[REVIEW] MBC's "Stand-by" - 5th episode

Scene from "Stand-by" [MBC]

It is possible to say that "Stand-by" should be categorized as a light soap opera rather than a sitcom, because it heavily depends on big events throughout episodes, rather than light, accidental happenings in each episode. Therefore, unlike other sitcoms, everything happens slowly and it takes time for all the characters to appear after an event in the story. Like yesterday's episode, the main characters in the drama finally gathered to appear in the same cut after Siwan (ZE:A's member Siwan) moved into Jin-haeng's (Ryu Jin) house. From showing the characters' entangled relationships, last night's show has signaled how the relationships will develop in coming episodes. Siwan, who is in bad books with his grandfather Jung-woo (Choi Jung-woo), easily became friends with a boy next door, Kyeong-pyo (Ko Kyeong-pyo). On top of all that, Soo-hyun, who has a crush on Jin-haeng, acts awkward towards Siwan. So far, the slow pace of "Stand-by" has allowed each character to establish strong personalities and make the viewers understand the problems that have generated from newly formed relationships.

However, amid such slow-paced storyline, "Stand-by" managed to grab the audience's attention to the screen with typical elements of sitcoms. For "Stand-by" wisely uses the catchy aspects of each relationship and used it in describing each character. This is well shown when Jung-woo tries to make Jin-haeng, who is obsessed with being clean, angry by taking out underwears and making the room messy. Jung-woo tells Jin-haeng that he will be the first parent ever to win his/her own child, referring to Jin-haeng. Also, it is shown through the screen that the actors in the show are working in great harmony. For example, the conversation between Siwan and Kyeong-pyo clearly shows that the producers tried to make the stories more alive by emphasizing the difference between the two: "Do you listen to Girls' Generation? T-ara? What is this? It's a Korean class," "It's a mathematics class," "Are you trying to say that I'm stupid because I don't like to study?" "I didn't know that you didn't like to study" and etc. Even if the show is absent with unique events or weird happenings in the story, "Stand-by" is able to satisfy and live up to sitcom-hungry fans just with the in-depth expression of the characters and well-written lines. The show's such qualities make it worth to standby in front of the television every night.

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