Late last year, many people were overly excited as they anticipated the release of Cheese in the Trap . Prior to its debut in the beginning of 2016, the K-drama already had a strong following because it was based off the popular web comic of the same name. This was one of the reasons, along with the main cast featuring Park Hae Jin and Kim Go Eun, Cheese in the Trap was recognized as one of the most popular K-dramas of 2015 despite never airing at the time.
All the positive hype for Cheese in the Trap eventually devolved into negative criticism by the airing of the tenth episode. For some reason, tvN and the production crew thought it would be a grand idea to deviate from the web comic. With no rhyme or reason why, fans were upset. Even Park Hae Jin was dissatisfied with the direction of the K-drama. In the end, fans hoped Cheese in the Trap would end at least on an acceptable note when the finale airs on March 1, 2016.
Cheese in the Trap has now concluded and the results are less than favorable as the K-drama community have “gone to war” over it. The chaos is so bad that the Cheese in the Trap crew took a vacation, not to celebrate the K-drama’s completion but to escape the chaos.
After the airing of the 16th and final episode on March 1, 2016, many fans of the Cheese in the Trapweb comic took to social media to express their disdain for the K-drama. Soompicollected many of the negative quotesand compiled them into a list. One such viewer, who goes by the username “bangyonggukswifey” on Tumblr, had one of the most detailed criticisms written.
“ Cheese in the Trap wasted my time with that ending. I get the manga series hasn’t ended so you had to figure out a way to end it, but really… That’s it… I should have listened to my instincts and not watched it, but I did anyways. I played myself.”
Not everyone was overly critical of the ending and did their best to calmly rationalize the situation. One such user wrote, “ Cheese in the Trap trying to fix everything last 15 minutes be like…” followed with a picture of a huge crack in the road jokingly held together by duct tape.
Summarized, the ending of Cheese in the Trap “started a war” online, one that was so chaotic that the tvN cast and crew of the K-drama took a vacation to escape the chaos , as reported by AllKpop . According to reports, they all went to a tropical getaway at Phuket. However, a tvN representative said the vacationers were not in high spirits.
“Though they left for vacation, the atmosphere wasn’t all that good. Because of the controversy, they decided to leave [Korea] and return quietly.”
If tvN wanted to avoid disaster, they could have done plenty of things. They could have kept communications open with Soonki, the creator of the web comic. She would have been able to provide insight on the direction of the K-drama. Even if tvN wanted the series to conclude, Soonki would have probably helped in creating an ending that would be accepted by fans. They could have also been frank with fans in the beginning. Case in point, AMC was frank when they said their television adaptation of The Walking Deadwould not be one-to-one true to the comic. Ergo, fans of the comic were lenient.
The entire series of Cheese in the Trap is available to view for free (with ads) at DramaFever. A special behind-the-scenes episode was also included too. Fair warning, those who are hardcore fans of the web comic may be upset with the direction of the K-drama by episode 10.
[Image via tvN/Cheese In The Trap Promotions]