Not for me, but the acting is great.
I think the performances were great, but there wasn't enough story here for me.I loved Suho! I thought his character was the saving grace in a series of characters that really weren't that likable, in my opinion. The ML is meant to have that quiet, brooding type of personality, so I can see arguing he wasn't meant to be likable. Doesn't change the fact that this series is 8 episodes asking me to follow a lead I just don't find interesting to watch.
It's mostly fight scenes - so I feel bad for the people in the comment section being told the series isn't that violent. What show did you watch?
This follows the common beats of stories about HS students being targeted by bullies/gang members, so you can predict what's going to happen. No real great writing for female characters (all 1 of them?) either. If it wasn't for Suho, I wouldn't have watched as many episodes as I did. The first 4 are pretty great, but the series fell off for me after that.
Considering Suho isn't in season 2, I'll be stopping here.
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I wasn’t rooting for anyone
I found the acting of the Chief and his wife to be very good. Ironically, I was more interested in their marital problems than the rest of the plots.I wasn’t rooting for Haruta at all. I don’t understand why so many people were chasing after a man child. He seemed to be looking for someone to cook and clean for him than someone he was actually attracted to. Even knowing how this ends, I was not invested in him being with anyone.
I see the complaints about how the humor involved a lot of screaming. For all the insistence that that’s common in J dramas, it works for me in other shows and didn’t work for me in this one. I think that’s largely because I found a lot of adults in this show behaved like teenagers. Unrealistically, to be honest.
So, not a recommend for me. I’m glad others enjoyed it though.
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This review may contain spoilers
Got 9 episodes through before I had to stop
I was interested in watching this purely because I love Jeon So Min. She's so funny and personable and I think she's a great actress, as well. That being said, even her charm and charisma couldn't save this drama.From the first episode, I had questions about the editing and music choices. Songs that didn't match the vibe of the scene would play at the weirdest times and they let some moments go on for so long that it because a bit awkward to watch. Sharper editing and more concern for the tone of the scenes would've made this much better. The acting is great. I didn't have any issues with the acting.
This story could've been an email. There didn't seem to be much of a plot here. The overarching issue for the MC seemed to be selling her house and getting rid of her debt, but that takes a backseat in the middle. There's a supposed romance plot between her younger cafe coworker and the lawyer that lives down the hall from her. To be honest, she seemed to have much better chemistry with the young coworker but, even without finishing this, I'm sure she ends up with the lawyer. Choi Daniel is adorable, don't get me wrong, but the chemistry with the cafe workers was just stronger, IMO.
The storyline with the business lady and her husband losing a ton of money to cryptocurrency almost made me check out. This drama fall in line with the numerous ones that I think tried to make marriage and motherhood look positive and ultimately made it look the least desirable. As someone who already thinks women shouldn't stay in marriages that don't serve them at all, this was a hard watch. She would've been perfectly in the right divorcing her husband because no amount of love and affection for that manchild could withstand potentially losing your home and ruining your credit because your husband gambled with your shared assets without telling you. That they miraculously get a windfall on a stock he invested in after she chose to stay just encourages his bad behavior. The scene of him not caring at all that she would have to sacrifice her time and body for a child they didn't plan for made me sick to my stomach. I would never in a million years want her life and the drama treats this like a good thing.
The storyline of the young girl randomly deciding she wants to have a kid was the end for me. I just can't understand why, in 2024, they thought that was a good idea. This drama would've probably been fine in 2005 before women knew better, but I found this to be the most accidentally hopeless drama I've watched in a while. I love JSM but I can't make myself finish this.
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Enjoyable!
I haven't watched the drama this was based on, so this review is solely on the kdrama.I was surprised to see a drama with this kind of subject matter being made into a kdrama. Seeing that Netflix was presenting it in the U.S. made it more plausible because the Netflix kdramas have always been riskier than the dramas I've seen from other platforms. Surprisingly, I think the topic was handled pretty well in this drama (though the drama takes a pretty big shift in story about halfway through and is mostly about interpersonal drama). There were some genuine laughs in the beginning when the women first start selling the products and, while some jokes were cheesy, I enjoyed it.
The cast is 100% the reason I gave this a chance because the main actresses have majorly impressed me in other dramas. There's even brief appearances from Ra Mi-ran, one of my all time faves. Also, the guys were all great. The kids did a good job, too!
This drama worked the best when it was centered on the women's individual growth. I enjoyed Jung-sook's story the most when she was getting rid of the crappy husband who was just dragging her down and making peace with her mother's treatment of her. I felt like Ju-ri was primarily a woman that supported her friends when they struggled with confidence, especially when it was something they'd been shamed for. Young-bok was also a really loyal friend and her family situation was so sad. Geum-hee was actually my favorite character and I loved every single scene she was in. The actress was phenomenal and I loved that this show subverted the assumption that the oldest woman in the friend group would be the most conservative. Her story is partially why I kind of felt like the business aspect could've been stronger.
I'd wished, for all that she suffered in continuing it, that Jung-sook had a more personal reason for joining the business. Geum-hee has this storyline revolving around her husband initially shaming her for wanting anything sold by that kind of company and she basically ignores him and wears the lingerie anyway. It was about her overcoming that desire to just do whatever her husband wanted. For Jung-sook, it was just a cash grab, yet she suffers more than anyone else for the job. I don't know if the original drama gave the MC more of a personal reason to keep doing it, but it was just a bit of a missing piece to me.
The story of the detective looking for his mother was interesting. For such a small town, I didn't expect 2 random plots of people in the town being sociopathic monsters. That joke on tiktok about kdramas being (kinda) sunny/happy until they insert a random kidnapping/murder plot came to mind with the random man trying to kidnap Jung-sook. I wished they hadn't laid the "reveal" on quite so thick, but it was nice that the detective had a happy conclusion to his story.
The storyline I was most moved by was Young-bok's and her husband's trouble with the law. It was actually heartbreaking with how clear it was her husband loved his family but couldn't do anything to support them. It was a bit of a sad ending for them overall (unless I missed something?) because, as I understand it, he still didn't have a job? Maybe he became a stay at home dad?
Overall, I enjoyed this show for the most part. Admittedly, it was still a bit hard for me to see So Yeon Kim in this kind of role. I don't expect her to just play a villain in everything, but I also felt like this character wasn't given a ton for the actress to really dig into. Her character's motivations start with trying to make money to take care of her son and shift halfway through to trying to take care of and help the detective. I thought she did a great job in the scenes where she was bonding with the other women.
The scenes centering the friendship between the women were my favorite part of this drama. Its a recommend and the second most enjoyable Netflix kdrama I've seen.
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Unique concept that lets the cast shine!
I watched this for Jonathan and Patricia and ended up staying for the entire cast.I've never seen anything like this concept before and that made this a unique experience. The closest thing I can think of is maybe the theme episodes of Running Man? It's obvious certain aspects of this story were scripted, but they really seemed to give the cast broad strokes and let them run with it. My favorite moments were just watching the cast lose it and start laughing at some of the ridiculous things that were happening. The chemistry between them was so much fun to watch! I think Patricia's interactions with Hong Chul and Si-young were definitely my favorites!
Dex was obviously meant to be the hero of the story but I admired Si-young throughout the entire thing.
This is a recommend if you don't plan on taking it too seriously. This has been the funniest thing I've watched in a while.
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Lovely!
This is my favorite drama I’ve watched this year. It was entertaining, it didn’t feel like there were filler episodes, and the acting was phenomenal! Honestly, the only thing that was kind of a drag for me was the last episode felt like it dragged just a bit. It was clear it was the last episode and it felt like they were padding to hit that 1h30m time the other episodes had.I’m a bit surprised others didn’t like this as much as I did, but to each their own. It’s a strong recommend from me. The plot was never boring, the twists were good, and it was just genuinely a joy to watch.
Out of the other 4 dramas I’ve watched this year, this was hands down my favorite so far.
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