^The greenery sure grew back fast after that atomic bomb, eh?

TYPE OF REVIEW : GOOD OL’ REVIEW
Season 1 and finale spoilers. But none of it makes sense anyway.

Well what in the world was that? What exactly were those 13 hours I watched?

I’m such a nerd for sci-fi, supernatural, general weirdness kind of shows. So I was definitely, at the very least, going to check out CBS’ Under The Dome when it premiered. And the first episode definitely made me want to come back for more.

And I did, for four episodes. At that point, I liked the show and all, but none really compared to the premiere and the week of Episode 5 came and I forgot to watch. Really though, I wasn’t all that excited to watch anyway. And I certainly was in no hurry to catch up.

Weeks and weeks passed, but it wasn’t until last week (two weeks after the season finale) that I actually brought myself to finish the season.

And boy. Marathoning the final episodes was already pretty tough. So I don’t know how I would’ve been able to keep watching if I spent nine weeks having to watch the series and wonder what crazy thing would happen next.

And there was lots of crazy.

Now the biggest questions the series’ premise poses are the What? and Why? What the hell is this dome and why has it descended on this small town and sliced cows in half?

Those are the questions you know are not going to be answered easily. So what should reel the viewer in week after week are the conflicts resulting from being trapped and the fight for survival by the disconnected-from-the-outside-world townspeople. That’s while we get clues and hints at the bigger picture and get to know our heroes and heroines and villains.

Well. We certainly got conflicts. But we also got exploding hearts and eardrums. A wall of Monarch butterflies. And a first kiss in front of an atomic bomb.

And no. None of it made sense.

During the first few episodes of Under the Dome, it was clear the dialogue would be rough going and the characters merely existing to cater to the plot. And the cast was nothing to write home about, especially with such awkward writing.

For a premise dependent on the characters’ reactions to the central conflict, the series was purely plot driven. And in turn, caused the characters to be merely what they needed to be week to week to support whatever forced catastrophe was thought up or to recite exposition explaining facts about the dome that seemed to be pulled out of the air.

I love random, absurd sci-fi developments, but Under The Dome seemed to take it to new, nonsensical heights I’ve certainly never experienced before. Explanations about the chosen 4 (is this Battlestar Galatica?), the need to murder the series’ cartoon, moustache-twirling villain because the dome told them to, the importance of a butterfly, the importance of a “Monarch,” black splotches, secret Iraq pasts, debts, drugs, dead mothers popping up from the ground, pre-fabricated gallows, pink light shows, and eggs… all absurd nonsense with absolutely no basis for any of it.

I mean, they talked more about Monarch butterflies in an episode more than NBC’s Kings did in its entire run where the butterflies actually were important to the story.

It all made for probably the most frustrating final episodes of a season I’ve ever seen from any show ever.

No, we didn’t get a single answer as the series literally faded to white as a cliffhanger. Which shouldn’t be a surprise when CBS ordered season 2.

But the series also didn’t give any indication that anyone knew what it was doing. It was 13 episodes of absurd nonsense. And the longer I think about what I watched in 2 days last week, the more absurd I think Under The Dome became. And the more absurd, the more enjoyable hilarious, actually.

Having never read the original novel by Stephen King myself, I decide to pop on over to the read its Wikipedia summary version before its premiere to get a gist of what the series was generally about. And I didn’t really mind reading about its ending since they assured the series would be different.

Now I’m starting to think they should’ve just left well enough along and done a straight miniseries adaptation of the novel and be done with it. The novel’s original conclusion is quick and easy, it seems. But it makes a whole lot more sense than what we’ve gotten with the series.

But it’s a sci-fi fantasy show! you might say. Of course it won’t make sense!

Well, that’s not necessarily true. Things can be random and crazy, yet still make sense and fit into a puzzle. Instead, we’ve got eggs and mini domes made of dirt and dead-not-dead butterflies choosing the Messiah or something.

As horribly as the story progressed (or not), the season finale at the very least should have given the show’s millions of fans (and there are millions, which is why CBS was more than happy to greenlight a season 2) some solid ground to stand on and wait for next year.

Like Revolution panning away from an American colony in Cuba at the end of its season 1 finale or even The Event ending its final episode with an entire planet come flying into the Earth’s atmosphere; Under The Dome should’ve given something, anything, that was definitive and not just throw out even more absurd rules that mean nothing.

And yet, I’m still going to be there when the series returns next Summer (or Spring, if CBS needs to fill a slot). If only to see if the Stephen King-penned premiere actually gives any semblance of hope. But also to see just how they can top themselves with nonsensical absurdity.

Absurd. What better way to describe the series than with the word: Absurd.

If you want a good dramatic series about people stuck in a dome, watch Power Rangers RPM. Now there’s a good show. Absurd it is not.

TYPE OF REVIEW : GOOD OL’ REVIEW
Moderate spoilers.

There have been some excellent Korean dramas this year. Some of them have been very ambitious (Nine) while others tense and dramatic (Shark, That Winter the Wind Blows).

Which is why I enjoyed tvN’s Who Are You. It was a light romantic drama with a mini-procedural aspect, a little bit of suspense and a touch of the supernatural.

But while it was a perfectly fine 16 episodes, I still wish it was something more.

Who Are You tells the story of Yang Si Ohn (So Yi Hyun), a detective who wakes up from a six-year coma after getting caught in the crossfire of a stakeout her then-boyfriend Lee Hyung Joon (Kim Jae Wook) was a part of and was killed in.

She wakes up with no memory of that night or of Hyung Joon, but she quickly learns she can now see dead people. Getting reassigned to the Lost and Found department to ease her way back into the force, she meets Cha Gun Woo (Ok Taecyeon), a young detective serving out his punishment for minor misconduct. And while the two aren’t exactly friendly at first, they grow closer as they work together to help get justice for the spirits who appear to Si Ohn for help.

And one of those spirits is Hyung Joon himself who does what he can to protect Si Ohn and to point her in the right direction to bring the people who killed him and put her in a coma to justice.

But of course, there are twists and turns that keep things interesting along the way.

The spirit-of-the-week procedural aspect worked very well to both ease Si Ohn into this new “power” of hers while helping explain her situation which would in turn build up to a full conclusion. Helping ghosts find peace is definitely a different and refreshing take on the standard crime procedural. But Who Are You only managed a few cases over the 16 episodes.

The rest of the police work was spent on the greater arc that involved, of course, police and government corruption. While the majority of the series focused on the developing love triangle between Si Ohn, Gun Woo and ghost Hyung Joon.

Who Are You was a slowburn, slowly unraveling details of “that night” and the truth behind it. We were finding out the truth just as Si Ohn was and in that sense, was a journey we were hopping along for. We watched as Si Ohn regained her memory while adjusting to her third eye and struggling with opening her heart again.

And it was an interesting and enjoyable journey. But looking back at the series when finished, you can’t help but think it had so much potential to be more. More suspenseful. More scary. More action-packed. More romantic.

Deeper. They had an opportunity to get deep with ideas about moving on and dealing with loss without being depressing or morbid. There were times when the series got emotional whenever Si Ohn is able to give peace to the souls she meets. But at the same time, you wanted more.

Just, more everything really. But it seems like the series almost didn’t have enough, judging from the syrupy sweet final episode 16.

It is a shame the series’ full potential wasn’t tapped, especially when it assembled a fine cast.

I enjoyed So Yi Hyun with Lee Jin Wook on Before & After: Plastic Surgery and was happy to watch a drama with her again. She was a fine lead, but the material sadly held her back. Many times Si Ohn would be fearless and strong, but most of the time we saw her as weak and overwhelmed with her emotions. We could have seen more of Si Ohn adjusting to life after being in a coma for six years as well as a more developed look at her struggle to let go. The final episodes showed what could have been had the writing been there the entire series.

Being a ghost, Kim Jae Wook’s Hyung Joon could not talk to anyone but the shaman (Hee Bin played by Kim Ye Won), so it was his job to convey emotion with just his face. But the script really didn’t call for Hyung Joon to show much emotion in the first place. The scenes where Kim Jae Wook did get to say lines were all happy moments in flashbacks with Si Ohn. Perfectly nice and sweet, but again, another missed opportunity for a really great performance from Kim Jae Wook.

But for Ok Taecyeon, this might have been his best role to date. After being completely wasted in Cinderella’s Sister and then given a stiff role in Dream High 2, his role as Gun Woo here allowed him to be more loose and natural. And while he can easily pull off the “beastly” concepts of 2PM, he is actually a naturally energetic guy in real life. Gun Woo is a young, eager detective, sometimes cocky but well-meaning. And once he starts falling for Si Ohn, he loosens up while still able to kick ass when he needs to. Taecyeon’s last two Korean drama roles were limiting, whereas his role as Gun Woo allowed him to be more versatile and to finally show he is also a promising young talent.

In spite of the lack of deeper material, the chemistry was still there for the entire cast. There was the romantic chemistry between So Yi Hyun and Kim Jae Wook as well as So Yi Hyun and Taecyeon. There was the mentor-student chemistry between Taecyeon and Kim Chang Wan’s Choi Moon Shik. And there was the great team camaraderie between So Yi Hyun, Taecyeon and the promising No Young Hak (Shark) and Oh Hee Joon.

And while it is disappointing to have wasted such a good cast, Who Are You was still a thoroughly enjoyable 16 episodes. The story was solid and had a clear beginning, middle and end that all made sense and was wrapped up with a nice little bow. A very sweet, romantic bow at that. It would have been great to have seen more depth and maybe more thrilling suspense, but Who Are You is perfectly fine as it is.

TYPE OF REVIEW : GOOD OL’ REVIEW
Lots of spoilers.

Last year’s Super Hero Taisen was a complete fanwank. It was an insane and fun ride with plenty of familiar faces and lots of pretty explosions.

Having only gotten into Sentai via Shinkenger and Kamen Rider via Fourze and a little of OOO, I still thought it was an amazing movie. Maybe my lack of experience with pre-Shinkenger and pre-Fourze seasons (except the Decade X Shinkenger crosover) made me enjoy it a lot more than maybe longer or lifelong fans? I wouldn’t know where to start nitpicking.

Most of the movie made no sense and the references to past seasons went over my head. But I was able to fully enjoy Gokaiger even though I wasn’t familiar with any of the teams pre-Zyuranger and only knew of the post-Zyu teams by their Power Ranger names.

Having Mr. Joe Gibken pretty much the star of the movie helped ground it in a familiar place for me. With movies like Super Hero Taisen, I guess I go into them knowing I’m in it for the fanservice and seeing a clusterfrack of colored heroes fighting and big, gratuitous, grand explosions.

Which is why this year’s Super Hero Taisen Z felt much more cohesive, much more epic and much more awesome for me than the first.

That the main characters of this film were from seasons of Sentai and Kamen Rider I’ve actually watched, enjoyed and miss was enough to put it over the top for me. Especially having Yellow Buster herself, Yoko (Arisa Komiya), as not only one of the main stars, but the emotional heart of the entire thing.

Seeing Yoko, Ryuji, Hiromu, Usada, Nakamura, Morishita, hilarious J, Kuroki and Kuroki’s hair definitely got me missing Go-Busters again. Getting to see Haruto-tachi, including Koyomi (alive!) again was a treat sweeter than Donut Hungry’s donuts. And then there’s Gai suddenly being this badass, kick-ass boss that rounds up the troops and gets our main protagonist in Geki on the right track while still being the energetic and crazy guy we know and love.

Seeing these old friends again can easily be enough to make the whole thing worthwhile. But Super Hero Taisen Z surprisingly seemed to take much more care and effort in crafting a better and more sensical story.

The set-up was pretty simple and keeping the main action between Geki, Yoko, Gai and even Haruto and Kosuke helped to keep it that way. A strange, but cute little robot ball falls to Earth koron and is being chased by a revived Shocker. Meanwhile, Geki Jumonji, aka Space Sheriff Gavan, is on Earth investigating the use of magic that is the apparent cause for the Shocker revival and the new threat to the universe.

The film continues from there as they race to stop the revived Space Shocker and find their magic and power comes from the Space Crime Syndicate Madou who hope to consume Earth.

The story is very easy to follow, that is, until the expected cameos and old heroes start popping up merely for some good fight scenes. While it isn’t the immense clusterfrack that brought back all the previous Sentai teams and Riders, a lot of the extra teams including the current Kyoryugers felt too forced and almost shoehorned in. Though seeing Kotoha (ShinkenYellow) make a random appearance as a little wink-wink and having her come face to face with Shelly was fun. (Suzuka Morita plays both characters.)

Now, we all know just what these movies’ main purpose is, but from a story perspective, the film would’ve been just fine even if there weren’t any extra heroes popping up until Akaranger and Kamen Rider 1 brought the reinforcements at the end.

The climax of the film was unbelievable and absolutely worth the price of any admission. Bodies getting thrown around, blown up, hurled, tossed aside… it was awesome insanity. And very exciting. Then there’s Yoko and Psycholon’s own emotional climax that gave the entire film the heart that it needed to be more than just big explosions and a mish-mash of spandex, bug-eyed and chocolate-wrapper-looking heroes.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed Super Hero Taisen Z. It was more exciting and more coherent and hit closer to home for me. After last year’s Super Hero Taisen, another convergence of the Toei franchise seemed impossible, at least impossible for a sequel to make any sense. But they managed to do it with this film. Next year? Who knows.

But for any tokusatsu fan, young and old, Super Hero Taisen Z is an exciting and fun ride, with a good story to boot.

TYPE OF REVIEW : GOOD OL’ REVIEW
SPOILER ALERT! Full discussion of the two drama specials, but there is fair warning after a little intro to both.

KBS Drama Specials continue to present some of Korean television’s best and most unique stories. And two recent Drama Specials are excellent examples of that fact.

Now since my review will pretty much spoil both stories, I will say right now that both are well worth your time. And you can watch them both right now thanks to KBS World posting every Drama Special episode on their official YouTube.

The first drama is Your Noir starring 2PM’s Chansung as Hyung Joo, a new recruit in an “organized crime” gang whose boss wants to bring down a pesky prosecutor by finding clear proof of the prosecutor’s abuse of his wife. Turns out, the prosecutor’s wife (Chae Jung Ahn) is Hyung Joo’s former high school teacher who he had feelings for.

The second drama is Came To Me and Became a Star starring Kim Ji Suk and Jung So Min as two 20-somethings who are struggling to make a living and must live in a youth hostel. After getting paired up at a blind date meeting party, they start dating but hide from each other the fact that they are practically dirt poor.

*Spoilers begin now!*

Both dramas presented a core romantic story set against two very different backdrops. And both dramas featured heartbreaking and tragic endings for both would-be couples.

But both endings were not tragic just for the sake of being tragic and different from the normal feel-good 16-episode primetime drama. The endings to both stories were appropriate and fitting conclusions.

In Your Noir, we witness Lee Hyun getting beaten to a pulp numerous times by her prosecutor husband (Hong Kyung In). We even get confirmation from a doctor she sees to discuss her broken ribs, bruised and bloodied face and the constant ringing in her ear.

Hyung Joo just got out of prison before becoming the maknae in a group of gangsters. But before getting thrown in jail, he had been a good student, if even only relatively so, and a promising judo athlete who had been scouted by several universities. Lee Hyun was the young, new Literature teacher and Hyung Joo immediately felt drawn to her. His developing crush on the beautiful young teacher ends up being the reason he gets thrown in jail, his promising future gone.

Being a young, new teacher, Lee Hyun is timid and a little weak, especially in a Korean school system that has no answer for delinquents and disrespectful students. Lee Hyun gets mocked and threatened by the students with the school unable or unwilling to do anything about it. After one bully gets in Lee Hyun’s face, she runs off to the nurse’s station where Hyung Joo later sees her crying.

That puts him over the edge and decides to take justice into his own hands, challenging the bully to a fight. Being a talented judoka, the fight is heavily in his favor, but after a cheap shot by the bully, Hyung Joo pushes him off only to have him hit his head on a table and die.

While he is told to get closer to Lee Hyun in order to dig up some proof of her husband’s abuse, Hyung Joo makes it personal, his feelings for her still there. He promises to protect her. Lee Hyun is conscious of her every move, fearful that one wrong breath will draw the violent hand of her husband. But she allows herself to feel comfortable with Hyung Joo until he reveals that he actually is in a gang and not a university student with a judo scholarship. He offers to have her husband killed, but she pushes Hyung Joo away and says he is no better than her scum of a husband.

As soon as the prosecutor sees his wife may be fooling around with Hyung Joo, the very criminal he had set free a few weeks earlier, he strikes a deal with the mob boss to have Hyung Joo killed.

It is only after he dies that Lee Hyun finds out the reason Hyung Joo’s life was forever ruined and comes to the painful realization that maybe if she had found just a little more strength, she’d be free of her violent marriage.

In one sense, Hyung Joo’s death was shocking. Of course you want to see the scum of a husband get what’s coming to him. That’s the logical conclusion you’d want as a viewer. But sadly enough, that he gets off scot free, Lee Hyun is still trapped and the noble Hyung Joo is now dead is a realistic ending.

Your Noir is an interesting and realistic portrayal of the corrupt world we live in today; where public officials collude with mobsters and the innocent get caught in the crossfire. And here, it is the innocent love Hyung Joo has for Lee Hyun that gets caught. It’s hard to watch the bad guys ultimately win, and bad guys that you don’t love to hate, but just bad, evil, disgusting people.

That’s one of the things the KBS Drama Specials do very well. They don’t always give us happy endings, but they do give thought provoking and difficult stories that take a little bit of bravery to tell on Korean television.

Hon Kyung In does his very best to make Prosecutor Han Suk Hyun as vile as he can be. And Chae Jung Ahn effortlessly portrays the pain of a helpless battered wife. But 2PM’s Hwang Chansung adds his name to the list of promising idol-actors with a strong and affecting performance that keeps you engrossed to the very end.

Chansung of course is no stranger to acting having been part of the hugely popular original season of the High Kick series before debuting in 2PM. And even with a Japanese action drama and Level 7 Civil Servant with Joo Won under his belt, Your Noir gives him the chance to show he can take his acting to the next level.

Meanwhile, in Came To Me and Became a Star, we meet Ha Jin, a young woman working at a struggling toy company. Not being able to pay for her comfortable apartment, she ends up having to take a closet-sized room at a youth hostel. It is in this hostel that Kang Suk also lives. Despite working as a math teacher, he is saddled with a mountain of student loans and having to pay for his comatose mother’s hospital bills.

They begin dating, not knowing they live in the same hostel. And they greatly enjoy their time together, especially since they get each other’s minds off of their financial troubles.

But when they find out the truth about each other’s situations, the harsh reality sets in. Will they be practical or will they follow their hearts? Kang Suk wants to follow his heart, but Ha Jin wants to be pragmatic and doesn’t think they will ever work out.

Kang Suk sells his car and uses the money to pay two years rent for a nice little apartment for Ha Jin. She can take it or not, but he says he needs to do this for her regardless. Ha Jin decides to go live with her parents in the countryside when the toy company goes bankrupt. But as she boards the bus, she remembers Kang Suk’s sincere feelings for her and she turns back and runs back to the hostel, not knowing it has just gone up in flames with multiple casualties.

Two years later, Ha Jin enters the apartment Kang Suk paid for her for the first (?) time. She finds a pair of shoes he had promised to buy her two years before. She puts them on and looks out her window up to the sky and sees a star shining down on her.

OMG! He died!

Yes, he died. We assume. After a sweetly developed love story and a heartbreaking separation, we learn that Kang Suk (likely) died in the fire and that maybe Ha Jin still has feelings for him.

Or maybe he’s still alive and they will reunite in the future? But then, what was that twinkling star?

It could certainly be open-ended, but we quickly that she runs back to the hostel, finds the fire trucks and news crews there and learns the man living in Room 303 is one of the fatalities. After two years, she finally finds the courage to move on and heads to the (clean!) apartment to find closure.

It is a sad, yet poignant ending to a story that tries to balance the cynicism of today’s world and just pure, sincere love. It is a thought provoking ending and one that is more than open to interpretation. But even on the surface, it is still a realistic, heartbreaking but meaningful conclusion.

Kim Ji Suk and Jung So Min gave strong performances conveying both the euphoria of a sweet romance and the harsh, cynical world that revolves around needing to pay the bills.

Both Your Noir and Came To Me and Became a Star look and feel like short films. And most if not all KBS Drama Specials usually do. Being able to present unique stories with an almost independent sensibility, beautiful cinematography and an opportunity for actors to stretch their acting chops, KBS Drama Specials always have something different and engrossing every week. And these two are excellent examples of that.

TYPE OF REVIEW : GOOD OL’ REVIEW
SPOILER ALERT! Full discussion of the story, but there is fair warning.

After watching two KBS Drama Specials today, I decided to catch up with the two-episode drama special (though not under the Drama Special banner) Waiting For Love.

The two-parter stars BoA, Choi Daniel and ZE:A’s Siwan in a contemporary story about love and relationships.

Before we get to the spoilerific review of the special, how about watching both episodes right here. I absolutely recommend Waiting For Love, both for the charming and emotional story and the great performances by its lead cast.

Episode 1:

Episode 2:

*Spoilers begin!*

BoA is Yoon Ae, a college student unlucky in love. Her lovelife troubles are best exemplified by a viral video of her confronting her cheating boyfriend with live octopus. Her friend drags her along to a lecture with a self-professed dating expert and then signs her up for the personal advice service touted by him.

Not wanting to fall in love anymore after being hurt so much because of it, she gives in and asks the love expect for advice. But it isn’t the curly haired guy from the lecture doling out advice, it is his friend Gi Dae (Choi Daniel) who needs the extra money.

After being encouraged by the faceless advisor, Yoon Ae begins dating kind-hearted Jin Gook (Im Siwan) who has been admiring her from afar.

But while Yoon Ae enjoys her time with Jin Gook and sincerely likes him, she begins to develop feelings for the faceless advisor. And the feeling begins to be mutual for Gi Dae as well who is looking for some advice of his own to deal with his girlfriend Sae Rom (Kim Ji Won) who aims to make him, basically, a trophy husband.

Despite Jin Gook’s good intentions and doing everything he can for Yoon Ae, he is soon no match for the faceless advisor even when Yoon Ae finds out it isn’t the love expert she has been exchanging texts with this whole time.

The bumpers and title cards for Waiting for Love scream out a Yoon Ae-Gi Dae endgame. But what makes the series so interesting is that the couples we actually see go through the motions are Yoon Ae/Jin Gook and Gi Dae/Sae Rom with Yoon Ae and Gi Dae’s SNS exchanges framing those two couples’ journeys. While the trajectory of those two couples both seem to head in the same direction (towards Splitsville), there’s still that feeling where we are rooting for Yoon Ae and Jin Gook’s happy ending just as much if not more than for Yoon Ae and Gi Dae to meet face to face for the first time.

There might be a bit of 2nd Lead Syndrome in wanting to root for Jin Gook, but the story evolves organically.

Yoon Ae wants to merely date and have someone to be with, but she starts to genuinely fall for Jin Gook when she promised herself she wouldn’t. And when Gi Dae realizes he can’t force himself into marriage with Sae Rom, his feelings for this faceless “live octopus girl” turn from mere interest to a possible romantic connection.

You know a show has done its job when you are affected by the events unfolding on screen. You understand Yoon Ae moving further away from Jin Gook when it appears it is mere lust on his end than true love. Your heart breaks when Yoon Ae walks away from a scarily distraught Jin Gook. You are excited and kilig when Yoon Ae and Gi Dae are finally about to come face to face in the pouring rain. And then you suddenly want to cheer for Jin Gook when he makes a sincere last plea to Yoon Ae on his knees.

Talk about heartbreaking. Jin Gook literally popping up at the end was an unexpected twist. But what may have been even more surprising was his apparent sincerity as framed by Gi Dae’s final piece of advice:

“Sometimes, the one who loves more can win when the love is sincere.”

Yoon Ae’s story comes full circle. She believed that she “loved more” in her previous relationships, but realizes maybe she was never necessarily sincere. And now here’s a guy who made a scene in public to confront her (like she did once to her own ex), but now apologizing, admitting his mistakes and wanting for them to go at it the right way. Yoon Ae’s never had this kind of relationship before and Gi Dae’s last bit of advice is very meaningful.

Which is why I loved that final scene and wished there were no “4 Years Later” prologue. That final scene of Yoon Ae moving forward to shield Jin Gook from the rain as Gi Dae walks away was heartbreaking for everyone involved, but it was pretty realistic. It was poignant and emotional, but not cheesy.

We have no idea whether or not Yoon Ae and Jin Gook live happily ever after, but ending on that note after everything we witnessed the two hours previous would’ve been perfect. We didn’t need to see Yoon Ae and Gi Dae meeting for a blind date in four years even if just in the credits as a prologue. It still devalued the excellent scene before it.

We otherwise could have been left to our own imaginations. Maybe Yoon Ae and Jin Gook do end up together. Or maybe they both go their separate ways after making each other better people and learning more about how to love, together. That open ending would’ve really been an excellent way to cap off what was a turning point in Yoon Ae’s life.

Choi Daniel’s already proved he’s a romantic lead in many a role before this one. But BoA and Siwan deserve much kudos.

For BoA’s Korean acting debut, she showed she’s got a lot of potential as a romantic lead. Her character may not have broken any new ground, but BoA certainly kept Yoon Ae’s feet on the ground and made her a relatable and believable character. And before Park Hyungsik broke out as one of the most promising young idol-actors today, his fellow ZE:A bandmate Im Siwan had already done so in 2012 with acclaimed performances on megahit Moon Embracing the Sun and the darker Equator Man. Here, Siwan shows his versatility and proves he can go the romantic route as well with the early makings of being a dashing lead himself.

Waiting For Love may have just been a two-part drama special, but it packed in more story and emotional heft than many full-run dramas. Overall, it was a charming and poignant look at love and relationships with a little coming of age thrown in and some great performances to back it all up.