W – Asian Dramabase

Alright! Time to do all the writing after all those watching. Now, I only have one series on my currently watching list. Before items on my to review list pile up even more, I’ll go ahead and start off with W.

This drama was recommended to me by a friend. She said she’s so kilig with the lead couple which hmmm…I’m not really much fond of. I mean Lee Jong Suk and Han Hyo Joo are great artists but I’m not fan of either of the two. I watched the series still, half because I kind of don’t like my friend to think I was ignoring her suggestion and the other half is because of Jung Yoo Jin. I like her character in Moorim School that I thought it wouldn’t be bad to to see her act again. And one more thing, I heard that this drama just landed Lee Jong Suk the Grand (Daesang) Award last December.

The plot centers on cardiothoracic surgeon Oh Yeon Joo who will find herself being dragged inside W, a popular ongoing webtoon written by his father. There, she’ll meet the W’s protagonist, Kang Cheol, and will entangle herself to the story, trying to save his life every now and then. His father wants Kang Cheol dead as he appears to act on his own volition that even him as the writer can’t control the events happening on the webtoon anymore.

Kang Cheol’s hand pulling Oh Yeon Joo inside the webtoon

The moment I checked Episode 1 out, I was like “Wait, no way! Metafiction? In Korean dramaland? Is this really happening?”. Hahaha. That was indeed far from what I expected. I thought it was just an ordinary love story with a bit of goons and guns

As a metafiction fangirl who squeals over novels such as Jostein Gaarder’s Sophie’s World, I was totally freaking out (in a good way) when I was watching the first few episodes. I could definitely see Sophie in Kang Cheol. It’s way less philosophical but it’s pretty much the same. You could say I was really pleased with the story (and was enjoying all the comedy) during the first half of the series.

Things started to get messy when they introduced the concept of parallel worlds—that W is not just a fiction but an entirely different world on its own. I mean I love CLAMP for their multiverse stories (yes, they can be confusing but I like them) but this one, mixing up metafiction with parallel worlds, really? I just can’t buy it. I think the producers agreed with me on this since they renamed the series from W — Two Worlds to just W.

When the main character realized that it’s fiction, everything in the world of the webtoon stopped. Only Kang Cheol survived in the world where time stopped, as if it was a punishment to the one who became aware.

I so like the plot and the character setup. I love that I continued watching because I really did not know how this was going to play out. However, I think this series has crossed the borderline of things I could accept to happen in a fantasy drama. [Spoiler alert] No matter how I put it, W is just a webtoon. I got the point of the protagonist being aware of the fact but duh, him being able to live in the real world is just absurd. The death of the writer is even more ridiculous. It’s not like he did anything wrong in the first place. Call me names, but I really find it so unjust. Sorry not sorry but I’m not the kind of fan who’ll do everything just to get my happy, lovey-dovey ending. It must be cliché to just kill Kang Cheol in the webtoon and have his real world counterpart met Yeon Joo instead but I do prefer that than having an ending I could hardly internalize.

Also what’s with all the flashbacks? Short ones are okay but too many, long flashbacks will confuse the hell out of the viewers. It’s like the director being incompetent to have a climax at the end of every episode without having to skip scenes. I just hate when they do that, really. It’s not like I’m watching the series one episode per week. I don’t need those cliffhangers. I want a nice flowing storyline! ?

Hahaha. That was too much rant. But don’t get me wrong. I don’t actually hate this drama. I could have even love it if not for that very disappointing ending. The leads were great. The supporting roles need more building up but it was okay since they weren’t really the focus of the story. The series just got a little too much for me to handle. Anyway, at the end of the day, me having so much to say, means I care for the drama and it’s not just any other series out there.

P.S.
When I finished watching W, I immediately pinged my friend and told her that it was amazing (but yeah, that was half meant). I thought she’ll go all excited and be like “See? I told you. It’s awesome!” but surprisingly, she said she dropped the series after Episode 9 or so because the plot got too tangled for her deal with. Hahaha.

P.P.S.
I expected much more exposure for Yoon So Hee but like I’ve mentioned above, it was definitely okay since she, like Seo Do Yoon was just sort of like an extra. I hope for Jung Yoo Jin to star in a new series soon though. She deserved bigger role than this. (Not that I’m so much of a fan, ah.)