Drinking Solo (2016)

If you want a drama that will make you yell at the main characters, want to punch the male lead, hope that the female lead ends up with the second male lead, and have you more invested in the supporting characters relationships, then this is the drama for you!
I am almost mad at myself for spending so much time watching this drama. The only reason I'm not is because the premise was really good. The story had so much potential but was sadly completely ruined for me by Ha Suk Jin's character. This is the first drama I've completed where I truly hated the male lead. He treated Park Ha Sun's character so horribly, and just when I started to accept him as her love interest (note: ACCEPT, not support), he turned around and made me wish he would disappear. I've never watched a drama that made me think: "there's no way this couple would last". I don't know how he would ever earn her trust back after all he did to her.
On another note, the acting was wonderful! Even the supporting actors were phenomenal. I particularly enjoyed the three students' characters. They were great comedic relief without turning the characters into a joke or making them one dimensional.
I enjoyed the music as well! Although most of the soundtrack is instrumental, I actually downloaded some onto my phone I liked it so much.
I probably would have rated this much higher if the ML didn't piss me off so much, but other than that it was enjoyable (mainly due to the supporting characters).

Lire davantage

I really love this show at the first episodes but it fade away by the middle part, till the end i think. The characters are interesting. The story is decent, the characters has consistency with their character roles, no sudden unrealistic character development.
Then the trio friends of noryangjin (not sure about the spelling) made me laugh a lot. For me they are the highlight of this show. I must say i love the story of the supporting cast more than the main cast.
as i said earlier i began losing interest on the show by the middle part, not because it was bad, i just dont like the main male character. He is a good actor, its just that i dont find mean type of main lead appealing anymore. But for some reason such characters always find their way in dramas. I am rooting for his younger brother too. I think the story would have been better if 쌤 ended up with him. He is kind and the vibrant character type.
So far i think this show has a lot to offer. A mix and match of different, but wonderful characters.
This is definitely a must watch. It is simply written but very meaningful and decently presented. You'll fall in love with the characters. Their story will subtly touch you. I think this deserve better ratings too.

Lire davantage

This drama focused on their characters, which was pleasing as a viewer and really kept me engaged and interested in the drama throughout.

My main gripe were with the two main characters. Jung Seok the male lead was played well by Ha Suk Jin. But he was pompous and quite a jerk throughout the show, and I wasn't sure by the end of the drama whether there was real evolution and development of his character for the better.

The lead female character, Hana, frustrated me a majority of the drama. She was the polar opposite of the lead male character, Jung Seok, but not in a good way. She is sweet, sincere, earnest, but too much of a doormat, allowing Jung Seok to tread all over her in the workplace and all over her ego. I got pretty frustrated with her throughout the drama.

What I enjoyed most about the show were the trio of students, Dongyoung, Kibum, and Gong Myung. They are the real heart of the show and it seemed that most of the plot centered on their highs and lows of student life. Their storylines were equally amusing and moving and seemed very relatable for the youth of today.

While this is show is supposedly in the same vein as the Let's Eat series, which centered on single working adults living alone, I appreciated the decision to take a slightly different direction for this show, to focus on the civil service exam study-cram community, which hasn't had its time in the K-drama spotlight yet.

Overall it is worth a watch for some light and fairly breezy entertainment.

Lire davantage

First thing first. Drink moderately…

PLOT
It’s good to know that there’s this kind of drama where they justify why people tend to drink, whether in solo or in group. Why drinking should not always be perceive as a bad thing. But it gives us the reality why drinking should always be done moderately.

Just wondering how the writers come up with the idea to combine drinking and studying. Why not drinking and working? (Yeah, teaching is a work but it still related to studying.) Why not drinking and playing sports or any other combinations except studying? Personally, I find the drama a quite bad influence for students and teachers ALWAYS getting acquainted with alcohol.

Since one of the main concerns of the plot is studying, I want to relay my opinions. I don’t used to be a perfect student. I have my own flaws when I was in school. However, there’s some studying advise that worked for me but contradicts this drama. You can watch the drama and feel free to rebut my opinion if you want.
- To study effectively, one should have a proper rest. If you feel sleepy, sleep. If you feel hungry, eat. Don’t deprive the needs of your body. Our brain functions well if our body is in good condition.
- To study effectively, one should have focus. You cannot have proper focus if you study while standing and eating in a stall beside the street or studying while walking in a high-way.
- To study effectively, having a large crowd of student is a No-No. As a teacher, you should have atleast a personal interaction with your students once in a while during class. Students will feel more interested that way. But how come a teacher can do that if he has thousands of students in a room and can’t barely see them especially those students located in the back.

CHARACTERS
Honestly, I watched this drama because of Ha Seok-jin. After watching him in Something About 1%, I crave for him more. I have nothing much to say about the characters. Since this is just a light rom-com drama, I don’t have high expectations on them.

As a side comment, I find it more interesting the love story between Professor Hwang and Professor Min. Though it developed late, their chemistry is a pleasure to my eyes. :)

To sum up, I still manage to finish the drama struggling. Struggling whether I should drop it or continue it. In the end, I have no regrets holding on till the finale. I don’t have confidence in recommending this drama. But, if you find yourself curious why people drink and why studying is a crucial thing, feel free to give this drama a chance.

Lire davantage

Continuo não sabendo como expressar meus sentimentos, mesmo depois de ter terminado a série.

Vejamos. O que dizer sobre esse drama que mal conheço e já tenho sentimentos múltiplos por? Ele foi engraçado, fofinho, meio ridículo às vezes (meu problema com pastelão, aish), bem tenso em outras, me desapontou e me deixou querendo mais ao mesmo tempo!

De início eu já gostei da ideia de ter uma professora como protagonista, foi interessante ver esse lado da história, em vez do comum "vida cotidiana adolescente". E, apesar de tudo ser bem clichê, com toda aquela coisa de "garota pobre, garoto rico", "paixão pela professora", " garota estabanada e garoto esnobe", "crushs inalcansáveis" e vários outros, foi divertido assistir. Era engraçado adivinhar o que ia acontecer, os momentos romanticos e quando algum personagem pisava na bola, porque tudo era bem óbvio. Mas nada disso transforma a história numa coisa comum, por mais que possa soar isso. A ideia de retratar a parte boa de beber sozinho, sem ser aquela de estar solitário, triste e abandonado (por mais que às vezes esse fosse o motivo, mas eram raras as cenas que demonstravam isso) foi interessante. É um drama bem maduro, tratando desse assunto.

As partes mais engraçadas foram as do Kim Kibum, fato (adorei que o nome do personagem é o verdadeiro do Key, também, eu vivia brigando com ele e isso foi engraçado). É bem claro que ele é um dos alivios cômicos, mas felizmente isso não parece forçado na história. A personalidade dele é bem difícil e ele soa meio esnobe, às vezes, foi interessante ver esse lado do Key.

O final foi bem clichê, do tipo "após a tempestade, tudo ficou bem. Fim", mas eu não achei fraco. Acho que acontece tanta discórdia na série toda, que ver todo mundo bem no final foi um alivio. Gostaria que tivessem mostrado um pouquinho mais de cada casal, mas nada é perfeito, não é?

Lire davantage

This drama is just my type, with a slice of life genre I enjoyed watching this. I would say this is not for everyone, but for me the pacing is good and discusses the reality of Korean society. The taboos and problems presented are sensitive but they portrayed it in a good way, with comedy into it so it is somehow accepting. The "drinking solo" theme particularly in every episode expression is also good part to me. What made this drama enjoyable as well is the side characters. They are consistent and even Key who is not an actor did well here acting wise. For me, it was an interesting drama and I would recommend this to others, but more likely those who like this type of genres.

Lire davantage

I would like to title this drama as 'Alcohol Abuse' than calling it Drinking Solo. While food shows can be fun because you see so many varieties of food, it's no fun watching characters get drunk every episode and act annoying. I am not sure if I'm the only one who was bothered by the amounts of excessive drinking in the drama but it was pointless most of the time. But this drama is worth checking out for Key of SHINee. His acting is marvellous here and left quite an impression on me

While the story is fun and the academy premise is different, the story never really goes anywhere. The main focus here is humour, excessive drinking and nonsense romantic entanglements. I mean the characters are a load of fun- don't get me wrong but a lot of their actions often don't sit well. The main guy was a funny jerk till he became a borderline abusive jerk. The main female lead started off as shy and funny but soon turned into annoying with no improvement in character nor acting. I liked the casting for most of the part but whoever casted her did a poor job. Her friend was a terrible actress as well but she never failed to make me laugh. There's a guy who does impressions of popular Korean figures and he was quite funny most of the times. There are four students who get a lot of screentime and they were a lot more fun to watch than the main couple of the drama.

Ha Suk Jin is funny in the currently airing 1% of Anything and he is good here too. His character being written poorly wasn't his fault and he outperformed the female lead in almost every scene they were in together. I gave Park Ha Sun's acting a lot of chances but she almost became unbearable to watch in the later episodes. This is coming from someone who doesn't get that bothered with bad acting. Of course, the breakout stars were Key and Chaeyeon. Key is hilarious and his satoori was on-point. I also liked Chaeyeon because the character suited her image. Plus she's young so she did well compared to a lot of idols who debut around her age.

One thing that bothered me more than the general absence of plot in the drama was the glorification of alcohol abuse. The characters drink to the point it's terrible and not fun to watch. Plus how they were hardly ever hungover was beyond me. I thought Oh Hae Young from 'Again Oh Hae Young' had a drinking problem, but wait till you watch this drama. It wasn't funny because the characters would all act like retards a lot of times in the drama and keep passing out. Disgusting, really.

The positives of the drama are friendship and everyday humour which is quite relatable. The premise of students studying hard to nail exams was very realistic. Plus a lot of trivial stuff like boyfriend saying no to marriage, having a mother with Alzheimer's or chasing a girl who never dates are things that normally happen. The realistic side of the drama made it a lot of fun and every episode had laugh-out-loud moments.

I disliked the ending and wanted more out of it. I also didn't like the drama turning serious out of nowhere and a lot of decisions by the characters seemed OOC at times. Plus those hospital visits every K-drama has makes me want to tear out my hair!

This drama is worth checking out if you can stand an annoying female lead, alcohol glorification and some ridiculous romantic drama. Else it's skippable. Or just watch it for Key and become a SHINee fan if you aren't already (Ep 5 made my life lol).

Lire davantage

Completed this. phew. I dropped this drama initially because the lead pair were new to me and their character or actors themselves did not appeal to me. The story itself did not seem tight with dragged out scenes and repeated dialogues. Then I was watching Something about 1% and was sold on the hero, so I came back. It was a pity, the hero did not have much scenes or character development. What worked for this drama is the Norajin setting, everyday life there, the teachers, the students, their family. The highlight of the drama is the Three Idiotic Friends. They were so much fun with their twisted love lines. What did not work for the drama: the main couple romance was unexplored, even their reunion was a pity (atleast the ending between the other 2 professors were satisfactory), The dragged out scenes, the repeated dialogues ( I drink alone bcoz.... ). I hated the background music, I get the hero likes classical music but I don't have to hear them all through the good eating/drinking scenes. I totally lost it when they played Boom ayah, almost the whole song during Key's eating/drinking scene. Ooh, I complained a lot. Despite of all this, it was a pretty decent show. To me the highlight of the show was Kim Kibum.

Lire davantage

This drama leaves a lot to think about but no really for good:

First that all the drama have some annoying things in each episode is the Professor Jin repeat and repeat his reason to drinking alone, one time is ok but everytime irritating also key character repeat a sound such a "tiruri" is so bothering.

As for behaviors and personalities from the protagonist, it exceeds my limits of antipathy and selfishness. He was so arrogand with everybody, looks like without heart and He thinks he's better than others.

In a lot of episode doesnt happen anything was really boring ..I had to advance several minutes. The romantic relationships were ridiculous and absurd all suddenly and nosense specially between another two teacher in the academy.

To say nothing of students, the drama focus in 3. They a little bit unresponsability, lazy and idiot in some situation ,the end of this drama was hurried on.

With this drama I always was between boredom and irritation for this I cant give a good score.

Lire davantage

The only actors who are familiar to me is Gong Myung and Kim Wonhae. The others are new to me, this is the 1st drama I've watched where too many characters are unfamiliar.

Back to the story, I get bored too easily in this drama. And the characters are a little bit cringey. Everytime kibum will start singing the “tiroring" thingy it makes me cringe. And the attitude of jin jung suk is a little bit annoying(?) He's so prideful. Even tho he is the one who makes mistake he won't admit it. And the love story of Hana and jungsuk is a little bit fast. They don't have a chemistry for me. And what's with their name? I thought it's only gongmyung who's real name is the same name in this drama. But when I saw this list I was wrong. Are they too lazy to make names for their characters?

I'll give it a 3/10. I skipped so manyyyy scenes because I got bored.

Lire davantage

I don't think this is a show with mass appeal, so it appeals to only certain audience. Unfortunately, it did not appeal to me. I watched it as it aired, so I actually saw the entire thing, trying to slowly find a reason to find it good. The story is really meh, even if we take the genre it is supposed to be into account. The characters are not really likable to me and I didn't find myself rooting or feeling attached to any of them. The way how people treated each other in this show was sometimes appalling. Why would I want any of them to get together? So I ended up just slowly paddling along and waiting for some miracle to happen. I did come across one episode with a slow motion scene that had me laugh loud the entire time, but left me craving more quirky, weird scenes like that. Overall, this was just really not a good show and personally I would not recommend watching it.

Lire davantage