‘Romance on the Farm’: Episode 1 Run-down — It Happens on a Farm, Obviously

Episode one doesn’t say much about the premise of this drama, but I’ll put out a quick recap anyway.

RECAP

A company is testing out their new virtual game that lets players experience real-life 3D experience when they play. Like dreamscape.

When the female lead tries it out one time, she signs up for a farm game but is transported to a place where they almost burn her alive.

The second time, she finds herself part of a farmer family who are trying to marry her off. Not a great situation, but at least it’s not a bonfire.

Far away, the male lead is engaged in a fight with some enemy. It doesn’t look like a serious duel, to be honest, but somehow he gets mortally wounded by some darts to the chest in the process and limps his way to the nearby woods. Luckily, this is also the woods that our girl runs to to cry about her weird family; so they meet and she pulls the dart out of him. In a very relatable way.

Later on, when the girl’s “family” bugs her about the arranged marriage again, the male lead suddenly appears out of nowhere with a baby in his arms and claims that he is her husband.

I was going to say that there’s no way the family would buy this story since these two still look like babies themselves. But I guess this is medieval time so the people who had to get married and take care of babies were pretty much babies by today’s standards.

COMMENTS

Let’s talk about the good things first. This drama invests heavily in costumes and film sets. The costume design, in particular, is a perfect mix between authenticity and a modern touch. Then, there’s the foods. All the foods and scenes of foods being made. You know, they really focus on the “natural” aspect of it all.

Many outdoor scenes are particularly beautiful. It’s definitely an appealing game “universe” you’d want to be dropped into.

However, BIG however, when the characters start to interact with each other, that’s where the problems come in.

The cast’s performance doesn’t really match with the authenticity of the visuals.

Now, let me just say that I’m not sure if this is on purpose or not. Maybe at this point, we are still meant to look at this village as a game-world, so everything has to feel superficial; because ultimately that’s how these characters feel. This is a “fake” world, the female lead is a fish out of water here, but somehow the people in this world also act like fish out of water.

Their expressions usually don’t match with the gravity of the situations they are in; and more often than not they recite their lines and perform their actions rather than truly existing as a part of this world.

Yes, everything in this game is ultimately arranged and rehearsed since it’s a GAME level. But isn’t the point of game-verse dramas to create a world so real that the main characters lose herself/himself in it and suck the audience in with them?

The timing of background music and sound effects are so often off that it almost seems like they are off on purpose. Is a particular scene supposed to be sad? But are we supposed to see comedy in the layer beneath the sadness? Or is it just pure comedy? It’s impossible to tell.

As a result, I’m not too invested in what the main characters are doing. Maybe that will change, I’m not sure, I’m only at episode 5. Then again, if it hasn’t changed five episodes into the drama, it may not change at all.

Or maybe this is a new genre of drama where we’re just meant to enjoy the references to video games instead of being emotionally invested in the story.

I can’t guess what’s going to happen yet. Is the game going to malfunction and cause this girl to get stuck in the game world forever? How are this game and her real-life problems connected?

If this turns out to be one of those sweet, wholesome stories like in Stardew Valley, I will absolutely support it.

Do I recommend this drama? I don’t see any reason to recommend or not recommend it. It’s pretty to look at, and if you like either of the leads, go for it. If you stumble upon it, go with the flow, there probably won’t be any flaws that can bother you or damage you emotionally too much. If any character jumps off a cliff then… hey, it’s just a game.