Cable network tvN has another big hit drama on its hands and only time will tell if this one will catch up to the network’s two top scorers Answer Me 1988 and Goblin. The Hong Sisters penned fantasy romance drama Hwayugi (A Korean Odyssey) premiered this Saturday to fantastic ratings, taking in 5.29% nationwide just one point lower than Goblin’s first episode of 6.33% and AM1988’s first episode which brought in 6.1%. I don’t know if it’s the subject matter or the lure of main cast Lee Seung Gi, Cha Seung Won, and Oh Yeon Seo, or for that matter perhaps the Hong Sisters still have viewers watching just because they wrote this drama. The early reviews are positive, calling the drama entertaining and fast-paced. This means the Hong Sisters streak of one failed drama followed by one hit drama and vice-versa continues on!
I just read in a soompi article that the second episode had glaring technical issues (green screen not edited out, visible wires on objects and the lead actress still visible) and that there were longer than usual commercials for other TVN shows. Very strange for a hyped up drama from TVN.
I’m hoping it’s not a fiasco behind the scenes for this drama. I pray it stays entertaining and free of drama it’s entire run.
They must not have had enough time for proper editing. This type of fantasy drama with live shooting and too much episode length will surely get problems
They should go with an hour and should have just postponed it until the holidays were over.
I enjoyed the first episode.
The first episode is really good story, acting, cinematography everything is one point. But one and a half hour episode is too long it will get draggy if this continues
Seung Gi’s rocking the monkey king. He’s doing a great job, actually, the entire cast is great. I’m falling inlove with Oh Yeon Seo, also her chemistry with lSG is looking great!
The start was good too. If only the second ep’s mess didn’t happen. TvN better ups their game, because today’s issue can doom the drama.
The ep 2 thing that soompi reported. lol what an embarassment!!!seriously, they started filming the poor actors in November, so they should have been ahead at least by two episodes.But somehow they mess up like that???.There have been dramas that were filmed, edited and broadcast the same day , and no glaring and obvious glitches like those.
Ep. 2 ratings were still good, but did fall but not as much as I expected given the horrible issues tvn had. I enjoyed the first episode. They are reairing the 2nd tomorrow supposedly. What a mess.
they are rushing it, i wonder why, lol, how can u mess up like that in the 2nd epi.,shld have aired the bts of 1st epi. if they are going to be showing that.did they put an intern to do the editing, and everybody went to enjoy the holidays,
Hahaha intern! Yeah I noticed some pacing problem especially during transition to next scene
The drama is so good but then they mess up the second episode. They should have gone the Goblin way and started filming a good 3 months before the air date. If they rush it with all the CGI I dread a repeat of yesterday.
Episode 1 was all kinds of awesome, but I think they should have cut down the length from 90 minutes to 60 minutes instead which would have left more footage for future episodes. They just released a statement that they are falling behind on the CGI process because because the job was greater than anticipated but also that they are CURRENTLY shooting footage for the sixth episode! That’s really worrisome! So for now, they are changing up the airing schedule with episode 3 airing as planned on 30th december and episode 4 will be postponed to the following saturday. I think that’s a wise decision though, to give them more time. Maybe they will even have to keep this schedule of airing 1 episode per week, we’ll have to see.
Maybe its time SBS started negotiations with their Program Manager…We know which Program Manager at which network got their Xmas bonus this year. lol.