Falling Stars

Welp. I watched the final episodes of Where Stars Land this morning. It was mostly a disappointment, though there was one thing they handled far better than I thought they would, so I'm thankful for that. And at least it had what was meant as a happy ending.

But, it was a very rushed ending and news on Twitter and the Internet seems to indicate that they ran out of time (and some people had originally thought it was going to be 40 episodes and not 32? so that could explain some of that too). It definitely felt like they rushed it though, at the same time, there were bits of it that felt like filler.

Let me back up. First off, they finally resolved all of the gangster nonsense (mostly), though I still never felt like it made much sense. How had this been going on for 10 years with his step brother? What was on the stupid hard drive that nothing ever happened with? Did Director Jo really get away with a slap on the wrist? Was all of that nonsense really just about privatising the airport? Did the brothers ever really reconcile? You never see them together again. Also, the older brother's redemption arc really kinda only picked up at the very end. There should have been more hints early on.

Then...still up until the very freaking last second, Seo Yeon is holding on to his potential martrydom with a vengeance. It's SO Me Before You. I really didn't like that Mr. Jang gave Yeo Reum the gadget that would disable Seo Yeon's robotic arm/leg, leaving it up to her to decide whether or not to go against Seo Yeon's idiotic oh noble me, I won't burden you, I'd rather die wishes. The only saving grace for that is he did come around at the very end and pushed the button with her. It would have been a very wrong character arc for her to have pushed the button for him.

Though...hello, plot holes. What was the point of the gadget anyway? Why even bother to have to push it? It was supposed to be an emergency measure if his arm malfunctioned again. RATHER THAN ALL THAT USELESS DRAMA, HE COULD HAVE JUST TAKEN OFF THE DEVICES. They were just sitting at home. No reason for the button. That's all that Mr. Jang was trying to get him to do before. Just NOT WEAR THEM. Until he healed. Seriously. WTF.

AND THEN they do a useless one year time jump FOR NO GOOD REASON other than (probably) trying to make up time in the production schedule or something. And do the lazy, artificial angst-y thing of him going off to America and NOT ONCE contacting her in any way while he's gone. AT ALL. Apparently, not even an update from Mr. Jang. Even Rowoon's character (the perennially friendzoned lovely dude) was, like, that's ridiculous in this interconnected day and age. (Yes, yes it is.) THEN ten minutes (maybe more) of that last episode is spent on random airport shenanigans.

Dear Writers/Producers: we don't care about seeing Im Won-Hee selling wifi to a bunch of confused elders at this point. Actually, at no point would I have cared about that, but I would have rolled with it in the first 10 episodes. Not now.

And then...about another 5 minutes is spent, maybe more, on Yeo Reum realising Seo Yeon is in the airport and running around trying to find him...she finally does...and the entire ending of the show is her running to him and hugging him, tears, etc. and not once do they show his face at all. I'm guessing it might not have even been Lee Je Hoon (the actor). Like they had to shoot something and he couldn't be there and so they found someone who had a similar head shape. Otherwise, I cannot think of a single reason for them to have made that choice.

You're crying? Me too. The ending sucked rocks.

The story is arguably more his story than hers AND THEY DON'T EVEN SHOW HIS FACE at the end. He says nothing. Not even in a voiceover. Oh, so pissed about that. The pacing was annoying and the plot bits they left hanging were, like, GAH, but this really feels unforgivable. So lazy and insulting to the viewers.

Also finding it a bit meh that their solution to the whole thing is that he's obviously still wearing the devices and it's just all better now.

The other big thing that has bothered me all along is that Yeo Reum was SO useless to no purpose in the beginning and you have no clue why until more than halfway through when the bully from her high school shows up. That bit of story should have been moved up significantly.

Am I glad I watched it? Ermmmmm, maybe 60%? I did like all of the actors, especially the leads. They did a really good job with what they were given. Lee Je Hoon was particular effective, but Chae Soo Bin was also very good, even when she was really annoying. I'll be on the lookout for them in other things. The secondary romance characters were really well done and so very sweet and enjoyable to watch. Hope to see them in more things too. Rowoon was entirely too cute and sweet.

Would I watch it again? No. Partly because I'm kinder on a first watch than a re-watch and somehow I imagine all of the plot ickiness would bug me even more the second time around.

I suppose the most galling thing was that it didn't have to be this way. I can think of at least three ways this could have been written that would have worked so much better than what they wound up with. Yes, armchair quarterback and all that, BUT, hey, as a writer, YES, I could have done better.

Also, I'd really like to smack the people that write up the show blurbs.

Is it possible to do well in a job when you know it’s not exactly the job you had in mind?
Lee Soo Yeon (Lee Je Hoon) dreamed of becoming a pilot, but his poor vision squashed that dream. He goes to work at Incheon International Airport in the general planning department but harbors a secret that makes him keep his distance from his coworkers.

Han Yeo Reum (Chae Soo Bin) is a bubbly new passenger service agent at the airport who is eager to do her best. But her clumsy nature makes her a threat to herself and the passengers.

Can Soo Yeon clean up the messes that Yeo Reum creates on the job?

How does that description have ANYTHING at all to do with what the show was actually about? I went into it thinking it was probably going to be some kind of meet-cute thing.