Penultimate Episodes of While You Were Sleeping Limps Towards Ending Without Breaking 10% Ratings
I’m genuinely sad even more than just disappointed that SBS drama While You Were Sleeping ended up being so forgettable. That I say it’s forgettable and it hasn’t even done airing means that I’ve already forgotten what I’ve watched because the drama isn’t sticky. Neither the characters or plot lines are sticking with me in the least, and the fantastic first episode start turned into a Groundhog Day repeat in every episode with different guest stars and different but still cookie cutter legal cases. The penultimate two episodes on Wednesday got 8.1% and 9.6% ratings, pretty crappy considering MBC‘s Hospital Ship finished two weeks ago and the network hasn’t aired the new drama I am Not a Robot yet due to the strike.
I do like Suzy’s character and performance more than her last drama Uncontrollably Fond but sadly my trajectory has been the reverse with the two dramas itself, this one I loved at the beginning to seeing the affection sapped by repetitive writing and no character growth, whereas UF I didn’t like in the beginning but the writing and character depth kept growing until the end when I was sobbing like a loon emotionally committed to the drama. I now forbid Lee Jong Seok from working with screenwriter Park Hye Ryun again, and she’s also gotta stop writing dramas with one unique fantasy element that she tries to milk the crap out of to sustain an entire series.
She brokeup with lee min ho..
Yes, just read about it. What a big surprised! I thought she and LMH will end up in marriage…such a pity!
She is so young. No rush to commit. I dont think LMH is right for her…
Good! Lee Min Ho cheated on Park Min Young and I think that affected PMY deeply. She even took a hiatus. Lee Min Hoo seems so juvenile, just look at the pictures he posts on instagram and read some of his interviews and you will see what I mean.
He is somewhat sexist too and he had no respect for his co-actress when he decided with the PD to not tell his co-actress about a kiss scene (which wasn’t on the script or something). Then he proceeded to force himself on her. That scene was praised and awarded in SBS awards while the actress just had to suck it up and accept that she was just a pawn, an object for that PD. She also had to accept the disgusting comments from i-netz about how she is dead fish and frigid when she was, in fact, borderline assaulted on that scene.
Back to the point.Lee Min Ho is not even on Suzy’s top star kind of level. International Minoz may have a hard time understanding that their oppar is not a top actor or a trend in Korea, he is just an average hallyu star who got surpassed by other hot male stars who at least have some substantial acting skills to back them up.
I can’t believe that even after the incident PSH still remains friends with him, and they have so many crazy shippers around the world. And LMH seems like a stalker trying to approach Suzy as well.
@xenon,
Rather than actual friends, I think they are just amicable with each other. I mean, imagine if she went to the media and complained about that incident, how certain fans would absolutely hate on her and how she would be painted as this ’bad attitude bitch’. Similar things have happened in Hollywood too with unfortunate outcomes. Yes, I read hoe LMH approached Suzy, how he wooed and went to her many times until she gave in. What a creep.
I am just gonna come out and say I am an lee Min Ho fan so I might be biased.
Korean Entertainment treats women like ish. I bet you LMH doesn’t even see what he did wrong which is even worst because we all know if an actress randomly kissed her out of no where there would be an outrage. I felt really bad for PSH. The whole country has some messed up values when it comes to how women are treated and perceived.
Hand grabbing the dragging the girl by force is seen as romantic when it’s actually an assault. It’s pretty revolting.
However when it comes to popularity I would argue that they are on the same level. Until recently LMH was the second most popular Korean actor after KSH and SJK interchangeably. He has a ton of female fans and his dramas have always done well ratings wise.
Suzy adored by Korea and is relatively popular in China.
I don’t think one is a bigger star than the other.
Yes! Seungho is coming back to revive the dead ratings game! INAR will break 15% easy! So not gonna miss this one!
Adios to frozen face Suzy!
I think suzy did a great job though!! her acting really improved a lot and I think she nailed the emotional scenes in wyws pretty well!! so I guess we should give her credit 😀
Well, with KBS strike still on going, I really wonder when it will air?
I think lee seung gi and cha seungwon’s hwayugi will break that 15% rating.. that 2 actors have good track records in their respective dramas. ****rating wise
They had a drama together and they didn’t break 15%. Just sayin.
Basically we won’t know which drama will do better so instead of just saying something out of our asses, lets just wait and watch.
they can’t possibly break 15% on a cable channel, unless its a national hit.
i just want the drama to surpass 5% so it’ll be a successful comeback for LSG.
@butterfly it was a boring police /crime genre drama but they still manage to have 12-13 avg ratings. seunggi’s BL,GFB,MGIAG,early episodes of TK2H broke 15+% ..CSW also.
that’s why we predict..and you havr to understand.
It’s a tvN drama. How can you expect it to break 15% unless it’s a mega hit like the Reply series and Signal?
the drama is underperformed in both rating and story.
Disappointment despite the buzz
Can we talk about her break up with Lee Min Ho? I am so sad. First Angie and Brad, Anna and Chris, Fergie and Josh. What is love?
I mean sometimes people are just not fated to be with one another :< and given their busy schedules… I think 2 years was already quite a feat. it takes a lot of effort and fate to sustain such a relationship sadly
Good for Suzy. She is still so young and she doesn’t need to be tied down to a juvenile man who isn’t even on her league
I do agree that she’s still young but I don’t believe one human being can ever be too good for another especially when we don’t know them personally
Lol Fergie and Josh??? Honestly, I know we can’t help it but its not a good idea to idolize celebrity relationships, ESPECIALLY Hollywood celebrities.
I don’t idolize anything. I am a Christian but I thought they were cute together.
Brad and Angie?That relationship was doomed from the start.I have never seen a relationship that started from adultery having a happy ending.Even when the couple get married,at some point, the rose coloured glasses fall off, and it ends up being a bitter ànd unhappy marriage.Also they had obvious personality clashes.NG
I don’t know, Julia Roberts and her husband seem very happy together for 15 years now. So do Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux. Or Natalie Portman and her dancer husband (all the men here dumped gfs/wives to be with their celebrity partner).
I don’t necessarily agree with this. Look at prince Charles.
knew it was bad idea for LJS to pick this drama. suzy just dont have the acting that draw people.LJS alone will not make the rating go up.
well with the news of suzy breakup wonder did LJS suzy fall for each other while fliming the drama.
well I certainly hope they did omg
Lee Jong Suk going to serve military soon. So no..
Well i can’t help but wonder if the break up news iss the last ditch effort to attract poeple into watching the final episode, just so to see the “chemistry” that may sparked during the production. It is certainly not the case, is it?
I might be reading too much into it.
I do enjoy WYWS though. (Im)Patiently waiting for the last episode.
you made a good point!
to be honest, LJS is pretty bad in WYWS also. His acting is the same without any improvement. Suzy draws audience not by her acting really, everyone knows she has no acting talent… in addition, her visuals is pretty weak with the short haircut. The writer should be the one to be blamed, her storyline sucks… I think the third lead JHI has already been helping to bring new audience to this drama… but overall, everything adds up to a less than desirable rating. Cannot just blame Suzy…
In my opinion, writer just need something new to explore. Suzy UF wrote by LKH who always stick to cry until your eyes out melo. Same with this writer PHR who love fantasy drama. Viewers can see pattern and feel like it already been done bf. As overrated as Kim Eun Sook, she knew to explore new genre in her drama.
First Lee Kyung Hee and now Park Hae Ryun failed to get a good performance out of Suzy despite tailoring roles down to her capability level.
I bet her agency would love to get her cast in a Kim Eun Sook drama next….too bad KES requires some basic acting ability from her lead actors and doesn’t compromise on that even if she has other flaws as a writer.
That’s true. KES’s writing might suck but she does know how to cast actor and update with the current trends and trending stars
HAHAHA I wonder where all the Suzy fans who said it will be a smashing hit are hiding now. Her acting was mediocre, or if she’s really improved is the passable acting I am to expect from an actress?
Also, where are all the Lee Ddochi fans who said this is going to be a smash hit?
Most probably they stopped coming here beacause of the hateful comments. Anyways i never understood those who said it will have high rating since no matter their popularity, except their 1st lead roles none of their dramas have had high ratings even in those times when getting 20 percent was common. now a days this much rating isnt bad at all.
I think when they said ‘hit’ they expected at least consistent double digits+ dominating the #1 position in the time slot by a few percentage points. LJS previous dramas all managed that much.
LJS fans say that about all his dramas, the truth is he doesn’t have the star power to pull in average ratings higher than 12%, as shown in his last 3-4 dramas that aired during times dramas can reach 20%+
@xyz – his last 3 dramas all aired from 2014 (two were in a year when NO weekday drama after the end of YFAS even got 15 percent, forget 20) to 2016 (when W beat UF) . They all still topped their time slots, there’s a reason why people expect his dramas to be a success.
Bad acting all over, third/second lead JHI stealing the spotlight from both of them, predictable and boring script. Of course I couldn’t foresee how bad this was going to be (I mean, attaching Lee Ddocchi and Suzy’s names were a clue because they’re both mediocre) but I ad to drop after that nonsense episode where JHI got stabbed.
Well, this drama was supposed to be a massive hit. It had all the ingredients – Top Hallyu star power actor plus Top beautiful star power idol actress plus famous script writer plus famous PD. Also, two big companies with lots of money to promote their stars. The only thing missing was in the acting department but star power and prettiness was supposed to make up for it. It’s not a total failure but it didn’t reach expectations.
Yeah that’s two strikes for Suzy now (UF was the other), three if you count that flop sageuk movie of hers.
I wish her agency would stop trying to make her happen as an actress, she’s best off sticking to modelling.
Also it’s easy to tell it’s not getting international fans excited, the soompi thread is like less than 1/3 the length of Pinocchio at the time of finale.
Numbers on Pinocchio thread was mostly generated by PSH fans. Suzy has no support on soompi. Add to that boring script and that’s the perfect example of meh drama. No one hated or loved it.
I think one of the soompi writers is a huge fangirl of either suzy or lee jong suk.Or viki paid a huge amount to air the drama.They kept writing articles upon articles like more than three articles a week and posting on soompi facebook on this drama and BTS.But the response was cold.Unlike legal/criminal genre dramas.Romance dramas usually have alot of buzz especially if the lead actors are popular and young.But this one despite all the hype and mediaplay since November last year..the response was meh and its going out with a whimper.Only Jung Hae In is the one who has benefited out of this.
@Afterbreath, I wouldn’t say Soompi Pinocchio thread was down to PSH fans only. There was LJS fans plus the start of Jongshin shippers. Actually, by the end of Pinocchio it was predominantly Jongshin shippers (or Dalpo shippers, which was what they were known as originally), that was how brilliant their chemistry was back then.
*Darling shippers
a) they had no chemistry. there is no spark between otp, she looked better with guy who played Woo Tak. I don’t care what was going on behind scene, but on the screen they both looked bored and uninterested in each other. They even talked like deeply bored by what they’re saying people. Sometimes it felt like they’re reading from clue cards.
c) both don’t look like procurator and reporter. Their looks and profession don’t match.
I have only watched the first 4 episodes of the drama, and I see how international fans feel about Suzy in this drama. How is her performance going down with knetz? Sometimes I assume idols keep getting parts regardless of talent due to either hallyu status (make $$ selling the license) or Korean audience so just curious if anyone knows….
I keep reminding myself that Suzy is young but then I see someone else her age (or younger) that is already soooo talented and it’s hard for me to accept her as a lead. UF never impacted the ratings as much as it should have and this is pleasant but will quickly be forgotten, too. I’m not blaming it on her but still—it’s kinda a warning sign
To be fair, UF’s problem wasn’t cast or chemistry between them, but too slow, too melo script. It debuted at 12% and then went down from it. And most people while first criticized Suzy, then saw that problem lies in LKH writing rather than acting. KWB/Suzy pairing managed to generate more hype in SK and China, than LJS/Suzy.
To be fair, WYYS wasn’t a complete flop. It did generate some kind of buzz overseas and did decent in ratings.
But it truly shows Suzy’s weakness as an actress, both in her skills and star power. She should humble herself and stop pairing up with top writers and popular Hallyu stars, and seriously hone her craft.
Although I don’t know if it would work, since she apparently practised really hard for her movie but it still came out bad.
She should start by stepping away from lead roles, if even Park Hae Ryun (the one writer capable of making her weaknesses as an actress less obvious) cannot get a good performance out of her then it’s time to reconsider acting.
I would have more respect for her if she was as humble and sincere towards acting as Kim Min Hee back in the days when people said KMH couldn’t act (and now she is a Berlin Film Festival award winner), instead of just signing hyped projects with big name writers+ Hallyu costars.
Considering the budget, pre-production, star power of lead actors and actress as well as writer, how can you say it’s not a flop?
If this is some a random drama with some nugu and no name writer then it’s another story.
They can even compete with the mad dog buzz with all lesser names while there were only 2 dramas in the time slot instead of 3
It couldn’t even break 10 percent for its finale after being one of the big ‘dramas to look forward to’ in 2017, and with only one competing drama in the same time slot. So much for star power.
Despite all the noisy marketing and buzz created by the production company unfortunately they didn’t get a satisfying result. Famous writer and star power actor actress can’t help at all.