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I wasn’t going to watch On Air because Dramabeans, a blogger I usually agree with about dramas, hated it vehemently, and alot of the comments on the page weren’t that great. I then talked to one of my friends about it and she said that she had watched the first 4 episodes and it was “Okay”. I still wasn’t going to watch it but then… I finished watching all the subbed Hong Gil Dong episodes and was itching to watch something else so I downloaded the first 2 episodes of On Air.

The drama is written by Kim Eun Sook and directed by Shin Woo Chul, the team that did the Lovers series (Lovers in Paris, Lovers in Prague, Lovers) and Hello, Miss!. The latter didn’t do too well but Lovers in Paris is one of the highest rated dramas of all time, the season finale garnered a 56% rating. Anyway, on to ON AIR.

By the End of Episode 1…

At first, I hated it. No one was likable, everyone yelled too much and Lee Hyori was in it (just a cameo). I had almost resigned to detest the drama but the first episode was finishable and by the time I got to the end I still didn’t like any of the characters but I certainly found some of them entertaining and I wanted to like others.

Like Kim Ha Neul’s character, Oh Seung Ah, the bitchy actress, and I do mean just ridiculously uncouth, is one of the main characters of the show. We find out that she is about to win a DaeSang award but–gasp–she has to share it! What will she do? There is also the issue of her contract expiring with her current asshole of a manager, Hyun Soo. I don’t like her character what so ever, but I want to like her because the show hints at the business making her the way she is.

Then theres the script writer Seo Young Eun (Song Yoon Ah), she has a lot of pride and a lot of talent, she also hates Oh Seung Ah because of a run-in they had five years ago. Much to Young Eun’s horror the new drama she’s writing is in negotiations to have Seung Ah as the main actress. I don’t like her character much but she entertains me because she is so ridiculous and very outspoken.

Then we have the PD Kyung Min(Park Yong Ha), he’s not a big shot, but he knows what to say to smooth over a situation (Like a actress threatening to leave an award ceremony). But he has his problems, money and family etc. His first run in with Young Eun doesn’t end well, and he realizes soon after that he is working on a drama with her. I don’t particularly like this character either, but I’m interested.

By the end of Episode 2…

There’s a fourth character, played by Lee Bum Soo, that becomes more interesting in episode two, Jang Ki Joon. He runs his own talent agency but all of the talent he’d groomed to be great left him for bigger companies. Including a girl named Cherry, she left him for Seung Ah’s management company, SW. In episode two his company is shut down and he only has two actors left whom he tries to push to SBC.

But they’re not having any of it.

Seung Ah breaks her contract with Sang Woo, tears it up in front of him and she goes around telling other agencies that want her that she has already signed with someone else. We see later that she plans on signing with the down and out Ki Joon. 7 years ago when she was still in school and when Ki Joon managed actors like Jeon Do Yeon (cameo!), Ki Joon saved Seung Ah from signing a contract with a con artist and gave her money to take a cab home. She’s never forgotten his kindness so she tells him to write up a contract and to contact her by the end of the week. But don’t be misled, she also tells him her list of conditions, starting by saying, “You know I’m impolite.” She doesn’t want to work with anyone she hates, nor will she be argued with or told what to do.

Kyung Min is given the chance to direct Young Eun’s drama but he doesn’t want to do it because he knows they only gave him the job because 1) the first director dropped out and 2) there is nothing left to do but follow the script with a drama that Young Eun has written.

Young Eun, it turns out has a son and is divorced (or at least separated). She sends her son to London for two weeks because it is his father’s birthday. (For some reason this kid is wearing leather pants. I was appalled.) After this Young Eun flees to Taiwan to avoid the production company that is trying to get her to work on the drama. Eventually they have to send Kyung Min down to get her. Their meeting there is funny as they are two forces of nature going head to head. At the end of episode 2 Kyung Min tells Young Eun that he doesn’t want to direct or tasteless and stereotypical drama, but a different one called Ticket to the Moon. Then Young Eun tells him off and leaves.

~ ~ ~

The soundtrack is… sometimes good but it’s mostly bad nineties guitar shredding songs and there’s even a song of a girl saying “na na na” to the tune of The Beatles song Across the Universe. If you can’t speak the language then just don’t even go there, at least try to translate the song or something.

The show is definitely interesting and, dare I say, I’m liking it so far. So, since Dramabeans isn’t doing episode recaps I might do some for this show, screencaps and all. We’ll see how that goes.