The inexplicable and bizarre lack of romantic chemistry between the leads in Tale of Gumiho is really dragging down the energy of the drama, but conversely it makes the other parts work harder to keep this thing afloat. Episode 8 is the midway point and got ratings back up to 5.137% and still delivered the good and the dull in equal measures. This drama is really rewarding Kim Bum‘s younger angry brother Lee Rang with the meatiest role and the ideal comeback for him from the military. His lack of motherly love, his brotherly abandonment, his bleeding heart craving love but burnt to crisp, it’s all so palpable. Then we have the lovebirds and their lame love and the “he killed me even though I have the imoogi evil spirit inside me” angst that doesn’t hit with any emotional resonance because the leads have no chemistry. I could watch Rang all day, the vet and his abused fox crush, and all that Korean cultural mythology getting a fresh coat of paint for the remainder of its run because otherwise it’s really dumb as rocks around here.
Sorry if this is a dumb question but I’m curious about the rise and fall of ratings…
Let’s say a hypothetical drama delivers a solid Episode 3 with 5.5 ratings. Then it drops to 4.5 for a weak Episode 4.
Does this mean that some viewers stopped watching halfway through the weak EP4 which is why the ratings dropped? Or that some viewers just didn’t enjoy the previous EP3 so they didn’t bother to watch EP4 hence the drop?
You need to look at numbers and percentage……if overall less people are tuning in, it could also mean that in total less number of viewers tuned in for overall tv. Also, this is tv, there are streaming platforms, you can easily watch at any time you wish. It just means you were doing/watching something else at that moment.
I just squealed that they got Lee Tae Ri to play Imoogi. There were solid horror elements this episode. I greatly appreciated that. Little Ji Ah, the actress is great. They need to keep the horror elements alive. I watch this show for that. Romance part is okay but not the draw. Their strength was the weekly cases, I don’t know why they abandoned that format so fast.