JayBird

To me it's not so much that she's not trying to talk to him at all, as you've said, if she notices something off she tries to talk to him about it. It's more that outside of those times she just lets him sort himself out and very rarely seeks to spend time with him outside of those crisis points which is, imo, one of the reasons JY lashes out when she does try to talk to him. This isn't really her fault though, I actually think it's relatively common practice in Korea to both be deeply invested in your child's life but not fully understand their emotional needs.

The reason I'm using neglect here isn't because I think she's doing it on purpose or anything like that, but more because that's what her actions accidentally qualify as: she has and is accidentally (and with the best will in the world) neglecting her child's need for a stable adult presence because she doesn't know that that is what he needs the most and has needed since the divorce (and she's not alone in this either, I can count 2 characters who have legitimately suggested she spend more time with JY and less time at work without an ulterior motive).

I'm still waiting for TO to take any form of accountability for what happened. That man can seriously not even begin to think that maybe he is the one with most of the blame and if i didn't hate him so much I'd be impressed at his mental gymnastics.

As for SW, she has made and continues to make mistakes and bad choices but that doesn't make her a bad person or an idiot, it makes her human, which i enjoy (even if I find everything she does with regards to JY deeply stressful haha)

One of my main issues with Sun Woo is that, from what we've seen, she's not actually a good parent. Yes, she provides for Joon Young materially and yes, we, the audience, know that she really does love him, but she's never there with him.

From what I can tell, JY normally wakes to an empty house and goes to sleep to an empty house. He barely ever sees his mother and she's been shown to be pretty emotionally unavailable to him when he does see her (not entirely her fault, she's busy and also doesn't know how to talk to her son anymore). Sunwoo is, for all intents and purposes, neglecting her son; he is not being nurtured the way he (and every other child his age) needs to be. In my opinion, that's one of the main reasons their relationship is so bad and also one of the main reasons he's acting the way he does.

If you look at the other single parent household in the show, their relationship is noticeably different. I think this is because the mum, by the sounds of it, has always made an effort to make time and be present for her daughter. Yes, that means she has to work lower paying jobs with fewer hours so she can't provide all the fancy things like sunwoo can with joonyoung, but material possessions aren't everything and will mean very little if there isn't the emotional/nurturing aspect as well. If SW really wants to mend her relationship with JY, this is the approach I would recommend to her (along with therapy, at this point). She needs to stop focussing on providing JY material needs and instead focus on what he needs emotionally

Anyway, this isn't me trying to say that Sunwoo doesn't deserve or love Joonyoung, parenting is extremely difficult and even the most loving parents can go wrong, but rather me trying to bring forward what are (to me) the most glaring issues in their relationship.

I'm not sure who the pretty/cute resident is but I'm pretty sure the one who asked Andrea to the film is a pediatric resistant!

I honestly almost kept watching because of some of the people I got to talk to (like you), I'm definitely going to miss that bit :( Still, I will probably come back from time to time to see how things are going!

I tried very hard to stick with this drama, mainly because I absolutely love the parallel world concept behind it and I was looking forwards to seeing how it was dealt with, but after 5 episodes I think I'm going to have to bow out.

I find I'm having similar problems as when I watched Goblin, in that the central relationship feels incredibly empty. This wouldn't have been a problem if the drama spent more time on world-building, progressing the plot, or even just developing it's side characters (all of whom I think have the potential to be great) but it doesn't. Instead it focusses on the main pairing to the detriment of everything else and as a result the episodes also end up feeling empty. At this point it really seems to be more of a romance drama with fantasy elements rather than a fantasy drama with romance elements which is fine but not what I came for.

Anyway, each to their own. I may check back to see how the parallel world stuff gets dealt with

P. S there was one moment this episode that made my heart race, and that was the tram shot with shin jae and Tae Eul. That was absolutely beautiful.

Yes! This kind of chemistry is perfect for their first months together, especially when they're still learning a lot about each other but it's a little out of place when they're living together. I'm honestly hoping we can go a bl (or any drama) without a break up scene but the way their relationship is at the moment I'm a little worried, Tine is struggling and that doesn't bode well.

I literally started crying for her at one point... It was pretty embarrassing XD

And confused in what way?

That's an interesting take on their chemistry (I agree that 'weird' is a better descriptor that 'non-existent' because there certainly something there). You're definitely right that it's not a friendship vibe. Thinking of Sarawat and Tine in the context of an awkward in-between works really well for them although I can't say I find it as enjoyable as you do and I think sometimes the show gets a little confused about if they want to continue with restraint or go for a more outwardly romantic vibe :)

No one is doing that?

I'm glad that this drama makes you think but there are plenty of reasons other people might not find this drama 'a beautiful ode to a lot of things including books, history, mathematical theories, art' and none of them are because they're stupid.

Also calling for people to function critically whilst telling them not to critique the script goes against the very essence of media and literary criticism.

It did.

I was going to suggest the therapist from World of the Married BUT can't really stand by that any more.

I suppose their thinking is that there wouldn't be much drama or romance if a therapist acted professionally so they'd better jazz it up a little, haha.

It would certainly be an interesting (and somewhat terrifying) romance, haha.

Definitely not tomatoe tomato. You could have expressed the very same view (that you enjoy the bread crumbs the write leaves and you think the plot pacing is fine) without insulting people.

You deleted your comment but I'm going to respond here because I feel it needs to be said.

You're all for difference in opinion but you're also implying they should be expressed elsewhere or at least that's how your comment reads. Furthermore you still seem to be standing by some of the more problematic points in your original post namely, calling criticisms 'querulous' and saying that because art is subjective or because a lot of hard work went into this drama the technique behind it should not be criticised. This is especially galling when you yourself make the pretty objective assertion that the quality of this drama is above the quality of many other dramas.

I'm glad you're enjoying this drama and that you find a lot of merit in its execution but your attitude towards criticism is extremely dismissive even if you say you are open to difference in opinion. As someone who spent years being taught to engage critically with texts of all kinds I find this extremely difficult to ignore.

Definitely agree that it's more a directing and acting/coach issue. The editing is definitely not the one making them stand 5 feet apart, haha.

Lol, WRU's leads' chemistry was something else indeed! It was their chemistry that made me stick with it for so long and continue to follow it after I stopped watching.

I agree that I don't see an issue with pacing/plot development of the drama, it always was a slow-burn story about nothing much at all and I enjoyed that and still do. I don't even mind the jealousy plotline too much (although it would be nice to see a different aspect of their relationship explored).

That being said, I don't think people are even asking for more kisses? I know I'm not. I just think the fact that they don't hug or even stand/sit that close to each other is affecting how their relationship comes across to a to a lot of viewers and kind of runs counter to the cute things they say and those long fond looks Sarawat is so good at.

I mean yes, there is more to romance than physical contact but also no, basic physical intimacy (hugging, hand-holding, affectionate touches, sharing space) is one of the main ways humans establish emotional bonds with each other (and not just romantic ones either!). Sarawat and Tine certainly do have moments of great chemistry, the fond looks they throw each other are a great example of that, but I find that the lack of any kind of physical intimacy is almost telling an entirely different story to those looks or the sweet things they say to each other. I'm not saying they need to kiss every episode or anything like that, but I think they should at least stop standing 5 feet away for each other almost everytime they are on screen together.