My Mister

PLOT: This drama may be more on the slower side (even seem a bit boring at times), but it's SO worth to watch! It deals with questions like what is good and what is bad/evil and is there really just one or the other; it shows various forms of mental illnesses (especially how broad the spectrum of depression can be) and it has a beautiful moral, leaving you with a bittersweet but warm feeling in the end.
CHARACTERS: Deep characters which took me a while to become acquainted to - since it's not often you have such seemingly ordinary and almost plain (and due to that realistic!) protagonists in a drama - but soon I had them feels for almost all of them (even for the ones I didn't expect). And the acting is outstanding!
SCENERY: Dark and soothing and a bit repetitive. Paired with the nostalgic music, it gives you good old-school vibes.

Would recommend to someone who: is interested in ethical topics and wants to watch a drama to take something away for herself/himself. When you watch and listen closely, this story teaches you a lot!

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Good drama..worth watch

One of the best korean drama I watched recently....It starts slow phase and slow scenes..I thought to drop after 2 episodes but once you get into the characters you will definitely start loving it mainly "Lee Jin An (IU)" character she killed her acting mainly when she runs to restaurant and to the bridge both scenes were my favorite.Even after the end of the episodes still thinking about her character... and in final episode when park dong hoon cried I almost cried and it's painful to watch him crying.. finally it's definitely worth watching drama don't miss this...

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This drama is about healing and finding solace even if it’s two different age groups.
I think the last drama that made me cry this much was uncontrollably fond. The storyline of the drama is extremely hard to pull of and only a few set of people could tell this story. This cast did an amazing job and I can see why it won a lot of awards and had a lot of recognition. I always look foward to the performances and the screenplay the official soundtrack and the directing. But I got lost in the relationships portrayed in this drama. It gave so much comfort to see not just a family but a neighborhood be so warm and welcoming, not only between the two main characters but with the people surrounding them. A lot of dramas tend to shift from the importance of connection between the leads and their supporting roles and tend to dwell on the things happening around them forgetting the real story of their relationships, but this performance was so deeply connected and given to the audience in such a raw way. Presented in reality, this drama showed the issues that go on in people’s lives and it felt so real, their pain felt so real. They tried their best to pour out the deepest of their emotions and allow the audience to be drowned in it. Everything about this drama is wonderful. A big hand to the actors for their surreal performance I think it’s one of the best melodramas yet. This drama focuses on healing real healing and I loved the fact that the relationship between the two leads was on that line of romantic and yet platonic it’s so hard to find dramas that not only focuses on the chemistry but in the friendship built with love .I could say so much more but that might take away time from you starting this drama! just watch it and appreciate these performances. The first 3 episodes might not appeal to a general crowd but the real essence and treasure is in the latter. Enjoy.

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My Mister – A Masterpiece Etched in Silence and Sorrow

There are stories that entertain, stories that move, and then there are stories that change you. My Mister isn’t just a drama—it’s an experience, a deep, soul-wrenching journey that lingers long after the credits roll. It doesn’t rely on grand gestures or melodramatic flair to tell its story. Instead, it thrives in the mundane, the quiet, and the unspoken, proving that sometimes, the softest whispers echo the loudest.

At its core, My Mister is a story of two people drowning in life’s weight, finding an unlikely connection that neither romanticizes nor simplifies their pain. Park Dong-hoon (Lee Sun-kyun) is a man in his forties, suffocating under the sheer gravity of existence—trapped in an unfulfilling marriage, burdened by family responsibilities, and slowly eroded by the small betrayals of everyday life. Lee Ji-an (IU) is a young woman who has never known warmth, scraping through survival in a world that has shown her nothing but cruelty. Their bond isn’t one of passion or romance, but something far more profound—recognition. A silent acknowledgment of shared loneliness, of a mutual understanding that transcends words.

Many dramas rely on explosive confrontations and grand resolutions to convey emotions. My Mister does the opposite. It lets pain settle in the spaces between dialogue, in the weary sighs, in the exhausted way Dong-hoon trudges through life, in the hollow yet defiant way Ji-an stares at the world. It’s a symphony of restraint, where every pause, every stolen glance, every half-smile screams louder than words ever could.

Lee Sun-kyun delivers a masterclass in quiet devastation. He embodies Dong-hoon as a man who has been beaten down by life but refuses to break, holding onto his decency like a life raft. His every movement is heavy with exhaustion, his rare moments of joy fragile yet radiant. There’s no dramatic breakdown, no theatrical outburst—just a man enduring, because that’s all he knows how to do. Then there’s IU. This is the performance that shattered every preconception about her as an actress. As Ji-an, she is a ghost of a girl, worn thin by hardship, navigating life with a survivalist instinct that leaves no room for softness. Her eyes—hollow, unreadable, yet brimming with unspoken emotion—do most of the acting. When Ji-an finally allows herself to feel, even if just for a second, it’s like watching the first cracks in a dam before the flood. Their connection is so profound because it isn’t forced. There is no “saving” each other. No grand promises of happiness. Just two broken people walking the same dark road, offering the smallest flicker of light.

But My Mister isn’t just about Dong-hoon and Ji-an—it’s about all the people weighed down by life’s burdens. Dong-hoon’s brothers, endlessly flawed yet deeply human. His colleagues, wrapped in office politics and petty betrayals. The neighborhood ahjummas, the struggling bar owner, even the antagonists—all of them feel like real people with real struggles. There are no caricatures, no villains twirling their mustaches. Just people, messy and imperfect, trying their best. Even Dong-hoon’s wife, whose betrayal could have been written as a one-dimensional act of villainy, is given depth. Her actions are painful, yes, but never cartoonish. Like everyone else, she is just a product of her own loneliness.

One of the most stunning aspects of My Mister is its use of subtext. This isn’t a drama that spells things out for you—it lets you observe, feel, and piece things together yourself. It respects its audience’s intelligence, layering its story with nuance that rewards attentive viewers. Dong-hoon and Ji-an’s conversations are often not about what they’re actually about. Their silences hold more weight than entire monologues in lesser dramas. And through it all, the drama asks: What does it mean to survive? Not just physically, but emotionally. How much pain can a person carry before they collapse? And if they do, is there anyone there to catch them?

The soundtrack of My Mister is a quiet storm—melancholic, haunting, yet strangely comforting. Sondia’s Grown-Ups lingers like an ache in the chest, a song that perfectly encapsulates the bittersweet weight of growing older, of carrying wounds no one else can see. The music isn’t just accompaniment—it is the very breath of the drama, weaving through its most powerful moments like an invisible thread tying everything together.

If My Mister has a flaw, it’s its pacing. It is slow, deliberate, demanding patience. But calling this a flaw feels almost wrong—because this isn’t a story that can be rushed. It is a sunrise, not a firework. If you’re waiting for grand payoffs or dramatic showdowns, you won’t find them here. But if you give it time, if you let it settle into your bones, My Mister will change you.

Verdict: The term “masterpiece” is thrown around far too often, but if there’s one drama that earns it in its purest form, it’s My Mister. It isn’t just about pain—it’s about the resilience to endure it. It isn’t about grand, sweeping love—it’s about the small, quiet kindnesses that keep us going. This isn’t just storytelling. This is life, captured in its rawest, most beautiful form.

Final Score: 10/10
A once-in-a-lifetime drama that doesn’t just set a standard—it defines one.

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I know I’m in the minority with my rating and some of my critiques of this drama, but none without a reason so hear me out.

PSA: this review doesn’t contain spoilers, but it would make more sense to someone who has finished this drama.

For starters, this drama is real, almost too real. It is a melodrama in every sense of the word. Throughout the show I was left wanting insight and conclusions that might have been too unrealistic. That’s not a big flaw on the shows part, but more with my expectations. Also, there were some characters I wanted to know more about and other characters I wanted to know less about. For instance, I wanted to know more about how Song Ki Beom (Ji An’s friend who played video games) met Ji An. I wanted to know what happened to that old man who was a father figure to Ji An. I get that I can come to conclusions about those things myself, but I thought it would have been a nice touch to see things like that added in to tie up loose ends. Personally, I wasn’t too interested in Choi Yoo Ra (the actress), she seemed a bit awkward and towards the end I was more interested in what would happen to other characters, like Jung Hee. So my overall problems with this drama are the screen time distribution of certain characters, and loose ends that could have made the end amazing if tied up nicely.

All of that aside, this was a decent drama. The acting was impressive all around. The soundtrack was magnificent. The song Rainbow (Band ver.) by Vincent Blue set the tone every time. For the most part the story was good, aside from me wanting more from it. The cinematography never disappointed me. For me, the characters are what drove this drama. It could have had any plot with these characters and I still would have watched it. Will I rewatch it? Probably not. Although, it was nice to watch once.

If you’re looking for a slow paced, realistic, melodrama, centering around a tight-knit community, then this show is for you.

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ANOTHER HYPED DRAMA ROMANTICIZING CRIMINAL BEHAVIORS

I’d probably get bashed by fans for this but…

I just cannot absolutely enjoy a drama portraying cheating, stalking and blackmailing that fans keep romanticizing just because the characters have more than one trait that make up their personality. I feel a lot of people are quick to get attached to dramas with seemingly three dimensional characters because that’s something that we don’t see often but being invested to the point of justifying their behaviors that are outright violations is just ridiculous.

People would come at you if you even say that the behaviors are questionable. I don’t get why they keep talking about how the characters are deeply flawed which makes them real but when it comes to judging their behaviors, suddenly it’s all fiction? I swear if Ji an was a guy, they wouldn’t feel the same way.

If you’re looking for a slice of life drama, this is not it. There are other ways to make the characters “human” and the story feel raw without romanticizing their “flaws” that are not actually just unethical behaviors trying to give depth to the characters.

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i skipped a lot of scenes in each episode. it was a compelling and grounding drama. it wasn't overdramatic when it could have easily been. it's a drama that defied the drama genre in that the plot was dramatic, but not at all convoluted. it wasn't over the top and it never bordered on that. I think the female lead was rather bland. The male lead was strong! I saw him in Coffee Prince and the movie Parasite (2019). I saw this show after Parasite (2019). The actor has range.
He played his character really well. You could see his turmoil under his quiet demeanor. There were times where the actor had the potential to become melodramatic or underwhelming at times, but he did NOT! His acting is what makes this show strong.

The rest of the cast was ok. Chemistry was ok. The female lead was pretty bland. I saw IU in that Scarlet Lovers show. Her acting abilities did not improve. The role she plays here is the same role in Scarlet Lovers when that character becomes all sad. I think Park So Dam or Kim Go Eun would have added dimension to the female lead's characters.

not a re-watch.

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The best thing about My Mister is its character driven plot which alternates between nail biting suspense and quiet scenes depicting the tenuous and deep connections between its characters. Ji An, a down and out young woman, involves Dong Hoon, her unwaveringly decent and morose boss, into a precarious situation of intrigue and brutality.

The pacing is varied. Many scenes feel overly drawn out, but each episode manages to move the plot forward in unpredictable fits and starts. It is well acted throughout. Some of the side characters bothered me - particularly the female characters, Jung Hee the bar owner and Yoo Ra the actress. They are so over the top pathetic, it's annoying. They take up too much screen time.

Its actually a little surprising to me that I watched this drama all the way through because its not really my taste. There is an oppressing bleakness that permeates everything in this drama - literally shading their world a dismal bluish gray in most every scene. Everyone is having a hard time here - the young, the old, the rich, the poor, the good, the bad, the successful, the defeated. Basically the overall message is that it sucks to be human. At times this message feels pretty heavy handed. There are several too many monologues about the bitterness of life by its many characters. But quality storytelling and character development win out and this drama drew me into its dreary world from the first episode.

Sympathizing with these characters, often stirred up my own feelings of fear and inadequacy that sometimes keep me up at night. Don't watch this if you are looking for a feel good show or are having anxiety in your own life. But I couldn't help being drawn in and hoping that these characters would eventually find some solace or maybe even happiness in their connections with each other.

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I feel like all my reviews these days start off with me saying that this type of drama isn’t USUALLY what I watch, but that’s only because I’ve really been pushing myself out of my rom-com comfort zone. My Mister was a drama I kept hearing about, and one day, when I was unsure of what to watch because of my long-ass watchlist, I went on r/kdramarecommends on Reddit and put up a post that I will watch someone’s favorite drama, because I probably already have it on my watchlist anyway. It’s a long watchlist. I literally just don’t have enough time in my life for all the dramas that I want to watch. Anyway, the very first person to comment on that post told me to watch My Mister, and at first, I was like, really? The last non-romance drama I watched I ended up rating a 5/10, and oh, look at that, the one before it was also a 5/10. For some reason I am fucking incapable of being interested in dramas that don’t follow some sort of romantic storyline. But oh, man, My Mister sure is one hell of a trailblazer in that regard. I do admit the first episode was boring as hell to me, and I had to rewatch it because I kept spacing out and was very confused when it ended. The more I got to know each of the characters in this drama, you could not have physically pulled me away from my laptop, because I was INVESTED and needed to know what happens next. By the way, this is coming from a person who sincerely believes that she has some undiagnosed mild ADHD. I just cannot for the life of me sit through this much of a kdrama on a normal day, but there was something about My Mister that just captivated me so much that I didn’t want to stop watching. When the drama ended, I sobbed for about 10 minutes straight (this might be a tad of an exaggeration) and sat there for a little while, not knowing what to do with my sad life now that my only source of entertainment in a while is finally over. I loved all the characters of this drama (even the “evil” ones) because none of them were written to be completely good or completely evil. Our main leads, even, have done some questionable things in this drama, however this type of unexpected behavior coming from seemingly predictable characters is what added the depth to their personalities. I could relate so much to the less moral characters, because as fucked up as their actions were, you could understand where they were coming from. There aren’t villains or heroes in My Mister. There are just regular people who do what they need to do for their and for other people’s happiness. The OST was absolutely incredible, and I loved the atmosphere of this drama quite a bit. The pacing was on the slower side, but this was totally okay and still engaged me throughout the whole series. If I have any parting words, it is to just watch this drama even if you don’t think you’d like it, because I, too, was incredibly turned off by the seemingly boring synopsis that kisskh provided. This Kdrama will be one I will not forget for a long time.

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