Letter #136.5: Spice Up Our Love

Good morning, Erin.

I never really watched Game of Thrones. I had read the books it was based on (for reasons entirely unrelated to the popularity of the show), but I didn’t have HBO or friends with HBO—and, even if I did, I don’t think I’d have been interested in putting in the effort to join them for a Sunday night watch party every week. 

But having read the books put me in a unique position, for once in my life: I had knowledge about a thing that the popular culture at large was interested in. I was far (far far far) from being an expert, but the story was fresh enough in my mind, at the time, that I could talk at length about what was happening in the books and how that either matched or differed from what was happening on the show. That is, I could, for the first (and perhaps only) time ever, participate in the “water cooler talk.”

Now, I don’t know If you’ve noticed this, but I really, really like talking about the things I enjoy—or, rather, I like talking about the things I enjoy in a broad sense, whether I like or dislike the specific item being discussed that falls under the umbrella of the thing I enjoy. I like to gush and rant in equal measure, and I am especially fond of digging into little details, of granular discussion, of taking a thing apart and exploring whether it works or doesn’t work and why and whether it working or not working matters and whether mattering or not mattering is a problem and whether it being or not being a problem is a consistent judgment or not. And, of course, whether the consistency or lack thereof is—

You get it. I speak in Wikipedia footnotes. Which is not ideal for “water cooler talk.” Because, while it’s all well and good to bring a little “fun fact” tidbit to a broader, fawning discussion of the thing everyone likes, it is much, much less appreciated to consistently tell them that the books are written in such a way that you will never, ever see what you want to see happen—and, if by chance you do, it will happen in the least satisfying way possible. 

…except for Stannis grammar memes. Those always hit. 

And in what is definitely totally unrelated news: I finally got ahold of the much-anticipated two-episode No Gain, No Love spinoff series, Spice Up Our Love, which is about the awesome secondary couple (Ja-yeon and Mr. Bok) being the protagonists of Ja-yeon’s latest erotic web novel. 

Obviously, we were all up for whatever excuse would give us more of these two being great together, but…did we get what we wanted? Or did we let our hopes get the better of us?

Well, fortunately for you, I speak in Wikipedia footnotes.

1. So…short answer: it was okay. Ja-yeon and Mr. Bok still have chemistry—or, rather, their actors do, since they’re playing mostly different characters and, therefore, the dynamic between them is quite different. Sections of it are really funny (especially early on when it’s a straight-adaptation of the web novel), but the conceit of the spinoff as a whole just doesn’t work, both on its own and within the framework of the main series…which the show itself acknowledges by the end with its alternate version of the scene where she wakes up in the hospital after having fainted outside the police station. 

1A. More specifically, the entire point of Ja-yeon’s dream about being isekai-ed into her own web novel and playing out the plot as its self-aware protagonist is that Mr. Bok, whom she intensely dislikes in real life, has taken the place of the real-life crush-inspired protagonist, forcing her to play out a predetermined erotic romance with a man she loathes—only to then realize that she actually loves him. It’s basically the arc of her romance with Mr. Bok in No Gain, No Love…but situated in the middle of the show—when she is at only the very earliest start of said arc. In Spice Up Our Love, she wakes up with her view of Mr. Bok entirely altered, essentially skipping over the many episodes of character growth that follow her waking in the hospital in No Gain, No Love. Which is an unnecessary stroke against the grain of the established story. 

1B. To wit: if they were going to couch the spinoff in the ongoing narrative of the main story (rather than just doing an adaptation of the web novel story with the actors from No Gain, No Love), it would have made the most sense to set it in the final third of the show, when Ja-yeon is wrestling the hardest against her feelings for Mr. Bok, coming to her in a dream that would lead her accept that she does, in fact, love him. It still probably wouldn’t quite line up with what we saw play out, but it would at least be a more narratively contemporaneous emotion at that point. 

1C. In short, it’s neither as much fun nor as adorable as it could have been. Some of which is a matter of not meeting expectations (which is always a hard bar to hit), but most of which is just a matter of poor execution—including the choice of a poor starting point for an otherwise perfect idea. 

2. …that said, couching the story in No Gain, No Love makes it possible for Joo Min-kyung to cameo as her character for a scene, so, y’know, it’s clearly not the worst idea. 

3. The opening segment of the spinoff is just a live-action adaptation of the Spice Up Our Love web novel—and it’s pretty great: snappy, amusing, and visually interesting. The script doesn’t seem fully polished, but it is waaaaaaay more impressive than it needs to be, given it’s just meant to introduce the world of the web novel. 

3A. …which absolutely contributes to disappointment that they do not stick with the straight adaptation concept. Because this introductory sequence is much more clever than the rest of the production and feels unique when compared to your standard K-drama fare. 

3B. Now, again, if it were up to me, I’d advocate for doing the web novel concept on its own rather than the “I’ve been sucked into my own story!” conceit—but I don’t think you have to commit solely to just the straight adaptation. No, I’d want to put just a little bit of the latter into the former, having the web novel play out as it would…but slowly changing the male protagonist from being modeled on Ja-yeon’s crush to Mr. Bok—with the female protagonist being confused by the shifts and then pulling the POV back out to Ja-yeon who is equally confused about why she’s increasingly picturing her fantasy as the guy she supposedly hates and not the one she supposedly loves. That way, you can do all the silly fun of the web novel’s story but also have your “I can’t believe I have these feelings!” struggle, too.

3C. Um, is my pitch. Thank you for your consideration. 

4. …y’know, I keep saying adaptation, as if there’s a real web novel for them to adapt. Which…I know you know what I mean, but I just want it on the record that I mean “adaptation” when I say it. Like, that the quote marks are implied. 

5. I was not a fan of the sort of watered down, derivative Extraordinary You rules of Ja-yeon being “inside” the web novel and, as such, being a slave to the unavoidable plot points of the story (the “stage,” if you will)—particularly since it was obvious that it was really just a dream she was having after she’d passed out in the street. HOWEVER…it did give us two really amusing moments: 

• Ja-yeon gagging as she forcefully brushes her teeth after a scene of making out with Mr. Bok.

• Ja-yeon’s first over having gotten stuck in the PG-13 version of her story, which means she never gets to live out the explicit scenes and, as such, can’t satisfy her, um, romantic urges once she decides to embrace her feelings for the Mr. Bok version of the male protagonist. 

6. The actress who plays Ja-yeon really nails the comedy elements of this story, which makes it kinda suck in retrospect that Ja-yeon isn’t much of a comedic character in No Gain, No Love. 

6A. Not that that changes the fact that I would have preferred to see the actress who played Other Secretary Kim in Secretary Kim (and the lead in Dreaming of a Freaking Fairy Tale) as Ja-yeon. But that’s neither here nor there. 

7. I didn’t recognize any of the advertisements the show was parodying during that extended sequence in the first episode, but I really wish I did. It seemed like a funny gag.

8. I really enjoyed that the show wanted us all to know that there would be a post-credits scene after the second episode…but I don’t think I’d describe Mr. Bok’s actor singing while some behind-the-scenes footage played as a “post-credits scene.” I mean, I enjoyed it and am glad I saw it, but…

9. Okay—and now for the pièce de résistance: ya boy proves a months-long assertion that he totally recognized a building from another show!

9A. So, back in my My Demon letter, I noted the following: 

Now, what I didn’t say in that letter was that the school-based show I kept telling myself I was remembering was B**** x Rich—but I couldn’t figure out which episode had the shot I was thinking of (with the winding sloped staircase with the green glass railing), so I thought I was confusing it with something else. Well, guess what? I WAS RIGHT!

Exhibit A: My Demon

Exhibit B: B**** x Rich

9B. “But Daryl, my not-infrequently Sherlockian hubae,” I hear you say, “while I am certainly glad of your admirable legwork in confirming the accuracy of your instinctive recollections from literally six months ago, why bring this up in the Spice Up Our Love letter?” Well, my dear Erin, I direct your attention to this very brief shot of what is for this show the lobby of the hospital Ja-yeon’s female protagonist character was brought to in her web novel…and it’s lovely green glass winding staircase:

And then there’s the entryway to the school lobby from B**** x Rich:

…the entryway to the hospital lobby from Spice Up Your Love:

…the bathroom from B**** x Rich:

…and the bathroom from Spice Up Your Love:

Yes, that’s right: My Demon, B**** x Rich, and Spice Up Your Love filmed at the same location. 

BOOM. Who’s tunnel-racist now, hmmmmmm???

…which is all I have to say about that. 

As a short companion piece, this was fine. Serviceable. But not what it could have been, which is probably what hurts the most about it.

Still, didn’t put me off being happy to watch these two pair up again in something else, if the fates allow it. Which says a lot. 

Or maybe it doesn’t. Or, like, maybe it doesn’t say anything about the spinoff but tons about me. Maybe you have a totally different read on it, and I’ve just exposed myself as a sillypants worthy of nought but your contempt. 

I dunno—you’re a mystery to me, seonbae. 

Regardless: more soon.

—Daryl