Autumn Kaeul

P.S. The romance in the drama is really subtle and definitely a slow-burn type of romance, but romance isn't the focus of the drama and the drama is actually better because it doesn't prioritize the romance aspect, IMO (don't get me wrong though--I am a romance drama fan). The leads have a really touching and beautiful relationship/connection, even if it's not a super romantic one. The romance isn't the point or the overall goal of this drama though, and I feel like their relationship is actually a more progressive one, because the ML is fine being just a good friend to the FL (even though he wants to be more than just friends, he's content with friendship too), which is something you rarely see depicted in shows/movies (in general).

This drama is really beautiful and the relationships/dynamics between the all of the lead characters are really good and touching and meaningful, so it's definitely worth a watch even if the romance aspect isn't a prominent/strong one.

Also, I personally don't like Go Ara's acting in general, but I feel like she actually does an okay job in this drama. So, I feel like people shouldn't pass on this drama just because of her/her character, because it's not as bad as some of the commentors are making it seem. And, also, the other actors and characters are definitely worth watching the drama for as well, because they're really good/did a really good job and are definitely watch-worthy characters.

I also feel like people are writing certain things off as being "problematic" without really thinking about the situations/scenes that are presented in the drama, or the overall messages that the drama is trying to convey to the audience, or the fact that the drama is actually pretty progressive overall (for a Kdrama) and is at least making an effort to highlight and discuss some of the issues that exist in Korean society (and society in general). Like, I have yet to have seen a Kdrama that doesn't have ANY problematic aspects or scenes in it, and this drama is probably the least problematic Kdrama I've ever seen. Like, at least this drama is self-aware and is trying to draw attention to these issues, rather than being unaware and incorporating a lot of problematic things into the storyline/dialogue and acting like it's normal/acceptable/even "romantic," as is the case with most Kdramas.

Just give it a chance. You might really love it and it could become one of your favorite Kdramas.

For anyone who is contemplating whether or not to watch this drama, just give it a chance. Sure, the drama isn't perfect (no drama is though), it has some minor flaws, but overall it's seriously a REALLY GOOD drama. This drama is like a breath of fresh air compared to the vast majority of Kdramas that are out there. The acting is really great/moving; the writing/dialogue is really smart; the story is different and refreshing; the characters are unique, realistic, and memorable; the OST is amazing; there's a nice balance of serious/emotional scenes and humorous/cute scenes; the drama highlights/tackles some of the big issues that exist in Korean society and is pretty progressive overall (for a Kdrama)--I could go on and on.

I see a lot of comments about the FL being annoying. However, I feel like people don't quite understand her character, and thus perceive her as being "annoying." Her character is a ROOKIE judge who JUST STARTED her new job as a judge and has had a lot of emotional stuff going on in her life and who really wants to change the system and help people, and the "annoying" aspects of her character are all part of her character's personal development and growth. I feel like it's realistic, because there probably are people like her who become judges and desperately want to make the world a better place, but then find out how things actually are/work and become frustrated/disillusioned and make mistakes in the process of trying to learn how to be a judge. Her character and Myungsoo's character are supposed to be opposites too and they have a lot of back-and-forth philosophical and ethical debates throughout the drama, including about how a judge should be/act. And they both personify/represent the different qualities that a judge is supposed to have--together, combined, they have the attributes that a judge should have, and they both try to develop the qualities that they need in order to become good judges (as they're both still rookies who are just starting their careers as judges and who are literally learning on the job).

It's a really great drama! You should give it a chance. I also didn't think it would be my type of drama either, but I decided to give it a chance and I really loved it.

First of all, I think it's completely unfair and unrealistic to put all of the blame for their breakup onto Yeonsoo. I feel like it was due to the sloppy/lazy writing that the writer decided to just put everything on YS in the end, but even in the beginning of the drama, YS was mad too and had things that she didn't like about Choi Woong as well. She even explicitly said in one of the earlier episodes that the reason they broke up didn't only have to do with her, but that it was because of CW as well.

CW was oblivious to what she was going through and never tried to empathize with her or see things from her POV, and yes, he did know how poor she was, but he didn't try to understand her and he said and did a lot of insensitive things and only thought about himself most of the time. He also thought that he was the only one who had been hurt due to their breakup and didn't think that he had done anything wrong/to contribute to their breakup, and then was surprised when he discovered that that wasn't the case. That shows how self-absorbed he is and how he never even tried to see things from YS's POV or understand her.

I feel like you're getting angrier/more triggered than is necessary. And don't tell me that I "missed the point" just because you see things differently. I watched this drama very closely--I even rewatched certain episodes multiple times--and have read many different people's perspectives on it. I'm not hating on the drama, but I'm saying that it has some unfortunate/bothersome flaws.

There was definitely some kind of conversation/reconciliation that needed to take place between the two main leads that didn't happen, and it was annoying how they just suddenly got back together (and that part wasn't even shown either, annoyingly, even though this is a rom-com drama) and pretended like they never had any problems, and the character development was also very one-sided on YS's part. I was disappointed to see that CW had very little character development throughout the drama despite it being mostly centered on his POV/story.

And don't put words in my mouth--I never said that the drama was "ONLY" centered on CW's story and that we NEVER got YS's POV. We did, but the storyline was mostly focused on CW's story, not YS's. Even after watching 16 episodes, the viewers know everything about CW, but only bits and pieces about YS, which is annoying and unfortunate. And the writing just got lazy in the second half, and rather than having the characters both find out their shortcomings/faults and the mistakes they made and learning from them and growing, the writer got lazy and just decided to blame everything on "YS's ego/pride" in the end and never decided to explore the issues that YS had had with CW that also contributed to their breakup.

You don't have to agree with me, but please respect my opinions.

Yes! Exactly! She's just not a good actress and not a good fit for the role. She doesn't have the same energy or aura as the younger NHD does, like you said, and it feels like she's not even trying to play the same character. And I completely agree with everything you just said--her voice and way of speaking and the way she acts really annoy me a lot. I also hate watching her scenes as well and it makes me feel frustrated, because Kim Tae Ri is such a good actress and is really likeable and doing a great job playing the younger NHD, and then the older actress who's playing the older version of KTR's character is just not good at all. I also think that they should've just tried to make KTR look older and play the older NHD herself, because that would've been way less cringey and annoying to watch than the older actress they cast to play the older NHD.

And I agree... I hope there aren't any major scenes with the older NHD in the drama, because that will be really annoying/cringey to watch... UGH. I don't understand why they couldn't have gotten a better actress to play the older NHD, because the actress they cast is really doing a poor job and makes NHD's character overall somewhat unlikable (when we think of her older self).

You don't have to agree, but this is my personal opinion/POV that I'm stating right now. I find the way she speaks/delivers her lines to be really annoying and poorly done. And it bothers me a lot that there are no similarities between the two HDs at all. I don't expect them to be the same, but the older actress should at least TRY to seem somewhat like the younger actress and try to seem somewhat like the younger HD so that she's at least semi-convincing in her role, even if she doesn't appear a lot.

YES. I completely agree. I find her way of speaking to be really annoying/poorly done, and she also doesn't speak or act or seem at all like the younger HD. There's no overlap between the two HDs at all, and the older one just really rubs me the wrong way.

I know they're not gonna be exactly the same, but they're not at all alike. It was a very poor casting choice, IMO.

Also, was anyone else annoyed by the fact that the drama ended up being almost completely centered on Woong's story/POV? It didn't bother me at all when I was watching the first half because I was so certain that Yeonsoo's story/POV was going to be shown and explored more in the second half of the drama, but then that never happened. Don't get me wrong--I love Woong. His character was probably my favorite in this drama. However, I felt like the drama was overly/unnecessarily focused on Woong's story/POV. And I also felt like the writer kept trying to make the viewers pity him/feel bad for him a lot even though his life wasn't that bad at all and wasn't nearly as hard/difficult as Yeonsoo's was. Also, while Woong's a genuinely good guy and really cares for the people in his life, he's incredibly selfish and ignorant/oblivious and doesn't know how to understand/empathize with where other people are coming from.

This didn't bother me in the first half, because I thought that it was a part of his character development and that he would realize later how selfish/self-absorbed and ignorant and unempathetic he had been to Yeonsoo (and also to Jiwoong too, to an extent) in the second half. But then that never happened. The writer kept trying to make us pity Woong for some reason and then barely showed Yeonsoo's story/POV, even though she had suffered more than Woong did and was the character who was most misunderstood/mysterious too. Her story/POV was completely glossed over/tossed aside. And then Yeonsoo even is made to pity Woong more than herself and to try and understand him and be there for him, and all the while he still doesn't understand what an ass he's been to her at times and how selfish/self-absorbed he is. He never learns about/understands Yeonsoo's POV (where she's coming from and what she has endured over the years) or realizes his faults/shortcomings at all in the drama--both of them just ultimately decide to forget and forgive, and I find that to be really unrealistic and problematic, and also just poor/sloppy writing at the end of the day.

IDK. Did anyone else feel the same way? I'm curious.

I really, really loved the first half of this drama a lot (for me, it was absolute perfection), but the second half was somewhat of a let-down for me. The writing in the first half of the drama was soooooo good/well done, but then it just got increasingly sloppier after episode 8, IMO. Was anyone else annoyed by the random time-skip and the fact that Woong and Yeonsoo just suddenly got back together and they didn't even show it?

I was expecting the writer to have them hash out and work through the issues they had with one another and THEN get back together, but literally none of that happened. The tension between the leads and anticipation that had been built up during the first half of the drama was completely wasted in the second half. And the fact that the main characters more or less just seemed to forget about the problems they had before and just decided to get back together all of sudden (and, again, they didn't even show them getting back together again--there was no big realization or reconciliation or breakthrough moment for their relationship) feels like an insult to the viewers' intelligence. I expected and wanted them to get back together, but I thought the writer would've had them work through the problems that had been brought up in the first half and start to understand each other better before having them get back together.

I really hate how Kdrama writers so often do this. Where the writing is phenomenal in the first half of the drama and there's a really nice setup for some good character/relationship development, and then all of that gets wasted in the second half and they just have the characters suddenly get together and start acting all cutesy and couple-y without properly addressing the issues that were brought up in the first half or building on the character/relationship development setups that were established in the first half. I love rom-com dramas/movies a lot, but a lot of rom-com drama writers--even the good ones--seem to get lazy when they're writing the final episodes of their dramas, and it drives me absolutely crazy. This drama was good, but it could've been so much better, and it didn't live up to its potential, IMO, which is really frustrating and annoying.

I'm loving everything about this drama so far EXCEPT for the actress who they cast to play Na Hee Do as an older adult. I wish they would've picked a better actress for the role. Even if the older NHD doesn't appear much in the drama, she's completely different from the younger NHD in every way and is also very annoying/unlikable, IMO. This is going to really rub me the wrong way if they try to show some kind of romance scenes later on in the drama between older Baek Yi Jin and older NHD...

That's your opinion/interpretation. Mine is different. You can read my previous comment that I posted above a few minutes ago. That's my take on his character. Let's just agree to disagree if your reading of his character is different. It's fine to say that you disagree, but respect other people's opinions and be mindful of your wording and how you respond to others because the comment that you wrote above is very rude. I'm not gonna waste my time arguing with people like you. I've stated my opinion and now I'm gonna log out of MDL because I'm sick of reading comments like this on here.

But I think it's understandable that he feels that way given his situation and how he grew up. He's envious of Ung because Ung has everything that Ji-Ung has always wanted, but never had when he was growing up. Both Ji-Ung and Yeonsoo have complexes about growing up poor and stuff like that has wide-ranging affects on a person when they're growing up and also for the rest of their lives. I don't think it's fair to write off the SML or to label him as "creepy" just because he's envious/jealous of Ung. This is something that he's been grappling with his whole life ever since he was a small kid, and it goes beyond his feelings for Yeonsoo.

Ji-Ung purposely held back trying to get to know Yeonsoo and letting anyone know how he felt about her for years because he felt like he "owed" Ung for sharing his food and family and so on with him for most of his life. And that decision--to just step back and not do anything--is one that has obviously haunted him for years, and is probably a decision that he regrets making. He chose friendship over love when he was younger, but now that he's older, he wants to try and get to know Yeonsoo and to do what he felt like he couldn't do when they were younger. I feel like we have different readings of Ji-Ung's character. Because Ji-Ung's feelings for Yeonsoo are also wrapped up in, and also complicated by, how he feels about Ung and this inferiority complex that he has about growing up poor and feeling like he "owes" Ung and like he isn't deserving of happiness or something like that. It's more complex and nuanced than him just one-sidedly coveting his best friend's ex-girlfriend.

And being jealous/envious of someone doesn't automatically make a person creepy. Ji-Ung and Yeonsoo are very similar in a lot of ways, so he understands her and empathizes with her, and they actually would be a really good match for each other if Ung wasn't in the picture and if Yeonsoo didn't still have feelings for Ung. I'm rooting for the main couple, but I still feel for the SML and like him. I don't think that the SML will really pose much of a threat to the main couple's relationship either--I think what he really needs is closure, because he never got that when Yeonsoo and Ung were together. Plus, Ung and Yeonsoo have technically been broken up for more than 5 years, so it's not like he's approaching her while she's in a relationship with Ung. He backed off and didn't do anything when they were dating. He's only now trying to talk to her/get to know her when she's single and when she and Ung have been separated for a long time. He respected their relationship and has always maintained distance from Yeonsoo, and he didn't try to contact her or see her for 5 years (and only did so later because of the documentary). I think his feelings for Yeonsoo are just unresolved and need closure, and he also is having to now confront his relationship with Ung as well and the feelings that he's never shared with Ung and has suppressed all of these years.

Let's just hold off judging any of the characters until the drama has finished airing.

I think he's charming. I really like the SML and the actor who plays the SML--his acting is very natural and he's doing a really good job, IMO. The SML is really funny too.

I don't think they've shown the exact scenes when the two of them started to fall in love with the other. I hope/think that they will show those scenes in the second half of the drama.

Yes, I completely agree with everything you said.

Exactly (to everything you said). I've been thinking that there's probably a reason why we've been getting more of Woong's narration/POV for the first half of the drama, because there aren't really any mysteries with him. Whereas Yeonsoo is kind of mysterious in that she keeps a lot of things to herself and doesn't verbalize how she really feels most of the time because she seems to be uncomfortable with/ashamed of her own emotions and she's very prideful and doesn't like revealing/doing things that hurt her ego. So, while I'm not positive that we will get more of Yeonsoo's POV in the second half (just because her character/personality is different), I think that it's likely that that will be the case and that more will be revealed about her and what she's gone through. I feel like we've been getting both of their perspectives every episode though regardless of who's narrating, but I'm hoping that more things that we don't know yet from Yeonsoo's side will be revealed in the second half.

And same. I like to check MDL periodically to see what types of theories and interpretations and impressions that other people are having after watching the new episodes. However, I feel like I often come here feeling in a good mood after watching the new episodes, and then the comments here really bring me down and kind of taint my perception of the drama somewhat, even though most of the criticism/negativity is unwarranted and/or stems from people not understanding/interpreting things properly. So, I think I'm just gonna avoid MDL until the drama finishes airing, because I want to enjoy watching this drama without the unnecessary negativity.

LMAO! 😂 Saaaaammmmmeeeee.

I 100% agree. I don't get why some people don't seem to understand what this story is about or how the characters are, and the comments on this site are kind of ruining the experience of watching this drama for me. I think I'm gonna stay away from MDL until this drama ends, because I thought this week's episodes were absolutely beautiful and magical to watch, and I love all of the characters in this drama, but seeing all of the unnecessary/nonsensical negative comments people are writing on here is ruining the experience for me because they aren't picking up on what's going on in the drama, nor appreciating the beauty of this drama.