Letter #28: Soundtrack #1
Good morning, Erin.
Just when I think I’m out, Princess My Name finds a way to pull me back in.
Yeah, um, apparently I decided to watch Soundtrack #1, during my vacation week, rather than literally any of the many pre-chosen, much-anticipated series I had set aside on my To Do list. Which, sure, we could attribute to my ever-mercurial entertainment impulses, but which I’d rather assume is the end result of a carefully coordinated psyop campaign orchestrated by Han So-hee’s PR team. And how dare they.
That said, it was only four episodes long, so it’s not like this was the latest in a series of unexpected turns that once again totally distracted me from my subsequent plans.
[cough]
In fairness, this is a series you mentioned to me, so it sorta counts as following your lead. Kinda.
…okay, it doesn’t, but we’re here now, and there isn’t anything we can do about it. Soooo—let’s get into Soundtrack #1, hm?
1. They let Princes My Name smile, in this, too. And it’s nice to see.
2. Actually, I think she’s really good, here. She should totally do more light comedy stuff, because she’s got pretty great timing and can really sell a funny moment.
3. Also funny in this is the paralegal guy from Vincenzo as the male lead’s manager.
4. The male lead is mostly unremarkable, in my opinion. It’s not like he has much to do (aside from occasionally be the least slick kind of jealous), but even so…meh.
5. Y’know who wasn’t meh? Start-Up Dead Dad (or, Book Manager from It’s Okay…) as the composer. I really like this guy. He should be in more things.
6. Speaking of male actors, though…GOOD BOY IS COMING BACK TO ACTING!!! Sure, it’s for some kind of stage play, but that’s only going to eventually mean a return to dramas, and that’s…just… yay!!! Tenuous connection to the contents of this letter? Yup! Necessary? You betcha!
7. Super-minor spoiler, if you haven’t watched this already: the title for the show is reeeeaally clever. The male lead’s playlist for Princess My Name’s character’s first professional song (which he intends to listen to on a loop, boosting its numbers) is called “Soundtrack #1,” and you only catch a glimpse of it (upside down, I wanna say, but maybe not) for a moment. I quite liked how subtle that was.
8. There is a great little detail in this that set my heart alight: they main duo goes food shopping, at one point, and their shopping cart has the old chain/lock mechanism on the handlebar! I don’t know if you’ve ever seen these, but they used to be a staple, back when I was a kid: to keep the shopping carts from being stolen, they used to have a big ol’ lock on one end of the handlebar, and dangling from that lock was this thing on a chain with a seatbelt-like metal end that you would click into place in a different cart’s lock—essentially, you latched your cart to another, and someone else would latch his cart to yours, etc etc etc, when you put the carts away. The only way to unchain a cart, when you wanted to shop, was to push a quarter into the lock from the opposite side, which would unclick/push out the seatbelt-like metal thing on the chain from the cart in front of it. When you re-lock the cart, at the end of your shopping trip, the seatbelt-thing would push your quarter back out to you. (Just…whack “shopping cart lock” into the interwebs, and it’ll show you.) But, yeah, it’s been FOREVER since I saw those, and I was really excited.
8A. I do find it funny that Korea, with its tech-heavy…everything, is where I saw this old contraption.
9. For the record: I don’t keep my secret computer folder with pictures of my crush on my laptop hard drive for any ol’ person to find.
10. I really hate these Disney+ subtitles. I mean, the translations are fine (as in: they don’t strike me as being awkward or anything), but it’s set up like it’s closed captioning for the deaf, rather than just, y’know, foreign-language subtitles. It’s a nice option, but why is it the only option? Gosh, there’s so much wrong with that platform.
11. …okay, I’ve realized that the secret crush folder is gonna make a lot less sense if you haven’t seen this show, yet, but…I promise it’s a reference.
12. Oh yeah! Nam Do-san’s aunt/mom is in this, too! Man, she is everywhere.
13. And one more person in the cast I recognize: Braids Friend from Nevertheless (the one who I said was obviously pretty but characters within the show want me to think isn’t) makes an appearance. And, um, I…I think I might be a little sweet on this actress.
14. Actually, speaking of being pretty: I kind of love that the conceit of Princess My Name’s character is that she’s too pretty to understand what unrequited love is like.
14A. …the show doesn’t handle how it gets this across to us, initially, very well, but it does eventually come up with a great way to get the information out there, maybe half an hour after its awkward first introduction. Almost like the writer had the more natural version in there, but then someone higher up the food chain thought it needed to be more obvious, so they inserted it into a much earlier scene. (Or maybe it was always that clunky. I dunno.)
14B. Daryl, circa the above: “Yeah, unrequited love is stupid!” [eats whole box of Oreo Pop-Tarts]
15. Wait, given the size of the cast, I think this means…actually, yeah, this might be the first time I already know most of the people who are in the show! Whoa!
16. There’s this bit where the male lead keeps giving Princess My Name his scarf, because he’s afraid she’s not dressed warmly enough…but I don’t think we ever see her give the scarves back. He’s just always in a new scarf, the next time. Man, he must own a lot of scarves.
16A. Wait…I own a lot of scarves. Maybe I can win Princess My Name’s heart, too!
17. This show is very contained, mostly focusing just on the main duo—and it’s a really smart choice. It sometimes veers away from feeling grounded, often coming off as…kinda fake, I guess, very scripted rather than believable, but the choice to tell a more intimate story balances some of that out.
18. There’s only a couple of cars, in this, and I don’t have anything in my notes about them being or not being Hyundais, so let’s just assume they weren’t and that I’m mad about that.
19. I so, so, so want to talk about two absolutely brilliant scenes (one that ends an episode and one that begins the next one), but I also don’t want to spoil them AT ALL, if you haven’t seen the show, yet. It’s not plot stuff, but it’s how the scenes are done that I think is fantastic. In the first one, it’s how they nail the intention of the scene; and, in the second, it’s how they quietly convey two or three significant things all at the same time. I loved both of those scenes. Sooooo good.
And that’s about the size of it.
This was a nice time. I don’t think it’s anything to write home about, exactly, and they probably could have/should have tweaked most of the cartoony-trite moments to make it feel a little more…real, but it was light and not infrequently funny. I’d probably watch it again.
Have you given it a go? I bet you have. I bet you have, and I didn’t need to be coy about the two scenes I liked. Drat.
Okay, when you see me next, ask me about those two scenes. And I’ll do my darnedest not to blankly stare at you and say, “What scenes?”
--Daryl
Just when I think I’m out, Princess My Name finds a way to pull me back in.
Yeah, um, apparently I decided to watch Soundtrack #1, during my vacation week, rather than literally any of the many pre-chosen, much-anticipated series I had set aside on my To Do list. Which, sure, we could attribute to my ever-mercurial entertainment impulses, but which I’d rather assume is the end result of a carefully coordinated psyop campaign orchestrated by Han So-hee’s PR team. And how dare they.
That said, it was only four episodes long, so it’s not like this was the latest in a series of unexpected turns that once again totally distracted me from my subsequent plans.
[cough]
In fairness, this is a series you mentioned to me, so it sorta counts as following your lead. Kinda.
…okay, it doesn’t, but we’re here now, and there isn’t anything we can do about it. Soooo—let’s get into Soundtrack #1, hm?
1. They let Princes My Name smile, in this, too. And it’s nice to see.
2. Actually, I think she’s really good, here. She should totally do more light comedy stuff, because she’s got pretty great timing and can really sell a funny moment.
3. Also funny in this is the paralegal guy from Vincenzo as the male lead’s manager.
4. The male lead is mostly unremarkable, in my opinion. It’s not like he has much to do (aside from occasionally be the least slick kind of jealous), but even so…meh.
5. Y’know who wasn’t meh? Start-Up Dead Dad (or, Book Manager from It’s Okay…) as the composer. I really like this guy. He should be in more things.
6. Speaking of male actors, though…GOOD BOY IS COMING BACK TO ACTING!!! Sure, it’s for some kind of stage play, but that’s only going to eventually mean a return to dramas, and that’s…just… yay!!! Tenuous connection to the contents of this letter? Yup! Necessary? You betcha!
7. Super-minor spoiler, if you haven’t watched this already: the title for the show is reeeeaally clever. The male lead’s playlist for Princess My Name’s character’s first professional song (which he intends to listen to on a loop, boosting its numbers) is called “Soundtrack #1,” and you only catch a glimpse of it (upside down, I wanna say, but maybe not) for a moment. I quite liked how subtle that was.
8. There is a great little detail in this that set my heart alight: they main duo goes food shopping, at one point, and their shopping cart has the old chain/lock mechanism on the handlebar! I don’t know if you’ve ever seen these, but they used to be a staple, back when I was a kid: to keep the shopping carts from being stolen, they used to have a big ol’ lock on one end of the handlebar, and dangling from that lock was this thing on a chain with a seatbelt-like metal end that you would click into place in a different cart’s lock—essentially, you latched your cart to another, and someone else would latch his cart to yours, etc etc etc, when you put the carts away. The only way to unchain a cart, when you wanted to shop, was to push a quarter into the lock from the opposite side, which would unclick/push out the seatbelt-like metal thing on the chain from the cart in front of it. When you re-lock the cart, at the end of your shopping trip, the seatbelt-thing would push your quarter back out to you. (Just…whack “shopping cart lock” into the interwebs, and it’ll show you.) But, yeah, it’s been FOREVER since I saw those, and I was really excited.
8A. I do find it funny that Korea, with its tech-heavy…everything, is where I saw this old contraption.
9. For the record: I don’t keep my secret computer folder with pictures of my crush on my laptop hard drive for any ol’ person to find.
10. I really hate these Disney+ subtitles. I mean, the translations are fine (as in: they don’t strike me as being awkward or anything), but it’s set up like it’s closed captioning for the deaf, rather than just, y’know, foreign-language subtitles. It’s a nice option, but why is it the only option? Gosh, there’s so much wrong with that platform.
11. …okay, I’ve realized that the secret crush folder is gonna make a lot less sense if you haven’t seen this show, yet, but…I promise it’s a reference.
12. Oh yeah! Nam Do-san’s aunt/mom is in this, too! Man, she is everywhere.
13. And one more person in the cast I recognize: Braids Friend from Nevertheless (the one who I said was obviously pretty but characters within the show want me to think isn’t) makes an appearance. And, um, I…I think I might be a little sweet on this actress.
14. Actually, speaking of being pretty: I kind of love that the conceit of Princess My Name’s character is that she’s too pretty to understand what unrequited love is like.
14A. …the show doesn’t handle how it gets this across to us, initially, very well, but it does eventually come up with a great way to get the information out there, maybe half an hour after its awkward first introduction. Almost like the writer had the more natural version in there, but then someone higher up the food chain thought it needed to be more obvious, so they inserted it into a much earlier scene. (Or maybe it was always that clunky. I dunno.)
14B. Daryl, circa the above: “Yeah, unrequited love is stupid!” [eats whole box of Oreo Pop-Tarts]
15. Wait, given the size of the cast, I think this means…actually, yeah, this might be the first time I already know most of the people who are in the show! Whoa!
16. There’s this bit where the male lead keeps giving Princess My Name his scarf, because he’s afraid she’s not dressed warmly enough…but I don’t think we ever see her give the scarves back. He’s just always in a new scarf, the next time. Man, he must own a lot of scarves.
16A. Wait…I own a lot of scarves. Maybe I can win Princess My Name’s heart, too!
17. This show is very contained, mostly focusing just on the main duo—and it’s a really smart choice. It sometimes veers away from feeling grounded, often coming off as…kinda fake, I guess, very scripted rather than believable, but the choice to tell a more intimate story balances some of that out.
18. There’s only a couple of cars, in this, and I don’t have anything in my notes about them being or not being Hyundais, so let’s just assume they weren’t and that I’m mad about that.
19. I so, so, so want to talk about two absolutely brilliant scenes (one that ends an episode and one that begins the next one), but I also don’t want to spoil them AT ALL, if you haven’t seen the show, yet. It’s not plot stuff, but it’s how the scenes are done that I think is fantastic. In the first one, it’s how they nail the intention of the scene; and, in the second, it’s how they quietly convey two or three significant things all at the same time. I loved both of those scenes. Sooooo good.
And that’s about the size of it.
This was a nice time. I don’t think it’s anything to write home about, exactly, and they probably could have/should have tweaked most of the cartoony-trite moments to make it feel a little more…real, but it was light and not infrequently funny. I’d probably watch it again.
Have you given it a go? I bet you have. I bet you have, and I didn’t need to be coy about the two scenes I liked. Drat.
Okay, when you see me next, ask me about those two scenes. And I’ll do my darnedest not to blankly stare at you and say, “What scenes?”
--Daryl
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