Oh! Master: Episodes 11-12 Open Thread
by missvictrix
As our hero continues through his natural and supernatural ordeals, he seems to learn a lot about life, and how precious and short it is. Will he use his time to be with the woman he loves? Or will it make him run away, for fear of causing her pain? I wish the drama did a better job at making us care.
EPISODES 11-12 WEECAP
I’d love to write a nice insightful weecap about our episodes this week, but that would require there being an actual plot, never mind that plot being even a little bit complex and compelling. Sadly, Oh! Master is continuing its confusing nosedive, and it hurts even more than usual because they’re wasting a fantabulous cast and a story that had a lot of potential just a few short weeks ago.
When we left off last week, Bi-soo went through his second bout of shutting out Joo-in, and came around a second time. Most of Episode 11 is spent with them being cute together, and while I don’t see fit to complain about this, it doesn’t really do much for the plot, which at this point in the story, should be escalating somewhere interesting, not riding this endless (downward?) slalom.
Joo-in and Bi-soo are the cutest, of course, but how easy is it to unplug your brain from the story and just enjoy the characters giggling together and going on outings? For me, not that easy. Add in the sense of impending doom — we all know what’s coming — and the pleasure is sucked right out of it. Because what’s that thing that’s headed our way like the Truck of Doom? Why, noble idiocy of course.
At first we see the two enjoying each other’s company. Joo-in is fully enjoying being in love, and so is Bi-soo, but he also has this weight on him. So when the two enjoy a lovely outing, it ends with them writing letters to each other a year in the future. This is is basically the story’s not-so-subtle way of torturing Bi-soo and giving him a way to communicate the truth of what’s going on that he currently (of course) refuses to tell her.
Secrets and truth might be a good thing to explore in this weecap, since there’s really not much to say about the plot. Earlier in the story, I found it interesting that many of the important reveals we had (around our characters and their health) were brought about because people did not respect requests to keep things a secret.
The character of Dr. Jung, in particular, seems to exist solely to share secrets between the Bi-soo and his mother that they would have otherwise never told each other — cancer, traumatic loss of voice, etc. I kind of got a kick out of Dr. Jung’s refusal to respect their wishes, not because it was noble, but because she kept the conduit open between these two, and that kept the plot moving. But now, we are stuck in a communication vacuum between Bi-soo and Joo-in, and there isn’t a character that can fulfill the same function Dr. Jung did.
So, while we see Joo-in and Bi-soo enjoying life and love together, we also begin to see Bi-soo pull away. There’s literally zero exposition around why/what is happening to him — instead, the story only cares about the effects of is: namely, that Joo-in will be heartbroken and alone soon. And Bi-soo, in one of the worst drama hero tropes ever, tells her nothing, and instead decides to cut her off now, before they get any deeper.
There’s a level of noble idiocy I can stomach, and usually more than most, probably because I find the concept of sacrificial love quite compelling. But not here. Here, it’s just dumb. By the end of Episode 12, Bi-soo returns to jerk mode and announces they need to break up. We’ve seen Bi-soo deal so well with the truths around his parentage and his mother’s health, that it’s perplexing he won’t bring that same level of honesty to his own relationship. What woman would prefer to be lied to and pettily break up with the person they adore instead of just confronting the truth and supporting each other, no matter what that means?
To summarize my feelings on this week: Bi-soo goes the way of the trope grab-bag, Joo-in has not much to do at all (again), Yoo-jin waits in the wings like the best of second lead pawns, and our leads’ mothers are cute but their story remains tangential and/or underused in a way I can’t quite explain yet.
What waits for us in the final weeks of this drama? I can’t even begin to guess. Is it miraculous healing? A fresh start for our hero? Or broken hearts all around? I have a feeling we will be yanked around quite a bit before we find out, because this drama’s bag of plot tricks is more random than the way Bi-soo’s father reared his villainous head and then straight-up disappeared from the drama. Perhaps next week will make more sense.
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Tags: Kang Min-hyuk, Lee Min-ki, Nana, Oh! Master
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1 danid
May 1, 2021 at 3:54 PM
I don't know what to say about this anymore. I just want it to end so we can see Nana acting in Glitch and Lee Minki acting in My Liberation Diary. Ps: Kang MinHyuk needs to receive a nice drama to act, he's so sweet.
The good thing about the show is that is ending. I'm so sad, so sad... I mean, how? How Jo Jin Kook's script was accepted? The first episodes were sweet, but MBC didn't ask him what was going to happen in the rest of the drama? Everything is a mess, a boring mess, a useless mess. I read an article saying that Jo Jin Kook was really proud of the show, that it was the script of his life. Oh man, I feel bad for saying this but are you mad?! It sucks. I was in love with it, but he destroyed everything and now all I feel is anger. So much time wasted, a lot of money wasted, work of a lot of people wasted... for a terrible, idiot, dumb script.
I'm only watching it because of the main actors and I want everyone to die now. The show is awful, so at least try to be good in one thing: being the lamest show ever made. Is better than being a bad show forgotten in the kdrama world. At least it can be visible on various lists: 10 terrible kdramas, worst kdramas of 2021, Top 3 - Worst script of all time.
I feel sad saying this, but is my anger typing.
Bisoo is suffering but this noble idiocy is annoying. He is mean to Jooin. I don't like this bipolar thing and to me this trope doesn't work in Oh My Ladylord.
Jooin doesn't have a personality. She smiles and agree and blas blas blas. She is a powerful women, she doesn't need to educate her cat all the time. This is ridiculous and I hate it.
Yujin. Yujin is a emo little trash.
The second couple is... I don't have words to describe them. I hate every second that they appear.
The moms are amazing. I love them. I only care about them.
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danid
May 1, 2021 at 3:57 PM
ps: I was really polite in this comment because I love Nana and Minki
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nerdy
May 1, 2021 at 5:32 PM
When actors don't look like models they get a loveline that is 100% for comedic relief and has zero emotional depth. I desperately hate that and can't help but think about what a terrible message it sends.
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danid
May 2, 2021 at 9:56 AM
Yes... I noticed that too :(
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knewbie
May 1, 2021 at 10:49 PM
Jo Jin-kook actually said that?! Wow. Even if the initial level of quality had been maintained, the script wouldn't have been very much better than average.
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danid
May 2, 2021 at 10:01 AM
Yes, he did. He said that in a bunch of articles that were released before the premiere. This made me super excited because, you know, the writer is proud of the show, is his favorite script, so is gonna be awesome... aaaaaaaaarrrrrg... Why Minki and Nana accepted to do this. why. Why. WHY?
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Kurama
May 2, 2021 at 10:17 AM
In an interview, LMK wished for Oh!master as the highest rated Kdramas...
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danid
May 2, 2021 at 1:40 PM
Yeah, I saw it. This is something I would say if I was promoting a drama. I feel bad for him and for Nana, but in my view, the person who is gonna suffer the most with this terrible result of ratings is the writer. He did a terrible, horrendous job... Maybe the director too. I feel sad for her because its her first solo project.
2 Bob
May 1, 2021 at 4:50 PM
I recall another 'Oh' series from a year ago, "Oh My Baby". That show's third act noble idiocy trope exploded a torpedo below the waterline of what had until then been an excellent series and turned everybody against it. I dropped the curren 'Oh' series pretty early on but I'm considering going back just to hate watch it.
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javinne
May 1, 2021 at 11:03 PM
Oh my Venus also had its fare of noble idiocy, by the way😒😒😒😒
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jerrykuvira
May 2, 2021 at 2:48 AM
Oh My Baby's noble idiocy cemented the couple for me ,in a good light.
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3 welh
May 1, 2021 at 5:14 PM
Episode 11 was the best then it was all taken away by the end of Episode 12. The worst noble idiocy trope is unexplainable.
I am still wondering if the nonsense trope soup is all in Bisoo's coma imagination. When he awakes he finds Joo-in married and happy with second lead, he has a bitter realization that he wasted his life. But such an ending will not salvage this story, in the beginning had a nice, simple and sweet rom- com.
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4 tsutsuloo
May 1, 2021 at 7:38 PM
@missvictrix has given another master class on how to write gracious yet critical reviews—without expletives.
If this show were excellent trash, I'd forgive everything. But it's not excellent trash. There's no one to cheer for–not even a glorious and shexy villain who's cleverer than everyone else. Nope—it's just recycled, rage-inducing goods.
I feel like a chump for having given the writer the benefit of the doubt.
After scrubbing through Ep. 12 for a quick preview, the upcoming noble idiocy broke me. I'm out.
My last two thoughts for writer-nim Jo Jin Gook:
(1) Please respect your audience. Viewers deserve better.
(2) Get a translated copy of John Truby's Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller. Truby draws on films, mythology, theater and epic poetry to illustrate story structure and character development. Even though he's referencing mostly Western stories, the ideas are illuminating and universal.
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Mike
May 2, 2021 at 12:48 PM
There's an infamous book on Hollywood screenwriting named 'Save The Cat' that was the cause of a decade of generic by-the-numbers movies exactly following its precepts. I wonder if there's a K-drama equivalent to 'Save The Cat'. Because this drama inserted every single trope at exactly the point in the story you'd expect the trope to be inserted.
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5 Eazal
May 2, 2021 at 12:00 AM
Thanks so much, MissVictrix for the weecap. It was much better than the episodes.
I'm really sorry how this wonderful cast and even the initial idea has been wasted, and I'm so tired of how characters behave... all of them, from BiSoo (I love you, I tell you, I deny it, I push you away, I can't live without you, I love you, I say I don't love you, I take decisions for you because I know better...), to JooIn (can she do other than smiling with no clue?), to YooJin (I'll wait for you because one day you'll be mine even if you don't love me).
The worst thing is that nothing will be happening in the next episodes. Nothing. We will be repeating the same pattern we've already seen in the last four episodes. Boring.
The idea that BiSoo is in a coma and he's dreaming all of this is getting stronger, because I try to make a little sense of all this nonsense.
And yes, I also wonder whatever happened to dad, although I really don't care.
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6 Kurama
May 2, 2021 at 2:06 AM
If even @missvictrix can't find anything good in this drama, it means a lot...
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missvictrix
May 2, 2021 at 7:03 AM
@kurama lol yes, even i have a breaking point, and it has been breached. ugh.
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Kurama
May 2, 2021 at 7:27 AM
Fighting !
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7 jerrykuvira
May 2, 2021 at 2:45 AM
I really hopes she dumps him after this stunt he just pulled. The character buildup of Oh JooIn can conveniently handle his situation, she's dealing with her being wiped from her moms memory , so why does he think she can't handle this one. Their loveydovey moments were great but still, I can't seem to forgive is last one. Well, KDrama will put them back together, buh they could have made those lovey-dovey moments more memorable if she knew what was going to hit her. She'd cherish them more both now and later instead of anything opposite of cherish.
The moms arc+ Changyu is steadfast and enough consolation for me for this kind of noble idiocy the show pulled.
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8 Miss_elly
May 2, 2021 at 11:23 AM
i bet the angel/death figure is his late father..that would fit the tropes nicely. who wants to take me up on this
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Karmen ~ 🍜🏢🎭 ~ 📚☔🦋 ~ 🪂🌱💘 ~ ✨🍊💫 ~
May 3, 2021 at 2:02 PM
This could be! I found strange Bi-soo never asked to see a photo of his late father, and this could be the reason...
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9 egads
May 3, 2021 at 2:52 PM
Reading this weecap, I'm finally at peace with dropping this one two weeks ago. What an utter waste of Lee Min-ki and Nana, not to mention their sparkly chemistry.
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10 saturtledaisy
May 3, 2021 at 3:42 PM
I've said this before, but this drama feels like it was supposed to be a parody on every trope ever - just to subvert it. Because I don't think ANYONE would throw in THIS many tropes with no purpose. But somehow both the writer and the director just forgot about that idea.
Despite Nana and Lee Minki being amazing together, this drama has become tedious to watch. It's even more upsetting to me because it could have been a decent show - it had everything to be a decent show and even now sometimes I feel like "oh this scene is actually nice". But then WHY is this show just... not... good??
Maybe, instead of Bisoo, I'LL wake up someday and find out that this was all a dream and the real Jooinnim drama has yet to air.
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11 _barcode_
May 5, 2021 at 10:48 AM
I am not sure why LMK and Nana accepted this kind of script. I am suspecting that the script was not entirely ready before they signed up, the couple of initial episodes were so-so, with potential to be (finally!) uncomplicated sweet and feely drama, steadily cruising towards happy end and harmony.
What we are getting instead is a selfish arrogant jerk who sighs 100 times each episode, a woman who will stick with that jerk no matter what instead of throwing him out of the house (talk about toxic relationships portrayed as noble idiocy and love), wooden second lead with zero chemistry between him and the leading lady, two second couples which have no purpose, no humor, no chemistry, basically no nothing, the stepfather who said "I will fight back" and then disappeared from drama immediately (quicker than Bi Soo)...
It is really bad indeed. I will still keep watching until the end though. I am kind of curious what wild spin this will take.
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12 silly
May 6, 2021 at 6:47 PM
I do enjoy the chemistry between LMK and NANA - scenes with KMH however makes me cringe... I am a die hard rom-com fan so I probably have much higher tolerance on plots etc... For me I was attracted to the series because of its leads and genre so I am still able to continue.
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