alexanny23

Satisfying ending, however the Netflix issues were worse.

I enjoyed Moon Dong-eun and Joo Yeo-jeong's stories a lot! I was so relieved as, there was a point there where it almost seemed like they wouldn't get a happy ending. This part really hit hard on obstacles in Moon Dong-eun's way, especially her mother, but I felt satisfied that the punishments doled out were proportionate.

This part digs more into Moon Dong-eun's terrible mother. In some ways, the ending of her career at the school felt unaddressed. She says farewell to Yeon-sol, but since we didn't get many shots of Moon Dong-eun at the school in this part, it almost felt like she wasn't there that much, despite it being her job. A couple of things felt somewhat dropped in this part.

We find out that Jae Jun apparently got Yoon-hee pregnant, but we don't really dig into that any further. For a character that was so important to Yeon-jin's story, his ending seemed a little brushed aside. Sa-ra's undoing was a little confusing as everyone seemed worried she'd be in big trouble after the press photos at the church, but then she was just at home playing around on her computer like nothing happened. It took her stabbing Choi Hye-jeong in the neck for her to get in any serious trouble, and I don't think Moon Dong-eun could've predicted that.

Ha Dong-yeon's ending was happy, I think. I was a little curious why he didn't have any further goodbye with Moon Dong-eun, but I was glad he wasn't caught in the crossfire too badly after Yeon-jin's conviction.

Again, my issues with this series were Netflix produced drama's tendency to have unnecessary nudity, unnecessarily drawn out violent scenes and unnecessary sex scenes. I have never seen a kdrama with bare breasts - I also don't think that was necessary. We have an unnecessarily drawn out (and repeated) sex scene with Myeong-o and Sa-ra. Also, a really weird note, the scene where we find out there's a creep at the elementary school taking pictures of children showed the pictures and I don't think they needed to. You can convey what he was doing with that. There were a lot more scenes of characters just screaming at each other and that didn't make for drama, it skewed into melodrama, in my opinion.

However, overall, I enjoyed the series and it's ending. I think it would've been even stronger if there didn't seem to be this focus on adding the kinds of scenes that draw in international audiences.

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Disappointing

This has all the issues I see with Netflix produced kdramas. Unnecessary sex scenes, female nudity (it’s always women), and really bad dialogue. I came to understand Netflix subtitles don’t translate exactly what’s said, but what they translated made it sound as if the script used swear words the way a twelve year old would if they just discovered them. In addition, I didn’t think any female character was written well or treated all that well development wise. It was a huge bummer because the premise interested me. I can’t help but wonder what this would’ve been like produced by another network.

Anyway, I don’t have complaints about the acting of the MLs. Some of the cinematography was interesting.

Sometimes I can ignore some bad spots if the story is intriguing enough but I found this drama also dragged a lot. Disappointing.

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I had a blast watching it - but it just ends so abruptly

I love watching Uhm Jung Hwa. She's so charming that I can watch just about anything she's in. This drama had it's flaws, but overall, I had a great time watching it.

The leads have fantastic chemistry! Their comedic timing was spot on and I believed the romance. One of the rare times the "we knew each other several years ago" story points didn't just annoy me. I found their story to be really sweet and I loved all of their scenes together. The past AND the present versions.

I thought everyone's acting in this drama was wonderful. Always a joy to see Cha Chung-hwa! I must say, I enjoyed seeing UJH give a more dramatic performance. Her audition scene was killer! I was very impressed with her work here. I think the decision to show BCJ/ISR her past was interesting, though it muddled the timeline a lot. It was an interesting tactic to make the audience feel sorry for the lead and reveal she was sort of her own undoing later on.

There were a couple of things I think lessened my enjoyment of the drama:
- The villain Go Hui. There was a point where it seemed the narrative suggested BCJ/ISR was wrong for refusing to film the commercial with her 25 years ago. Why? I thought it was clear ISR didn't want to work with someone that treated her staff poorly? The scene where BCJ/ISR seems to think she was awful to Go Hui back then was odd to me. Like, I feel bad she was one of the victims in the exploitation plot, but that doesn't excuse all of the horrendous things she did. Not just to BCJ/ISR either. Also, we just get an article that Go Hui overdosed and that's just the end of her story. No mention of the investigation or her role in BCJ/ISR's accident.
- All of the bad guys seem to just disappear. I don't even remember if we see the mayoral candidate get arrested or anything. One of the many things that made me think this drama may have been longer and then cut to 12 episodes. That or the production ran out of money and had to cut it short.
- Bong Baek Ja's life was depressing. I kept hoping there'd be some sort of resolution for her. She missed out on getting to go to college, got saddled with a bunch of debt, and her life was stunted caring for her (honestly kinda selfish) sister and her father who never acknowledged her existence. Then she somehow ends up a single parent with a daughter that just lies to her a lot. I hoped the ending would be her finding some passion or some outlet that was just for her and self focused. Instead, it just ends with her letting her daughter become an idol. Sad.
- Not sure what happened to SSY after her live confession. Did the cops interrogate her? Did she lose sponsors? She just sort of disappears.
- Not super important, but the male lead in the drama with all the dating rumors with ISR also just disappears. It's like they only paid the actor for like 2 days and then couldn't bring him back
- What happened to Yu Ran? Did I miss it? How did she die?

Anyway, this could've used like 2 more episodes, but I still really enjoyed it. I had a great time watching it and will definitely be rewatching it.

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Best Viki drama I've seen so far

I watched this primarily for Cha Eun-kyung. The actress, Jang Na-ra, was captivating at every turn and her story was so compelling. Her scenes with her hoobae, her child, her "work husband", and even her arguments with her ex and his mistress were so entertaining to watch. She had chemistry with everyone. Were it not for her, I would not have been as interested in this show.

The views on divorce are prevalent throughout several kdramas with stories like the World of the Married doing the worst to portray women that get divorced as being incapable of "making it work". Finding out this story was written by a divorce attorney made a lot of sense. There is a clear intent here to destigmatize divorce and present it more as a way for women to find new lives beyond being reduced to the services they offer their husbands. The turn into the murder plot was jarring. I understand the purpose - to basically shame families that see divorce as more of a blight than their daughter suffering domestic violence. In a show that made sort of light of that issue with an earlier case where the women kept coming for consultations but ultimately stayed, it seemed a bit of a turn.

CEK's divorce and custody battle were long, but I enjoyed seeing the way she repaired her relationship with her daughter. Her ex was despicable and so was the mistress, but it was a bit odd how their story wrapped up and they pretty much exit the series. Hence me feeling like this show probably could've been even shorter. I enjoyed the different cases, especially the one about the woman that wanted her ex to take primary custody. However, this series overall surpassed Perfect Marriage Revenge as the best Viki drama I've watched. The pacing was a lot better and there was less melodramatic acting in this series, in my opinion.

I enjoyed how Han Yu-ri encouraged CEK and was relentless in trying to achieve justice for her. However, I found her stances a bit baffling, particularly in the case where the woman wanted a divorce because her family didn't see her. HYR was incapable of seeing past how the children felt and that confused me considering her previous cases. That that story ends with an agreement to revisit divorce was disheartening to me. The number of men that only "wake up" when their wife talks about divorce, act better for a few months, and then go right back to treating them like crap is exactly why women fall into these cycles and end up stuck.

The romance between HYR and her coworker Jeon Eun-ho was the weakest part of the show for me. I didn't buy the romance, I didn't see the chemistry, and it takes up roughly 30-35% of the show. Honestly, I didn't really like JEH's character until he was working with CEK and that was probably because it showed his competency better than any other case.

Overall, the acting was good in this series. The stories were mostly compelling. The pacing was really good. I hope it serves to destigmatize divorce and show women that it's never too late to reinvent themselves and get out of bad relationships. Even if they can't find attorneys like CEK to fight for them, I hope they fight for themselves.

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Meh

This was a cash grab.

I rooted for Hyun-ju, Young-mi, and the halmeoni and no one else. While I appreciated that the show took out the really unnecessary sex scenes in the first season, that was the only improvement over the first season I noticed in s2. The plots all felt recycled, the character profiles felt like copies of the first season and, worst of all, there were several points where I felt like the writers were treating the viewers like they were stupid. Having seen that Netflix is trying to put out more content that allows for it's viewers to consume media without fully paying attention to it, this tracks with some of the shows they've released this year. A season 2 for this show was wholly unnecessary.

This only got somewhat interesting for me on the very last episode. The first episode was the most boring opener I've watched in a kdrama this year. This needed a very, very strong edit, but I fear, if they took out everything that didn't need to be here, the season would be 3 episodes long. The drawn out voting scenes when we know they're going to continue on, the tedious cuts to the detective searching for the island, etc. I also laughed at the concept of this many people treating Gi-hun like some sort of war general. I also hated the hive mind mentality the other players outside of the main cast had because they were indignant to the point of idiocy and it made them feel like NPCs.

I enjoyed Hyun-ju, Young-mi, and the halmeoni's story. While annoying at times, I thought the TOP character brought some life where there was way less levity this time around. The 001 character was an interesting addition this time around with the viewer knowing there was an inside man this time around. However, overall, Squid Game s1 was like a 7.5-8 for me and s2 was just an unnecessary addition.

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Confusing tonally ?

This drama was all over the place tone wise. I'm still not sure exactly what the viewer was meant to get from the show even before the extremely long advertisement for marriage in the finale episode.

I watched for Lee Yi Kyung. I'll watch just about anything with him because he's always entertaining. There were times, I felt he and the kids were in an entirely different show.

As a romance drama - it's like a 7.5/10 for me. The chemistry between the 2 leads flip flopped between cute, rom-com and awkwardly immature. There was a lot of baby talk in the last 2 episodes and I'm not sure why. It also leaned super hard into Cheol-Hui being pressured by the twins because they really only liked Ha-na. Which, compared the 2FL, understandable. There's the guy Ha-na lectured for only dating to make his mother happy and, while I do think Cheol-Hui liked Ha-na, there was way too much emphasis on the kids pushing him towards her.

There's the random stalker/kid-nap/incel plot with the mayor's son and I don't know why we needed that. The previous plot with the brother of Cheol-Hui's ex gf being creepy towards Ha-na because he couldn't let go that Cheol-Hui was moving on. That the show seemingly suggests forgiveness should be given to the mayor's son because he was an ignored, illegitimate child coupled with the under-reaction when they find In-ah escaping him was just gross. I don't care about the incel's childhood, he's disgusting.

The show flipped from some serious plots to humor a little too quickly for me. In addition, there were at least 3 men on the show that were just downright terrible (fake rich guy who wanted to humiliate the young woman marrying for money, the stalker brother of Cheol-Hui's ex gf, and the incel guy in the end). Tbh, Ha-na's ex was also a jerk. Cheol-Hui's brother/the twin's father also sucked. The show also seemed to want us to root for In-ah after she literally tried to ship the kids off to England. I just couldn't tell what the show wanted to be or understand why they wanted us to root for certain people.

I think this would've ultimately worked better as a longer drama with more of an episodic feel to helping different couples every episode while Ha-na got more time to know Cheol-Hui. I would've appreciated more time spent with them as an actual couple, too. As it stands, I felt like we got 2 seconds of them together interspersed with random stalker/creep plots and way too much of the 2FL's dating woes.

So, in conclusion: it's not a recommend from me. It's not Lee Yi Kyung's best work, it's not the best romance drama that came out this year, and it's just not that great. To be fair though, I have watched worse dramas this year that I actually dropped. So, props for the fact that I cared enough to finish it.

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Cute and pretty faithful to the manga

This series cut out quite a bit from the manga, but it did a pretty good job covering the key points. The acting is good, the leads have great chemistry, and I think the story itself is a really interesting one. I'm enjoying how j-dramas have shown different types of couples and dynamics, especially when it comes to gender expression. I appreciate that the topic of beauty is genderless here.

I wish we'd gotten more of the wrap up with Hikaru's parents, but it's clear they wanted to fit as much as they could in 12 episodes. At times, it felt a bit disjointed and the romance seems to skip some steps straight into the ending where they're suddenly ready to be at the altar. However, the manga sort of did that, as well. It was just a bit less noticeable with the number of volumes.

Overall, it's a pretty solid series. Not the most amazing romance j-drama I've seen, but it's adorable.

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Quite a bit different from HYYH, but entertaining for the most part

These opinions are all my own and, as always, super glad others seemed to really love this take on HYYH. I personally didn’t, but not everything is going to be my cup of tea. Namjoon's story was my favorite in HYYH.

To start, Dogeon is an entirely different character from HYYH’s Namjoon. Dogeon's vibe was a lot more clean cut and he was was more of a rule follower than HYYH Namjoon. The iconic scenes from the Notes/MVs where he and Tae run away from the cops after getting caught spray painting seems like something Dogeon would never do. Most of the big events from his story don’t happen in this drama and he’s not given a ton of story on his own.

In order of who got the most story:
Haru, Jeha, Cein, Jooan, Hwan, Hosu, Dogeon comes in last.

Most of Dogeon and Hosu’s stories involve supporting other characters, but Hosu at least got the story with his narcolepsy and his mother abandoning him.

Namjoon’s closest relationship (and the most interesting one to me) was his relationship with Tae in the OG story. There’s more of a supportive relationship set up here with Jooan and Haru instead. Dogeon and Jooan’s story was colored negatively by the only scene in which Dogeon lets out his emotions and talks about hating that no one comforts him… is followed by him apologizing for “unloading” and Jooan abandoning him. End result: he still has no support system. That was perhaps the most heartbreaking aspect of his entire story. Dogeon is a character that exists to serve literally everyone else.

Every time it seemed we were finally giving him focus, it cut away to another character’s story without giving depth to his. His time in the hospital, the start of episode 12 before it cut to Jooan, and we don’t even get his personal thoughts in the aftermath of nearly being killed?? What was the nosebleed storyline? It was just dropped completely. Did the delivery boy story from the Notes happen here? Who knows?

The writers didn’t seem to be interested in Dogeon which made this drama less enjoyable overall for me, but I’m glad fans of other characters enjoyed it.

My general thoughts on everything else: it's entertaining for the most part. The episodes are long and you can feel it. I did enjoy the group scenes where they're all together, Cein's birthday party was my favorite group scene. Some of the acting in a few scenes was a bit cringy and choppy, but I don’t think that was the actors’ faults. I think the director should’ve made some different choices.

The best performances in my opinion were Hwan and Jooan’s. I thought those actors did a great job in their portrayals. Surprisingly, the relationships I found the most interesting (for however much we got to see of them) were Hwan & Dogeon and Hosu & Dogeon. I don’t remember any real interactions between Hosu and Dogeon (Hobi and Namjoon) in the OG story, so that was a pleasant surprise. Hwan and Dogeon were great together and I wished we got a lot more of that.

For Dogeon’s sake, I hope there’s another season because I really think he got the short end of the stick story wise. It seems like they were clearly setting up for another season and I read they supposedly filmed 24 episodes. It’d be nice if they could give Dogeon more, but I’ll always have the OG story that I enjoyed.

I’m glad others enjoyed this a lot more than I did.

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Dramatic in the way that webtoons always are

The premise of this show is interesting: mistreated girl gets a second chance at life and revenge. Even if I hadn’t already found out this was based on a webtoon, I would’ve figured it out eventually. The plot twists and hard to believe coincidences would’ve spelled it out for me.

The acting is pretty good. There are a few points where the adoptive mother and daughter dipped into melodrama. There were also a few times where people just behaved strangely like slapping others or throwing drinks which felt more like children throwing tantrums more than adult behavior.

There were a ton of plot points that were just impossible to believe. Also many points where the bad guys used the press to villainize others and I couldn’t understand why the public opinion was so nonsensical. Also, there were some pretty dramatic accusations and a general lack of reaction to them. So, I’m a little confused at the directional choices.

Also, the end of the revenge plot was a little anticlimactic in my opinion. I just wanted it to hit a little bit harder.

Simply put, this is a melodramatic soapy show and if you like revenge shows, you’ll probably get something out of it. If you’re expecting something closer to Penthouse or The Glory where the plot seemed a lot more intricately planned (at least, s1 &2 of Penthouse), you’re going to be a little disappointed. However, it’s the best Viki original I’ve seen thus far.

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Best Viki drama so far!

I truly enjoyed this! I like that we're getting more drama's where the female lead is allowed to be complex, reserved and more "grumpy" than sunshine.

I liked how Han Ji Min played Ji-yun as a complex woman with a backstory that made her less likely to be open and warm with new people. I loved how she bonded with Byeol and how the story established they had similarities personality wise. I loved her determination and how she made candidates appreciate their talents and experience and that she genuinely cared that they were being properly appreciated in terms of employment. She had principles and that made her one of the better female characters I've seen.

I loved Eun-ho! There were so many green flags for him. He was handsome, kind, supportive, talented at literally everything, and he was so attentive. I loved seeing him with Byeol and how dedicated he was to her. I worried that there would be a point that his attentiveness to Ji-yun's needs came across as overbearing, but it never did in my opinion.

I loved the chemistry between Eun-ho and Ji-yun and I kind of hope we see them in another romance drama in the future. This drama was well paced and, despite the confession coming earlier than I expected, we got a more time of them as a couple than I expected. Much appreciated! When the reveal came about Eun-ho's tie to Ji-yun's dad, I was surprised by how invested I was in the fallout.

I liked the candidate stories, while I think the authentification plot was a little too long. I enjoyed the cast of characters, especially Mi Ae. The 2FL and 2ML (I guess?) didn't get a ton of time. I loved the illustator's scene where she talks to her adoptive son about his parents. I thought that was really well done.

As for the antagonist - while I was annoyed at her vendetta against Ji-yun, I think her performance was well done. The show balanced the other plots well so that, while it was as frustrating as it was meant to be, I don't think it took over the majority of the show.

Definitely a recommend from me and I loved this couple! I hope we get even more grumpy/sunshine-like stories where the grumpy character is the female lead.

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Lost interest around episode 9

Perhaps my fault for not watching a trailer, but the first 3 eps of this show didn't indicate the rest of the drama was going to be shrouded in such an undeveloped, nonsensical murder plot. I also didn't understand what purpose the second ML served? I spent the entire drama feeling sorry for him. Also, her presence in his life just seemed to make his life harder. The cast is great. Regardless of my disdain for the FMC's writing, the actress committed. Both male leads were great. I wish the family and friends mattered a bit more, but whatever.

Onto my issues:
Not only did the the FMC's actions make no sense, it honestly made me feel like the writers wrote the show as it went along. The FMC goes back in time and clearly has the knowledge that she was kidnapped and violently attacked when she was younger. Instead of trying to get ahead of that and change her own fate, she's solely worried about Sun Jae. She goes back several times but never does anything really impactful to change her fate. There's a glimpse of her trying to learn self defense, but she never does anything serious to do so. It feels like the kidnapper was an afterthought for her. The scene where her mom calls her in like Timeline 3 because her daughter was kidnapped a year prior and never told her was just laughable crazy.

The start of this drama was so fascinating. It seemed like a great set up and opportunity to discuss the lack of accessibility for those with physical disabilities in South Korea. It also seemed a bit like a Y/N fanfic where a fan meets their idol. This was such a cool start and would've made for a very interesting romance drama. Even with the time travel aspect, the chemistry between the actors was great. It just seemed odd to have the kidnapping plot seem almost randomly inserted. More than that, the drama was paced in such a stop/start way that every time the drama would make some progress, the FMC would make a nonsensical decision or there'd be such a ridiculous misunderstanding to slow it to a grinding halt. It made for a somewhat infuriating viewing experience after some time.

Add to that, this drama shoved every possible trope it could in here and it turned into sort of a hodge podge mess by ep 14 (where I stopped). In truth, the first 3 eps are so great. It grabbed my attention and I was couldn't wait to keep watching. It just fell off a bit after and I completely lost interest by episode 9. I hope someday there is a romance drama with a wheelchair user though. I don't think I've seen that kind of rep in any k-drama yet.

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Surprisingly enjoyable!

This is one of the better J dramas I've watched. This was surprisingly the only polyamorous representation I've seen that didn't end disastrously. I'm not polyamorous, but I think perhaps that community might appreciate that, by the nature of the fade to black scene, the sex lives of the three people was not the focus. Instead, this story revolves around their apprehensions, logistical issues, and fears of the reactions they'd get from their families.

It took some time for me to warm up to Mia as a character (though the actress is gorgeous), but over time, the show makes it clear why all of their personalities are necessary. Shinpei is the glue and takes care of feeding two very busy office workers (though I have no clue was Takuzo does for a living?). Mia is the driving force with her somewhat demanding personality being necessary to push past awkward moments and take action. Takuzo is the structure Mia and Shinpei were missing. While I think a bit more was done showing the connections between Shinpei x Mia and Shinpei x Takuzo, I think the love between Mia and Takuzo was just a bit quieter and more understated. He also slept outside her office when she briefly left them, so I think it shows he did care about her, too.

I was surprised by how supportive everyone around them was, though it was nice to see. In reality, they weren't hurting anyone and they fit pretty well together.

The only drag in the series was the episode where Takuzo's coworker basically blackmails him into a week long free trial "friendship" marriage. The scene of her blabbing about his home life in the office did not endear her to me at all and I honestly found her kinda predatory. That one of their coworkers saw her pressuring him outside and seemed to think it was cute was a bummer.

Overall, this was a surprising gem I found. It's a recommend if the themes are your jam.

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Very thought provoking

It’s been a while since a drama left me this morally conflicted. The story is heartbreaking, the acting was phenomenal, and I empathized with Risako more than I thought possible considering I don’t have children.

Considering what I know from trials like the Andrea Yates trial, I was set to feel that the defendant most likely had some sort of psychological break. The more the show delved into her family life, the more I felt sorry for this woman that received nothing but criticism from the people that were supposed to support her. The more they showed Risako’s connection with her, the more the show sucked me in.

I actually teared up a few times and that’s not something that happens often for me. This show really shows the struggles of women to feel like they’re succeeding in life, regardless of if they’re stay at home mothers, working mothers, or women without children. Every female character in the show had moments of doubt forced into their heads by outsider’s opinions and the show did a great job finding common ground here.

The ending was a little open ended in terms of one relationship I wanted to see ended, but other than that, I was incredibly loved while watching this.

Definitely a recommend if you can stomach the subject matter.

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Enjoyable!

I've seen most of the criticism of this series being who the Jo-Kyung ends up with in the end. Unpopular opinion: I never had a problem with that. It was foreshadowed pretty much from episode one.

My beefs with this show are:
- plot hole from ep one regarding a voicemail left for the mother. It just never comes up again
- I'm not a huge fan of the "actually they knew each other years ago" thing. It pops up in a lot of dramas, but this one used it better than most, I will say. It's still a pet peeve of mine
- Soo-jin was turned into a woman scorned for no reason at all, in my opinion. Why must female friendships involve this type of plot?
- The last episodes were annoying with the time skip and then back and forth with Su-ho in a way that just felt odd to me?

Anyway, I enjoyed this show. I've watched it twice all the way through and I've laughed out loud both times. It's fun, it's cute, the vibe is entertaining and light throughout the majority of the show. I love the music. The acting is great and Moon Ga-Young is so charming and adorable! Perfectly cast! Definitely a recommend, especially if you're new to k-dramas.

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