This review may contain spoilers
What should've been a solid 7.5 or higher for some is ruined by baffling characterizations
There was so much potential in this series. The drama plays out like your typical daytime soap opera. Some scenes are Netflix lighting, the rest are the usual low production viewings we see on the afternoons in the US. Honestly, I'll try to keep it short. There is a lot to love here. The drama is filled with multiple storylines and plots all jumbled together. It can be a bit chaotic if I'm being honest. On paper, this shouldn't have worked, but the overarching storyline was so well-done that it managed to hurdle over the bad stuff just long enough to keep your attention til the very end.
So I'll cut right to the chase. What in the flying fu** were they thinking with that 3rd eldest brother?? The one who is an ex-boy band member with the ridiculously stupid-looking mullet. One that is tipped in blond highlights, mind you. I've never in my 6 years of k-drama viewings seen such a character so poorly written and thrown in for the helluva it. The cringe choreography, the bad acting, the stalking/manipulating girlfriend... it all sounds like a horrible dream. I tried to get over the character, I really did. He's meant to be the black sheep of the family, but one who speaks his mind and usually sounds more reasonable than the rest. That worked for the first 5 episodes at least, but it ended there. I nearly dropped the series 5 times because of just how bad this brother character is. The actor has very little acting chops under his belt, and it shows, so I truly feel for him, cause his character was just so cringe on top of being poorly written. There was no redeeming feature at all. Eventually, through multiple scenes of hell that are a waste of time, he marries the girl who practically stalked her way into his life, and then they end up having a baby. Naming it Handbag. Handbag. Yes, it's just as stupid as it sounds. My advice to you is just to speed through or skip entirely all of their scenes. I hate saying that, cause as crazy as his girlfriend (future wife) is, she is actually a flawed character with a great trait. She KNOWS what she wants and is decisive. Another terrible trope that almost all the other characters have. Nobody seems to know what they want and fight for it. Anyhoo, she's also beautiful, I give her that. But she literally stalked and manipulated her way into the family. Of course, she wasn't evil, just " a few screws loose" as another character suggests. How she's the second richest character in the series is beyond me.
Then there's the professor's relationship with the antagonist family and their daughter. He shares the best love story with her, and she is amazing. But just like I feared, he's written to be an insufferable educator who lacks depth. Case in point, he goes out for lunch with Se Ri. In the scene, she jokingly tells him to eat the noodles a certain way, as it's "tradition." He says sternly, "I'm not going to fall for stuff like that. I'm going to eat things how I want, not how others do." The translation is a bit different, but it's up there. So yes, he truly does act like a professor with tenure and a stick up his ass, even though he's just a first-year educator. It makes it extremely hard to believe that Se Ri, the daughter of the enemy family, would have fallen for him. Honestly, he's not that bad. Not at all, but I'm just terribly disappointed because he could have been written sooooo much better. At least likable, in some way. It got so bad at one point that I kinda understood why the mother of his baby left him. Again, lost potential. It hurts because the younger members in the cast have so much more chemistry and better lines, but barely any screen time to truly shine in their own right.
Also, one of the craziest things about this drama is how much the family is suffering. Every single member seems broke and riddled with harsh life problems. Some of them are realistic, of course, and some even well-written, but it seemed so jarring that not a single family member appeared to have stability. Be it mental or financial, everyone seems to be struggling to get by. You'll understand what I mean as you watch it. So when the ML, who is the chairman and rich, comes along, it's actually a breath of fresh air. Imagine saying that when 90 percent of all K-drama shows never seem to worry about money. I will say this, though, the brother who is the eldest marries a very sweet lady who cannot conceive. I truly loved that they didn't get a super happy ending and magically announced a pregnancy. No, they kept the couple grounded, and they promised to love each other twice as much. I thought that was incredibly realistic, and it was wonderful to see a couple embrace something they couldn't change. So props to that.
I also believe the mother and FL were cast incorrectly. I'm not sure if it's the hair color or what, but in some respects, the daughter appears older than the mother. It doesn't help that both of them seem a bit riddled with Botox and fighting the aging process every which way. Nothing to be ashamed of, the South Korean beauty standards are crazy enough as it is, but it just goes completely against the character they wrote into the plot. Basically, the FL is the "Tohrue Honda" from Fruits Baskets in so many aspects. She can't say no to helping someone in need, and she cares more about others than herself at times. The outfits and perhaps the ponytail are correct, but she just doesn't LOOK like the character they tried so hard to portray. The mother, too, while insufferable, truly is one of the most evil mothers I've seen in a K-drama. That's not a bad thing, it just baffles me that the daughter didn't slap her or give her mother the deposit back and drop her ass off in a nursing home. This is a personal nitpick, so I mean no offense to the actors; it just truly seems like bad casting decisions.
Despite it all, if you can get past the 3rd brother and some questionable casting choices, you'll find a show with warmth and a progressively "natural" storyline that keeps you hooked to the very end. For most people, though, 54 episodes is far too much. Without the 3rd brother, this would have been a perfect 30-episode flare that rivals a Netflix special. Sadly, it fell short.
So I'll cut right to the chase. What in the flying fu** were they thinking with that 3rd eldest brother?? The one who is an ex-boy band member with the ridiculously stupid-looking mullet. One that is tipped in blond highlights, mind you. I've never in my 6 years of k-drama viewings seen such a character so poorly written and thrown in for the helluva it. The cringe choreography, the bad acting, the stalking/manipulating girlfriend... it all sounds like a horrible dream. I tried to get over the character, I really did. He's meant to be the black sheep of the family, but one who speaks his mind and usually sounds more reasonable than the rest. That worked for the first 5 episodes at least, but it ended there. I nearly dropped the series 5 times because of just how bad this brother character is. The actor has very little acting chops under his belt, and it shows, so I truly feel for him, cause his character was just so cringe on top of being poorly written. There was no redeeming feature at all. Eventually, through multiple scenes of hell that are a waste of time, he marries the girl who practically stalked her way into his life, and then they end up having a baby. Naming it Handbag. Handbag. Yes, it's just as stupid as it sounds. My advice to you is just to speed through or skip entirely all of their scenes. I hate saying that, cause as crazy as his girlfriend (future wife) is, she is actually a flawed character with a great trait. She KNOWS what she wants and is decisive. Another terrible trope that almost all the other characters have. Nobody seems to know what they want and fight for it. Anyhoo, she's also beautiful, I give her that. But she literally stalked and manipulated her way into the family. Of course, she wasn't evil, just " a few screws loose" as another character suggests. How she's the second richest character in the series is beyond me.
Then there's the professor's relationship with the antagonist family and their daughter. He shares the best love story with her, and she is amazing. But just like I feared, he's written to be an insufferable educator who lacks depth. Case in point, he goes out for lunch with Se Ri. In the scene, she jokingly tells him to eat the noodles a certain way, as it's "tradition." He says sternly, "I'm not going to fall for stuff like that. I'm going to eat things how I want, not how others do." The translation is a bit different, but it's up there. So yes, he truly does act like a professor with tenure and a stick up his ass, even though he's just a first-year educator. It makes it extremely hard to believe that Se Ri, the daughter of the enemy family, would have fallen for him. Honestly, he's not that bad. Not at all, but I'm just terribly disappointed because he could have been written sooooo much better. At least likable, in some way. It got so bad at one point that I kinda understood why the mother of his baby left him. Again, lost potential. It hurts because the younger members in the cast have so much more chemistry and better lines, but barely any screen time to truly shine in their own right.
Also, one of the craziest things about this drama is how much the family is suffering. Every single member seems broke and riddled with harsh life problems. Some of them are realistic, of course, and some even well-written, but it seemed so jarring that not a single family member appeared to have stability. Be it mental or financial, everyone seems to be struggling to get by. You'll understand what I mean as you watch it. So when the ML, who is the chairman and rich, comes along, it's actually a breath of fresh air. Imagine saying that when 90 percent of all K-drama shows never seem to worry about money. I will say this, though, the brother who is the eldest marries a very sweet lady who cannot conceive. I truly loved that they didn't get a super happy ending and magically announced a pregnancy. No, they kept the couple grounded, and they promised to love each other twice as much. I thought that was incredibly realistic, and it was wonderful to see a couple embrace something they couldn't change. So props to that.
I also believe the mother and FL were cast incorrectly. I'm not sure if it's the hair color or what, but in some respects, the daughter appears older than the mother. It doesn't help that both of them seem a bit riddled with Botox and fighting the aging process every which way. Nothing to be ashamed of, the South Korean beauty standards are crazy enough as it is, but it just goes completely against the character they wrote into the plot. Basically, the FL is the "Tohrue Honda" from Fruits Baskets in so many aspects. She can't say no to helping someone in need, and she cares more about others than herself at times. The outfits and perhaps the ponytail are correct, but she just doesn't LOOK like the character they tried so hard to portray. The mother, too, while insufferable, truly is one of the most evil mothers I've seen in a K-drama. That's not a bad thing, it just baffles me that the daughter didn't slap her or give her mother the deposit back and drop her ass off in a nursing home. This is a personal nitpick, so I mean no offense to the actors; it just truly seems like bad casting decisions.
Despite it all, if you can get past the 3rd brother and some questionable casting choices, you'll find a show with warmth and a progressively "natural" storyline that keeps you hooked to the very end. For most people, though, 54 episodes is far too much. Without the 3rd brother, this would have been a perfect 30-episode flare that rivals a Netflix special. Sadly, it fell short.
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