Producer ep 9: Are You Denser Than a.... ?!?!?

Before I get started, I need to clearly state, for the record, that while I may have frustrations currently with 'certain' aspects of this drama, that I still love it and all the characters in it. I love when a drama can elicit all sorts of emotions out of me, and that's just what this one is doing. Eliciting. All sorts of blankity-blank-blank emotions.

I am about ready to smack some people upside the head! You know who too, don't you? Both Ye Jin and Seung Chan seriously earn the title of "Utterly Dense and Clueless". My patience is seriously about to run out with Puppy especially. Where's a rolled up newspaper when I need it? This whole Noona Ship needs to sink immediately. Can you imagine these two actually procreating and inflicting the world with their respective density x2??? No, no, no, no, and just, no. No. Cannot happen. I won't allow it. I'm putting my virtual foot down here and declaring that this madness must end. Now. Break it up you two and go back to your separate corners. Don't make me turn the hose on you.

Who would have ever thought back in episode one that the ice-cold pop diva would end up being the one with the most sense out of all of our leads? The girl with no friends or family to call her own, who came of age on the stage, has the best grip on interpersonal relationships. I'm glad to see Joon Mo starting to come out of his own fog and realize his feelings enough to see his Ye Jin monopoly being threatened. I'm also glad to confirm that his interests in Cindy are purely protective and reminiscent of her pop princess predecessor and not of the romantic variety. Thank goodness at least he has a sliver of sense. I'm happy someone has her back as Puppy is too busy chasing his wanna-be tail to pay her any mind and her CEO 'mom' is a cold-hearted you-know-what prepping to throw her out into the cold like yesterday's soggy cereal despite her current reign on top of the charts.

Now, not all the love lines had me flipping tables. Our odd ducks, Paper Nazi and Stefano, finally get it on. On the copy machine. lol They are so quirky and weird, it's impossible not to cheer for them. Sheesh! If those two odd-balls can figure it out with even less hinting and clues being given... Aish! Come on Ye Jin, Joon Mo and Seung Chan! Get with the program!

So, much of this episode involved Ye Jin preparing to move out of Joon Mo's place and into her own apartment. Or, should I say, it involved Seung Chan preparing to move Ye Jin out. He took a very active role in decorating and all the moving preparations. His giddy glee would have been more adorable if channeled in the right direction *cough* Cindy *cough* *cough*, but it was cute to see him so animated. Ye Jin, of course, is completely oblivious this whole time to the idea that this guy is doing it because he is full-on crushing on her, and thinks that they are just buddies. Is it cruel of me to want to see that moment when SC's fantasy finally comes crashing down in the cold face of reality? Am I an awful person to imagine, with a smirk on my face, the look on his face at the exact moment his little Puppy heart breaks? I understand partly why he can't see it, he is blinded by 'love' (aka misguided infatuation), but why is she so clueless? I guess the same can be said for her actually. Duh. I forgot. She's blinded by love too. This 'love' doesn't get "quotation marks" though. I truly believe she loves Joon Mo. She has every right to too. They've grown up together. They've been best friends their whole lives. She can't see that Puppy's feelings are anything other than platonic because she herself is distracted by non-platonic feels in another direction and the rest of the world is completely drowned out by that focus. It makes sense. But really.... Between Seung Chan completely misreading her cues and Ye Jin's utter lack of picking up his.... Aye yi yi! Pulling my hair out here!

As Ye Jin makes her preparations to move with her trusty pet Puppy by her side, Joon Mo finally starts to get his clue. He is not blind to Seung Chan's attentions towards her. He is starting to see what is going on. He is watching another man fill 'his spot' next to her.

Looks like a little competition was what we needed to get his butt in gear

And even though she doesn't feel romantically towards his 'replacement', he nonetheless is threatened by it and the idea that he actually could lose her. She's moving out. She spends all her time with a boy toy intent on winning her heart. At the same time he sees Cindy's struggles and they remind him of the girl that came before her 5 years ago. She's been alluded to off and on throughout the drama, but we finally now get a name and a little story. Yuna.

no, not this one...

...this one.

It would seem that, at Joon Mo's encouragement and pledge to support her and take responsibility for her as an almighty PD, she left Byun Entertainment to venture out on her own. We don't know exactly what happened at this point, but we know it wasn't good. I'm not sure the girl is even still alive. Having been through it, and traumatized by it, in the past, Joon Mo can see that the same thing is happening to Cindy right now - her company is preparing to dump her and replace her with a fresh new face.

Hello, New Face

And in the midst of all this, Joon Mo's own show is being threatened - canceled for a week so that a new program's pilot could air in his time slot. I think it is safe to say that the man has a lot of worries going on in his life right now. I still am going to need him to man up and step up and grab the girl before I lose what's left of my hair though. If he could do that, that'd be great. Thanks.

I would like to point out that all this density going on between our leads is not without moments of clarity. We see these flickers of realization every now and again.

Like Ye Jin catching a drift in a near car accident....

Yet completely and obliviously missing what sure sounded like a full confession to me...

Then there were all those times Seung Chan was constantly being reminded of Ye Jin and Joon Mo's  l o n g  history together....

Clarity bites, doesn't it Puppy?

I don't know, maybe it is just me, but when the new neighbor mistakes you to be newlyweds, the look of abject horror on one may be problematic when compared to the sheer joy of another.

Or these ultimate glimmers of clarity/DUH moments with Cindy first dropping MAJOR hints...

.

...and then later spelling out a pretty near confession to Seung Chan ON AIR with him just standing there dumbfounded like this is a big giant shock to him. Even after the girl bleeping bleeping bleep kissed him! Dude, really, could she make it any more clear???

That's it! No more threats - I'm grabbing that rolled up newspaper. Puppy needs some sense knocked into his big bone head.

All of these flickers of clarity don't last long and are quickly replaced by more delusions.

"It's fate", "Meet my mom", "You're my favorite...junior", "just call me Cinderella"

And pettings. HOW CAN HE BE SO SLOW?!? The man is a frelling genius on paper but a complete dunce in the romance department. He would choose this

over this?

Idiot.

He chooses to edit reality to fit his fantasy. Like folding the picture to take Joon Mo out of it. As if that's all it's going to take.

Idiot.

Am I being a little harsh on Seung Chan? Uhm...no. The boy reacts to this

by doing this

He deserved this.

Hear that sound? That's the sound of a Puppy heart breaking.

Idiot.
 
I was proud of Joon Mo when he set out to hold on to Ye Jin and asked her to continue to live with him. That was HUGE! I don't want to get my hopes up too high here, but gosh darn it, they are. Is he finally realizing that he's been ousted and wants to hang on to her? It sure would seem that way. Yay! I still haven't watched the next episode though, so who knows. I heard a lot of grumbling about 10, so I'm nervous.

Finally, the epilogue. Kinda interesting, wasn't it? It would seem as if Seung Chan's crush on Ye Jin goes back a little further than his first day at KBS. It would make sense that their paths crossed earlier, seeing as how they both grew up in the same neighborhood, which is honestly something I've wondered about for a long time, whether or not they had known each other when younger. I guess SC's always had a thing for the older girls, even as a boy. We see him not only lurking around Ye Jin as a kid, but then picking up a picture she had dropped. The picture she let him keep and that he still holds in a box that now accompanies the one she gave him as an adult with the two of them "together" (i.e. photobombing her picture with Joon Mo). It would appear that he has been carrying a torch for her this whole time.

I wonder when it was that he realized it was her? While it lends a little more authenticity to his crush, since it has endured all these years, it's still not enough to convince me to jump the Umbrella Ship. If anything, it just once again shows how Ye Jin looks at him as a young kid and not as a man. He was little then, he's little now. I doubt she can ever see him as anything else. Especially now that Joon Mo is peeing all over her tree, marking his territory. 

Oh yeah, baby, she's obviously hot for you

While fraught with OTP frustration, this episode certainly was not without its charms. There was so much to appreciate about it, from Joon Mo finally waking up a bit and acting, to Cindy being a complete class act even as her crush ignores her and her substitute mother-boss threatens to abandon her and end her career. I loved how both Ye Jin and Seung Chan stood up for her against CEO Byun at the Music Bank show. That had to feel good for formerly-friendless Cindy. So yes, frustrations aside, this was a great episode with a lot going for it. And now, I'm off to watch episode 10 because the suspense is killing me!

Stay tuned for more recaps and adventures here on TCA. Kmuse will return with her take on episode 10 of Producer, so keep an eye out for that. And if you're following any of our other recaps - Orange Marmalade, Mask, or ExGirlfriend Club - those will be up...sometime...too. As always, thank you for stopping by! See you next time!

Back hugs and fish kisses,
Dongsaeng