Our Unwritten Seoul

Overrated but still enjoyable.

The Good
⌲ I don't think I have ever seen a triangle-less romance drama that involves twins.
⌲ Park Bo Young 's acting.
⌲ The OST songs
⌲ The moms (how rare, especially with these veteran actors)
⌲ There is a lot less loud shouting in this one than what I expected based on the setting, in general the drama is just not very annoying outside of that one predictable hiccup in e11.
⌲ The drama not only has child actors for the flashbacks but they were also rather great! (and the flashbacks in general were also rather okay)
⌲ The office related scenes were immensely more tolerable than I thought imaginable, that considering the initial events that led to the switcheroo situation.
⌲ The gay character (I don't care much about LGBTQ stuff beyond the principle of "live and let live", but this was quite well done, especially for South Korea)


The Average
⌲ The acting (other than Park Bo Young)
⌲ The strawberry couple
⌲ The smarter twin's story in general (and I guess her characterization could have been more interesting as well)
⌲ I feel this drama could have used more comedy. (there is very little of it & it's not a too serious show)
⌲ The drama had some really emotional scenes that felt formulaic & manufactured to me. (Tangerines happened not that long ago & the contrast is clear)
⌲ Dancing around the topic of success without higher education & then still sending M to college even after her failing SATs 2-3 times in a row.
⌲ The excessive use of childhood misunderstandings
⌲ The overall plot could have been more interesting, but I guess it's not really the focus in the show, so it's forgivable.
⌲ The meh ending.


The Bad
⌲ I knew from early on that a noble breakup is 99%+ chance, but it was nearly as disappointing as usual.
⌲ The second worst supercar product placement in my kdrama history
⌲ `Take the spare room once your lease is up` (sure some ambiguity is present in this sentence, but why..)
⌲ Kim Rosa
⌲ The "not leaving the room for months/years" thing (If you think about what all that would imply, then it's clear the whole she has not left the room for a long time thing just doesn't work & being lenient about various aspect of this doesn't work either, because they really went all in with this concept at various parts of the show)

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Very Healing, Great Parental Figures

My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

I love The Parent Trap. Let’s do this!

Acting/Cast: I’ve found that Park Bo Young (박보영) is really good playing depressing roles, such as seen in Daily Dose of Sunshine. She also did a great job playing two different people. I could always tell who was who. The parents were great and the 할머니들 (halmeonis/grandmas)! This drama has some awesome grandmother-type characters. In this category, I really only had a problem with Park Jin Young (박진영 ), the male lead. I just don’t think he’s a good actor. He seems kind of ‘blank’ to me; no emotion in the eyes. His character, though, was fine. I would have cast him differently...maybe with an actor that looks more like his younger self actor. I was thinking Cha Hak Yeon (차학연 ) from Castaway Diva may be a good fit visually. I’ve only seen him in 2 dramas though. 8/10

Writing: Even though the plot seems a little crazy, it’s actually not. They take a pretty realistic approach to this drama. The focus is on characters suffering from depression and other issues and how they learn to heal through their connections with family and friends. The problems the characters face are common and relatable to many people (with me being one of them). This drama is very sad, but it is as equally inspiring with many powerful quotes. As for what I didn’t like about the writing...there is Noble Idiocy and it is dumb as per usual. The female lead rationalizes it because she had done something similar as a teenager. However, this Noble Idiocy is now occurring in adulthood, when this character should be more mature by now. It’s aggravating because of its predictability and because it doesn’t really make sense. The ending is also a bit lackluster. I didn’t have a problem with how it ended, it just wasn’t very interesting. It would have been nice if it had a powerful ending that left us with a lasting impact. So, I can say that it does get a bit boring toward the end or the wrap-up phase of the drama. 8.5/10

Direction/SFX/Music: The production value feels high (although not as high as Daily Dose of Sunshine). They did a great job with the emotional scenes. I liked the flow of the drama. The music was okay, but it didn’t really stand out too much to me. 6/10

Entertainment Value: I came for The Parent Trap, I stayed for the feels. I watched this drama as it aired, which is something I usually don’t do. However, I couldn’t help it...I was really into the story and its characters and the other dramas that I was watching at the time weren’t doing it for me. It’s not like Our Unwritten Seoul is an exciting drama...its more like...a comfort. Anyways, it kept my attention consistently until the last couple episodes. 6.5/10

Overall, I gave this drama a 7.5/10. I prefer this a bit more to Daily Dose of Sunshine (which I had given a 7/10). However, I think that’s only because I relate to Our Unwritten Seoul immensely. It reminded me of how I related to My Liberation Notes and even a bit like Summer Strike. Surprisingly, I’ve scored Our Unwritten Seoul higher than all of these dramas. It just flows well and doesn’t have many issues when it comes to the writing. If you don’t like slice-of-life healing dramas or stories about depression or if you don’t like Park Bo Young (박보영), you probably will not like this drama. But for me, this drama really worked.

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