This is just weird casting news, both in timing and the stars selected, but then again the drama in question is super weird too so maybe it all makes sense in its own way. Idol Jisoo of the girl group Blackpink and boy group 2PM‘s Nickhun are revealed to have a special role in Arthdal Chronicles, which has also wrapped filming so their scenes are done as well. Nickhun is a laughably awful actor in all his previous attempts while this is Jisoo’s first acting role so neither gets me excited with this casting news. Arthdal has been doing only okay in ratings, staying in the 6% plus range for the first 3 episodes and episode 4 finally upticked noticeably to 7.7%.
I was bored and embarrassed watching the first 2 episodes with all the lame world building, to dark to make sense of the action scenes, and generally stilted acting. Mr. Koala never comments on my drama watching on the computer but even he chimed in from his side of the office asking what horrible drama I was watching from the dialogue alone lol. Episodes 3-4 were better but not enough to make this drama a good one (yet) and honestly I would not continue but for Song Joong Ki alone. Seeing these two rando idols tossed in later is more meh for the course.
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That's pretty good for cable, tbh, and it would seem to be one of tvN's highest rated dramas of 2019 (at least thus far). Even dramas that ended with +18% ratings (like Reply 1988) started off at 6-7%.
I'm not saying it's a great drama, qualitatively speaking, just that it's definitely doing better than 'only okay' in the ratings (again, at least thus far - who knows what the future holds?).
The standard for good ratings is directly related to budget, cast and production team. By this time the ratings should already be in 10% but the reviews continue to be mixed leaning towards negative and this casting makes the drama appear even less appealing and frankly makes no sense. Even though their roles haven't been explained but the fact that they made such a big announcement means it must be something relevant that contributes to the story in a strong manner. Smaller budget dramas like TCC pulled in much better ratings than Asdal is currently doing. The drama hasn't done justice to its budget of 55 billion won that it claims to have spent since everything looks cheap and poorly constructed.
That's a very good point; I hadn't taken the budget into consideration. Thank you for the polite explanation!
Gaspppppppp
The biggest news I got from this is that there is a mr. Koala !!!!
And you’re both working together in a office ??? Is it home office or office office???
And that I assume that you’re both not Korean base on watching the drama with subtitles ???
Please let us know more about you two <3 <3 <3
What I gathered was that Mr. Koala understood what was being said from hearing the dialogues from his space, so maybe they ARE Korean.
Our home office, we sit in an L shape with separate work stations. I work full time at my day job, drama watching is for passive chillaxing and blogging is for mental acuity and an active hobby.
Mr. Koala is super shy so I don't mention him. But he was so enthralled with how bad Arthdal episode 1 was that I had to share. When he got to the Neanthals he couldn't watch anymore and went back to his NBA game.
I guess Arthdal borrowed bits from Clan of the Cave Bear minus the copious amounts of sex and throwing in Game of Thrones politics. Trade Neanthal for Neanderthal and Saram (humans) for Cro-Magnon humans and add pinches of sorcery hoodoo.
Mr. Koala is adorable, he's my own K-drama male lead maybe as karma for writing so much stuff to share. :-)
This is so sweet! Sugar on sugar sweet! Thank you for shedding some light of your daily life! :D
I would love to watch a We got Married of Mr. & Mrs. Koala.
I'm a huge koala stan now! I wish you both 3000 blessings! Thank you for this blog and tolerating even readers who can be so trying at the time. Keep up the wonderful work!!!
Argh... U mentioned the neanthals. I was laughing so hard when I first heard their dialogue. I learnt that the language they speak is actually korean speaking in reverse but the way the actors conversing weren't even half convincing (You can't compare with Daenerys speaking Dothraki or Valerians or Neytiri speaking Navi here).
Truly, watching Arthdal simply feel weird. It's like a mash up version of Avatar + GOT wannabe.
Anyway, from what I gathered, Ms. Koala is not a Korean. She's a Taiwanese-American (my guess ofc).
I thank you for this blog, Ms Koala. I enjoyed everything that I have read here all these years. And best wishes to both of you!
Aww, wholesome. Thank you for sharing, made my day :)
it bored me...already stopped watching. the plot was a mess and did not make sense.
first time I read of your mentioning of Mr Koala :-) Very nice and please say Hi :-) Nickhun maybe just another purple blood eyecandy, no need for any acting skill... Jisoo can be Peebles with little fabric on. LOL.
*Pebbles Flintstone
OMG, K-idol versions Pebbles AND Bam Bam! Brilliant casting in that case.
I don't know much about this drama. When they put idols in drama, obviously for fan service. Bleh
I gathered Miss Koala likes romcoms so much that she called Her Private Life’s dismal ratings of 2-3% as decent whereas Arthdal Chronicles’ 1st 4 episodes’ ratings of 6-7% as ok?! Gosh, so biased!
Context matters,
And the "context" in this case is production budget
We should applaud the daring venture to undertake this challenging project of new genre never attempted in South Korea.
Believe we grow up with Greek and Chinese mythology but SK is trying to create that now so please have a little faith in Arthdal Chronicles. In 4 episodes so far, the cinematography, directing and acting have been impressive thought we may be confused by the unfamiliar tribal types and sector names but hang on. I was initially confused over the many houses in GOT.
Don’t we have enough of usual formats of cringed romcoms and ever predictable tales of legal, medical, crime, horror and chaebol business battles.
Thus, please appreciate the efforts persevered by the Arth Team - scripting, directing, acting, supporting, etc.
Applause!
I love arthdal. Obviously for the story. The first two episodes were EPIC! But then, it's preference. Ep 3 and 4 were good too.
It's one of my fave current airing dramas, next to search www.
Duh,reading about private life, em..a no no for me. Obviously for the cheesy storyline. But then, once again, preference.
I am enjoying this show. It has many flaw but then this is completely new genre in kdrama. Overall its fun and adventurous if I overlooked some aspects of show which does bother me specifically choppy editing. But I find it strange reviews are mostly negative yet it has good ratings of 7% which isn't bad if we don't include budget in context.
For big budget drama, Arthdal should get 30% rating.
30% for cable drama is impossible no matter what. Even sky castle with rave reviews couldn't reach 30. At most they should cross 10% to deemed success.
Why you compare low to big budget drama. If sky castle with low budget drama can get 23% rating. Arthdal must be get 25 to 30%. Cable or public tv is no diff now for viewers, if the drama have a great story they will enjoy for watching.