The forced love line is ruining the thrilling pace of “Reborn Rich,” according to fans of the series.
JTBC’s Friday-Saturday drama “Reborn Rich” continues to break the highest ratings. However, amid the intense confrontation and the meticulous completion of multiple narratives in the future, viewers are annoyed by the love line between the lead couple. Viewers pointed out that the mixture of their forced love, which is hard to sympathize with in the exhilarating narrative of regression and revenge, is hindering their immersion in the drama. The key lies in how the rest of the story will go in the future, but many are concerned that the actors will be blamed for the bad love line.
Based on the web novel of the same name, “Reborn Rich” depicts a fantasy drama in which Yoon Hyun Woo (Song Joong Ki), a secretary who manages the owner risk of a conglomerate family, is killed and returns back to life as the youngest grandson of that family. The main theme of the story is Yoon Hyun Woo’s revenge against the Jin family and Sun Yang Group as he returned to the past with knowledge about the future.
Viewers who want to focus only on the cool revenge prioritize the relationship between Yoon Hyun Woo/Jin Do Joon, chairman Jin Yang Chul (Lee Sung Min), who is at odds with him, and his cousin Jin Sung Joon (Kim Nam Hee), a potential successor of Sun Yang Group. As a result, they feel rejected by the romance between Jin Do Joon and Seo Min Young (Shin Hyun Bin), who do not seem to have much relation with the revenge drama.
Seo Min-young appears as a deputy prosecutor of the Seoul District Prosecutors’ Office’s anti-corruption investigation department, who persistently tracks Sun Yang to the extent that she is called the “Sun Yang’s Grim Reaper.” She met Jin Do Joon for the first time in college, and failed to develop into lovers. She later passed the bar exam and was appointed as a prosecutor, playing an axis of Jin Do Joon’s revenge drama. It seems certain that Seo Min Young’s presence will become more pronounced in the remaining episodes.
However, the love line build-up here doesn’t satisfy viewers because of the difference between the original and the drama. Moreover, many pointed out that whenever the two male and female lead appeared together, they felt as if the story was cut off because the scenes did not match the atmosphere of the drama.
Some people complained that Seo Min Young’s narratives, actions, and lines from episodes 1 to 8 did not have enough romantic feelings to stimulate female viewers’ excitement and that they couldn’t understand the context in which Seo Min Young became interested in Jin Do Joon. In addition, the close relationship between Jin Do Joon and his cousin’s wife Mo Hyun Min (Park Ji Hyun) received more favorable reviews. It even overshadowed Seo Min Young’s position as a female lead. Although this is the process to build the story, it seems like the production team has created an environment in which criticism towards the character and the actress is inevitable.
Forced love line was also a problem pointed out when SBS’s Friday-Saturday drama “Why Her” was broadcasted. Viewers poured out compliments for the intense confrontation between the star lawyer Oh Soo Jae (Seo Hyun Jin) and Choi Tae Guk (Huh Joon Ho), who tried to use Oh Soo Jae, but criticized the romance detail. The clumsy appearance of Oh Soo Jae that can only be seen when she appears in front of her student Gong Chan (Hwang In Yeop) drew opposition from female viewers. Although it was due to the writer’s poor storytelling skills, officials in the drama industry said that criticism mostly focused on the actors.
An official from an agency for actors said, “Even when the main focus of the work is not the romance, if viewers complain about the love line, the actor would be considered someone who cannot act romance genre. Although the narrative is not something actors can adjust, they still have to face criticism because viewers encounter the work through them.”
They continued, “In particular, if a love line is included in a work, there are likely more negative reactions than positive reactions unless the character’s relationship is solidly built and a convincing narrative is established”, adding “It seems like viewers nowadays prefer a variety of relationships to the love that is simply formed by tying a man and a woman together.”
Source: Nate
