Desperate Mrs. Seonju

"Desperare Mrs. Seonju" it's one more daily drama that brings nothing different, but entertains a lot, because it's funny to watch.

Pi Seon Ju is a married woman who finds out her husband is cheating on her and it's with the worst person possible: Jin Sang Ah, her nemesis in high school, someone who always tried to bring her down because of jealousy. Seon Ju tries to keep her husband Nam Jin by any means, especially because of her daughter, but nothing works and the two eventually get a divorce. Sang Ah is also married, but she fell out of love with her husband So Woo for a long time, basically after they adopted a baby, because Sang Ah can't have children and Tae Ri was the living example of her flaws, her defects.

Seon Ju and her family's lives turn totally upside down. She lost her job, her sister Mi Ju is involved in a car accident with Sang Ah's sister Chu Ah and they have to sell their house to pay the settlement. The person who buys their house is So Woo, they make a deal and the two families start to live together. That's how our story begins.

So Woo helps Seon Ju get a job where he works, but that's also where Sang Ah and Nam Jin also work, so these four people have to see each other every day, which brings a lot of conflicts. By spending time together and helping each other out, Seon Ju and So Woo start to have feelings for one another, but the problem is that Seon Ju has no idea that So Woo is Sang Ah's husband. So Woo finally gets a divorce and starts a relationship with Seon Ju for real, the two have a sweet and light romance and that's okay, because the drama focuses on the family concept, how So Woo, Seon Ju, Tae Ri and Ji Hyun became a family.

In the sidelines we have the romance between the other two couples, which are Seon Ju's sisters. Mi Ju and Woo Sang are a couple that I just didn't get. It's not that I didn't like them, they just were too boring, especially with Woo Sang's mother always complaining about them, saying that Woo Sang was too good for Mi Ju. On the other side, there's Jin Ju and Tae Sang. These two are cute and funny, but the drama didn't show much of them, which was a shame.

All the buried secrets eventually come out in the light and that is one of the reasons why I liked the drama: the chaos, the juice of a makjang. The truth behind Chu Ah and Mi Ju's accident, that Chu Ah was the culprit but let Mi Ju take the fall. Seeing her apologize in her knees was so good, especially after how she and her family treated Seon Ju's family, it was a satisfying revenge. But the highlight was in the live show, when Sang Ah's mother and Nam Jin's mother basically told every single lie that was hidden in the drama. How Nam Jin stole Seon Ju's lottery ticket and how Sang Ah's mother lied about everything to get married and stole what was Seon Ju's mother good deed.

The drama has one big mistake in my opinion, which is the characters birth secrets. Let's face it, it was too much. Basically all of the cast finds out they have different parents.
Starting with Mi Ju, who is the first to find out that she's not Man Eun's daughter. After that there's Sang Ah, who learns that she's really Soon Ae's daughter but her father is not Jung Bae, his real daughter is Seon Ju, who was switched in the hospital with Sang Ah by Soon Ae. And lastly there's Jin Ju, who is also not Man Eun's daughter. She raised three daughters who are not biologically hers. Adoption is a beautiful thing, but they could have just said they were adopted, they didn't have to have a birth secret. Speaking in adoption, we have Woo Sang and Tae Sang, who were adopted by Hye Ran and she is the lost mother of Jin Ju. That's the point in which the drama gets weird, the complicated family trees.
Man Eun's lost husband is not the father of any of her daughters and also is not the father of So Woo, but he's married to his mother, making him his stepfather, but technically he was married to Man Eun and she considered him the father of the girls. I know they are not blood related, but that leaves So Woo and Seon Ju almost like siblings. And also Jin Ju and Tae Sang. Hye Ran is the biological mother of Jin Ju, but she raised Tae Sang like a son and there's also Woo Sang, who finds out that he is the son of Soon Ae, making him Chu Ah and Sang Ah's half-brother.
It's a total mess, there's no way to make sense into this. I felt like Nam Jin's mother, literally drawing the families, trying to understand all of this. HAHAHAHA'

In conclusion, it's a good drama, the romance is light, it fits the story very well, but the whole thing about the birth secrets made the story confusing and made the truth about Seon Ju's birth father less important, which should have been the focus of the drama, their relationship was left aside.

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Review: Desperate Mrs. Seonju – A Drama That Tried Too Hard

Desperate Mrs. Seonju is a daily drama series consisting of a whopping 126 episodes. It starts with a promising premise: the fates of three families become intertwined through infidelity, divorce, and manipulation. Unfortunately, the series quickly loses its footing and becomes an example of how too much drama can be too much of a good thing.
We follow Pi Seon Ju, a dedicated interior designer whose marriage falls apart when her husband falls for an other women. At the same time, hers marriage is ending with her husband . Seon Ju to find solace in her life crises but what begins as a compelling relationship drama quickly devolves into an overloaded soap opera, where each episode seems determined to outdo the last in terms of drama. Infidelity, betrayal, manipulation, revenge, family conflicts – everything is thrown in, often without sufficient depth. The result is a messy and at times farcical story, where it’s hard to feel anything for the characters, despite the actors doing their best.

I think the script is written by someone I usually like, though I’ve forgotten the name. When I started watching, I looked up her previous work and saw that she had been behind several well-regarded series, which makes it hard to understand how this production turned out so scattered. It almost feels like someone else took over the pen halfway through – or as if the series is trying to mimic an American daytime soap rather than a high-quality Korean drama.

A major part of the problem lies in the series’ length. With 126 episodes, a much more focused narrative structure was needed. Several side stories could have been cut entirely, and with fewer episodes, the drama could have been more concentrated and engaging.

In summary: Desperate Mrs. Seonju had the potential to be a strong relationship drama but drowns in its own ambition. For those who enjoy soap opera–like series full of intrigue, there may be some entertainment value, but for most viewers, it’s likely to be a frustrating experience. The sheer number of episodes and the constant twists and bizarre plotlines drag the rating down. It’s ultimately not worth watching.

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