I think the knock on Park Shin Hye having a very marginal and excessively teary character in tvN fantasy AR drama Memories of Alhambra isn’t the entire picture. Eight episodes in and its clear this dram is not only Hyun Bin‘s male lead Jin Woo centric but it has an skewed male gaze where all the male supporting leads have their own personalities and ties with the central narrative while the few ladies are horrible ex-wives of Jin Woo or plot devices like game master Se Joo’s family. There’s rival-turned-AR zombie Hyun Seok, loyal secretary Jung Hoon who is now also Jin Woo’s in game alliance partner, playing favorites Professor Cha, company director Sun Ho caught between believing in AR game gone amok and runnina company, and game mastermind and still missing teenager Se Joo. This drama feels like it’s written for a gaming fan to nerd over with even a nod to making the female lead into an actual NPC that can be dressed in different outfits. Even though I’m loving Memories for Jin Woo’s emotional and physical torment it’s a knock on the screenwriter who is a woman for not writing better female characters. This drama does not pass the Bechtel test for sure.
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