MaryMeKpop

Two new dramas means another review of first impressions! This time, I share my thoughts on the first 2 episodes of ‘The Matchmakers’ and ‘Moon in the Day’ which both recently premiered this week.

The Matchmakers: Episodes 1-2

I wanted to like this one a little bit more, but I’ll keep on holding out for at least 2 more episodes to make an executive decision. ‘The Matchmakers’ recently premiered on Oct. 30 and stars Ro-woon and Cho Yi-hyun who both play matchmakers tasked with the mission of getting 4 infamous ladies in the same family to get married. They’re both widows themselves after losing their respective spouses and are encouraged to work together on what seems to be a nearly impossible challenge.

For starters, this drama was absolutely beautiful. The visuals were stunning and the cinematography was lovely and there were a few times where I was just in awe of how beautiful the drama looked. I loved the vibrant colors and I felt as if the director was intentional with every single shot and frame. With that being said, the part about the drama that I felt was lacking and could improve on was the writing. I’ll admit that the first episode was a rough watch for me. I had a hard time following along and understanding what was going on. It did one of those things where they mentioned characters and sub-plots and expected you to either 1) know what was going on or 2) simply follow and play along. The first half of the first episode was a bit more political and focused on the royal palace politics and then the second half ventured into our main characters, Shim Jung-woo (Ro-woon) and Jung Soon-deok (Cho Yi-hyun), and their respective jobs as matchmakers. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first episode and I had some doubts and concerns about it. But thankfully, the second episode was much better to watch and much easier to follow along. The second episode primarily focused on Jung-woo and Soon-deok and outlined how the two would eventually have to work together. And sure enough, by the end of the second episode, we saw the two characters propose to work with each other.

‘The Matchmakers’ was one of those dramas where I really wanted to like it but I couldn’t bring myself to warm up to it as much because of its writing. Thankfully, it seems as if things will shape up for the drama now that Jung-woo and Soon-deok will have to work together. I imagine this is when the true fun starts and when we’ll see Jung-woo and Soon-deok pull off some silly antics to get the mission done. In the process, they’ll also fall in love with each other and Soon-deok’s sadness and pain over losing her husband will be healed thanks to Jung-woo. Jung-woo already seems enchanted and fascinated with Soon-deok and he’s already exhibited some interest in our female lead. I really want to like this drama because I enjoy the cast, the premise has potential, and the directing is beautiful. Hopefully, the writing can also catch up and deliver with its upcoming episodes.

Moon in the Day: Episodes 1-2

Ohhh boy, this one is gonna be messy but if anything, it’ll at least be entertaining. ‘Moon in the Day’ was another drama that recently premiered this week and just like several other dramas this year, it’s a fusion of both the modern and sageuk genre. The drama stars Pyo Ye-jin from ‘Taxi Driver 2’ and Kim Young-dae from ‘The Forbidden Marriage’ as two enemies-turned-lovers-turned-enemies. Kim Young-dae’s sageuk character, Do-ha, was killed by sageuk Pyo Ye-jin’s character, Han Ri-ta, so he possesses the body of Kim Young-dae’s modern character, Han Jun-oh, to get his revenge through Pyo Ye-jin’s modern character, Kang Young-hwa (phew! That was a handful to type out, haha).

The whole mix of modern-day and sageuk dramas seems to be the theme in K-dramaland this year with several other dramas like ‘Destined With You’ and ‘See You in my 19th Life’ also employing the same theme. I’m actually a fan of the concept assuming that it all makes sense and there’s this connection between the characters from both worlds. Right off the top of my head, ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’ pops out as a drama that implemented the best of both worlds and did a decent job at doing so (though I do wish the drama had dove a little deeper into the sageuk side of things in the show). ‘Moon in the Day’ seems a bit less complicated in how both worlds merge. Han Ri-ta’s family was killed by Do-ha so she seeked revenge by killing him. In the present world, Do-ha’s soul possessed the body of Jun-oh to get his revenge on Ri-ta who looked exactly like Young-hwa. The first episode showed how the two sets of characters were connected to one another.

Honestly, the first two episodes screamed messy and disorganized from the scriptwriting to the editing but there’s also just something that’s a little charming about these types of dramas that are super dramatic (as odd as that sounds). You know things are gonna go crazy, you know there’s no limit or ceiling as to how insane things can get, you know there’s gonna be many more moments in the drama that just aren’t going to make any sense whatsoever, and you know there’s going to be quite a good amount of scenes that are unintentionally funny.. and yet, you can’t stop watching because it’s just so fun. That was the feeling and vibe I got with ‘Moon in the Day.’ There were definitely moments in episodes one and two that were confusing or odd but I also wanted to keep watching to see how things would unfold. We got a little preview and glimpse of how Do-ha and Ri-ta fell in love and then how Ri-ta killed Do-ha. In the modern world, Young-hwa and Jun-oh didn’t seem to get along too well either at first but Do-ha soon realizes that the only way to get revenge and to achieve his mission is to keep Young-hwa close to him.

I’m also curious to learn how Ri-ta and Do-ha fell in love back in the historical world. He murdered her family so she seeked revenge by killing him. In order to get to that final step, they fell in love and I’m assuming she tricked him with love and romance to throw him off his feet. We didn’t see much of Ri-ta and Do-ha’s relationship except for a few scenes here and there so I hope the drama throws in a few flashbacks to give us that context and background that is needed. And even if the drama doesn’t make a whole lot of sense along the way, it’ll at least be entertaining and fun to watch. I also don’t anticipate that I will have it in me to finish the rest of the drama because of how absurd, funny, extra, and dramatic it is. Something tells me ‘Moon in the Day’ will be pretty draining to watch.