Producer Ep 12 FINALE - And the Beat Goes On

I can't believe that we are at the end.  It seriously felt like we just started recapping this drama.  But  now it is time to not only recap episode 12, but let you know our feelings about the drama as a whole.  So please welcome Dongsaeng, who is joining me for this final farewell to "Producer".



KMUSE- OK, where to start?  I think I will just put one of my overall thoughts about the drama out there, and then chat about some of my favorite scenes.  There are two things that saved this drama.  First, they had more plot lines than just the romance, so while I could be pissed at the various directions the romantic storyline went, there was still something to hold my interest.  In fact, Cindy's character growth is the star of the show in my opinion.  For a drama about producers I think it is funny that it is the one non-producer character that saved the drama for me.  The second, being, that they had really talented actors that could suck you into their character, for better or worse, so you actually felt emotionally connected to them as people.

DONGSAENG: I completely agree with you there. These people were genuinely interesting and I cared about their lives as a whole, not just who they ended up snogging with. I love these types of "Behind the Scenes" shows though that give us a look into a world we know nothing about. Sure, it was fictionalized, but don't you suspect it had at least elements close to reality? It made me look at variety television in a new light just as King of Dramas did for dramas for me.

KMUSE- Sadly, I am still bored with the romance.  Seung Chan spends way way too much time analyzing things and this do-over speech is a perfect example.  I am sure that to some the whole restart monologue felt romantic.  But all I could think, while trying to focus on the show, was that this feels a whole lot like filler to get that 90 minute running time they were going for.

DONGSAENG: I was thinking that Seung Chan sounded crazy hot when he walked up to Ye Jin and said "roof" in a very deep, commanding, and very un-Seung Chan-like tone (if you missed it/want to relive the magic, it's around the 3:00 mark). Which made sense then with his little do-over speech where he regretted being so awkward and wished he had been more sure of himself. But yeah buddy, time to let this one go. She's just not that into you.

KMUSE- Thankfully we shift focus back to the 1N2D drama where Joon Mo is fighting the powers that be, to keep Cindy on the show.  He pretty much says that he will go down with the boat and do what he thinks is right, ratings be damned.  WOOT!  Joon Mo's shining moment for me.

DONGSAENG: Joon Mo rocks. I loved the part where the writers were complaining in the bathroom about him and Ye Jin pointed out how loyal he has been to his entire team and saved their sorry butts from getting canned these past five years as the show tanked. I wanted to cheer and high five her for that one!

KMUSE- Awwww, I was so touched by this scene where Cindy is awoken by a spritz from a spray bottle (Seung Chan could wake me up in the morning, his smile is SPECTACULAR) and a cold iced tea. Cindy is overcome by all the support and begins weeping.  A truly sweet moment on all fronts.

KMUSE- I loved this scene where 1N2D was going on location to help a lot of village grandmas.  The premise is that all the city stars will go to the country and spend the 2 days entertaining some locals.  In other words, they are going for fun culture shock moments.

KMUSE- We see Joon Mo talking to the cameras about how simple and rustic the grandmas are and how things like camera drones are all new to them. Haha, it is at that moment that two grandmas go past talking about how they saw a drone when a different show came filming in their village and then asked Joon Mo about their appearance fees. 

KMUSE- Cindy gets put with a grandma who actually is unaware of who she is.  Which actually makes Cindy feel refreshed and free since she does not have to be in superstar Cindy mode.  Instead OCD Cindy attacks as she enters the grandma's house and sees the lack of organizing.  Poor Seung Chan is worried that all of the cleaning will make for boring video, and than perks up as he realizes he sounded like a real producer.

DONGSAENG: I love her hat here. And Seung Chan was a total dork as he was strutting his fledgling PD feathers. It was cool to see him finally show an interest in and passion for his chosen career path. Who hasn't had those proud moments though when all of the sudden you felt legit and not like an imposter pretending to be something you aren't in life? A job title, a parent, or whatever it may be. It's cool when those "huh, I actually sound like I know what I'm talking about" moments come to be, when you start to feel like you finally fit this new role of yours. Too deep? Sorry. Yeah, I really like her hat.

KMUSE- Love how Joon Mo describes the difference between dramas and variety.  Dramas have a set beginning and ending. Variety goes on until the public stops liking you so the end is always a bit awkward and sad.  Never thought of it that way.  Makes me feel bad for all my inner feelings about Running Man dwindling on my radar.  Maybe we need to start hashtagging #KwangSooForever before those variety characters disappear off my tv.

DONGSAENG: I have to say that the past couple of episodes, I've been watching this, worried that it is acting as the real 1N2D's swan song, like a preview warning us that the real show is soon going to be off the air. Are they hinting at something here? Do we need to be worried? I say "we" like I even watch it, but I used to watch it and absolutely loved it, so I feel connected to it and would be so sad to see it go. They created this drama, put it in a variety weekend time slot, used real names and an actual 1N2D cast member as the producer of the drama version and started throwing around cancellation plot lines. This makes me very nervous and I'm trying to not read too much into it, but it's kind of hard not to.

KMUSE - Cindy joins the boys out on the front porch, and it is not long before Seung Chan begins to nod off and ends up resting on Cindy's shoulder.  Awwww.  I am not really expecting to see them end up together, but this is just super sweet.  Cindy lets Seung Chan sleep and when he awakes, they have a talk about her one sided love and how she is OK with how things are even if it is not what she would wish for. It was a very mature moment and again cements Cindy as my favorite.

KMUSE- While all this is going on, CEO Byun is back in Seoul being her usual loathsome self.  She is busy complaining at the Directors of the station for allowing Cindy to continue on 1N2D's and also promoting her new singer on Ye Jin's show.

DONGSAENG: I was so proud of the directors for standing up to her and not bending to her demands. They pretty much just came back at her and asked, "who are you to be telling us how to do our job?" YES!!! These two odd ducks for the win!

KMUSE - I remember thinking of all the scandals this past year with stories coming out that their management is taking advantage of them.  I have to imagine it is those situations that inspired this story line.  And as a kpop fan, I pray that this is slightly exaggerated for my poor biases' sakes.

KMUSE- One of the best moments of the episode was where sexy PD rookie puts CEO Byun in her place by openly confronting the CEO and Cindy 2.0 and mocking their lack of polish.  Laughed so hard when the evil CEO did not know how to react to the expressionless PD.

KMUSE- OK I forgive the intern girl for slightly annoying me the whole series (an annoyance level similar to have a fly buzz near your food.  Annoying, but not ANNOYING)  Anyone who can level CEO Byun with a bored raise of an eyebrow (**cough cough**... and her boobs) deserves to be liked, if just a tiny bit.

DONGSAENG: And her butt. Don't forget her butt. And legs. They made sure to show us those as well. But yeah, Ms Slightly-Annoying-and-Close-Friend-to-GD totally redeemed herself here and I cheered for her too. Basically I did a whole lot of cheering in this episode as each character did their best to shine and prove just how awesome they are.

KMUSE- I also enjoyed how Ye Jin has become a behind the scenes guardian angel for Cindy.  Hearing about an old clip exists that could exonerate Cindy, Ye Jin goes into the archives and slugs through a ton of raw footage.  The clip contains not only Cindy opening talking about her parents death, but a younger CEO Byun telling her to shut up and not mention her family at all in public.

KMUSE- Finally seeing CEO Byun go down is just so satisfying.

DONGSAENG: So, so satisfying. Ye Jin for the win!

KMUSE- Seung Chan's drunk habits are the best.  There is just something so adorable about him going all informal and blunt (even more so than usual) to his superiors.  And I about died when he started imitating Ye Jin's cutesy drunk habits. Hahahaha and than he goes and kisses Joon Mo.  That is hands down the best skinship of the series.

DONGSAENG: I died like a couple of dozen deaths when (at 1:03:52) drunk Seung Chan growls and calls Ra Joon Mo an SOB! This whole drunk SC scene was just fantastic. The cast members themselves seemed to be just having the time of their lives as they just let everything go. It really felt more real than acting. Well, maybe minus the kiss. I doubt the actors would have done that on their own accord in real life, but it sure was a perfect addition regardless. 

 

DONGSAENG: One of my favorite moments was Seung Chan and the apparent station ghost (or as a scared SC likes to think of him as, the 'station fairy' lol). Seung Chan's go-to guy for advice in the storage room, you know the guy that is inexplicably always in there with who-knows-what responsibilities, well, looks like he isn't real. Bwahahahahaha! I had always wondered at just who this guy is because they never actually introduce him, he's just there. And the moment I saw him all in white, sitting on a sun-bathed unicorn, I grew suspicious that something was up with his character.

 

Sure enough, after doling out his usual advice for our dear rookie PD, Seung Chan asks him why he never goes to meetings or why he's never on set. The guy just kind of gets embarrassed, but doesn't say anything. At that moment, a coworker walks in, asks Seung Chan who he is talking to, and when they look up, no one is there. At the staff meeting following this, everyone has a grand time teasing Seung Chan mercilessly about the station ghost. It's fantastic. Absolutely brilliant.

Now you see him...

...now you don't

KMUSE- It is finally time to see which ships sunk and which are setting sail to happily ever after.  And the winners are..................Ye Jin and Joon Mo...............Yup, Ye Jin and Joon Mo officially hook up.  Not a shocker, but glad that we FINALLY overcame that hurdle.

KMUSE- I really liked that they had Cindy and Seung Chan as an implied (somewhere in the future) couple. I would have been pissed if they had just thrown it in at the end as a perfect wrap up of the love rectangle.  By implying it, I could accept the idea that it was going to be a work in progress and that he is not ready yet to just jump into another crush/relationship.  However, I am really sad that we did not get a Cindy/Seung Chan's mom moment.  Their kismet at the recycling bin continues to be one of my favorite scenes of the series.

DONGSAENG: Yes! I think they handled the whole Cindy/Seung Chan relationship perfectly, all things considered. Sure, in a perfect world, this relationship would have blossomed on screen in front of us instead of the Ye Jin direction it went, but with where we ended up, this was the absolute best resolution. I love how Seung Chan finally learned something, and even though he beat Cindy at kai-bai-bo, he still mans up and carries her luggage for her. Yay! Growth! There's hope for our lost little puppy yet!  

FINAL THOUGHTS:
KMUSE- One thing that I did find annoying is how they were so wishy-washy in the use of the documentary concept.  I know that they decided to shift of focus after the first two episodes because of ratings concerns, but if they were going to do that then they should have just dumped that concept all together.  I remember thinking how weird it was that they started having hazy background special effects used to indicate the documentary scenes.  And than after that, they just dumped the special effects and went to the actors just talking to the camera.  Every time one of those scenes came on I just was dragged out of the moment.  It was very jarring and a bad use of a concept.

DONGSAENG: My biggest "wish they woulda", besides lengthening it just a smidge more, would be that I wish they had spent more time on the film set. Call that my voyeuristic side or what have you, but it would have been fun to see more of the 1N2D filming. Overall though, really I thought this drama was spot on and there was so much to love about it. It was so unique and went where no dramas have really dared to go before. It was a perfect marrying of reality and drama and just plain intriguing and entertaining.

KMUSE- This drama had its ups and downs, but I actually think I really liked it.  I enjoyed especially the last two episodes which did a lot to alleviate the shipping war angst that I was feeling.  I think that if I had been able to just watch it straight through, and not have that week between episodes to seethe over things, it would be in the top tier of my dramas.

Love it, like it, hate it, or indifferent, it's officially the end of Producer. Cut! This one's a wrap! We hope you enjoyed taking this little ride with us and we hope you come back as we co-cap our next project, I Remember You/aka Hello Monster coming up soon!


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