http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Lie_to_Me
Lie to Me is a Cinderella story based on a web of lies. It's unapologetically cliched and the series of extreme circumstances through which the couple get together are in no way believable. Nevertheless, the crazy scenarios manage to highlight the couple's involuntary chemistry. You've got two very strong leads in Yoon Eun Hye and Kang Ji Hwan, although their looks might take some time to grow on you--he's the uber-masculine type (look at those eyebrows) so it weirds me out to see him act dorky and I had a terrible time seeing her as anything but Coffee Prince's Eun Chan.
This series is absolutely enjoyable for the first 3/4 of the series. There's a love polygon between four relatively likable characters, the main couple has by far the best screen chemistry of the polygon, and the female love rival is neither super-pitiable nor super-obnoxious. It's always enjoyable to see the lavish gifts and extreme makeover that come with a Cinderella story and Eun Hye's character is a great mix of independent strength and peer-pressured weakness. The most painful part of the first three-quarters is watching Sung Joon's character, Hyun Sang Hee, play the too-nice, forgotten, underdog love interest. (I seriously love him, but he's even better in Shut Up! Flower Boy Band.) And even as you feel bad for him, he's fantastic in his role as self-appointed fairy-godmother. (Actually, the most painful part might be the cringe-worthy setups and coincidences that have the leads embarassing each other in public...but still, totally worth watching up to this point.)
Then comes the last quarter of the series. It's terrible. It's honestly bad enough that I would recommend avoiding the entire series, no matter how much I loved the first handful of episodes. It dives deeper into the realm of painfully forced conflicts and unrealistic separations than any other Cinderella-story I've seen. Even a Hong-sister's drama's forced separation doesn't compare in senselessness and aggravation. Grr...it still makes me mad just remembering the last few episodes (and I gave myself several weeks to cool off before writing this summary).
The final three episodes are by far the worst. While you get something of a happy ending (however dissatisfying it may be) for the main couple, many supporting characters' problems were left unresolved. One of my favorite characters was almost entirely left in limbo. What a disappointing end to what had started off as a wonderfully addictive series.
No comments:
Post a Comment