Yin_Yin

Disclaimer: What I am writing is not meant to hurt anyone's feelings, it's just a reflection of what i saw. I hope i never watch something so bad that forces me to go into war with my keyboard ever again.

Overview:
This was just a ragebait catastrophe in the K Dramaland after which Kdrama watchers were questioning their life choices, actually we were questioning our choices in every episode, and then we were questioning the choices of the screenwriters and directors of this show that wanted to sell this as a " realistic story of a 10 year relationship" but it ended up getting on our nerves because probably the audience is more mature than the makers of this show who view life from a "everything can be justified if the charcater cries all the time" lens.

Characters:

Mido : the female lead is always crying. I do not think this character's arc was done justice. The show started strong and we expected to see some prespective but it just never happened. Mido questioned the relationship, okay. Mido wanted the same spark she thought they had, okay. Mido showed signs of mental fatigue and depression , okay. But then writers do something twisted that makes the plot sink completely. Mido cheated, not okay. Did not thell Namgung about it, not okay. When namgung discovers the cheating, Mido's characters kinda emotionally sabotages Namgung, not okay! Actually after the cheating arc i was expecting Namgung's monologue but it never happened . Mido was shown crying maybe beacuse she felt sad that she cheated but i was questioning, are you sad because of the " 10 year relationship' or because you hurt the person you claimed you loved. The writers tried to justify her actions by using depression and self sabotaging thoughtswhich was not fair at all. The entire choices this character made was justified till the end, every episode something happened there was a flashback and the audience was left to imagine the eureka moment of realisation " Oh it's happening because something happened in the past or there was a past truama". Everytime we thought something will get better , the writers did their 100 percent to fail us especially with legendery dialogue- if given a choice, i'd sleep with you(Tae) but if i have to save one i'd save namgung( This dialogue put the comment section on fire and we were enjoying the debates ngl haha)


Namgung: the male lead is a pushover. This character was made to become a kind hearted giver but at what cost. Everything he did was either out of fear regret or guilt which is so wrong. This character deserved happiness but he was trapped. He was timid too because he depended too much on Mido. There were times i was confused if he wanted to be with mido or sua but i guess that is totallly the direction and director's shortcoming. I expected he would explode when he realises that he was cheated on but nah, nothing. The cheating was justified by the writers and directors. I was like ayo wait " so after 10 years of devotionif your partner cheats then we don't even say that - YOU WERE WRONG !" How could these people even think of giving the relationship another chance when you are not even on the same page about what love is to you and what cheating even means. And it's laughable how writers thought that defining pushover as someone who has alot to #Give was some bomb wisdom they were dropping on the audience in the last ep, guess who says the dialogue-- Mido ha ha ha, mido says this to namgung and i was like WTF


Sua: She was the least toxic one. Although i wish she was not a part of this show, she belongs in a rom-com not a melo. She could easily be a FL in any other show but here as the Second Female Lead her entire personality seemed--Namgung Daerinim. But at least she skips the mind games entirely, demanding zero cap and 100% direct communication to clear up the drama.


Taesung: Toxic mess, I do not even know why this character gave Mido butterflies when she alreday had such a dreamy sweet boyfriend at home who cares for her and loves her like breathing. That is all i'd say about him, for me he will always be defined by using a comparison with the male lead because his character arc was wasted. His entire personality was --Mido, the guy was down bad for her and that is it.His acting was nothing special either especially for a Second Male Lead.


I feel in the name of grey characters , each and every character was wasted.
Here's what i think would have made things more realistic:

1. When Mido feels like she is developing feelings for someone else, she tells Namgung. Keeping the relationship going or breaking up would follow later based on their mutual agreement.
2. When Mido kisses Tae she had two options- tell Namgung, apologise and breakup saving atleast a small shard of her dignity or push Tae away so much so that her never ever dares touching her or messing with her and make it clear to him that she is committted.( but that wont happen for the sake of the sh*tty plot)
3. Namgung gives an earful to Mido for wating the 10 year relationship
4. Not introducing the sh*tty 1 month relationship break and exploration period.
5. Introduce depression how it should be and show Mido healing like real people do, healing does not happen from jumping into one relationship to another.
6. Not making any lead character end up with one another
7. Therapy talks should have been in the show
8. Not staying in the relationship for the sake of "10" years after you realise that you were cheated on
9. Not giving potato controversy arc more time than- depression talks, relationship talks, confrontation, Mido's director career decline etc could have given more time to the plot . Half of the time i was watching this potato scam drama
10. not cutting off the entire contact with the family and the aunt who treats you like a mother for #peace, for me this was a stretch (some other users pointed this out as well so yes y'all are right) because this was basically his family
11. not making every character cry in every frigging episode. The entire acting in this show was- CRYING

Conclusion:
now , ahh I personally continued the show because i was expecting some wisdom in the end of each ep but I got nothing. This is a ragebait crapshow that is it. The very unreal thing about this since the beginning was thinking a 10 year "old" relationship will have the same spark that happens in the honeymoon phase .that was my first signal to quit the show but like you all I did not and now i think I should've but still watching crappy dramas is also important to know and realise what "you do not like and want". So i highly recomment skipping this. This show never shows what happens to a 10 year relationship, what it does is make you believe that if the said "spark" or "butterflies" are gone then leave the relationship, and my question is untill when, when does one stop jumping to relationships beacuse no such relationship exists that give you the same spark. After 10 + years partners knwo pretty much everything about each other if they are caring and genuinely love each other, we get too comfortable to be all sparkly all the time so nah directors and screenwriters should've done better.


For acting performances i would say Seo Kang Joon did great. Thats it. I won't count crying half the show as acting so Ahn Eun Jin was okay nothing special. The other two had limited expressions.