InspectorMegre

Bc with money he is safe - nobody will bother him and he can do whatever he wants - THE MONEY BUYS POWER

FL and ML are exes who are still in love, so they have feelings throughout the drama, but he turns out to be 100% criminal, literally, so they dont get back together
Yeah the tag "slight romance" is a better tag :)

imo First Man is a lot more sophisticated and higher quality drama... bc FL is a great actress, Baek Ho too, villain Chae too, and most side characters, and the plot is more interesting

Pearl in Red looks more "local Korean" so I view it as a cultural experience :)

but after the kiss they have that too-close conversation in his new bar... they are too familiar...

Seems like ppl under 100 are the majority as we all might go to smoke bc of this dog.... Sure, nobody in the USA is dying, and this is a great chance to sell more stuff to intercept.... We are already in Idiocracy movie.

The problem with this drama is that the SML is made into the ML and stays on as THE ML for 10 episodes .... and seems like ep 11 and 12 are also dedicated to him ....

and as someone else here so astutely said,
WE GET 5 MIN HAPPY ENDING - THE ML COOKS A MEAL FOR FL lol It is assumed he already fed, bathed, and put to sleep the decorative background item called Woo Ju.

The housemaid keeps his job, Woo Ju is just a second thought, FL is the center of the universe.
. Happy ending it is NOT.

SML was introduced bc it gives the audience a "different cute guy" to look at. After reading comments in To My Beloved Thief and Practical Guide to Love and Undercover Miss Hong, I am SURE that is how it works.
Each guy has to be appealing in his own way and very different from the other, and at least one has to be more .... well... how to put it nicely... ? a loser stupid player dude who looks hot. A risky guy. That is how you attract more viewers.
The ML is usually shown as some bland but reliable, FL is someone who wants a solid relationship BUT SHE ALWAYS GETS TANGLED UP WITH THE HOT TROUBLED GUY. Sometimes ML is that hot troubled guy, like in Dynamite Kiss.

and you bet, half of the audience will be watching for the hot dramatic guy. It is fascinating to see how the audience is so easily manipulated. So many ppl are voting for the frilly hot scenes
The audience loves these hot risky guys to flirt with. It is sad but true and I am 100% convinced now that we already live in american movie Idiocracy.

=====
That trap did not work with this particular drama, bc that it attracted an audience that is not so stupid LOL

People here and also on Reddit seem to be more thinking, more mature, and I think t the key reason is the baby. Ppl did not come here to watch cute guys and fun romance but to watch deeper issues about making a family.

Personally, I think ML is super cute (after he becomes responsible, basically after ep 2-3) and probably some ppl will find SML attractive - I do not - he looks weird, like too much plastic surgery, too thin, and the SML actor is not nearly as good an actor as the ML actor.

Ah a good point. I think bc of sexism. They show women as dumb irrational impulsive and make most plot out of female stupidity.
After I researched where kdrama production teams look for reviews, I discovered some very famous popular Korean online site that has mostly all aggressive younger males

Nah, SML was introduced to show off the FL...
FL is actually the biggest problem.... she is written as trash ...
and introducing SML actually showed her flaws

you are wrong, most ppl like the ML although he has issues. and most ppl say that ML actor acted well.
Most ppl complain that we did not even see Woo Ju much. He was just a decorative background item to be shown a little bit
Most people wanted to see more of ML and Woo Ju

There is a difference between hate and anger, between hate and criticism, and this production team is to be HEAVILY criticized bc I see that all Korean and International audiences are all protesting where this drama went and there was absolutely no change. The audience was cheated. The audience is rightfully angry and protesting.

SO YOU THINK PPL SHOULD NOT?

100%

Omg you summarized it so well...

the first episodes with the twin who is the original baby mom are TRASH cheesy, it took me 10 mins at most to watch those episodes with fast forward
It gets interesting later, now it takes me 20+ mins to watch LOL
and esp when the younger actors get old enough
I think the cheabol dad is a super great actor actually the best in this drama
I watch this bc it is genuinely korean, no plastic-made ppl and rich young handsome urban sleek rich

I see his point - he wanted to take out all infestation - but those guys are a dime a dozen and keep popping up - he can remove this bunch, but another one will surface... he never thought of that LOL really the only way to resolve the problem is to eradicate the behavior
The 3 lawyers are just doing damage management - they step in AFTER the abuse is already DONE.....
So there must be a lot better way to PREVENT these kinds of behaviors.
and my dear ones, that is all of us, all "ordinary people", we are the only ones who can prevent this
but we usually do not, We just live our lives and never want to waste our time to prevent any evil, in fact we support it, as long as those "rich" give us some crumbs we are happy with, WE let them do whatever they want

Hm, what do you think makes a villain aura... ? The worst villains are super sweet :)

That dude giving orders to kill HMS and SJ was chilling monstrous.... His ignorant smile in public is perfect ... he really believes he is doing a good thing... He *is* a villain although he believes he is a good guy and his smiley face is an excellent tool to expose ppl like that, someone who says "ah just sacrifice a few ppl here and there"

But honestly - what was another way to solve this... He has some good points LOL

but their going to a bar and getting ONLY her drunk... then going to the playground... then their too-familiar conversation in the new bar ... she keeps giving in to him to some degree, being too familiar and too close, and it is too... close to the edge of the cliff.
In other words, she is using him for attention and frills and excitement and company and "friendship", without any intentions to jump into the sack - but one day, she might be too drunk to notice

"wag the dog" is a name of an american movie which made fun of that expression.
From AI on Mozilla:
"Wag the dog" is an idiom for using a distraction (often military action) to divert attention from a scandal, derived from the phrase "the tail wagging the dog"
. Originating in the 19th century, it describes a minor part (tail) controlling the major part (dog).
Key Aspects of the "Wag the Dog" Phrase

Definition: The idiom describes a situation where a minor or unimportant entity controls a larger, more powerful one.
Political Context: It refers to diverting negative attention by initiating a smaller, flashy conflict to distract from a major issue.
Origin: The concept has been used to describe the "tail wagging the dog" since at least 1858 in the play Our American Cousin.
Film/Pop Culture: The 1997 film Wag the Dog popularized the term in relation to political scandals, such as the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal.
Examples: A "wag the dog" tactic was used to describe the 2017 U.S. airstrike on Syria to shift attention away from low approval ratings and investigations

This drama describes something like Epstein files ...
The Epstein files were not released yet, and meanwhile, wag the dog, ww3 to distract the public - and indeed, nobody has the time to talk about Epstein files now... .

And this drama is not advertised or shown, is that true? Bc it is like Epstein files..

Ep 10 min 19:
Lawyer mom: "What do you think we have been doing all this time? "
Connect In Uncle: "We have been turning law into our shield."
Lawyer mom: "No, WE HAVE TAUGHT THE PUBLIC TO FEEL POWERLESS. If we have the shield, that's it. THEY WILL GET MAD AND RAGE FOR A LITTLE WHILE, BUT THEY WILL FORGET IT SOON ENOUGH,
**** BECAUSE THEY LEARNED THAT, NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO, NOTHING CHANGES. ****** " end of quote, min 20:40

bc she does not really like him LOL She is speaking with him like he was her younger brother or subordinate :)
and that delulu attitude will get her ... bc he is a woman-eater
She feels lust and nothing else for him, and she thinks very little of him, and she dismisses and denies her lust and the fact that he is trying to bag her - constantly - and she very disrespectively speaks down to him , she is too familiar with him. This is gonna cost her a lot :) Bc, he is trapping her and she is gonna fall in. She might climb out at the last moment or not, but it will be very ugly at the end, no matter which way it goes. This happens to prude chicks who are hungry and deny it to themselves :) and then live off the attention of such a woman-eater