Café Minamdang .... don't like it.

I thought that my favorite Oh Yeon Seo from Korean Odyssey would change my mind about disliked Seo In Guk but Café Minamdang only made him acceptable. Unfortnately with this acceprance came a big price - I don't like any lead in this drama. I like the whole series, it has an interesting storyline, great music and it could have been really good drama but .... something went wrong. Maybe I'm writing this review on episode 14 (4 left to go) but I allowed myself that as there would have to be a giant & major plot twist to raise up my opinion 😬😬

Nam Han Joon is a former criminal profiler who after being framed is working as a conman-shaman. To fool people he works as a (renowned) fortune teller and runs shop called Minamdang with it. The crowd of customers is attracted by his handsome face, sweet colleague, their charisma and the smooth-talking manner. For police it looks like he is cheating people for money, in reality he is trying to solve murder of his friend 😏 On the other hand, we have the sister of a deceased friend of Nam Han Joon - Han Jae Hee. She is widely known detective with cold appearance. Friends from the past linked by the murder of a loved one. The matter is not easy because his friend / brother was a policeman, the case of his death is closed and nobody wants to reopen it.😑

What I was most afraid, has happened. Stupid faces, clowning and poor-comedy moves of Seo In Guk destroyed the last hope for this serie. I felt that it will happen to this drama. He's acting the same as he does in Shopaholic Louie which doesn't fit the theme of Café Minamdang! 😠 I understand that the producers wanted to introduce some humor to this series but this was too much and out of place ... flying characters with one kick or throw a shoe? I beg of you .... It was more pitiful than entertaining. Screen editing was poor and there was too many "funny" flash-ups that aggravated me.

About leads as couple... THERE IS ZERO CHEMISTRY BETWEEN THEM, they are mismatched characters and both have quite and annoying roles. These two should never be in the same show together. Oh Yeon Seo had a great role in My Sassy Girl and a brilliant one in Korean Odyssey .... but here .... eh low. You can notice she was trying. Her character along with hacker Nam Hye-Jun and commentator Jang Du-Jin were the best characters in the drama. I also like the handsome Jo Na-Dan, but he didn't play a big role in the series. He was a typical supporting character but gave more heart and authenticity into it than Seo In-Guk in the leading role. Saddening.

As I said at the beginning, I have 4 more episodes to see and I sincerely hope that my rating of 4.5/10 will not drop to 4. At the moment I am disappointed with this series and I regret watching it. I started to watch Café Minamdang to get a better view on In-Guk as an actor because there is such a big fan club of his. But this it my second drama with him and I really cannot understand his fans 😣 I'm sorry but only thing he is good at is being a fool. He looks good on pictures but he is quite lame as an actor. Honestly, I reached 14th episode and will go further only for Yeon-Seo. I didn't want her performance to be wasted.

**** POSSIBLE SPOILER ****           **** POSSIBLE SPOILER ****

The enemy and main perpetrator of the murders was quite obvious knowing his previous role in Abyss. I was a bit dissapointed seeing him in a very similar sole here. He is a good actor (I cannot say no to that) and he always plays the villian convincingly but I really wish to see him at least once as a positive character. I consider him a good actor and a different role would certainly help his image 😆 I keep my fingers crossed for him that he is not pigeonholed like Liam Neeson 😬

It's November 22 and I'm officially done watching Cafe Minamdang.

It took me a while to see the last 4 episodes but that's because good series are starting on Netflix (Under Queen's Umbrella) and Viki (She and her perfect husband & Reborn Rich)! In addition, I also started watching The Penthouse, recommended by many, which really raises my blood pressure and seeing more than 1 episode does not let me sleep.

Coming back to Café .... Although the last episodes were better than the first ones, I still can't say that I liked the series. An interesting scenario was poorly acted and even the best ending did not improve it. I don't want to say much about the ending so I'll just say that like the killer, it was pretty predictable. A lot of things in this series were like that so at least they keep the level 😅

So when it comes to the final rating and the level of re-watching, I give the series 4.5/10, equating it with the drama So I Married The Anti-Fan, and I also do not recommend it. As I mentioned earlier, I don't like Seo In Guk and Café Minamdag confirmed that to me. What made me sad is that Oh Yeon Seo did poorly (as in Love with Flaws) and now I have 2 dramas in my ranking where she is great and 2 where she is poor.... I hesitate to watch the next one with her 😱🙈

P.S. Using the key scene from Goblin was totally LAME move of the producers.