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| ▲This photo, provided by tvN, shows tvN's Alchemy of Souls. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲This photo, provided by tvN, shows tvN's Alchemy of Souls. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲This photo, provided by CJ ENM, shows CPI for fourth week of Dec. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
SEOUL, Jan. 4 (Yonhap) -- Season 2 of Alchemy of Souls, which focuses more on the romance between two protagonists than last season, is gaining popularity.
According to the CJ ENM's CPI (Content Power Index) for the fourth week of December (Dec. 19-25), tvN drama "Alchemy of Soul: Light and Shadow ranked third. CPI index was 271.8.
Comprised of fantasy and history, romance and action, the drama is set in the country of Daho which is no where to be found neither in the history nor map, and it depicts the story of characters overcoming their twisted fate when their souls have been switched.
If season 1 adequately distributed the story of nonchalant Jang Uk (Lee Jae-wook) becoming a mage and the romance between him and Mu-deok (Jung So-min) falling in love, season 2 centers more on the romance by putting forward Go Yoon-jeong as the female protagonist instead of Jung So-min.
Jang Uk, who returned from the dead, gets engaged with Jin Bu-yeon (Go Yoon-jung) who has a face of Naksu.
The drama depicts Jang Uk, who has dark, thrill-seeking attitude unlike the last season, slowly opening his heart to bright and energetic Jin Bu-yeon.
In the beginning of the season, reactions of viewers were mixed. While it succeeded in arousing curiosity of the viewers with the setting that Naksu, who was burned to death, revived just the way she was, because there was lack of explanations on how Naksu was able to recover her body, there were feedback like "I am still unsure of what the identity of she is."
However, as the drama runs towards the end, romance and the unique humor code of Hong sisters (Hong Jeong-eun and Hong Mi-ran), who wrote the scripts, are more emphasized, the fun of the story is also gathering momentum. Hong Sisters, who controls the flow with the method of easing the tension with the humor suddenly while maintaining a serious story
The Hong sisters, who have controlled the play by easing tension with humor while continuing serious content, made people laugh in the right moments with witty lines this season as well.
However, some pointed out that some scenes like Jang Uk, Jin Bu-yeon, and Go Won (Shin Seung-ho) exchanging jokes while Seo Yul (Hwang Min-hyun) is at the brink of death did not run smoothly with the play's flow.
☞ The CPI measures the consumer behavior of dramas, entertainment, music, and infotainment programs on 29 channels including terrestrial networks and cable channels, during prime time. Through RACOI, program-related viewer data (video views, posts, and comments) are collected every week and converted into a standard score based on 200 points to calculate an average.
(This article is translated from Korean to English by Jiwon Woo.)
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