The Legend of the Blue Sea aired its episode finale last night, but failed to hit the 20 percent mark. According to AGB Nielsen, the Lee Min Ho and Jun Ji Hyun starrer came in third nationwide at 17.9 percent and second in Seoul at 18.8 percent. The Korean drama hit its highest ratings at 23 percent on Episode 17 when Heo Joon Jae’s mom finally confronted the evil Kang Seo Hee.

While Goblin ended the past weekend with its back-to-back finale that kept fans glued to the screen for three hours, The Legend of the Blue Sea Episode 20 received a lukewarm reception from viewers. After all the suspense previewed on Episode 19, the finale only tied up loose ends with not much conflict to make it exciting. Despite the artistic letdown in the final episode, fans still flocked to watch the finale mainly because of its lead actors.

Ratings for The Legend of the Blue Sea soared when Heo Joon Jae was reunited with his mom at last. [Image by SBS Korea]

The SBS drama did well on putting together Korea’s biggest stars, which led to high ratings since the time it premiered in November. Lee Min Ho has been causing hearts to flutter since he starred in 2009’s Boys Over Flowers. Jun Ji Hyun, on the other hand, is well known for her films in 2000 and 2001 titled My Sassy Girl and Il Mare. Both movies actually got Hollywood remakes, which starred Elisha Cuthbert and Jesse Bradford for My Sassy Girl and Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves for The Lake House.

The Legend of the Blue Sea received accusations of plagiarism in the beginning as critics noticed that Lee’s character Joon-jae was too similar to BBC’s Sherlock, from the way he deduced info from his victims as a con man, to how he dressed up as the detective from Scotland Yard. Furthermore, the k-drama was also accused of copying the storyline of the American film Splash, which is about a man who falls in love with a mermaid. It seemed that as in the movie, Sim Cheong also learned how to speak the human language through the environment surrounding her. Add to that the way Cheong acted and ate like an uncivilized human, was similar to Splash‘s Daryl Hannah.

Despite all these, the k-drama enjoyed high ratings each week even while being pitted against tvN’s own fantasy-romance. Unfortunately, The Legend of the Blue Sea didn’t finish as high as Goblin did. Fans are satisfied with the happy ending, though, as Joon-jae revealed how he struggled to keep Cheong’s memory in his heart even after she wiped it from his mind. The drama ended with Joon-jae and Cheong living a quiet life by the sea as they recall the legend of their love which spanned eras.

As is common for fans that have watched a drama regularly for weeks, a certain emptiness follows once it concludes (this also applies to when one finishes reading a novel). A new drama is set to premiere on February 3 on tvN entitled Tomorrow With You. The fantasy series is said to involve a hybrid of modern and Korean folktale elements, which would involve time travel this time. The story would revolve around a time traveler played by Lee Je Hoon, and his photographer wife played by Shin Min Ah.

According to the new k-drama’s synopsis, Yoo So Joon is a wealthy CEO of a real estate company, with the ability to travel through time via a subway. When he saw his future self living a miserable life, he decides to marry Song Ma Rin so that he can avoid being lonely. Though initially he married her to avoid loneliness, he eventually learns to love her selflessly.

[Image by tvN]

“Imagine there is a fantastic secret behind your husband, that he is a time traveler… who has proposed marriage for secretive and fateful reasons… Married life, which some call a deathbed devoid of the spark (of dating), could be filled with the most fantastic romance at times.”

The series has already finished filming and would run for 16 episodes. For lead actor Lee, this would be his first foray into the romantic comedy genre. His last k-drama was Signal which is a mystery thriller.

[Featured Image by SBS Korea]