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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Jugglers" Episode 10

So apparently the sweet spot for Yoon-i and Chi-won is not quite actually in a relationship, since now that they're officially together, we have to endure a secret office romance storyline. That on its own would not be a problem, except that Yoon-i and Chi-won have now become mostly incompetent again. They are so bad at keeping secrets it begs the question of why they bother trying to keep secrets in the first place.

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It doesn't have to be this way. Look at the epilogue. The evidence in question was exposed by unavoidable random accident. That the other co-workers in the office failed to notice a very obvious clue is funny, because they aren't good logical thinkers. I could have easily gone for a whole episode of near-misses like that, but instead Yoon-i and Chi-won show affection to each other in unnecessarily dangerous ways- especially when we consider that Yoon-i and Chi-won live in the same house, and could easily just restrain themselves until they get home.

Now, granted, a romantic comedy does not necessary have to be logical in order to be funny. But these flaws are very frustratingly obvious when the jokes are this obviously telegraphed. Weirder situations, like the randomly breaking rearview mirror, are cut very unnecessarily short. The rearview mirror section is especially frustrating, because all it does is set up another character for being in on Yoon-i and Chi-won's secret when the character in question ends up discovering that information later on anyway due to Yoon-i's sheer stupidity.

Jokes need twists in order to work properly. Although really, any story needs twists to work properly, and now that the conflict of Yoon-i and Chi-won deciding where to get together romantically has been solved, "Jugglers" is once again left without a plot. Well, I guess there was that whole sequence of Mister Bong and Chi-won jockeying for Bo-yool's political support. Which eventually culminates in Chi-won and Jeong-ae singing the theme song to Slam Dunk.

Now see, that's a genuinely weird gag. Even if you know it's coming, there are so many possible ways that could happen, most of which stand out due to sheer awkwardness. The main issue with Yoon-i and Chi-won is that, on their own, these characters are too boring to do anything more than engage in common clichés. They need external motivation to work as characters or comedians, or else they fall flat in both roles.

Review by William Schwartz

"Jugglers" is directed by Kim Jung-hyun-III, written by Jo Yong and features Baek Jin-hee, Choi Daniel, Kang Hye-jeong, and Lee Won-keun.

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