1% of Something

So, I finished off (finally) Revenge Note (if I'd realised I only had one episode left, I'd have finished it months ago) and Triad Princess. Was going back and forth on what to do next and settled on 1% of Something (also known as Something About 1%) because I've heard good things about it, it's got the forced cohabitation/contract marriage-y thing (which I sometimes enjoy) and, perhaps most importantly right now, the episodes are about 40 minutes each and I wanted to work out for about 80 minutes. Watched the first two today while on the elliptical for a total of 88 minutes (got interrupted a few times, hence the few extra minutes when I paused it but kept going with the cross trainer). 894 calories.

But I suppose I should talk about the show, right? Not about my effort to whittle myself away to nothing. Ok. I knew going in that he's some rich chaebol grouchy pants and she was supposed to be sweet and kind and that the grandfather is trying to force them to get married. I know, I know, this is an old, old, old oft used plot. I don't know much more now, other than that the grandfather found the pretty little school teacher when she saved him and took him to hospital when he had some kind of unexplained accident on the way to see his wife's grave. Why this rich chairman dude looked like a homeless guy at the time, I have no idea.

The important thing about that is that he changes his will and wants one of his grandsons -- preferably the favourite one Lee Jae-In -- to marry her and inherit. But at this point, all the poor lady knows is that this chaebol jerk (and he most definitely is a total ass -- he thinks she wound up in the will because she seduced his grandfather or something) and a lawyer show up with a crazy story. She has no idea who grandpa is and keeps telling them that. And grandfather refuses to meet with them (which would reveal the story) because he wants jerk face grandson to learn something. At her expense. Which at least an underling that knows the story has told him.

By the end of episode 2, she has made a deal with chaebol grandson that he helps out her favourite young singer (who calls her teacher? so maybe he's either somehow related or was a student or...?) and her school (nothing for herself) and she'll pretend to date him for six months (what he had negotiated his grandfather down to). Next up, I'm sure, will be the other grandson finding out what's up with the will and going after her too.

I'm going to be too lazy to write out who everyone is, so I stole this from the AsianWiki page:

Min Tae-Ha is the other grandson. No idea if he's a good guy or a bad guy, just know that Lee Jae-In hates him. But he hates everyone. Lee Lyoo-Chul is the meddling grandpa. Park Hyung-Joon is the ever suffering lawyer who is inexplicably friends with Lee Jae-In but works for Grandpa. Kang Dong-Suk is the underling/grandpa's spy.

One bonus is that these are all new actors to me. I really haven't seen any of the leads in anything else and all the others the most I've seen them in is as a bit part. So that's kinda fun. I've seen so many of these things now that it's hard to find a show with no one I know.

So far, I really like the female lead. She's feisty. Though, honestly, even for what she agreed with, I have no idea why she'd help out Lee Jae-In at all, because he has been a complete asshole to absolutely everyone so far. This show is going to have to do a LOT of work to get me around to his side and root for them to be together. I don't even see an excuse like he had a sad childhood or anything. All of his family seems nice, if meddlesome. He's just a money-grubbing jerk so far. 

But I've heard enough times that this is a great show, so I'll stick with it for now. It's got a 9.5 rating on Viki. There are only 16 episodes too, so that'll be 8 days worth of exercise time. 

Edit: Eh, so I'm through 2 more episodes (87 minutes, 869 calories) and...well...there's not been much that's actually moved the plot forward as yet. He's still a total dick. She's still feisty, but now they are bringing out her clumsy/always losing things/always getting lost thing...which is kind of a pain in the ass. They couldn't have just made her competent? And the other grandson hasn't done anything (and doesn't know anything). Neither has grandpa. 

The only forward progress is there were two flashbacks for Lee Jae-In and his very confusing family background. So...his mother is not his mother though she seems to love/protect him like she is? And she had lost her own son when he was young? But Jae-In was at the funeral to comfort her? And the woman he calls his aunt is actually his birth mother? And she re-married some English speaking guy and has another family now? Very unclear on how they are all related to grandpa now. 

I'm sure it was supposed to humanise him but he's now turned into a super possessive jerk face (kissing her without permission, kabedon galore, demanding she not even talk to other guys while reiterating over and over that he doesn't want to marry her and hasn't fallen for her). All while grinning to himself whenever he thinks on his time with her. So...eh, I'm kinda meh on this so far. He's still just an asshole. Maybe an asshole with some childhood tragedy of weird chaebol proportions, but an asshole nonetheless. The leads do have chemistry together but I really just want her to tell him to f-off at this point. That doesn't bode well. I mean, how many wrist grabs can one show have?

Edit: After Episode 6 (82 minutes, 906 calories). For a relatively short show, things are really moving pretty slow. Jae-In has slightly improved but I'm really still wanting her to wipe the smirk off his face. Da-Hyeon is falling for him a bit now and I think it's too soon (even though, at the same time, more really needs to have happened by this point in the show...I know that doesn't make sense). The small bits of yielding / kindness he's shown really don't make up for his asshole-ness. Am I being too harsh? Eh, I dunno. 

They've introduced Da-Hyeon's best friend's older brother as someone who's interested in her (maybe) but it doesn't look like a serious second lead threat. And they haven't developed Number 2 Grandson as any kind of competition either -- he's just done a little bit of spying, but there's no way to get a handle on him yet. He's said, like, four words so far. His dad and mother are definitely schemers, but there's no way to know what he's up to. And, honestly, Jae-In needs some competition.

I'm going to keep watching, but I don't think so far that this'll be going on my list of favourites.

Edit: After Episode 8 (78 minutes, 708 calories). Jae-In is finally softening up, but now they've gone and given her a drunken love confession. I feel like it needed to be him making first moves. But, eh, oh well. Things still moving v-e-r-y slowly from other grandson (though, there's hints at least that he's not a bad guy but maybe his parents are the crap ones?) and non-existent from the best friend's brother. The show is half over and I feel like not a lot has actually happened. Nothing from grandpa either.

Edit: After Episodes 9 & 10 (83 minutes, 790 calories) Eh, so. They've introduced the evil ex-fiancé that now (of course) wants to marry Jae-In even though they apparently hate each other and haven't seen each other in 3 years. And Tae-ha has finally had a conversation or two with Da-Da. Honestly, so far it really looks like he's a decent guy with horrible parents. Jae-In has been better, but they've made our poor female lead be all jealous. I really wish they'd kept her as strong as in the first episodes. She's the one who has to do all the bending. I guess, at least some things are finally starting to brew. Hopefully in the next few episodes he gets to be on the receiving end and has a chance to step up. Though, seriously, I feel like she took her house being broken into a little easy, especially when it seems like it was someone after info on her because she's dating Jae-In. Why wouldn't any reasonable person just say, yo, dude, shove off with you and all your chaebol craziness. It's not like he's confessed any heartfelt feelings to her...

Edit: After Episodes 11 and 12: (84 minutes, 1119 calories, obviously the harder program) The female lead is WAY too forgiving. I am glad that 2nd grandson wasn't evil and now he's sort of working with Jae In. They teased meeting grandpa, but didn't do it. Annoyed at that. Let's get that on with! Why are you waiting?! What's the point? The Evil Ex-Fiancé is unbelievable in her motivation and execution. And annoying. I'd peg my enjoyment at this point at somewhere between 60 to 75%. Jumin would be better at this, and he's slightly cuckoo-pants.

Edit: After Episodes 13 and 14 (83 minutes, 1099 calories) So. Just two more episodes left. FL is seriously way WAY WAY too nice and confusing. Evil Ex kidnaps her and basically offers her up to Tae-ha (no one says sexual assault was on the table, but, eh, obviously it was if he hadn't been a nice guy) and at first FL is mad when Evil Ex comes to "apologise" (i.e. in that rich bitch way that blames other people and isn't an apology at all) and says she won't forgive her and then literally 5 seconds later when Jae-In shows up, says she forgives her. WTH? 

And then they go into a montage of happy dating moments for awhile. And then the end date of their contract is there and neither of them go hey, I love you, should we try and make this work and they just go their separate ways, all Noble Idiot-y. Not that I actually think, honestly, that she should stay with him. Probably the nicest thing he's done in this whole damn show is let her go knowing that if she stays with him her life would be kinda miserable as he knows he'll be working insane hours and she'll get bullied. But geez. The level of chaebol idiocy is high in this one, yo. And you know they're going to wind up together, so how does that work if his situation doesn't change? Eh, I'll be glad when I'm done with this one tomorrow. 

I'm not saying that it's horrible. It's not. It's probably that this is a storyline that has been done to the death and I guess I was hoping for a little something more or different. The only thing I can agree with from the reviews I'd seen from people going on and on about how good this was is that the two leads do at least have pretty good chemistry together. 

Edit: Finished episodes 15 and 16 (88 minutes, 920 calories + 20 minutes of yoga) Okay, it ended well enough. The split up with the whole "I'm miserable without you" from both of them, then the reunion when he finally goes to her (mostly because he's jealous and can't stand to think of her with another man...which...ugh), then the "but only if our families are okay" thing. Then a brief glimpse into their married life wherein she's herself but the journalists love her because she's the same as she always was -- kind and generous. Though now it's seen as noblesse oblige so...yeah.

And I wonder why they bothered making his mom be...not his birth mom. It never really came up as an important plot point. What was the purpose in that? Just to be...different? Different is fine, but there has to be a point or a reason or, I dunno, something. Maybe it was a red herring? 

I feel like I'm being too hard on it. Really, it's not bad. The actors were all good. Most things were wrapped up -- though they left the "how grandpa met DaDa" until the very last freaking episode where Jae-In still expresses surprise when she doesn't know who grandpa is until the dude shows her the medical bill from when she took him to the hospital. After all, why would she remember? It was over 6 months before (probably more like 8? If we count the breakup) and she's the kind of person that's, well, kind. She helps people. How does Jae-In still not trust/believe her at this point? And they never really wrapped up Jisu (the musician / idol she supports) so we still don't know how / why they are connected or find out what happened with him and Jae-In's little half-sister who likes him. At least they did give a hint of closure to Tae-ha, who fell hard for DaDa's best friend. Which is unlikely, but sweet. 

So...to sum up. Am I glad I watched it? Sure. Not overjoyed and I didn't totally love it, but it was okay. If I'd watched this months ago or when I first started watching Kdramas, I probably would have liked it more. The leads did have great chemistry together and there wasn't any of those fishy no-movement kisses. Plot was pretty typical and contained no shockers. Would I watch it again? Eh, probably not. If a clip shows up in my Facebook feed, I might pause to watch it. And I wouldn't avoid any of the actors. They were all good. 

Now I gotta figure out what I'm going to watch next. No idea. Something without any chaebol stuff, I suspect.