“Shooting Stars” Episode 1 And 2 Review

Published Categorized as Kdrama Reviews
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tvN’s newest drama “Shooting Stars” is here and I am here to talk about my thoughts on the premiere episodes.

Note: this article is a first-impression review, it doesn’t mean this is the writer’s final thoughts on the drama. This is a spoiler review.

If there was one thing I noticed, it was how extensive the marketing for “Shooting Stars” has been. It has been quite extensive and a bit too much at times, not even kpop groups drop this many video teasers. Of course, it features hot actors so thats expected, but I’ve seen too many video teasers posted by tvN to keep count.

In short, “Shooting Stars” premiere was okay aside from what I am about to touch on below.

In particular, there has been some discussion about “Shooting Stars” portrayal of Africa and how insensitive it was. There are many issues , I’ll try my best to touch on the issues as said by fellow African kdrama fans, if I missed something please write it down in the comment section below. First, the drama doesn’t really say what ‘Africa’ is or what country are they referring to exactly? Because Africa is a continent not a country. Viewers are also upset with how it portrays Koreans as ‘saviors’ who come and save the entire village or place. Another important note is the ‘yellow filter’ used in scenes showcasing Africa, the sheer contrast between how it portrays South Korea Vs. Africa in color was too clear for anyone not to notice.

I understand people being upset with this, I think its important to mention, however, I’ll refrain from giving my personal thoughts on how accurate it was because I am not from the continent Africa, to my fellow readers from Africa, your feedback is highly appreciated.

I think what strikes me about this entire situation is the lack of researching that goes when Koreans do stuff about other countries, this isn’t the first time, it often comes off bad/insensitive because they don’t even bother to do basic research.

With the rise of Kdrama worldwide, you’d expect better especially if its being broadcasted overseas via another distribution network, thats all I am going to say about that.

In regards to the rest of the drama, I thought it was fine. I was slightly surprised to learn that the two lead actually used to ‘date’ or knew each other beyond just him teasing her for fun.

Its very clear Tae Sung likes Han Byeol. He’s overly touchy with her, he doesn’t even give her personal space and his definition of ‘love’ is that of a toddler but I have no energy to touch on how problematic that is for the 100th time. This drama is the screenwriter’s debut project, so it is to be expected to a certain degree that they would use as many cliches as they can in this story.

I did find it odd and concerning that he almost undressed in front of her to show he’s not ‘impotent’ when the drama hints at the fact that they dated. I guess we remain to see if they actually dated or not.

Lee Sung Kyung is giving yet again another Lee Sung Kyung performance, I think she was picked well for this character. I personally thought that Kim Young Dae was one of the weakest actors in the penthouse series, his acting was not comparable to his fellow actors. When he was opposite them, it was so clear because they’re all either veterans and/or marvelous. Here, so far, I think he did well. He still has things he needs to work on.

I hope he gets better as the show progresses.

I like the supporting characters and the possible storylines we’ll see with them. The actors chosen for them are very talented too.

The drama is going to be 16 episodes, and yet again, I don’t see a reason why it needs to be. Judging from the premiere alone, I feel like “Shooting Stars” will be as expected as it gets when it comes to rom-coms except, this time it is set in a PR department of a Hallyu actor.

What would be nice is if we see an actual realistic portrayal of what it is like to work in the PR department with fun and interesting plot lines. I hope this continues to focus on that and not derail into another love triangle thats gonna pan out as everyone expects.

So these are my thoughts on “Shooting Stars”, so what about you guys? did you like the episodes? let me know what you thought in the comment section below.

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By Jass K.

Hi, I am Jass k. I discuss some of the hottest currently airing kdramas on this site in form of reviews an/or recaps, join me in the discussion~

1 comment

  1. Hi, thanks for the review, great as usual!

    Unfortunately, personally I did not like the first 2 episodes. Especially the first one when I had impression that they showed us a number of some random people without any relationship between them. Like, there wasn’t any “glue” between them. Maybe how they introduced them wasn’t great, or their “background” wasn’t clear, not sure but will see in the next episodes how they develop.
    Then, overall, this drama has basically nothing to hook me up, personally, except, strangely- Kim Young Dae, which I didn’t expect. He brings eccentricity to the scenes- like the one in the toilet for example, and this is refreshing:)).
    As for Lee Sung Kyung – really disappointing so far, seems very superficial, she is flying over, there is no depth in what she is saying. I can’t take her seriously. I think it is just not a good match when the scrip is ordinary plus the acting is “light”.
    I am very worried for the remaining 14 episodes because I am already bored after two.
    As for the Africa… I didn’t expect a K-drama to do any research about a context of what they are showing, they always go with cliché and it is bad – remember Vincenzo and how they represented Italy. As if nowadays the mafia still looks like Corleone family from a “Godfather”. So it is always cliché. But yes, it was shocking when during the press conference with Tae Sung after he got back from Africa, the journalists were asking him questions like “did you put enough sunscreen when you were there”? That is apparently the only thing they were interested.
    Another shocking moment for me was when he wakes up in his enormous apartment in Seoul and realises that he is not in Africa anymore and almost starts jumping from joy screaming “home” and realising how happy he is to be back (from the misery). So that was insensitive and you think – then why did you even go there in the first place? To self-promote?
    Lastly, the scenes “in Africa” were just not realistic – like the one when they drilled the water well. I mean you just wonder if the production team ever saw this process in real life? If not – they could have done more research. Because why would anybody drill a well in the middle of a road?
    So yeah, there was a lot of marketing for this drama, but I just hope that it will not be a wasted money at the end. The ratings will show.

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