[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Pinocchio" Episode 13

The situation with Chae-ok resolves a bit quicker than I was expecting. Unfortunately. The main interesting plot thread of "Pinocchio" right now is the long term situation regarding revenge via journalism. It's a pretty big step down to go from an actual possible case of ruined journalistic integrity to a rather goofy seasonal plotline regarding a Santa gone bad. And why exactly did In-ha provoke him in the first place anyway?

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That question's easy enough to answer actually- to provoke the male leads into proving their affection for her through ritual combat. Typical romantic comedy stuff in other words. Personally I wasn't all that impressed. One of the stronger points of "Pinocchio" is how all the characters are very goal-oriented. Normally the romance takes second stage to that. Here though, it's mostly just talk about how attractive In-ha is. It's a bit tiring, given that her attractiveness has already been well-established through her actual deeds.

I didn't mind this so much with Beom-jo. As he explicitly spells out this episode, his entire motivation in "Pinocchio" has just been to get to know In-ha better. What's more, the way he goes about explaining himself to In-ha is an excellent use of the drama's greater themes regarding the importance of telling the truth, and how in the long run honesty will get a person farther ahead than a short-term lie. Divorced as the romance is from the journalistic storyline, though, the scene's just not that relevant.

Yoo-rae continues to be a disappointment mostly because her motivation is rather generic. Oddly enough she does manage to get the most laughs here, largely because Yoo-rae is the only character who's still taking this journalism stuff seriously day in day out. All four of the main characters are acting rather chummy here, considering that technically speaking, they're all still supposed to be rivals.

All of this works to make this a pretty weak episode of "Pinocchio", although the production values remain strong enough that the drama isn't really dipping into genuinely bad territory just yet. We have one good scene in the beginning where Dal-po shows what it means to be, in his opinion, a true journalist. The problem is that this scene should have been the climax to an extended personal conflict and invesigation. Here there's barely even any set-up and Dal-po just gives the speech out of nowhere. It's a waste of potential, especially given that we've seen the drama do better.

Review by William Schwartz

"Pinocchio" is directed by Jo Soo-won and Sin Seung-woo, written by Park Hye-ryeon and features Lee Jong-suk, Park Shin-hye, Kim Young-kwang, Lee Yu-bi, Lee Pil-mo, Kang Shin-il and many more.

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