This review may contain spoilers
Directionless and incredulous show with a psycho mom
The show started out pretty good. Initially, I figured the show would be about a prosecutor on a path of revenge or a path of corruption that took away his father’s life. Either way, both interesting. Then the accident happen which was an unexpected twist that could’ve made things more interesting.But once Kang-Ho came back home, the story devolved into a bunch of country bumpkins acting like fools. There’s no clear direction and the writers just randomly tossed in every known K-drama cliche such as family car death, major illness and unnecessary misunderstandings. All happening at once! Once country bumpkins take over, we see less and less of two villains who are much more interesting. They’re wasting so much time adding incredulously improbable plot lines during Kang-ho’s “recovery” process, it’s gotten hard to watch. The show constantly switches from comedy to cringy drama trying to make you cry.
What really gets me about this show is how Kang-ho’s mom comes across. I get that she’s had a hard life but she’s an absolute nut job! The way she treats Kang-Ho is way past child abuse and she should be jailed for it.
Speaking of child abuse, how Min-Joo lies to her two kids about their father is a next level psychological abuse. How will they recover from this?
We also cannot forget newly discovered ways to treat quadriplegic people. Starve them so they can use their own hands and then throw them in water so they can start walking. Someone actually wrote this crap.
Who else is so sick and tired of the main character losing her crap every other scene?
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Greatness of motherly love drama
OMG watching ep 10 and don't want it to end!! It is such a good drama depicting how a mother can do anything no matter how life is so tough and hard with a son who behaves like a 7yo after an accident. You can expect to cry, laugh, feeling warm from the village's unconditional help.I was expecting there's very harsh revenge plot but everything was subtle, the focus is on mother and son's rekindled relationship which is so heartwarming and touching.
Totally worth watching and pls prepare tissues!! Lee Do Hyun's performance is outstanding BUT I think Ra Mi Ran should win a Baeksang!
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Mother and son relationship
The show with the best mother and son relationship I must admit....every parent should watch this and actually learn because the treatment u give to ur children actually shows in their life in the future so mind the way u treat ur childrenEvery one in d drama was given happy ending and I was quite expressed with face mask lady and the turn up of event for her
The children actor I must say Korea has the best children actor they her the best in acting
The story isn't too based on love
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This review may contain spoilers
Heart wrenching and beautiful drama about how love isn't guaranteed, undermined by tonal whiplash
What does it mean to be a mother?The Good Bad Mother explores that question through the relationship between mother and son. An untimely accident causes Choi Kang Ho (played by Lee Do Hyun) to become paraplegic and suffer amnesia. His mother, Jin Young Soon (played by Ra Mi Ran), must once again raise her son through the trauma of their past relationship.
Heartfelt and heart wrenching moments shape the drama, as it explores the traumatic past both mother and son hid away from each other. However, interspersed are some of the worst moments of tonal whiplash I can remember in a drama. Neighbours of the family are caricature hillbillies that are often meant to provide comedic relief. Instead, heartfelt and dramatic scenes will immediately cut to an attempt at comedy. A mom is hiding spousal abuse from their kid and neighbours? Well that's alright because the teenaged daughter is pulling the dad's ear to some lighthearted music right after! The first few episodes suffer from this heavily, with the later episodes toning it down, although not outright removing it. While I appreciate the attempt to be funny, almost all of the comedic scenes don't land, and their timing/placement are so terrible that it draws you completely out of the drama.
This drama could have been a masterpiece if not for the forceful nature of it's comedy. Inclusion of some of the most boring tropes also detract from it's messaging, including characters with amnesia, destined lovers, and political corruption. Ra Mi Ran steals the show in this drama, but even her outstanding performance is not enough for me to recommend this drama.
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Not that great, but pretty good
The biggest weakness of the drama: We knew he would recover.I wasn't a fan of the revenge plot, you find it in almost every crime/thriller drama.
I loved him being disabled for a while, even though I question how they portrayed his regression to a 7 years old. Is this even possible? Normally you forget things, but you don't change your personality until you have some unreversible brain damage. He basically behaved like a child just for the plot "mother has to raise her son a 2nd time". But this kind of plot was rather new to me and refreshing.
That said, series like Good Bad Mother or When Life Gives You Tangerines seem to be some kind of propaganda that romanticize suffering, especially the suffering of mothers/daughters. While as a woman, I appreciate that such series show us the harsh reality, it makes me giggle knowing that the birth rate in South Korea is the lowest worldwide. And no, this is not only because of economic reasons, in that case people would have one child and not two, since one is easier to afford. Instead, the number of childfree people raised. I will tell you why, even though countless scientists are scratching their heads and can't find the simpliest truth. It's because motherhood is suffering. Endless suffering. I mean it. You suffer until you die. Women don't want to suffer anymore.
Enough of the negativity. I love the male lead, but I'm not a fan of his childish and cute acting. He impressed me more in Sweet Home or Death's Game.
The mother is a great actress, and the female lead fitted the role. Korea didn't invent filmmaking yesterday: they know what they are doing, and they know how to create a beautifully filmed and well acted emotional scene. So yes, this was a tearjerker. *Sarcasm on*I found it very thoughtful of them to give us time to dry our tears, because after every emotional scene we got a silly stupid village people scene, that was just silly and stupid *Sarcasm off* I'm a bit fed up with those cliché village people and this very unfunny humor.
So yeah, it was worth my time for sure, but the revenge plot didn't interest me (I have seen something like this too often), the village people were annoying and not funny, the twins were cute, yes, but also rather bratty. In real life, those children would give me nightmares.
Well, this was the story about a strong woman. I'm glad such stories are told. I loved the son-mother dynamic, and I really liked the love story. Those two had a good chemistry, and their relationships seemed deep and genuine.
When the big secret about the twins was revealed, I was rather disappointed. I looked forward to the male lead discovering it, I looked even more forward to the mother discovering it - but there was not much of a reaction, especially from the mother. When the male and female lead got together, after he "came back" - that was also not very impactful.
I expected more. I thought my heart would beat faster, I would cry more. But yeah, it is what it is.
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it had a lot more potential, but it really is a good watch!
just watched tgbm for the insane hype on social media and I have to say I wasn't really disappointed, but I don't think this is such a big title as the people say online... of course it's not a bad drama, but some flaws storywise and plot holes made me question such a high rating to this...story: for me, this is the weakest part of the drama. I've seen so many people saying that this seemed so slow paced and so long, but in my opinion this drama should have at least 16 episodes to be a better watch. I believe that this drama would move a lot faster with more episodes because this way there would be more room for other happenings rather than just the recover of Kangho (I do know this is the point and the most important part of the drama, but I would never thought he would stay sick until episode 11/12!). this drama also didn't really worked as a drama + comedy show in my opinion... some issues here are way more important than they appear in the episodes, like the abusive household Kangho lived in the childhood! the way he was left with no apparent traumas or resentment seemed quite unrealistic to me. I hope I don't sound sadic(?) with this opinion 😅 don't get me wrong, but I think Kangho would be a character a lot deeper than he actually was in the drama if he dealed with healing... I know he lived the way he did mostly because of his mother influence, but I was hoping it was better showed in the show.
personally some characters actions are what bothered me the most, like the sudden change of thought Mijoo had about Kangho, or the sudden personality changes Youngsoon had, but beside this I really felt connected with the families, and almost all situations showed made me relate with mine :)
acting: even with the medium development of characters the cast here is fantastic! I really like Lee Dohyun works and think he is such a talented guy. I didn't know the Jin Youngsoon actress before, but now I really am looking forward to see more of her works!! also kudos for the little twins, they are really charismatic and cute :)
music: I really pay attention to the OST in dramas and they really play a very big role for me, but this drama has a lot more dialogues or scenes with instrumentals. the OST only appears few times and shortly, but beside this, I think the songs are great!
rewatch value: I don't usually rewatch shows... so I'm voting in this based if I did lol
even with some issues relating especially to Jin Youngsoon character, I think I would like to rewatch this drama because of the cozy vibes. maybe the flashback episodes, or the ones with family reunions, or the 13th one to have some fun!
overall, I think the good bad mother had a way bigger potential... they had such important themes to explore and I think they could have done a better job script wise :) even so, this is not a bad drama! maybe this is all about my personal expectations and how my personal approach would be related to some parts of the story, so feel free to chat in the comments if you want to!
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The Good Kids and The just Bad mother
This drama has a bit of everything I love with a side of cringe, anoying elements and more or less everything I hate in a drama... okay not everything but a lot leaving me conflicted as the parts I loved where so good, so good so good.. While I found myself anoyed at most of the characters overacting I also found myself kind of falling for the idea of an imperfect be it over the top found family. Though they seem to change their minds over the oddest things and have more changes of heart than a top thorax surgeon will preform in their lifetime. They still have som kind of hidden charm somwhere.The lead couple is adorable in so many ways, predictable at times but oh so sweet giving this romance addict the fix I needed, better than a lot romance out there. And though this is not listed as a romance, the romence in this adds a whole lot of spice to the plot.
The mom, the way she acts and more or less everyghing about her was supposed to show nuaunce and what not but while here character as a person was lovable and fun to watch her methods and motherhood where so bad it made my blood boil.
The kids in this drama almost steal the show but they have fierce competition from the piglets, adding fluff and sweetness to this otherwise mostly dark show.
A decent watch, that is highly entertaining just mind the monologs, annoying elemants, healing and cringe and you will be fine...
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Beautiful
I don't know how else to describe this drama other than beautiful. This was an absolute joy to watch. Don't get me wrong, bring the tissues because it's a ride. But in the best way. This one is for everyone that dreamed of moving to a small town/village to find friends so amazing they become your family.The story - amazing. Lovely. Heartbreaking. Thrilling. Funny. It's somehow everything all at once. You will be crying and laughing at the same time.
The acting - truly amazing. Some of the best I've seen, and I've seen a lot. The characters are flawed in such a way that makes them feel real. I would move to this town in a heartbeat.
I usually don't review right away, but I really couldn't wait with this one~~~♡
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Loved it !!
The Good Bad Mother's plot is well-balanced in every aspect. I loved every bit of it. That excellentlly blends together suspense,drama, family and romance.The acting and character development were phenomenally done.It was so wonderful to see everyone on screen because they all did a splendid job. The good bad mother will remain to be one my top favorite masterpieces/ because every scene, moment and life message that were shared to me really resonated with me. They were all very meaningful to me.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
I'm writing this review with swollen eyes from crying...
I started watching this drama bc I absolutely love Lee Dohyun as an actor but I ended up loving everything about this drama. This drama really just exceeded all my expectations, from the acting, down to the plot and how each character had striking personalities. Hands down especially to Ra Miran and Dohyun, they had such a great dynamic as mother and son that it made me cry so hard.With the story, at first I was so mad at Youngsoon bc she was really a bad mom to Kangho, at some point I kinda sympathized with Kangho bc parents can truly be cruel, if not all times then sometimes. Even if they tell us that "it's for our own good", the scar of those hurtful actions and words from our parents will stay with us even as we grow older and move on with our lives. Watching this drama, I've realized that the people we care about get mad at us at times all because they equally care about us too, they're equally as concerned as we are for them, and we just all want each other to live a good life. I love how eventually both Youngsoon and Kangho met eye-to-eye without any grudges and with just smiles on their faces.
This is a bit of TMI but my dad passed away a day before this drama started airing so until now everything is still fresh in my head. I don't know if it's because of this that this drama made me so emotional or if it's really just that good. I started crying so hard when Youngsoon said that Kangho's father's last words to her were "See you later", that he always said that to her because he didn't like saying goodbye. I remember my dad also never said "Bye" or anything similar, it was always, "Go on", "I'll fetch you later", or "Take care", my dad's last words to me was "You should go now" before I left for work, now that I think about it, it just felt like he told me to go on, move forward, that maybe it's time to live by ourselves. Maybe I was a bit jealous of Kangho and Youngsoon because at least at the last moment, they were able to say the words they weren't able to say to each other all this time, the lullaby scene just hit me so hard it was almost embarrassing. Anyway, enough of me, the bottom-line is, this drama had so much power over me, I'm sure that other viewers would also find this drama hitting close to home. 10/10 I would watch again if I feel like crying again.
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Great story, great actors but...
I wanted to love this drama so much but unfortunately, despite all the fantastic actors and actresses, I couldn't. Lee Do Hyun is one of the best if not THE best Korean actor of his age group. It was fantastic to watch him in those two totally different characters. But as Koreans many times do they did it again with rural people's insanity. All of them around the mother and son were so annoying and most of the time those scenes had nothing to do with the story itself. If they would skip those parts and make it two episodes shorter (12 instead of 14) then this drama is a masterpiece.Was this review helpful to you?
Another drama added to my "all-time favorites"!
This drama made me cry, laugh, and reflect on my actions. I thought this was another typical "grades" centered drama based on the first episodes, but along the way, I slowly discovered the different stories being tackled by the drama. I was initially shaken up by how fast the story was going but soon realized that was the point as they were only flashbacks and the writer was getting to the present. The story was also well-written so you won't be confused.This has flown up to my all-time favorite dramas. Lee Dohyun does not disappoint with his projects!
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