julwa

For most of the drama, I thought it was great. I had nothing to nitpick. It had all the tropes I love: legal, enemies-to-lovers, roommates, coworkers. Only the ending itself earned it a slight minus, but I’ll explain that below + a few things that were left unexplained, which frustrates me.

I’ll start with the main couple’s relationship: Eun Bong Hee & Noh Ji Wook. Like I wrote above, it had all the tropes I love — enemies-to-lovers, roommates, coworkers, and she fell first/he fell harder. They had great on-screen chemistry — the kisses were even better ;) — they took care of each other. He became a better person around her, more open, and started enjoying life. And special mention goes to his jealousy moments, which were amazing. At the time, the only thing that mildly annoyed me was that he especially preferred to handle everything alone and deal with things by himself. When in some matters, for her safety at least, he should have told her. But despite that, up until the breakup I really liked their relationship. After that, though, in my opinion it got worse — especially the period when they started getting back together. Starting with the fact that Eun Bong Hee’s character herself started to annoy me. From the beginning she was written as confident and straightforward, and then suddenly she started stupidly withdrawing. I really respect Noh Ji Wook for putting up with that cat-and-mouse game, because I couldn’t. The second stone for me is the last episode, which I didn’t like. I understand the desire to show realism and mild arguments, but in my opinion there were too many of them. Almost the entire episode was arguments and their relationship problems. How am I supposed to believe after that that they’re truly happy at those engagement scene? They definitely deserved, after everything they’d been through before, to get that one happy episode together.

Now I’ll move on to the second couple’s relationship: Cha Yoo Jung & Ji Eun Hyuk. I’ll admit that at first they completely didn’t sell me on it. For a long time I didn’t like Cha Yoo Jung (I still don’t have any great fondness for her) and on top of that I had the feeling she would treat him as a spare tire. After watching, I still don’t really know what to think of them. On one hand I grew to like their duo — especially thanks to Ji Eun Hyuk, his care for her was wonderful. Overall he was a great character who lifted my mood many times. But on the other hand I still don’t know if her feelings were sincere or just came from the fact that he was the only one who was there for her and cared about her.

Staying on the topic of issues related to their relationship, a pretty big minus for me is that there was never any bigger conversation between the guys about Ji Eun Hyuk’s feelings for her. It annoys me because from the beginning of the drama Ji Eun Hyuk was fighting for Noh Ji Wook’s forgiveness, so the lack of such a conversation is absurd. An even bigger minus is that Cha Yoo Jung and Ji Eun Hyuk never clarified Noh Ji Wook’s past. They didn’t explain to him that there was no physical betrayal. It wouldn’t have changed much, because there was still emotional betrayal, but the clarification itself should have happened if it was already thrown out there that there wasn’t one — because otherwise I don’t understand what that information was for.

Moving on, the character of Jung Hyun Soo was really great and his whole storyline was handled without any fault. Good character background, and the actor played the psycho brilliantly. And thanks to him I didn’t have to watch Jang Hee Joon on screen any longer :D. The only thing that wasn’t explained is that I still wonder who he meant when he said in episode 36 during the interrogation: “that these are only assumptions, but someone else might still be on my side.” Maybe no one, but at the time I thought it might be about Go Chan Ho. I thought he might have survived, because Jang Hee Joon circled the victims on his photos, and he didn’t circle him after that incident, but it turned out otherwise. Which I also don’t necessarily like, because we still didn’t get an explanation why Go Chan Ho helped him with the murders. Was he supposed to survive thanks to that? Did he also feel guilt toward Park So Yeong?

And a small praise: I predicted in episode 7 that the officer wasn’t fully behind the murders (though I pointed to someone else as the culprit then). And already in episode 14 Jung Hyun Soo was suspicious to me. I guess I missed my calling.

Now the family storylines:
- I’ll start with the biological parents of Noh Ji Wook and Eun Bong Hee’s dad. Overall I consider the whole thing interesting and well handled (though it would have been even more interesting if, for example, the main prosecutor had been more involved in the fire). The only minus for me was that after learning the truth Eun Bong Hee blamed Noh Ji Wook, he blamed himself too, and the narrative for a moment also did that. Come on, he was a kid who watched his parents die, and then was pressured by an adult prosecutor during interrogations. That was solely and exclusively the old man’s fault, not the kid’s.
- I was also hoping for some bigger confrontation of the whole family — especially their moms. Their moments entertained me, so I was a bit disappointed that after finding out about their relationship they were almost gone. In my head I saw funny content that should have appeared.
- And another plot hole that annoys me is the fact that Eun Bong Hee mentioned that she also has two fathers, after which we never learn anything more about that “second” one. So once again I don’t understand why that sentence even appeared if it didn’t lead to anything else.

I’ll also touch on all the employees who worked at Noh Ji Wook’s law firm (that is: No Ji Uk, Eun Bong Hui, Ji Eun Hyeok, Byun Young Hee and Section Chief Bang). I’ll admit I loved all of them together. I can’t count how many times I laughed at the banter between Eun Bong Hui and Byun Young Hee, at Ji Eun Hyeok sucking up to No Ji Uk, at him deliberately provoking jealousy, at Section Chief Bang reminding them of all the promises they made him when he was in a coma, etc. They really had a wonderful vibe together.

It’s time to discuss the characters I hated. There aren’t many of them, but it’ll get family-related. I’ll start with Jang Moo Yeong — I really couldn’t stand that old man from beginning to end. He was definitely the worst character in this series. There was literally not a single moment where you could like him, where he showed any human side, where you could understand him and mildly feel sorry for him. Zero. His suffering tasted delicious. The second such character was his son — Jang Hee Joon — genes don’t choose. I couldn’t stand him either, but luckily thanks to Jung Hyun Soo I didn’t have to suffer with that narcissist and manipulator for long, who already in the first episode made me fed up with him.

I wanted to end this review on a nice note, so I saved Kim Jae Woong for the end. The kid was awesome. I loved his relationship with No Ji Uk. I loved how he teased the other employees. That’s why I regret that at the end of the drama there was nothing about him. Hello, what happened to him, let him come back.