The Third Charm

Another Miscommunication Drama

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I don't usually read reviews before watching a TV show as I would like to come to my own conclusion. OOH BOY, do I wish I read the reviews before wasting my Saturday away? One word to describe this series: "MISCOMMUNICATE".

The reason for how the first charm ended makes sense. FL's brother lost the ability to walk, and she was not confident in herself, so she ended the relationship. Differences in class and circumstance are valid reasons to break up. After that, the series headed straight to the gutter.

My main issue is with the second charm. FL was playing with ML the whole second arc. Both FL and ML are abysmal at drawing boundaries and expressing their emotions. Any person who grew up in a SEMI-functional family knows that you must respect each others ' boundaries if you want a shot at a peaceful relationship. That meant: 1) not going to a restaurant with another male on your birthday, and 2) maintaining distance with said male after he confessed to you. You don't have to grow up in a nuclear family (like FL) to have common sense. You cannot paint the series as "realistic" when the characters' actions cannot be replicated in real life (in healthy relationships). FL decided to end their relationship because he was "hurting", the "hurtings" that FL created. Just like in the first arc, ML did not even attempt to understand FL's decision or fight for their relationship. The main reason the FL decided to move on was because of the second FL's advice about regrets later on in life.

The death of FL's baby and the marriage in the third arc was a nutshot to the audience. Why break up with your boyfriend, only for you to find a husband in like a year? The baby is only introduced in the story as an explanation for the reason for the divorce. So many things....Even writing this is making me frustrated, and there are also better analyses of the third arc by other people so I will stop writing here.

On a side note:
I like to find tropes in shows and analyze what they are attempting to reflect about the real world.
Cheating, abusive, or emotionally absent husband? Shows the female audiences' dissatisfaction with their current relationship.
Separation between the main lead near the end? Shows the desire for liberation and exploration of one self before committing to a relationship.
As for this show, the trope is "the second love interest". This is where the show introduces an opponent to the FL/ML, allows them to mingle, and concludes that the 2 leads are meant for each other all along... except they even failed to do that! I have not yet been able to articulate what this trope expresses about the beliefs of the show's demographic. Hopefully, I will be able to in the future.

To end on a positive note, the make-up team and the actors/actresses did an amazing job at acting out different periods of the character's lives. I also stepped away from this drama with a profound idea: when it comes to relationships, do not just fill in the blank when you do not know the answer.

Thanks for reading.

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A Cycle of Indecision and lack of consequences caused the Drama Failed to Deliver

I don’t know—maybe what I am about to say could offend some people—but honestly, I did not fully understand the story. I usually accept any real-life drama that tries to portray a logical storyline, but for me, this one failed in that regard. The plot did not feel consistent, and the choices made by the characters often came across as confusing and contradictory.

Let me explain what I mean. From the very beginning, it was quite clear that the so-called “third wheel” had a motive. She entertained him, questioned the situation, and placed herself in ways that created tension. Eventually, this behavior led to the break-up between the main couple. After the separation, she entered his life more fully, and it seemed like she was finally gaining everything she had wanted from the start.

At first, she appeared happy with him, and that was the central point. She even had a child with him, which signaled the idea of stability, family, and a future together. But tragedy struck when the child died. That incident completely unraveled everything. It was as though she could not bear the sadness, the guilt, or the burden of loss. Instead of showing resilience, she detached herself from everything. Her character began to act strangely, almost unsettlingly, and slowly distanced herself from him. Eventually, she decided to separate from him completely.

Years later, after their time apart, she suddenly reappears and starts poking into his(main lead who make his life somewhere settled) life again. To make it worse, she initiates yet another break-up, almost as if she were repeating the same destructive cycle over and over. For me, this part felt unnecessary. It made the story lose coherence. If the drama had simply ended with the two of them no longer being together, the story would have felt much more logical and satisfying. That kind of closure would have respected the natural progression of events.

Instead, what happened was that the female lead’s character ended up becoming hateful—at least from my perspective. Her constant swinging back and forth between choices made her seem unreliable and selfish. It felt like she wanted to test every possibility without ever considering the consequences of her actions. But life does not work that way. You cannot just leave someone, then return later, and expect everything to go back to how it once was. Even if she did not openly admit she wanted him back, her actions made it clear that she still expected the door to remain open. But in reality, you cannot continuously get what you want without making sacrifices.

That was my lag with the story. The writers should have kept the female lead on one side—either she was fully committed to him, or she was not. Her indecision ruined her character arc. She lacked accountability, and because of that, the emotional weight of the entire drama collapsed. A break-up should have meaning. If a character chooses to walk away, then that character should also face the consequences of the decision. Without that, the drama becomes both unrealistic and unsatisfying.

The show did have potential. In fact, the premise itself could have worked if handled differently. But the lack of consistency in the female lead’s actions made it frustrating to watch. She was written in such a way that the audience could no longer sympathize with her. In the beginning, it might have been possible to understand her doubts or her emotional struggles. However, as soon as the back-and-forth cycle began, sympathy turned into irritation.

In the end, I think the drama could have succeeded if the writers had been bold enough to give it a clear and realistic conclusion. Show us that the two are no longer together. Show us that actions have consequences. Show us that people can lose love because of their own mistakes and choices. That kind of ending would have been far more impactful and believable. Instead, they showed that the two are together—or on the path to reconciliation. But then the real question arises: what will happen in the future? Will she suddenly find someone new as previous? Can the audience truly believe she will not act in the same unstable way again? If she could break up with him just because of someone’s confession, what guarantee is there that she will not do the same thing again in the future?

For me, the core message is simple: when you break up with someone, you must bear the consequences of that decision. You cannot simply return later and expect everything to fall back into place. Relationships require responsibility. Choices matter. Without that truth, the story feels hollow.

So, while some people may have enjoyed the drama, my honest opinion is that it lacked logic and emotional consistency. The female lead’s swinging nature ruined the story’s foundation. It was not really about love, healing, or moving forward. Instead, it became a cycle of indecision, unstable choices, and unrealistic second chances. And that, in my view, is why the drama ultimately failed to deliver.

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Life and how our reality works.

This drama pictures our realities in this world. Things happens, sometimes as we expect and other times not.
Some factors make us act, think and plan things a certain way.
We take some decisions, it happens what it happens, we experience things until we learn the lessons so that we can turn a page and start a new chapter and finally let place to the best to happen and why not to what should have been since the start!
There were a lot of emotions, there were situations, experiences hitting hard.
That's our life, the reality we live in due to ours socio cultural parameters and circumstances it creates.

Another good one for me!

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this may be not everyone's taste in drama

I watched this drama because I knew Seo Kang Joon starring in this drama so I need to give it a try.

This drama.. is really heavy. The conflicts felt so real that it make me really hurt (I'm not even joking, this drama is the first drama that make my heart really hurt, like hurt hurt) because the conflicts can be found in real life. As like the title said, the relationship between Seo Kang Joon and Esom happened two times and they give it a try at the third chance, which maybe their last chance to fix everything. Basically their personalities somehow didn't match at all but yes they are fall in love with each other, but at those times, they were damaging each other and decided to called it off.

Both Kang Joon and Esom started their new life at 30s but somehow they make their path way to back at each other again. Starting off their new relationship as they had to heal themselves from all the damages that they have been suffered.

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Bela proposta. O desenvolvimento ficou pra deus.

A ideia, desde o início, era contar a história de um casal dividida em 3 períodos e, para mim, era uma ótima proposta. Mas foi aqui que isso ficou, numa proposta.
Acho que o maior erro desse roteiro foi concentrar tempo demais na segunda história do casal, como se fosse a principal. Talvez devessem ter ido pelo clichê e contar a terceira história desde o início em paralelo com as outras duas, em flashbacks. Com várias alterações nessa terceira, que honestamente, ficou terrível.
O final foi apressado, chato, teve pois o sentido e eu só me diverti quando o casal estava separado.

Enfim, assista por sua própria conta e risco. Vi por um ator e não me arrependo tanto assim, mas essa história não é lá essas coisas.
Talvez se assistir pulando cenas…

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Don't Waste Your Time On This One

I just finished “The Third Charm”, and this was a drama that made me angry after investing my time in this disappointing program. I thought that his was a new drama when it came up on Netflix as a New Release, I wished that I had seen that it was several years old and I had checked the reviews. I think that potential viewers were misled by the producers and broadcasters for this drama. This was a classic bait and switch, the promo and introduction for the drama seems to promise a lighthearted romcom, the first few episodes lived up to the promise, but by the end we have was a gloomy story that disappointed on so many levels. Even the artwork for the show was misleading, it shows the male and female leads together in Portugal, although they were both in Lisbon at the same time they never met.

I don’t even understand the significance of the title “The Third Charm”, I was thinking that this was a reference to the common phrase third time is the charm, to say that two attempts failed but the third will be successful. This would lead someone to think that they will have a successful third reunion. They met for a third time, but it was not a lucky charm.

I have done some thinking about why this drama didn’t work for me. It just didn't feel like there was a coherent story line and the screenwriters lost, or never had an idea where they wanted to go with the story. Some of my issues come down to the ending, and I have read some of the comments and most seem to agree that the ending was not the best, although some say it was “realistic”. I don’t agree that the ending was realistic, and in thinking about it, by the end of episode 16, I didn’t care if they got together. The series could have ended at the end of episode 10, with some additional scenes clean up some of the other characters story arc’s and I think that it could have been more satisfying.

The first two episodes were excellent, and I was expecting a solid series. The nerd meeting the beautiful girl and falling in love with each other was well done. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out due to Yeong-Jae’s family tragedy. Although short lived, their time together seems to have been meaningful to both. For Joon-Yeong it devastated his already low self confidence and impacted his ability to trust women.

I think that this was the basis of his major character flaw which was the inability to trust Yeong-Jae. But her relationship with the creepy doctor didn’t help him. I think in the beginning of a relationship a couple needs to develop trust and this happens through communication, a skill lacking in both. Joon-Yeong would ghost Yeong-Jae whenever anything upsetting happened rather than confronting the issue.

But my biggest issue with the drama is that I consider Yeong-Jae to be emotionally cheating on Joon-Yeong. The haircut when the creepy doctor reached out and touched her shoulder, and all the “accidental” meetings often at difficult times. The creepy doctor was not an old friend, and his intentions were obvious. The Birthday dinner and the spicy food dinner, the singing in the street to Yeong-Jae. Although she was clear that she had a boyfriend, she should never have agreed to meet him, especially knowing the impact on Joon-Yeong. When they had the volunteer trip to the island, “we can’t uninvite him now”. If there was any respect for Joon-Yeong’s feelings they would have asked the creepy doctor not to come.

Joon-Yeong knew from the beginning what the doctor was trying to do. Yeong-Jae wouldn’t acknowledge his concerns and even when she saw the creepy doctor ogling her “sexy” photos, she acted like it was only a friendship. If you consider the bulk of issues between the two, the majority were related to the creepy doctor. When she showed up at the restaurant married to the creepy doctor it only confirmed that Joon-Yeong had every right to be concerned. This was also the point when I no longer cared what happened to their relationship and didn’t want them to get back together.

The screenwriters tried to explain away the marriage that he wooed her after her breakup this is not in keeping with the events shown in the drama. Based on the age of her child he married the creepy doctor was not long after the breakup. Her love for Joon-Yeong wasn’t that important to her, or she was following through on her desire to be rich. The change in her economic status in Portugal when compared to Joon-Yeong was striking.

The reasons for their second breakup never made sense to me. Yeong-Jae felt that she was growing and changing but Joon-Yeong wasn’t. Yeong-Jae never gave him the feedback he needed to grow and to better support her, she kept it bottled up inside. She thought that being with someone who liked spicy food was more important than a person who loved her. Joon-Yeong's career was taking off, he was leading a major crime unit, his team took down a major criminal. He was going to be given a commendation medal for his work. He was destined for great things in the police force. She was a hairdresser although she was having success it was not more impressive than Joon-Yeong. She didn’t want to keep hurting him, well stopping cheating and communicating could have gone a long way in achieving that.

I liked the Joon-Yeong character, but what he did to Se-eun was unforgivable. The writers tried to minimize Se-eun, having her say that she isn’t brave or was a weak person. I think that Se-eun showed great strength and bravery, “Bravery Is Not the Absence Of Fear; It Is Being Afraid And Doing It Anyway”. Se-eun, although scared to death went undercover to meet the Snakehead. Se-eun also flew halfway around the world alone and had the courage to announce her love to Joon-Yeong although this was totally out of character. What Joon-Yeong did to her was almost a mirror of what Yeong-Jae did to him, emotionally cheating and not being honest and throwing her aside when all she did was show love and loyalty. She was a much nicer person than Yeong-Jae.

For Yeong-Jae, the writers used the nuclear option and the death of a child plotline. How could you ever rebuild a romance without another time skip. The death of the child was cheap technique to build sympathy for an unsympathetic character. Yeong-Jae’s drunken phone call to Joon-Yeon about having nobody, she drove everyone who cared for her away, she was reaping what she sowed.

Joon-Yeon was a fool, he threw everything away for a woman with whom he had spent less than 6 months of his life and brought him only misery. Sure, people can carry a torch for a person after the end of a relationship, but after having such a short time together and much of it being filled with angst, I don’t see why he would want to restart anything with her. And even after ending things with Se-eun, he once again left Korea to become a celebrity chef. Yeong-Jae buys a beauty salon in her old neighborhood. Their life goals seemed to have reversed and were not compatible.

By episode 16, I no longer cared about the two of them, there was too much drama, too much tragedy, and too many coincidences, chance meetings and misunderstandings. The whole drama became overbearing. A lesson for the screenwriters is that sometimes less is more, the screenwriters used a sledgehammer to drive emotional engagement, where a well-crafted story would have worked better.

I recently watched “Our Beloved Summer” and “Twenty-Five, Twenty-One” two drama about young love and the challenges of evolving in adulthood. Both did a much better job of exploring the subject.

I do wonder how a drama like this was ever aired, don’t they do any audience testing like they do for movies? If they did, I think that they would have made a few major edits to the plot.

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It's not your usual romance and it hits hard

Ok i will start this review by saying after the first 4 episodes i thought wow this is a gem in the dark 10/10 . After the first 8 episodes i realized wow they fight more than they have happy moments but it was a true outlook on real dating and not kdrama dating with actual variation in the main female lead going for the 2nd male lead . At this point everyone seems to hate the female lead in the comments but they dont seem to realize the male lead was overly clingy, jelous, and petty. This is where i dropped the drama to a 9/10 its because of the cast the male lead doesnt look at the female lead with the emotion of love he has a need for her and the relationship . I blame this on the acting of the male lead over the casting choice. The point when the male lead breaks up with the devoted 2nd female lead made me hate him but as an honest reviewer its not the reason to drop it to 8.5/10 that lays in the overall way the drama progresses it becomes more and more serioius and it gets harder to watch the love and pride relationship between the main leads they just dont seem to look like a real happy couple at any point in the relationship even the 3rd try.

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Starting is good of the drama but it become too romantic for me just like something in the rain .I dicide to watch this drama because of the lead actor as I watch his robot shin character which brought lots of expectation to see him more acting but this drama bring little disappointment as he decide to be a police man why, because as his girlfriend think that he has little childish behaviour ,he do not eat spicy food ,he is vegetarian ,he scared sitting on a swing so when she left him he decided to be a policeman ,after be a policeman he develop all charisma of policeman but when he met her once again after some years again his boldness gone somewhere again he bahave same as before so loose ....And then after they meet there were so many lovey dovey scene and then they separate out ...Then they meet ,I stop watching this drama feel like boring and didn't connect me with both the character story.

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I started this drama because i like main lead. First two episodes are really good which makes me to continue this drama. I am disappointed with hero's attitude and got irritated in some scenes. Story and music is not great. I did not like the main actress acting. Everything is too plain and no interesting scenes in the drama.
Later this drama is getting bored and finally i dropped this drama.
Story: Story doesn't have any big twists.
Acting/Cast: Cast did their best in acting to express emotions.
Music: I did not remember any songs.
Re-watch Value: I will watch first two episodes (maybe).
Over all I didn't like this drama and doesn’t worth my time. I don’t know why the main lead has chosen this drama to act I am really disappointed. Hoping next drama will be a good one.

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