Cheers to Me (2015)

An Office Drama First, Food is Complementary.

First and foremost, I think you should know that this is not a food drama. It's an office drama, with the main protagonist being a big foodie and alcohol lover. Drinking is a massive part of Korean culture, especially office culture. So it's no wonder that in some episodes, the alcohol tends to take the stage during meal scenes (while in others, the food does). The alcohol is purely to go with and accentuate the meal though, as we rarely see her ordering more. And I think she only got tipsy/drunk a couple of times. What makes out FL stand out though, is that she often prefers to enjoy her meals (and thus, her alcohol) alone.

But this is pretty in-character for her. She doesn't understand what everyone's fixation is with social events and gossip. In fact, she probably knows the most about everyone, simply from observing, but never gets involved unless asked to or necessary. It's very refreshing.

Because of this, inter-character drama is a minimum. And there is no romance. Instead, this is a story about career success and how there is more to life than career success - through the revelations and experiences of our 30-year-old successful career woman main protagonist.

I will say though that sometimes the office scenarios kicked me out of the story. Some events seem to act as if the editors are the writers of the stories they are publishing. Or will otherwise conflate the different positions within the publishing industry. Nonetheless, it was a rare find to have a drama focus the editors, rather than the writers.

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It has the slice of life genre that I like. It's pretty slow and maybe boring to some, but it is what it is, it talks about the life of a korean employee. It has the vibes of one episode per learning, but I didn't know if I did really learned from the drama.

The actors were familiar, most of the leads I already know of as I have seen them in other dramas. Their acting were just fine, they did deliver. The one thing that did not really convinced me is that I was not really into the food presented though it was a food drama. I was not tempted with it so I guess it was not effectively conveyed to me as a watcher.

I felt 50-50 with the drama, it's not bad but it's not good either.

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Very little to say.....

...both from me and from this drama.

I reached the end of Ep4 of this drama and completely lost any kind of enthusiasm to continue. Ep1 was slow and quiet with lots of food and some alcohol but little happening in the story. Ep2 was the same. Ep3, same again. It's almost like a food programme with a fake half-hearted attempt at an office story to fill in between meals. I watched to the end of Ep4 because I am very aware that the start of a drama does not always indicate its overall quality. From the start of Ep1 to the end of Ep4 I think I saw four very short and semi-meaningful but boring conversations and six or seven detailed cooking/looking/eating of meals. They looked nice. By Ep4 though....the Nothing had continued relentlessly at the speed of a dying snail...and heck...If you really need to fall asleep, this is just the thing for you.

It's a shame because both the ML and FL have far more talent to them than this flaccid story allowed them to show.

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