Cable Drama Strong Woman Do Bong Soon Maintains High Ratings to the Happy Ending

This drama seriously flew by faster than any in recent memory for me, from start to finish it seemed to be on 2x clip much like the female lead had extra strength. Cable network jTBC‘s hit drama Strong Woman Do Bong Soon finished this weekend with an impressive 8.96% ratings which averages out to 7.6% ratings for the entirety of its run. It’s officially the highest rated drama in jTBC history and also the one that generated the most buzz for the network that always played second cable fiddle to tvN, which has seen its Fri-Sat night ratings plunge down to human level with Tomorrow With You and now Chicago Typewriter from the astronomical ratings of Goblin. The success of Do Bong Soon also continues pint sized actress wunderkind Park Bo Young’s ratings streak after she won hearts and viewers with Oh My Ghostess in the middle of 2015. Congrats to the entire cast on a job well done and for providing an entertaining two month’s worth of OTP cuteness with Park Bo Young and Park Hyung Sik.

In the end I liked but did not love Do Bong Soon, narrartively the writing skewed over the line of too much in terms of the evil danger and the goofy side characters. But the central romance was lovely and sweet and there wasn’t any annoying third wheel to disrupt the flow. But the story lacked depth and richness so in the end I didn’t truly connect with the main characters beyond finding their interactions wonderfully awwww-inducing.


Comments

Cable Drama Strong Woman Do Bong Soon Maintains High Ratings to the Happy Ending — 16 Comments

  1. I agree too. I like this drama, it was funny and cute. But it was all. Even the scenes between the OTP had too much cuteness for me at the end. I like their little fights at the beginning. I don’t think it’s a drama I will want to watch again in the futur or wich I will keep a imperishable memory.

      • No, honestly the drama was cute, adorable , funny… a little fantasy to forget the world where we are living. And it’s not a good one. Tunnel is very good, a new couple is born ! The plot is very simple but i’am emotionally involved . Chicago typewritter : interesting plot but I can’t connect emotionally with the characters .

  2. The leads had wonderful chemistry and the OST was great, but the plot was a hot mess. A pity, since the drama could have benefited from stronger plot and characterisation to deliver a really solid message.

  3. I love the OTP and discovered for me Park Hyung Sik. But unless the OTP were together on-screen, everything else was destined to be fast forwarded. Especially in the last weeks I wished, that they would concentrate on the main story. Still I enjoyed it very much and Bong-Bong and Min-Min are now among my favorite couples.

  4. I’ve stalled around episode 10. I do plan on finishing but if the leads aren’t on the screen, I’m skipping the scene. Happy for the staff on the ratings success, but this drama was saved by the lead actors. It’s a shame because there was a lot of potential.

  5. I enjoyed the OTP scenes when they got together but before I was pretty meh about this drama. The ending was cute but I can already foresee that superhero problem where she’ll have problems balancing family and love life with all the rescue stuff. But according to the drama, all she has to do is act cute and call her husband Min Min and it’s not a problem!
    All in all it’s a cute drama as long as you don’t pick it apart.

  6. enjoyable pass time drama, there is a lot of things they could have done better and missed opportunities. otp were cute and carried this drama however i felt an over reliance on them and it would have been good to balance them out with a stronger story but maybe the writer/director saw how good they were and only focused on them at the expense of other story elements. i digress, i thought hyunshik and bo young did a wonderful job and had good chemistry, however the love story/romance was too sugary/fluff/sweet for me but that’s just my personal preference.

    shout out to jang mi kwan who plays the kidnapper. he did really good job, who would have thought this was his first acting role and his a model too. i was impressed even more so in the last ep during his interrogation and in his jail cell, some good acting there, however i do wish we got insight to his character, i know his background from reading it online which gives his jail reaction more context and what he says to gook du, it all goes back to his abusive mother. i wanna see the actor again in future dramas/movies hopefully, he has a lot of potential and his a good looking guy.

  7. This drama was so bad. Writing… directing.. and the characters were awful and their dialogues were flat and boring too. I can’t remember a single thing of that drama, even when I eagerly picked it up every week with the hope that this time the story will get better and more interesting.
    The beginning was so promising. What happened to that promising start? Even if I think Park Bo Young is a good actress and her filmography is interesting, SWDBS must be her weakest work to date and Do Bong Soon has least substance out of all the characters she has played and her acting is the most uninspiring. I almost fell asleep in her scenes. Ji Soo isn’t a bad actor per se, but his character was so terribly boring that I couldn’t help myself from dozing out in his scenes. Not even his brooding and charming looks could save In Guk Doo. Park Hyung Sik is the clear winner as Ahn Min Hyuk was the most interesting character out of ALL of them. Even then, I thought that AMH isn’t as great of a male lead as the writer and so many fans were trying to convince me.
    Park Bo Young and Park Hyung Sik had a good chemistry, however, despite their good chemistry, all I can think is that this drama was a waste of time with its incoherent story and too many unnecessary character and stories. I can think of many dramas with much better chemistry than this ludicrous mess. I think this drama was vastly overhyped and overrated, especially by the international k-drama fandom. Just like the other cotton candy drama Weightlifting fairy Kim Bok Joo, with it’s casting and terribly mediocre and un-revolutionary story line (like come on, how can the male lead call a model-like girl’s obviously beautiful eyes ugly..?).

  8. This is a strange experience and I need to share my feelings. I had this Park Hyung Sik allergy since What’s With My Family. But I heard good things about him so I thought there was no harm in trying again. I’ve changed my feelings about actors before, so why not? Initially I enjoyed him in SWDBS and called myself silly for my previous attitude. THEN my allergy returns. I can’t bring myself to watch the last episode. Normally I have thought process I can enunciate outward, but this time I come up with blanks. I’m baffled with myself. Again, this isn’t a criticism on the acting, since my reaction is instinctual. Is this normal? Anyone knows what I’m talking about?

  9. A lot of extra slapstick that filled in to buy time (or give those cast more screen time?). Originally that cracked me up unexpectedly but then it became a bit predictable and just too much. I wish there were more screen time given to to the romance between the OTP. Nonetheless, Strong Woman is still the most enjoyable K drama for me for the past few months, and perhaps in 2017. Speaking of the sweetest romantic drama of modern time, none can beat C drama Love O2O. I rewatched the drama more than twice and even found myself in the minority. LOL… A lot of drama fans have watched more than 4 to 5 times. In the past, I only watched K dramas. But since I was surprised by Nirvana in Fire, I have been paying more attention to C drama too. I do feel getting a bit tired of Kdrama’s repetitive cliche. Strong Woman is a bit more refreshing in terms of its theme. After Strong Woman is wrapped up, now I can’t find anything interesting. The Liar and His Lover is adorable. But what else to watch?

  10. I enjoyed this drama but I agree that the show loses its steam somewhere after episode 10. The saving grace are the actors in particular Park Hyung Sik. No other drama airing today that has the same addictive factor and I am probably of the few who enjoyed the slapstick jokes, though most of the time, the jokes worked because of the wonderful job by the actors. As much as I love PHS in here, I really hope he will pick a sageuk for his next project. I adore him as Ahn Min Hyuk since there is no other character like AMH yet in K-dramaland but he is on another level when he played the faceless king in Hwarang. So, I settled that this guy is born to do sageuk, and hopefully a really good sageuk to justify his talent.

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