Cute. Romantic. Funny. Sad, Frustrating. It’s “you want to throw things at the TV and yell” frustrating. All of that is Angel Eyes starring Lee Sang Yoon and Goo Hye Sun.
The Good
I know what I’ll get when I start watching a melodrama so I shouldn’t complain, but I will anyway. They always start of so fabulously.
The music score/soundtrack is so engaging. It’s modern and mellow, like an after hours jazz club. There is at least one traditional melodrama power ballad, but at least it’s not played over and over, until you hate it.
The young Park Dong Joo, played by Kang Ha Neul and his thousand-watt smile, keeps you ever smiling. When you see him falling in love with the beautiful girl on his porridge delivery route, you’ll find yourself constantly smiling, too. And when young Soo Wan finally falls for him, AND his mom and little sister, she also has a chronic smile that is heartwarming. The smile that lights up the 12-years-older version of Dong Joo when he returns to Korea and sees Soo Wan for the first time is amazing. The smiles on this show are everything.
This show had the best proposal ever. Seriously. The words were perfect. I want to remember this show for all the amazing smiles, Dong Joo’s family enjoying Soo Wan entering their lives, and that proposal scene.
The secondary characters, like the guys at the EMS station and the three emergency room workers, bring good humor to the show. Sadly, it drops off during the times of high drama probably when a viewer needs it the most.
But like all melos, of course all that peaches and cream, fluffiness and light has to end. Fewer of those million-watt smiles from the older version of Dong Joo meant fewer fun and romantic interactions with the main characters.
The Bad
I know I say this almost every show. But these are the WORST parents ever. And even worse, both Soo Wan’s father and Ji Woon’s mother are horribly selfish, unethical doctors, too. Soo Wan’s father is played by the lovesick fool father in Love Rain, who starts off as a terrible dad, but becomes better by the end of that show. Here not so much. Doctors who intentionally kill or harm people to further they’re own agenda whether they’re well-meaning, over-protective parents or not are evil. I feel no sympathy for either. Letting someone die to protect your child from going to jail deservedly or to take eyes to help your blind child see is not justifiable.
I liked the plot and wondering if Soo Wan’s dad would be found out was interesting. The unsolved hit-and-run case of Dong Joo’s mother the older detective and Soon Wan’s childhood friend Decteictive Cha are working on is also intriguing. But once it’s shown that Dr. Kang’s mother is the culprit who actually killed Jung Hwa (Dong Joo’s mother) at the hospital, it wasn’t a big leapt to figure out the next plot twist. It took three more episodes to get there, but knowing she was an extreme momma bear, I knew the driver of the car who hit Jung Hwa had to be Kang Ji Woon.
There are only two episodes to go in this series and for me the show has already worn out it’s welcome. I found myself zoning out on episodes 17 and 18 as they showed Soo Wan struggling through her anger and depression about her father, Dong Joo’s mother and her last angry words to her father. It was too tedious to watch. I’m no longer smiling along. I know it will probably be resolved happily with Dong Joo and Soo Wan finally reuniting and marrying. And maybe lil sis Hae Joo will find a long love with sweet EMS guy Teddy from Texas. And it will be nice.
It’s a really good show if you like weepy melodramas. It’s definitely one I’m not going to re-watch from start to finish.
Pinkpodster Ponders 