Review of "Pluto Secret Squad" - Part 2

Click here for Part 1 of my review of "Pluto Secret Squad"          

The main characters of 'Pluto' pose for a picture / Click here for picture source

          I have to say, I'm not particularly fond of the scenes that the director has been including and excluding. I feel like a lot of the bonding within the family that all of the previous children's dramas have shown are emitted in Pluto. I'm talking about meal scenes, where the whole family will just eat and chat about how their day was, what's been going on in their lives and also dessert scenes, where the whole family just eat a plate full of fruits (we Koreans love fruit) and again, talk together. Both of these meal scenes and dessert scenes have always been a part of children's dramas, and just regular dramas too, but in Pluto, there has only been two super brief meal scenes with absolutely no dessert scenes. Of course, it's hard to pack all of those details in the 30-minute time frame that makes up one episode, especially when the kids are busy solving some huge crime that has gone on in the neighborhood. But if this drama is supposed to be a "developing children's drama", where's the crucial scenes of family bonding times? I feel like the parents of two main characters, who are also brothers on the show, are just there because the presence of parents are needed. Other than that, they don't do much of anything else.

         In addition, what I've been thinking while watching Pluto is that either I'm really old-fashioned or the world has just changed... a lot. I feel like in the older children's dramas, the children were more...child-like. The purity of their innocence was portrayed better, hence, this paved way for more amusing episodes. But nowadays, kids are just growing up too fast. I just look at the main characters in Pluto and the other "extra" actors and actresses, and they just dress more maturely, their hairstyles look like what K-pop idols would sport, and oh yeah, they all have smartphones. Not only do kids seem to be growing up so fast in their appearances, but also the way they talk. This is another reason why I'm complaining about the lines given to the child actors. They just talk so maturely. No child-like innocence at all. But this may just be representing not only Korea's children in real life, but also children in America. I go to the mall here in America, and I see the clothes for little girls and the styles are all the same as what teenagers/young adults wear. It's kind of a problem when I start to see clothes made for little girls to be what I'd like to wear.

         So I wrote about how Korea has been trying to create a better environment for kids to grow up in (click here), but I don't know if they're doing enough. I don't know if Korean kids nowadays would buy the style of the older children's dramas. Don't get me wrong, I've been re-watching one children's drama from earlier this century (also one I've watched as a little kid), and it's not "lame". Those original children's dramas were not some Sesame-street type thing, they were of high quality. But it's true that kids these day grow up much more faster. It was on middle ground - it was definitely not like Barney but it wasn't a late-night, rated PG13 drama; both children and even adults could enjoy it. But nowadays, it seems like producers are struggling to keep it middle ground, and this isn't entirely their fault, did I mention that kids are growing up too fast these days? But KBS, the producer of those mega-hit children's dramas back in the day, made a fatal mistake, at least in my opinion, in making "Nose-picker Principal's Fairy tale Warrant". I've never watched it, but I recently watched a trailer for it since my favorite boy group had endorsed it in the trailer, and oh my goodness. It was just some little kids' show, like Sesame Street. Like I said, no middle ground.

           In conclusion, I love Pluto. I really do, and it excites me that a children's drama exists today, after it's been extinct for too long. Sure, that middle ground has been dwindling, but Pluto is still keeping it's place. Also, it's been pretty popular, so I'm glad that the revival of children's drama has come and has been successful. Like I elaborated enough, they could do better, in comparison to the highly successful children's dramas back in the day, but it's a great re-start. Now to wait for EBS to upload the next episode on YouTube...


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