Dropped: I Miss You
To be honest, I didn’t expect to write about I Miss You. After all, the drama’s been over for a while, and it’s been literally months since I dropped it.
But my dear friend Michele requested this post, and since I basically bailed on her when we’d agreed to watch this drama together, I feel like I owe it to her, y’know?
Now, I like to think of myself as a pretty decent friend. And I honestly *pinky swear!* thought that since we’d be watching this together, that my commitment to her, combined with her encouragement, would be enough to keep me on this boat through to the very end.
Uh. That so didn’t happen.
After 14 episodes, I just could not bring myself to watch another hour of this drama, and I bailed, leaving poor Michele to soldier on without me (I’m still sorry, Michele! And, I still won’t watch this show! :P ).
So, why did I even attempt this drama, given that I already knew this was a heavy melodramatic cry-fest?
Three words. Yoo. Seung. Ho.
Well, ok. I also have affection for Yoon Eun Hye and Park Yoo Chun, having enjoyed them in Coffee Prince (2007) and Sungkyunkwan Scandal (2010) respectively.
If I’m being honest, though, I’d have to say that Yoo Seung Ho was the reason why I even dipped my toes into this sobfest.
I’d really, really enjoyed Yoo Seung Ho in Operation Proposal (2012), and then in Arang and the Magistrate (also 2012). Not only is he an excellent actor, he’s got the most soulful, amazing, beautiful eyes. Looking into his eyes pretty much feels like drowning in gorgeous hypnotic pools of magnetic intensity. Like, seriously. I could stare at his eyes all day. (Go on, try it. Just gaze at that screenshot up above. He’s got a magnetic gaze, doesn’t he?)
I am particularly selective when it comes to melos, and I didn’t feel especially drawn to this one, which is why I shelved it for an emergency. After all, Yoo Seung Ho had up and enlisted in the military, and I fully expected to experience some kind of withdrawal during his military stint (yay that he’s out now, and is preparing his comeback!).
The Upside
I Miss You delivered on the Yoo Seung Ho awesome, at least for a good stretch.
His smoldery sexy gaze made for a good number of squee-out-loud moments with leading lady Yoon Eun Hye. I felt so conflicted, honestly, coz he was adorable and all kinds of wonderful sharing scenes with her, so much so that I shipped them together, even though I knew it was a fruitless endeavor. On top of that, he was pretty swoony all on his own too.
Since Yoo Seung Ho’s brand of dreamy pretty much made up my entire upside to this show, I’m gonna indulge in a bit of a screenshot spasm.
If you haven’t seen the show, you can thank me now. I’ve extracted the best bits of Yoo Seung Ho awesome from the show, and now you don’t have to watch it, heh.
Gaze with me:
Swoon~. Those eyes, right?
Augh. And those lips, too. Mmm..
I could’ve happily gazed at Yoo Seung Ho and his dreamy, dreamy eyes for 21 full episodes.
If only Show hadn’t thought to supersize its downside. Boo.
The Downside
Pain. Lots and lots of pain.
If I had to distill the biggest thing that didn’t work for me in this show, it would be its fondness for gratuitous pain. Well, that, and eventually the plot goes crazy and nothing really makes sense. But first, let’s start with the Pain.
From beginning to end, this show was littered with pain. No, wait. Littered makes it feel like there was just a touch of it here and there, and that is so not the case. Brimming is a better word.
This show was literally brimming with pain, from the get-go. It was chockablock, standing-room-only, jam-packed with pain.
Our heroine endures some of the most horrendous, sickening events imaginable, particularly in her younger days (younger heroine played by Kim So Hyun).
Without going into specifics, let’s just say that she suffered mental, emotional and physical trauma to an extreme, so much so that she literally ended up looking like a walking, bloody, undead mummy.
Not even kidding. Or exaggerating.
I honestly felt like the writer was purposefully trying to heap pain on our heroine – and by extension, on us as viewers – to the extent that we would all be tipped flung as far over the edge as possible.
Even if writer-nim had held back and spared our heroine from a few of the things that she had to endure, it would’ve still been A Lot Of Pain, and we as an audience would’ve fully sympathized with her, enough to root for her. But no, writer-nim clearly believes in the mantra: “Go big or go home.”
Of course, enduring this kind of extreme trauma is going to leave festering, untended mental and emotional wounds, and our adult heroine eventually ends up looking like this:
Literally. ALL. The. Time. I kid you not.
By the time I checked out of the show after episode 14, Yoon Eun Hye was showing up in basically every scene with her eyes and nose all red from crying.
And then the people around her started walking around with red teary eyes a lot of the time too:
It just all got a bit much, y’know?
And then the plot went crazy.
Crazy Plot
Given that I survived until episode 14, I think I really did put up with more than my fair share of crazy plot points.
Again, without going into specifics, let’s just say that as long as my One Big Reason for watching this show stayed unscathed, I was able to put up with A Lot.
The moment writer-nim started to let Yoo Seung Ho’s character go to pot, though, I was on a slippery slope of no return.
(SPOILER ALERT)
I mean, taking Yoo Seung Ho’s heretofore wonderful, sweet, caring character, and turning him into a psychopathic stalker-murderer is just Not Okay.
The logic supporting this arc wasn’t even all that strong.
Even the diplomatic Yoo Seung Ho said in an interview that he struggled to understand his character.
But yes, logic, schmogic. There never really was a lot of that in this show.
(END SPOILER)
My point is, when you take away the one thing that’s keeping me going in the show, I just can’t muster up the will to carry on anymore.
Much as I love Michele and didn’t want to disappoint/abandon/betray her, I bailed after episode 14 and have never looked back.
I’m sorry, Yoo Seung Ho-sshi. I didn’t love you enough to finish this turkey agonizing macrocosm of Painnn.
