Monthly Magazine Home

A strong concept that's let down by the script

This drama had alot of potential, it sets itself up to be heart-warming and uplifting. The concept is solid and the actors do a good job but I feel like the script leaves alot to be desired. There are way too many clichés crammed into one narrative and that makes it feel like theres always something that's left incomplete. Even up until the last episode they introduce new plot points that in my opinion end up detracting from the story and possible relationships that they've attempted to build earlier in the drama. I would still say it's worth a watch if you're a fan on the actors or are looking for something light hearted, just don't expect to truly go on an emotional journey as these moments are never really given room to breath.

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Good drama with a head scratching ending

I was left stunned when the drone camera did the final pan out from the leads standing admiring her home. I kept saying this can’t be the ending…this can’t be the ending…but it was! like everyone else I’m left wondering what might have come next. Are they just they friends? Would that even be possible? Do they reignite the love they both seemed so passionate about? I know that sometimes writers don’t want to wrap things up in a nice tidy bow, but when I’ve invested 16 episodes getting to know and love the characters, you better give me more than leaving it to my imagination. 🥲

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Light and fluffy romance

Monthly Magazine House (2021)

Watch this if you like the classic romcoms kind of Kdramas.

Likes
1. Kim ji Suk 🥰🥰 So hilarious and handsome. His character is an a$$hat at the start but somehow I couldn't get angry at him because he is played by Jisuk. I just know that when he falls for Youngwon it will be hard.
2. Somin's character is a more upbeat version of BIMFL character. Why does she keep playing a poor writer with no home? But she is wonderful and charming.
3. I love all the houses that got featured in every episode and all the tidbits about home and money saving. My fave was the beach house.
4. Great supporting cast.. they were so funny esp the second couple. Of course my fave Kim Won Hae was both annoying and funny here.
5. The OST is so nice. Yup i just bought my own copy!
6. The second lead was cute but boring. He was no match to Jasung's charisma and energy. Hope Gunjoo gets the girl next time.

Dislikes
The ending could have been wayyy better but it didn't detract me from loving the show. I'll just make up my own happy ever after.

Rating: 8.75/10

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I enjoyed the initial episodes even though it was a typical boss-employee cliché lovestory. The symbolism of home ownership was beautifully conveyed. The side characters have very enjoyable personalities. There was no need for complicating things towards the end. It's understandable that she felt guilty but her disappearance was so sudden. There was no clarity and it was nerve wracking to see a time leap .The break up which happened after the second lead's accident was also needlessly dragged. If they had eliminated those unnecessary breakups I think this drama would have done so much better.I loved Eui Joo and Sang Soon's story(support leads). Sang Soon is such a mood lifter.

In the beginning the female lead's efforts and process of building a house was the main focus of the drama apart from her love interest. It was all messed up when they consumed all the screen time showing misunderstandings, fights and twists.
When she finally build a house they never showed how it actually happened.

They did a pretty good job selecting the cast. The houses shown were very beautiful.There were a lot of scenes which made me laugh.There are no cunning or scheming characters who will try to ruin the mood of the drama.Ja sung(main lead) had a complete character development too(which was soo obvious).

For me this drama was nothing out of the box.If you are looking for something light and regular I would recommend this drama but the ending can be very subjective.

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Poor Ending

What I really loved about this drama was the acting & the storyline until the final 2 episodes. The plot itself is warm and relaxing, filled with slapstick comedy and all of the cutesy scenes you’d want in a drama. The Employer/Employee relationship trope was good as well.

I didn’t appreciate the final 2 episodes. (SPOILER ALERT)

Not only did they introduce FL’s father as the cause of ML’s past money issues (which I didn’t have an issue with) - but they made it the cause of their 3 year break up because FL was what? Too embarrassed? Only to reunite FL & ML after 3 years as if nothing happened? And the Dad has like what? 5 minutes screen time through the last episode if so much!

It was unnecessary to me for them to break up for that stupid reason especially since ML didn’t hold a grudge against the Dad.

Instead of turning a people pleasing FL lead into someone who makes wise decisions, they turned her into a coward who makes poor ones.

If it weren’t for the last episode, this drama could have easily been in my top 10.

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It started so good..

Whoever made the trailer, I commend you. You made it seem that the series will be full of energy.
many cringe and embarrassing moments. Actors can deliver so its okay. THE CASTS ARE GOOD.
Just watch until Episode 15. This series failed to leave me an impression. Its good to kill some time. Its light. Just don't watch the last episode (Ep. 16).
If they want the main lead role to be successful, they should have worked it in the first 15 episodes. They're so focused on the romance, they forgot how to insert how she became successful. They just forced it on the last episode.
To correct that, I think the director does not have any romance at all in his life. Is this the first time he directed a romance?
I WARN YOU DO NOT WATCH EPISODE 16. You can drop it, its completely fine.
When I watch Ep. 16, it drained all my energy and left me with this melancholy. Unreasonable and immature break up reasons that does not happen in real life. Unless of course, if you're really trying to break up BECAUSE YOU DON'T LIKE THE PERSON you gave all the lame reasons possible. Its not you, Its me.
Can't you think of better conflicts in life?
Failed in execution (lame director), failed in story (lame screenwriters). Music, effects not worth mentioning.
Just another series you've watched and will forget in a day or two. THE CASTS ARE GOOD. That's the only thing you can count on.

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A woman who owns a house and a man who owns a home; nice drama but anti-climatic ending!

Monthly Magazine Home is a nice drama, it is filled with lots of simple things that make you laugh and smile a lot. It was a comfort drama. Sometimes, it was weird and over the top, while there were also times where I didn't know if I would cringe because it was funny or just feel butterflies in my stomach. It was good until—it wasn't able to sustain its sincerity until the end.

It is the drama of a man who buys a house and a woman who wants to own a home. It has an office romance, funny relationships with office co-workers and friends, and a love triangle that might introduce a conflict but still not a strong one, thank goodness. The main highlights of the drama for me are the incredibly funny moments of the side characters but still heart warming at the same time. I also loved the sincere and romantic moments of Young Won and Ja-sung. The drama was also lovely with its monologues at the end of every episode plus it has good OSTs!

At its core, the drama was simple and honest and I would've preferred if the writing could've pulled that sincerity until the end, because other than the laughs and the good things, you will realize that it is just plain. But it wasn't bad because you are enjoying this vanilla ice cream with your friends and loved ones. It is so sweet and that it has become the charm of the drama even passing clichés and its weak writing—not until you realized it is a 16 episode drama not a 12 episode one. And, this, I believe, pressured the writer in creating conflicts and challenges because this vanilla writing with lots of good moments could not just sustain a 16 episode drama.

When the writer could have focused on its sincerity and the reality of the hardships of becoming a homeowner in every episode, she opted for cliché plot devices that could invoke long-range conflicts in romance department. But, since the writer is also not yet mature in handling long-range conflicts nor the directing was suave in its execution. Sometimes the emotions were there, sometimes it was missed.
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The two main lead couple had an early romance, however, after that, I think the writing started to become misguided with its original concept and main intention. It lost some of its sincerity and instead had the sitcom vibe; I didn’t complain because it was funny for its short span. And, thank you to the story and craziness of the side characters, the drama lasted up to episode 11. Episodes 12-14 is where the major conflict happened. We had a break-up and a love triangle, but the writer proved that she could still make it work. As she tried once again to show her sincerity, the drama became warm and charming again. I remember loving the emotions felt through the end of episode 14. The writing was at its best when it is not trying to be too ambitious, when it was just honest and raw and when the directing is opting for honest and sincere direction.

In a way, episodes 1-14 were delivered well. It had good moments, there were hits and misses, but it was STILL balanced. Then episode 15 came—it was sweet, crazy, funny and for its content, I believe the main message of the drama was already delivered well—“home is a container that holds life”.

But, of course, we still need to complete the 16 episodes and one thing was missing—the resolution that it promised from its original concept—becoming a homeowner. However, it was already too late and the weakness of the writing started to become evident as the writer probably did not know how she could produce that kind of outcome. The last episodes, although delivered well, failed to provide the progress of its major concept, therefore, with an hour left, they needed a diversion that could fast forward the concept they promised at the start and finally show the female lead owning a house on her own. And this became the main problem and probably the weakest link that drove the drama to its anti-climatic and disappointing ending.

She pulled off a last-minute "plot twist" that you are very tired of because that conflict already happened in episodes before and what's amusing is, she used that unnecessary conflict to give back to its major concept, pulling every kind of cliché that it can and creating unnecessary suffering for the main leads and covering it with a bad aid saying “starting over again”. You know I am not picky, I don’t really mind if they wanted that one last “plot twist” but we still got a cliché trope of misunderstanding, so yeah. The ending was bad because it failed to invoke the right emotions to the viewers, it was bad because the writing was weak from the very first start, it was in many ways bad because it erased all its sincerity and tried to be ambitious when it couldn't.

In the end, the drama still failed to deliver its main concept of becoming a homeowner; while Ja-sung finally owns a home now, Young-won only owns a house. Isn’t it sad? Yeah. But, of course, you still have an open-ending and while I interpreted the ending as anti-climatic and bad writing, you could be hopeful that as they found another one in the end and just as they are starting to rebuild their relationship step by step by being friends, someday, together, they will find themselves building a house that will eventually become their own home. Have a good day!

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Very enjoyable, well-acted, light drama

I did not think I would enjoy watching this drama. In fact, I kept postponing it and binge-watched 6 episodes. Now I find myself waiting for the next episode. I love both leads, in what I have seen them already, they have always given their best to their roles. Although this drama is nothing out of the ordinary in terms of the storyline, it is still nonetheless very refreshing. If you are looking for a sweet drama that does not want to make you think, cry, or be at the edge of your seat then this will do very well indeed. Personally, it is exactly what I need to watch at the moment. The drama delivers what it promises to, it is what it is and does not pretend to be something else.

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I wasn't going to write a review for this drama, because I didn't have a lot to say. I dropped it two episodes before the end, because I wasn't enjoying it anymore and it's the kind of generic that if you aren't enjoying it, there's no point in watching it. So I figured I would just leave everyone else to their gleeful enjoyment since the comment section on MDL was overwhelmingly positive and g find something else to watch.

Then I was struck with a sudden craving to finish it, so I pulled it back up on MDL to look through the comments again and maybe get myself a little hyped up, and Wow. It's a good thing I did that, because now my decision to drop it seems like a wise one. I'm also fired up now to write that review I wasn't going to write before, lol.

Upfront, before we get any farther into this review, no, this is not a good drama. It is extremely cliché, and I don't think it necessarily does all of the clichés well. But! It was entertaining for much of it's run, so that kept me around. The thing, the Two things, that ultimately made me stop watching are the male leads behavior and some second lead nonsense that was far more dramatic than it deserved to be.

First things first, I found the male lead to be just way too mean. It starts out fine. He's rude but you can look past it, because there's room for growth in his character. Then it just goes a step too far for me, and I had a hard time not being frustrated with him. And even when our leads get together, the writers still manage to engineer the situation so he Has to continue to be mean or else everyone else in the office will know that they're dating.

Now, It's funny for two characters trying to pretend in front of others that they don't have a relationship to be mildly (or maybe even a little more aggressively than that) rude towards each other as a cover.

It's not funny when one of those characters is really only being their normal self.

So I didn't enjoy that, and if you can't enjoy the main couple, what really Can you enjoy that will make you want to stick around?

This is where the second thing comes in. The second male lead has been nursing a crush on the female lead the entire drama, but he hasn't managed to work up the guts to tell her. This is all pretty sweet and endearing and likable for the most part, even if it is hard at times to feel totally sympathetic for him when he continuously passes up his chances to tell her how he feels. But then he finds out that she's dating the male lead, and instead of the writers treating this like the unrequited Crush that it is where he would have a good sulk for a few days and then move on, instead...

They Hit Him With A Car!

Now, this isn't really your Kdrama truck of doom as we don't see the accident happen, and he has only minor injuries, but good Lord in heaven is this a level of drama that this boy's crush did not deserve. And it ended up being the catalyst for the leads breaking up for no gosh darn good reason too! And this is why I dropped the drama. Because I don't care about this. I was ready for our leads to start just being together for a bit without having to pretend they aren't dating or having one of them talk down to the other. I was ready for some cute romance!

Knowing now how they ended this drama which is a whole thing in and of itself, I don't think I'm going to bother watching the last two episodes. I've got other dramas to watch and not enough time to worry about this one. So goodbye, Monthly Magazine Home! May you find your home elsewhere.

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I loved it a lot

I have started this drama because I love Kim Ji Seok's work a lot. So I couldn't let this go on without watching. This a story of superation and fight for finding a place in the world. The both protagonists are people looking for their places in the world and this way, also finding love and happiness. I loved the story. And the original soundtrack is also a special gift that i carry with me. Loved all songs and I think they were perfect for the drama and the characters.
Despite some things aren't finished as I expected, this fact didn't take the shine off the story after all.

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