The Heirs: He Who Wears the Crown Must Bear its Weight. Korean TV, 20 Episodes, Fall/Winter of 2013. It's a melodrama centered on the budding love relationship of two high school students.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Here's your premise: Gather up an enormous number of unbelievably rich & attractive young people and send them off to high school to have a spoiled brat contest. Drop in the poor girl love interest. Rich guy falls for poor girl. Add in multiple back/side/family stories. Let the games begin! That's really all there is to it.
To be honest, I didn't really like this show too much in the beginning, though it did grow on me some over time. I'm not really the target audience for this specific type of K-drama at all, and it was quickly evident this would be another glitzy soap opera primarily geared towards females and younger viewers (of which I am neither). This series had a lot of pre-air buzz though, plus 2 young K-drama stars that I rather like, and I do find some of these particular types of shows to be enjoyable on occasion, so I checked it out...Also, my GF insisted we watch it, so, Yeah!
Lee Min-Ho and Park Shin-Hye are your 2 leads. Min-Ho portrays the rich handsome guy, and Shin-Hye plays the poor beautiful girl. Together, they represent your shining beacons of light trying to find love in an endless sea of mean & manipulative rich people. Both stars have put in real good work in this field in the past, but they're each in their mid-20's now and are getting way too mature to be passed off as teenagers anymore. Nevertheless, they both got the job done quite well of what's asked of them throughout this show, though I do sincerely hope this is the last time I see either of them playing a high school student ever again.
The 2 leads first meet while they're each in LA for different reasons; they get to know each other and lay the ground work for their relationship to come while there. Unfortunately, this also means we must endure several scenes involving some "Euro-Americanese" characters. Where on Earth do they find these people to play these roles?...As usual in KTV shows, they are all terrible actors and overtly buffoonish caricatures compared to the actual Americans I know. Thankfully, this show gets back to Korea after a couple episodes, so we can finally dispense with the moronic surfer dude, fat cop, & the laughably gimpy gangsters.
Once back in Korea, and due to some convenient circumstances, our 2 stars soon eventually find themselves both living together in the same mansion and going to the same high school for the super-rich. The vast majority of the students at this school are generally awful human beings; there's lots of bullying, self-centeredness, materialism, pea-cocking, etc. This is not surprising when you're introduced to their parents (as they're little more than older and worse versions of their offspring). When you combine all the rotten kids and adults, what results in a ton of people not to like in this story. I understand these are characters you're supposed to "root against" to start with, but it doesn't take long to simply become exasperated by the sheer volume of them, and how many endless scenes they thus must appear in to have their side stories told.
Our two leads ultimately get down to the business of falling in love and deciding that they're going to try to be together no matter what, provided they can successfully navigate all the hoops & hurdles in their path (which are considerable). From there, it's just a matter of seeing how everything will play out for our star crossed lovers and everyone else that surrounds them. It's all pretty standard & expected fare for this genre.
Is this show good or worth watching? Well, that all depends on the following:
On the one hand; if you're not a fan of these types of shows to begin with, 'The Heirs' is unlikely to change your opinion of them. This is a very predictable & familiar story that follows the usual linear plot lines for this type of Korean melodrama. There is very little light heartedness involved, it can often be quite limited in both range & dialogue, there are countless scenes of longing & anguish, and, the love story can take its time going from point A to point B due to all the obstacles involved.
On the other hand; if you are a fan of this stuff, then this show is essentially Must See TV. The show is absolutely beautiful to look at on a number of levels (except for a few questionable wardrobe choices for Min Ho's character), and it is fully loaded with just about everything you would expect &/or could hope for in this type of Korean melodrama. The central love story is fairly effective on the whole when it's actually focused on, multiple characters appropriately grow & evolve over time, story arcs are sufficiently addressed & resolved as the show unfolds and eventually concludes, etc. In this sense, the show does exactly what it's supposed to, and, it likely pulled in huge TV ratings and was surely adored by many viewers.
I'd probably give this show maybe a 6 star grade on my "personal likability meter", as these particular despair/angst type filled young love stories rarely suit my own tastes or preferences for what I'm looking for from a Korean TV show. I will say that I did generally like it overall though (particularly so, when compared to some other very similarly themed KTV melodramas I've seen in the past). So, in the spirit of trying to be fair and remain objective to the crowd it's aimed at, I'll rate this show accordingly.
Bottom Line: 7-8 out of 10 stars!
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Here's your premise: Gather up an enormous number of unbelievably rich & attractive young people and send them off to high school to have a spoiled brat contest. Drop in the poor girl love interest. Rich guy falls for poor girl. Add in multiple back/side/family stories. Let the games begin! That's really all there is to it.
To be honest, I didn't really like this show too much in the beginning, though it did grow on me some over time. I'm not really the target audience for this specific type of K-drama at all, and it was quickly evident this would be another glitzy soap opera primarily geared towards females and younger viewers (of which I am neither). This series had a lot of pre-air buzz though, plus 2 young K-drama stars that I rather like, and I do find some of these particular types of shows to be enjoyable on occasion, so I checked it out...Also, my GF insisted we watch it, so, Yeah!
Lee Min-Ho and Park Shin-Hye are your 2 leads. Min-Ho portrays the rich handsome guy, and Shin-Hye plays the poor beautiful girl. Together, they represent your shining beacons of light trying to find love in an endless sea of mean & manipulative rich people. Both stars have put in real good work in this field in the past, but they're each in their mid-20's now and are getting way too mature to be passed off as teenagers anymore. Nevertheless, they both got the job done quite well of what's asked of them throughout this show, though I do sincerely hope this is the last time I see either of them playing a high school student ever again.
The 2 leads first meet while they're each in LA for different reasons; they get to know each other and lay the ground work for their relationship to come while there. Unfortunately, this also means we must endure several scenes involving some "Euro-Americanese" characters. Where on Earth do they find these people to play these roles?...As usual in KTV shows, they are all terrible actors and overtly buffoonish caricatures compared to the actual Americans I know. Thankfully, this show gets back to Korea after a couple episodes, so we can finally dispense with the moronic surfer dude, fat cop, & the laughably gimpy gangsters.
Once back in Korea, and due to some convenient circumstances, our 2 stars soon eventually find themselves both living together in the same mansion and going to the same high school for the super-rich. The vast majority of the students at this school are generally awful human beings; there's lots of bullying, self-centeredness, materialism, pea-cocking, etc. This is not surprising when you're introduced to their parents (as they're little more than older and worse versions of their offspring). When you combine all the rotten kids and adults, what results in a ton of people not to like in this story. I understand these are characters you're supposed to "root against" to start with, but it doesn't take long to simply become exasperated by the sheer volume of them, and how many endless scenes they thus must appear in to have their side stories told.
Our two leads ultimately get down to the business of falling in love and deciding that they're going to try to be together no matter what, provided they can successfully navigate all the hoops & hurdles in their path (which are considerable). From there, it's just a matter of seeing how everything will play out for our star crossed lovers and everyone else that surrounds them. It's all pretty standard & expected fare for this genre.
Is this show good or worth watching? Well, that all depends on the following:
On the one hand; if you're not a fan of these types of shows to begin with, 'The Heirs' is unlikely to change your opinion of them. This is a very predictable & familiar story that follows the usual linear plot lines for this type of Korean melodrama. There is very little light heartedness involved, it can often be quite limited in both range & dialogue, there are countless scenes of longing & anguish, and, the love story can take its time going from point A to point B due to all the obstacles involved.
On the other hand; if you are a fan of this stuff, then this show is essentially Must See TV. The show is absolutely beautiful to look at on a number of levels (except for a few questionable wardrobe choices for Min Ho's character), and it is fully loaded with just about everything you would expect &/or could hope for in this type of Korean melodrama. The central love story is fairly effective on the whole when it's actually focused on, multiple characters appropriately grow & evolve over time, story arcs are sufficiently addressed & resolved as the show unfolds and eventually concludes, etc. In this sense, the show does exactly what it's supposed to, and, it likely pulled in huge TV ratings and was surely adored by many viewers.
I'd probably give this show maybe a 6 star grade on my "personal likability meter", as these particular despair/angst type filled young love stories rarely suit my own tastes or preferences for what I'm looking for from a Korean TV show. I will say that I did generally like it overall though (particularly so, when compared to some other very similarly themed KTV melodramas I've seen in the past). So, in the spirit of trying to be fair and remain objective to the crowd it's aimed at, I'll rate this show accordingly.
Bottom Line: 7-8 out of 10 stars!
