A sincere congrats to KBS Mon-Tues legal drama Witch’s Court, which wrapped up this Tuesday with the highest ratings yet for the show at 14.3% AGB nationwide. This was one drama that flew under the hype radar prior to its premiere but ended up the final victor in the end when it counts. Once I cleanse myself off the excess legal dramas or dramas with a strong legal/criminal element then Witch’s Court will definitely be one I want to marathon, especially since leads Yoon Hyun Min and Jung Ryeo Won feel fresh for me in that I haven’t watched them onscreen in quite some time. Up next for KBS in this time slot is office drama Jugglers with Baek Jin Hee and Daniel Choi as his first post military role. Right now Jugglers has anemic competition with both SBS and MBC’s new dramas failing on arrival – the Tuesday episodes of Two Cops dropped to 3.3% and 3.6% on the groundswell of poor acting feedback of leading lady Hyeri, while Doubtful Victory also fell but fared a bit better in comparison at 4.5% and 4.9%.
The OTP of Witch’s Court and all its supporting cast won me over! Congrats to the team!!!
Jung Ryeo Won is so damn good in her role here, glad I watched this one. Deserves to be no.1 in rating for its time slot, way better than Temperature of Love and 20th Century Boy & Girl.
Gosh, Hyeri’s acting is dragging the drama down. Alas, I was so hyped over this new drama untilI found out Hyeri is the female lead. Basically JJS is acting in dual roles, what’s not to love. But I don’t know if my love for JJS can overcome my disdain of Hyeri…..decisions, decisions, decisions. lol
All the hit dramas this year have been unexpected.
Yes, and for some reason it makes me happy. People who are trying to get viewers with only popular names should stop and give the roles to the actors who can suit them the best. i Watch a making of the cult movie “Back to the futur” and at first they choose E Stoltz to play M McFly, but after 5 weeks the director wasn’t satisfied by the result and he choose to delete all and gave the role to J Fox. Not because E Stoltz wasn’t a goos actor but just because his acting style was not what he was looking for. What i’m trying to say is that Pd’s should make Wise décisions. ratings show that people want characters well potrayed . That’s the case in Witch’s court, Tunnel,my golden life to name a few ones.
Even Hitchcock , one of my favourites directors used to say that casting the actors for his movies was the most important thing. It doesn’t mean that Grace Kelly or Cary Grant were the best actors but their acting style was what he was looking for his characters.
@cahill, I agree. But it seems producers care more about popularity. This is a proof that people care more about good stories and good acting. Of course there will always be dramas like DOTS with simplistic story, but that’s what blockbusters are, more about looks than art
It makes me really happy too – all these dramas casting shitty idol actors and Hallyu stars in an effort to chase popularity, only to underwhelm in ratings or have the audience pay them dust.
And meanwhile unexpected dramas with no pre-buzz or dramas with actresses who were relegated to supporting roles till last year, are doing well and getting positive receptions (raise a toast to Shin Hye Sun here). It makes me hope kdrama producers will learn their lesson, casting shitty actors actively costs you money.
The question is that… Is Hyeri even that popular? Apart from AM1988, all her dramas failed and her acting been consistently panned. My opinion is stop casting idols, models or so-called pretty faces that just can’t act. It’s a disgrace for great actors to be paired up with them. Lee Jun Ki, Ji Sung and now Jo Jung Suk suffering the double duty job.
@OMG – from what I’ve seen, Korean celebs get to milk their successes for about a decade and remain relevant that way even if their subsequent works flop. And Reply is a pretty big success to have.
I actually think the other Girls Day member, Minah, is a decent actress and certainly a lot better than Hyeri but it’s Hyeri who is more popular so gets to keep landing lead roles.
Way to stop casting of idols who cannot act is if credible actors refuse to sign in or if producer writes them out of the storyline for poor performance to make a statement… It does not look good on JJS resume if his drama gets below 4% rating… the whole team suffers because of one bad apple ?
This year’s hits have been mainly domestic, so it’s hard for international viewers to predict.
Yeah….look at My Golden Life, who thought it’d break close to 40% and funny thing is they wanted UEE for it and Shin Hye Sun had to persistently beg to get the role that she is currently doing full justice. Secret Forest, Buamdong Revenge Club, Women of Dignity, Tunnel, Rebel The Thief who stole People, Live Up To Your Name….they all had fantastic cast.
I think I’m convinced that Reply was just a one off. Hyeri continues to be less than average in this drama too. Like Jisung in her previous drama JJS is acting circles around her. Sigh…. Dropping it.
The only reason why Hyeri was good in reply is cause she was acting as herself. Even the writer said he wrote and based the character on her. its such a shame.
The only Reply female lead who’s actually a decent actress or shows some improvement from her Reply days is Jung Eunji.
This is why I don’t believe the ‘improvement’ of idol actors is anything but temporary when it’s done in dramas where the scriptwriter is writing the role to suit their acting.
I mean, how much adjusting can you do around consistently bad/mediocre acting? At some point they need to take responsibility for their own skills too instead of blaming the writer/PD/costar/weather every damn time.
I still didn’t watch Two Cops but I really liked Doubtful Victory. The story is very interesting between the past and the present. And I like the both actors.
I always love JJS. his drama is a must for me. But when i read who his female lead in two cops i just have to skip this one coz i know i can’t stand a bad acting skill on my screen.
Hyeri’s acting is hilarious. She has this ‘camera is facing me so I have to make some facial expressions’ look. If South Korean dramas are continuing to use this type of idols to act then they can wave goodbye to Hallyu wave.
hallyu isn’t only abt kdramas, so many hallyu idol groups doing concert everywhere.
It includes dramas.
i know it include dramas, if kdramas are on the slumped, idol groups are still doing great, so the end of korean wave is far fr. over.
Idols only attract a certain age group. Not everyone are into idols singing and dancing. It’s best to broaden the entertainment variety to increase Hallyu wave.
I’m dropping Two Cops as well. The body swap thing has been done to death and Hyeri’s acting is not convincing. In my defense, I did give this drama a fair shot, but after falling asleep twice while trying to watch episode 3. I realized, that this is not worth stressing over.
On the other hand I really like Doubtful Victory. Although neither of the leads are “A” list, their acting is good, the plot is interesting and fresh, and I like the directing too. I hope the ratings for this drama picks up. Yoon Kyun Sang does seem a bit out of shape to star in an action drama. I thought it was just his prison clothes, but he looks like that in every day clothes, too.
i am loving doubtful victory and i also thougt the same about yoon kuyng sang. but i guess it cant be helped i read an interview of his saying he gains weight easily and its difficult to lose it. since he is also in three meals a day where he has to eat a lot i guess it must be difficult fo him to get in shape
Very happy for everyone involved and especially JRW, I’ve loved her since History of A Salaryman and she’s such a cool person in real life too. I’ve not been in the mood for legal or crime related dramas for awhile either but will definitely be watching this in the future. Like others have said this should be another signal to Korean TV networks but I honestly don’t think these idol casting will stop.
I’ve suspected for awhile that these powerful kpop idol factories, I mean agencies have some sort of deal with Korean TV networks. There have been quite a number of flop dramas starring idols yet these imbalanced, nonsensical castings continue.
To be fair, is Hyeri any worse than Suzy? Just another riding on the idol-actress bandwagon…
hmmm… to me, the answer is yes. I can usually tolerate her wooden acting because I just pretend she is not there and I watch other actors to follow the storyline. I watched most of Suzy’s dramas except I couldn’t finish WYWS not because of Suzy but because of the very poor story writing and a mediocre lead actor. I don’t have the desire to start Two Cops after watching the long trailer of Hyeri’s overacting, I like JJS way more than LJS, and this drama ratings show… To be fair, has Suzy ever had a drama with below 4% rating? I am not a fan, but just for comparison… I think Suzy fairs a bit better than Hyeri to be honest and objective… imho… 🙂
I think they are probably around equal – both are bad at acting but can be tolerable in certain kinds of roles/direction (Hyeri actually did better in Reply 1988 than Suzy in WYWS) but they can’t be relied on to carry a scene even after several years of acting.
The difference is that Hyeri gets dramas that maybe had a chance of doing average ratings with a better actress which then plunge to low single digits, while Suzy gets blue chip projects with big name writers that are expected to be big hits but either flop or do below expectations.
Love love love The otp! Love yoana jung! Have always love her but love her more in this, her character is so grey not The same old trope of character.. Cant Wait for her next project❤️I love how She potrays her longing To her mother, i cry everytime it happens?Going To miss The show but definitely not The villain in it?
No post for the final episode of This Life is Our First?