20th Century Boy and Girl

Not sure why this one is called 20th Century Boy and Girl when they are all supposed to be in their 30's (and actually are in real life)? But, no matter. Excited to watch something with actors closer to my age.

It's the story of three long-time girl friends, though it is pretty clear that Sa Jin Jin (Han Ye Seul) is the main character. Or maybe I should say four friends, because the main romance interest played by Kim Ji Suk (the one standing in the picture--his character is Gong Ji-Won) was also part of their high school group. At any rate, none of the three ladies ever got married though they are approaching the latter half of their 30's now. Sa Jin Jin is an actress/former Idol and very successful...but she's never dated. Han A-Reum (Ryoo Hyoun-Kyoung) is a flight attendant and Jang Young-Sim (Lee Sang-Hee) is a lawyer looking for a job.

I'm about to start episode 5 -- these are quick episodes at about 30 minutes long -- and so far the main thrust of the story is Sa Jin Jin being thrown into a couple of scandals through no fault of her own. I'm not going to do a re-hash of every bit of it. No time at the moment. Just going to talk about the highlights.

I started this one because it was on a list of 5 K-Drama Leads That Break The Toxic Bad Boy Trope along with Ahn Min Hyuk from Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. And since Park Hyung Sik's character in that was the best thing in my week last week, I thought I'd give it a go.

So far I'd say it looks pretty decent. Acting is fine and not overwrought. Plot so far seems pretty straightforward and typical. You know darn well going in that Sa Jin Jin is going to wind up with Gong Ji-Won (and he totally seems worth it, already supporting her but not asking for anything in return). It seems sweet. I do very much like the good friendship between the three female leads -- it's supportive and realistic. I could use some friends like that. Anyone wanna be my new best friend? Heh. Also like that they aren't 20-somethings and, other than Sa Jin Jin's superstar status, seem pretty normal.

At the same time, I wouldn't say that this one has grabbed me so far. Like, I'm not anxious to get on to the next episode. Not that there's been anything wrong with it at all. So we'll see how that goes. More later after a few more episodes. There are 32 total so I've got a long way to go.

Edit -- About to start episode 7. Would've been farther along but have been busy (finished that Reader's Report on the manuscript for my third editor -- very torn on it...some really good elements but also felt the Egyptian worldbuilding a bit lax and the dialogue was anachronistically modern). Anyway...this show...welllllllll...still liking it but it's also got a very slow pace. Not really anything much has happened in the last episodes. Even though Sa Jin Jin and Gong Ji-Won have now run into each other multiple times (living in the same frickin' building) and they both SO obviously have some feelings for each other / memories...she's literally not said more than 5 words to him. Not sentences. Words. And three of those words were her saying his name the first time they ran into each other at the airport when he saved her. So...we'll see. I think (so far) that I like it enough to finish it unless it really goes off the rails as the actors seem good, but it would be nice if something, you know, happens...