If you haven't seen this yet, you should! I just finished watching this relatively new drama and I'm in love with it at the moment.
The drama is about a young patissier with a difficult past who wants to become the new pastry chef at a café called Panda after the owner who's name is Pan Da Yang. Go Seung Ji (the patissier) has a very prickly personality which earned him the nickname Hedgehog. Panda and Hedgehog experience a lot and of cource they fall in love and have a love triangle with one of Panda's childhood friends. But the plot in this drama isn't all that mainstream and it takes an interesting turn in the end when everything falls into place.
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source: (http://weheartit.com/entry/33319052/via/myhaeven) |
If you love cakes and pastries as much as I do you'll definitely love this! In my opinion it has this perfect mix of drama, humor and pastries. This is not a drama where you'll see talented patissieres at work and amazing artworks, but it's not a total fake either. We do at some point see their own interpretation of a traditional french croque un bouche, but most of the time we see simple but cute and inspiring pastries like macaroons.
This drama does have hints of the way too often seen cliché love story with the classic damsel in distress theme for the main character. And her beloved, often rich and popular, prince who falls for her the instant he sees her even though she's portrayed as an ugly girl. But not to the extreme extent like Boys Over Flowers was. The girl in this drama is normal to pretty looking and, yes, she is indeed in some deep s*** when we´re introduced to her. And yes the guy comes in and saves her as her last resort, and he does fall for her pretty quickly. But the Hedgehog in this drama is a little bit of a different twist from all of the other princes who keep appearing in other dramas. These are the reasons why Seung Ji is better:
1.He does have some money, and yes it helps Panda, but he's still not rich.
2. He does not live with his parents and yes, he had a tragic past. But they are not rich-kid problems and he was even in jail at one point of his life.
3. He is portrayed as a handsome and rather popular guy, but! he is not the typical way-too-cool-to-care-about-anything-and-extremely-cold-because-I'm-so-perfect-that-I-see-no-point-in-living type of guy.
4. And finally he messes up a lot, is very inexperienced with love but despite that he tries so hard to make Panda happy.
Now a lot of this credit went to the main male character, Go Seung Ji. But I have to say that the girl also did a great job with not clichéing it too much. She actually respects that the main character has a life that she is not involved in. She isn't as whiny as they usually are and not as clingy either.
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source: (http://weheartit.com/entry/33192826) |
my opinion(WATCH OUT! POTENTIAL SPOILERS)
As I previously mentioned I liked it because of the pastry theme and the fact that it's not that cliché. It might not be so cliche because the real main character in this series isn't really the girl but the guy. And the fact that they're both pretty grown up so they don't over dramatize everything. I liked the end also, even though it was very predictable(at least I thought so). Initially I also have to say: holy shit its the nerdy best friend from playful kiss! I remember really liking her in that drama, and here she is again:) I like that actress overall too, she seems special:) And it's also the kinda annoying nasal best friend from dream high 2, I always wondered if her nasal voice was natural or if it was a part of the character she played. She did sound a lot better in Panda and the hedgehog though:)