This review may contain spoilers
Well ... It Was Definitely A Show
I will advise anyone reading this review to grab a snack and something to drink because you’re in for a ride. This is a long review, my friends, because I have a LOT to say. So, buckle up!
First things first, I started writing this review as I was finishing up episode 8 and I just wanted to get my initial thoughts out before I forget them. Obviously, this may end up being a very long review by the time I finish watching this series but we’ll see. Who knows what may happen between now and then? Aside from that, I just want to let it be known that the first few episodes of this series will lead you to believe that it’s good. Spoiler Alert: this drama/series is NOT good. Not at all. The feuding websites storyline became redundant and boring pretty quickly in the series. It wasn’t an interesting enough concept to center an entire show around. However, if you’re here for that aspect of this series, then you might enjoy it. If you’re here for the romance aspect (much like I was), then you’re not going to enjoy this series.
The most important thing to come out of watching this series is the fact that I have NEVER watched a drama where I disliked/despised all the major players. When I say this, I imagine that the people reading this are suspicious of this claim, but I am completely serious about that. It’s not an exaggeration. I have never watched a singular drama in my LIFE (whether it’s an Asian drama or a Western drama) where I found it difficult to root for any of the main characters. All these characters were the worst, at least when it comes to the main characters, that is. I found the supporting characters to be more interesting and to have far more redeemable qualities in contrast to their lead counterparts.
As someone who is more accustomed to watching Western dramas that are marketed as ‘women’s unity/women’s empowerment,’ I find this drama to be very surface level when it comes to illustrating that concept. This depiction of unity between women is completely and utterly empty. It was as deep as a puddle. I know it’s not a common theme in a lot of Asian dramas overall, and I kind of wished they wouldn’t have marketed it as such because it was lackluster. The premise is decent in theory, but terrible in execution. At least in this market. Sorry not sorry! This drama appears to be written by someone who has a very very slight idea of feminism and feminist concepts but they don’t know much else about it and it showed.
First and foremost, the relationship between Ga Kyung (Sunbae) and Ta Mi was the cause of a lot of gritted teeth and eye rolls. I’ve never hated a female relationship dynamic as much as I hated theirs. Sunbae is a coward who allowed her arranged husband’s mother to control her life and Ta Mi is a coward who allowed the woman who’s shown her time and time again that she cares more about her own selfish, self-serving interests than she is about preserving their friendship. Both women suffered from a lack of backbone when it mattered. They had no issues retaliating against those they deemed ‘weaker’ than them but they were too cowardly to stand up to the people they truly needed to stand up to, and that persistent plot point is why I can’t, in all honesty, rate this drama as high as other people would. If you’re going to walk around like you’re a Girl Boss, then you can’t pick and choose when to embody that persona. You must embody that energy the ENTIRE time and that just didn’t happen. When I started laughing every time Sunbae would get metaphorically smacked and put in her place by her mother-in-law, that’s when I KNEW the drama failed to hit the mark of whatever point they were trying to make. Cha Hyeon (Scarlett) & Ta Mi were loyal to Ga Kyung to their detriment and Ga Kyung was loyal to her master, I mean her mother-in-law. What a waste of space that one. I found myself waiting for one (or both) of them to give that woman the smackdown she deserved for far too long and it never came.
Also, the only saving grace for Ta Mi is her willingness to buck the system and stick to her guns when it came to marriage and children. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a female lead in an Asian drama expressly admit that she’s not interested in the traditional, conventional lifestyle much of society wants to pigeonhole women into. I can and will give her kudos for that point and ONLY that point. With that being said (and I hate to say this as a resident noona romance stan), Ta Mi and Park Morgan’s relationship should NOT exist. I repeat - Ta Mi and Park Morgan’s relationship should not exist in ANY capacity. Being platonic friends? Yes, that’s fine. Being romantic partners? No! I’m going to get up on my soapbox now, but their relationship is the primary reason why I don’t see the point in large age gaps in romantic relationships in real life. Their issues were incredibly realistic if you view it from that perspective. At the end of the day, Ta Mi is older and she’s more set in her ways and it’s obvious that she’s not changing her mind about marriage/children. Park Morgan is young, and it makes sense why he wants something different from his long-term partner. Neither one of them are wrong, but they are wrong for EACH OTHER. They do not want the same things out of life; they are incompatible. Once I saw that, I was not interested in their happy ending. I was not invested anymore. Prior to that, I didn’t like Ta Mi as an individual character and I thought Park Morgan was weird so I wasn’t attached to their dynamic anyway. Someone else said it in their review but it bears repeating – whenever one person in a relationship compromises (re: sacrifices) on their desire for something as major as wanting children or getting married, they will grow to resent their partner. The relationship will ultimately crash and burn because they are inherently wrong for each other. I started skipping through their scenes around episode 8, I think?
Scarlett and her romance with Ji Hwan were the shining stars of this series, if you’re looking for the romance. Her romance made her more enjoyable to watch. She became a LOT more likable when her individual storyline began steering her away from the push and pull B.S. between Ga Kyung & Ta Mi. The more the writers distanced her from that nonsense, the more palatable and tolerable she became. She became less annoying. Her romance was pretty adorable and almost like puppy love, in a way. It was refreshing to watch, honestly. But also, don’t be mistaken – Just because I enjoyed Scarlett a lot more than the other two doesn’t mean she was my favorite by a long shot. I still feel as if there was more they needed to do with her characterization and character development and we really didn’t get to see that. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be her. But again, that’s not saying much because the other female leads either weren’t likable (Ga Kyung) or interesting (Ta Mi) at all. If she were in a series with other leads that were actually endearing to the audience, she would fall short.
Sidenote: I also need to make sure I make this one point crystal clear - I thoroughly enjoy morally grey female characters when written well and when acted well. Ga Kyung wasn't charismatic enough to pull it off. Nothing about her performance made you feel sympathetic for her and her plight. The only way morally grey characters can exist on that very edge of a switchblade between being utterly irredeemable and still quite palatable is if they've been humanized via the writing AND the actor's performance. It has to be both; it can't be either/or because it won't work otherwise and it definitely didn't work here. I didn't care about Ga Kyung. I didn't care about any of the bad luck she continued to have. I just didn't care!
Strangely enough, I do have to give the writers credit for Ga Kyung’s relationship with her husband. There was something about him that I enjoyed when he came on-screen. I don’t know what it is, but I DO know that I believed him to be way too good for his wife. He was just as morally grey as she was and they clearly could have been a joint force to be reckoned with against his mother, but I guess the writers weren’t interested in going in that direction. But that’s also another reason I believe this series was written by someone with very little knowledge of feminism. There was no reason for Ga Kyung and her husband to get a divorce for her to achieve her dreams. She could have still chosen herself while being married. She could have stepped down from her role and tried to make it work with her husband while doing what she pleased. It’s not either/or, she could have had both! Any man that sees all the ugly parts of someone like her and still wants to be with her is clearly a man that is worth fighting for. He knew who he married and he still wanted to be around. Sunbae was a cutthroat, conniving, and deceitful woman for much of the series, and that did not chase her husband away.
This series also marked ANOTHER first of mine – fast forwarding through scenes just to get to the end. I’ve NEVER done that before and I did it with this series! I’m so disappointed in what this series could have been; I find that a LOT of these dramas fall under that umbrella of ‘amazing potential/premise, weak execution.’ I’m usually a Cdrama fan but I randomly decided to go back and try again with the Kdramas and it was .. interesting. Also, the guy that plays Ji Hwan played the SML in “Extraordinary You” and I hated his character’s GUTS in that role. So, it was nice to see him play the role of a nice guy for once and I found myself enjoying his scenes. He’s not a bad actor, so I can give him credit for that. I’m a sucker for those adorably sweet, green flag male characters and he gave me that, so that was pleasantly surprising. For his fans (which I know there’s a lot of you), you will have to wait until episode 7 before he’s prominently featured in the series though so be prepared for that.
In conclusion, this series has no rewatch value whatsoever. This series dragged and it definitely didn’t have enough material for 16 episodes. You will walk away from this series feeling underwhelmed because it falls on the overrated side of things when it comes to fan reception. At least when it comes to the ratings on this website, which are always pretty skewed as we all know. I only started this series because I’ve been on the hunt to find more noona romances and I’d come across this one quite a bit during my research so I decided to give it a shot and here we are. Would I recommend it? No. Will I rewatch it? Also, no.
First things first, I started writing this review as I was finishing up episode 8 and I just wanted to get my initial thoughts out before I forget them. Obviously, this may end up being a very long review by the time I finish watching this series but we’ll see. Who knows what may happen between now and then? Aside from that, I just want to let it be known that the first few episodes of this series will lead you to believe that it’s good. Spoiler Alert: this drama/series is NOT good. Not at all. The feuding websites storyline became redundant and boring pretty quickly in the series. It wasn’t an interesting enough concept to center an entire show around. However, if you’re here for that aspect of this series, then you might enjoy it. If you’re here for the romance aspect (much like I was), then you’re not going to enjoy this series.
The most important thing to come out of watching this series is the fact that I have NEVER watched a drama where I disliked/despised all the major players. When I say this, I imagine that the people reading this are suspicious of this claim, but I am completely serious about that. It’s not an exaggeration. I have never watched a singular drama in my LIFE (whether it’s an Asian drama or a Western drama) where I found it difficult to root for any of the main characters. All these characters were the worst, at least when it comes to the main characters, that is. I found the supporting characters to be more interesting and to have far more redeemable qualities in contrast to their lead counterparts.
As someone who is more accustomed to watching Western dramas that are marketed as ‘women’s unity/women’s empowerment,’ I find this drama to be very surface level when it comes to illustrating that concept. This depiction of unity between women is completely and utterly empty. It was as deep as a puddle. I know it’s not a common theme in a lot of Asian dramas overall, and I kind of wished they wouldn’t have marketed it as such because it was lackluster. The premise is decent in theory, but terrible in execution. At least in this market. Sorry not sorry! This drama appears to be written by someone who has a very very slight idea of feminism and feminist concepts but they don’t know much else about it and it showed.
First and foremost, the relationship between Ga Kyung (Sunbae) and Ta Mi was the cause of a lot of gritted teeth and eye rolls. I’ve never hated a female relationship dynamic as much as I hated theirs. Sunbae is a coward who allowed her arranged husband’s mother to control her life and Ta Mi is a coward who allowed the woman who’s shown her time and time again that she cares more about her own selfish, self-serving interests than she is about preserving their friendship. Both women suffered from a lack of backbone when it mattered. They had no issues retaliating against those they deemed ‘weaker’ than them but they were too cowardly to stand up to the people they truly needed to stand up to, and that persistent plot point is why I can’t, in all honesty, rate this drama as high as other people would. If you’re going to walk around like you’re a Girl Boss, then you can’t pick and choose when to embody that persona. You must embody that energy the ENTIRE time and that just didn’t happen. When I started laughing every time Sunbae would get metaphorically smacked and put in her place by her mother-in-law, that’s when I KNEW the drama failed to hit the mark of whatever point they were trying to make. Cha Hyeon (Scarlett) & Ta Mi were loyal to Ga Kyung to their detriment and Ga Kyung was loyal to her master, I mean her mother-in-law. What a waste of space that one. I found myself waiting for one (or both) of them to give that woman the smackdown she deserved for far too long and it never came.
Also, the only saving grace for Ta Mi is her willingness to buck the system and stick to her guns when it came to marriage and children. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a female lead in an Asian drama expressly admit that she’s not interested in the traditional, conventional lifestyle much of society wants to pigeonhole women into. I can and will give her kudos for that point and ONLY that point. With that being said (and I hate to say this as a resident noona romance stan), Ta Mi and Park Morgan’s relationship should NOT exist. I repeat - Ta Mi and Park Morgan’s relationship should not exist in ANY capacity. Being platonic friends? Yes, that’s fine. Being romantic partners? No! I’m going to get up on my soapbox now, but their relationship is the primary reason why I don’t see the point in large age gaps in romantic relationships in real life. Their issues were incredibly realistic if you view it from that perspective. At the end of the day, Ta Mi is older and she’s more set in her ways and it’s obvious that she’s not changing her mind about marriage/children. Park Morgan is young, and it makes sense why he wants something different from his long-term partner. Neither one of them are wrong, but they are wrong for EACH OTHER. They do not want the same things out of life; they are incompatible. Once I saw that, I was not interested in their happy ending. I was not invested anymore. Prior to that, I didn’t like Ta Mi as an individual character and I thought Park Morgan was weird so I wasn’t attached to their dynamic anyway. Someone else said it in their review but it bears repeating – whenever one person in a relationship compromises (re: sacrifices) on their desire for something as major as wanting children or getting married, they will grow to resent their partner. The relationship will ultimately crash and burn because they are inherently wrong for each other. I started skipping through their scenes around episode 8, I think?
Scarlett and her romance with Ji Hwan were the shining stars of this series, if you’re looking for the romance. Her romance made her more enjoyable to watch. She became a LOT more likable when her individual storyline began steering her away from the push and pull B.S. between Ga Kyung & Ta Mi. The more the writers distanced her from that nonsense, the more palatable and tolerable she became. She became less annoying. Her romance was pretty adorable and almost like puppy love, in a way. It was refreshing to watch, honestly. But also, don’t be mistaken – Just because I enjoyed Scarlett a lot more than the other two doesn’t mean she was my favorite by a long shot. I still feel as if there was more they needed to do with her characterization and character development and we really didn’t get to see that. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be her. But again, that’s not saying much because the other female leads either weren’t likable (Ga Kyung) or interesting (Ta Mi) at all. If she were in a series with other leads that were actually endearing to the audience, she would fall short.
Sidenote: I also need to make sure I make this one point crystal clear - I thoroughly enjoy morally grey female characters when written well and when acted well. Ga Kyung wasn't charismatic enough to pull it off. Nothing about her performance made you feel sympathetic for her and her plight. The only way morally grey characters can exist on that very edge of a switchblade between being utterly irredeemable and still quite palatable is if they've been humanized via the writing AND the actor's performance. It has to be both; it can't be either/or because it won't work otherwise and it definitely didn't work here. I didn't care about Ga Kyung. I didn't care about any of the bad luck she continued to have. I just didn't care!
Strangely enough, I do have to give the writers credit for Ga Kyung’s relationship with her husband. There was something about him that I enjoyed when he came on-screen. I don’t know what it is, but I DO know that I believed him to be way too good for his wife. He was just as morally grey as she was and they clearly could have been a joint force to be reckoned with against his mother, but I guess the writers weren’t interested in going in that direction. But that’s also another reason I believe this series was written by someone with very little knowledge of feminism. There was no reason for Ga Kyung and her husband to get a divorce for her to achieve her dreams. She could have still chosen herself while being married. She could have stepped down from her role and tried to make it work with her husband while doing what she pleased. It’s not either/or, she could have had both! Any man that sees all the ugly parts of someone like her and still wants to be with her is clearly a man that is worth fighting for. He knew who he married and he still wanted to be around. Sunbae was a cutthroat, conniving, and deceitful woman for much of the series, and that did not chase her husband away.
This series also marked ANOTHER first of mine – fast forwarding through scenes just to get to the end. I’ve NEVER done that before and I did it with this series! I’m so disappointed in what this series could have been; I find that a LOT of these dramas fall under that umbrella of ‘amazing potential/premise, weak execution.’ I’m usually a Cdrama fan but I randomly decided to go back and try again with the Kdramas and it was .. interesting. Also, the guy that plays Ji Hwan played the SML in “Extraordinary You” and I hated his character’s GUTS in that role. So, it was nice to see him play the role of a nice guy for once and I found myself enjoying his scenes. He’s not a bad actor, so I can give him credit for that. I’m a sucker for those adorably sweet, green flag male characters and he gave me that, so that was pleasantly surprising. For his fans (which I know there’s a lot of you), you will have to wait until episode 7 before he’s prominently featured in the series though so be prepared for that.
In conclusion, this series has no rewatch value whatsoever. This series dragged and it definitely didn’t have enough material for 16 episodes. You will walk away from this series feeling underwhelmed because it falls on the overrated side of things when it comes to fan reception. At least when it comes to the ratings on this website, which are always pretty skewed as we all know. I only started this series because I’ve been on the hunt to find more noona romances and I’d come across this one quite a bit during my research so I decided to give it a shot and here we are. Would I recommend it? No. Will I rewatch it? Also, no.
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