So, I def came into the show thoroughly enjoying Park Saeroyi and his steadfastness and just behavior. There is really no one quite like him in Dramaland and I was really appreciated that.
I loved that against the mustache twirling villains he was always grounded, raw, and cool. I think however he began to become an afterthought in his own story.
I really wanted an underdog take with a man who was going to get revenge simply by being successful and a respectful and great leader to his small crew of misfits and outcasts just like him. The show really lost that going full on into a revenge that didn’t turn out to be anything more than two dudes trying to knock each other down just to say they did it and I’m really sad about that.
I could have left the romance behind…I wanted to see how they built DanBam up, how their popularity grew, and how Saeroyi continued to touch and be a shining influence to those around him.
Instead he kind of fell off becoming a yes or no man to Yi Seo’s every business call and while that’s not a bad thing at some point it stopped feeling like a partnership and became forced way for the audience to see how Saeroyi’s feelings were changing (even though we didn’t see jack s**t lol). I really feel robbed of a real come-up story that could have had a lot more heart taking on issues of gender and race and even classism.
Instead I got the usual Korean revenge.
That’s not to say this became a bad show. But it definitely became something else and I’m pretty bummed about that. On to the finale…