MattPeddlesden

It was excellent, but a story's conclusion is one of the key aspects of it and in this case, in my view, there was no conclusion - so while most of the story was genuinely great, without an ending it makes no sense and has no conclusion. Honestly if it had a good ending, OR it had a second season, i'd have probably gone at least 8 or 9 out of 10, but the ending is *so* crucial in my view.

Thanks for your comment!

Good to hear from you again Elena hope you are well :)

I enjoyed the show except for the lack of ending - but if you're not into shows like 24 it wont hit home. Much more of a western style to this one.

Indeed, a comfortable 10/10 even if only a reasonable ending and not a great one - the journey was so good.

I think it sets a dangerous precedent for a story to not be allowed to show ignorant people as ignorant, bad people as bad, racist people as racist - just because what they're saying is uncomfortable to hear.

What is critically important though, is that the story makes sure to make it clear that the ignorant people ARE ignorant. Far from furthering the misinformation and ignorance, it serves to shine a spotlight on it, show how sufferers feel in response to it, and highlight the inherent wrong in these ignorant beliefs.

Personally I saw them as ignorant people, I felt deeply for the Crohns sufferer, more so because of the bad treatment he received. I respected him because he'd made sure his wife was fully aware of it, all her decisions were made in full possession of the facts, and at that point, the parents views on the subject are entirely irrelevant - but that doesn't mean he isn't going to feel even worse because of their begging and ignorant exclamations, making him more conflicted. It served to put the spotlight on someone in a terrible position feeling guilty about his wife sharing his suffering as well as his own illness.

I don't think we have any kind of stigma over here about it, but i'm also not close with anyone that I know suffers from Crohns so I could also just be entirely sheltered. But, regardless, I believe I saw it was it was intended. Perhaps they could have done more to make the parents feel bad about it, and hit home the ignorance of their views harder.

Of course, I also don't suffer with Crohns either - so I speak from a privileged position of health and am aware of that, so I humbly offer my thoughts to the discussion on that basis and hope to not disrespect or upset anyone.

#8 when Hae-yi revealed about her situation on the stream and then went to school bracing for a bad time and everyone was nothing short of brilliant was one of my top scenes. School kids are often portrayed as brats in dramas (and not without due reason of course, I have two myself, I know :) ) - but - they can also be the best of us as well, so it was good to see the balance.

Definitely - I made a new years resolution to get some personal time back from work and, well, it's only partly working, but that's still movement in the right direction heh. Really looking forward to another colab :)

Very glad to see Soul Mechanic called out in your article - my wife has somewhat less extreme but very recognisable symptoms as Jung So Min absolutely perfectly portrays, the wild highs and deep lows and everything in between. It was a unique viewing experience and one that will always remain with me.

I don't recall the exact wording so i've referred back to my review, but, the message throughout was such an important one, that being "broken" isn't unusual, it's normal. We're all a bit broken in different ways. Accept it. Mental Illness still has too much stigma around the world, simple fact is almost everyone is living with it in some way and by making it normal and wiping the stigma clear everyone will be more willing to seek help (even if that help is accepting and learning to live with that norm).

Thank you for the article, enjoyed reading it and an excuse to sit and reminisce on a great drama too :)

I prefer a mix. I usually have 5 or 6 currently airing dramas on the go, and one finished drama that I can binge as I wish when i'm done catching up - though usually time only permits 2 or 3 episodes at a time, that ends up being a couple of times a day and 16 episodes vanishes pretty quickly.

When I started KDrama I only watched finished dramas, the idea that I could just drink it up at my own pace was fantastic and addictive - however - in line with many of the points you raised, I found that I enjoyed the longer space in my life that a current drama has, you can soak it up a bit more like the ground can with a soft rain shower as opposed to a torrential storm. I don't really participate in the community side of things because I just don't want any spoilers (accidental or otherwise) - I don't even watch the previews at the end of each episode.

I also find that the weeklies tend to be more of a test of the strength of a drama - how excited am I to watch it? Do I put everything down to watch that first? (currently, that'd be Once Upon a Small Town first, then Law Cafe, then Good Job, then Little Women) I don't think about it so much as just see where my mouse wanders when it's time to view. That said, I do compare somewhat with the one i'm binging at the time - and if I just want to finish that before going back to the dailies, so that's Queen for 7 Days at the moment - and i'm so hooked on that one I will likely only interrupt it for "Once Upon a Small Town" and then go back for the others.

I like the mix, keeps the variety :)

Great article, thanks for sharing!

Light in Your Eyes is one of my all time favourites, the twists and turns hit you like a punch in the face, really emotional and easily the best representation of what it covers that i've ever seen.

I love this article so much! Great stats and lots of insight into the world of C-Drama that will surely encourage new viewers to give some popular C-dramas a shot.

Great writing Cho Na! So much work in this!

Great to get to read this article finally - really good! I agree with you about the western interference and influence in Kdrama is definitely affecting it negatively, sometimes there's a win but on the whole I watch KDrama because it's not western - so stop making it more western or i'll stop watching it, simple as that :)

Once again - great article and glad I could help in some small way ! :)

Completely agree! BUT - the nature of it being more quiet etc, I can see why it's missed with a number of viewers as well. Still, that's why there's lots to choose from in DramaLand, something for us all :)

Really well put! Thanks for the comment!

Thanks Allison! Great to hear that you saw in the drama the same things I did. First time around I enjoyed it but it was ok, second time around I was completely captured by it looking to see when things happened and how things changed, why things changed, what motivations people had etc and it completely unlocked the story for me. First time around I'd thought that God's role was fairly side-lined but in fact she was the master strategist moving all the pieces around the whole time and in that case, I thought it was well done to be so understated for such an important role... it's like she pops up once in a while to bump one or both in a better direction and then gone again :)

Seo In Guk is great and I've enjoyed everything i've seen him in (Shopping King being the first I think) - but for me this drama was all about Park Bo Young, I'll watch anything she's in, any time haha :)

Thanks again for the comment!

Seconded!

Thanks for the comment! Yes this is one to pay attention to I think. As many have said, it hasn't got the action, it's got the deep long meaningful stares and quiet bits where the moment paints a thousand words but... very very quietly.

Full credit to Cho Na for the visual design, images etc - they did a spectacular job, I was really happy with how they turned out and I know Cho Na spent a LOT of time on them!

Oh please do let us know what you think after you've watched it, glad you found the article useful!

I think one of the reasons I liked it (after the second watch at least) was that it specifically didn't over-do it. Sometimes KDrama's can "ham it up" unnecessarily and while it can be fun it's not always necessary and in this case I thought the emotional turmoil and how that changed back and forth was plenty enough to deal with. However -everyone's needs and expectations from a drama are always going to be different! :)

Thanks for the comment, glad you liked the article!

Glad you enjoyed the article, thanks Jane!