Are you caught up yet?

Characters:

• Park Hae Jin as Yoo Jung
• Kim Go Eun as Hong Seol
• Seo Kang Joon as Baek In Ho
• Lee Sung Kyung as Baek In Ha

Details:

• Korean
• 16 episodes
• Original run: January 4 – February 23, 2016
  

Quick Rundown:

Two university students, Hong Seol and Yoo Jung, come from completely different backgrounds, but somehow find themselves attracted to each other after a series of misunderstandings. As they continue in their ambiguous relationship, secrets from Yoo Jung’s dark past surface and threaten to expose his true self to Hong Seol. Will she be able to overlook his mistakes or she fall for his frenemy/brother Baek In Ho?

Our Takes

Anna: To be perfectly honest, I was pretty turned off from watching this drama because of how ridiculously orange the female lead’s hair looked in the promo pictures. Yeah; it’s kind of a silly and shallow reason, but bad styling can sometimes derail an otherwise good drama (see: TVB)! But thanks to Estelle’s enthusiastic convincing that this was indeed something worth checking out, I am now a total Cheese in the Trap fan. After four episodes, I wouldn’t go so far as saying that this is one of the best kdramas ever, but it’s definitely fun and easy to watch. Like, “three episodes in one sitting” easy to watch.

Kim Go Eun has a very natural and likeable acting style that makes it easy to root for her and her character. She actually reminds me a bit of one of my favorite Korean actresses, Go Ah Sung (Heard it Through the Grapevine). Park Hae Jin seems to be making a smooth transition from second lead to main, albeit looking too old to play a college student. Seo Kang Joon might also be my favorite Korean actor for second lead roles nowadays. All in all, solid cast. I particularly appreciate that the dialogue and situations in the drama are very realistically portrayed and reflect a typical college dating experience…so far. Cheese in the Trap is an enjoyable way to kick off my 2016 dramas, and I’ll happily be along for the rest of the ride. (P.S. The hair ain’t that bad in action.)

Estelle: I didn’t give this series much thought or even paid attention to its trailers or promo pics, but I heard about it here and there on social media and decided to give it a shot while waiting for Reply 1988 to post. Oh man, not only did I forgo my original drama watching plans for the night, I breezed through two episodes in one sitting and went to sleep way too late for my own good (read: 1 AM in the morning when I had an early meeting the next day). Like seriously, what was I thinking? Definitely not good real life planning, but drama lover me was over the moon with this discovery and I promptly spent my lunch hour (I rarely take one hour lunches but this was necessary) watching episode 3 on my phone while trying to hide what I was doing from co-workers. Shhh, my drama addict status is not public knowledge yet!

So needless to say I have nothing but praise for this series so far. I love that Kim Go Eun’s character is down to Earth and kickass at the same time. She does not conform to the conventional standards of beauty which is awesome and much needed in this plastic-world we live in. I echo Anna’s reservations about Park Hae Jin portraying a college student (he is like 32!) but most of the time I don’t even notice because *swoon.* Also, is it me or does he remind you of Jung Young Hwa, Kim Hyun Joong and Lee Seung Gi? Oh, and Seo Kang Joon has upped his acting game since his Cunning Single Lady days! Watch it! You won’t regret it 🙂

This & That:

• Cheese in the Trap is based on the popular webtoon by Soon Ggi. It was first published on July 7, 2010.
• tvN has a good track record of adapting webtoons to dramas. Its previous being the acclaimed drama, Incomplete Life/Misaeng.
• Suzy Bae was first offered the lead female role, but declined it.
• Kim Go Eun also turned down the lead female role due to scheduling conflicts. She later accepted when the director, Lee Joon Yung, convinced her after multiple tries and even changed the filming schedule to accomodate her.
• Park Hae Jin previously starred in the extremely popular drama, My Love from Another Star, as the second male lead, Lee Hui Kyung.
• Seo Kang Joon previously starred in the 2014 drama, Cunning Single Lady.
• Lee Sung Kyung previously starred in the 2015 drama, It’s Okay, That’s Love.