Tuesday, May 26, 2015

[Drama Recap] Let's Eat - Season 2: Episode 15

The tonal shift this episode is to serious drama- we're not looking at anything super-weepy or anything, but the immediate reactions of the characters are fairly appropriate. While Jeom-i has never been a terribly important character, she's always been friendly and likable in her own way. And this was just in dealing the other residents of the building. There's something humbling about realizing that Jeom-i actually has an actual family- and that of course, every other character has an actual family too. That they don't talk to as much as they should.

And let's be entirely honest. You probably have that same problem. "Let's Eat - Season 2" has always been a drama focused very heavily on relatability and the theme of mortality is used quite well here. It's something that's very easy to forget about for people like this, who have been living away from home for so long. The cast gives strong reactions all around, although there's no doubt that Lee Joo-seung pulls off the best performance in this department- for the simple reason that his character has the most reason to feel guilty.

Never mind the sad stuff for now, since all the staples are still here. Like the all-important food porn. In both cases the sequences are just dressing on top of important plot points- in the first place, the question is raised as to how long Soo-ji and Sang-woo are going to keep their relationship a secret, when there doesn't actually seem to be any reason to keep it a secret. And in the second place, why does Soo-ji keep meeting up with Da-yeong as if he were her boyfriend? And why does she unnerved by him pointing out that technically speaking the drama's conflict has already been resolved?

Plenty of standard excellent comedic points remain as well. I figured that was the direction the computer scene was going to go in, but the execution alone gives that whole joke an excellent slovenly hook. There's times I almost feel ashamed at laughing at the drama this episode, because really, Jeom-i is barely straddling the line between life and death. With a situation that serious, is it really appropriate to laugh at anything?

Well of course it is! Life can't just stay on hold because a tragedy appears to be in the making. "Let's Eat - Season" also deals quite a bit with character relationships, and the importance of trying to deal with problems directly instead of pushing off the inevitable indefinitely. It's the reason why the Soo-ji / Sang-woo loveline seems doomed- and the parallel with an actual literal lifeline only makes this thrust all the stronger.


Review by William Schwartz

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