Blkittykat

There's always something great about dramas that can hook you from minute one. Actually T-minus several days, maybe months before minute one. The premise of Our Universe ensured that, because as someone who has been sorely disappointed with recent Kdramas, I contemplate over twenty times before I add something to my list, and they got me excited about this just based off of the premise. Granted I let out a chilling scream when I found out Park Seo Ham was also in it but we're all allowed to have layers, let's not dig too deep.

The exact premise that got me so excited was - two bickering in-laws, having to raise their nephew together, growing and healing from the pain of losing their siblings and coming to become a family of three, maybe even falling in love in the process. I was naive to think we'd get any of that.

The first episode makes it incredibly difficult to believe me. It was such a good one, that was the pace and story needed for twelve episodes. But I'm not wrong, because episodes 2-12 are my proof. It went so wrong so quickly, it's laughable. The healing is nearly non-existent, what should be minimal romance turns into a full love triangle and the namesake of the show, our Universe? He's barely in it!

The story is a hot mess, filled with clichés. Seriously, imagine a cliché and it's probably in it. Mild annoyance that leads to love, a love triangle, miscommunication, adults behaving like children for comedy, a strained sibling relationship, deadbeat parents, you name it, we've got it! Even if you watch with no expectations (unlike me), this muddled mess will not be a pleasing experience.

But that's okay, because the characters are so well written and you can't help but root for them through every terrible trope thrown their way (I lie)

Let's start with Woo Hyeon Jin, the hardworking and tenacious lead whose only source of strength and support is her elder sister. They have only each other, they're devoted to each other, willing to go to any length and somehow their final conversation is an argument. How else are we supposed to make her feel sad and guilty about losing her sister? We need that extra trauma, it's not a Kdrama without it. I don't like her.
I have so many problems with the way she was written, the least of all being that she definitely got her job because she knew her eventual boss. It's fine, the job market is actual trash. But after she gets the job her entire character and arc is reduced to being in love? We've just completely discarded the fact that she is Woo Ju's legal guardian because she's busy being in love!
And throughout the drama, we see her be selfish, flimsy and make the worst decisions ever because she's got a crush. Which, in a rom-com would be so relatable that I'd want to jump through the screen to give her a hug but she's not in a rom-com! Woo Ju's terrible twos are nothing compared to her tantrum twenties.

All of this, for a man who's single character trait can be chalked down to handsome (he's so handsome I want to cry). Park Yun Seong, he's handsome, talented, sweet and maybe a little inappropriate, because the unconfirmed hiring allegations aside, he's in love with his subordinate who was his junior in university. Seven years ago, which is absurd, considering they didn't even date, just crushing on each other.
His entire character is also, obviously, reduced to that crush, because no matter how complex human beings may be, Kdrama = crush. He's an okay character, he's there and he looks like Seo Ham so woot I guess. He's just way too involved in the lives of people who should not mean that much to him, and it's screaming inappropriate many times. I don't know, it takes a lot to make me not want Seo Ham on my screen, but they are doing the utmost to achieve that.

As for Son Tae Hyung, I like him. He's the only character with a decent amount of screentime who managed to make me not rage out. Sure, he did start out as a mean guy, who is of course estranged from his elder brother because again, Kdramas love trauma, only coming back into each other's orbit for a second before he decides never again. But he eventually does return, for his own selfish reasons but thank goodness for this thing called character development. Tae Hyeong really steps up. After losing his brother, he meets Woo Ju, and though not all is amazing in the beginning, he steps up as an uncle and grows as a person.
As to why I'm mentioning him after Yun Seong or why I haven't covered much of the plot - it's because of one irritating love triangle that almost made me chuck my phone out of the window.
Tae Hyung is basically reduced to being Woo Ju's glorified babysitter. He's the male lead, supposed to be atleast, and he's out there pulling more than his weight in all aspects but being the male lead.

That love triangle ate up screentime like it was no one's business, I wasn't into the romance in the first place but you're telling me there's a love triangle I have to pay attention to?! Never lost interest in anything quicker. To top it all of, no one has chemistry with anyone. I still don't understand why any of those people fell for each other, because none of them had much going on for them. Maybe Tae Hyung did for a bit, but not enough that it warrants such huge feelings!! I'm so mad right now, because this was not what I wanted, not what should have been the focus, it was so annoying to watch them all behave the way they did and have everything about them reduced to who they were falling in love with.

Through it all, we didn't even talk about our main character. If I can only talk about him as much as the drama did, this paragraph wouldn't exist. For a show called Our Universe, Woo Ju (Universe) was barely in it. He's in it for two minutes per episode, tops. I'm sure they did it that way to give him a safe and relaxed working environment but he doesn't necessarily have to be on screen to be the focus! Ugh, I'm getting annoyed even writing this. No, the universe in question belonged to Hyeon Jin and I hated it.

If we think deep about it, this drama has many, many problems. Much more than I've mentioned but honestly, I do not care. A story that relies on tropes and clichés more than it does it's own writing, unlikeable characters getting the majority of screentime and what I'm beginning to think is a sure fire way of ruining a good plot, romance, completely bog down what should have been one of the best Kdramas of the year. Instead, the creators chose to rage bait us and this is where we are now.

Not to say it was completely irredeemable, like I said Tae Hyung was a good character, I liked his interactions with his friends and how he was able to heal from all his past trauma. All the friendship related interactions were amazing, I love seeing supportive friend groups. Even though his character was nothing to hit home about, Seo Ham. Tae Hyung's interactions with Woo Ju. Actually, everything about Woo Ju.

But Woo Ju is not enough to make me like this, he was amazing but I genuinely hated so much about this drama. I would rather watch a drama about Tae Hyung and his friends trying to raise Woo Ju, or about Tae Hyung confronting his trauma and reconciling with it through his photography, or literally just Woo Ju being Woo Ju. I wasted my time on this despite getting glimpses of all this throughout the runtime, and I would not recommend this to anyone. I'm so disappointed and angry and I fear this may turn into a rant the further I write, so I'll just say, this is not worth a watch.