Friday Competition Takes Off with SBS Romance Drama Now We are Breaking Up Premiering to 6.4% and MBC Sageuk The Red Sleeve Cuff to 5.7% Ratings

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• Given how NWABU was marketed, I was looking forwards to a mature romance with social commentary on adult relationships. Instead, Episode 1 felt like a Sex and the City wannabe. A whole lot of glitz and glamour with beautiful clothes, parties, makeup, mood lighting.

  JKY suits the role of a fashion photographer. His modeling background is coming in handy and he's serving looks, but can't say much about his acting.

  SHK's character is interesting on paper, but her acting is flatter than a flatline. She legit looks like she's reciting lines at the camera and going through motions. Girl, EMOTE. I don't get it. She's lively and charming in the promotional interviews, but none of that energy translates on screen. Her acting might've actually regressed because I don't think she was ever this wooden.

  The editing is really choppy. Hopefully the story gets into social commentary else it's all flash and no substance.

  • This is spot on and what my fear was about this drama. Beautiful people with a glitzy fashion backdrop with no substance.

    The ratings are pretty lackluster for a SBS drama. Encounter debuted higher and that was on a cable channel.

  • SHK's challenge as an actress is that she comes across as the type of actress that prioritises looking pretty more than trying to convey the characters emotion. She's not the only one who does this, but somehow I expected that with age and years, she'd be kind of actress who'd want to think of her craft. Kim Hee Sun and Kim Tae Hee are amongst the actresses who were known for their visuals and wooden acting, but somehow with the choice of works and interviews, it comes across that they are trying to expand and focus on "acting" and less so of trying to maintain their prettiness onscreen.

  • I love the drama and Song Hye Kyo still delievered her acting prowess

• Red Sleeves is not MBC’s first Friday-Saturday 10PM drama, Koala. One the Woman was actually directly competing with The Veil.

• Expected a much higher debut for NWBU given its SHK’s comeback drama and it follows right after One the Woman’s momentum.

  Imma hold off on NWBU until more eps and feedback come in.

  • SHE'S GOOD IN THIS MOVIE BECAUSE UR ALWAYS LOOKING AT HER BEAUTIFUL FACE U THINK SHE CANNOT ACT AND THERE VISUAL INTERVIEW THE EVEN THE DIRECTOR 8F THE SHOW RATING IS JUST A BONUS TO THEM#WES5ANDFOESONGHYEKYO???❤️❤️❤️

• This is the first time I feel that SHK can't act. She is so stiff and monotonous in the way she delivers her lines. Hope she does better as the series goes.

• This is not the first drama in the Fri-Sat slot for MBC. The first drama was The Veil with Nam Goong Min back in September.

  The Red Sleeve Cuff - Very good ratings for MBC especially considering this episode was just the child actors. The feedback so far is very positive. There is no star power in the cast but I think it will be a success simply because it is a good story well executed and well acted. These high quality, traditional romance sageuk used to be MBC's bread and butter back in the day. Also really cool to hear at the press conference that both the director and writer are female. It will be exciting to see how this effects the story told from the court lady's perspective.

  Now We Are Breaking Up - Not a strong start for an SBS Fri-Sat drama. SBS were probably hoping for at least 8% opening on par with the previous dramas opening in this slot and SHK's previous drama on TVN. Unfortunately, SHK is not the type of actress who brings in big ratings alone. She is too polarising. The audience either need to be excited by the pairing (whatever anyone may think of her last three co-stars Jo In Sung, Song Joong Ki and Park Bo Gum are very popular actors) or the plot needs to excite their interest but this just looks like a very typical romance melodrama. She is playing the same character from Encounter which is a variation on the same character she always plays and Jang Ki Young looks to be playing the same character he played in Search WWWW.

  Jang Ki Young is just a very weak actor, lacks charisma and doesn't have any hit drama as a lead. As soon as I saw he was cast I guessed this was going to underperform as he doesn't bring ratings power nor any kind of acting prestige.

  There isn't even the fun of the whole will they or or won't they tension because the promo made it obvious they already have sex with each other in the first episode

  • Agree about jang ki young, his romance with the FL in search www was also the weakest part of otherwise a great show. I keep hearing about how hot he is and his intense gaze but I feel nothing, I just see blandness. In search www he was even overshadowed by Lee Jae wook who was a newbie then.

    • I will say though jang ki young was very impressive in my mister, but maybe he forgot how to act?

    • #Songhyekyo ❤️❤️❤️

  • i feel the same way about jang ki young. i have no idea how he has made it this far, and managed to get cast against song hye kyo. his best work was probably come and hug me, but in hindsight, it was probably the writing and the child actor that really set him up for success there.

    • JKY's best work so far was My Mister. He showed huge promise in that supporting role. Given how terrible SHK's acting is currently, it isn't a tall feat to get cast against her. JKY is more watchable.

    • @peanut gallery i haven't seen my mister yet. but it's on my list since everyone has nothing but good things to say about it.

• Not related to this. But I would like to mention that Happiness whose runtime overlaps a bit with these two, achieved a new peak averaging 3.6 pc nationwide. Despite almost no promotion, unfavourable time slot with a genre like this , the drama is doing quite well. The pacing and storyline is impressive. And Han Hyo Joo probably will live upto her name again for not having flop dramas .
  Anyways , still don't understand why yumi's cell got so much promos but not this.

  • 3% ratings for a TVN drama regardless of the time slot or lack of promos is nothing extraordinary.

    • So you mean public channel ratings should also be measured on the same parameters as cable channels??
      Time slot does affects a drama. And maybe do some research. It is the first drama to be aired in this time slot.

  • I tried NWABU but it was so uninteresting and I’m not a big fan of sageuk. Happiness is really the only drama I’m enjoying atm. HHJ’s character can get annoying sometimes but I can still bear with her. PHS is doing fine. So far I don’t recall any genre dramas that were so highly promoted but I hope the ratings for this drama still continue to rise.

  • I agree the ratings are really quite good considering the time slot, the subject matter and minimal promotion by TVN

• I was looking forward to Red Sleeves as both leads are really good. The 1st episode is all about the childhood, and it was nicely well done. I could feel the pacing of the drama is just right, with very minimal palace politics. I can't wait for the next episodes.

• Both dramas are meh to be honest but historical dramas tend to have higher ratings irrespective of star power so red sleeve will be able to maintain decent ratings. On the other hand now we are breaking up will yoyo on ratings like jirisan.

• After River, Lovers of Red Sky, and The King's Affection I thought I wasn't going to check it out at all.

  After being disappointed with River and Lovers I only checked out the first episode of Park Eun Bin's drama.

  The only reason I decided to finally give it a try was because it is MBC which produced Jewel of the Palace and due the female lead.

  Well color me surprised, I liked it. Here's hoping the second episode will be even better.

  I only checked out NWABU out of curiosity but didn't like SHK's character. And the second female lead is no better. I don't think I am going to continue watching this. The second male lead character seemed out of place even though I like the actor's performance in Encounter.

  • A big no for me was the moment they couldn't find the file and had to reshoot. What kind of a lousy company is that? In reality, someone would have been immediately fired.

    She doesn't even know how good the male lead is as a photographer, why would she risk something so important? Doesn't make sense really. Hard pass.

    • Here's hoping Red Sleeves ratings continue to do well. I do love a good sageuk.

      Tired of watching zombies, cross dressing and overhyped dramas.

• RED SLEEVE CUFF. Loved it! Acting, plot, directing, cinematography, music score... everything was spectacular. I was glued to the screen from start to finish with nary a boring scene. The child actors were just fantastic. A sageuk OTP childhood connection that actually makes sense! And although the adults met briefly, I could feel their chemistry! It might be too early to say this but out of all the disastrous sageuks this year, Red Sleeve looks the most promising. Wish I'd waited a bit to start it cos waiting for new episodes will be hard. Stay good right to the end, show!

  I'll be back with my thoughts on NWABU after I watch it.