Suspicious Partner (2017)

Frustrating & Fragmented

I found myself more frustrated than entertained by Suspicious Partners. While it has some great elements, the overall story felt a little too fragmented to be enjoyable.

❤ The leads have great chemistry together. This show works best when they are on screen solving crimes and being cute. Unfortunately, they spend a LOT of this drama in a "will-they-wont-they" situation. While I didn't mind it at first, it got overly tedious by the end of the series. It does have some of the best kiss scenes if you're looking for a bit more spicy than sweet in your romance.

❤ The supporting cast had phenomenal actors filled with interesting stories. However, some of their stories didn't have a satisfying payoff by the end of the series.

❤ If you love "frenemies", then you have come to the right place! Most of the friendships between the younger characters are all about how they loathed, yet leaned, on each other. It was one of the better executed elements of the story.

❤ While the plot was interesting, it tended to be a little too dramatic and overly complicated. I think a shorter run-time would have tightened up some of the plot holes.

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Great mashup of romance + legal + comedy + thriller

I don’t care what others feel about this drama but I absolutely loved this drama. It’s my number one romcom purely for the amazing chemistry of the two leads - Ji Chang Wook and Nam Ji Hyun. Their chemistry was off the charts and I’m yet to see a kdrama couple that can beat their chemistry. Ji Chang Wook has looked and acted his best in this drama (sorry Healer fans).

Story : The story is predictable but it starts off strong with a murder mystery backdrop and the leads getting entangled in it. The pacing suffered cause they made it a 20 episode drama, it could have been better with 4 episodes edited out.

Cast : One of my favourite ensemble casts, along with the leads the supporting cast was ace and the lawyer office gang was my favourite. They had a natural chemistry and great comic timing, those office meeting scenes are my go-to scenes for a laughter dose. I loved how they stood by each other. Mr Bang, Eun Hyuk and Mr Byeong are my absolute favourites. Even the bickering moms were hilarious. Kim Ye Won as JiHae grew on me and her frenemiship with Bong Hee was superb. Dong Ha was great as the villain

Music : Contrary to majority folks here, the album of this drama is one of my favourites. The songs captured all the moods and elements of the drama & romance - the longing, the missing, the happiness, the chirpiness and the whole feeling of being madly in love.

Rewatch Value : A zillion times, I have lost track of how many times I rewatch this drama in the last 2 years since I chanced on it in April 20. Highly recommend - I don’t understand why people wouldn’t like this. There is zero toxicity in the romance nor any OTT melodrama which is prevalent in the so called cult or famous dramas.

Overall : Love it, recommend it. I’m yet to meet someone to whom I recommended this drama and did not like it. This drama is one of my comfort dramas.

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Not your traditional law drama

I absolutely loved this drama and its characters. Ji Chang Wook's chemistry with Nam Ji Hyun felt very natural and I adored her witty character. A huge plus for making her a black-belt owner and generally switching the roles of man-savior and woman aka damsel in distress. Noh Ji Wook (played by Ji Chang Wook) wasn't a bad fighter but it was obvious Eun Bong Hee (Nam Ji Hyun) was the better-skilled partner in the relationship.

However, there were some problems I've had while watching the show. First, I didn't understand the need to make Bong Hee have bad hygiene as a 'cute' trait. They made her not washing up and taking care of herself when working into something to be adored and admired/loved which in real life is very unlikely. Secondly, they should address whether Bong Hee and Ji Wook actually slept together on their first two encounters. I understand that it was addressed in epilogues (spoiler alert, they didn't) but it would be better to write in into the script of the show.

Overall, the drama was very entertaining. The humor was entertaining and not as cliché as a lot of kdrama make their funny bits to be. The plot was exciting. The drama managed to beautifully blend melodramatic moments with humor so I've had great time watching it. The show is a worthwhile watch.

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I'm going to be upfront here: It took me a year and a half to finish watching this. Let me explain...

I started watching Suspicious Partner live as it aired in 2017. As both a fan of Ji Chang Wook, and Choi Tae Joon, I had high expectations that I was going to love this.

But during the course of the show, something recurred which spoiled my enjoyment: The pizza product placement storyline. And I will call it a storyline, because the PPL in this is NOT subtle. This drama soon started feeling like one big long pizza commercial. By episode 29, I finally rage-quit in disgust.

However... Over the passage of time, I began to wish I'd stuck it out, because I heard that Dong Ha's acting continued to shine in his role to the very end. So this weekend, with episode recaps in hand to help me skip past the pizza scenes, I picked this drama back up again and finally finished it. And I'm so glad I did - Dong Ha's character is so marvelously yummy good (and evil, of course). A couple of the minor characters are mildly annoying, but not enough to irritate me too much. (Well.. except the pizza character - I swear I'll never buy that brand of pizza in my life if I can avoid it.)

In conclusion: Worth watching (But recommend you skip the pizza scenes).

Story 6.0 (points were deducted for the PPL storyline)
Acting/Cast 9.0 (point deducted for the pizza character)
Music 7.0 (sorry, I felt like the music didn't fit the scene at times)

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Not bad but could be shorter

I did not go in to this with much in the way of expectations. The show was overall enjoyable to watch, the ML and FL were cute together. There were some interesting criminal mystery elements but the linking together the ML and FL through a past crime to create drama was just unnecessary and seemed forced. The show really dragged out the main murder mystery, too. I think overall the show could have been far shorter than it was.

Also, I am really tired of the Noble Idiot trope, one person deciding they know what is best for everybody for reasons that really don't make sense to anybody (audience included.) For me almost every romance series becomes unbearable from episode 8-12 (16-36 in this series.) because a lead decides they need to break up for the good of the other person totally disregarding that person's feelings. I fast forward through all of the romantic longing scenes because they ruin the show for me. I think it would be more interesting to show couples learning to work together and the conflict that happens from being together. I just wish writers would find a new formula.

Rhetorical question: What is with exes showing up in these dramas and acting like their former partner betrayed them by liking somebody new? You left, stay gone. There are billions of people in the world, make the SL somebody new and intriguing.

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I started watching this drama thinking that it would be another romantic comedy drama.Cast: Ji Chang Wook and Nam Ji Hyun.Although I've seen Ji Chang Wook before (and he is an amazing actor),this was my first time watching Nam Ji Hyun (Eun Bong Hee),Choi Tae Joon(Ji Eun Hyuk).The supporting leads too have acted well.

I started with the first episode and it was good.I thought of continuing further (ofcourse because of Ji Chang Wook).And then....last few minutes of episode 2 and it turns out that this is a thriller-suspense drama! (haha I hadn't seen the teaser or the trailer before selecting this drama )Also,tbh, I love mystery-suspense-thriller dramas and the fact that I wasn't expecting this one to be a thriller-suspense drama was even more awesome! That's when I decided that I just had to continue with this drama!

Since Episode 3 till now,this drama is just awesome! The story is great! The actors have played their roles well .I like Ji Wook & Eun-Hyuk bromance (lol) and ofcourse the chemistry between the main leads (Ji Wook and Eun Bong Hee.) :D So I'd like others to watch this drama(although it's a suspense drama,the more you wait,the more exciting it is to watch the new episode.Btw there are 2 episodes every week so YAY! although they are 30 mins each;so that would be an hour altogether).
Overall:9.5/10

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A fan of Ji Chang Wook since Healer, so I'm biased, no doubt!... ;)

I really enjoyed this drama. It has its flaws, though not many. The plot was engaging especially in the middle of the series. Most characters were cast well and some of them always put a smile on my face whenever they were being goofy or sarcastic (Mr. Bang!) There's some nice chemistry between the OTP Ji Chang Wook and Nam Ji Hyeon. There are enough cliché scenes, but that doesn't mean they were bothersome and even the noble idiocy felt justifiable!

What a pity that the series didn't have really memorable OST's... they weren't annoying or anything but they didn't stick into my head and stir up certain emotions whenever hearing the tune.

Pro's: great acting, sophisticated villain, chemistry between main OTP, kickass female lead, funny yet dark at the same time.

Con's: not that great OST's, clichés, maybe 2 or 3 episodes too long (if they had made it a 16 episodes drama instead of 20(40×30mins), it would have been perfect).

I'd say an overall score of 8.5!

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It is absolutely binge worthy drama...I was instantly hooked after the first episode and through the rest of the series.It has a right amount of romance, comedy, suspense, thriller... Just an all in one package definitely. ????
The storyline keep you in your seat and anxious to see what happens next. I've never imagined it would end like this. That's kinda unpredictable.
Ji Chang Wook's character is great & he is So cute ???? . Nam Ji Hyun's character is strong.. the changes in their characters is too good. And they both got a really great chemistry.Choi tae joon, nara & other supporting characters is impressive. And most important... the villain because he really played a great role in this Series, his acting skills is Amazing. ????????
As a viewer I really really enjoyed watching it. I definitely recommend it. It'll keep u at the hook through all the episodes & you'll never get bored.???? ????

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Ok, so this drama wasn't neither very good or bad but it could have been a wonderful drama. I  want that somebody can tell me how did they manage with such amazing cast and a good plot to make a such sometimes boring drama. This drama has all, romance, comedy, action, but I feel that something is missing and I can't tell exactly what it is. Maybe because they are mixing together one after another in some strange combination, very sad scenes, action and fight scenes, thriller scenes, with sweet and funny romantic scenes. After few episodes I wanted to drop it but I continued to watch it due to the three male leads that made this drama one that worth watching. Ji Chang Wook, Choi Tae-Jun and certainly Dong Ha who made one of the greatest villain characters. The romantic scenes are sweet and warm and  the meetings at the office were completely charming. After all, I'm glad that I didn't drop it. I enjoyed it but I'm not missing it.

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Personally, I had a hard time getting through this one. I stopped watching after about 18 episodes, and didn’t watch again after several months. I just could not get into it.
The story between the main characters is very romantic and funny and I had some moments where I swooned (who doesn’t love beautiful Ji Chang Wook), but it wasn’t that note worthy.
After is picked up the drama again and started watching the rest, I was pleasantly surprised by it. It wasn’t ground breaking, but entertaining and I was happy to watch the rest.
Kind of weird, maybe, but I totally fell for Dong Ha’s character! He is a great actor, he gave me chills and butterflies at the same time! His character was very well portrayed and had a lot of depth, I really enjoyed finding out why he did what he did and why. I will find more dramas with him in them, because I absolutely fell for his charms!

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