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This review may contain spoilers
Addictive hot mess but a disservice to mental health
Did I enjoy this drama all the way? YES.
Was this a good fictional story in general? YES.
Was Kim Yoo Jung’s performance brilliant? YES.
BUT and here comes,
For a show that introduces the FL as someone with antisocial personality disorder, did this do a good job? NO. Yes Ah Jin has traits present in people with ASPD but is it not a disservice to paint people wjth this disorder as a monster and as evil? Shouldn’t the drama actually delved into her psychology and into understanding how her traumas, her experiences made it difficult for her to connect with others and empathise with others? Having the FL repeat her trauma and act like a victim who has been wronged is mere surface-level characterisation and understanding of ASPD.
If the drama did not want to talk about mental health, why label her as someone with this disorder? What a freaking disservice this was to people who deserve treatment rather than merely being labelled as diabolical / evil / monstrous. Who is Ah Jin beyond the person that is always trying to survive? What are basic likes and dislikes? Who are the people she loves? People with ASPD are capable of loving.. just that they don’t love the same way “normal” humans do.
The documentary framing Ah Jin as a criminal while everyone else became a victim was unfair. What about Ah Jin’s perspective? Again I’m not defending or justifying her actions, but the black and white perspective and one-note characterisations the show re-iterated time and time again was really baffling.
What was the point of the CEO’s character? Was it to merely add some thrill to the show? Till the end I did not understand the purpose he served to the story and to our understanding of Ah Jin’s journey.
Ah Jin used all these men, yes. But she did not put a gun to their heads. If we talk about Ah Jin’s choice in making the horrible decisions she did, we need to talk about Jae Oh and Joon Seo’s choices. Ah Jin never promised them love or flowers. She was clear that she needed them and they willingly stepped in.
Jae Oh’s death made absolute sense. But what about Joon Seo? For someone who “loved” Ah Jin, he never tried to understand her. He always assumed the worst of her, saw her as someone making use of others but never saw her the human. He never saw her as someone who needed support or help. He saw her as someone he wanted to control, someone he hoped would change for him and in the end when she pushed him away, he exposed her to tie her down. His death was no act of martyr. He brought it upon himself. But my question is - why? The writer had the choice to either (1) have Joon Seo walk away as he did 2 episodes prior to the finale or (2) have Joon Seo expose Ah Jin and get her treated. I did not understand his let’s-go-to-hell-together like the writer was trying to spin this into some epic Romeo / Juliet romance. Also what was Jun Seo’s motive in exposing Ah Jin?
And the ending- I am a fan of open endings but this was one of the worst endings the writer could come up with after this journey. Yes she’s alive somewhere and she’ll probably continue to manipulate her way through but humans can’t live their lives on this repeat cycle all the way till the end. There has to be a stop or a change in pattern. In Ah Jin’s case it could have been death, treatment or insanity - either of the three could have been used to conclude her journey but the writer did so in the laziest way.
Also what kind of message does this writer want to give out with Ah Jin surviving while everybody is dead? Again this would have worked as a work of fiction but adding that tag of ASPD did this a huge disservice.
Do I recommend this? Yes. It wasn’t a bad drama per se. The performances were top notch, the score was haunting, the vibe and the dark relationships were different from the usual South Korean dramas. But having said that, this clearly fell shot of being a stellar drama because the complexity of the characters were not fleshed out well enough. In the end, I left this drama not understanding what the CEO, Ah Jin, Jun Seo and Jun Seo’s mum even wanted because they were all just so one-note and didnt feel like actual human beings with a gamut of emotions and a life beyond Ah Jin.
Was this a good fictional story in general? YES.
Was Kim Yoo Jung’s performance brilliant? YES.
BUT and here comes,
For a show that introduces the FL as someone with antisocial personality disorder, did this do a good job? NO. Yes Ah Jin has traits present in people with ASPD but is it not a disservice to paint people wjth this disorder as a monster and as evil? Shouldn’t the drama actually delved into her psychology and into understanding how her traumas, her experiences made it difficult for her to connect with others and empathise with others? Having the FL repeat her trauma and act like a victim who has been wronged is mere surface-level characterisation and understanding of ASPD.
If the drama did not want to talk about mental health, why label her as someone with this disorder? What a freaking disservice this was to people who deserve treatment rather than merely being labelled as diabolical / evil / monstrous. Who is Ah Jin beyond the person that is always trying to survive? What are basic likes and dislikes? Who are the people she loves? People with ASPD are capable of loving.. just that they don’t love the same way “normal” humans do.
The documentary framing Ah Jin as a criminal while everyone else became a victim was unfair. What about Ah Jin’s perspective? Again I’m not defending or justifying her actions, but the black and white perspective and one-note characterisations the show re-iterated time and time again was really baffling.
What was the point of the CEO’s character? Was it to merely add some thrill to the show? Till the end I did not understand the purpose he served to the story and to our understanding of Ah Jin’s journey.
Ah Jin used all these men, yes. But she did not put a gun to their heads. If we talk about Ah Jin’s choice in making the horrible decisions she did, we need to talk about Jae Oh and Joon Seo’s choices. Ah Jin never promised them love or flowers. She was clear that she needed them and they willingly stepped in.
Jae Oh’s death made absolute sense. But what about Joon Seo? For someone who “loved” Ah Jin, he never tried to understand her. He always assumed the worst of her, saw her as someone making use of others but never saw her the human. He never saw her as someone who needed support or help. He saw her as someone he wanted to control, someone he hoped would change for him and in the end when she pushed him away, he exposed her to tie her down. His death was no act of martyr. He brought it upon himself. But my question is - why? The writer had the choice to either (1) have Joon Seo walk away as he did 2 episodes prior to the finale or (2) have Joon Seo expose Ah Jin and get her treated. I did not understand his let’s-go-to-hell-together like the writer was trying to spin this into some epic Romeo / Juliet romance. Also what was Jun Seo’s motive in exposing Ah Jin?
And the ending- I am a fan of open endings but this was one of the worst endings the writer could come up with after this journey. Yes she’s alive somewhere and she’ll probably continue to manipulate her way through but humans can’t live their lives on this repeat cycle all the way till the end. There has to be a stop or a change in pattern. In Ah Jin’s case it could have been death, treatment or insanity - either of the three could have been used to conclude her journey but the writer did so in the laziest way.
Also what kind of message does this writer want to give out with Ah Jin surviving while everybody is dead? Again this would have worked as a work of fiction but adding that tag of ASPD did this a huge disservice.
Do I recommend this? Yes. It wasn’t a bad drama per se. The performances were top notch, the score was haunting, the vibe and the dark relationships were different from the usual South Korean dramas. But having said that, this clearly fell shot of being a stellar drama because the complexity of the characters were not fleshed out well enough. In the end, I left this drama not understanding what the CEO, Ah Jin, Jun Seo and Jun Seo’s mum even wanted because they were all just so one-note and didnt feel like actual human beings with a gamut of emotions and a life beyond Ah Jin.
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