Eleison

Yes, this ☝️!

Yes! And I love when Kdramas do character growth well, starting with flawed characters. It makes for such a fun journey! As long as they don't stay messed up, I'm here for it. 😏

Yup, very much so, I think! I also love the big cast/family, too. All the in-laws and cousins and family at the memorial made it feel more realistic to how I would picture a family like this might be. The extended family vs. the "direct bloodline"... It's a large, chaotic mess, with everyone trying to get their moment to climb the ladder in the family and angling for more power. It helps widen the scope of the story, I think, and the stakes involved.

Yes, that might be true, too! And her being socially oblivious might be her version of the "misunderstood, rich chaebol" that we've seen so often; people have been calling her a tsundere, and I think that's true. She seemed oblivious as an intern, too. It helps me to think about her character in terms of chaebol ML portrayals and then what she does/how she acts makes sense. It's fascinating me how different it feels for a FL to be portrayed this way. I don't know what I think of it yet!

I kinda liked it cause it felt less relatable, and since I am a hypochondriac I avoid shows that have characters with "symptoms" for illnesses so I don't freak myself out, haha.

But, also, I think the illness is made up, so that's interesting in itself. She chose to go that route rather than use a real illness. Huh. Then add on the unusual way of portraying her lapses and the picture gets even more puzzling. I feel like there must be a reason for the writer doing it this way, and while I have no theories, it seems significant. All her other dramas (except Producers? Not sure, cause I haven't seen it) have a fantastical element to them (the alien from MLFAS, the tornado in... Korea 😆, in CLOY, and the mermaid in LOTBS). Will this be another "fantasy" edition that's just not featured in the first episode like her other dramas? If so, how will it feature? I'm probably overthinking it, haha.

I think it's very well-written so far. I have so many questions that need answers! 😅

Yes, that's where most seem to be getting tripped up. I'm hanging in there cause I think it will shift as the drama goes, but we'll see, I guess. 🤷‍♀️

I'm sure that will happen; at this point, the real stumper is whether she'll die or not. 😬

Yes, it's breaking the Kdrama mold. But this is the kind of Kdrama formula-changing I'm intrigued by: a familiar premise and setup with unpredictable execution. Deeply intrigued to see where this goes!

I think couples who have been in a really bad place in their marriage (especially in a scenario like this, where both staying and leaving feel like a lose, lose) will 100% relate to him, even if they wouldn't admit it.

I think what's grating on people is the black comedy in a rom-com; we're not used to it and some people are not having it. 😆 I agree it was hard to watch, though. He's not the kind of flawed ML we're used to, because all the rom-coms usually show the ML BEFORE he's married. This couldn't have ever come up because they wouldn't have had a chance to get to this bad of a place yet in their marriage. It's a different kind of selfishness that we don't usually see, and that's where the drama is doing some new stuff (which makes me want to watch more). :)

I see what you mean by the disconnect, but I'm pretty sure they'll unfold those details as we watch. We can already guess how some of it happened, but you're right, something serious happened early on and they seemed to fall out of love pretty fast. Honestly, they seemed so twitterpated initually that I wonder if they really knew each other when they married, which is why things went south really fast since there wasn't much substance to their relationship; and in that house, their love would get dampened very quickly. And what they're showing us so far implies things happened very fast. So I think this might be the start of an actual love story built solidly on real things they love about each other, rather than simply riding on their emotions and attraction like the first time they "fell in love." But I could be wrong!

I don't think black comedy lands for everyone, so it's understandable you wouldn't find it funny. Some versions of I can stomach and while I admit our hubby was kind of awful in Episode 2, I can stomach this so far because I know it's temporary and the screenwriter will probably twist it really interestingly later on. I know there will be more to their story. There was still so much left unsaid or not shown, and it's possible later they will fill in gaps with flashbacks to more conflicted feelings on the ML's part besides his joy, which was the focus of Episode 2. This happened in CLOY a lot, too (though the gaps were filled more quickly than this one will seem to do). And in Kdramas in general, you rarely get a completely linear timeline of events.

My impression is some watchers are struggling with the premise so far because they're not picking up on the black comedy element. Would you agree?

All in good time! While I agree it's painful to watch how awful they are right now, I LOVE that they're taking things slow with the characters' development. It means we might actually get 16 strong episodes of arc developed, rather than only 11 or 12 good ones where things resolve too quickly. I'm channeling my "early days of Kdrama ML arcs" patience, as those 2008-2012 dramas have MLs being complete and utter jerks for AT LEAST 8-10 episodes (or more), but I usually thought the end was worth it. So I think I can manage this for a bit longer before I lose hope. 😏

But it IS being shown as a joke at this point. Notice the "Balck Comedy" tag.

It's certainly rare in romantic comedies! Much more common in thriller/action/mystery dramas.

Yeah, the hunt part was fun. Haven't shown that as a chaebol activity yet in a drama I've seen (and the extra element of them flying in on helicopters was great; 😅 forget the horses--too much work!)! It feels like they're mimicking aristocratic Europe, where nobles kept forested land simply so they could hunt for sport.

Okay, so an artistic choice. Interesting!

Yes, it made him feel like a husband for the first time in the show. 😏 The fact that's he's still functioning in that dysfunctional mess of a family tells us this guy is no pushover, even though HE feels like he is.

To be fair, there was supposed to be this spark between them in IOTNBO anyway from the get-go; I don't think they're even really trying for the chemistry yet in this. At this point we're supposed to believe they still loathe each other (or believe they think they do :)).