Review of Zerogo Shitsu no Kyaku Ep 1 to 4 (The Guest in Room Zero)

This review is not about the entire drama since I finished the first four episodes only which made up the first story, "Akogare no Otoko" (The Desirable Guy). As to why I didn't continue with this series, the main reason lies in the story. However, before I get to that, allow me to go through the setting briefly.

There is this Western-style hotel named HOTEL POINT which has a special room called Room Zero. What's so special about this room is a machine which determines a person's worth by putting a strand of hair inside the receptacle. There are six groups of people who visit this hotel manned by a mysterious man and the stories begin after they get the assessment of their worth from the machine.

Although the idea of this drama is quite unique (at least on paper), the concept gets stale after some time. Luckily, each episode is just 10 minutes or I would not have even finished one episode. Personally, the predictability was what killed the enjoyment for me. It certainly doesn't take a genius to guess what's going to happen next.

In this story, Ohno Satoshi and Tanaka Miho are the main characters where he plays an elite salaryman Hiroyuki while she plays a hostess Miyuki. On the surface, most people would have assumed that Hiroyuki would be rated higher than Miyuki and they are a terribly-mismatched pair. And that's exactly what Hiroyuki was thinking when he brought Miyuki to Room Zero. He wanted to make use of this to show that they are incompatible and she doesn't deserve him. However, the results turn out to be contrary to what Hiroyuki expected. From then on, the truth unravels as to why he is ranked much lower than Miyuki who seems like a dimwit on the surface.

I expected that Hiroyuki was going to ranked lower or else the story wouldn't have been able to develop. However, the story is too simple and stretching it over four episodes is truly too much. Maybe it was the fact that the TV station changed leads for the drama on a monthly basis so they had to stick it out for four episodes. Actually, three episodes would have been enough to wrap out the whole story. Episode 1 gives us the premise and the rating result, episode 2 shows the conflict between both of them as they grapple with the results and episode 3 could be used as the ending. Too much of anything is not good. If they want to keep things short and sweet, make sure the story doesn't go around the bush.

Actually, what sparked my interest in watching this drama was Ohno. After Maou, I was hoping that he can do another "serious" drama to show that he can act. However, Uta no Oniisan, this drama and the current Kaibutsu-kun are not really what I want to see. Maybe it's the genre of the dramas which is not my cup of tea but I do think his talent is being under-utilised these days. He deserves a better script which will capture the attention of people like what he did in Maou. As for Tanaka Miho, I'm not that familiar with her other than the fact that she was romantically-linked to Oguri Shun. Besides this, I do remember that she's a model but I didn't know that she acts as well. Her role is not that appealing and memorable, as expected. Nonetheless, I think I can only judge whether her acting is good after I see another drama from her.

With regards to Yokoyama Yu, I just can't help but see a striking resemblance between his image here and Johnny Depp's image from Alice in Wonderland. No doubt this drama was released before the movie, I was wondering if it was that suit and the hat which caused me to feel this way. Anyway, since he's the narrator and hotel manager in the story, you will see a lot of him in this drama (I suppose so for the remaining stories as well). This will be good news for his fans. However, the narrations do get on my nerves because they sound more like preaching to me. Narrations aren't supposed to take centrestage in this drama but unfortunately, they did.

I am very reluctant to continue watching the other stories because of two reasons:

1) If the same cycle of events happen i.e. characters test their worth --> results differ from expectations --> conflict --> happily ever after?, I don't think I want to go through five more times of the same thing.

2) The remaining cast members aren't appealing to me. Essentially, all the main characters are played by Johnny Jimusho members. The problem is, I do not have any interest in their younger groups. By that, I mean groups who debuted after Arashi. If you are a Johnny's fan, you know which groups I'm referring to. As such, there are insufficient pull factors to draw me into continuing the drama. Sometimes, I do continue with dramas for the sake of certain cast members despite hating the story. In this case, I can't.

Since I didn't finish this drama, I'll refrain from rating it. I would have given ratings if I finished at least half of it. From now on, this will be my guiding principle for unfinished dramas. If you've watched this and find that this drama is not as bad as I think of, do drop me a comment. As to whether I can be convinced to continue, that remains to be seen. ^__^