before I lock into episode 10 the highlight of episode 9 was Taeho and Danhee talking amongst themselves after the inheritance conversation
For the writer to immediately follow it up with Yuna's screeching about Jinju is nasty work. Now let's see about ep 10 since this is supposed to be The Big One 👀
Ooooh, I gotta be honest. Like, brutally honest. 😬 It is NOT easy for me to watch this drama when I dislike/don't…
iirc all the staff (PD, directors) all previously only worked for KBS1 and it shows. The gag scenes are so intolerable because the last 3 dailies in this time slot actually used them well
I feel like every scene has that stupid circus clown music and I immediately clock out when I hear it. Like can we be serious for ONE scene?
Yuna's origin story is nothing new but the fact that Danhee opposes Minjun studying abroad ? Seems like he's going to stand up to her for the first time ever next episode. On top of that, Yuna's dad vs Professor Baek? In front of Taeho?! Adele stocks?! You know it's Serious Business when stocks are brought up. Let's see some 💥conflict💥
Hyunjun is my favorite of the kids lol
The funniest scene of the episode was when Jeongran's driver tried to run up on the guards at Ihawsae (?) and they just rolled their eyes and walked away
I was looking forward to and tuned into Dan-Hee's storyline from the jump. Park Jin-Hee is a great actress and…
To me the stakes feel low because: taeho ain't thinking about succession ("I'll decide that later") Neither Minjun or Hyunjun seem to care... Jeongran definitely cares about the succession battle but I can't take her seriously as a villain because not only is she obnoxious AF but danhee has the upper hand. (As she should)
For the kids the stakes seem tied to Yuna's inferiority complex and Jinju & Minjun having feelings for each other. I'm sleep!
We just finished AGL and that was a masterclass in how to raise the stakes. Especially for a succession battle
Quick edit because I just made the connection that the "low stakes" feeling is directly tied to the characterization or lack thereof.
I was looking forward to and tuned into Dan-Hee's storyline from the jump. Park Jin-Hee is a great actress and…
Return sounds fun - I'm adding it my list!
I didn't finish GR but I saw enough of it to see the difference between that and this drama: I felt like Carrie and Cha Yeryun's characters had an even amount of screentime. But this drama seems unbalanced.
I can tolerate yoonjung and her brother (the scene where yoonjung was talking to the babies to get them to stop crying was actually pretty funny) but Jeongran and her driver... I don't want to sound like a broken record lol
Now that I've caught up to episode 6 I agree with the characterization sucking. I can't really get invested in any of the characters outside of danhee. Everyone else feels like a makjang archetype rn but I'll give it to episode 30.
Min Joon is really hia mother's son, based on personality. haha I also like Hyun Joo so far. I have soft spots…
I'm so curious to see how he ends up. His bio said he has "greed for Jinju" but he actually seemed pretty chill lol so I'm going to let the writer cook for a bit...
Maybe it's just me, but I don't like Jung-Ran's pronunciation/tone. Has Kim Hee-Jung ALWAYS sounded like this,…
I'm glad it's not just me who doesn't like Jeongran's way of speaking 💀💀💀
I think it's for this role... since Jeongran was formerly a maid and "low class" it reflects in how she speaks... I don't remember KHJ sounding this annoying in any of the many other dramas I've seen her in lol
Its crazy how with the teasers I was looking forward to Jinju's storyline but now that the series started ? Watching Danhee's storyline juxtaposed against hers makes Jinju's feel extremely juvenile. Especially since it seems to be devolving into love triangle BS.
Next episode we're going to see more of the kids dynamic - Yuna is going to throw a fit because Minjun likes Jinju. Your standard inferiority complex that we've NEVER seen before in a daily...!
My biggest complaint about Minjun so far is he has no personality and is kinda boring. I hope this doesn't turn into Snow White's Revenge where there's a love triangle centered around a "watching paint dry is more exciting" ML. I like Hyunjun better right now just for the sole fact that he actually has a personality...
Danhee's storyline is way more interesting... I also love how she ran up on that bully's mom for talking sh!t about Minjun's parentage. "You think stomping on a child's hopes and dreams is a joke?" LET HER KNOW
I'm not feeling too good about this one but I'll give it until episode 25-30. I already complained about the driver but now I'm going to complain about Jeongran. Shout out to Kim Heejung for giving Jeongran a very annoying speech pattern/manner of talking. I actually like KHJ but Jeongran needs to relax a bit.... stop screeching so much...
That being said if there is a positive out of this drama I'll probably come out of this as a fan of Park Jinhee. Something else I also appreciate is the chemistry between her and Choi Jaesang. It feels ... grown lol kinda sorta like Doyoung and Dongeun from The Glory. If the driver was a miscast (and lets be clear, I think he was) the casting for those two are bang on. Jeongran and Taeho have no chemistry but that might be intentional.
This is also my first time seeing CJS play a villain because I've only ever seen him play "FLs father who gets killed off by episode 30 for finding out something he shouldn't know" type of roles (s/o to woman in a veil, 0/10 do not recommend)
You can tell this is the writers first drama with how often she utilizes comedy... inappropriately. This isn't a sitcom on KBS1... giving every scene a gag angle cheapens the drama. Not 👏🏾 every 👏🏾 scene 👏🏾 needs 👏🏾 comedy 👏🏾
Now off to watch Flyers hockey because I love pain and suffering....
Not me missing manager gu from a graceful liar because ... I cannot ... I CANNOT stand Jeongran's **driver. He completely takes me out the drama. HOWEVER, I STAND WITH DANHEE...
I love Jung-Won! She was definitely a great FL to me! Nice recap. I loved Jung-Won and Young-Chae's dynamic too,…
That's a good question ... but since you can only do so much while locked in your house (that stretch of the drama where everyone kept trying to poison each other was ridiculous, lmao)
So I can't think of anything BUT I would say looking back I would've extended Jeongwon's villain era to about episode 65 (iirc Kibeom died in ep 55)
Because that was the strongest portion of the drama to me.
I agree with more on the pasts of the characters especially since some questions remained unanswered like did Nansook REALLY drown Youngchae's father? Who is Sehun's father? Haneul's mother?
Exploring Sehun's mother would've been cool too. Imagine if she woke up and became a foil to Hyera, the og Kunhyang matriarch vs the new one..
One thing is for sure. This will be a fun daily to binge watch in the future!
Finally watched the last episode last night. I actually liked the ending a lot. - Hyera giving up Kunhyang was pretty symbolic considering her greed for it pretty much started it all. Hyera and Jeongwon starting an orphanage was pretty touching. I also liked how Haneul and Jeongwon reunited in the bookstore
- As much as I was a Nansook shooter I knew she was going to end up in prison at the end (this is still a k-drama at the end of the day lol) but I'm glad it wasn't because of Jin Taeseok. Her sacrificing herself for Haneul was a pretty fitting way for her to do it. Also the scene where she turns herself in was pretty funny 😭 speaking of, her and Manager Gu were comedic excellence. I hope to see him in more dailies, he was hands down the "dark horse" of this drama lmao
- Sehoon and Youngchae... when I saw the episode last night I didn't understand the choice of letting them pretty much get off scot free. But if I had to guess ... Grandma Hong said they had to "go off on their own to be successful" and that's what they did. Maybe this is commentary about how you can surpass a toxic upbringing and reach success? Evil wins? Who knows. But then again, they were supposed to be the owners of Kunhyang so I guess it worked out? While I side-eyed Sehoon for saying they were the biggest victims in all of this (he's wrong, it was Jeongwon, Mihyang's daughter), I had to laugh at "Areum" being named Kunhyang. That's so tacky but on brand for them 💀.
-it was nice seeing Mihyang pour the shout out for Kibeom. Not so much seeing Manager Hwang completely absolved of his involvement, but....
- I feel like Taeseok's final take down could've been a bit more... climatic. This is the man who tried to kill his daughter several times while remaining as cold as ice. All the scheming, planning, lying and scamming... just for Hyera to pull a Ruby Ring. All that for an impulsive plan that could've killed her. Idk. I would've rather had the old man who was backing Taeseok kill him or something. Their final conversation was nice I guess. ==== Okay now for the whole series? I may go as far as to say that this may become my favorite KBS2 daily. Lee Dohyun has done it again... and my "daily dramas I would watch again" list gets another entry!
8.0/10
But very close to a 9. Not a 9 because it started to feel repetitive once Hyera left Kunhyang and the story was confined to the house. I would've introduced a little subplot there. Also not a nine because the reused scenes got kind of annoying.
Jeongwon is probably my favorite female lead now. She just felt "real", and not a caricature like most of the "bright" personality leads. I appreciated her little villain era before she mellowed out. Honestly, the first half of the drama was the best part.
I liked the portrayal of Jeongwon and Youngchae's toxic friendship. From the beginning where Youngchae was flexing on her to the end where they gave that tense goodbye. I also appreciated the fact that we didn't get a BS storyline of Semi seriously pining after Haneul. Shit, I also really liked how Semi and Jeongwon's relationship evolved, and was written.
I'll give creativity points for professor baek's handling of the car accident tho
At least this won't get the weekend cliffhanger treatment?
For the writer to immediately follow it up with Yuna's screeching about Jinju is nasty work. Now let's see about ep 10 since this is supposed to be The Big One 👀
I feel like every scene has that stupid circus clown music and I immediately clock out when I hear it. Like can we be serious for ONE scene?
Right now I'm only here for Park Jin-hee
Yuna's origin story is nothing new but the fact that Danhee opposes Minjun studying abroad ? Seems like he's going to stand up to her for the first time ever next episode. On top of that, Yuna's dad vs Professor Baek? In front of Taeho?! Adele stocks?! You know it's Serious Business when stocks are brought up. Let's see some 💥conflict💥
Hyunjun is my favorite of the kids lol
The funniest scene of the episode was when Jeongran's driver tried to run up on the guards at Ihawsae (?) and they just rolled their eyes and walked away
taeho ain't thinking about succession ("I'll decide that later")
Neither Minjun or Hyunjun seem to care...
Jeongran definitely cares about the succession battle but I can't take her seriously as a villain because not only is she obnoxious AF but danhee has the upper hand. (As she should)
For the kids the stakes seem tied to Yuna's inferiority complex and Jinju & Minjun having feelings for each other. I'm sleep!
We just finished AGL and that was a masterclass in how to raise the stakes. Especially for a succession battle
Quick edit because I just made the connection that the "low stakes" feeling is directly tied to the characterization or lack thereof.
I didn't finish GR but I saw enough of it to see the difference between that and this drama: I felt like Carrie and Cha Yeryun's characters had an even amount of screentime. But this drama seems unbalanced.
I can tolerate yoonjung and her brother (the scene where yoonjung was talking to the babies to get them to stop crying was actually pretty funny) but Jeongran and her driver... I don't want to sound like a broken record lol
Now that I've caught up to episode 6 I agree with the characterization sucking. I can't really get invested in any of the characters outside of danhee. Everyone else feels like a makjang archetype rn but I'll give it to episode 30.
The stakes also don't feel high enough....
I think it's for this role... since Jeongran was formerly a maid and "low class" it reflects in how she speaks... I don't remember KHJ sounding this annoying in any of the many other dramas I've seen her in lol
Next episode we're going to see more of the kids dynamic - Yuna is going to throw a fit because Minjun likes Jinju. Your standard inferiority complex that we've NEVER seen before in a daily...!
My biggest complaint about Minjun so far is he has no personality and is kinda boring. I hope this doesn't turn into Snow White's Revenge where there's a love triangle centered around a "watching paint dry is more exciting" ML. I like Hyunjun better right now just for the sole fact that he actually has a personality...
Danhee's storyline is way more interesting... I also love how she ran up on that bully's mom for talking sh!t about Minjun's parentage. "You think stomping on a child's hopes and dreams is a joke?" LET HER KNOW
I'm not feeling too good about this one but I'll give it until episode 25-30. I already complained about the driver but now I'm going to complain about Jeongran. Shout out to Kim Heejung for giving Jeongran a very annoying speech pattern/manner of talking. I actually like KHJ but Jeongran needs to relax a bit.... stop screeching so much...
That being said if there is a positive out of this drama I'll probably come out of this as a fan of Park Jinhee. Something else I also appreciate is the chemistry between her and Choi Jaesang. It feels ... grown lol kinda sorta like Doyoung and Dongeun from The Glory. If the driver was a miscast (and lets be clear, I think he was) the casting for those two are bang on. Jeongran and Taeho have no chemistry but that might be intentional.
This is also my first time seeing CJS play a villain because I've only ever seen him play "FLs father who gets killed off by episode 30 for finding out something he shouldn't know" type of roles (s/o to woman in a veil, 0/10 do not recommend)
You can tell this is the writers first drama with how often she utilizes comedy... inappropriately. This isn't a sitcom on KBS1... giving every scene a gag angle cheapens the drama. Not 👏🏾 every 👏🏾 scene 👏🏾 needs 👏🏾 comedy 👏🏾
Now off to watch Flyers hockey because I love pain and suffering....
Probably my favorite scene of the drama so far
It's never a good sign when you find yourself fast forwarding through all a characters scenes by episode 3 😭😭
So I can't think of anything BUT I would say looking back I would've extended Jeongwon's villain era to about episode 65 (iirc Kibeom died in ep 55)
Because that was the strongest portion of the drama to me.
I agree with more on the pasts of the characters especially since some questions remained unanswered like did Nansook REALLY drown Youngchae's father? Who is Sehun's father? Haneul's mother?
Exploring Sehun's mother would've been cool too. Imagine if she woke up and became a foil to Hyera, the og Kunhyang matriarch vs the new one..
One thing is for sure. This will be a fun daily to binge watch in the future!
- As much as I was a Nansook shooter I knew she was going to end up in prison at the end (this is still a k-drama at the end of the day lol) but I'm glad it wasn't because of Jin Taeseok. Her sacrificing herself for Haneul was a pretty fitting way for her to do it. Also the scene where she turns herself in was pretty funny 😭 speaking of, her and Manager Gu were comedic excellence. I hope to see him in more dailies, he was hands down the "dark horse" of this drama lmao
- Sehoon and Youngchae... when I saw the episode last night I didn't understand the choice of letting them pretty much get off scot free. But if I had to guess ... Grandma Hong said they had to "go off on their own to be successful" and that's what they did. Maybe this is commentary about how you can surpass a toxic upbringing and reach success? Evil wins? Who knows. But then again, they were supposed to be the owners of Kunhyang so I guess it worked out? While I side-eyed Sehoon for saying they were the biggest victims in all of this (he's wrong, it was Jeongwon, Mihyang's daughter), I had to laugh at "Areum" being named Kunhyang. That's so tacky but on brand for them 💀.
-it was nice seeing Mihyang pour the shout out for Kibeom. Not so much seeing Manager Hwang completely absolved of his involvement, but....
- I feel like Taeseok's final take down could've been a bit more... climatic. This is the man who tried to kill his daughter several times while remaining as cold as ice. All the scheming, planning, lying and scamming... just for Hyera to pull a Ruby Ring. All that for an impulsive plan that could've killed her. Idk. I would've rather had the old man who was backing Taeseok kill him or something. Their final conversation was nice I guess.
====
Okay now for the whole series? I may go as far as to say that this may become my favorite KBS2 daily. Lee Dohyun has done it again... and my "daily dramas I would watch again" list gets another entry!
8.0/10
But very close to a 9. Not a 9 because it started to feel repetitive once Hyera left Kunhyang and the story was confined to the house. I would've introduced a little subplot there. Also not a nine because the reused scenes got kind of annoying.
Jeongwon is probably my favorite female lead now. She just felt "real", and not a caricature like most of the "bright" personality leads. I appreciated her little villain era before she mellowed out. Honestly, the first half of the drama was the best part.
I liked the portrayal of Jeongwon and Youngchae's toxic friendship. From the beginning where Youngchae was flexing on her to the end where they gave that tense goodbye. I also appreciated the fact that we didn't get a BS storyline of Semi seriously pining after Haneul. Shit, I also really liked how Semi and Jeongwon's relationship evolved, and was written.
Now to go start Red Pearl!