Little Women

Layers upon layers

Aug 2023
Why did I wait so long to watch this?
I really enjoyed the pace and intrigue, and binged in a day, staying up 'til silly o'clock.
Great mix of characters, with the 3 sisters it centres around being each very different.
It really was gripping drama with some well placed, but nothing standing out as being really childish, humour.
The story twists and turns, with more layers than an onion.
All 3 sisters end up entwined with one ultra powerful, sociopathic family.
The story follows their struggle to unearth past and present secrets, lies and fraud.
More than a few surprises along the way.
There were a few times when things got more than a little ridiculous and characters did do truly stupid things for the circumstances they were in, but overall it's not badly written and is a pretty intelligent story.
I'd have liked more on the youngest sister, as I felt her character's story was sacrificed somewhat for the main plot.
I also wish one particular character had a more fitting end; they didn't suffer nearly enough for my liking.
I adored Choi Do-il, played by Wi Ha-joon; a great character that kept me guessing to the very end.
Well worth a watch.

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Much better than Yumi Cells

As you can tell by the headline I 100% watched this show because of Kim Go Eun, I loved her in Goblin and she was excellent in The King: The Eternal Monarch. She can act with any actor and in any capacity. Did I like her in Yumi Cells? yes, but did I like Yumi Cells? No. So with that said, I went into Little Women with an open mind.

I'm an American, so I grew up reading and watching Little Women. I'm not sure if this drama is based on the novel, I actually thought it was just a coincidence it was the same title. But I guess you can say, it's both about poor sisters living in a harsh society. This drama, as much as I enjoyed it (to my surprise) shouldn't have been for me. I don't like "class" dramas. I don't like anything like Parasite, Sky Castle, etc. It's too much angst and not enough fluff.

Why this drama worked out for me:

1.) CASTing. The drama spared no budget on casting. It was an A list cast. My second favorite character was of course, Wi Ha Jun, as everyone knows him from Squid Games, but I loved him in 18 again. He's really rising in the ranks and I absolutely loved his character. He was mysterious, strong, masculine and a little calculating. The writer was very good in developing the characters.

2.) The MUSIC isn't something you think would be catchy. There wasn't really any lyrics, but one of my favorite songs was just instrumental. The music really set the stage and tone for the scenes. You were just moved and it made you feel a certain way, should it be nervous, happy or excited.

3.) The STORY, It's hard to write a thriller that has movement from start to finish. The first 4 episodes are explosive and addicting. You really DO NO KNOW where the direction will take you. I never excited to have so many expected twists and turns. 12 episodes was the perfect length. There were a few scenes here and there I didn't care for, but overall, it was an exciting drama to watch.

A few nit-picky items:

Of course the story wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good in closing loop holes. The writer does take liberties at certain scenes, but to me, this is no different from watching an action movie and a car jumping thousands of feet in the air for show. The characters are over-the-top and at some points you think it's a dystopian society where it's a law-less land. You just have to take the story for what it is.

Lack of romance. There was a little slow-burn, but of course the focus of the show was the sisters, so I guess there was no room for romance. Just don't go expecting hearts and flowers and confessions, but warm gestures.

I didn't always agree with some of the choices some characters made, but I accepted it for what it was and that is okay.

Overall, for a drama that has a genre I don't usually watch or care for, I was really happy and satisfied watching. It kept my interest.

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Another Vincenzo but not as good.

I had this drama in my list for a while now, but it wasn't a priority because I had a long list to finish before this.

That being said, I dived into this show without seeing and details like synopsis, cast or production team. I was aware of the main cast tho(Who isn't?).
However, it took me just 30 minutes in the first episode to realise that it's a drama directed by Director Kim Hee Won(the brilliant mind behind Vincenzo).

Despite the fact that Vincenzo was a masterpiece, I wasn't expecting a show that was produced exactly the same. Identical meaning - the same dynamics between the leads(less chemistry here tho), the same music vibes(not as catchy as Vincenzo), the same deaths and drama sequences and most of all, an unexpected villian (but I could predict that early on in the show, so that didn't come as a surprise to me). My suspicion of Kim Hee Won was solidified when the end credits rolled after each episode - the dramatic music with name of the drama banging on the screen(ALL VINCENZO FGS).

In my opinion, the show was pretty good, it was entertaining and had a well defined story. The cast did a good job with their characters as well. Not much re-watch value but it's a pretty good watch one time for sure.

I know I keep saying this but - IT FELT LIKE WATCHING VINCENZO WITH A DIFFERENT STORYLINE. Because of that, I kept making comparisons at each step and that took away ALOT from my watching experience.

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More Alice in Wonderland than Little Women

Loosely based on Little Women is the sort of loose that happens when the elastic in your trackies gives way and they drop to your ankles in a wrinkled heap. Yes they are still trackies, but not obviously so. I spent the first episode distracted by trying to unsuccessfully work out how this drama maps to the book. But I was looking in the wrong place, because, although there are parallels to be found, the map is really in the theme: the significance of money.

This is fundamentally a story about money and its sidekick—power (the perennial obsessions of K-dramas, well maybe most dramas actually…). How and why it shapes lives, morals, choices and character. How poverty shapes your mentality and expectations. What you are willing to let it buy and what that does to your integrity. What risks you are willing to take to acquire and keep it. Under what conditions you will let it go. The price that your decisions exact from both you and those around you.

It puts the protectors, helpers, underminers and benefactors of the wealthy centre stage and examines their motives and desires. This is a rare perspective and I can only remember it being the centre of a drama in one other totally brilliant case, “Secret Love Affair” (if you are interested in this aspect, watch SLA, it will not disappoint, although it’s not a thriller).

As you can guess by now, it is not the plot that makes this drama special, (more about that later) although you can simply watch it as a thriller. It’s the examination and unfolding of motive behind the fight for freedom and opportunity in a world that values money over the individual. A society that insists we fight for limited resources to fulfil not only our dreams but our basic survival as well.

It’s almost impossible for us to imagine a society not based on money. But money itself is not of course concretely real, it is simply a universally accepted system of sharing resources that becomes meaningless if we lose trust in it. It is the illusion around which our reality and dreams are built. And if you are going to be fanciful, you could watch this drama as a commentary on the system’s strengths and weaknesses and the approach people take to best work it. Given that it is compulsory to engage in this system, the question as to what is morally acceptable and what is personally justified is core to the unfolding of the narrative.

Having said all that, there are problems in my opinion with how the drama is written and presented. There’s a vibe of the sisters being ordinary people (a reference to Little Women perhaps) who are unwittingly and sometimes unwillingly mixed up in something big.

However, through most of the drama, the sisters don’t display enough realistic, long-term emotional reactions to support their ordinariness in the extraordinary and violent situations that surround them. In a normal thriller we suspend disbelief because the whole thing is not related to any recognisable reality in the first place. Here, particularly in the middle section, I am being made aware of the gap between quasi normality and the world of the story with the result that I am also very aware of suspending my disbelief. And at times I found the approach is not subtle enough to make it work.

Because the women are presented as relative amateurs, there are moments that stretched my credulity to breaking point. For instance, without any preparation and seemingly without backup, they are willing to confront people they think are probably murderers. There are scenes where professionals who would never disclose information to anyone let alone the naive woman in front of them, disclose it. Etc, etc.

There’s an odd mix of the ordinary, the extraordinary and the completely surreal. The more surreal it gets the less the ordinary women at the heart of it are credible. It turns into conspiracy theory central with hallucinogens thrown in for good measure. Whether this was intended as a reflection of the madness that money creates in people is debatable.

The plot gets increasingly bizarre and takes off in strange directions and at times loses impetus. This has a fragmenting effect which leaks tension and can be frustrating. But at other times the sense of confusion and powerlessness is very effective in putting you into the shoes of the protagonists.

Overall, this is an ambitious drama and when it works it really works, and when it doesn’t, it really doesn’t. I’m someone who is prepared to put up with stuff not always working well if an attempt is being made to experiment with something new and different. I think this drama tries to do that, so I was happy to give it the benefit of the doubt, but even my goodwill was tested beyond its limits by the end.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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Dirt wrapped in facy bow

there are 2 categories that's missing from the above rating system, cinematography which was a 100/10 and plot development which was a meh 5.
so like, the shots were so extravagant, so beautiful, so well though tout, so well balanced, but the story? the backstory for the evil organization was trash. the "twists" eventhough they were shocking were stupid, basically the villains were so smart yet gave away their own lives and worse make a stupid revenge scheme that compromised herself more than her victims..

like sure, sangah was a psychopath, but an elaborate acid water scheme, that obviously put herself at more risk? and the tree bottom becoming an acid pool and boom one push and it's over?
here's how I'd have done it differently. poisoned gas, and she wears a protective mask but it gets cut off by accident and boom we see her suffering chocking on her own plans. (don't judge me, I'm writing this with a writer mindset xD)
her whole persona was "conducting plays", a puppet master if you like, she planned and played everyone, we as viewers needed to see her plans fail and her seeing the wires cut off, that was the real suffering, she had no real power

and suddenly everyone was rich, when her friend got 12 years in prison.. so it was that simple? there was no death mystery cuz she never died. they didn't need to piss sangah off when they could've laundered the money that easily?




some people would look at this as a fancy metaphor for "the top 1% and people exposing their true colors infront of money" or whatever else one likes and they are not wrong
but to me it wasn't that deep. it was just 1 psychopath that married another, and her father conveniently had an organization of psychos that liked to kill to reach their goal, for what? petty angst, why? cuz that's how shallow the writer is
squid games is not a metaphor of rich and poor, it's entertainment. you can ofc see any metaphor you like, it's not wrong. we can all look at the ink on the page and see a flower, a monster, or just a splash of ink.
one and two aren't crazy, and 3 isn't a cynic that lacks creativity. I can look at a literature piece like little women the book, and say it wasn't a rich vs poor, it was just a love story. or personally I think it was more about a woman's position in society, regardless of background, women are forced with 2 options, marry rich or marry love, and the 3rd variable is the rebel's "if I don't want to be either I'll be neither"

I did not compare little womens cuz besides the basic, 3 sisters, poor, artist, material world, nothing is similar. others can see more similarities but no one is wrong


sooo, long story short, as an entertainment piece, ep8 was the best. the psycho's Truman Show was a great touch, the manipulation, the step by step puppet show and everything just being for sangah's enjoyment watching injoo's reaction was a better story choice than the veitnam, sad mommy issues, money, Vietnam and 99% of the show thinking Do Il would betray her. or being over involved in his feelings for injoo when like literally 7m is a great reason for someone to help cuz 70b is way too much to want to escape with

the songs were great, Uhm Ji Won as a calm psychopath is a great addition to makjangs and their recent love for screaming women. Kim Go Eun also rocks heavily emotinal scenes. for me, her meltdown in prison, and sangah's scheme in ep8 deserve to be in the "acting" hall of fame



going to compare this to eve, both are makjang, both wanted to go crazy, and tbh I'm sick of romance dramas breaking up the best couples and say "sad endings are realistic", it's not sad to beautiful people didn't end up together, real sad endings come from death, and the ones that need a sad ending are makjangs, a happily ever after makjang isn't worth all the pain and angst
killing the villain is not a satisfying ending. they get caught? they kill themselves. they go crazier? they fall and accidentally die

real suffering comes from detaching the villain from their power. let their world crumble. and thus, in Eve the ML saw the amount of destruction they caused and what did he do? suicide but with murder. and that's they point, muurrrrder (again don't judge I'm a writer xD) but how to make murder worse? one dies and one lives but loses everything, her memory, her sanity, her personality, her life, and she lives in a state she doesn't know what's real or not, she's just a shell
but I guess Eve got there 1st so this couldn't copy it. and psych ward is the 3rd option for villains anyway

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a good show with a weak ending

I really enjoyed watching 'little women'.
I was hooked from the first episode and watched until the end as the story was interesting, several of my favourite actresses were in it and I liked the general vibe.
It was mysterious with all the orchid business, you could easily empathise with the three sisters, with some more and some less though - and tension built up nicely for the final episodes. There where some storyline weaknesses before but I was able to ignore them, sadly not so in the final episode.
So whatever happened then? Was this another drama that was short cut from 16 to 12 episodes? Was there not enough time left to write a good final episode?
This final episode had severe logic weaknesses and they were just left unsolved to give the show some kind of happy end.
So what bothered me was:

1. So what was all that satisfactory scene when reporter Oh In-Kyung could finally prove that Won Sang-A is a devilsih murderder? She has CCTV matierial showing Won Sang-A brutally mudering a person. And after that? No police goes immediately to arrest Won Sang-A, instead she can joyfully go to the hospital and kill that old man who gave her away, in front of a nurse witnessing this? Still no police. Time passes and she then has time to stage all that final scene under the orchid tree in her cellar. Still no one arresting her while the incriminating material of her being a murderer was on live TV probably two days earlier?
So she can manage to abduct Jin Hwa-Young, and lure Oh In-joo into that cellar too, still no police at her house arresting her?
That was so nonsensical and made that reporting and proof of Oh In Kyung totally useless.

2. So Won Sang-A then had enough time to prepare the sprinklers with acid. Ok. So she turns on the sprinklers and the acid dircetly hits Jin Hwa-Young being bound to that chair, and the pure acid drops hit her for quite some time, she is screaming on and on, but nothing really happens to her, she is not really hurt by the pure acid drops.
Then in a twist of actions Won Sang-A falls into the pond under the orchid tree and - suddenly burns completely in huge blisters from the acid? How?
If the pure drops of acid did not harm Jin Hwa-Young for quite some time, why would the water, only containing a few drops of acid totally burn Won Sang-A if she falls in there?
That was even more nonsensical as nothing would have happened to Won Sang-A falling into that pond, it would just have been water with acid so thinned out that nothing would have happened to her.

3. I'm always in for a happy end but also that was questionable. So the youngest sister gives a lot of money to her older sisters out of gratitude. That is a nice gesture and I would have loved to just see it as that.
But, Oh In-Joo was just convicted with serious money matters and is on probation for the next years. Does anyone really think the authorities would not check on her if she suddenly had 23 million Dollars in her account? No way would they have left her untouched and the whole trouble would have begun again, her youngest sister then being a suspect and internationally sought for.
Also the two young girls were travelling with their real passports and real names, it would be very easy to track them down as long as they wouldn't have fake identities. (and they didn't as Park Hyo-rin needed to use her real name to achive all that money at her becoming aif age)

4. And what happened to Go Su-Im? Is she also still roaming free? If so, wouldn't she try to harm the three sisters still?

I found this to be such a good show until this final episode which seemed hushed and not thought through. The focus was on creating this final scene under the orchid tree without considering the rest of the before given circumstances and the fact that Won Sang-A would never have had the chance to do all that because shortly after the live TV airing of her mudering someone the police would have taken her.

So, this annoyed me so much that my rating weng down from 8,5 to 7.0.
I wish the producers of the dramas could manage to not hush the last episode and storyline like that (and it's not the first time this is happening) for the sake of logic and common sense that totally goes overboard in this final episode here.

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The Clickbait

Little Women is a Korean Thriller Drama adapted from the novel "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott, until it wasn’t.

Before reviewing the drama itself, I will try to define this matter without spoiling anything from the novel and the drama.

~Novel & Drama Comparison~

The novel revolves around the life of 4 sisters from a poor family. Each of them has her own personality, flaws, charms, worries and dreams, creating her own path in life. All of them together create a chaotic & dynamic companionship filled with many happy, sad, comforting but above all, sisterhood moments. The novel is set in the 1860s, but the core of its story is timeless. Thus, whatever changes plot wise, as long as the adaptation stays true to the original story’s vibes, it will successfully deliver the original message.

But this particular adaptation, despite having Little Women’s family tree (kind of), has nothing else in common with the novel. It’s a pure Makjang with a completely independent story, which is not even slightly inspired from the novel as its conflict between poor and rich is the most common theme in Makjang. It looks like the writers had a story already planned in mind and used the novel as a reference in order to promote it.

The Drama production should have mentioned the novel only for copyright purposes and of course, they should have used a different title. The fact that they didn’t, was a foul move which makes the drama a clickbait, something I personally can’t ignore.

I’d advise you to not start the drama thinking it is a modern retelling of Little Women. Think of the drama as another Makjang and don’t get scammed by the drama’s sly marketing. This way, you will enjoy the drama, or not, but at least the reason of deciding to watch Little Women will be sincere.

~The Story~

So where to start and where to finish with that chaotic mess which is called "story"? Ι have many issues with it and to set the record straight, the drama not being actually a modern adaptation of Little Women didn’t affect the story’s rating more than 1 point in my books.

~Main theme & escalation

Little Women consists of 12 episodes and its story is actually very fast paced as a lot of things are happening in a very short amount of time. The first 2 episodes gave the drama a very promising start while they set a thrillery and mysterious aura around the main characters. Also, the sisters were presented having different personalities and problems, that could be explored through the story. But unfortunately all these didn't last long.

As the story escalated, it turned into a vendetta between the poor sisters and the wealthiest family in the nation. And that’s all folks, nothing else is going to happen except from a series of unfortunate plot twists alongside stupid actions (and some plot holes, because why not?).

In the name of suspense and uprediction the writer made a story with more ups and downs than a harmonic oscillation diagram. The result of it was two, 1) to make an unfocused story with an unclear goal from the writer's perspective which couldn't lead to any conclusion 2) to make the story complicated and confusing without any specific reason. In addition, the story consisted of some fiction elements which made it even more unrealistic and far-fetched.

The climax of the above was the final act, the last 2 episodes. As the story was processing it got messier and messier to the point that there wasn't any way for the story to reach an epilogue. So, what happened? A plot twist coming straight from the Neverland worked as Deus ex machina and saved the day with the most simple and canceling way possible.

~The Characters

Even though at first it seemed that the Sisters were well written characters, they weren't. Generally, the drama was very plot driven (not that it had a certain plot as I said but anyway) so actually none of the characters had any space to grow and develop. Oh In Joo, the main character from the sisters, was bound to be naive girl who loves money, her sisters and making stupid decitions. Oh In Kyung was supposed to be the cleverest sister but oh well, at least she tried. The little sister Oh In Hye could draw, that's it, she was a moving puppet during the whole drama.

The flatness of the main heroines didn't bother me so much though. What frustrated me most was the poor reference to the phenomenon of alcoholism which is a very serious matter that can't be portrayed in a drama as lightly as it was portrayed in Little Women. The story had the easiest solution to alcohol addiction: just to forget that it was ever mentioned in the previous episodes. This just proves how much the writer cared about giving the drama a decent story and an ending that would respect the time which viewers had spent on it.

~The Production~

Production wise, Little Women is masterfully made. From visuals to music, to styling, to framing and directing, Little Women is one of the most exceptional Korean productions I have ever witnessed till now. Thus the drama was very captivating and putting aside the plot, very enjoyable to watch. But if you care the slightest about the plot, the drama felt like a present with extraordinarily beautiful wrapping which was empty inside.

~Conclusion~

Well, Little Women is not a drama that I would recommend in general as I believe the story doesn't have anything to offer. I tend to ignore things that bother me in the stories, trying to find the meaning behind everything the writer wanted to do and tell through their story, but Little Women hit me under the belt countless times, so in the end, I couldn't ignore any of these triggers.

On the other hand, if you are willing to turn off your brain and enjoy the view, maybe Little Women can be an enjoyable and visually beautiful ride for you, as it was from the eyes of many other people who watched it.

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Well, when the cast is star studded how could you be disappointed?

Little Women, a story about three sisters. And it is just that. Three complex characters brought to life by three mind blowing actors. The oldest struggles with helplessness, the middle one with addiction and the youngest with fear. Well the aforementioned is just to sum up I won’t spoil their struggles. Their life is aligned with multiple other people who are good and bad. I personally don’t think the story is a drag or way too complicated. It’s interesting enough for you to be curious omg what’s going to happen now! I loved it. So far.

The acting is just out of the roof. How every character just portray their emotions. Not just the three leading ladies but also the supporting characters.

It’s Netflix and Netflix doesn’t miss with background music. Especially the signature music that plays at the end. It’s so prettty 😭

If you like the series about the rich, you should give this a shot. No, this isn’t a romance. There might be some elements of it, but it’s not that. This is drama at its finest. A drama about complex characters portraying their complex emotions and struggles, while managing to be interesting.

PS. I saw some of the reviews that were here. This isn’t a complete adaption of the OG Little Women. Don’t bash the series about how disappointed you were to find out it’s nothing like the OG. Read up synopsis before you watch anything. It will help ya determine whether you should watch it or not.

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Painful to Watch

I struggled to finish this series. Except for the title, it has little bearing with the original Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. The three sisters were so unlikeable. It was painful to watch them being played over and over again by the people around them ie, Jang Mira, Park Jae Sang and his equally demented wife as well as their aunt who used them for her own ends.

I like Choi Do Il. He's the redeeming character throughout the drama. He's very smart and calculated, secretly exacting his own revenge behind the scenes. Without him, Oh In Joo would have not survived. She was so ditzy, clueless and naive. Money hungry she allowed herself to be used and abused not only by her so called best friend but the family who also happened to be their nemesis.

Oh In Kyung was a determined reporter but she sometimes sabotaged her own investigation by her impulses of acting out without thinking.

And the most deplorable, Oh In Hye, an ungrateful kid who'd rather stay with the murderous family than her sisters who loved and sacrificed for her all because she wanted to live the rich life. She humiliated her sisters in public by siding with her wealthy benefactor and she did not care if she placed them in danger.

When I started to watch this drama, I was full of expectation and I was looking forward to them taking on the wealthiest families and kicking ass like David against Goliath, But alas, what I saw were three pathetic women who scraped and bowed in the name of money.

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Watchable with Many Twists and Turns

If you are looking for a show to pass the time and keep you occupied without expecting a tight or somewhat believable plot, this is a show that fits the bill. The plot is crazy over the top and has a little bit of supernatural aspects to it. The main actresses and actors are talented so the acting is done well despite the storyline being so-so. There are several parts which keeps you guessing, its not entirely clear where some of the characters stand with the FLs and whether they can be trusted.

I came into this not expecting a love story or romance and so far that is the case. Nothing sweet or sappy is doled out for the viewer. It does have the standard good poor versus the bad rich theme etched into this. Its about the relationships of sisters and friends, absentee neglectful parents, socioeconomic discrepancies, and how far one is willing to go to break from the chains of poverty to become rich.

While the plot has its many holes, some of the scenes were well acted and writing for the dialog were well written, some examples of scenes which stood out:
- The confrontation of the reporter sister with her reporter nemesis on the sides of truth
- The Villain Heiress confronts the sister in prison and remarks you only thought of the gains from the 70 billion won but never thought of the pain from it

It's engaging enough for me to finish this and rooting for the FLs.

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A Flawed and Twisted Tale of Dumb, Dumber and Ingrate

First of all, this kdrama has next to no connection to the classical American novel of the same name. It only loosely based its characters on it, namely - the three poor sisters, their rich great aunt and a male friend of the family who simps over one of the sisters. The rest is pure fiction with popular contrived tropes used in kdramas:
-evil chaebols;
-corruption;
-secret organization with unlimited power;
-off their rockers villains;
-makjang.

PLOT:
The first half of the show is great and promises a potential masterpiece. It starts fresh, with relevant topics raised about poverty, social issues and is mixed with murder mystery. Every episode manages to rile up new emotions in the audience with unexpected plot twists and sympathy for the characters suffering injustice. Small niggle starts to appear with the introduction of the conspiracy theory trope - the powerful secret society (#Illuminati), and fantastical properties of blue orchids.
And after a shocking finale of superb episode 8 it rapidly starts to go downhill with reveal that the main villain is just a deeply deranged person who likes to play with the victims before killing them. Absurdity, increased usage of makjang tropes, dumb circus and public shows are introduced in the next episodes until it all culminates in a cringey finale where none of the villains get what they deserve (they all die instead of rotting in prison for their crimes) and little women get what they deserve (money!) but at the cost of other people's fortune.
The tale of the ill gotten money, that is the catalyst of this whole plot, is a long winded one, but in the end the three sisters get their hands on it with the help of ML, even though originally it belonged to the victims of the bank made bankrupt by the villains.
The final message was supposed to be that ill gotten money is evil, it's not worth chasing if it costs someone's life, better live in honest poverty than dead or rotting in jail. But that message is completely negated by giving said money to the sisters anyway in the end. The hypocricy is apparently lost on everybody in the end, because that's where the show conveniently ends.

CHARACTERS:
First of all, lead female characters here are deliberately made dumb, flawed and reckless. It was script writer's conscious decision as was reported in the interview with her.

The dumbest of them all is the bookkeeper eldest sister, who throughout the whole drama made only 1 smart decision (to swap the cash with bricks), the rest was sheer luck or help from other characters. But what her character lacks in intelligence, is compensated by her love of her friends and family. She manages to forgive and save her friend, who basically set her up big time and put her in great danger, from certain death. And she'd do absolutely anything for her sisters. Being poor through all her life though, her next greatest love understandably is money and she makes a lot of stupid mistakes after a very large ill gotten sum of it is suddenly left to her as a gift. But stupidity must be punished, so in the end her character does suffer a bit to reflect on what she did wrong according to law. She's rewarded with her material dream by the end of the show.

The reporter middle-sister is a bit smarter than her elder sister. She is self righteous and claims to have unbending integrity and high morals, but they are heavily tested as her sisters get themselves in trouble and lawless methods that villains use make her fail to expose them again and again. In the end she succeeds in her investigation and gets together with a male long time family friend who helped/followed her throughout the episodes. However their romance from friends to lovers is very weak and that male character is one of the most useless in the whole drama.

The youngest sister is the epitome of a teenager during "a phase" - an ungrateful little brat who throughout the whole drama never once said a grateful word to her sisters who'd do absolutely anything for her. Instead, her grand plan was to get away from her poor family and get rich and comfy life quick by befriending the villains daughter. And she did succeed in that in the end without too much of a hassle, so I guess she was the smartest of them all. Some people claim that she did thank her sisters in the end by getting each of them a share of that ill gotten money. But she didn't actually, it was all ML who just accidentaly met them running away and decided to use her friend's account for a while (though he could have as easily have done it by himself). In the end her role was downsized to a minimum, a pretty selfish and consistently ungrateful character, who just had to be there because there had to be 3 sisters.

The villains of the evil secret society were several, but in the end only the main one is worthy of note. The society itself turned out to be not as powerful and omniprescient as was advertised. It's a drama about women, from women's perspective and so the main villain is also a woman. Her character development from a prim and proper house wife, that stands in support of her brilliant husband, to a crazy deranged psycho was entertaining to watch, but in the end, after her husband died for the cause, her house of cards crumbled easily and the final showdown with her was a total cringefest on par to the cringiest of the makjang dramas out there. Guess her character wasn't smart either without outside help.

And lastly whom I'd call the real main hero of this whole drama, the male lead, the guy who will give you major trust issues trauma throughout the episodes, the mysterious, the most confident and smartest of them all, the man with the plan - Choi Do-Il. He was a real safe haven of rationality and smart decisions in this drama plot's sea of random dumbassery and craziness. Probably the most favorite character of them all in this drama.
Of course, there was also his cool and badass commando father, but he was conveniently swept under the rug and forgotten about in the craziness of the last episode.

PRODUCTION VALUE:
It was excellent and just screamed quality. Cinematography was one of the best I've seen in kdramas, very well made.
Music was also very good and catchy.
Actors work overall was great as well. Kim Go Eun finally landed a role she was not a miscast for. The villains actors were absolutely infuriating to watch, they did really great, loved to hate them.
The only one who I think could have done better was the youngest sister's actress - Park Ji Hoo. She was too stiff and had samey facial expressions all the time. But since she's an underage noob I'll give her some slack.

Overall, it's an exciting and flashy drama, that reveals one shocking and unexpected twist after another at a breakneck speed, hoping you won't notice plot holes, dumbassery and shallowness under the surface. And introduction of certain badly chosen cringey tropes in later episodes ruined its twisted mess of a plot in the end. Could have been a true masterpiece otherwise, a shame. I give it a generous 8 out 10 overall.

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