Friday, December 13, 2013

Heirs


I'm going to be honest, I didn't watch the last four episodes of Heirs, I literally couldn't do it, so I just read the recaps on Dramabeans. For the last six or eight episodes, I had been falling behind because I just didn't care about anything that the drama was doing. Tan and Young Do are fighting over Eun Sang? You mean like the million other times it happened, cool. Dad is an annoying dirt bag? Seen it. Oh, people are crying again, awesome, I should probably be feeling sad about this. Tan and Eun Sang are fighting again, how original.

This drama was so drawn out and because the story wasn't going anywhere fast, every episode just felt like a repeat of the last. In the end, the Chairman got sick, Madam Jung made her move, Young Do started to be honest with himself, Won started to be a better person, why didn't that happen in the middle instead during the last three or four episodes?

I have been thinking about Boys Over Flowers a lot in this drama because that was also really drawn out and you just wanted everyone to stop dragging their feet and confess and stop being incredibly annoying. At least with BOF though, it was funny so you almost forgot that the drama was staying in the same place, almost. Heirs was just so full of drama and tears though it was a lot  more noticeable that we were stuck in the same place because amid the monotony, there was nothing fun to take you mind from it.

The story  

I was pretty excited when I heard that this drama was going to come out, even though I did think that it might just be a rehashed BOF. Even if it was that, maybe Heirs could fix the things that didn't quite go right in BOF.

The first hook in this drama is the fact that Lee Min Ho is playing the main character. That is probably one of the best ways to get anyone to watch or buy anything. Then to make the deal even sweeter, the second male lead is Kim Woo Bin. The two of them used to be friends, but they had a falling out and now they hate each other.


Two angst ridden men, sounds good. This can also grab the people who watched School 2013 in the hopes that they can see another budding bromance to rival that of Kim Woo Bin and Lee Jong Suk. Yeah, right, that could never happen.

These two boys are fighting over the poor, yet spunky, Cha Eun Sang. She meets Tan in California and Young Do in Korea and they are both fighting for her affection. I have come to accept this in dramas, the boys fighting over the girl, but the reason that this rubbed me the wrong way is because it was almost like Eun Sang wasn't even a person to them. She was the prize in their contest to see who had the most testosterone.


Eun Sang also lost all that spunk that she had in the beginning. I liked her for that because she seemed to be able to take care of herself, but in the end, she became that girl that let herself be wrist dragged from one person to the next.

Something that I did like about the story, at least at first, was all the allusions that were made to Joseon in these chaebol groups. These students weren't allowed to be children, they were always the successor to "the throne" and they were expected to act in such a way that would not embarrass their parents. There was also the arranged marriage of Tan and Rachel and company merger weddings. Then we also had Madam Han the "concubine" who was woman of the house, but nothing more.

I really did like all this in the beginning, but along with everything else that happened in the story, it got old and boring by the end.

The only thing that I liked about this drama from beginning to end was Chan Young and Bo Na's relationship. In a sea of unhappy people, they loved each other and that was a very welcome breath of fresh air.


The characters 

And, oh man, are there characters. I'm going to separate the characters that I liked from the characters that I didn't like to make everything a little more interesting. Let's do this.

Characters that I liked 



So these are the "kids" and adults that I liked in the drama. For some reason I really liked Young Do's character. Yes, he was a giant turd bucket, but he was such a sad character and you could see why he was that way as well. He was kind of a tragic villain and I am a sucker for a tragic villain.

Here we also have the only good couple in the drama, Chan Young and Bo Na. They were happy and they cared about each other and there wasn't any wrist grabbing either. Whenever they were on screen, especially Bo Na (after I realized that she wasn't a terrible person), everything seemed better.

Lastly for the kids, we have two rather minor, yet good, characters, Myung Soo and Hyo Shin. Myung Soo, like Bo Na and Chan Young was a breath of fresh air in this angst ridden drama. He was so happy and ridiculous I knew that something funny would happen when he was on screen. He is the Jeremy in this drama. Then we have Hyo Shin. He is so sad, but I loved him and I don't know why. I'm glad that he was able to have a good, I guess it can be called that, ending.

Now we have the adults and our lady romance of the drama. Why isn't there a female equivalent to bromance? These two were amazing together and it was cute to see them interact because you knew that they needed each other, but they would never admit it.

There is also one honorable mention in this category and that goes to Jay the Surfer.


Even though he is every single Southern California stereotype wrapped up into one awkward character, he has a special place in my heart.

Characters that I didn't like or didn't care about 



And here is a visual of why I was bored of the drama, I disliked a lot more than I liked, and many of those people were the main characters. 

To be perfectly frank, Tan and Eun Sang were really annoying. Tan was way too mopey and he had trouble putting his plans into action. He always talked about escaping, but then when he did, he would end up giving up. He also treated Eun Sang like she was his possession more than a person which is not okay. This isn't just his fault though because Eun Sang let herself be tossed around between Tan and Young Do. She was more teary and ridiculous than Tan was and that made me even more angry. 

Finally, with Rachel, I did feel bad for her for about a hot second and then I just stopped caring about her. Sometimes feelings of sympathy would pop up because she really did like Tan and Tan was a giant jerk to her, but she was a giant jerk back. She almost made it to the like category, but, meh. I can't say that I like or dislike her, she just is.

Now, with all those adults, I wish I cared about them, especially Secretary Yoon, he also almost made it to the "like" section. They were just there and were mostly an annoyance to move the plot forward because apparently the kids in the drama were unable to do anything on their own.

Final thoughts

I'm really bad at saying "don't watch a drama". I always hesitate and say, "you can watch it if you want, but just know......." because there is always something that someone is going to like, but I cannot say that for this drama. I'm sure that there are some people that like it, (the rating sure said so) but I couldn't even finish it.

I was excited for it in the beginning, but by the end, I had no emotional connection to the drama and I felt that it was a waste of my life. The only way that I would have finished it is if I spoke Korean or if I had a dubbed version because then I could at least do other things around the house while I watched it.

This drama was hyped so much and I was cautiously excited for it, but now I'm just sad, especially since I was also let down by Mi Rae's Choice. Hopefully the drama that is taking Heirs time slot, My Lover From the Stars, will be good because I don't know how much more disappointment I can take.

~ Alora

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