devoted international audience. As for LOTBS, its not groundbreaking but a legitimate hit considering the numbers. Everybody expected it to have the DOTS level of success but it didn’t happen, why I don’t know considering the success of DOTS baffles me given the content never appealed to me on a personal level. We can all be at peace here I guess.

  11. I am just enjoying this drama… i like JJS’s cameo, it was nice. I don’t think this is some masterpiece drama but not many dramas are. I’m glad I can look forward to two episodes a week on it. His jealousy is adorable – and way better than his other characters.

  12. Lol I recalled one of Koala’s articles talking about the criticisms of LOTBS and so many commenters said she’s just a hater of the drama, now you guys are saying she is biased towards the drama.. make your mind up people.
    but yea Koalas I have to agree its not very cool to ride on the low ratings of the other 2 dramas just to boost LOTBS up to be some mega hit. As an avid OMGB watcher myself, I would in fact consider OMGB and WFKBJ to be successful in their own rights amidst low ratings since they have already secured themselves solid fanbases and dedicated viewers who stick to their dramas despite the competition. I’m proud even to say that OMGB despite close to zero promotions have plenty of fans locally and internationally all rooting for Geumbi.

  13. you guys are being weird here….you guys complain when she diss LOTBS and you guys complain when she actually praise the drama. while its wrong for her to compare LOTBS with other drama, but that is solely her opinion just like what i do and just like what guys doing here in her blog.

  14. There seems so much debates when come to LOTBS.
    I also noticed how this blog kept posting LOTBS ratings after each episode which is unusual. And then, there’s always the ratings war.
    LOTBS is not great but it is good for its own merit. We just have to accept that it is a simple drama, meant to be light-hearted, with a simple twist by throwing in the fantasy element yet not making it fresh with the usual folkfore tale of mermaid. Sure, there is not much progression in term of the narration but it does have the sustaining power thru the charismatic acting by both leads and those comedic moments which are truly charming. I really enjoy this drama, along with Weightlifting Fairy.

  15. Dont be sensitive.I think koala didnt drag lotbs.
    Actually Its too early too judge who is the best
    but as far as i know pje better than kes,yes kes is popular but popular isnt mean great
    of course imo

  16. must be a choice of wrong words of “good news” Ms Koala, don’t sound like you writing this article, too tired?, too focused on putting out articles about ratings to stimulate 80+ comments?… I totally enjoy Weightlifting Fairy and it is my fav drama in this time slot. I don’t really care about Korean ratings. Legend is fine, but Weightlifting Fairy is better imho!

  17. I think everyone got koala misunderstood

    Koala, I’m sure you have a soft spot for lee min ho.
    She recapped HEIRS, goodness, just that alone is on par with recapping Hyde Jekyll Me for the love of hyun bin

    Ok maybe not, recaping m HJE must have been worse hahahaha

    I digress but I’m enjoying LOTBS. Comedy is under-rated these days.
    And of course for lee min ho sparkly eyes – ipppo

    • Koala created her blog to give her opinion . and she allways says “feel free to have your own opinion” . To me she’s not a narrow minded person. Thanks to her posts i learn everyday a little of English.

  18. i think what koala means good news for the low ratings of the other dramas considering the buzz,star power of the leads in LOTBS IT will be a slap on the face if the other two will get a double digit ratings and yet LOBTS did not yet break the 20% mark.

  19. I stopped watching Oh My Geum Bi ever since the little girl went to the doctor and begged him not to tell her father about her illness… And to my complete surprise, the doctor agreed. I know dramas are not supposed to be realistic but I just can’t stand blatant stupidity.

    • Its true, that part was plain stupid. She is a minor, the doctor would be sued for malpractice for not letting anybody know in her case. I have a feeling he did tell the father and asked him to pretend like he didn’t. I have to see more to confirm the theory though.

  20. Lee min ho stepped up major this episode. You expect him too at some point to turn on the magic and what a timing to start!
    At halfway ep 8, pleased to say the drama is getting better and better and I just love it!

  21. I saw the number of comments and then I clicked…must be something going on here. LOL..Ppl are still debating about ratings. For me, those are just numbers irrelevant to how I enjoyed, am enjoying, or will enjoy a drama. Why do ppl care about ratings? B/c somehow your pride is tagged along by those numbers to show off your taste in drama is superior to others? LOL..I won’t think little of you b/c you’re a fan of unpopular dramas or have higher regard for fans of hit dramas. It’s all about personal preference. Isn’t it weird for apple lovers to devalue oranges for higher market price and sale volumes, saying the fruit is not as good as apple to keep doctors away? Buhahahahahahahahahahahaha..

  22. I’ve just finished episode 7 of LOTBS. The drama is actually getting better and I can finally feel the plot.
    (I still wonder what went on in Park Ji Eun’s head while writing the first episodes… It’s a good thing that I like the cast, because otherwise I would have dropped it just because of those all-over-the-place episodes.)

  23. I love weightlifting fairy moreee.. It’s easy to understand, and fresh. Humanist… Blue sea isnt bad. But i just couldnt laugh out like i watched other kill me heal me or even fairy.

    JJH’s acting is sooo ‘familiar’. No offense. Shes one great actress in S.Korea but then… But of course, she’s better than some other popular or rating queens who played the same character for many years… No mention. ;p

  24. I don’t usually like over-hyped dramas especially ones with Lee Min Ho in it but I’m absolutely in love with this one! I love the epilogues and Jo Jung Seok’s cameo was an absolute scream. The slappity kind where you would be unlucky to sit next to me when I’m laughing. I went to the department store yesterday looking for bedsheets similar to his… Fangirl problems. >_<

    Weightlifting Fairy has its charms and the actress simply exceeded my expectations and I would definitely try to watch this after its full run. As for Geum Bi, I happened to watch half an episode yesterday and I was a puddle of tears. That child actress is so precious!

    I'm just saying that all the shows now are pretty good and I wish ppl won't fight over which drama is better in the comments or pull down someone's ship. I'm also enjoying Goblin equally which just takes my breath away. 2016 is a smashing year for K-dramas overall!

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