We Are All Trying Here

Insanely GOOD

Well I finished and am revising my original review to try my best to give this drama proper due because it is insanely good. I love the writing! It's deep. The dialogues and connections make one think. In practically every character's lines there's substance. That's one of the powers of the drama. In every single character there's a you and I. It's a slice of life that leaves you thinking because of its resonating messages to everyday people.

Hwang Dong Man, the main male character played by Koo Kyo Hwan, will never be easily forgotten. Using weather terms to describe him (his film title Weather Maker) he can be like the scorching sun. Honestly blunt no filter, loud with energy, and serious with his martial arts. He can be like a relieving sun shower. He's soft hearted when needed, protective of those he cares for, and though might grumble but will do for others. He's like lightning strike when he acts impulsively when he's hot, defensively to defend a friend, or even rebellious to break rules to follow his heart. Then he's warm spring, where he's simple, loyal to his friends, brings healing to Eun Na, comforting her. Let me not forget he's like thunder bringing booming laughter maybe not the club eight but all of us watching him. Koo Kyo Hwan deserves an award for this role I feel. He nailed it.

Go Youn Jung, as Eun A, has a quiet character. Silent but quite the force in talent for writing, dedication to her adoptive family, and compliment her budding relationship with the opposite in personality Dong man. She barely had lines but effectively carried the weight of her feelings in her expressions. She and Dong man had the purest most beautiful relationship. She's one of my favorite actresses now.

Every single character had their own story and strong point to contribute to the overall story. Everyone deserves recognition for bringing us a great story.

Twelve episodes wrapped beautifully is easily on my top list of my favorite dramas of all time, certainly for this year 2026. Its an absolute masterpiece.

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Art, Failure, and the Small Death of Other People’s Success

We Are All Trying Here is one of the best K-dramas I’ve seen in a long time. Not because it’s “important” or relentlessly realistic, but because it feels so alive and so aware of itself at the same time.

The acting is incredible across the board, but especially Dong-man. It’s one of those performances where after a while it stops feeling like acting at all. He never drops character for even a second. There’s no visible effort, no actorly “look how damaged and chaotic I am” energy. He just completely inhabits the role. And considering how difficult the character is — funny, pathetic, intelligent, cruel, charismatic, self-deluding, deeply wounded — it would have been so easy to tip into caricature. But he never does. Dong-man always feels like a real person rather than a type.

The female lead is equally good. She feels fully real in herself rather than just existing to soften or redeem him. Even small reactions and silences in this drama feel inhabited.

It’s also beautifully shot, but in a very self-aware way. The drama constantly points at cinematic language while using it — the strident guitar cue, the “heroine takes control of her life” moment, the artistic suffering, the dramatic framing — and then fully commits to it anyway. It almost feels like a drama about dramas sometimes, or filmmaking talking about filmmaking while it’s happening. It absolutely knows how good it is.

Normally that kind of thing would annoy me or create distance, but here it somehow works because the self-awareness becomes part of the pleasure. We’re engaged rather than fully immersed. The drama stands slightly outside itself, watching itself perform, while still managing to move me emotionally.

Some people will probably call it bleak because the themes are harsh: abandonment, suicide, alienation, shame, failure, loneliness. But it never feels completely heavy to me. Partly because of the humour, partly because of the self-awareness, but mostly because there’s something fundamentally redemptive underneath it all.

There are really two redemptive movements happening throughout the story. One is potential slowly ripening — potential in talent, creativity, relationships, forgiveness, growth. The drama is very interested in the possibility that people can still become more than the worst thing they’ve done or the life they currently seem trapped inside.

The other is recognition. People slowly start understanding themselves more clearly. Motivations get named. Defences get exposed. Characters are constantly acting and reflecting at the same time. The drama understands how much cruelty comes from fear, humiliation and hurt rather than simple evil. People become monstrous one moment and deeply sympathetic the next.

It’s also one of the sharpest portrayals of jealousy I’ve seen. Not cartoon jealousy, but the painful ordinary kind — the small part of us that wants our friends to succeed, but not quite more than us. The film industry becomes a perfect setting for this because success is so unstable and comparative. People love each other, admire each other, resent each other and compete with each other all at once.

That’s probably what I find most moving about it. Nobody is flattened into hero or villain. Everyone is trying, failing, hurting each other, performing versions of themselves, wanting to be seen, and still reaching toward connection anyway.

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This Drama Understands The Parts Of People They Never Talk About

I honestly don’t think this drama is meant to be “easy” to watch.

It’s uncomfortable sometimes. Frustrating too. There were moments where I wanted certain characters to stop hurting themselves, stop pretending they were okay, stop carrying everything alone. But I think that’s exactly what makes this drama feel so real to me.

None of these characters feel perfectly written just to be liked by the audience. They feel human.

Hwang Dong-man especially stayed with me throughout the drama. A lot of people might see him as bitter, insecure or difficult sometimes, but honestly… I never saw him as a bad person. I saw someone who spent years trying to move forward while constantly feeling left behind.

Watching everyone around him become successful while he remains stuck slowly destroys his confidence, and the saddest part is that he’s painfully aware of it himself. The way he talks too much sometimes, gets defensive, criticizes others or tries to make himself look stronger than he feels inside ,,none of it looked like arrogance to me. It looked like frustration. Like exhaustion. Like someone trying very hard not to disappear emotionally.

At the same time, there were moments where Dong-man frustrated me deeply too. Sometimes he lives more inside his imagination than reality itself, constantly holding onto versions of life that no longer exist. There’s this strange disconnect in him where he keeps chasing emotional comfort in memories, old expectations and fantasies because reality feels too painful to fully accept. And honestly, that made his character even sadder to me. Not because he was “crazy” or mentally unstable, but because he felt like someone emotionally stuck between who he wanted to become and who life slowly forced him to be.

And honestly, I hated how some of his friends treated him sometimes.

It felt like they only remembered him when they needed something, but emotionally he was always left alone with his struggles. That kind of friendship hurts in a very quiet way because you slowly realize you are present for people who are never truly present for you.

This drama captures that feeling so well.

The loneliness of being surrounded by people yet still feeling emotionally unsupported. The exhaustion of maintaining relationships that start feeling one-sided over time. The sadness of realizing that not everyone who stays in your life truly understands you.

And maybe that’s why Dong-man hurt me so much as a character. Because beneath all his flaws, he was still trying. Still hoping. Still wanting to matter to someone.

And then there’s Eun-ah.
She was honestly the character I related to the most sometimes. There’s something painfully familiar about the way she carries herself. She looks calm and composed on the outside, but internally she feels emotionally exhausted all the time. The way she quietly keeps things inside, overthinks, silently endures emotions instead of expressing them immediately… it felt too real at times.

What I admired about her is that the drama never tries to make her unrealistically “strong.” She feels emotionally fragile in such a natural human way. Sometimes she withdraws, sometimes she avoids difficult emotions, sometimes she looks like she’s carrying years of emotional tiredness behind simple expressions. And somehow that made her even more relatable to me.

What I loved most about her relationship with Dong-man is that they understood each other beyond words sometimes. Their connection never felt overly dramatic or unrealistic to me. It felt like two emotionally tired people finding comfort in someone who could see through the version they showed the world.

And maybe that’s what made their relationship feel beautiful.

Not because they “fixed” each other, but because they understood the loneliness inside each other.

But honestly, what makes this drama truly special is that it’s not only about one person’s pain. Every character here feels like they are fighting their own quiet battle with life. Some hide it behind success, some behind humor, some behind silence, some behind relationships that are already emotionally falling apart.

That’s why the story feels so emotionally heavy sometimes. Nobody here feels completely okay. Everyone is trying to survive life in their own imperfect way.

This drama really captures the quiet loneliness of trying your best and still feeling lost sometimes.

The fear of wasting your life.
The exhaustion of comparing yourself to others.
The pressure of pretending you’re okay while silently questioning yourself every day.

What makes this drama special to me is that it never tries to force artificial positivity onto these emotions. It simply lets them exist honestly.

And somehow, that honesty makes everything hit even harder.

Because while watching this drama, I didn’t just feel like I was watching fictional characters.

I felt like I was watching emotions most of us quietly carry in real life.

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Ditch the victim consciousness and own the narrative

This is going to be a very personal review about a drama that I both enjoyed and needed to dive into and explain to myself. I love Park Hae Young’s work, it always leaves a long tail. Weeks, months, years after watching them I am still thinking, wtf was that drama about. And each time you revisit the memory of it, you come out with something new. A lot of things in this drama resonated with me as I have had to go through the process of remaking the narrative. So this time, I want to unpack a few thoughts about it immediately after finishing it.

The opening is typical. The characters irritate you, and you wonder if you can make it out of first base. Then the last scene of the first episode just opens it up and you realise, yes, I sort of know where we are going here. I’ll stick with it.

There is a reason it was set in the film industry. The setting is a metaphor for the stories that we tell ourselves and the difficulty that we have both bringing stories into the real world and also believing in the stories that we create.

The perspective of the drama is about the disconnect between what we feel and how we interpret our feelings, the narrative that we place those emotions in. The stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves and our experiences. The characters are written with that very rare trait of self observance and introspection. They often speak unreal lines, but you go along with it because it’s like an inner voice explaining what’s happening on an emotional level. The use of emotion watches (watches that identify what your are feeling) was a clever device to allow this to be understood and make it credible.

It is also a love story, but we only glimpse the intimacies of that through voice-overs and the odd scene where Dong Man and Eun A make a connection. This must have been a very deliberate choice. Perhaps Park Hae Young did not want the drama and the focus to be highjacked by the “romance” label, or whether she just wanted that emotion to be unspoken. At one point there is a conversation about love not being one of the emotions displayed on the watch, as it is not a raw emotion. So she follows that through by showing how the characters react to each other in a kaleidoscope of different ways that constitute care, closeness and empathy.

As always with her writing, every character has a carefully curated arc and a totally filled out personality. They are larger than life, wearing their inner lives like an outer visible skin. You may not like every character, or even any of them. But the magic of Park Hae Young is that she has the ability to connect you to them. To enable you to see their vulnerabilities in a way that evokes compassion rather than dismissal.

The drama explores how most of the characters’ narratives involve the demonisation of others. The shifting of the responsibility for their misery onto something or someone else and labelling the other as the perpetrator and themselves as the victim. In doing so they cling to the situation or other person as justification for their emotions. This results in trying to manipulate and control the other to fit the self-made narrative. When this manipulation synchs from both sides, such as Dong Man and Gyeong Se, this becomes a co-dependant relationship of mutually assured destruction.

In fact the true narrative, revealed by the correct identification of emotions, is about each person alone. There is short key scene late in the drama where a counsellor explains that once you can correctly identify an emotion, put the correct description to it, you can begin to see the sometimes hidden narrative that lies behind it and change it to something positive. The other situation/person was/is only the catalyst. Each character creates their own storyline, and now lives it, believing that taking revenge, or running away, or indulging someone will in some way free them from the pain. But only the character alone can change it. The path to fulfilment lies in being able to be free themselves from the notion that the fault /responsibility lies elsewhere or with others.

The genius of Park Hae Young is to craft a story of complex and tangled relationships that brings these truths to life. The actors really bring themselves to the table and invest everything. There was not a weak performance amongst the leads. But personally, I fell for Kang Mal Geum as Ko Hye Jin. Whenever I see Go Youn Jung, I feel that her eyes are like black wells that plumb the hidden depths, and here the cinematographer and director did a wonderful job of capturing that ability. Koo Kyo Hwan courageously put everything he had into Dong Man and exploded onto the screen. His total commitment and exposure hit me like a train. It was an all or nothing performance and a less confident portrayal would have been catastrophic for the whole drama.

Overall, another stunning offering.

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A Slice of Depression

Starting this review of by saying acting was amazing. I had some reservations about GYJ's acting which she sucessfully overcame. Since I had seen other actors in other dramas, I wasn't really worried about overall quality of the performances.
What left me somewhat cold was the writing. I understood what the writer was going for, but some of the comedic and melodramatic moments felt out of place. Overall, directing and music choices fit the drama genre very well.
My review probably leaves you wondering why I gave this drama only 7.5. The reason is quite simple. If you're already struggling mentally, this drama will likely leave you feeling even more depressed. Because of that, I think it's important to watch it at the right time.

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Great Ideas, Untapped Potential

I thought this drama was okay, but it never became much more than that for me. On paper, it has everything I usually enjoy. I liked how it explored loneliness, low self-esteem, and that feeling of existential emptiness through characters who are just trying to get through life while carrying the weight of their past choices and struggles. The drama handles these themes with empathy and ultimately delivers a comforting message about healing, self-acceptance, and finding the strength to move forward.

The two leads were easily the strongest part of the show. Dong-man is deeply flawed and often his own worst enemy, which makes him feel incredibly human and relatable. Eun-ah carries a quiet sadness tied to her past and her mother's abandonment. What I appreciated most about their relationship was how grounded it felt. It wasn't some idealized romance; it was built on mutual understanding and support. They accept each other's flaws, stay true to themselves, and refuse to let other people's expectations define who they are.

One of the most interesting aspects of Dong-man's character was his struggle to fit in, even among people he's supposed to call friends. As those around him become more successful, they gradually turn him into the group's scapegoat, constantly pointing out his failures while ignoring their own flaws. He's loud, impulsive, and frustrating at times, but the more I watched, the more those traits felt like defense mechanisms against the judgment he's constantly dealing with. Despite all his flaws, he remains authentic and unapologetically himself, and I often felt that's exactly what the people around him resented.

The cinematography and soundtrack were also great and added a lot to the overall atmosphere of the drama.

That said, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing. While the drama touches on several interesting and sensitive topics, it rarely goes beyond the surface. A lot of the ideas it introduces are compelling, but it never fully commits to them or explores them as deeply as it could have. As someone who struggles with anxiety, I was hoping for a more nuanced approach to some of these themes, but it never quite got there. In the end, it felt like a salad without any seasoning: all the ingredients are there, but it's missing that extra layer that would bring everything together.

The writing also feels uneven at times. Some subplots are introduced only to be sidelined later, several narrative threads feel underdeveloped, and the pacing can be a bit choppy. The dialogue is often fairly simple and occasionally falls into cliché territory.

The acting is also inconsistent. While some performances are solid, others feel exaggerated and unconvincing. There were quite a few moments where I became too aware that I was watching actors rather than real characters, which broke the immersion for me.

Despite its flaws, I still think it's a well-intentioned drama with likable characters and meaningful themes. I appreciated what it was trying to say, but I couldn't help feeling like it only scratched the surface of the story it really wanted to tell...

☆My summary rating:

● Script — 6.8/10 :

- Narrative Structure: 7/10
- Development: 7.5/10
- Consistency: 7/10
- Subplot Management: 6/10
- Predictability: 6/10
- Dialogue: 6/10
- Originality: 7.5/10


● Acting — 7.4/10 :

- Individual Performances: 8/10
- Emotional Delivery: 6.5/10
- Chemistry: 8/10
- Consistency: 7/10
- Supporting Cast: 7/10


● Execution — 7.9/10 :

- Directing: 7.5/10
- Cinematography: 8/10
- Editing: 6.5/10
- Production Design: 8.5/10
- OST: 10/10

● Pacing: 7/10
● Enjoyment: 6/10

Final Score: 7.2/10 ⭐⭐⭐½

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A rollercoaster ride of powerful emotions and heartbreaking moments

Subjective Gut Rating: 8.75 (rounding up to 9.0)

It’s hard to describe if I love or LOVE “We Are All Trying Here”. This title aptly matches what every single character is going through. There are so many emotional and special moments that it was hard to pinpoint which I love the best. But the first that came to mind is the end of ep 3, ML’s realization of who he truly is after the accident. What a powerful, powerful moment!!

Having said that, in the end, it didn’t quite hit me in the rating scale as “My Liberation Notes” (between 9.0-9.5). That is not to say “We Are All Trying Here” is not as good, it just brings out different emotions, and for someone like me who loves romance, the romance in MLN hits differently and leaves a deeper impact. I mean, there's Mr. Gu in MLN. But I also LOVE the romance here. It just hits differently.

Even though the drama follows the career of Hwang Dong Man (ML), I think the focus is on the different relationships in this drama. I am not talking about just the romance between Hwang Dong Man and Byeong Eun A (FL). In addition to this romance, we have the complicated friendship/competition within The Eight, different family dynamics, co-workers support/competition/camaraderie, traumatic history, and more. Each character brings out a different emotion in me. Some I want to strangle, some I want to hug, some I want to be friends with and some I want to punch. Even for Hwang Dong Man, he did not have a very likable introduction, but I’ve grown to love him.

I want to highlight a few of those special relationships:

Huang Dong Man + Byeong Eun A = Love this pair. They are soulmates with extremely different personalities. Their “Unknowns” break my heart. Their romance is so subtle yet so powerful. They show a different side of themselves when alone. They share their darkest secrets, deepest fears, full emotions, honest feelings and open communication. I am so happy that they found each other.

Hwang Dong Man + Park Gyeong Se = I have to say, I was a little annoyed by their back-and-forth childish behavior in the first half of the drama, and I might have found it a little repetitive. But I was deeply moved when I learned about their deep friendship, and Hwang Dong Man’s confessions and regrets. That confession is one of the highlights of the show for me.

Ko Hye Jin + Park Gyong Se = I love Ko Hye Jin. She’s such a kickass bosslady. I enjoy witnessing the dynamics and relationship between them. Their heartbreaking realization towards the end was further magnified by these two veteran actors' excellent performances.

Hwang Dong Man + Hwang Jin Man = These brothers have an unconventional way of caring and protecting each other. I wanted a little more of their past, but maybe the writer wants me to fill in the blanks given what I’ve been told.


I really didn’t have any expectations coming into this, even with all the rave reviews I’ve seen. I wasn’t sure if it’s really my cup of tea but I was craving something melo. In the end, I am so glad I chose to watch this, and will recommend “We Are All Trying Here” wholeheartedly if you are looking for powerful stories about deeply flawed characters. The acting is terrific all around and their stories bring me on a rollercoaster ride of emotions. This drama might not have hot oppas (trust me, there isn’t any) but the real plot is enough to keep you engaged and entertained.




Completed: 5/27/2026 Review #690

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A hauntingly beautiful drama that understands human brokenness

I’ve been watching K-dramas since 2015, but honestly, no drama has ever made me feel this attached. We Are All Trying Here, is hauntingly beautiful in the way it portrays human emotions and inner struggles.

What I love the most is that no character feels purely bad or cruel. Every character is carrying their own wounds, their own sense of worthlessness, and trying to survive life in their own way. That’s what makes this drama feel painfully real and deeply human.

Even the smallest lines somehow carry so much meaning. The writing is subtle, melancholic, comforting, and emotionally overwhelming all at once. And the casting? Perfect. Not just the main leads, but the entire cast feels born for these roles.

Tbh, I genuinely can’t find a single flaw in this drama so far. Every episode leaves me wanting more while also making me scared to continue because I know I’ll have to wait another week again 😭

For me, this is one of the best slice-of-life dramas ever written n portrayed perfectly, and once again, Park Hae-young proves why no one understands human emotions quite like she does.

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We are all trying here especially when trying to write a half decent review

Okay I don't usually write reviews of dramas or movies I've watched because I suck at it like really bad. However this was a drama that I i just had to express my love for so here we go.

The story was something that personally i had never seen before. In all my life that i have watched hundreds and hundreds of dramas, shows and movies I have never really given a thought for the directors, writers and crew. When watching this drama it felt as if a door cracked open and there was this whole new world in another perspective. The story felt real and painful. It felt as if it was actually happening and it seemed like it wasn't fiction. The whole time I was watching the show I felt this thrill and excitement which was unusual because this wasn't a thriller. I was waiting for what could happen next?

But even though I was invested in the story and the characters I cant say it didn't feel jarring at some points. Some moments felt a little too long. To watch this guy just write nothing but even then i stayed and watched. I watched and remembered the feeling of being trapped because you are not brave enough to write what you want. The agony of being scared of hurting others with your writing or so atleast i read it. Even in the jarring moments i thought and wondered. It felt fresh to always see something in the smallest scenes that usually mean nothing to me.

If we talk about meaning nothing, we need to talk about the characters in a deeper level. Every character in the drama felt real. They felt like they were there and they were living. It felt real. I couldn't bring myself to hate anyone in this drama because everyone was so real. I could see what was going on. I couldn't see it from their words that said it straight but the mannerism, their lifes and their actions. As if they were actually living and breathing.

The love and romance need to be mentioned too. This drama showed love and relationship in such a raw and real way. The romance was suddle and secret it didn't yell and it didn't scream that "hey im here im here" but it was secret and quiet about it even in the moments that it wasn't.
The relationships in another hand were all beautiful in their own way. It showed the hardships of loving someone and the beauty too.

Though after all this the drama wasn't perfect. Nothing is perfect. The drama had it's problems here and there like the ending that kinda felt perfect but still as if something was rushed. It had scenes that got you thinking whatt. But like i said nothing is perfect.

Now I know that this review isnt the best like i said I suck at this but overall this drama opens your eyes and makes you realize how important the small wins are. It makes you realize that you are not the only one trying and that even in the hardest times you can find a reason to continue. And now to end this yapping seasson please no one attack me I wrote this review on my own interpretation.

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