Meru

As a teacher I enjoyed this drama a lot. It’s a mix of comedy and tragic stories. Getting a glimpse into Korea’s extremely competitive education system was very interesting.

Here are the things I especially liked about this drama:

• I liked seeing the lifes of both the adults and the kids. But also seeing the stories of the different families was interesting too and showed how despite the craziness of the comoetition, it is akways the mothers whose only concern is to give the best they can for their children. Ofc what the mothers are doing is toxic and very unethical, but in their obsessive way of thinking, they think that that is the best for their children. And it was nice to see how it was their children who saved them and taught them to be better people. Both Sua’s manic episodes and Sun-jae’s cheating controversy helped their mothers become better people. At this point, I have to say that these two women who played toxic mothers deserve an award!!! What incredible actresses omg! I was both touched and shocked by their performances…

• There were some scenes, especially at the beginning that were sooo hilarious I couldn’t stop laughing 😂😂😂 Kyung-Ho is such a funny actor, the way he always tries to act cool but finds himself in goofy situations killed me 😂😂😂 his facial expressions were gold too! Jae-woo, the autistic brother added a lot to the comedy element too, especially his painfully honest remarks about his sister were hilarious 😂😂😂 His relationship with Chi-yeol was really cute too! I think this actor definitely did a great job in portraying an autistic person. I also felt really sad when the incident in the cafe happened or how sad he got when Hae-e was in the hospital. Those were some of the few scenes I cried a lot

• The warm family dynamics and the question of what truly makes a family warmed my heart a lot in regards to Hae-e’s family 🥹🥹🥹

•I think many people didn’t like the serial killer aspect of the story but I think it added some extra excitement to the story as well as the dangers of being obsessed with a person to the point of comitting crimes. Also how villains can also be gray instead of just evil. The culprit in this drama was also a victim of motherly abuse. I actually felt really sad for him and hoped he would get a redemption arc.

Things that could be better:

• I was actually sad that the murderer did turn out to be the manager of Chi-yeol. I loved the scenes of him playing with Hae-e’s family and taking care of Chi-yeol. I was even shipping him with the bestie of the FL 😂😂😂 I think if he hadn’t developed such a hatred towards the FL then I would have still shipped them despite him being a murderer.
Also it was him who found the Banchan shop.
But I did suspect him at first for the killings because he seemed very protective of Chiyeol and how he said he wished that obsessive girl would just stop coming to his classes and what happens next: She is being killed. So I suspected him first before they tried to lead us into confusion with Sun-jae’s brother.

• I think the dating of Jae-Woo and the bestie was absolutely unnecessary.

• The real mother showing up and Hae-e announcing she would go to Japan with her was all very rushed and random and sudden at the end. And then when the mom disappeared we never got a scene of Hae-e apologizing and explaining why she did that. We also never saw her telling the story of her getting kidnapped. Just because the culprit was dead doesnt mean that Hae-e would be able to overcome her trauma of what happened.

• I hoped for more scenes between Sun-jae and Hae-e.

Most of these things I didn’t like happened in the last two episodes of the drama. So I think the landing was a bit rough but the rest of tge drama was great!!!!