While the highly anticipated drama "The Heirs" increased slightly in the ratings this week, it was still outpaced by the revenge melodrama "Secrets." Last week the first episodes of "The Heirs" achieved second place with a 10.5 percent rating. It remained there this week, rising only to 10.6 percent. "Secrets" meanwhile achieved 15.1 percent in the ratings, which was 0.5 percent higher than last week.
"The Heirs" is not doing as well as expected, with negative criticism directed at its skewed perception of the U.S., its terrible foreign actors and unsympathetic characters. While Park Shin Hye and Lee Min Ho are doing a good job of creating complex likable characters, so many others in this Cinderella story come across as mean, pathetic or just not worth paying attention to.
Once the show's storyline returns to Korea all that may change. That's when the drama will focus on the elite high school that some of the students attend. The show was hailed as a "Gossip Girls"-style drama but there is no actual Gossip Girl to spread rumors and that was some of the original show's charm. Fans will stay tuned though just to catch the glittering cast of stars, which includes Choi Jin Hyuk, f(x)'s Krystal, Kang Min Hyuk, Kim Ji Won, Im Joo Eun, Kang Ha Neul and Park Hyung Sik.
"Secrets," which stars Ji Sung, Hwang Jung Eum, Lee Da Hee and Bae Soo Bin, on the other hand, is a clever puzzle of a plot that keeps getting more intricate. With every episode viewers discover new facets to the characters, all of which are, if not likable, certainly sympathetic. In this drama Ji Sung plays a man who loses the woman he loves to a hit and run accident. He thinks Hwang Jung Eum is the person who killed his girlfriend. But it was her boyfriend, played by Bae Soo Bin, who drove the car that night. Bae Soo Bin lets her take the rap for him and serve prison time. But those are just a few of the secrets in this melodrama.
The third drama in the line up is "Medical Top Team," which stars Kwon Sang Woo, Jung Ryu Won, Ju Ji Hoon, Oh Yeon Seo and SHINEE's Choi Minho. That drama also saw an increase, from 7.0 percent to 7.2 percent in viewer ratings. "Medical Top Team" is a show about a team of doctors who are highly skilled in their respective fields. The show focuses on the political intrigue in a hospital and how it affects the doctors' ability to treat their patients.
