Derretendo Pouco a Pouco

This series suffered from a common problem that I see in a lot of the Asian dramas...Bad genre-bending. What is "bad genre-bending"?....Put simply, this show had way too much going on, genre-wise. There was the central romance (the only good thing!), Science Fiction (flawed but interesting), Slapstick Comedy (ugh!), Mystery/Thriller (plot holes), Memory Loss/Medical Drama, some weird Russian(?) Mafia side-story (wtf?), Family Drama...you get the picture. There's just no way to cohesively tell *that* many stories at once. To be fair, I do enjoy a moderate amount of genre-bending but they need to trim 2 to 3 side-stories off this genre-monster. I finished it because I really liked the central couple, but I wouldn't recommend it. To anyone looking for a good Kdrama to watch I'd say, watch Healer instead.

The concept for this story was quite good. The execution wasn't bad either for the most part. The visuals were excellent - Ji Chang-wook ... they took every opportunity to show his best sides and I bet he melted everyone softly. <3

The ending was terrible though. It was weird, anti-climatic and felt rushed. It disappointed a lot of viewers despite it was a happy ending.

My personal gripe is the way they dressed the female lead. You can make a woman look sweet and innocent without dressing her in Grand-mas curtains. Seriously.

I'm trying to love this drama. I love the lead actor who impressed in Healer but appart from the romance with the lead actress, which is quite cute, the story plot is completely unrealistic and each episode moves sooooo slowly. Nothing really happened till now.

The storyline of "Melting me softly" is a unique one, but the the biggest challenge with sci fi story line is that it should be backed up with thorough research. The solutions to the challenges that arise out of a bizarre experiment seem oversimplified, making the script too loose for its viewers. I appreciate how they have dared to explore something like this but it required better execution. Ji Chang Wook is a pleasure to watch, as always, and the lead pair looks cute together. However, what falls through is poor editing that focuses too much on forgettable side characters. K-dramas are known for their memorable side characters with impressive character arcs. The comic timing was also a little off and unrealistic with the lead characters being unrealistically jealous in their relationship when there's the looming concern of their possible fatality.

The premise of the story was good and felt a bit more unique than typical drama concepts. However, if it didn't have Ji-Chang Wook in it I don't think I could have finished it. While I appreciate a good she falls first, he falls harder trope - it almost took him so long that by the time he did it felt a bit insincere and I just didn't see much chemistry between the two leads. There was a bit there where I couldn't see how he'd leave his original girlfriend for Go Mi Ran.

It felt really lopsided at times at what genre or "trope" of sorts it was going to be. Sometimes it was incredibly goofy, then super serious action political scheming, and then the science side of it all. I did really love the scenes where he's so worried about Mi Ran though, those were always sweet.

That being said, I would've let most of the above go if it didn't have such a mid ending. While it was "happy", I'd almost rather it end in her dying or something incredibly sad if they didn't want to go all out on a good ending. It was way too rushed in the end and super slow at times in the beginning and middle. Poor planning is most likely why, since a better ending would've needed more than the allotted episodes. Maybe I'm just picky because I love a good basic get married have a family ending - but come on... don't bait with the "he bought the big house so he's move back to it married" and then ten minutes later she's absolutely denying wanting to get married.