Her Private Life

A good drama with spark! and a story that will change direction and surprise you!

Firstly i will say, i have out off watching this drama for over a year, because it didn't seem that interesting to me, and i am quite a "picky" gall when it comes to my dramas.

When i started this drama, i thought it was not gonna get interesting, because of the little review i have seen, i honeslty dont think it does it jusice. I dont wanna make this review tooo long, but not too short.

When it comes to the drama, i will say its soooo good, and the story and plot, just gets better. The main leads, are soo good written and i will say with no spoilers, real adults, when a situration happens they are honest with eachother and take their faults and own them. Honestly perfect healthy people realtionship. I haven't seen this much of a healthy relationship with sooo good comunication ever really in a drama, some come close but not this close.

The drama is good overall, you get anwsers to pretty much everything but one thing, about the female lead and her fangirling, that just from my viewpoint could have been brought more into place in some movements with a special character, and it left me feeling unsatisfied, but everything else i love!

And the cemestiry from the main actors are amazing! honestly me and my husband make fun of some dramas, because of the romance scenes seem way to akward, but here it really felt natural, and really professionel of the actors.

My lowest score for this is for the story, some places it felt a bit empty, and the female lead's story i feel like gets a side line, way to much in the start of the story, but its really good! if you are thinking about if you should watch it? Just go start the first episode and dont stop, if it feels werid, just keep going for a bit, it gets a lot more interesting than it would seem.

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Cute Little Drama

I usually take notes while I'm watching a drama so I can write a thorough review later on but this was the first drama in quite some time that I didn't watch over the course of months. I got into it pretty quickly and then forgot about notes.

The cast is great. I love Park Min Young so I'm always happy to watch her in any role. I wasn't a big fan of Ryan Gold (Kim Jae Wook) at first, but I think that's the point. I was a big fan of the character Cha Shi An (One). He was super charming and charismatic from the jump.

Overall the story was super cute, although I did think it would go the route of ML vs 2nd ML with one of them being Cha Shi An, but the alternative story was sort of interesting. A little too intertwined if anything. I will say that FL and ML did eventually have some great chemistry.

I was NOT happy with the fact that they never revealed to Cha Shi An that Deok Mi was his number one fan, "Shi An Is My Road". Considering how much he adored that fan, and then how much he came to adore "Noona" that really bummed me out. I like a good old classic k-drama that ties up all the things and everyone gets there happy ending, but the fact that they didn't tell him was the worst.

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Cute & simple

This was a good, lighthearted drama (for the most part) with a happy ending. The darker moments didn’t really dampen the vibe of the show either even though they would be pretty sad irl. With that being said, all the “plot twists” were pretty predictable; I had it figured out from the first couple of episodes which wasn’t a bad thing in my opinion since it was still interesting to follow along.

I enjoyed the chemistry between the main characters. Their relationship and interactions with each other seemed to flow naturally. I will say there were a few times where they would joke and laugh together but it felt really forced and it just felt off but that didn’t ruin the vibe either because they made up for it in other ways.

I will warn you though, Duk-mi was VERY cringe for the first half of the series. I know what it’s like to be a fangirl, but watching it was so funny but so so so cringe at the same time 😭 I’ve also read a few people feeling uncomfy with Eun-gi’s feelings but honestly I don’t think it was THAT horrible, yes it was weird I will admit, but I don’t feel like it was pushed onto me either. I did feel bad for him though and I’m SO GLAD he didn’t end up with Choi Da-in. I didnt like her at all and when they started being friends I got so scared they would fall for each other or something.

My rewatch value is a little low just because I’m not someone who rewatches shows a lot, so I probably won’t with this one but it was still a fun and enjoyable drama!

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I know what you're thinking. How could I give only 7.5 stars to Her Private life when I gave 8.5 stars to What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, which is usually considered inferior to HPL?

THE GOOD: MATURE ROMANCE
Park Min Young and Kim Jae Wook play two grown-up adults who are very work-oriented and possibly didn't have many previous relationships. Yet, they are believable. They are real. They communicate. They support each other but also give each other space. And they have this amazing chemistry. They hug, they touch and their make-out scenes are to die for. And when the FL spends a night at the ML's place, it feels like the most natural thing in the world.

I believe that it's mostly due to this reason that this drama has such a high rating. We are so desperate for a more mature approach to romance in the rom-com genre, that when it appears, we fall for it, hook and sinker while ignoring the more mediocre aspects of the show.

THE BAD: IT'S A SNOOZEFEST
I was so bored. I started this drama in April 2019 I think and I finished it in May 2020. I totally might be an exception in this but (despite the OTP's chemistry) I often had to force myself to press the "Next episode" button on Viki.

The plot was practically non-existent. The fangirling aspect which drove the first couple of episodes just slowly disappeared into the background and by the last episode, it became completely irrelevant.

The second male lead (Ahn Bo Hyun) was super problematic and the show failed to make him into an interesting and sympathetic character. The epilogue suggests he gets together with Kim Bo Ra's character – why the show didn't make them into a fun beta couple during the course of the story?

Park Jin Joo plays the FL's best friend, who had a subplot going on involving her not-so-perfect marriage. But the writers only scratched the surface of the conflict and resolved it before it had a chance to become deep enough for us to care.

The side characters were extremely generic and they lacked depth. FL's colleagues, her quirky family, K-pop star Cha Shi Ahn (played by ONE), even potentially antagonistic fellow fan "Cindy" (Kim Bo Ra) – all ended up being bland and forgettable.

The search for the artworks that eventually reconnected one family was not a bad idea, but it could have been executed in a much more thoughtful and meaningful manner. And then it went to hell when the writers decided to add the most idiotic "we met as kids" storyline to the last two episodes. (don't get me started on how nonsensical the whole childhood story was, the less we say about it, the better)

ACTING/CAST
Fantastic leads. The rest was ok, honestly, considering the weak writing, they just did the best they could under the circumstances. Park Jin Joo as FL's best friend was super cute.
It was also nice to see Kim Mi Kyung and Park Min Young starring as a mother and daughter again and they were the saving grace of the idiotic melodrama in the episodes 15–16.

MUSIC
Unusually for me, I didn't even download any of the songs from this drama: they were just...there...nothing special. And I admit I get bad vibes when a girl refers to herself as "precious little girl", as in the opening lyrics; I just cringed every time I heard it.

REWATCH VALUE
I think that the first couple of episodes with the fangirling and fake dating shenanigans are very rewatchable. The rest of the show...kissing scenes only :).

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Relaxing Drama

It’s a very easygoing drama with no second lead trying all sort of evil to exaggerated plans to separate the couple.
One thing that I really like about it is how everyone behave like adults!!! Adults actually acting like adults and not being overly childish or trying hard to be cute.

I feel like this is a story fangirls of KPop would really enjoy. The way the male lead supports the female lead will certainly make fangirls dream of getting such a supportive life partner!!
It was very relaxing and dreamy for me.
No big catastrophic twist, if that’s what you are looking for.

Though of course, as so many Kdramas, we have the not so shocking news that they grow up together or met in childhood.

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A sweet but slightly messy rom-com.

I really enjoyed this drama overall - I think the casting was good and I love that it depicted such a mature and healthy relationship, however I had some slight issues with the plot. It felt like it was trying to do a lot of things all at once and I'm not really sure if it succeeded in balancing them very well as it often felt like the plot had completely changed direction to what it was doing a few episodes before.

While I appreciated the representation of "fangirls" who are older and not just teenage girls, this whole part of the plot ended up feeling completely inconsequential to me. At the beginning of the show this is such a huge portion of what the show is about and it kind of gave me the impression that that was what the drama was about at it's crux, but at some point along the way it was almost completely dropped and I honestly kind of forgot that that was where we even started. Duk-Mi's fan site was made to be such a huge deal, but then it reaches a point where it's basically not even mentioned again until the very end, and I'm just not really sure any of this was needed in the show as it had no real consequences on the plot or the characters.

It also felt like it was trying a little too hard with all of the side characters having feelings for other characters, when again these storylines beared almost no impact on the overall plot, and all of the sudden backstory we get at the end also felt like it was trying a little too hard and felt unnecessary when it was all just rushed in the last couple of episodes.

Overall, despite having some issues with the plot, I am glad that I watched it, and I would definitely recommend it if you enjoy rom-coms as I think that element of the show was very well done and the leads did an amazing job.

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I read a number of reviews before I watched "Her Private Life", many reviews mention that the ending is bad in one way or another. This almost made me skip over this drama. I am glad I didn't.

There is some truth to the ending being bad, but that is really only concerning the last episode. This drama feels like it ended on the 15th (second to last) episode and the 16th episode was really just a flash back and where they are now episode, while also wrapping up a few loose ends. Was it needed? No, no it was not. Does it hurt the story? No. Was it boring to watch? Maybe a bit.

I only say all that to hopefully help others that were on the fence, about watching this drama, due to the talk about the last episode.

With that out of the way, on to the real review.

Story: 7.0
The story it's self is fun. It has many moments where I found myself laughing out loud, crying, feeling anger and over all just enjoying my time with the show itself. Some parts of the story feel cliche. Some gags feel over used. But none of that is to the point of making the show unenjoyable.

Acting/Cast: 10
The cast, the acting, and the writing was stunning. The actors all have this amazing chemistry that is helped out even more by the realistic writing that help lend to make the reactions and relationships feel real. This may be the first drama I have ever watched and never thought, "Why would they do/say that".

The drama and romance is handled in a realistic manner. There never seems to be any points where a character in the story does something only to push the plot along and that is both really refreshing and enjoyably.

Music: 7.0
This drama is pretty light on music, many of the scenes have none and I found that really nice. Not every scene needs to have music to heighten the mood and this drama understands that. It uses music where it is needed and in scenes where it makes sense. None of the music was overbearing or over the top. While at the same time none of the music really stuck me as something amazing.

Rewatch Value: 5.0
This is not a show I would rewatch. If I did I think I would still enjoy my time with it, but there are dramas with much higher rewatch value that it has to contend with.

Overall: 7.0
I recommend this drama, with the understanding that the story is nothing new. Expect amazing cast and acting, but the story is really just a place to allow the actors to shine and the relationships and drama to grow.

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I was kinda skeptical on watching this drama since its not that kinda famous and I'm not familiar with the male lead which is Kim Jae Wook, but i fell in love with it since it's romcom and a bit of drama. I read some reviews that the second lead is somewhat unnecessary to their romance and kinda agree with that. But kinda annoyed how he got paired with Sindy not Da In as they have more chemistry than Sindy. Love how they communicate well and show supported he is to her hobby.

All in all, the story is amazing and love their chemistry, still never expected it to be mature.

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