Heirs: Episode 10
by girlfriday
It’s a less traumatic episode than the last few, which I guess isn’t saying a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. The frenemy war rages on, and the two suitors literally declare that they will be fighting over Eun-sang because they have nothing else to fight over. Gee, and they say romance is dead. I’m pretty sure that both boys actually like her, but I’m also sure that they hate each other more, which sort of clouds that teeny tiny thing called motivation.
SONG OF THE DAY
Park Shin-hye – “Story” for The Heirs OST [ Download ]
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EPISODE 10 RECAP
The love triangle has another three-way run-in, but this time it’s in Tan’s front yard and Young-do isn’t exactly pleased to see that Eun-sang is chummy enough with Tan to be making house calls. He wonders what their relationship is, and jokes that it only leaves one possibility: “You’re siblings.” Shh, we’re in a drama! Don’t make jokes about things like that.
Tan quickly covers it up like they had a date after school, and apologizes to Eun-sang for having to reschedule. Before Young-do can get a word in edgewise, he shoos her out the way she came.
Young-do asks if his fiancée knows about his afternoon play dates, and Tan says without reservation that he’s dating Eun-sang and Rachel knows about it. It’s technically not true, but it sends Young-do seething. Well, more than usual.
To top it off, Tan tells him he’s headed somewhere to get his revenge, and then marches right into Young-do’s hotel to see his dad. It’s a little sad to see how Young-do suddenly becomes a tiny child in front of his scary father, and whispers at Tan not to tell on him.
Too late. Tan’s here to return his earlier asshattery tit for tat, and apologizes to Dad for fighting with Young-do. And hitting him. Twice.
Tan gets nothing but the royal treatment from Young-do’s dad, who declares that he’s grown up well. Tan saunters out of the office with this evil smirk on his face, knowing he’s untouchable while Young-do is about to get ripped a new one.
Sure enough, as soon as the door closes behind Tan, Dad slaps Young-do across the face (for being beaten up, mind you—he’s being hit for losing said fight, not for fighting) and unbuckles his belt. Augh, Young-do is evil but I don’t know if I can watch that.
But he’s saved by the bell when a phone rings… from the bathroom. He opens the door to find Dad’s mistress hiding inside. He turns around to go and asks Dad bitterly, “Were you like this when Mom was around? Or… is it that one of those women became my mother?”
As he trudges down the hallway with tears in his eyes, a flashback reveals the two boys in junior high, having sneaked into a hotel room to play video games. They hide in the closet when they hear someone coming, and end up witnessing Dad’s philandering ways.
Tan is still there and he gets into the elevator with Young-do. He declares that family is off-limits now, because they both know what the backlash is—they’ve felt it before. If you’re so concerned and know how much it might hurt both of you, how’s about we just knock it off and hug it out? Too easy? Too rational?
Young-do sighs that if family is off-limits, that only leaves one thing to fight over: Eun-sang. God, it’s going to get worse than before? How is that even possible? Tan warns him not to go near her, which of course makes Young-do want to win even more.
Rachel’s mom comes by to see Young-do while he’s on hotel dishwashing duty, and she tries to fawn over his bruised face like a mom, but gets squarely rejected. She happens to cross paths with her fiancé’s mistress in the lobby, and the first thing she does is call Chang-young’s dad for an ego boost.
At home, Madam Han is sick with worry that Tan still isn’t home, and Mom sweetly massages her hands to make her feel better. Tan comes home and she asks why he’d out her to Young-do when he knows their whole cover could be blown.
Tan asks why they have to hide at all, and when he sees how panicked his mom is at being found out, he sighs and apologizes for everything. She runs off in tears.
He gives Eun-sang the all-clear to come home, which you technically could’ve done when you left with Young-do, but whatever. He waits in the service entry for her to come home and pulls her into the wine cellar, insisting that they have to match their stories about today’s run-in.
He says they’re dating now, fully intending to date for real so that the lie isn’t a lie. She wonders if he’s just plain stupid not to have heard all the things she’s said up until now, but he doesn’t disagree that he’s dumb: “I like it when you’re angry and I like it when you’re smiling. I’d say that’s dumb.” Well I guess we agree on something.
She stops mincing her words and outright calls him a sheltered spoiled brat. She decides fine, they’ll date, and he’ll break his engagement and get kicked out of his house, and then they’ll see if he still says he likes her. She knows she’ll be the one who’s hurt and alone at the end of that story, but fine, they’ll date.
He only fixates on the dating part, but she douses him with a cold splash of reality: “Did you not know? If your mother finds out that we’re dating, my mom and I are on the street. So will you stop mouthing off about your first-world problems, young master?”
He asks if his sincerity means nothing to her, and decides that she’s right about them not being suited for one another then. He knows all the reasons she’s rejecting him and wounding his pride, “But I showed courage for you, and you won’t do a single thing for me.”
His words finally start to sink in, but he tells her that he’ll stop pestering then if that’s what she wants: “I thought you were a beautiful dream, but you’re a bad dream, Cha Eun-sang.” As soon as he walks away, she starts to cry.
The next morning Tan’s car passes Eun-sang on the way to school, and his driver asks if they should pick her up. Tan answers with his usual rhetorical questions, asking if it’s okay for them to ride together, and this time he’s the one to pass her by.
Eun-sang gets greeted at school by some girls who apologize and invite her over for study dates, now that they know her mom is loaded. She chooses to reject their offer and keep her head down.
Young-do saunters into class and asks Rachel if she’s ever been invited over to Tan’s house. It’s clear that she hasn’t, and Young-do starts to recount the amazing bit of news he encountered yesterday, when Tan interrupts him.
They get hauled off to finish their extra detention cleaning duties that they shirked the last time, and Eun-sang watches them from her class. Chan-young asks about her mom and the PTA meeting, and Eun-sang just says vaguely that someone else went in her place. Chan-young notes that she’s keeping an awful lot of secrets from him lately.
He asks if she had a fight with Tan, and she says she’s in the middle of running away from him. She heads up to the roof for a break, and shuts her eyes as she thinks of the kiss. When she opens them, Tan is staring right back at her.
He’s standing on the roof of the building opposite hers, which is a nice beat—they’re in the same place but so very far apart. She’s the first to break the gaze and run off.
Young-do finds her in the library and asks about her faux mom, knowing that mom in designer duds and multiple minimum-wage jobs doesn’t add up. She doesn’t give him a straight answer and snaps back at him to leave her alone so she can study, and he smiles at her sass. So today we’re sassy, apparently.
It’s time for midterms, and everyone puts in their best effort except for Bo-na who mostly doodles Chan-young’s name, and Young-do, who just marks all As down his test sheet.
Results go up, and Chan-young is first in his class as always, while Rachel takes second. Tan is in the middle of giving Chan-young a hard time, when the entire group chortles to see his name… at the very bottom. Ha. You tried, and somehow got a lower score than Young-do?
Eun-sang walks up to check her score, but Tan jumps to block her path. He spits out her score and succeeds in keeping her from seeing his embarrassing last-place finish, though I don’t see how you’re going to keep her from seeing the public announcement every time she walks by.
The teacher lists a few names of students who aren’t going on the class trip, including Tan and Young-do. But Young-do pipes up to say that he’s found a reason to go now, staring right at Eun-sang.
Rachel pulls Tan aside to say that Mom is requesting a brunch, and she tells him he can date whomever he wants, since that has nothing to do with their engagement. I’m pretty sure I can’t tell if it’s worse that he’s kind of cheating on you, or worse that you’re fine with it.
Tan doesn’t quite agree that his love life is so unrelated to their engagement, but invokes the very same excuse when she asks about what it is that Young-do saw at his house yesterday.
Hyo-shin comes up and comments that Rachel is too good to be clinging to Tan, and she balks at the clinging part. But Hyo-shin sighs that he’s jealous she gets to cling—he didn’t even get to do that.
Manager Yoon gets in the hotel elevator to go see Won, and runs into that mystery man he saw delivering an envelope to Chairman Dad. He plays elevator tag with him until he catches him trying to be evasive, and then tells Won that the chairman knows about his relationship with Hyun-joo.
He asks Won what he’ll do, and Won knows his father well enough to expect the question: inherit Jeguk or choose one girl? Hyun-joo waits and waits outside for their date, and then Won finally texts: “I can’t come. Don’t wait for me.” Ouch, I guess that’s his answer.
Hyun-joo wonders aloud to herself, “Is today the day? We must’ve broken up today.” How sad to spend your whole relationship just wondering when that day will come. She fights her tears and gives up waiting, when Hyo-shin pulls up.
She chides him for running around when his exams are so soon, but he counters that she quit on him first. “You’re not my tutor anymore, so I’m not your student…” He reaches out to her face and plants a kiss on her forehead, and leaves as suddenly as he came.
Rachel and Tan have breakfast with their moms, and Rachel’s mom brings up Eun-sang’s name, having met her “mother” at the PTA meeting. Rachel says she’s good friends with Tan, and cuts the pleasant chitchat with the announcement that she’d like to break the engagement.
The moms go into damage control mode and send the kids off, and Tan asks what she’s trying to gain by doing this. She scoffs that he’ll find out just how their families will react, knowing full well that this won’t actually break their arranged marriage in the least. Tan says this won’t get him to date her, but Rachel counters that he won’t be able to date Eun-sang either.
He sighs that she’s worse than he ever imagined, and Rachel spits back, “What were you doing while my affection turned to hate?” Dayum.
And as if on cue, Tan’s phone rings with a call from Dad. Rachel says they’ll find out if he’s really willing to trade everything for Eun-sang. I know Rachel thinks she’ll win this way, but I feel like we ought to thank her for sending Tan over the edge, or at least kicking his complacent butt a little.
Dad asks Tan what he did to make Rachel want to break the engagement, and Tan says he doesn’t like her. Dad scoffs as if that is the most absurd reason not to marry someone, and wonders if Won was right about his little brother. Dad says he needs Rachel as insurance (as in company shares, if his legitimacy gets called into question, because he is in fact illegitimate).
Tan sighs that he doesn’t need that kind of insurance, and adds that this house really does become sadder when he’s in it.
Meanwhile, Eun-sang is being interrogated by Madam Han for dirt on Tan—did Young-do blab about his family tree at school, and if not, why did Rachel threaten to break the engagement?
Tan comes in and tells his mother to stop having Eun-sang spy on him, and refuses to go to camp even when Mom cries that she paid for the whole thing because of him.
Eun-sang follows him out to try and convince him to go to camp, and gets stalled at the staircase, unable to follow him up. He won’t stay put though, so she follows warily up the stairs, and then hesitates again in the hallway outside his room.
He’s waiting for her on the other side of the door, but she can’t bring herself to knock or cross the threshold, as if coming through that doorway means crossing some invisible social barrier. He won’t talk to her anywhere else though, so she gulps and steps foot inside.
Madam Han comes knocking, so he hides her behind the door and says he’s undressed. She asks what his father said, and he says matter-of-factly that Dad told him he needed Rachel as insurance because he’s the son of a concubine. It sends Mom reeling, and Eun-sang cringes behind him.
Once they’re in the clear, Eun-sang says he needs to go to camp when his mom obviously went to the PTA meeting and did all that because of him. But Tan points out that if he and Young-do both go, one of them won’t come back alive.
He stops her from leaving with the excuse that she might run into his mother, and when she goes to leave anyway, he threatens to call out to Mom. Augh, the manipulative threats dressed as romance in this drama, I swear.
He calls out and Eun-sang clamps a hand over his mouth. He asks her to stay for just a minute, but she says she can’t be here—his room and hers are in two different worlds. She says there are some thresholds she can’t cross, and his room is one of them.
She turns to go, and he backhugs her: “Wait just a little. I’ll make it so that you can cross all the thresholds in the world. I’m looking for a way.” He tells her to have a good time at camp, and that he’ll miss her while she’s gone.
Bo-na is busy preparing camp couple shoes for her and Chan-young, and in return asks him for lots of handholding, piggybacking, and hugging. He laughs that they’re all skinship requests, and says he shouldn’t have held back all this time. She’s hilariously shocked that he was holding back, and calls him a pervert. Ha.
Everyone minus Tan goes camping, and Young-do jumps at the chance to help Eun-sang pitch her tent. Myung-soo comes by snapping photos of everyone, and when he looks at the one of Eun-sang and Young-do, it triggers his memory.
He finally remembers that the first time he saw her was coming out of Tan’s house at the crack of dawn. Young-do’s eyebrow goes up (er, more up) at that, despite her attempts to deny it.
Tan hangs out with Hyo-shin at the deserted school, and talk turns to Hyo-shin’s mystery medical ailment. Tan clearly knows what’s really going on with him, and Hyo-shin even talks about “last year’s suicide attempt” while he went to see Tan in L.A. as if he’s talking about yesterday’s lunch.
He assures Tan that he’s being good about going to the hospital and taking his medicine now (adding that his mother counts his pills daily). Tan asks if anything’s changed at home, but Hyo-shin shakes his head, and says that he’s planning to do something big to upset the order.
Tan tells him that it can’t be anything to harm himself, and Hyo-shin assures him that he hates hospital food enough not to try suicide again.
At camp, they get spit into two teams for paintball. Great, let’s give them guns and an excuse to hunt each other. This should go swimmingly. Bo-na gets trigger-happy right away and pelts Rachel before the whistle even blows, earning her a round of applause from her teammates.
The kids all movie-parody their way through the game, and Chan-young takes a hit to protect Bo-na even though they’re on opposite sides. I love that these two are just off in their own world of romance topped with cheese.
Young-do fires a shot at Eun-sang’s feet and wonders if he ought to save her or not, and says he’ll let her go if she tells him why she came out of Tan’s house early in the morning.
He wonders what her deal is, and then hilariously asks if she was adopted, and Eun-sang uses the chance to fire a paintball right at his heart. Ha, okay that made me laugh.
Young-do continues to follow Eun-sang around (do you keep changing your jacket color to match hers on purpose?) and kicks at her table while she eats, and then declares to the whole group that Eun-sang volunteered to wash dishes.
He offers to help her, and then parks his butt in a chair the whole time, declaring that his mere presence ought to be a comfort. It’s like you don’t know the meaning of words. At least she rolls her eyes at him instead of crying.
Chan-young comes by to help and asks if this situation is Young-do’s doing, and Young-do in turn asks how long he’s been friends with Eun-sang, and if he knows she’s a charity case. Bo-na comes by a second later and he asks her the same thing, and she confirms it with the same reaction, wanting Young-do to keep his trap shut.
Young-do pouts that he’s the only one who didn’t know, and then when Myung-soo comes he’s about to ask him too, when Eun-sang cuts him off and pulls him aside to talk.
He points out that she’s only ever interested in him when he does bad things. There are so many things wrong with that I don’t even know where to begin. Is negative reinforcement the only language you understand?
He asks again what her relationship to Tan is, and she fires right back: “What does it matter what we are? What you going to do about it? Who are you? Just pester me like before. I’m not afraid of you anymore.” She marches away and he hangs his head.
She hesitates and then calls Tan, and runs into Rachel in the woods doing the exact same thing. Rachel snatches the phone out of her hand, sees that she’s calling Tan, and slaps her across the face. What the hell is wrong with all you people?
But Eun-sang just says since she got hit today, she’ll do as much as the slap is worth, and asks for her phone back so she can call Tan. That fires Rachel up even more and she winds up to slap her again, when Young-do shows up to grab her arm in mid-air to stop her. Of course this is happening.
And in true Young-do fashion, he tells Rachel that he hasn’t introduced Eun-sang yet: “From now on Cha Eun-sang is mine. Only I get to pester her.” *facepalm*
He takes her phone and drags Eun-sang away by the wrist. Because she’s freaking incapable of getting out of these situations until a man drags her out of them, naturally. *sporkeye*
Once they’re alone, Eun-sang agrees that this suits him better—it’s more his style to terrorize her. He tells her not to assume things, and declares that she hasn’t seen half of what he’s really like.
And then Tan appears around the corner, which only Young-do sees. He says he’ll start showing her right now, and grabs her in a hug as the boys stare each other down.
COMMENTS
Okay, besides the fact that Young-do is impossible to root for romantically (because hello, restraining order), character-wise his stuff would land better if he were allowed to act on his feelings instead of always reacting to Tan in some new volatile way. What is the point of that cliffhanger, when she doesn’t care for him, and he’s doing it to mess with Tan? I mean, if he were a real mastermind, wouldn’t he win her over, yunno with actual romance, not threats and territorial backhanded rescues? I get that it’s possible that his feelings are real (hey, they say even fish feel pain), but until he starts showing it in some other way than the if-I-can’t-mess-with-her-no-one-can rescues, I’m pretty sure I won’t give a flying fish what he feels, no matter how sucky his life is (and yes, it’s pretty damn sucktastic, but still).
It’s not like it’s a surprise to me that this writer’s brand of romance doesn’t sit well with me. I lived through Secret Garden and A Gentleman’s Dignity, and I’ve resigned myself to the fact that we just disagree on some fundamental things. It’s not like it always ruins the entire drama, but we’ve hit the stretch in the story where everything builds to these moments that are written to be swooned at, but I can’t swoon at them because they make me want to call the cops and tear out all my hair.
I want to root for Tan, but his idea of giving a girl space is watching her on CCTV cameras and forcing skinship. I want to have sympathy for Young-do, but he thinks terrorizing a girl is a show of affection because negative attention is better than being lonely. And I really really want to get behind Eun-sang (especially when she puts on her sassy pants) but then she miraculously gets jelly-knees just in time for Tan or Young-do to swoop in and “save” her from the horrible [fill-in-the-blank-here], every time. She had some great moments in this episode where she finally didn’t hold back with Tan, and stood up to Young-do for herself. But somehow at the end of the day, she still ends up the pawn in their game.
How can I possibly root for my heroine to find love and cross all the socially divisive thresholds that unjustly separate her from her one true love… if I can’t even figure out why they’d be better off together? The story has convinced me that they live in different worlds, enough to be compared to royals and plebians, and enough to make their social crevasse a believable source of conflict. But it hasn’t convinced me of the other thing—that their love is worth all the wrist-bruising and pride-swallowing that it takes to get through the day around here. And until the show succeeds at doing that (or here’s a thought—we could stop yanking her around altogether!) it’ll continue to chug on ahead and leave my heart behind at the station.
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Tags: featured, Heirs, Kim Ji-won, Kim Woo-bin, Lee Min-ho, Park Shin-hye
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151 Ace
November 8, 2013 at 10:26 AM
This writer...*shakes head*
Anyway, I'm just so amused by all the things the writer comes up with. And I just laugh out loud every time she makes Eunsang cry. I kinda expected that she'll make the heroine cry all the time from the start so I'm just laughing about it now.
But whatever, it's still worth watching imo. My snerk is all reserved to the writer, not to the characters or the actors playing them. I want to know how she'll manage the development of her characters because we're already halfway through the series and the characters are still the same from the beginning and some are even giving me whiplash from their weird dual personalities. Lee Bona and Chan-young can stay the same (as they're cute and loveable just as they are), but for the love of dramagods, can she not manage to develop the lead characters at least?
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152 Sabrina Lim
November 8, 2013 at 10:31 AM
"He takes her phone and drags Eun-sang away by the wrist. Because she’s freaking incapable of getting out of these situations until a man drags her out of them, naturally. *sporkeye*"
ROFL!
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153 Chipmunks
November 8, 2013 at 11:11 AM
We are now in episode 10, and next week 11 and 12. But what's the story really?
Episode after episode, its a roller-coaster of CES crying, Young Do and Kim Tan fighting, and the pathetic and senseless love story of a bully Kim Tan and the over-ambitious CES masquerading as a pitiful girl.
As for the script writer, KES does not have a story at all. What she did was to group popular celebrities and massive promotions. However, there is no story at all. Just because she cast Lee Min Ho in this drama, is she then obligated to copy BoF?
I wish that Pretty Man will be of better script than this so that I can change channels soon.
Overall, I am deceived by KES.
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windsun33
November 8, 2013 at 3:49 PM
You managed to put the entire plot into one paragraph.
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154 Jeremy
November 8, 2013 at 11:19 AM
Poor Park Shin Hye, she trusted the scriptwriter. Unfortunately, there is not even a story for her as Cha Eun Sang. What's her story line in this drama? I agree with most comments that Lee Bo Na and Rachel roles are well-thought of even from Episode 1. CES role? I don't really know - no beginning and no ending.
She's better off finishing her thesis and probably could be graduating from university this Feb 2014.
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Anna B
November 8, 2013 at 11:23 AM
Somebody has to take the role of a spineless crying lady and they thought it has to be Cha Eun Sang. For the next 10 episodes her role will continue to be like that. She'll cry again because of Kim Tan and Young Do who are competing to be the best bully and she is the "bait". Unfortunately, she is stupid and allows herself to be dragged on as a pitiful and stupid character.
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155 Lindy
November 8, 2013 at 11:30 AM
I thought the opening scene between Tan and Young-do was really effective. I didn't get the sense that Tan was particularly upset about the way Young-do treated his Mom like a maid. Tan didn't much like it but he seemed more surprised that Young-do has become such a "bastard" and that he has "underestimated" him. Tan is going to set him straight; Young-do thinks he's in Tan's league but he's not. Young-do doesn't really put Tan's mother in the middle of their battle although he does treat her with disrespect and he deserves to be called on it. Tan, however, knows exactly what he is doing when he takes the fight directly to Young-do's father because he knows exactly what Father Dearest is like.
Tan knows Young-do will be beaten, humiliated and treated like dirt. Lee Min Ho is a good actor and he very effectively conveys the pleasure Tan is taking by doing this. It's the most animated we've ever seen the character and the implication is clear to me as I think Tan is written as a classic case study of a person with an anti-social personality disorder. It's not just to prove a point, take revenge and lay out the rules of engagement; Tan is a person who takes real pleasure in others' pain.
Young-do knows what is going to happen to him and also knows he is powerless to stop it. Kim Woo Bin is also a very good actor and we see his distress and helplessness very clearly. He's nasty, the product of an abusive and loveless home but he has emotions. He feels his own emotions, he has friends, he's having fun camping in the beginning but Tan does not. This is just my opinion but Tan, to me, is a person who feeds off others' emotions and this is a major difference between the two characters.
About Eun-sang being treated like a thing rather than like a person. This is something a lot of the characters do with people they perceive to be "lower". Tan treats Eun-sang like a thing, Won treats Hyun-joo like a thing, Rachel's mother treats Chan-young's father like a thing, Young-do's father treats both his sex partners and his own son like things and so on. They've turned people into objects and this is the class system in action in all cultures, not just in Korea. Once again just my opinion but Young-do doesn't seem to treat Eun-sang like a thing. He's completely clueless about approaching her, doesn't have the first inkling about manners or correct behaviour and is just generally a total idiot in his interactions with her but he seems to regard her as a person. He just doesn't know what to do with her personhood yet.
I seem to be in the minority but I'm enjoying this drama more with each episode and I'm also appreciating the writing more and more. The characters are being revealed through their actions rather than relying on tropes and cliches and writer-ese shortcuts to present the story.
I just have two questions. Do we know Eun-sang's real class standing of 52 is actually true? Or is it just what Tan has told her. Does she check for herself? Also why is Tan suddenly at the camp? Eun-sang never completes her phone call to him and besides, even if she did, it's too far for him to get there that quickly unless we've moved into sci-fi territory. What's happened to change his mind about going to camp? Is it the pictures Myung-soo is taking? Have they been posted somewhere? I'm not surprised at his sudden presence, mind you, because he is a stalker, no doubt about that. Just what has happened to make him show up less than one day into the trip?
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hyades
November 8, 2013 at 3:10 PM
I like your analyze to the story. I have to add here that the fact that Tan is illegitimate child makes the story more interesting to me. LMH is doing very good acting (to me at least) as person who knows that his family think of him as person who shouldn't be exist,specifically his brother think in this way. For this reason, sometimes he looks like a weak person. It is not easy to live with this huge secret.
YD ans ES are another interesting story lines BUT the problem seems to me that script is not written well or it might be the director is not good enough. I have not seen any drama to this director except Midas which I drop it just after 3 episodes as I couldn't understand the story line.
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Lindy
November 8, 2013 at 6:55 PM
I haven't seen Midas and I don't know the director but I do like the writer a lot as she is responsible for my favourite Korean drama ever, The City Hall, which is a very sophisticated take on the whole mature romance scenario. So I am willing to see where she is taking this story with an open mind. The direction, at this point, seems perfectly adequate to me but I don't know much about that. I do have a certain familiarity with screenwriting, though, as my husband is one and I read over all of his stuff.
I get the slow pace as a reason for some fans' criticism. I also get that Kim Tan is a very problematic hero given he's played by Lee Min Ho so, hey, he must be our hero. I thought so too in the beginning because the writer is hitting all the beats necessary to make Kim Tan so. He's the poor little rich boy, he's illegitimate, he's so very alone and misunderstood, yadda,yadda, yadda. The writer is also doing this with the Young-do character; he's rich, he's a bully, he's nasty to the core and is, to quote a brilliantly written show, The Simpsons, a "figure of menace in the neighbourhood".
I think, although I certainly do respect others' opinions to the contrary, that the writer is telling us one thing but showing us, through the characters' own words and actions, something completely different. She's playing with our expectations of who is the hero, who is the villain and upending them. I'm enjoying Heirs quite a lot and I'm actually surprised by this as I normally avoid teenagers-in-love dramas like the plague.
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Grumpy
November 9, 2013 at 1:08 PM
That's a really interesting read on the drama and I really really wish I could trust KES enough to see things like that. It's like your comments perfectly articulate what I'm seeing, but I don't dare hope that's what KES is trying to show us, because IMO it's way too subversive for such a problematic writer. Anyways, I always enjoy reading your analysis, especially of Tan. Perhaps more than I enjoy the show itself, snerk.
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modest-goddess
November 14, 2013 at 9:35 AM
love your comment
I'm also enjoying the drama and the complex characters. I do wish EunSang was better written and that more time was spent on Won, HyunJoo, and Hyoshin.
I do think the charisma of Lee Minho and Kim WooBin is carrying the drama.
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156 jingyi
November 8, 2013 at 12:14 PM
negative, negative and negative review. *scrolls up* girlfriday, oh of course.
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windsun33
November 8, 2013 at 3:53 PM
If I was writing the recap, it would much more negative than Girl Friday's. I thought she was being generous.
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wendeedy
November 11, 2013 at 9:27 PM
Well said!
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157 vanillasalt
November 8, 2013 at 1:10 PM
Am I the only one who misses when they were in Malibu and actually weren't fighting every 30 seconds. Seriously, I think they need to go back to his house in LA to remember why they actually like each other.
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windsun33
November 8, 2013 at 3:53 PM
Hehe.. I have been seeing more and more comments like that lately.
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Sue
November 8, 2013 at 8:01 PM
Yes me to I miss Kim tan looking to ES with only love with out YD in the pic
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158 Citi
November 8, 2013 at 1:47 PM
Starting to think they should have stayed in America. Lord have mercy, gazing into the distance, at stairs, at desks, high kicks into the chest, wrist tugging, She is mine, I will never let you go...AIN"T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR ALL THAT.
But what is the song that always plays when PSH or KT are deep in thought something about a perfect day?
Please and thank you :)
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159 Jeannie
November 8, 2013 at 3:01 PM
like what i said on a previous recap: already halfway done yet the show is still having major identity crisis. i feel like the characters are still being introduced to the viewers. do the writers have plans to make this like a typical US soap opera? enough already. the glimmer of hope is getting smaller here. *crossing fingers*
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160 windsun33
November 8, 2013 at 3:56 PM
I am still wondering whatever happened to ES's sister. Apparently the write just made her evaporate.
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161 dramafan100
November 8, 2013 at 4:04 PM
I read somewhere that when a girl is poor, put in a situation like this and wants to keep her head low, this is how she would behave and therefore, the CES character is justified and that is how it should be portrayed.
I have a fundamental problem with that theory. This drama that is not supposed to be realistic. I mean, if it is realistic, they would not have a random encounter of KT and CES in LA and then have her living in his house as maids daughter. We are already buying this premise because we know it is a modern cinderalla fantasy. So, you can't suddenly make the characters real, because as a viewer it is jarring.
You need to contine with the premise that it is a modern fantasy and give us a character that fits with the premise of the story. Give her personality, make her strong, make her standout so that we can root for that character.
That is what irks me. The drama's premise and the character's behaviour are inconsistent.
Same thing with the hero. If he is the hero, give him something heroic to do. Where is the heroism? Chasing the girl is not heroic at all. If we have to root for the hero of the story, they can't have him cruelly smirk knowing the result of him going to YD's dad. It makes me hate that character because it is despicable for a 'hero' to act. I am sure better writers would have found a creative solution to teach YD a lesson without tarnishing our hero. I am not a writer and therefore I can not tell you what it is. (If I could, I could be making lots of money writing scripts).
YD is a negative character and has been consistently negative. I don't really think we are supposed to like the character and it has been a consistent feeling. It is different that KWB makes the character slightly sympathetic. But, from writing perspective, they have mostly kept him conistent.
So, all in all, KT's and CES's characters suck and that is why this drama sucks.
But, I am so very entertained by the fan passion this drama is evoking. I do find the drama a breezy watch when KT and CES's are not on the screen. Their scenes I don't pay much attention to because they both annoy me. Everything else is very watchable - though there is not much there but still watchable.
I look forward to next week!!
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162 fantasma
November 8, 2013 at 4:29 PM
Hello, please someone enlighten me on something that's being bothering me: there are no public colleges in Korea? If there are, why can't ES go to one of them? If there aren't, there's no Way for her to get a scholarship? They Said before she was smart and top of her class. Please, someone answer me that.
Also, what does she wants to do? Be a doctor, a lawyer, a professional funeral cryer? We don't know right? Because she is so important to this drama. "eyeroll"
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elza
November 10, 2013 at 11:17 AM
ha! 'professional funeral cryer'!!! so funny .
and so far she doesnt seem to have a definite goal. shes almost too passive, "i-just-want-to-survive" type.
is it too soon to expect a goal out of ES?
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163 kays
November 8, 2013 at 4:57 PM
I have a question about Kim Tan's secret. So recently I just rewatched the first episode (ha!) and there was a scene where Chanyoung asked about Eunsang's mom, and Chanyoung's dad said that Madame Han was under her control or whatever. By mentioning Madame Han, doesn't that mean that Chanyoung knows about there being a mistress in the household? I guess it doesn't necessarily mean that he knows she is Kim Tan's mom, but isn't it a slight possibility? I know it's kind of irrelevant but I was just surprised that Chanyoung's dad was talking about Madame Han so lightly.
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mia
November 8, 2013 at 6:03 PM
Chan Young probably knows that Madame Han is the mistress but i don't think he knows that Tan is her son
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164 Amanda
November 8, 2013 at 5:22 PM
Excuse me if I missed something, but, what is Eun-sang´s sassy pants?
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165 Tara
November 8, 2013 at 5:41 PM
I'm in such a predicament with this drama... I LOVE these actors, but I HATE their characters.
Park Shin-Hye is my favorite Korean actress, but this... this is just painful. I can't stand seeing her as the sniveling, push-over girl in distress. I can't stand seeing ANY female as this type of character. GAAAHHHHRRRR!
I think so far my favorite character is Young-Do, which is simply because his character has more than whiny and whinier as character traits.
Why, writers, whyyyyy?!
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166 Jo
November 8, 2013 at 5:41 PM
Haven't had a chance to read the comments but what the heck kind of a cliff hanger was that? Cha Eun Sang you better put your foot down and tell those boys you alone will decide who you're gonna be with! Dagnabit!
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167 Ssie
November 8, 2013 at 6:13 PM
Hahahaha you guys! This is the one of the most hilarious thread I've come across =)))
I dropped watching the series after the 4th episode, so now I'm only tuned to the recaps. I maybe in the minority here but I've been looking forward to KES eversince City Hall as I love that series. Sadly though, it seems it's the only one in her resume that imho really stands out in terms of to-root-for characters and even interesting plot. I'm beginning to think that it's a fluke. That or Kim Sun Ah and Cha Seung Won were just THAT good.
On another note, Heirs reminds me of that popular BDSM novel every teen I know gushes over but one I cannot stomach especially when I lost friends in my hatred of it (funny how people loses friends because of a badly written book. now that I think about it, it's soooo ridiculous) . Which meant that this trope is a kind of a generational thing, I guess, 'cause clearly it appeals to most teens but appals the older generation (the one I belong to :p)
Thank you, GF for the recaps. It must be kinda frustrating to recap something like this while passing on a series like Secret which generates a lively discussion in a err good way >_<
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168 Yoori
November 8, 2013 at 8:19 PM
We're all on the Heirs crack, and boys and girls, crack is whack!
Every single episode is a repeat of the exact same thing that happened in the last episode. It's like watching one episode ten times but, in different clothing, e.g, Tan confesses his love, ES shock and cries, YD jealous, Tan and YD fight, Everyone gossips, Rachel anger, ES cries, YD picks on ES, Tan come to rescue, ES shock and cries, cue cliff hanger, cycle repeats.
Yet, we all relapse and tune in every Tuesday and Wednesday.
I don't think we can blame the actors, because they're just following the script and directions. I really wonder what the actors are feeling towards this awful script and thinking what they must have gotten into. Writer, you fail me.
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169 Belle
November 8, 2013 at 8:22 PM
I think everybody needs to keep in mind that Kim Tan used to be a worse bully than Young Do before he was sent to Stateside. This may be the reason why he has a mean streak in him (smirking when he knew YD would get hit by his Dad).
Yes, I felt a bit confused with his revenge because he was supposed to the hero of the story but then I realized, high school kids often do not think things through and have no foresight at all when caught up by their emotions. They are supposed to be acting as high school kids and I know when I was in high school the emotions were high and we were all just swept up by them.
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170 Zoe
November 8, 2013 at 9:26 PM
I'm so annoyed that YD hugged ES to annoy KT. Why did the writers ruin that moment? It would have been so much better, and made the plot move forward, if YD hadn't seen KT and if he hugged her because he cared about her. But no, they had to make him do it to get KT mad. The writers have ruined the very few moments that YD and ES have had together.
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171 Bluesky
November 8, 2013 at 9:37 PM
This show started off ok, but it seem to go off somewhere. I still haven't been able to feel attach or excited for each episodes. Not only is it predictable, but sp cliche sometimes. The actions of the characters sometimes makes no sense. Maybe because these characters are from the few priveledged rich family or rich people. Maybe because they are all spoiled brat. I just hope that there is more to the show, but I am not putting my hopes up at all. For now, I will watch to see the good looking actors and actresses. Otherwise, the storyline really bores me. I almost want to hit my head on the wall at each episode.
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172 Lilian
November 8, 2013 at 10:42 PM
There are no main couples to ship here. My fav couple has gotta be ChanYoung - Bo Na couple. They are so cute together! i just wished the plot gets more interesting from here on, without going through repetitive motions.
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173 shahera5
November 8, 2013 at 10:54 PM
Last week I decided that Eun Sang should have stayed in Tan's house in California with him. He would have been happy having her live with him and would have stayed in Korea; she would have been happy being out of South Korea, and could work and go to school while living in Tan's beautiful house. Jeguk Group would still have sent maintenance money for Tan's house and lifestyle. Rachel would go home and no one would be the wiser. The only issue would be Eun Sang's Visa expiring. It seemed like it would solve everyone's problems and we wouldn't have this almost unwatchable drama.
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174 bambledd
November 8, 2013 at 11:33 PM
Okay, so I like watch Lee MinHo and all but after 10 episodes, I've had to wonder if anything really happened in the storyline. There's not much happening in the PLOT, which is big part of any story.
And on a sidenote:
Someone said Lee Minho takes smoke breaks??? WHAT???? Is he a smoker? Oh, no!
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sharon
November 9, 2013 at 2:27 PM
nop...lee min ho does not smoke nor drink, heard it right from him in an interview....thank you.
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175 iaahero
November 9, 2013 at 1:00 AM
I tried to like the main characters. I tried and tried but none of them could warm up to me. I don't know if I want to keep watching Heirs because it's made me disinterested in it. The story never got anywhere and we're already halfway through the series. UGHHH. What is the motive of the plot??? What is this drama trying to tell us??
Anyways.... Eun-Sang really annoys me now. I was fine with her albeit having a monotonous personality in the beginning. From what I had seen in the earlier episodes back when she and Kim Tan were in California, her character had the potentials to be sassy (kind of) and hopefully carry this slow-paced show forward. Nope. She became a total crybaby!!!! I swear– there is bound to be at least 3 scenes of her crying in EVERY episode.
She is the ULTIMATE Candy girl in the history of Kdrama. Having the most miserable scenarios in her life ever; endless part-time jobs, financially poor with tons of family debt, mum is mute, sister stealing their savings, bitch slapping left and right (physically and mentally). And what does she do?!?! Nothing. She whines how miserable her life is, how she has to work harder than everyone else, no one understands her, blah blah blah. And cue in some tears.
I never thought there would be a day where I'd rather have the usual and occasionally annoying Candy girl in like every drama ever who is cheery daisy all the time no matter how tough her life is and won't take crap from some brat for an answer. Because seriously, what is the point of Eun-Sang's existence in the drama?!!? Is she just there for display so that her knight– make that TWO knights– can save the damsel in distress when she's being stepped on or slapped?
I seem to be ranting too much about Eun-Sang, not that Young Do nor Kim Tan are perfect either. They're all shabby folks.
The only thing that makes me not give up on this show completely is Bo Na and Chanyoung's cute romance. I'd rather sit through the remaining half of the series just focusing on them. At least they can bring out their feelings out on the plate without messed up family and friends to intervene.
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176 beguine
November 9, 2013 at 5:35 AM
I'm not really convinced that Eun-sang actually NEEDS all the rescuing she's getting. I mean, she didn't really seem to be backing down with Rachel when Young-do interferes, and when Tan isn't around during the paintball fight she handles Young-do himself by just shooting him mid-villain monologue. Usually when she's genuinely left floundering its when she's asked to back up the ridiculous claim that she's new money. She's going along with that lie because EVERYONE she knows (certainly all the teens, and I think even her mom at one point) keeps telling her that it will be better if she can make it through without people finding out the truth. (I think their advice is terrible considering the fact that its going to be worse when everyone figures out the truth, and the chances she can actually make it an entire year with no one figuring it out are pretty slim, but when everyone in her peer group and out who supposedly knows better is telling her the same thing I don't really blame a teenage girl for believing them). However, she seems to find the supposed necessity of the lie pretty galling, so she's not that invested in it and seems uncomfortable perpetuating it, and honestly she really doesn't have the resources to pull it off by herself and she knows it.
The rest of the time, she's usually handling things alright herself (or been getting ready to go to somone else's aid and do some rescuing of her own) until Tan "rescues" her and then tries to destroy her confidence by telling her how much danger she was in leaving his protective presence (or more rarely Young-do "rescues" her and gets pissy when she doesn't interpret his anti-social behavior as courtship). The biggest non-new-money-lie example of her actually freezing up enough to look like she genuinely needed a rescue was the cafeteria incident, and after what she'd seen Young-do do to the last person in that seat...I think even for a strong person freezing up was a realistic reaction. Even with that incident, Tan's rescue actually results in Young-do upping the ante and tripping her. She might have done better if she'd been given the chance to regain her composure and deal with Hannibal, Jr. herself, which she's actually pretty good at when no one's around to tell her she can't. In fact, it's so frequently pointed out on screen that Tan is inadvertently making things harder for her with all his rescuing that I would think that the drama was a deliberate deconstruction of the poor-girl-needs-rich-savior trope, a deliberate demonstration that the more powerful person claiming someone else as property is toxic rather than protective, were it not for the fact that the damned romantic music plays every time he gets inappropriately high handed and grabby.
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177 Sue
November 9, 2013 at 7:21 AM
I enjoy the comment more than the showe but :)))
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178 ying
November 9, 2013 at 1:00 PM
So disappointed in how this series is turning out. I thought Park Shin Hye was more talented but I only see her and Lee Min Ho wearing the same expressions throughout each episode. Either the writer didn't give them enough to work with or they're just not doing too well in their roles.
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179 skwonto
November 9, 2013 at 1:40 PM
You nailed it GirlFriday. The "Writer's Brand of Romance" is a perfect label that encompasses what is so torturous about the romances in the writer's dramas. I don't understand why the leads need to be so hostile?
I love the special worlds they create, punctuated by an awesome cast. Of the three mentioned (Secret garden...), this awesome cast seem so underutilized. Kim Woo Bin (love him, my gosh I adore him) is the biggest victim here. It feels so lazy to make him play "big jerky jerk" 96% of the time, especially in eps 9&10. Make the writer and PD, STOP! Someone who knows someone, please!
And what is up with Tan's wardrobe? Is this is to emphasize his confidence? He can pull off the leisurewear from the "Ajumma" line...?
I usually don't have this much to say but the show has so much potential and it's not happening. I want to call the cops and pull out my hair.
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180 krinata
November 9, 2013 at 2:27 PM
First off, thanks to Dramabeans for the entertaining recaps and the insightful comments. Though I haven't read all the comments, I guess a lot of us are still watching this show, although almost half heartedly, just for curiosity's sake. I'm halfway through so I might as well endure it to the end. Age-wise I think I'm in the upper limits of the target demographic, and yet I'm still watching. Personally I just wanted to check out Choi Jin Hyuk after watching Gu Family Book so somehow I was quite disappointed that he gets very little screen time in here.
I've never been fond of LMH. I was excited about the premise of Faith but I got so bored with him that I dropped it after 3 episodes. This one's the same. I'm skipping some of his scenes because I believe whatever he says is either boring or passive aggressive. Also with the first few episodes, his makeup just bothered me, so much. Was it because he's from California and his name is Tan? (pun intended)
This is my first PSH drama. I have You're Beautiful on my hard drive but I still haven't been in the mood to watch it yet. At least PSH doesn't annoy me as much as YEH.
On the other hand, I'm glad to see a familiar face. I've liked Kim Mi-Kyung (Eun-Sang's mom) since The Legend.
Like most, I find the supporting characters more interesting than the main OTP. Bo-Na was initially irritating but I've liked her ever since she insisted on calling Chan-Young's dad "abonim." That was cute, sweet and sincere. Plus shooting Rachel with paintball, feisty!
KT's mom was annoying but I somehow also feel sorry for her because she is forced to keep her identity a secret to protect her son. But on second thought, I doubt that she accepted the role of a mistress out of love ($$$), so technically as a consequence she brought the agony upon herself and her son. Though without her, there'd be less of a comic relief.
As for KW, I totally get how at his age, he is deliberately being immature and rebellious. He was forced to cope with a lot of issues early in his life so it's only now that he has the chance to act up. As much as I slightly feel sorry for KT, I understand how annoyed his hyung must've felt every time KT approaches him. Because whatever KT says doesn't change a thing. He's illegitimate and is a threat that everything KW has will be taken away. I think in real life, no amount of sorry or back hugs with fluffy pink sweaters could easily change KW's mind. Unless KW (or Hyun Joo) gets into an accident and KT saves his life or something like that. If KW doesn't really want to fight with his hyung, maybe as a last resort, he can just sign a document stating that he's giving up his rights to the company (though his mom would surely go bonkers) so we can start having some brotherly love going.
I find Young Do the most interesting part of this show. I've read comments from previous episodes and saw how his character caused a lot of discussion among viewers. In that sense, I think the writer did good in making the viewers connect to a character. Whether we like him or hate him, the fact is we care. I'm not going to defend YD's violent/abusive behavior, but I do have some questions, like what really caused him to bully. I get his messed-up family, but what made him single out people to bully? I don't know who he and KT bullied together in middle school, but seeing him interact with his clique, he almost doesn't seem violent at all. He's very friendly with the playful Myung-Soo, plus he even referred to himself as Bo-Na's oppa. I don’t get why he hangs out with his group but has a different set of cronies for bullying. It was said that he's never bullied girls before, so does it mean he still has boundaries? Does he bully all boys under social care? Or do the ones he bullies pose some kind of threat or insecurity to him? Or is it just something like the new generation of pure-blood Slytherins taught to purge muggles out of Hogwarts? Also I'm almost inclined to believe that most of the time, the conflict is provoked by KT himself. Whenever YD is capable of having a near-normal conversation with ES, KT interrupts. This happens almost in every ES/YD scene. Perhaps the writer purposely put bits and pieces like this to evoke empathy for YD as the unloved and the unwanted?
I totally get how most might hate YD's character. He's abusive, manipulative and downright scary, just like his father. Being brought up with that kind of influence can seriously mess up anybody, though I agree it should never be an excuse. I think the effect of this is that YD never learned how to handle his emotions. Ever since he found out his father's cheating ways and his mother left him when he was still young, I would think all he learned was to feel angry, hurt and betrayed. Add to that KT revealing his family secret, though with good intent but at the wrong time. He had to cope with all that plus being left with his great dad so there's nothing else to do but survive. His violent ways are a defense mechanism. He's always on the offensive side to make sure no one can hurt him. Now I think that can connect to why he started singling out ES. Since he doesn't know how to properly handle his emotions, he resorts into violence. He's clearly interested in her since he first saw her, but then going to the same school piqued his interest more. I would think maybe he's feeling something he's never felt before and as he doesn't know how to sort it out, the only way to gauge it is through violence. So when he tripped her at lunch (which was very wrong though KT sort of provoked him from interrupting their 'lunch date'), he got his answer.
I don't know where the writer would take the story from here, but I won't be surprised if ES turns out to be YD's 'first love' as there's been no mention of ex-GFs unlike KT. It would be a big cliché but would be nice if ES turns out to be the first love that was not meant to be but the one who changed his life forever (snigger). I believe no woman should be in a relationship just to fix a broken man, but a broken man might still want to be fixed anyways. You'd think YD has lots of money for therapy, but how would he know and realize that he needs one if nobody reaches out to him? I hope ES could be the one, though just as a friend because unless LMH agrees to be sidelined, a second lead will never get the girl. Or, or, or… YD's mom comes back (if she still ain't dead) and heals her son's broken heart.
I hope that the second half of this series would make more sense than the first. Let's all hang it tight. For all we know, it might be even worth it.
PS. What's with the necklace KT wears even with his uniform? Does his stylist hate him or what? Are they trying to make the 18-year-old pimp look happen? I like YD's red loafers but sometimes they're distracting. He has nice outfits though. When he was wearing the B/W sweater while eating black bean noodles, all I could think of was, "Don't splatter!"
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181 YoseobistheB2ST
November 9, 2013 at 2:54 PM
The feminist side of me just raged at these last few episodes. I'm so done with this drama.
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182 Jjane
November 9, 2013 at 5:39 PM
Although Young Do is a pain in the ass & I know for sure that he won't get the girl, I can't help but to support him. Sounds crazy but I actuall feel sorry for him, with life like he had, I think I can justify all his actions. At the end of the day, Young Do is just one lonely boy.
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183 Kara
November 9, 2013 at 6:55 PM
So Young Do shouldn't be rewarded for his negative behavior, unfortunately that's the only thing he really knows. I feel that the writers have made it very clear that his home was not loving and no matter what he did he was never doing things right. You said it before that his father was not punishing him for fighting but because he lost the fight. There was no "What happened?" "Why were you fighting?" "Who threw the first punch?", it went straight to "We're gettin' the belt because apparently this is the 70s". In a lot of ways, negative reinforcement is the only language he knows.
I'm hoping that he thinks by bothering Eun Sang so much she'll eventually be like "What's your deal?" and he'll crumble into a pile of tears and rattle off all his problems that should excuse him for being a jerk. I'm not saying she should, but then it would be a situation where all his jerkiness was really a ~cry for help.
I think it's weird/funny though because Tan is the nice guy (eh, nice-ish) and Young Do is the jerk, which in most dramas would mean Eun Sang is going to end up with Young Do. But, I mean, he's third billing for a reason.
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184 yenlinh tran
November 9, 2013 at 9:26 PM
I'm having a hard time relating to Eun Sang because her character is not consistent with a girl who works hard and can take care of herself as the beginning of the show indicates. We are half way in, and she has regressed in her developments. At the beginning, she made that comment about was it her fault that she was poor and having to be stuck with a mom who was handicapped. She was ashamed that her mom could not talk. Maybe I am so American that I don't see what the shame is about being related to someone who can't talk. Is Korea still that backward with regards to how one treats a handicap person? Or is it just the writer who is off on this subject?
Also, she kept needing to be rescued by all the guys and the girl (Bona.) How was she going to speak up for that student that YD picked on all the time if she is so timid herself? Again, I think this is the fault of the writer. What will force her to stand up? KT was right when he said that so far, she has not done a thing for him, except maybe by be there for him when his brother gave him a dressing down in the wine yard in California. She only think of herself .....
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185 kikidee
November 9, 2013 at 11:47 PM
For those of you who follow Eat Your Kimchi, something just occured to me. Won and Tan...totally Spudgy and Meemers. There you go. Now that the thought is in your head I challenge you to NOT think it the next time those two characters interact. Sorry. Or your welcome.
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186 krinata
November 10, 2013 at 1:08 AM
After writing my essay above, I just realized that the OTP still isn't official until someone gets a piggyback ride. :)
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kikidee
November 10, 2013 at 10:09 AM
If only that were so! Then at least there would be a little suspense. Alas, OTP is determined by first kiss. In K-dramas, only the OTP may kiss.
This is why I really dug the Taiwanese drama "In Time With You". The triangle was a true triangle. The second lead was her boyfriend. Her *adult* boyfriend (a major plot point was that she couldn't see that the only thing keeping them together were their naked fun times.) The point is, there were actual stakes to her triangle. Sure, you wanted her with the OTP, but to do that she was going to have to break up with her boyfriend. As a viewer, I knew they would achieve this, but I was really invested to see how they would do it.
In Heirs, we've got a kind of sort of love triangle, but it's not really a love triangle because she's not even considering the third party, and neither is the audience. He's a great character, but I don't think anyone believes he would be a good idea relationship wise (if you do, I'm concerned for you). For it to be a love triangle, he's got to be a threat to the OTP. At the very least, she's got to be eyeing him and saying, "Eh, maybe." The audience has to be saying, "I know who the OTP is, but she sure does have a dilemma! If it were me, I don't know what I'd do! Tee-Hee! Cute boys!" Of course we'd all know who she chooses in the end, but the fun is in seeing how she gets there. The audience isn't saying that. The audience knows exactly what they'd do. Stick with the not scary guy. YD needs to be a romantic threat NOW for the viewers to get invested. ES needs to be considering him NOW. But what's happening is stuff that should have happened in the first few episodes, not at the halfway point. For real, the writer absolutely has to get to this in the next two episodes.
First thing, they have to let YD and ES have an uninterrupted conversation. I find myself getting really annoyed now whenever KT comes by to be the hero and save ES from YD. Dude! Do not slow down this storyline progression anymore than it already has! KWB has a s**t ton of presence and one on one time lets him work it. I WANT to see him work it. Let.him.please.
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krinata
November 10, 2013 at 11:16 AM
Yes, everything has to do with this show's pacing. Though if the ratings go even higher, they'd definitely milk this all the way and go beyond 20 episodes. The writer doesn't seem to be in a hurry. :)
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187 saranghaelmh
November 10, 2013 at 4:35 AM
Cons:-
1. Tan's clothes - Learn to say no..
2. Young Do's scarf and shoes :O 3.
3. Eun Sang's impromptu hand paralysis
4. The slow unraveling of the story.
5. Second lead is whacko
Pros:-
1. Hero is kind of like your anti-hero. He aint perfect and has a past.
2. ES is cool when she's sassy
3. CY and BN
4. Humour and I loved how YD laughed at Tan when they were looking at the list. The pettiness is cute.
5. Eye candy
Although the show is inconsistent, the individual acting is keeping it together. LMH and KWB. The other actors.. I love to hate them too. But there are so many questions unanswered. Are BN and MS weak when it comes to YD's bullying? Why cant they stop him? How bad was Tan? Why does everyone else want him down? What is Won's deal? What happened to YD's Mom and who is she? Rachel's Dad?
And the list goes on. I hope the writer puts more intrigue and romance and ties up loose ends one by one. Just 10 more episodes to go.
Regardless I am hooked!
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188 elza
November 10, 2013 at 11:27 AM
anybody watched the preview of ep11? looks interesting.hmm. expecting too much?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbQEYREyjPg
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sayit
November 10, 2013 at 7:38 PM
Nope, it looks the same. Don't get your hopes up.
I think the only thing good is that this show provides laughs even if it's unintentional. It was hilarious at how Tan lean in on ES and looks as uninterested as can be. And ES stares back at him wide eyed like "Oooh! His lipstick is a shade more pink than mine!"
Plus who again bears the brunt of the 2 alpha males fighting? Maybe the writer knows we have enough of tears and decided to dump ES in a pool instead. Poor girl is always drowning in her own tears or a body of water.
I cannot get YD and I think it might actually be better if Woo Bin acts less well. He lends too much weight to a character whose actions and motives are inexplicable. Watching him is an agony. You can't stand him and yet when you look at Woo Bin's face and acting, you cannot help but feel there is something you should feel for the character. Lee Min Ho is better because as Tan, at least he makes me laugh.
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elza
November 10, 2013 at 8:32 PM
Haha. Thanks for that perspective. Brought me down from high hopes Real quick.esp the Pink lipstick. :D Lol. I dint notice.probably cuz of the dazzling clothes.
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dramafan100
November 10, 2013 at 10:05 PM
I really liked what you said about Woo Bin. I am wondering if the writer meant to write him the way he portrays the character.. Perhaps he is doing more with it than what writer intended. He is clearly upstaging the main lead and I am wondering if it is throwing a wrench into how they expected this drama to go. But, without Woo Bin, there is nothing interesting about the drama.
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Sae
November 11, 2013 at 6:12 AM
I agree. Woo Bin is definitely leading this drama.
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189 maddragonqueen
November 10, 2013 at 4:06 PM
I've been thinking quite a bit about this week's episodes and the conclusion I've come to is this: I really dislike this show's incredibly cavalier attitude toward parental abuse. Tan's father is neglectful and manipulative, and Young Do's father is vindictive and violent, and these defining characteristics kind of seem to function for narrative convenience. This is particularly true in the case of Young Do. At this point, he's really the ONLY character I sympathize with, and it's not because he himself is sympathetic. He's a huge, terrifying, jerk. No free passes for bad behavior from me. HOWEVER, he's actually the only character who's bad behavior makes SENSE to me. It's obvious Young Do's father has been hitting him his whole life, Young Do is visibly afraid of him in the opening scene of this episode, and someone raised in constant abuse like that would naturally turn out to be some twisted person whose anger and affections are all mixed up and confused with each other into one big mess of emotion. He has no coping skill. This doesn't excuse bad behavior, but it does explain, so I get that, and I pity him for it.
Tan on the other hand, I just don't even know. He's supposed to be the hero? He's so inconsistent and all-over-the-place, and I don't actually get what's driving him at all. On top of that, Young Do going to Tan's house to mess with him and his mother is one thing, but Tan going to Young Do's father and enabling Daddy Dearest to abuse his son is quite another thing altogether.
Quite frankly, horrible English actors aside, I miss when the show was in California. I thought the dynamic with Tan and Eun Sang being on equal footing, more or less, was a lot more fun to watch that this constant power imbalance, which is made worse by stuff like wrist grabbing and enforced kissing, and both of their characters were a little more interesting. The thing is, despite him being rich and her being poor, if she had any kind of personality of her own, she'd have a little power. The power at least to be consistent and to stand up for herself. The excuse of "we'll be on the street" becomes a little flimsy when there's not actually anything you are willing to DO in order to prevent that. NOT doing something (i.e., not dating Tan) is really not the same thing as DOING something, ANYTHING, to help yourself or improve your situation. She doesn't even have any dreams for the future, for crying out loud! WHO ARE YOU? Even her moments of sassiness really don't give me any insight into her character, they seem to be based mostly on what is the most convenient approach at the time. She has no consistency. The most interesting character trait she ever displayed was this selfish streak she showed in leaving mom and running away to the U.S. Which would actually have made for a very dynamic character, which is what I thought we were gonna get at the beginning. However, turns out this selfishness was actually just the first in a long line of Writer Convenience Personality. How am I supposed to care, even one little bit, about a heroine who in fact, has no character of her own, and merely functions as a body floating around in the show, bouncing from one personality to the next at the drop of a hat, and completely dependent on whatever other people are doing around her to decide her own actions.
I'm so sick of this show. I'll probably keep watching it anyway... But ugh.
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190 jayne
November 11, 2013 at 12:02 AM
I give this drama a chance solely because of the writer and I always have a thing about Choi Jinhyuk.
I'm not against Lee Minho and Park Shin Hye, they're just not on my likeable actors list. And believe me, my standard is not high.
I can't relate to the story, the characters, the main leads. I can't find anything to root for this drama. What a waste for Jinhyuk and Woobin.
Writer-nim, are you sure it's not your evil twin who wrote the script?
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191 Pearl
November 11, 2013 at 6:20 AM
I know this will sound silly, but..
Please help me download the song? I'm clicking in the link and there's "priority download" and "Free download".
Am I supposed to download the file that comes with the "Free download"?
Please help! kamsamnida ^^
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192 Pearl
November 11, 2013 at 6:21 AM
I know this will sound silly, but..
Please help me download the song? I'm clicking in the link and there's "priority download" and "Free download".
Am I supposed to download the file that comes with the "Free download"?
Please help! kamsamnida!! ^^
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193 Mary
November 11, 2013 at 1:41 PM
I can't help but feel sorry for Minho for choosing this drama. It's totally a wrong move. It's a high school drama but he is 26 years old. There is no way he can look like one. His role is boring. Worse his co starKim woo Bin is getting all the praises who is nt nearly as popular. The whole drama is going nowhere. I hope he chooses a really challenging role and a better storyline with him as the only lead. Otherwise his popularity is in jeopardy. It's too bad as he really worked hard to be where he is. Re plastc surgery. I dont think he had a lot. Just to fine tune his already beautiful face.
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194 Sue
November 11, 2013 at 6:51 PM
I like lee min ho in faith he made something out choi young , i enjoy his ston face ,I like it in this drama when they are funny or acting like kids it more realstec that they are in highe school did any body see min ho BTS skeatbording :) I felt the was a kid hope to see that in the drama .
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195 Taurus
November 11, 2013 at 8:23 PM
I love this drama. I don't know why people are not liking it enough. But there is no dull moment and all characters are well defined. I can even understand Young Do character. 10 more episode to go.
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196 Gama
November 12, 2013 at 6:43 AM
I dont know why, but i love every Kim Tan eunsang moment and young do Eun sang moment
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197 Risq
November 12, 2013 at 6:45 AM
I just love shinhye acting skills in here.. And the way she deliver every line and expression the line. I wish next she will pick a great project coz i see many potential skills in her.
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198 shelleffect
November 12, 2013 at 8:26 AM
If I were a critic at Rottentomatoes, I'd give this drama a tomatorating of 5% rating for freshness.
Can we get some twist to this boringly flat plot please? I won't even ask for much. Perhaps a dash of conflict?
Those poor actors and actresses!
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199 shelleffect
November 12, 2013 at 8:43 AM
This drama put you in a roller coaster and made you all excited but instead of taking you for a thrilling ride, it takes you on 3mph stroll around the amusement park.
At least the view is good.... *sigh*
*we're slowing down to 2mph now
Yay! we can just focus more on the view.
Look, it's lee minho!
#theheirsfrustration
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200 Abby Chong
November 12, 2013 at 2:30 PM
My option on the ep! Fangirl with me <3
http://rantinq.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/heirs-episode-10/
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