2PMathon Update: Week One

I thought some updates on how my 2PMathon is going was in order. I’m going to try to do them on Fridays for the rest of the month, but I didn’t do one last week since it had been only three days into the challenge. Now that we’re ten days in I do have some things to talk about.

Officially I haven’t finished any dramas. However, I have started them and decided to go into it with my top two hardest - which is why I haven’t finished anything. As of the time I’m writing this, I’ve watched eleven episodes of Shall We Fall in Love, and three episodes of Dream High. I had to start immediately on Shall We Fall in Love, as it’s a 35 episode Chinese drama and knew I was going to have to stagger it to keep up with it. So let’s talk about some things.

Dream High

Oh Dream High.

Only thing getting me through this is 2PM and wine. On a whole, I knew that this was going to probably be the drama I had the most problems with. I started training in voice when I was in middle school. I continued on training and going to competitions and singing in numerous choirs until I switched from a vocal performance major to a theatre major in my first year of college. I’m not the average person that is watching this. And it’s rough. End of the first episode was rough and they didn’t give me enough of him actually knowing her character to make the obvious judgment call that she was too arrogant. Maybe not show the judges saying yes to someone who was off-pitch before you make me believe Suzy’s character is going to get eliminated that fast. At least try to make it make sense by showing me a scene where he witnesses it happen more than what we saw. Just cause the audience knows she’s terrible, doesn’t mean the random character does.

Side note, does this saxophone player look like Sungjin to anyone else? I’m like 99% positive he’s not in this, but it looks like him.

It also didn’t help that I had forgotten that I had actually watched part of the first episode before. And it wasn’t until about 30 seconds before Kim Hyun Joong actually appeared when I made the connection. It’s one thing to watch him when you are prepared (like when we did a reaction of Boys Over Flowers for the podcast), but caught off guard? Not so much. Sigh.

But all that is nitpicking. What I hate about this drama, and something I knew I would really find hard to get through, is IU’s character. I love IU, and the character itself is fine. She’s not the issue. Do I need to sit here and watch someone in a fat suit constantly shamed into thinking they are less of a person that they had to wear a costume for their audition because - let me check my notes - they aren’t skinny? I already know she’s going to have the skinny redemption arc (can’t be fat!) and I already hate it with burning fiery passion. Is Wooyoung’s character sweet? Absolutely, and it is the saving grace but it’s still not enough.

Honestly, if it weren’t for that plot, this drama would be just a drama that I don’t want to sit through now, but conceivably be something that I would have loved back in high school. But I wouldn’t have liked that plot back then either. It’s hard watching your being always constantly torn down onscreen. It’s been really hard picking this one up because of it, and combine that with it being hard to force myself to watch things I don’t like, it’s been tough.

Shall We Fall in Love

Shall We Fall in Love is not a terrible drama. It’s just not a good drama for me. It’s not my level of comedy, and I’m already not really drawn to romance being the main plot in dramas, but this really was the only drama option I had for Nichkhun. I tried the first episode of One and a Half Summer, but it was unwatchable (literally, very poor quality), so I’ve settled on this one. There are a lot of episodes, but they last about 40 minutes so it’s not as bad as it could be.

And Fei.

I don’t talk a lot about my love of Fei, but I loooove Fei. She was my favorite in Miss A and she’s just stayed consistently my favorite. I really love her character in this. I’ve been so pleasantly surprised about how her character is progressing. I thought for sure she would be the typical outrageously terrible human, but she’s not. She is spoiled, rich, and grew up not having to worry about things, yes. But she’s not a terrible person at all. She almost reminds me a bit of Kang Han Na’s character in Just Between Lovers. Honestly, I’m in this for her and she’s been succeeding. The lead female is very sweet and on a whole she’s a nice character and the actress does well. Nichkhun is cute, but he plays a role I can’t stand so I have to deal with that. When he’s with the two females his character definitely evens out more, but left to his antics for each episodes…it’s just not my vibe.

Would I have dropped this if i wasn’t doing this challenge? Absolutely, the few moments an episode I enjoy aren’t enough on the whole, but this really isn’t a bad drama. I’m just not the audience, and that’s ok. I do think there are good amount of people that I know that would be really into it, so definitely check it out if you are into romantic comedy with an over charismatic klutzy (but has heart) male lead.

I’ll be back next Friday with more updates, but I also think I’m going to try posting more on my Instagram stories during the week for check ins, so make sure you follow me if you want to know what’s going on. I’m hoping that I can just bare through Dream High and get that done to not to feel like a failure at a challenge that I made, and be able to pick up a non-comedy soon. I’m leaning towards Confession.

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