SBS can breath a sigh of relief with a big hit (in this day and age) on its hands as the Wed-Thurs drama I Hear Your Voice raced past 20% in ratings nationally this week. With it comes confirmation that the network is extending the drama 2-episodes to end at 18 now. Apparently a leaked synopsis for episodes 10-16 went viral last week and the extension may be connected to allowing the writer to completely re-write the ending (I’ll discuss the spoiler after the jump). This will push back the premiere date of The Master’s Sun with So Ji Sub and Gong Hyo Jin for a week, which the drama doesn’t appear to need since it started filming weeks ago but who wouldn’t benefit for extra time to get things spiffy. Starring Lee Bo Young (now a bona fide hitmaker with her last weekend drama My Daughter Seo Young breaking 40% in ratings in the second half of its 50-episode run) , Lee Jong Suk now following up School 2013 with another well-received drama, and Yoon Sang Hyun who is no stranger to big hits having starred in Queen of Housewives and Secret Garden – IHYV is billed as a thriller, supernatural, romance drama and appears to have garnered quite the fandom both domestically and internationally. PD Joo Soo Won has a long list of dramas under his belt with the most recent ones being Cheongdamdong Alice and Swallow the Sun, while screenwriter Park Hye Ryun did one of my fave youth dramas Dream High back in 2011.

Normally I’d be all over this drama like a cat on cream – I love Lee Bo Young and Yoon Sang Hyun – but despite all the requests for me to check it out and write about it, I can only do the former but have no desire to do the latter. I rarely write about things I don’t like for the sake of just saying I don’t like it, unless I have good reason. Here I watched the first two episodes and thought the drama was just okay. It was fast-paced and gripping at times, but also strangely grasping without feeling organic. Too many coincidences and leaps of legal procedure and logic, the fantasy hearing voices part was actually the easiest to swallow. Folks who have read my blog since I started writing ought to know my biggest drama pet peeve is legal shows that have no resemblance to the actual practice of law. It’s the same reason my sister cannot watch K-drama medical shows because she starts screaming “That shit does not happen in the ER/OR/hospital!” When I watch shows with significant legal proceedings and court cases, I’m seriously appalled that what’s happening onscreen might actually lead folks to think that is how the profession works. It does not, and thank god for it. So IHYV hit my one pet peeve and that was enough for me to say sayonara. But really the main reason I can’t even tune in is because I have a serious allergy to leading man Lee Jong Suk. I can’t stand him. There, I’ve said it. Continue reading →