Booksandtrees

I like the way you think. LOL. The way he lasered in on Ik Sun then BAM! He went for what he wanted. He maybe just needs to be 5lbs heavier though? 😄

True LOL

So agree. The drama is called Young Lady and Gentleman but their screen time together is way too limited in comparison to all the other sub stories.

Never in a million years did I think Jun Won's character would have been reduced to that of a sappy lovesick shell. I and others desperately wanted him to move on past Ik Sun but alas....well you know what happened. That was the turning point for me and I absolutely adored S1.
Glad that I was not the only one who felt that Min Ha's bedside crying scene was just a bit over the top given her age and her dating history. They were my least favorite couple and were the only two that I would have preferred to go off into the sunset in a more open ended way. Nice article by the way. Loved your take on what you would have done differently.

On the contrary, Hae Won's mother's legal woes did not detract from my love of this drama one bit. See my initial line that this drama was almost perfect in every way. "All in all, this was not a perfect drama but it was pretty damn close." I did read other comments on this thread rejecting this masterpiece outright and that did sadden me. However, as far as critics and reviews are concerned on MDL, I have learned to rely on my own auspices and interpretation on what a scripted story is trying to convey and conduct my own self promotion where it is warranted. For for some reason, the reviews for this were all over to place. Most complaining that it was boring. Not to me. I enjoyed every bit of it. The beauty of MDL I think is that there is something for everyone's subjectification.

Just wanted to clear up a few things. My issue with Hae Won's mother is that since she opted to take the fall for a murder she did not commit, then she should have gone a bit further and used the reason that she inadvertently stepped on the gas as opposed to the brakes. It's not as if she was not being prodded to do so during her interrogation. Yes, she would have still done time in prison but mitigating circumstances would have been presented. In addition, she should have known how emotionally fragile and sensitive her sister was and that she could not possibly shoulder the burden of keeping their secret she was asking her to carry by herself. It was plainly obvious that she hero worshipped Hae Won's mother and hung unto to her every word. My feeling though is that her borderline narcissistic personality stopped her from considering everyone's feelings. Time and time again we saw a lack of emotion (her sentencing, and at her mother's funeral) to name a few and I will stop short in saying that her marriage to Hae Won's father changed her since we saw glimpses of her personality as a high schooler.

It could be too that maybe both sisters grew up witnessing that pattern from their mom and dad since afterall we all adapt to some extent from the nature of our environment. Hae Won's aunt, however, had her own anger issues that we could see. Let's not forget how she would emasculate her boyfriend who stayed with her through adulthood, yet I doubt she would go as far as calling it abuse. TBH, those scenes I would skip over on my second and third re-watch.

I did notice a recurring theme amongst legal and non-legal K dramas of rampant corruption within the Korean Prosecutor's office which is crazy to me. There always seems to be a hot potato battle of wills going on. There are a couple dramas that I can recall which support what you mentioned above (Ms. Hammurabi and Touch Your Heart) where a domestic abused victim was on trial accused of murdering their spouse. Just an FYI though, in the US, not all trials are jury selected. Sometimes bench judges will decide a case solely.

Lastly, with regard to Bo Young (the ex-BFF), what I was trying to get across is this:
Of course Hae Won needed to forgive her especially since she gave a seemingly plausible explanation for betraying her (and they would probably have continued to run into each other in the town) and if any of us have any sort of religious or basic decency bent, then forgiveness is a major tenet to moving on. BUT...., Bo Young never showed any signs of genuine remorse even as an adult. She still maintained that mean girl mentality. Case in point, their High School reunion, where she aligned herself with the other former bullies who stood off to the side giving Hae Won the side eye. Another such instance presented itself where she could have redeemed herself in High School. The scene where Hae Won had had enough and took on the bullying girls in the bathroom by herself. Bo Young could have jumped in then and defended her since she was the cause of Hae Won's distress, but she didn't and I reject any argument that she was young and didn't understand the weight of what she had done. She just seemed to be hung up on re-connecting with Hae Won which seemed disingenuous to me. Fair enough, there was a misunderstanding where she thought that Hae Won took Eun Seob from her in High School. However, given that he had already returned from the military for a few years already, she had many opportunities to make a play for him before Hae Won's return (futile though it would have been) as it seems he was always on the look out for her return. I am sure the gossipmongers had already shared with her that Eun Seob admitted to always liking Hae Won at their mini reunion dinner judging by the excitement on their faces. So it is not as if she didn't know that he was in all likelihood off the market. Why continue to make it a competition and not respect their relationship boundaries.

Look, in life most people do not get a second chance even when they are deserving. In Bo Young's case, Hae Won correctly kept her distance. She said it herself, "Trust is like a glass....once it is shattered, you can't put it back together." I am paraphrasing of course. Don't remember the exact quote. But as far as a friendship is concerned, not only should there be trust, but also a level of capacious and carefree abandonment. There is another quote I read somewhere. "Be good enough to forgive someone but don't be stupid enough to trust them again." Quite a pessimistic statement LOL. I feel that Bo Young showed Hae Won who she was in High School and Hae Won appropriately believed her even into adulthood. So the ending scene where she sends her a friendly text (which would only have made sense if Hae Won had been missing their friendship which clearly she had not), I just thought was so out of character for her and would have preferred if the Writer had left it at Yes we have cleared the air but we can never be anything else instead of as open ended and nebulous.

I have said a lot I know. LOL. Please feel free to send me any recommendations like this if you know of any. I am always on the lookout.

I won't get a chance to watch Ep 16 for a few days.....What.....What happened? Also what was the Chairman's response to Anna's question about his feelings for Dan Dan? Spoilers pretty please, I need to know.

I seriously thought Sa Ra would have pulled the "I am Se Jong's mother" for the second confession to the Chairman seeing that the first confession left him unmoved. LOL.
So my original theory that the Chairman's now deceased wife knew Sa Ra was Se Jong's birth mother went right out the window. I was a bit sympathetic to her initially since she seemed to really be tortured at having to keep her identity a secret, but to think that she left him at their doorstep as a baby then moved in to not only be close to him but also the Chairman is just downright creepy.

Meanwhile, the money from Se Ryeon's inheritance would have gone bye bye to the husband's family to pay off their debt. Seriously how did they not do a background check on his family.

I don't think "The real mother just carried on with her life for 26 years without even caring how Dan Dan was doing or even if she was alive or dead." Earlier scenes show her literally hiding in the bushes and watching Dan Dan as a child. It appeared she only stopped doing it when she saw how happy a family unit the stepmother and father were with her daughter. One more thing I want to add is that the offer of marriage to Dan Dan's father that she made was because it mutually benefitted them both since she was being mocked by her neighbors for not having a father for Dae Bom.

Fair enough FL may not be an active counter terrorism lead or a part of the more tactical team, however, she is still Special Ops which comes with a level of training on how to detect and diffuse a particular hostile situation and yes that also includes neutralizing a high risk situation through force which she did in episode 1 with Jong Tae so we did see her expertise and training come into play since he was no longer just a soldier at that point but a dangerous combatant. I guess my issue with her is that we are not seeing the results of her expertise and training. Case in point, after she puts Jong Tae down, she obviously realized that she was not dealing with a "normal" person given his aggression with her and the "biting." Yet when the other soldiers entered the room she neglected to warn them before they approached him or at least advise them to be cautious and enter wearing their protective gear. She did not know at that point that there was a calming state after they had been zombified. Another example would be after the Dr's wife was rendered immobile by the ML , her training should have kicked in realizing that maybe the infected woman on her way to chasing down the husband, came into contact with other people. But she never asked or showed any urgency given the situation even though as you state she is on the medical side.
Maybe the point of the Writer and Director is to show us that irrespective of our training, when a situation hits home, all that gets thrown out the window and we resort to our own selfish interests (example, FL yelled out not to open the refrigerated doors knowing who/what was inside but once she glimpsed that her friend was there and affected she jumped in to help him ONLY get out). So now we get to a conversation about "What would you do."
All in all, these missteps are not enough to make me abandon this drama (still enjoying it), but I would like to just do less eye rolling.

Thanks for the breakdown Now everything is making sense and explains why Tae Seok got into the fight with the CEO of his pharmaceutical company.

Thanks for the breakdown Now everything is making sense and explains why Tae Seok got into the fight with the CEO of his pharmaceutical company.

I too am hoping that she quickly moves on from YG to someone else without the plotting or revenge arc that we are used to seeing. Probably won't happen for a while though.

First 2 episodes were really strong. However, episode 3 failed in so many ways especially the direction of Sae Bom's character. She is a Terrorism cop for crying out loud but lacks critical, and analytical thinking. That just does not happen. There is a level of pragmatism that comes with that job yet she runs into situations without a plan or levelheadedness. When she made her way up to Apt 601 and after seeing the blood on the owner's sleeve, she correctly assumes someone in the apartment is infected. She asks him if his wife bit him or was he bitten. At that point shouldn't she have backed away and made some calls. Oh noooo...she goes into the bathroom to see for herself. How did she conclude then that he wasn't the one infected and could attack her right then and there. And what was the point of the owner shoving her into the bathroom and closing the door??? That scene made absolutely no sense. Yi Hyun for his part too is acting a bit too blasé considering that he has seen first hand how the virus has changed seemingly normal people into monsters. It's not as if they both have not been briefed on the seriousness of the matter at hand. Hopefully, for the next few episodes, things progress on a more practical level.

Can you explain for me the issue with the pill? I must have missed something. I thought it was used for a pneumonia diagnosis during the COVID pandemic. How did it get into the hands of drug dealers?

And don't forget taking forever to actually get to her before she bites anyone else. Didnt she say she was a runner?

Not my usual cup of tea and especially if there is no romance but gotta say I am enjoying it so far. Well at least until the thumping starts.

So far no...but the feels are there.

Chances are they aren't fans.

I think I have a keener understanding of your initial comments. Thank you for elaborating and will agree with you on some points made but that will require another conversation on the archetype of disproportionate socio economic and cultural differences. So I will stop here.