Zíza

Although they cheat in this one slightly differently, it's still the same old thing all over again. I like Erika, but not so much here. Shota is great, no exception here. It didn't particularly move me, but neither did the first season. If that one didn’t particularly interest you, don't even bother with the second one, it's not worth it. A weak 3 stars – it took a lot of work to finish it.

An interesting story, Nishikido still hasn't convinced me of his acting ability, but Tackey was great – I enjoyed his performances, plus I found him awfully likable. Such an informative series that leaves you wondering at times, it has sad and happy moments. It deals more with the moral and ethical side of things than the "supernatural" itself – you have the ability to take anyone's life or cure them, so what do you do with it? A better 3 stars, if it weren't for a couple of little things (an unnecessary effort to lecture too much) it would be 4 stars and I'd eat it up with a spoon despite all the illogicality.

Nagase Tomoya was even more awesome here than in My Boss, My Hero. The facial expressions, the exaggerated emotions, the absurdity, the parody. The series didn't let up for a minute, so one time when my sister and I watched two episodes in one day, we agreed that it was too much, that you really can't do that. So an episode a day is the maximum, and I wouldn't recommend more than that. It takes a while to get used to the whole ridiculous setting, but in the end you don't even want to say goodbye, even though they put together a very epic ending. I had fun, and I enjoyed the supporting characters too, the group of singles that met in the bar was great. All the actors did a great job here, they had fun and you could really tell. If you're not into comedies where the main character is a jerk and makes a face that makes it easy to mistake him for an orangutan, I don't think this is for you. But I liked it better than another similar comedy from the detective setting, Meitantei no Okite.

The problem with the "slice of life" genre is that it’s not for everyone, and that even if you liked it once, that doesn't mean you'll like it again. And unfortunately, that's what happened with Honey and Clover. Despite the magnificent cast, my high expectations were not met at all. Unfortunately I didn't care for the characters; Hagumi was the hardest to tolerate, I hate those types, not to mention the name! Probably the ugliest Japanese name I've ever heard. It all felt so formulaic, the twists that came, the decisions that were made, and I just thought: "Oh well, that's the josei genre exactly, just throw in another bad cliché so I can grumble and be even more dissatisfied." And they did! Now it's gonna be slightly spoilery. Ikuta left to find himself, Naruma's art was threatened, Mukai finally made it into those pants, I mean to Spain... End of spoiler Their senpai was like a deus ex machina there, and in the end, the most sympathetic characters to me were the ones played by Murakami Jun and Kashiwabara Takashi. I was so excited, then so disappointed. I couldn't sympathize with either character so it was boring. Ah well, such great actors, and such a disappointment. A sad 2 stars.

The lead actress wasn't great; maybe it was the character. But I’ve got to hand it to her, she was fun at times. The four bros were fine, they had a great relationship, but I don't know... the acting was mediocre. Good for a good time.

Even if the actors were working hard here and there, nothing could save the horrifically bad script. Won Joo may be a good actor, but he just didn't have much to do here. Not to mention, I found the main character terribly unlikable the whole time and felt like she wasn't playing what she was supposed to. A terrible show, even the minimum of palatable scenes and the one mediocre song couldn't save it. An obvious Titanic.

Unfortunately, I only found the ethics teacher sympathetic when she wasn't dealing with romantic relationships, but with anything else – i.e. student problems. The same could be said of the others. They were fine as long as they weren't dealing with those horrible relationship problems, crying, screaming, and generally doing stupid things. Not to mention that for the first eight episodes I really didn't like the show, or rather, I didn’t care. Yes, the relationships between the guys are great. This foursome friendship thing is fine. That alone could earn that one star with a back left foot. The same for the "flashback" scene at the beginning of each episode. That was the one thing I always looked forward to. But otherwise? Seo Yi-Soo is just a shy, virginal, and pubescent, and I couldn't stand her like that considering how the show was pretending to be mature and above it all (again, we're talking in terms of romantic relationships). I found Im Tae San and Hong Se Ra's relationship the most interesting, they were a lot of fun. The rest of the relationships were just hysterical snotty stuff. Especially the widower and the young Meari, who was weeping in practically every episode. I understand why the show is popular, but aside from the friendships between the four men, it just doesn't have much to offer. If that wasn't there, it would just be a bad clichéd series. Not to mention it needs to be knocked down a rating. So for me, a better 2 stars.

The heroine brought something a little different to the genre – she openly admitted that she's in it for the money. That's definitely a big plus for me. The main character was a bumpkin, which was also fine here and there, and managed to put a smile on my lips. It's just that as a whole it didn't work all that well, it really grated at times. It's not bad, and it's certainly not a bad idea to check it out, but don't expect any miracles.

I confess that this was definitely not a series where I would sit down and never be able to tear myself away. I actually watched it over a long period, an episode or two here and there, and that was enough. What bothered me was the way the two unhappy characters kept flapping about and never having what they needed to be happy in life. I actually got into it about five or six episodes before the end when it finally caught on, and I gave it my full attention even though the last two episodes were just cheap filler again, though still watchable thanks to some very strong scenes. The acting was excellent, but the fact is that Son Ye-jin was the best of the bunch. The music didn't move me. It's challenging to watch, it's based on real life, and because it's a fairly realistic Korean series, I opted for a higher rating (I had it between 3-4, but let's face it, it's just not up to those three). Seeing who wrote the subject matter, it's starting to dawn on me a bit why it feels quite real and why the characters can't really discuss with each other what they should (but if they did, it wouldn't be 16 episodes, it would be five). Anyway, if you're in the mood for something very, very civil aimed more at an older audience or those with deeper experience with relationships, go for it.

Nothing terrible, but unfortunately I'd already seen Pinocchio and Healer (whose main character was the apprentice here), and I liked those series from the journalistic setting much better. Here, I wasn't so much interested in the main character, let alone the heroine, who I literally wanted to send to the moon at the beginning, but fortunately the use of the word "garbage" subsided and she immediately became easier to get along with. I didn't particularly care, I didn't sympathize with the characters – it was a bit like a football match, so we've got the ball, let's try and kick it across the pitch into your goal, did it work? The other side has the ball and tries the same thing over and over again, plus there are some fouls and red cards here and there. It didn't leave any real impression on me. Not once did I ever think: "Yeah, that was really good!" The music was bland, the cinematography standard, the script rather weak, the villain villainous. If you want to see a series set in a journalistic environment, I'd probably recommend the two aforementioned series. A weaker 3 stars.